April 2, 2026

The Real Fool

The day after April Fool’s Day or even better, the second day of April. I saw an article about 5 April Fool’s pranks that are not done today and asked how many of them the reader had done. I did one of them, (made crank calls, e.g., asking if they had Prince Albert in the can and if so, let him out), but even that one did not seem to me to be an April Fool’s joke. Of course, some of the reasons that one prank is not done in that manner any longer is because the bots and the spam callers have taken over making the crank calls and hardly anyone has a land line today.
To me, the list was a list of mean things to do to people, e.g., putting shaving cream all over the car. What kind of a prank is that?
I would say the best one I did, and for the record, I did not do many, (I wonder why?), was the time I put a toilet up on a roof of a building that was right in the middle of a large sweeping turn so the school bus had to drive right by it on the way to school with a busload full of students. Now that I think about it, it might have been Halloween, because I don’t remember what the sign said that I stuck in the toilet, but I think I had some type of scarry creature peeking over the lip holding the sign. I had to work pretty hard to pull that one off.
This was in Panama City, FL. That big sweeping curve was the end of the beach area and turned inland towards where the bridge crossed over the waterway and started towards the city. It was often sandy on that curve and if you took the curve on a motorcycle at a high speed, you could easily end up on the ground. During that period, the largest bike I owned was a Triumph 200 cc.
One of my so-called buddie’s big brother had a Harley Sportster. I know he was missing a few screws in the noggin as he would take that curve at 120 miles an hour, which had the footpegs touching the ground. I don’t know what it says about the crew I was with but each of us had to take that trip at least once or you were worse than a girl in a dress with white socks and those black shoes with the strap. Remember, this was the 1950’s and men did not wear dresses.
This was before I knew what Scripture said about men cavorting with other men in the bedroom, but I knew it was not natural and so did everyone else I knew. There may have been someone who had a little sugar in his shoes, but he did not let any of us know it.
Another interesting phenomenon from that period was if you knocked up a girl, you were marrying her. I still remember one of the guys in maybe the 11th grade, who left school because his girl had a swollen belly and they couldn’t hide it any longer. I talked to him before he left for good and remember thinking how great the potential for a messed up group of lives was sitting in front of me. His life, his girl’s life, and the new child’s life, were all dependent on these two kids making something out of nothing, and at that moment, I did not see anything he had in his pocket, or on his person, or in the beat up old car his parents had given him, that was going to remove the large boulders blocking the path he had chosen. And that is a baloney thought that this was an unfortunate accident because they chose this path when they got undressed and explored the forbidden fruit.
I am not able to say I never made any stupid choices when I was trying to learn how to become what I thought a man was in those days. My mother always told me I could leave home any time I wanted, I just couldn’t take anything I hadn’t bought with my own money.
I got me a paper route when I was in 6th grade and started on my first million dollars. I had money at school and could buy all the girls candy at the break. The guys had a regular smoke station under the school house and I kept it stocked with cigars, cigarettes, and chewing tobacco. I was really proud of the choices on the shelves we constructed under there. I have since wondered how we were able to get away with that store we had under the school house.
We had moved to Florida when I started 6th grade. The school system in Colorado was so far ahead, I could almost turn in an empty paper and get an “A”. I discovered it was common to pass students until they were old enough to quit school. I remember the first time I went to the restroom and Mike showed up a few minutes later. He said come on, we are leaving. I said we couldn’t just leave, what would the teacher say? After a few minutes of wrangling back and forth, we left. There was no mention the next day about why I never came back from the bathroom the previous day.
I believe that opened the door for me to take a look at a new life, which I never would have believed available if that teacher would have sent me to the principle’s office that day. While I never made the move up the ladder to committing an actual murder, Mike, the same Mike who lead me astray in the beginning, knifed a guy in a fight, who died on the spot. I think I was in 11th grade at the time. The other guy did not have a knife and did not start the fight. I was not present for that one but knew a few guys who were present on that occasion.
I moved to California for my senior year in high school after quitting school in Panama City, Florida during the first three weeks of my senior year there. I was a connoisseur of alcohol and had been using my fake id for a few years at that time. Because there were not many taking that route instead of the pot and hash route, I did not make too many friends and kind of discontinued the exciting, (at least, I thought it was exciting), life, to a certain extent.
I see a parallel from my early life to the way the stupid DA’s, e.g., Krassner in Philadelphia, help the career criminal of today along his merry path, just as that teacher allowed me to move down the path of possible no return. The words both the teacher and the Soros DA’s are leaving out of their vocabulary include, accountability, punishment, determent, justice, and law-breaker, just to mention a few. If I continue to do wrong and am never held accountable for that wrong, why would I stop? I WON’T! And neither will the criminal that has been arrested 30 times and let out the same day they are arrested.
This fact is as plain as the nose on your face. I guess the problem is only a few can see their nose without looking in the mirror, and then it is only to powder it, not to notice how big it has grown, just as the problem of letting the bad people do what they want with no punishment to make them stop.
I think some of the influential Christians have bought into the idea that we have to love everybody because they are made in the image of God, so we need to just share the gospel with them, get them to say they believe in Jesus, and they will not get arrested that 31st time. And the bonus for them is because they are forgiven, and Jesus paid for their sin, they do not have to pay any reparations. [And I am not talking about the reparations that idiot Jaypal wants to pay all the illegal aliens because we followed the law and sent them packing.]
Jesus paid for our sin to get into heaven, not to keep us from jail. Jesua paid for our sin to allow us to become new people, born again, the old has passed away and the new has come, not to stay the way we were when we accepted His payment on the Cross for our sin. II Cor. 5:17. John 3:16 is only one verse out of a very book. Ephesians 6 is only one chapter from 66 books making up a complete Bible. Someone needs to look up and find out if the Scriptures say anything about a seared conscience. Only a fool takes one verse or one chapter from Scripture and makes it the only criteria for their life here on earth. The same is true for the bleating heart liberal who finds no fault in the criminal’s actions, allowing the criminal to continue on their path of destruction and pain for others.

April 10, 2026

OBSERVANT

We dropped Dorothy’s car off for maintanence this morning at Toyota. On the way home, she had to stop at Northgate for some ballons that Ali asked her to ick up for her. Today is Shayna’s birthday and they are making a big deal about it. A question pops up that has nothing to do with what my rant for today is, but how many men want ballons for their birthday? Maybe a case of beer or a fifth of Tequilla, but ballons? Maybe a ride on the roller coaster, but ballons?
Anyway, I asked something about the ballons in the grocery store and Dorothy said they were at all the checkstands, just like at Albertson’s, Von’s and few other stores. I know she didn’t notice the car swerve because she would have let out a shriek and started a sentence with a loud, “look out”, among other choice words describing my driving.
The reason for the swerve was because I realized I had never noticed the ballons at all the checkstands! I didn’t want to start an argument by denying there were ballons at every checkstand, but she could have won all my millions if she had of bet me there were ballons at every checkstand. And I would have thought I had a sure winner too. I would have given odds that would have cost me the next couple of million I have on the horizon.
Was it PT Barnum that said a sucker is born everyday? I found me the one that was born on July 2 all those years ago. I wonder how much she has in the bank? I started spending my money as we drove up Peck Road to Northgate on the things I want. Maybe I can get her to throw in her 401k? I really want that motor home!
Just as I am getting ready to spring my trap, she goes on to tell me about the ballons at the checkstand again and the thought strikes me that she really knows they are there, sitting in plain view for anyone or even everyone to take their pick. Now, I have learned over the years that there are certain things Dorothy has a better observation of minute details than I have. But this is not a minute detail. This is ballons waving at me from the checkout stand! How could I miss them?
I start putting all those things I bought with her money back on the shelves. That motor home key is back on the hook waiting for the real buyer to show up. So not only do I lose all my new possessions, I have to admit I have been going in grocery stores for seven decades and will admit I can not remember ever seeing ballons at the check out register.
Do you know that the word, “observant” is not found in the Bible? The word, “watch”, is in the NASB 131 times. I know there is some difference in the two words, but they do work on the same type of action. Anyway, I know I am observant in things that count. I notice who is around me when I am out running. I drive defensively, which means I am always taking notice, (being observant), of what is going around me while the tires are going round and round. I even take notice when they are stationary at a stop sign or light.
So, I am observant in things that count. But, ballons at the check out stand, that is pretty low on the totum pole of importance for me.

April 28, 2026

100% – 50% – 100%

I start writing and Joshua has to go outside to deposit his gold at some exact spot only he knows how to find each morning, (and afternoon, evening and nighttime). I know he has some magic formula as we pass what was his favorite spot yesterday, or sometime in the past, just like the ex does when a chance meeting happens. It is like he can’t be bothered with that spot again as it became ruined whenever the perfect deposit was made. We must find the next spot that deserves his gold so on we trudge.
As we are marching around the route Joshua chooses that morning, I think of a great point to make in my grist I started before I was so rudely interrupted by Joshua’s antics while trying to get my attention so I can put his vest on and get after the smells of the morning. I know he believes we have to get out there before they disappear.
The great thought is going to come over me 100% of the time while out walking with Joshua. Admittingly, not all of them are A++ thoughts, but none of them fall below the A- range. There are times the thought is so great that I almost write a whole page in my mind as I am occasionally interrupted by gathering up the deposit so I can make the real deposit, i.e., which is into the dumpster.
Joshua and I make it back to the house without having to overcome too many obstacles. Inside we go, I prepare his breakfast, make some coffee, and head back up the stairs to finish the morning’s grist.
I would say the odds are that at least 50% of the time, I can’t for the life of me, remember exactly what the great thought was. I know the naysayers put their 2 cents in and say it wasn’t that great if I can’t remember it longer than an hour or so. But those people are wrong 100% of the time, so they can continue to howl at the moon.
I have come to believe that I write with invisible or disappearing ink at times when writing those pages in my mind. I remember an Andy Griffin show that Andy used some of Oppies disappearing ink to sign a deal about marriage and scared off the hillbillies that were trying to get Oppie to marry this older girl. I think that is what happens, I write the great thought and the ink disappears by the time I get back to putting it down in real ink.
I have to add a new element to this writing for today. I had in mind a 100% – 50% – 100% thought to get down. It seems I can’t remember what the last 100% was about. Looks like I can write in real ink and disappearing ink in the same great thought.