" What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies." ~ Rudy Giuliani

Eli finishing up on his popsicle as he plans his next endeavor.

Well, hello there. My, it seems like we were visiting just the other day, but, we have a new one, it's Monday, August 4, 2025, and, I do bid each one a very happy happy day. I came upstairs to try and catch my breath. Literally. We have our four year old great grand Elijah James with us this morning. He is a kid of action and his attention span is measured in milliseconds. Our three sons blessed us with eleven grandchildren and these grands, thus far, have done their part bringing into this world eleven great grands. We thank God for each and every one! Eli is very much preoccupied with mechanical interests. He likes to see how things work. Sometimes that involves taking things apart. (He plans on learning how to put stuff back together at a later date.) While he is a moving target, we do love spending time trying to keep up with him. I remember those clips from the baseball movie where the pitcher who wore thick glasses could throw the ball over 100 miles per hour, but, he didn't always know where it might be going. That pitcher was referred to as Wild Thing. Our little Eli is often referred to alongside the 'wild' word, but, I think he's a funny little guy and he makes me laugh in an entertaining sort of way. At the same time, Great Grand Poppy does not have the stamina required to make every step with Little Eli who tends to be planning the next adventure while the current one is still underway. We had a wee bit of a rain shower here this morning and as soon as it quit he and I did a bit of walking which allowed him to play the game of 'See how many questions I can ask' and my response game of 'See if I can understand what he said and answer one before the next one lands'. No wonder I feel the need for a nap coming on. 

 

I did make a trip to our local remote station where one can deal with all things pertaining to the registration, licensing, and taxation of Texas based motor vehicles. I didn't have a prearranged appointment. I always think about doing that when I walk in and see nearly 100 people waiting to be waited on. I went to the kiosk and clicked on the box designating the purpose of my visit and a little ticket was immediately printed out. That ticket had a number on it. When you hear that number called you go to the directed civil servant to help you. The place was very busy. They have a dozen of the service window outlets to serve their clients, yet, I've never seen more than six of them in service at one time. I don't really get an overwhelming sense that customer service is in the air, however, I'm sure that feeling has much to do with the length of time I have to wait. The people there are polite enough but nearly everyone waiting to be served is there to pay real money. Here's one truism you can use: Never make it hard for people to pay you real money. I also noticed that when one of the technicians gets back from lunch it does take a little bit of time to become acclimated to why they are there. That's why I used to have some employees I never wanted to go on coffee break. Too much time retraining them. Okay. It's a joke. But, not altogether without merit. I did get to one of those windows after a little over an hour. You guessed it. I wasn't able to complete my business because of two reasons, 1. I was the wrong person. 2. I had the wrong paperwork. That will do it every blooming time. Such is life but we can always count on our Lord because He is always there for us. Always. Amen.