I hear the train a coming, it's coming down the track!

My brother Donald's status: I visited him yesterday afternoon and he is still pretty much the same. At this time it appears this will be a longer term event and he will need continuous care for many weeks and months in the future. Thanks for your prayers. I will post updates when his status changes.

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Good morning and I bid you an early morning whistling welcome to Wednesday, the 1st day of September 2010. No, I am not actually whistling but I like the sound of 'whistling Wednesday' and now as I explain myself I feel this uncontrollable urge to break out with "Whistle While You Work." That famous song was written for the 1937 movie about Snow White and the little guys, of course. But the fact that I couldn't restrain myself just shows the power of suggestion, or the weakness of some minds, or in my case, a yet to be determined malady. I did have to take a moment, pucker up, and get through at least what I remember to be a semblance of that tune. Now that it is behind me, although it continues to nag, I will attempt to move on. I am not a Facebook user. I am a Facebook reader. I am able to sign into my wife's page and see the forth and back comments. They have a chat function. My wife has many friends. When I log in as her they keep trying to get me to talk to them. I always ignore them but here lately they have been telling her how they might embarrass me at some point if I keep on impersonating her. Why don't I have my own Facebook page? Especially since I have 100 friends waiting to be confirmed? Okay, here's the reason: I have pretty much all I can handle right now BUT I do enjoy keeping up with all our relatives, friends, and Church brothers and sisters. These are the people on my wife's Facebook. Thanks for being so understanding and maybe you could encourage my wife's friends to go easy on me.

My brother has medical insurance through his U.S. Marine Corp retirement. It is said to be excellent insurance. In fact the lady at the hospital working as his case manager said it was one of the best. However, they are having some difficulty finding a facility that meets his needs who is willing to take his insurance. Hello? I have read bits and pieces over the past year that mentioned how that some major medical corporations are moving away from any and all ties to government. They will just say no when it comes to accepting payments from government sources. I can't say for sure this is what is going on in my brother's case but I would hate to think this to be another outcome associated with the so-called health care overhaul. I read a blurb yesterday that said the cabinet secretary who oversees this monstrosity has stated that Americans need to be reeducated based on how Obamacare will be phased in. Call me silly but I thought the word reeducation to have been mostly associated with those communist prison camps where folks were brainwashed. That is silly, right? We all know that our government would never want us to believe anything but the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Right? What's that you say? Whistling is not the only thing I have trouble with? Thanks.

I work at a place that's located off the beaten path. It reminds one of the country. There are horses and cows next door and enough roosters to make a racket now and then. There is also a train track no so far away. Occasionally as I sit here clacking away, I hear that distant sound of a long freighter doing it's own clicking and clacking down the track. That sound brings back memories of my growing up days when we looked forward to hearing those trains at night to help distract us from the oppressive stillness of the summer heat as we tried to sleep. Nothing like a long freight train to sing one to sleep. We would lay there hoping it would go on forever. Those were good memories but I'm not quite as fond of them when I am trying to get from point A to B and I end up at a crossing waiting for one of those long ones to pass. Will this thing never end? Surely they have a law about how many cars they can pull, right? From a sweet remembrance to one filled with agitation all based on the way it is framed. Are we a funny lot, or what? The sounds are identical but the results off the chart in contrast. Maybe I could learn to use that time while waiting on the train to count one blessing for every car that passes, or to spend that 'time out' to whisper a prayer for those in need. The one thing not on the table is to try and go to sleep like I did so many years ago. That might be pushing it just a bit. Here's hoping that all the interruptions you experience today will be those you can seize and use productively in your life. Amen. .......More later.