Uncle Si, "Some people say I'm a dreamer. Others say, 'If you fall asleep on the job again, we're going to have to let you go.'"

Good morning and welcome to back to work Monday, here on this March 20, 2017. I guess if you made it okay to this day then you avoided problems last week when the Ides of March was recognized. That would have been last week on the 15th. That date became infamous because of the assassination of Julius Caesar on that date in 44 BC. Shakespeare made it even more so when his play 'Julius Caesar' was written, (1599), where he used the warning to Caesar from the soothsayer, "Beware the ides of March." You never even heard of such a thing? Good. Then, obviously, you have not been impacted by it. I may have seen some deer lurking by the side of the road on that day. There are times when I climb into my truck in the morning and I get this sense that I had better be alert for deer. Maybe it is the conditioning over the past nearly 11 years. Maybe it's the near misses that I am so thankful for. Maybe it's because I've been watching a lot of the outdoor channels and they do have quite a lot of programming involving the hunting of deer. No. I'm not planning on going back to my roots anytime soon and doing more hunting. My real motivation in watching these alternative choices has to do with how bad the other stuff available is. And, the fact that I can watch four rerun episodes of Duck Dynasty on Monday evenings. Some people don't care for Uncle Si. I think he is one of the most naturally funny characters to show up in a long time. All of that, taken together, may cause my senses to be sharpened to be on the look out for those white underbellies dashing here and there. You've probably got your own stuff to deal with, but, who would have thought that after all these years one of my ongoing concerns would be dodging wildlife on the roadways.

I know we all like to personalize what a bad day means. Sometimes we have to know the things we struggle with are really not that crucial, not only in the grand scheme, but they just don't amount to that much. Most of the time, perhaps not always, we really can think of something worse than the situation we find ourselves in. I used to ride in a van pool into downtown Houston. The fellow driving was pretty cool but he had a habit of making like a record player on this thumb by using his index finger to make tiny little circles, round and round. I was typically riding shotgun and that little habit of his caught my attention. I suppose it was his way of dealing with all the stuff going on in the traffic. These days I do a lot of driving and it's most likely ten times worse in terms of both crowdedness and craziness. Sometimes I end up just sitting there. Waiting. One day something got my attention. I looked down and guess what? I was doing my own version of the record playing routine. I shook my hand so hard I nearly threw it out of place, trying to get that stopped. See what I mean? I used to get ever so slightly irritated by that constant habit, and now, I end up playing the same songs. Life can be exasperating at times. Yes. I see those hands and I hear those Amen's.

I have to tell you, I hate it when things like that happen. I have taken steps to make sure it doesn't happen again, but, you know how it goes with involuntary knee jerk responses. They have a life of their own. Oh well, such is life. Let's hope it doesn't get worse. Many years ago we would go and fetch a dear elderly lady to bring her to our local fellowship for services. She was a little on the quirky side. As we traveled down the roadway, we would approach a traffic signal and she would start slapping the dash, hard, and crying out to God not to allow the light to change. She obviously did not want to stop for a red light. Not even a little bit. My point? What if, without me really knowing it, I were to start copying her instead of my old van pool driver? The thought alone puts chills on the back of my neck. As Paw Paw Mac would have said it, "Son, you need to get a grip." I would but I wouldn't want to interrupt the song playing on my thumb right now. You can laugh but make sure it is laughing with me, not at me. And, none of that out loud stuff. Enjoy the rest of your day and may God bless us all. Amen. ....More later.