"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Wayne Gretzky

Good morning blogheads. Don't try to find that word. I just made it up but in this day and age it might well already be well established. Hold the presses. I just Googled it and there's all kinds of hits on that word. Okay, let me start over. Since I'm not sure what the general thought is about what that other word means, I will change my greeting to: Hello friends and neighbors, welcome back to where we can share in the roller coaster ride that passes itself off as my thoughts and ideas. It's another Monday and this one happens to be the 14th of January, 2013. Next Monday is a federal holiday in observance of the birthday of the civil rights leader, Martin Luther King. I read the other day where President Obama will be sworn in twice, once using Abraham Lincoln's Bible and the other time using Martin Luther King's Bible. There sure are a lot of folks wanting to line themselves up with Lincoln these days. Of course he was a Republican but when one is trying to build themselves a lasting legacy I suppose labels don't really mean that much. I'm sure the recent highly acclaimed movie and all the surrounding hoopla has put ole Abe back on the hot list in terms of recognition and popularity. I have not seen the movie. I read a number of the reviews and paid close attention to those debating its historical accuracy. While the movie production had some historians helping fact check their work, there are still a number of respected scholars who are not convinced of its representation as being an accurate portrayal of the great president.

People are really observant. I did cut my beard back but I had not had my hair cut in maybe six months. No. I was not trying to emulate a rock star who has been cavorting on stages for 50 or more years. That really does get me: These guys who are still doing rock and roll while in their third trimester of medicare coverage. At any rate, people did notice that I had cut my beard. I could tell because nearly everyone of them asked me the same question: Did you get a haircut? Here I am wearing nearly shoulder length hair and that's the question I get. I've taken care of the haircut now so I suppose I will be getting: Wow, did you cut back on your beard? Now, I'll tell you why did it take so long on the haircut. My wife wondered out loud several times about the delay. I don't rush into things. I think about them. One reason I don't like getting a haircut is because they always ask me how I want it done and invariably 99.9% of the time they do whatever it is they want. Therefore, I think about which one to try this next time. I find myself going through the ones I've used before. It won't be them. And, I do remember one of my last hair appointments where this rather large lady at the big box store leaned on me like I had eaten her lunch or something. That's how we used to say it back home.

I'm not against hair cutters, so please don't write me. When I was a kid we had this one eyed barber who did the exact same thing. He would ask how you wanted it cut and when he did all the old whittling dudes sitting around would burst out laughing. I always thought it might have had something to do with that glass eye but come to find out, they all for the most part operate that same way. Over the holidays I had my work car, the one I call the old flivver, checked. It has nearly 170,000 miles on it and has been taking us places for soon to be 13 years. It has been a really good car so I paid $100 to get all the details of why it would not pay me to try and fix all the problems. They stopped when the labor estimate hit $2500 and that confirmed what I pretty much already knew. When I picked it up I asked the service manager how much I should put in the glove compartment before I drove it off the cliff. You know, the cliff was real popular at that time. The fiscal cliff. He laughed. I didn't. But my eldest son has been good to help me look for a reliable car to get me forth and back, you know, to and from work. I had a really good one on the line but it was on Wednesday and I had a Bible lesson to teach and I didn't go look at it and it was sold almost immediately. That didn't bother me because I knew something would work out. And it did. I am now the proud owner of a car that belonged first to this fellow's grandfather. That makes it two owners but all in the same family. Very good condition. Only 131,000 miles. It's nearly 16 years old. That's getting up there some for a car but since it belonged to a grandpa and I am a grandpa, we should get along okay. What's that? A prayer for the car might be in order? Not a bad idea. Have a great Monday and I'll see you next time. Lord willing, of course. Amen.    ....More later.