Saturday posts

Saturday Posts . . .

This last month has been an interesting one for us. It started with our dishwasher. It broke down, and the only appliance repairman left in town couldn’t determine what was wrong when he first examined it.

While he was trying to figure out the problem, my wife and I both had to leave town (for different reasons) for one day. I got home first, and found our basement starting to flood due to rain. I called Thrasher (the company that installed the drain system in our basement, and a supposedly upgraded sump pump) and the earliest appointment they could give us was 3 weeks away. So, when the appliance repairman came back to look at our dishwasher, I asked him if he knew anything about sump pumps. He did.

He got our dishwasher and sump pump fixed in the same visit. We were very happy to see our basement return to a dry condition. When the representative from Thrasher finally arrived, he did a full assessment of the situation, and said that because of the extra shallow water table in this area, we needed some modifications to the drain they built – part of it covered by warranty and part of it new work. The total on our new work will be just over $800 USD.

While all of that was going on, I got the book Anita ( my dear friend and spiritual sister) sent to me, as she mentioned in a comment to an earlier blog. Because of weather and other physical factors, I have to admit that I have not yet started to read it – but I want to with all of my heart. My delay is because of what I said in earlier posts about observing proper study conditions.

Anyway, here’s today’s inspiring thought:

Saturday Posts . . .

Just a few hours ago, I was binge watching the tubi show I’ve posted about before, when I heard a loud sound that made me think of a car accident. I grabbed my cane and phone, and headed for the porch in time to see a vehicle’s tail lights heading south from an impact with the “stoplight signal ahead” sign just south of our house. I called the police to report it, and for the next 20 minutes there was a lot of activity outside. I gave a statement to the police, along with several other people who are neighbors and gave similar reports, but I also helped the 1st officer on the scene locate evidence that might possibly lead to identifying the vehicle. It was a very rewarding experience, to me.

Honestly, I may have missed my calling. I have the awareness and attention to detail to be a Crime Scene Investigator (CSI).

Saturday Posts . . .

Last night after my wife went to bed, I began to watch the movie “Gladiator” again. I’ve seen it many times before, but in light of the book I’ve been recently reading, I was impressed by one very simple moment early in the story in a whole new way.

In that scene, the lead character “General Maximus” notices a small bird perched on a branch not far from him just before his final battle as a general of the Roman Army. The bird notices him, also, and they look at each other for several seconds without any comment or action before the bird flies away.

As I watched that scene, several ideas presented themselves to me.

  1. Wild animals do not care about nations, religions, or political ideologies. They go where they will, do what they will, and have survived for aeons despite our best efforts to ruin the planet. No bird has to apply for a visa to enter a new country. No wolf has to explain to a government why it won’t remarry after it’s 1st spouse is killed. No bear ever had to apply for a license to catch fish for it’s cubs.
  2. Modern society almost never thinks about the welfare of any part of nature, and even when it does it either over reacts or discounts it entirely. We should learn to view ourselves as participants in nature, not the masters of it. We cannot survive by destroying the natural resources that provide the elements of survival we require – earth, air, fire, water – and FOOD.
  3. I’m well aware that many liberals would denounce the consumption of meat on numerous different principles – but there are things they have never addressed which are more compelling than all other arguments (imho). The prevailing theories of evolution state that we would have never developed the brain capacity to solve problems at the level we have if we had not begun to eat meat long ago. Will we continue to have such mental capacity if we stop eating meats? Also, our dental development is uniquely suited to both eating meat and vegetables, and finally, NO animal with both a small and large intestine is a vegetarian.