What are you trying to say? Now that, my friend, is an excellent question!

Hello out there and welcome to another edition on this Wednesday, January 11, 2012. We rarely write checks anymore, therefore, I suppose that is another one of those new year mistakes we've eliminated. You know the one where we end up writing the wrong year down. This past Monday we did get some rain. It actually started very early Monday morning and from that time until late afternoon it did do some raining. We most likely had two inches or more in our neighborhood at home and maybe three or more inches here at the company. Praise God for nourishing our land because we are still in need of it. I am aware of some who got the six to eight inches and experienced some flash flooding as a result. And, I am certainly not making light of their plight because some houses took on water and some schools were also impacted by the torrential downpours. (We've had a flooded house before and we've also had our home nearly destroyed by Ike.) One of our customers called me with a technical question and said he would be staying at the office because he couldn't get into his subdivision because of the flooding. He lives on the other side of Houston. These types of stormy days are typically a good news, bad news, type of story. I think there were one or two twisters that touched down but mostly just the rain and we all are aware of the devastating drought we have been in for the past year, therefore, I do give the Lord God of heaven praise for providing this much needed rain for our area. Amen.

Those still nursing their football wounds might be interested to know that taking sports too seriously can be hazardous to your health. There are actual studies that show heart attack incidents increase on the Monday following a big sporting event. One international study correlated the heart attack impact from when the World Cup Soccer matches are underway. They concluded there is a connection between heart attacks and the games. I don't want to scare anyone but a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that one has a substantially better chance of surviving a heart attack if they experience it during daytime working hours on a weekday as contrasted to the rate of survival after hours and on weekends. I think we all could have guessed that one. Right? They are fully staffed with all the specialists readily available versus skeleton staffing with folks on call. I worked at a fairly large VA Hospital in the mid 1960's and I do know the stories were legendary as to the things that went on in terms of diagnosis and treatment options, after hours. Essentially, after 5 p.m., the entire hospital administration was left in the hands of one civil service employee down in the admitting area. They were very good at what they did and they did have access by calling people but generally it was understood they were not to ever call out folks unless it was absolutely necessary. That led to some pretty funny stories about how folks got admitted to the hospital and who signed for this, that, or the other. I'm sure that in our day and time they have twenty two watchdog agencies now walking the halls on a 24 by 7 basis to make sure nothing like this could happen. But, it sure did make for some funny stories and I do love funny stories but I wouldn't have wanted them to be about me. Know what I mean, Vern?

This is an old funny but maybe we all could use at least a small grin to get our day started. "A hillbilly family took a vacation to New York City. One day, the father took his son into a large building. They were amazed by everything they saw, especially the elevator at one end of the lobby. The boy asked, "What's this, Paw?" The father responded, "Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life. I don't know what it is!" While the boy and his father were watching in wide-eyed astonishment, an old lady in a wheelchair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of lights above the walls light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction. The walls opened again, and a lovely twenty-four-year old woman stepped out. The father turned to his son and said, "Go get your maw!" I think I know what some of you are saying. He is just trying to be funny, bless his heart. That's the catch all I heard growing up. "She is dumber than a post, bless her heart." If they put his brain on the head of a pin, it'd roll around like a BB on a six-lane highway, bless his heart." I get it. But, I'm the one with the keyboard and while I am aware that you have the ultimate power called the delete key, why don't we all just take it for what it's worth, smile a little, and go out there have yourself a reasonably good Wednesday? And, may God bless us all as we go. Amen.   ....More later.