Song we sang growing up: Watching you...Watching you, there's an All Seeing Eye watching you.

Guess what? I received one of those automated calls telling me I must report for jury duty this morning. How do you like that? Oh well. We live and learn. Meanwhile, I say good Tuesday morning and welcome to this day, June 14, 2016. I use search engines a lot. For the Company and in looking for personal items. One day I was looking for a free standing shower for a steel building we are constructing. It had to have certain specifications. I finally located one and we ordered it from a national industrial supply firm. The next time I looked at my Facebook page it is covered with ads for showers, of all kinds. One day I was looking on Amazon for a solar powered cooling fan built into a cap. I thought they might be of use for someone who is out in the sun a lot. The next time I logged in to check my mail, boom, the side bar had all kinds of cooling caps being displayed. The good news for me is that I am rarely impacted by these targeted ads, however, the not so good news is how much information is being captured in order to present them. Think about it. What if someone accidentally puts the wrong information into a search engine, maybe even just a misspelled word. Suddenly, they start seeing ads based on this mistake. When I began to ponder this situation, it reminded me of that song we sang as kids. It was a sobering song. It was intended to make us think. "There's an all seeing eye watching you." That song is still true but these captured search terms makes us aware there are others watching as well. All the time. If you bump into those who manage these things you might tell them that I'm no longer in the market for a shower. Thanks.

The other day when we attended our twins high school graduation, it was held in an open air pavilion. It did have a high roof but it was open on all sides. It seats several thousand. One thing I noticed that was a little unnerving to me was all the birds flying around in that place. Birds and I have a spotty track record. You might remember the day I was just about to open the main shop building and a bird fluttered out of the hedges right into my face. That wasn't a good way for me to start my day. And, if I go way back, I remember when I was visiting my hometown in Louisiana many years ago and I was invited to go bird hunting by my brother-in-law. Sure. Why not? I had not done a lot of bird hunting growing up. We mostly hunted squirrels and deer. But I went. We were after quail. We had special trained dogs. There were several of us together. The dogs found a bunch of quail, I think they called it a covey. When they instructed the dog to flush out the quail, the dog did just that. Those quail came up suddenly and made the loudest swooshing noise I had ever heard, seemingly they flew up right before my eyes. I did shoot. I didn't hit any birds. I did, however, shoot the top out of a lob lolly pine sapling. Each of the hunters took turns posing with my kill. They had themselves a really great laugh. Then we had the situation with a little old lady in our Church who called me all the time to ask for prayer. She had a parakeet named Pretty Boy. She made me talk to Pretty Boy on the phone. I didn't care to talk to Pretty Boy. I didn't really have that much in common with him. Birds. You would think I could get some respect from them, especially when I think about all the little bugs I woke up for them the other day when I was mowing. Those mocking birds were all lined up wating for their morning snack. Think about the little bugs. Daddy bug says to mommy bug, "I didn't here anything about tremors on the weather report, did you? You go ahead and feed the little munchkins and I'll go up and take a look around." He did. BAM! I'm not sure but those birds I've dealt with over the years may have put out some bad vibes on me and when they were buzzing all around that pavilion, well, it put me on the edge of my seat. You might want to avoid sitting next to me. You just never know what might happen.

I never said I wasn't carrying a lot of baggage. What's that you say? You think maybe I should write a book? I think maybe I have. Maybe even more than one over these past nine years of blogging. I notice things. You noticed that I notice things? Thanks. Sometimes having one of my observations connect in a meaningful way is as scarce as hearing a Baptist preacher give a sermon on gluttony. I only mention that because there's stuff out on social media talking about the epidemic of overweight clergy. I know I have it pointed out to me quite often. Sermons on self control may ring hollow when the one delivering it hasn't seen the tops of his shoes in years. While that being the case doesn't change the truth, it might well distract from its application. One list of verses I saw related to this matter numbered 100. Oh well. We all have our own set of issues. And, typically, most of us, at one time or another, come off as telling others to do as I say, not as I demonstrate by my own example. I know that happened to me in my dealings with my boys. I always excused it by saying I wanted them to be better than I. That, my friend, is most likely not the best way of seeing it. The Apostle Paul invited folks to follow him and his example. How? As He followed Christ. (1st Corinthians Chapter 11, Verse 1) I've come a long way but as I think about things like this, it reminds me of how much progress I still need to make. What say you? Take care, which is a phrase criticized by our Yankee friends. They wonder what it means. Take care? They want to know where we want them to take it. To us it's just short for take care of yourself. Sort of like, have a nice day. I'm glad I grew up with some pretty neat and meaningful slang. May God bless us all is my prayer. Amen. ....More later.