Great Pumpkin

So this coming weekend is Halloween. We all know what that means. “The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” will be on TV soon. It first aired in 1966, 44 years ago. My two favorite parts of the show is when Charlie Brown says, “All I got was a rock.” and Snoopy’s appearance as the World War I flying ace. It is amazing how after so many years that this is still a family favorite and still can hold its own against any of the new Holiday specials that have came out, did you see the Shrek Halloween special? Not even close.

A little fun fact about the Great Pumpkin, if you look close while the kids are trick or treating, you can see the rocks being thrown into Charlie Browns bag at each house. Charlie Brown's repeated line of "I got a rock" caused some stir among many viewers of the show, according to Charles Schulz in the book and retrospective TV special "Happy Birthday, Charlie Brown". Schulz said that after the program first aired, bags and boxes of candy came in from all over the world "just for Charlie Brown."

This is my favorite time of year, you have three great Holiday specials coming up; “The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”, “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”, and of course “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” With the best line of them all “That’s what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.” And I get to hear my favorite music “Linus and Lucy” by Vince Guaraldi, this was played at my wedding. So while everyone will be trick or treating or attending costume parties, you might find me in the middle of a pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin to rise up and give out toys to all of the good boys and girls. What? If you can believe in that silly old man in the red suit going ho ho ho, I can believe in the great pumpkin.

The Amazing Race

Every Sunday evening the wife and I like to watch one of our favorite shows together, “The Amazing Race.” If you are not familiar with it, it is about couples who race all over the globe and compete in different tasks; from selling sunglasses in New Guinea to repelling off a bridge in Sweden. It’s neat to see the different places they get to travel to and the people they run into, as well as entertaining to see how the couples interact when the situation gets stressful.

While watching last nights show my wife pointed out something to me that I never noticed before. When ever the teams go to a different country and get lost they are able to ask someone for directions in English. Now that doesn’t surprise me that much, that English is one of the more dominant languages in the world, but that had me think to last weekend when we were at our big garage sale. I can remember at least three times when I was trying to sell something to someone, what I was saying had to be translated for the person to understand. So I’m wondering if more people out of our country can speak our language than people who live in our country? Go ask for directions at a gas station our walk around Wal-Mart and it will make you think if you are the only true blooded American in your zip code. But I don’t want to get into a political discussion, just making an observation.

Proverbs 15:18
A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel.

In an about two weeks my wife and I will be married for two years. I was trying to picture what we would be like on “The Amazing Race”. I mean we get frustrated if we take a planned road trip with a GPS, I would hate to think how stressed out we would get if we were lost in a foreign country. I would be yelling how much I hated the place we were at and that everybody that lived there was stupid. My wife would just continually be repeating, “Take me home. Just take me home.” Then when it came to a physical challenge, I would be mad at whatever equipment we were working on and probably try and throw it into the closest ocean or off a mountain, my wife would just continually be repeating, “I can’t do this. Take me home. Just take me home.” But, because we are both stubborn and competitive people we would complete whatever task we needed to and probably win the whole thing (my wife hates losing). Also, we would apologize to one another and tell each other how much we love each other and move onto the next day. The one big thing I’ve notice watching “The Amazing Race.” The couple who encourages each other the most and has the most patients with each other will normally win. That’s how our first two years of our marriage went, and that’s how we will be married for a long time. But I don’t think we will be applying to be on “The Amazing Race”, though I bet we would make for some good TV.

Colossians 3:12-13
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Garage sale.

This past weekend I had a mini vacation. I took Friday through Tuesday off from work. Not for any other reason, other than I had the vacation days to burn. If I don’t use them, I lose them. So from now till the end of the year, I do not work a full month. That’s the way it should be all the time, no one should have to work everyday. We all should have that time and catch up on the waste of time I call day time TV; reruns and game shows. I tried to use the time to get a few project done around the house. But instead, I ended up getting ready and doing a big garage sale my church put together.

This was a fun Saturday. I was at the church at 5:00 in the morning, ON A SATURDAY!! I did not know 5:00 am, existed on a Saturday. When I was young and single I was out until at least 2:00 in the morning and slept till noon, then got married and maybe stay up till 11:00 pm and try to sleep till noon. Even as a kid a slept in till I knew the first Saturday morning cartoon was coming on. It was cold that morning, and I was helping direct the traffic of people coming to unload their valuable sale items. The wife and I had our own treasures. I couldn’t tell you what they were. That’s the funny thing about stuff in the closet and attic. We were keeping it for a reason I’m sure. Maybe because we thought it was worth something. Because, some old plastic thing collecting dust in the back of the closet is going to help you retire early. So the night before the sale, my wife and I went through our things to see what we wanted to keep and get rid of. I had a hard time letting go of some stuff. In particular some Looney Toons kitchen items, I thought these things were priceless. Sold it all for $1.00 at the sale, I couldn’t give the stuff away. No one picked it up till they were the last few items on the table. Some people don’t have good taste. My wife had a hard time letting go of some of her Christmas decorations. How many snowmen wearing scarves and Santas holding candy canes does one person need? But some people just had to have it. It amazes me what people would pick up and buy. One guy bought a bag of miscellaneous screws, after talking to him; I think he had a few screws loose in the head. All in all we sold $120 of junk. We don’t miss any of it. My wife made the mistake of checking on the internet how much some of her decorations were worth, she found a few of them going for around $100.00. She sold them for $3.00. Yard sale tip: research your items before selling them. That crap sitting in the back of your closet collecting dust could be worth something.

The other negative to the day was that I got a horrible sun burn on my head. Even though it is not hot outside and it is close to fall; when the sun is out and you stand under it for 10 hours on a black top parking lot, you might get burned. For those that have a hair follicle challenge, you can get burned really badly. Two things happed when a bald guy gets burned; one you get the same question or comment over and over again, didn’t you wear a hat? Uh duh, apparently I did not. The second thing that happens is that over time the skin on the head gets dry, starts to crack and peal; and people begin to look at you like you have gotten some sort of virus. Not to mention the pain of the shower water hitting the burn as well, OUCH!

But it was a good long weekend. I did get a few projects done around the house. When I took a break and turned on the TV I found a show where actors go to kill their careers, “The Family Feud.” I was surprised to see Steve Harvey as the host, I thought that guy from “Seinfeld” was the host. My wife thought the guy from “Home improvement” was still doing it. I did remember Louie Anderson (former comedian) was the host for a while. No one could ever replace Richard Dawson. Well, they had to because he died. I don’t know which is worse, the fact that this show is still on or that I know all of the hosts in order. I saw a home version of the game at the garage sale; I was tempted to buy it. But it would have just ended up in the back of the closet collecting dust.

Richard Dawson
Ray Combs
Louie Anderson
Richard Karn
John O'Hurley
Steve Harvey

You didn’t believe I knew that did you.

the cat.

I have mentioned my cat (Shadow) a few times in this blog. I've had this cat for nearly 8 years. So he has been with me through a lot of good times and bad. I always wondered what he would say about it all if he could talk. Some may think a single guy with a cat is a little wimpy, and a dog would make a better companion. But I knew how much work and attention a dog takes. You need to take them for walk, you can't leave them alone for too long, vet bills, and obedience training. I like dogs, I just didn't have the time for all that. Cats, they need a place to eat, sleep and use the bathroom and they are good.

I don't know if it was the way I took care of him or his personality, but Shadow is a very unique cat. He got his name because as a kitten he would chase the shadow of my hand all over the house. To this day he still tries and catch my shadow. He is also a very curious cat. If you put a box on the floor, he will find a way into it, no matter how big or small. He figures out how to lay down in the box and go to sleep. This cat loves to sleep in different places. I have found him sleeping in the cupboard above the refrigerator, the dryer that was left open, and on some book cases. My favorite was when he crawled into the sleeve of my coat that was laying on the floor.
Now Shadow is not your typical cat when it comes to people. Normally there are two types of cats. The ones that run and hide when company comes over, and the ones that hang out for the extra attention. Shadow likes to hang out when company comes over, but he also likes to act all cute a friendly, and just when the unknowing victim gets close enough to pet him, Whack! He takes a good swipe at them. Anything under 4 foot tall is fair game to him, he thinks he can take them down like a cheetah chasing down a antelope. So I have to warn people when they come over to not pet the cat and keep their small children away from him. But do they listen, No. Shadow does his thing where he roles on his back and gives this look that says, rub my tummy. Whack! He walks away with this strut like he's all proud, almost like he's laughing at his latest victim. Most of my friends have scars from previous visit to the house of pain. Shadow helped me picked out my wife through this process. She is the only person I know that he did not scratch. From the beginning he has let her pet him and pick him up with out a trip to the hospital for her. So I figure if she was good enough for Shadow, she was good enough for me. My brother and his family once stayed for a few days at my house. My brother had a air mattress setup in my living room. So Shadow thought this was a new place for him to sleep. So in the middle of the night he jumped on the mattress and tried to curl up next to my niece. My brother didn't want him to pop the mattress, or scratch his daughter, so he tried to scare him away buy whipping the pillow at him. Shadow just stood his ground and tried to fight back.

This brings me to an event that happened this weekend. My wife and I were coming home from church to find the neighbor's dogs laying in the middle of our yard. They are friendly dogs and normally if you walk over to their gate they will run back in. So I was going to go in, change my clothes and then go put the dogs back in their fence. But, when we opened the door Shadow got out. My wife and I were ready to scoop Shadow up and get him back in the house before the dogs would get to him. To our surprise Shadow got to the top step of the porch and arched his back like cats do. The dogs stood at attention, lowered their heads, and walked back to their yards. Just for good measure and I guess to prove his point. Shadow walked closer to the edge of the our yard, and the dogs got up and went further to the other side of their yard. He looked up at me and and gave me this look like “There you go.” I went over to the dog's gate to let them back in their fence. Those dogs kept on looking over their shoulders like they were afraid Shadow was going to sneak up behind them. For all you people that say dogs are mans best friend, that fine. But my cat is my protector.

Halloween

So Halloween is a few weeks away. You know what that means…CANDY!!! It also means that people are thinking of a costume to wear. Not just kids, but adults as well. Now I go to a church that does not believe in celebrating Halloween, they don’t want to promote ghost, goblins, and witches. But they have a fall carnival so the kids can still get their yearly sugar high and advance tooth decay. I don’t totally agree with this, I see no problem letting your kids pretend to be something else and go begging door to door for people to give them something. It’s good training in case their future is in sales. Also as long as you explain that the creatures of the night are not good and not real, what’s the problem if they dress up like their favorite cartoon character or super hero, I love wearing a cape when I was a kid. It would be fun to wear one today, but that’s a different story.

What I don’t understand is the amount of money some parents put into their kids costumes. They are only going to wear it maybe for a few days out of the whole year for a few hours. Where’s the imagination in that? My mom would help us make our own costume or sew something together. She did once buy part of a costume. Remember the old plastic Halloween masks. The ones that were cheap plastic, the front were molded into the characters face, the back was just a little stretch string that went around the head. If you pulled too hard to would either snap or rip the mask. It had two pin size holes to barely help breathing, who knows what type of plastic fumes we were inhaling. It had two other holes that allowed you to see, but it gave you total tunnel vision. You could see a few feet in front of you, but forget about seeing the on coming car approaching from the left or right of you. So one year my mother got me one of these mask, the Lone Ranger. I was excited, and I already had the guns and a plastic sheriff badge. She made the rest of the costume from some old clothes. I was happy, and I still got the goods that night as well. The next year mom used the same mask; no I was not the Lone Ranger again. That is a Halloween fashion crime to be the same thing twice in a row. We took a magic marker, colored the white hat black, drew a little mustache, and with the already black mask that was there. Viola, you get Zorro. Add one sword made of newspaper and aluminum foil, dress in black. You get one happy kid chasing the cat around the house.

Why put in a lot of work and money for one night. The kids just want to run around and get candy. Candy that has gotten smaller over the years, I remember getting the big chocolate bars and hand full of candy. Now they have this bite size and mini bars crap, which people pass out just one of, whatever. If you grew up on a single dead end street like I did, you knew which neighbor passed out the good stuff. The guy across the street would pass out big Clark bars, and I could always count on the older people at the end of the street to give out handfuls of fire balls. Then you always have the house that gives out apples or a single stick of gum. Are you kidding me! Then there is the all time traditional candy….candy corn. You either love it or hate it. I love the stuff. You know families buy this stuff in bulk and it keeps for years and years. By the way just because it has corn in the name does not make it a vegetable. I never understood why they called it candy corn, so I looked it up on Wikipedia, so it must be true.

Candy corn is a confection popular in the United States and Canada, particularly in autumn around Halloween.
Candy corn was created in the
1880s by George Renninger of the Wunderlee
Candy Company, the three colors
of the candy mimic the appearance of
kernels of corn. Each piece is
approximately the size of a whole kernel from a ripe or dried ear. Candy corn is
made primarily from sugar, corn syrup, artificial
coloring and binders.
A serving size of 22 pieces contains 140 calories and no fat.

I bet there is some old woman out there that drags out this big jar of candy corn every year for Halloween, it may be some of the original stuff. I bet a 130 year old piece of candy corn would still taste the same as a piece right out of the bag. Bonus, it’s fat free. I won’t go into that parts of the ingredients are binders, after eating a lot of it that speaks for it self.

Moving

My wife and I have been talking about moving. We wouldn’t mind a larger house and maybe a nicer neighborhood. The question is where to move to? Most of our social life revolves around our friends and activities at church. But, we don’t want to move too far away from my work. After all I’m already a grump when I get home from a long day, we might need marriage counseling if you add in a long drive in traffic.

So the hunt begins for the perfect location. My wife would love to move to another part of Georgia or even another state. This surprises me because it is not uncommon in the south for multiple generations to live in the same area for decades. Seems some great great grandparent own some land and just kept dividing it up whenever the family grew larger. I feel sorry for whoever marries into those families, can you imagine living right next door to your in-laws? There goes any hope for privacy. So my wife thinks it would be exciting to start someplace fresh after living in the same area her whole life. I, however, have already experienced what it is like moving to another state. Yes, it is fun seeing new places and doing new stuff, but after awhile it all becomes routine. Plus you have to learn a new way of getting around. I don’t know how I ever survived without my GPS. Then you have to meet a new set of people and friends, and in today’s world coming across a friendly person is hard, unless you have something they want and they can borrow it from you a lot. But I was single when I moved to a different state, so it might be a little easier moving with a spouse. One less person to meet.

This makes me think of my parents. Born and bred in the Buckeye state. They did spend a stretch in Florida while dad was in the military. But, they pretty much haven’t lived any place else but the home of Zippy the Kangaroo, Akron, Ohio. I do not know how a kangaroo got to Akron maybe that will be for another blog. Anyways, my parents not only have lived in Akron for most of their adult life, but also their childhood as well. Plus they have lived on the same street to. They were not neighbors or anything; it was just one of those long major roads that runs through a city. They each grew up at different ends of this long street, got married and lived on another area of the street, the church they got married in was on this street. They had an opportunity to move someplace else when they retired, but what did they do? They built another house on the same street. Dad’s work was not far off this street and they do all their shopping on this street. You know that used car salesmen line, when he tells people that a car was only driven by an old lady just to go back and forth to the store. That’s my mom. She once had a car for about 10 years and only put like 60,000 mile on it. I just bought a jeep 3 years ago and already have about 75,000 on it. So not only have they not moved off the street, they apparently don’t travel very far up and down the street. So someday when they pass on, I might just have their grave site in another state, just so I can say they went somewhere.

Fame does not equal Happiness

John 12:43 “ for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of
God.”

So I have a routine every morning when I get to work. I arrive to my office very early so I can read my e-mails and the news before my work day begins. Normally its whatever is listed on the Yahoo homepage and their sports page. They will cover things in the political world like the Supreme Court starting their new term to something off the wall like the Best-tasting Tortilla chips. The other week someone wrote an article about the Flintstones being around for 50 years; I was all over that one of course. Here it is if you want to read it yourself http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/the-flintstones-fabulous-at-50--1601

But Yahoo also is big on the entertainment news. They will write stories on the biggest movie playing or the popular TV shows coming on this fall. Important stuff, because I need to plan ahead on what I’m going to waste my time watching at night, I wouldn’t want to be forced into reading a book or spending quality time with my wife. Yahoo also covers the so called big names in Hollywood and other celebrities. Because apparently my life is so dull I need to read about how so called famous people live their life better than me, I haven’t quite understood the fascination some people have with people who might be living a better life than them.

People think that fame and fortune equals happiness. You know people like Tiger Woods and Lindsay Lohan must be extremely happy. Here’s the problem, Tiger Woods, I understand and see how he is a celebrity. One of the best golfers ever at a very young age, and at one point seemed like a decent guy. Then wham, his world came crumbling down around him. Everyday it was coming out of another woman that he cheated on his wife with. His name no longer brought up thoughts of great golfer, but big adulterer. I got so tired of seeing his face every morning when I opened up my Yahoo page. Now I am sick of seeing Lindsay Lohan every morning. Who is this woman and what has she done? So she was in some movies, they were not even good movies. So why does the media think that people care that this person in going to jail AGAIN, for breaking parole and doing drugs? Last I checked that is what happens when you break the law. Here’s the thing, my life does not change or is affected by these “Celebrities” sleeping around and doing drugs. I DON’T CARE, and I don’t understand why some people do. All it really shows is that being famous does not equal happiness, and you can be famous for doing stupid things and everyone in the world gets to read about it. While I’m on the subject, my life has not changed one bit because somebody “Decided” to move to another state to play a game, Lebron James go away.

The point of this is that being famous or having a lot of money will not make life better. The media does not realize that is what they are reporting. People need to see that success in life is not reaching a celebrity status or imitating what they do. But success is doing what makes you happy and those around you happy. Also success is doing what is right even when no one is looking. So the next time life smacks you in the face and you think life would be better if you were a famous person. At least pick someone famous that has done some good for the world. Maybe we all just need to shout “YABBA DADDA DOO!!!”

Matthew 16: 24 -26 Then Jesus said to His disciples “If anyone desires to
come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For
whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My
sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world,
and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”