Reading

Stephen King told me in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft that one of the most important things a person can do to be a good writer is to read a lot.

I've always been a reader and a writer. My parents bought me comic book subscriptions and books and took me to the library. I also always had a diary and I wrote a lot of letters.

I'm still reading and writing. I always have a book on CD in my car. I was listening to Hunger Games in my car when I drove home from school today. It was such a good part that I sat in my driveway for ten minutes before going in the house. Even then I wanted to hear what would happen next so I changed clothes and headed to the gym (a 20 minute drive away, which isn't a bad thing when you've got a good book to listen to).

At the gym I listen to a book while walking on the treadmill. Currently I'm listening to Fire Sale (V.I. Warshawski) by Sara Paretsky on Playaway. Other times I listen to a downloaded book on my iphone.

More Hunger Games on the way home from the gym. I'd been told over and over again that it's a great book. I now know for myself what everyone else has been raving about.

I have a book that I read in the bathtub. Right Now it's J.D. Robb's Innocent in Death (a Lawton Public Library Adult Book Club selection).

When I go to bed I'll read The Garner Files: A Memoir by James Garner that by daughter gave me for Christmas. I once had the Rockford Files theme song as my cell phone ring tone. Love Jimbo.

Is reading four books at once too many? Sometimes the plots of my multiple books get intertwined, which can be interesting. However, these four are different enough that they don't blend together.

What are you reading?

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Sunday at my Church

The story of Jonah and the whale may be one of the best known stories in the Old Testament. In July 2010 Jonah was the theme of a funeral in Indiahoma. I'll always remember that funeral when I come in contact with Jonah.

Today in church our preacher preached on "the end of the story." Jonah did not want to go tell the people of Nineveh that they would soon perish as a result of their evil, wicked ways. They were enemies of Israel. Why should he have to have any contact with them? But God wore him down and Jonah finally agreed to walk into and across Nineveh. It took 3 days! He preached as he walked, "In 40 days Nineveh will be destroyed."

Jonah expected the people to ignore him and God, but they didn't. From the king on down, every man, woman, child and animal fasted and cried to God for help. God took pity on them and did not destroy them.

Jonah's reaction was anger. Jonah went and told his enemies that his God was displeased and would destroy them. Then God treats his enemies like they are family. What's up with that?

And as usual, we aren't so very different from characters in the Bible. How often do we want God to crush our enemies? And why do we even consider other people as our enemies?

Our preacher challenged us to consider who our enemies are and instead of hating them, talk to them for God and maybe they will be spared the same way the whole city of Nineveh was.

Have you crossed paths with Jonah? I'd like to hear about it.

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Doing Nothing

I have a morning routine that includes watching short Jerry Seinfeld clips. 3 a day take 5 minutes or so to watch and I start my day off with humor, sometimes riotous laughter.

One bit that I've seen several times but always enjoy is Jerry relating how people ask him, "So what you doing now? You don't have a show anymore, so what do you do?" His answer is, "Nothin'." He goes on to explain that doing nothing is not all that easy. When you are doing nothing, you are free to do anything which can lead to doing something so you are no longer doing nothing and then you have to drop everything. It's really funny when Jerry tells it.

So here it is, Saturday morning with the whole day in front of me. I work 2-3 Saturdays a month so having a Saturday off is a luxury. I plan on doing nothing that I don't want to do (clean the house), somethings that I have to do (laundry, church newsletter), anything that I want to do (blog, read, watch a DVRed show or two, photoshop) and have everything my way today.

Wishing you a Saturday just the way you want it too.

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We Have Met the Enemy

and he is us.

A library patron told me this story. He said he read it in the newspaper.

Some guys were having a tailgate party that continued on after the football game was over. Everyone got drunk, some more than others. One guy passed out and his "friends" propped him up and surrounded him with empty beer cans and other decorative items. One drunk sprinkled him, but not with Holy Water. Meanwhile, pictures were being taken, posted on facebook and texted to friends. It went viral.

The patron asked me, "Did you ever read 1984?"

Oh my, we don't need to worry about Big Brother watching our every move, we are doing it to ourselves.

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Furry Fun

Happy Groundhog Day! Did the furry little critter see his shadow? He did! So now we have 6 more weeks of winter? Except we haven't had any winter weather yet. Does that mean 6 more weeks of no winter weather or will we finally have 6 weeks of regular winter weather?

I wonder if Punxsutawney Phil had anything to do with student behavior today. Some were loud and obnoxious, others were catatonic. I thought a student or two had gone deaf or perhaps no longer spoke English. Talking with colleagues after school, it seems their students were in the same state as mine. Let's just hope today isn't like the movie "Groundhog Day" because I can't take too many more days like today.

I'm off to my second job at the Public Library, hoping the patrons there have not been touched by whatever got my students.

Happy birthday to my friend Susanna whom I used to work with at the library. It's a great place for many reasons.

Funeral for February First

I met Jean Perry in the summer of 1979. Now, nearly 33 years later, we laid Jean to rest just a few miles from where I met him.

If there's something good about funerals, it's family getting together. Jean's kids, their wives and children were all there as well as Daryl's sister, mom and a favorite cousin from South Texas. And it's nice the way friends and community members gather around to support and comfort the mourners.

Daryl officiated the funeral service and spoke about Jean as if he were a saint, which he wasn't. He told us that Jean was in a better place, paradise for eternity. I was wondering, what's the criteria to get admitted into paradise? The scripture, "Judge not lest ye be judged" reminded me that it's not up to me who gets in where, I just need to worry about myself.

Daryl was with Jean when he died. Daryl took his hand and said, "When the Lord reaches out for you, take hold of his hand." Jean answered, "I already did." He died just a few minutes later. That explained why Daryl said Jean is in heaven.

A funny piece of trivia was that Jean and Phyllis (an aunt on Daryl's mom's side of the family) were mixed double tennis champs in High School. I didn't know they played tennis in Frederick, OK back then and it's still a funny picture in my mind of Jean and Phyllis with tennis rackets in their hands.

Now that we've got the February funeral out of the way, bring on the February fun!

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Photoshop

This amazes me. I put the following two pictures into Photoshop editor then chose file/new/photomerge panorama. Photoshop merged them together as a single picture. How easy is that to get the choir director (left) and the preacher (right) both into the picture with the choir?

WOW!