"At my age flowers scare me." ~ The late comedian George Burns who lived to be 100.

Here we go again. The good news? It's Friday, August 14, 2015, and I bid you a hearty hello and welcome. This Sunday I will be observing my 69th year of breathing air here on the planet. If I had been born in an Asian country I would already be 70 and counting. They consider a child to be one year old when he or she is born. (Life begins at conception, nine months later rounded up to 1 year. It actually makes sense to me.) Just so you know, don't look for those portraits of me in our local mall. It's a photo template overlay that I found on the internet. But, it does put into perspective something about how time gets away from us all. The other day I had a conversation with a fellow and he said something to me that perhaps I needed to hear. We have known each other for forty years. He said that I would likely never realize how many people I've influenced during my lifetime of teaching and my example of serving. I appreciated that comment. And I thank God that he shared it with me because we all should want to make a difference. On the other hand, I am very much aware of the times when I didn't make the impact that I should have. There's way too many of those, yet, I thank God for His grace, His patience, and His provision in helping me to get to this time in my life. I am a very blessed man with a wonderful wife and family along with a heritage of faith and a legacy of those who preceded me who served the Lord. For all these things and so many more I humbly offer my thanks to God, along with a happy birthday to me, myself, and I. Amen.

It's never too early to begin getting my 'jolly' on. I work on this throughout the year but as the season gets closer I listen to a lot of Christmas music. There's one of the free (with some commercials) AccuRadio channels that play nothing but children's Christmas songs. They typically hit all the major themes including the birth of our Savior since they play quite a few Children choirs. They play a lot of the Chipmunks, Burl Ives, and funny tunes like that. There's one particular album they play that makes me jerk my ear plugs out as fast as I can. It's the one made by the Jackson Five back in 1970. I played Santa for Sears in the early 1970's and that's the cassette they played while I was on duty. That one cassette. No others. Think about it. I did some 12 hour shifts on Saturdays and I dare anyone to listen to that album for 12 hours straight without needing psychiatric counseling. I actually think having to hear it for extended periods of time is on the international forms of torture list. Okay. Maybe it's not on the official list but it should be. Needless to say when one of those songs come on my 'jolly' suffers a huge setback. But then the kids from the Peanuts Christmas Show come on singing about the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night and I'm back on the right track. Fickle? As it relates to the Santa Enterprise I prefer to call it battle tested sensitivity.

I can remember a time when I would have been leading the cheers for the return of Blue Bell ice cream. All I can do now is be glad for those who are losing their heads over a video showing a Blue Bell 18 wheeler driving down the road. I saw many in my circle of friends on Facebook sending out thanks to the mega investor Sid Bush for his company saving investment in Blue Bell. When's the last time you saw folks thanking someone for investing in a company? Why am I not as excited as most folks? The Big D, diabetes, well, he has a lot of say in the matter. This doesn't mean that I won't taste or test the stuff when it makes it home to our freezer. The wife is already salivating. The other evening when we were at a Church sponsored in home fellowship gathering she brought me some of the homemade ice cream. While I appreciate the exercise of willpower on my behalf, I showed a buddy what I had in that little cup. I told him this is how I roll these days. It was good, I think. My taste buds thought it must have been a supersonic jet that flew by so quickly they didn't have time to measure the results. Well, that's the way it goes as I make my way to the door marked 69 in English and 70 in Chinese. Should you pray for me? That would always be a great thing. Always. Have a great weekend. Enjoy your Saturday and Lord's Day Sunday and Lord willing I'll see next time where I'll be clicking and clacking away here at the ole blogger ranch. Amen. ....More later.