"I feel like B sides are always better, no matter whose record it is.” Alicia Keys

It's Tuesday, February 18, 2014, and I bring you greetings from that place I referred to last time, the flipside. That word was originally coined to indicate the other side of a popular record being played on the radio. The less popular side. The B side. I checked this out so that you won't have to write and straighten me out. And, if you were to try and straighten me out, you would, as they used to say back home, had better come early and plan on staying late. When you think about it, I have no problem calling most of my stuff B side material anyway. I occasionally produce a daily episode that stimulates a response. My little ditty on us watching Curling versus NASCAR got one fellow a little stirred up. He wrote me a note giving me the distinguished history of Curling. His view of NASCAR is of a bunch of race cars all turning left for three hours with the folks in the stands breathlessly waiting for a huge crash. I'm sure glad I didn't tackle watching paint dry. That may have insulted someone else out there. Just so you know, the fellow who sent me that note did so tongue in cheek. He and his sweet wife are devoted readers of my blog each day. Although he may not have been aware of an unintended message in his note because when he stated how they started their day by reading it, he either had a typo or a subliminal shot across the bow, he called it my bog.

I think we all know what it means to become bogged down. I can remember doing that in some of the backwoods where we used to hunt and fish when I was growing up. You could tell that you probably shouldn't try to make it through that muddy hole but you thought if you could just get a good run at it you could make it through. Typically, when you can barely see the tires, it's time to admit failure and call for help, as in, "Houston, we have a problem." No cell phones back then and if another vehicle was not with you, well, you just had to walk out and try to find someone willing to come pull you out. That's one form of being bogged down. The other has to do with getting stuck in the mucky stuff we all deal with every day. Often we can find ourselves not being able to see the forest for the trees. Jesus actually told a funny about some super pious religious elites and how they were hung up on the details to the extent they missed the point entirely. Bogged down, so to speak. "Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!" (Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 23, Verse 24)

You just have to love the weather around these parts. It's almost like being out of the frigid into the frying pan. Maybe it's out of the fire into....well, I think you get my point. We literally have moved within hours from shivering to sunning. We went from talking about how many layers to doing yard work and complaining about seasonal allergies. Take this week. We are supposed to make it up to nearly 80 degrees. Just last week we were concerned about driving on frozen roads. And, I don't know if those kinds of shifts are really hard on our bodies or not. Some say it is and typically people go from being cold to having colds and they blame it on the weather change. I wonder sometimes if it is what we think that brings on a problem, so we end up having the problem. You know what I am talking about. "As a man thinks, so is he." (Proverbs 23:7) I can have my theories. I didn't say it was a proven fact, just my thoughts on how it might work. I suppose that's it for today where I urge you to keep on keeping on and oh yeah, and please pass the Kleenex box. (Joking only.) Take care and may God bless each one. Amen.   ...More later.