When I'm Old and Gray...Is That Now?

LAST MONTH, I TURNED 60. To most of you that’s nothing, but for someone who looks as young as me, most people are surprised to learn I’m "old"...or at least that’s what I like to tell myself.

At a funeral a few weeks ago I saw an old minister come in to take part in the service. I’ve known this man for 30 years, but did not recognize him until he began speaking. I was amazed at how much he had aged. At the graveside, I had a chance to speak to my dear friend. I immediately introduced myself (because sometimes older people forget names) and he responded, "Robbie! I didn’t recognize you. You’ve gotten old!". What?!

Moral of the story: Be kind to old people. One day they could be you!

how long will it take?

Christy and I are preparing for a small wedding in our front yard the end of May. Amanda, our baby, will start a life with her new husband Jay. I heard it said once that this is the time when I take her hand from my back pocket and place it in his! Those of you have gone through this may shed some light on that. Is it true that I’ll no longer be paying for car, cell phone, and insurance, etc? When a president or governor is elected it takes a few months to transfer the power. How long will this transfer take?

Coupons

Who came up with coupon idea? Now days we're buying newspapers for just for the coupons not the news. This past Sunday my daughter in-law bought two papers! Just for coupons.

If I ask my wife where she's going she starts off with "I have a coupon for" then she answers my question. I realized today that in order to get her to come with me anywhere, I have to promise her they're honoring coupons.

I'm looking for coupons for church meetings. I think we'll have more attending if we honored coupons.

Just a thought.

Pertubed

Well, my daughter Amanda got engaged the first of July. I'm happy for her, I really am, but I'm concerned about her mother. She's been consumed with wedding stuff since the announcement!

People say that the flowers, the pictures, and the reception is where your money goes, but I don't think they've thought about the books! We have wedding books showing up every day in our house and these jokers aren't cheap. I ask you, what can one book say that the other hasn't? You buy a dress, find a place, order some food, invite family, and pay the preacher. What's so hard with that?

I might sound a little perturbed about this whole thing, but this is how the dad should feel.

I read it in a book last night.

Check Up Coming

We don't drink the same coffee at home, Christy is a decaf flavored sissy, I drink it strong and black, like God created it to be consumed! We got a new coffee maker a few months ago that has been wonderful, no pots of coffee being wasted.

One morning last week I made my own breakfast. I put coffee in my new appliance, added water and placed my mug in its holder . While the coffee brewed I cooked my breakfast, toast and butter. When the toast popped up I buttered it and I reached for my mug and saw it overflowing with coffee.

As a started cleaning the spilled coffee it kept coming over the mug! Where was this coffee coming from? I thought someone had blessed it for consumption for the entire neighborhood. There's no way I put that much water in the coffee maker. It finally quit running and I grabbed the mug from its holder, only to find that I put the mug in upside down! Who does that kind of thing?

I need a Check Up!

Happy Birthday Bubba

It was fifty years ago today and I was staying at my Grandmother's when my Dad called. " We have a new fishing buddy" he said. My brother Marty was born!
He spend his first few weeks in the hospital with breathing problems. Before he could walk on his own he drove his walker off a 4 foot porch. He had numerous bicycle mishaps. He jumped ramps and did handstands on his skateboard. I held him as Momma drove him to have his leg sewed up from a fall. He grew into riding a dirt bike like mad man , jumps included.
These are just things I remember about him I'm sure my younger sisters remember more.
We knew he wouldn't make this long! But he fooled us.


Regrets: We never became fishing buddies. Maybe we can change that in the next 50 years.
Happy Birthday Bubba
Love ya

181

In the 80's I use to run with a group of friends to stay in shape and keep my weight down. Our road trips to races were great times of fellowship, bonding, and good meals on the drive home. We still talk about our 'running days' when we get together.

I thought that running would keep me from gaining weight, but it didn't. (It might have, if I'd had changed my eating habits.)
I had one friend as concerned as me about his weight problem. He and I stopped by Walmart one day and decided to weigh ourselves on the scales at the entrance. I weighed 181, I had never weighed that much before. I was shocked! My friend said nothing, I thought he was being compassionate. I tried to forget '181' .

A day or so later he and I were running with another friend and were having a good conversation, (by the way, they say if you can talk while you run, you are running too slow). Then out of the blue my 'friend' said, "I wish I could get down to 181! " They had been discussing my experience at Walmart earlier and good laugh at my expense, and to this day they still laugh about '181!'

Over the years '181' has come and gone and now I'm now trying to get back down to '181'.
Thursday my secretary's little son, Davis, came to the office around lunch carrying a pack of french fries from McDonalds. He's a very sweet little boy, and thought that Mr. Robbie would like a french fry. When started to hand me one , his lovely mother said " Davis, can you say 181?"
I'm not mad, she's not the only one in the office to remind me of '181'. Maybe I share too much.
I guess I do need all the 'encouragement' I can get.

Will '181' ever come again?
I'll let you all know.
I might even write a letter to Walmart.

Fun Family Facts

I'm blessed to have a big wonderful family, and we all enjoy getting together during the holidays. When you live out of town you don't get to experience all that goes on with the family. So, every time we meet, I try to learn more about their daily lives. How their jobs are coming along , where they're going on vacation, and how their children are doing in school.

One thing I heard this year is that my niece, my who is an RN, helped her 3rd grade son on a school paper, and he made a 49! She said "you don't have to be able to write to be a nurse". She didn't think it humorous. But to my family, it was!

It was amusing to see my sister, who is a 1st grade teacher, teaching my nurse niece, 3rd grade English. I guess most of us have forgotten a lot of things we 'learned' in school. (sorry Becca, I had to share this)

My Mother asked my brother once if he wanted help with his homework, he said " do you want me to fail?"

It runs deep in my family!

Are You Smarter Than A 3rd Grader? Mmmm?

Stop the Madness

Times are bad but we never know just how bad until we see something like this.

I took this picture in a restroom at a boat ramp on Lake Hartwell this past week.

How is Obama’s Administration going to stop the senseless and rampant theft of toilet paper?

When does the madness stop?

Lets find a radio station...

I’m a Christian white male, born, raised, and educated in the South. There's good chance that I'm a conservative person, and I think of myself as such. But, I’m getting tired of listening to conservative talk radio. They have nothing good to say about anything. They might be more knowledgeable than me, but it wears me out to listen.

You might think that being in the church music profession, I listen to Christian music all the time. I do that during work hours, so I really don’t want to get in my vehicle and listen to that again. Don’t get me wrong. We have great Christian music stations here in town. But I need something different. And today, I found the type of programming I need.

I was listening to NPR (don’t stop reading, remember I’m conservative) and I heard two men talking about the state managed clam beds we have here in South Carolina. Did you know you can go to one of our 79 different sites and dig for clams, at no charge? Are we living in a great state or what? One man called in and said that he was in Canada a few weeks ago and all their clam beds are restricted to commercial clammers. It makes me glad that we don’t have to be like Canada to be a great state (I didn’t mention healthcare).

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s discussion on the Sweet Gum Tree. 'What’s their purpose?'

My life is exciting….

Diet or Velcro?

I went to the doctor last week to renew my CDL health certificate and he told me I was in great health, except my belly! It seems that I have gained a few pounds since my last visit and I have a small hernia that is getting larger as I gain weight.

A friend once told me you can know you’re fat if your shoes have the knot tied on the side and not it in the middle. I checked mine today.

Diet, (or Velcro) here I come!

It's a Bad Sign When Your Hotel Gives You Earplugs!

We traveled to Holland, MI today and looked at a Windmill (that is another blog). Then headed to Nappanee, Indiana. I was looking forward to a good night 's sleep in this sleepy little Amish town.

We checked into our rooms and along with soap and shampoo, they provide Ear Plugs! I thought this was odd, but nice, to provide some relief from roommate noise, until I heard the TRAIN! It passes every hour and they blow the horn right at the motel! I drank 3 cups of coffee at supper so the train won't wake me. I'll already be awake, again!

Louisville tomorrow...

I Wanna Go Home .... Oh, How I Wanna Go Home!

I'm on the downhill side of our Merry Makers trip up north. We are heading home Friday, and I will be a happy man.

I haven't slept well on this trip and I just figured out why. I had 4 pillows on my bed and thought I had to wake up every 2 hours and use another pillow! They put me in a handicap room, for some reason, and the bathroom lights are motion controlled. So every time I got up and went in, all the lights and fans came on and woke me up even more!

I'll be glad to get home.

Small Towns

Living in a small town you rely on the local newspaper to keep you informed. I particularly enjoy the police reports section. A few weeks ago a local man was arrested for shooting dragonflies with his shotgun and accidently shot his buddy in the head! I’m not sure if he was charged with shooting the dragonflies, or his buddy. If he were a celebrity, probably shooting the dragonflies would be the charge.

This week a woman was arrested for beating her daughter with a broom. The young girl had been suspended from school for a day for cutting class. Her mother found out about it, a few days later. She took her broom to the high school, found her daughter, and began to wear her out with the broom. The police report said the woman was arrested and the broom confiscated for evidence!

Small towns, you can’t make this stuff up!

Side note:
My wife is in charge of settling her mother’s estate; I asked her if she had a realtor yet, her answer “yes Wally, from Andrews Feed and Seed”.
Small towns…..

Not everything that smells bad is!

Not everything that smells bad is! For example; egg salad, turnip greens, tuna.
I had to be reminded of that after two weeks of Pastors’ camp with our children and middle school.
Most of what I smelled was bad! I’m not talking about the food! When you get the pleasure of camping with young men, it takes you a good week at home to enjoy the regular smells of life.

Realization: if you go to camp, expect the bathroom floor to be wet! Why is that? Someone needs to invent a shower curtain for camps that cannot come out of the shower!

Question: Why is there always a sock, a towel, and a pair of dirty underwear left that no one claims?

Oh well, it was worth it all to see these young lives changed. Sign me up again!?

Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers

Do clothes really make the man? I was shopping in Wal-Mart the other day and a man stopped me and asked “do you work here?” I said "no" and he said “you look like you do”. What does that mean? Does everyone who wears a blue shirt and khaki pants look like they work at Wal-Mart?

Don’t get me wrong, I think working at Wal-Mart is an honorable thing. I wish my wife and daughter felt the same!

It was an eye opening experience. People do look at how we are dressed. You can say “it doesn't matter what I wear” but you know deep down that it does. Yesterday I wore a tie to the hospital and I received a lot more information and respect from the staff there. It also makes me feel better about my self when I dress up. (I guess that is a self -esteem issue to be discussed later.)

So ...
Dress nice, feel nice.
Dress in blue ... works at Wal-Mart!

Getting Older

Well, my daughter turned 24 this week and my brother 49. Talk about feeling old! I remember when both were born!

This morning I went to the restroom at work and didn’t have to unzip my pants! They have been unzipped all day! But what makes me feel old is that I was glad that I didn’t have to go through that extra step before I did what I came in to do!

We’re headed to Pastors' camp with our church kids this afternoon. I am sure there will be other reminders of age while we are there.
Pray for me.

37 years

Well, Christine’s 37th wedding anniversary is today. I started to write this blog saying that she was ‘celebrating’ her 37th anniversary but, I felt that living with me for 37 years was more of an ‘accomplishment’ that a celebration.

It is a known fact that men often die before their spouse because their brains and emotions work harder that their wives. Men are always trying to stay out of trouble, or working to fix something we’ve done! This takes a toll on our life span.

I found this video that should help the young guys in this ever changing institution of marriage. What not to say…

Missions/College Minister Needs Help!

Hallelujah Chorus

Here is a way we can have the "Hallelujah Chorus" here at Brushy Creek.