This, that, and the other, along with token tibits for a Thursday.

Hello and welcome to Thursday, May 1, 2014. Some people enjoy their favorite sports and others are just total fanatics. My number one thing to watch in the sports area would be NASCAR. However, I am not one that arranges my schedule around it or that records it. I actually know some people that watch certain races over and over. There are those who do the same with football games. I can't think of even one time that I ever watched a rerun of a sporting event. I have watched highlights from great games and things of that sort but sitting down and watching a rerun of an event that's finished, well, that's just not my cup of tea. What? No. I also don't bet on sporting events so that would mean in answer to your question, I have never bet on a rerun of a race or other sporting event. There's this country music singer who has had a long career. He's not a major talent but he has written numerous songs. He recently gave his testimony about how the Lord had helped him to turn his life around. He said that he now only writes songs about God, tunes that support our military, and about things that really count in life, like Dale Ernhardt Sr. See what I mean? Some people really do have it bad!

I was out last Saturday to watch our Brady boy play baseball. At 8, he's still part of an instructional league and the game was exciting to watch. Our Brady scored several times and he does like to slide and he can really kick up the dust. He plays third base and that's the position I played for a number of years. I think I too always liked coming home with a dirty uniform. I will tell you this. Times have really changed since I played. Please, no comments about my age, but, these kids today they really are into the accessories. Each child has their own bat. They all wear batting gloves. As best I recall, we did good to own our own glove and ball and we all shared the same batting helmet. The coach had the bats and the rest of the equipment which typically had been handed down for who knows how long. (Stuff taped together, patched, etc.) The other thing I noticed was the number of moms involved. They are coaching. They are scoring the games. They are often the majority presence. That certainly wasn't the makeup when I was a kid. And, a mammoth change in the fact that they do have a few girls on the teams. Brady's team has one. She is a little doll. (Not something you hear very often in baseball.) I suppose in this changed world I would not be very popular if I hollered out to one of the fellows to quit running like a girl. I'm pretty sure those surrounding me, especially her dad, would not have appreciated a comment like that. However, just so you know, there were several of the boys who did just that. Just saying.....

As I sit here at this particular moment, it's 4:30 a.m. and the temperature is 47° degrees. It is May 1st. Right? All the windows are open here and I'm sipping some wonderful Community out of the coffee cup that my granddaughter Lexie Dee painted for me back in 2007. What does this translate into for me so early in the morning? Blessed. That's right. Blessed and thankful. I am rooting for a 45° to be registered somewhere around daybreak. That will be nice. A lady I graduated from high school with put something on Facebook about how cold she was where she lived because it was 49°degrees. I put that 49° into a response with a question mark beside it and then added the word 'Cold?'. It was supposed to be a joke but she responded with an overflow of details about how unseasonably cool it had been in their area and she also shared her inability to deal with the cold anymore. It was supposed to be a joke. I thought setting the threshold at 49° was maybe pushing it a little but as a result, I now know more than I ever cared to know about the weather in her area along with some of the details regarding the status of her health. It was a joke. You get it. Right? I suppose I'm glad I got that cleared up. I do hope you have a great day and may God add His blessings to it. Amen.   .....More later.