A Gift that keeps on Giving!

I am still trying to catch up with all that synchronization stuff required after you have missed a few days but while it may not be like riding a bicycle, it is getting there, and I am thankful for that. My immediate family went together and bought me one of those plug and play satellite radios. I have ten channels already programmed. The first one is OTR, Old Time Radio, then Southern Gospel, 1940's Big Band, 24 hour NASCAR talk, Conservative Talk Radio, CNN Radio, BBC News, Country Music Legends, Clean Family Comedy, and Classical Music. There are another couple hundred channels that I will be sampling over time but thus far I am tickled with this wonderful gift. I will now be able to further enlighten you with great information like why it is so hard to solve a red neck murder. The DNA is all the same and there are not now or have there ever been any dental records. I had another really good one but it has momentarily gone into hiding. What's that you say? You hope it stays hidden. How shocking! I'll take that into consideration but I cannot make you any promises. Thanks again to my wife, boys, and their families for this terrific gift and I do bid you all a good morning on this August 18, 2010, where it will be Wednesday all day long.

Oh yeah I remembered it. No groaning please. It had to do with the folks living way back when we had drive in movies. Some had inquired if anyone knew anything at all about a certain movie up on the marquee so they could decide whether to go see it. The title was: "Closed for Winter." No. Any thoughts about calling the satellite folks and trying to cancel my membership is way too premature. Maybe I will forget to remember these little quips going forward. I said maybe. It had been a while since I had heard one of the original episodes from the Hopalong Cassidy radio broadcast. This became a big hit back in the early 1950's. Those were the days when you could always tell the good guys from the bad guys and there was always a moral lesson from each episode. Hopalong Cassidy was a character created back in 1904. The original character starring in 28 novels was actually a hard drinking tough guy but in 1935 the character was changed to an all around good guy who fought crime and stood up for decency. An actor landed the leading role, William Boyd, and starred in 66 films that were immensely popular. He later voiced the role on radio and starred in the TV series. He became fabulously wealthy from the role but admitted there was little of the cowboy stuff that he could actually do. I have memories of the movies, the radio program, and the TV show and hearing an episode caused me to smile as well as to contemplate how really different kids programming has become today. We may have come a long way baby but when comparing then and now I can't help but wonder if maybe we've come to a place we wished we hadn't.

Being 64 is a little different. I've never been 64 before. Scanning through the obituaries each day makes me aware of how many there are that do not make it to 64. From time to time I notice someone who was much younger who have gone on to their reward. Often they have many accomplishments to their credit and to me it seems they died with so much potential left. Of course that's all in God's hands. This tells us that it's really not about the number of years because leaving your mark behind for something positive in the time you have is what life is all about. For those of us who profess Christ, we seek to honor Him with the days He has given to us. But, at 64, there are many regrets of what I could have, what I should have, what I would have, yet, far too often what I didn't and this leaves me often wondering about my own personal legacy. Not my wealth. I pretty much gave up on that some time ago. But, more on the order of that old song, "After I leave for worlds unknown, Over the borderline, Never again on earth to roam, What will I leave behind? Will I be missed by those I love, Or have I been unkind, And have I been true to God above, What will I leave behind? Leave behind, Oh leave behind, What will I leave behind? After I leave for worlds unknown, What will I leave behind?" That song has always been a sobering thought to me and even more so as I look back on 64 years. Too late to change so much but never too late to keep on keeping on, to get up each day and do what I can do with the time He extends to me. This past weekend made me to know that I'm handing down some of who I am, hopefully, it's mostly the good parts, right? That's what we all desire. Have a wonderful day and always remember to take care now, you hear? I just had to throw that in. May God bless. Amen. ......More later.