August 3, 2026

A New Contract

I wish I knew where to begin. If I could find the start, it would be there. When I arrived at the races where I kept challenging myself to move the time shorter instead of longer, there was always a starting line. It was easy there to find where to begin the race. And before some wiseacre states the obvious, the time has lengthened to where the watch battery dies before the finish line comes into view.
But I know that for me, I have been grieving the Holy Spirit by not taking time from my busy day to pen a few words. The pounding on the keyboard is for my sanity and obedience, with the possibility of the masses being entertained only a fleeting and unattainable fy in the ointment.
I imagine putting the words above count as a starting place. Hooray! But what have I started that I have not discontinued in previous days? If I am honest with myself, which is a title of a book, “Tell Yourself The Truth”, I need to give it to me and acknowledge my procrastination. I need to sign on the dotted line of that contract floating around the room each and every day I have found 100 other things to do besides place my fingers on the keyboard and put letters of the alphabet together which spell words and make sentences, which find themselves grouped into paragraphs, being grouped together and finally resting in that domain on the internet, named, “thegristforthemill.com”.
The detective has the bright light in my eyes and I have to confess. I answered the phone and went downstairs to get the charger cord for the phone and decided to pull the last of the chicken off the carcass in the refrigerator. I was gone long enough the screen saver closed the window.
As I walked back up the stairs, I realized that was one of the ways I sabotaged my daily pressing of the keys on the keyboard. Don’t get me wrong, I still pressed the keys and quite often during the days leading up to today, but just not in the program that puts together the content for my daily grists. I get started, and looking back over the unfinished “grists”, there are a few lone paragraphs waiting for their brothers and sisters to join them on partially filled pages.
I have tried to teach Ali, and anyone else who stumbles across my path for more than a millisecond, that you have to know who you are. I have many ready examples from my life to use and probably use more of them than I need to in order to get my point across. As that bright light shines in my eyes, I find I am being caught in the snare I lay for unsuspecting others and have to use my own logic on myself. Describe yourself, Roy.
When that task in completed, albeit in a shortened version, I have to answer the question posed at the beginning with a scream for everyone to hear, that the start is the new day, the new hour, the new minute, and the new second, determined by when that is occurring. That means I must sign a new contract and begin a new round attacking the keys with vigor and vim. Now, believe it or not, I am making the rules and bargaining with myself for the terms of the contract and I am known as a pretty tough bargainer, I am an even better cross-examiner and debater. That is why I lose so many arguments with myself.
The day is half over and I have accomplished many things, just nothing that was on my list to get accomplished today. If I can finish this exhortation, at least I will have one gold star on the calendar. So let’s finish what I finally started.
I had to sign a NDA, (Non-Disclosure Agreement), so I am unable to tell you what is in the contract, what the penalties are for Breech of Contract, and what the rewards are for keeping the contract, other than to tell you it is in my best interest to follow through and keep the terms as they apply to me. And, I guess I can tell you the contract is not with myself.

August 4, 2026

Deja-View

You have no idea how excited I am. I may not breech my contract today. But, am I counting my chickens before they hatch? My schedule for today was set aside as it was compromised early in the morning. I had big plans for today, and even though it is not over yet. I am going to have more than one ball in the air to even get halfway done.
Maybe that is one of my problems, I set unrealistic goals. It is kind of like the streets I am filling up on my map. I think I can do this little area on the map, and when I hit the pavement, the streets are much longer than they look on the map. I have found more than one cul-de-sac that is more than a half mile long. Granted, there are not that many, but there are a lot which are 3.5 and 4 tenths long.
Someone asked me one time, (actually I have been asked this more than once), how many miles are in a city. For some reason, I was thinking about that this morning when I was being forced to backtrack on a street I had already covered. The issue is not how many miles, it is how many miles it takes to cover a city. Streets are not laid out all East/West and North/South/ They bend all over the place, have odd numbers of streets in groups, and many cul-de-sacs. It is impossible to not retrace some streets you have already covered.
I believe that is also the way it is in life. We have all experienced what we call a deja view moment, I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me you had one of those moments recently. I;ll also lay odds you took a different route in the present day moment than you did in the old one. And hopefully the outcome was a better one.
I believe the times that a temptation is involved, which concerns something that will get you in trouble, either with the law or God, that is the ruler of this world seeking to make you wear the big “A” from literature, or pile the guilty feelings into a wall that if you do not seek immediate forgiveness from God, you will be crushed and worthless for the kingdom of God. I did not say you lose your salvation, if you have been born again, but caused such a dim light to be shining that there is no need for the bushel basket to block it.
I wish I could say my light has never been dimmed, but in reality, it was turned off for a period time I honestly don’t know if any of out lights ever shine as bright as they did on the day we were born again. I think of Billy Graham and his light was as bright as one of the lights at Dodger Stadium, illuminating the night so we could who Christ was to him.
History is filled with men and women whose light was bright. I would think they were bombarded with those deja-view experiences. I have said before, if Satan is not attacking you, he doesn’t think you are a problem in his war with God.
I don’t want the problems Job had, but I want God to think enough of me to have the confidence that He can ask Satan the same question about me that He asked Satan about Job. I do want a larger hedge around me than Job received.
I could wax eloquently on this for quite a while but I won’t. I will close with the idea that God could be having us retrace a path because we did not learn what we were supposed to learn the first time we took the fork in the road and followed out own counsel instead of God’s counsel.
I had a business selling electronics back in the 70’s. I had a chance to get my money off the shelf, (my stock, which was a lot), and keep working at a great salary and commission. There were other issues in my life and this appeared to be a positive solution, albeit, I “knew” the guys buying my stock were borderline people, who crossed the line in getting some of the results they were putting on the table. I merged with them, moved my stuff, and IRS put a padlock on the door. Goodbye inventory. I was a new Christian and even so, I was sure the Lord was warning me not to move forward with the deal.
Fast forward approximately 18 years later and a couple of the guys in law school I was hanging around finally talked me into going to the Pizza place, where I joined them in killing a pitcher of beer. I never really liked beer and it had been at least 15 years since I had an alcoholic beverage. I knew better but did not listen to that still small voice. That started me on a path which did not turn out well for me.
Are these two examples connected? They are in relation to learning to listen to God and His counsel/ I have a hard head as I have a few other examples which are devastating because I at times refuse to listen to the still small voice. Even so, if you have been around me for any length of time, you know two of my favorite verses are found in Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6:
5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
6 “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” NASB
I must admit, I have become much better at incorporating those verses into my daily routine. The deja-view moments now seem to revolve around believing I have been on the street I am on because all the houses look like ones I saw previously.

August 5, 2026

Lesson Learned

I think I am clever, (I suddenly think of Beaver Clever), when I write the daily grist. I have tried to get one of my mantras across to Ali, i.e., your strength can also be your weakness. I believe I can write, speak, etc., about anything for a short period and many things for much longer. More times than not, when I start writing, I either have no idea where I am heading or I change direction within the first couple of paragraphs. I also can read minds, so I know what you are saying about those statements.
Anyway, I went to get the car fixed so I can go wipe out some streets on a regular basis. It turns out I don’t need the gasket yet and a new radiator cap and cleaning the other one fixed the water leak. A happy camper am I. And I know the Lord had something to do with it, so I give Him the honor and glory for another victory.
It is easy for me to write those words. But, I will admit I feel self conscious when “forced” to pray with a group in public. I don’t know why. I am not ashamed of the Gospel and will share it anywhere. There is just something different about group praying in public for me.
I remember when our Bible Study Group did a 3 day fast a couple of years ago and we all went to a fish taco place on Valley, just East of the 605 to celebrate at the conclusion of the three days. Our fearless leader, OC, stood at the table where we were gathered and started a three day prayer, (not really, it just seemed like it to me). I can honestly say I am not embarrassed, but I definitely feel something. It is not bad, it is just something. I can not say it is good because I do not know what it is that I feel. “Uncomfortable” is probably close to where the emotions land. Why? I have no idea. Years of counseling has not discovered the reason either.
It is akin to how I feel about hugging. I don’t like it or dislike it. I just am not a hugger. That is a problem for me in some churches. It is not that they hug you when they first meet you, it is they hug you each time they meet you. But it can’t be that I don’t want to engage with anyone because one of my goals when running has always been to meet one person on the run. I can meet more, and if I do, I am not able to store up the surplus for the next few runs. There is no carryover.
During the extended flu season. People became less friendly, especially since I did not wear a mask. I still have not purchased one mask. My daughter bought a camouflage one for me and I would wear it when forced to, e.g., on the bus. I sit in the back in the middle because there is lots of leg room there. I was the only person on the bus and removed my mask. The driver had a fit and I told him to relax, there were no other passengers and I would put it back on if someone got on. He stopped the bus and I had to put it on before he would proceed. I told Dorothy and she said he wouldn’t pick me up the next day. I said that was crazy but she was right. He pulled up to the stop, didn’t open the door and drove off. I had to wait an hour for the next bus.
Anyway. Most people were receptive to meeting without masks and I think I got my quota each day I ran. I was still running at that point in my life, even though the pace was steadily getting slower and slower.
As I was on the way home, I was thinking of the things I wanted to finish today, which were quite a few. Then as I was walking through the gate, I realized I was doing the same thing again I spoke about the other day. I was setting myself up for failure because I had a list in my mind that no one could complete in one day, even those time management gurus on the internet hawking their wares.
My strength was being tested and coming up short. My words to Ali rang loud and clear as I walked the rest of the way to the front door. Here I was, being tested once again, concerning the same thing I had already had trouble with, being fed my own words, and remembering what I wrote yesterday.
So, I changed my plans for the rest of the day which was going to keep me from giving up before I got started because I knew there was no way I could even come close to finishing 30% of my projected list, not because of the number, but because of what was required to complete some of the items on the list. I was paying attention to what the Lord was telling me so He could make my paths straight. I may have learned my lesson so I don’t have to go through that tunnel again.

August 6, 2026

Me and Spartacus

Men and women have different ideas of what is necessary to keep and what is available to discard. At least in my house, this is true. I am an accumulator. Ali and Dorothy are discarders if it was not used in the past hour. I haven’t read that book on Mars and Venus, but I imagine I could write a few of the chapters from personal experience, insert them into the book, and you would not be able to discern which chapters are from me and which are from the original author.
The excuse used for the latest ploy to “clean” the garage, is the cockroaches are overrunning us and they live in my stuff. I say we should go after Orkin as they seem to spray in there every other week. If I was paying that bill, I would demand a refund.
I am more than willing to cull out a few items that may not be useful, e.g., chargers for flip phones and paint brushes that were not cleaned and are so brittle they would disintegrate when cleaned. But they want to have someone come over that hauls away junk and have me tell them what I want to keep as they stand there with their bags like children at the door saying “Trick or Treat”, while they both oversee the operation.
There would be no discussion about why we need to keep at least one of the wires we used to use for wall phones because there is no need for a wall phone any longer. Never mind that there are more uses for that cord than just a wall phone and I don’t want to buy one when I already have one.
Unfortunately, this is an example of what is going in the world today. There is a group who think they know best for everyone else and there is no discussion because they know better than the huddled masses. If you watched Kennedy rep Bash apart on this subject, you know what I am saying is true.
People are unable to think for themselves today. Not everyone, obviously, but the younger generation was not taught to think in college, just trust and obey the professor and media that knows what is good for you and what is good for mankind.
I have been watching Jack Hibbs on Sunday morning since late last year. There have only been a few occasions I struggled with something in the message, but it was not part of the basic message of salvation, the deity of Christ, or what would be called a fundamental tenant. I am not the one who awards the final blue ribbon for accuracy but I have found less to cringe about from his messages than the last number of preachers I listened to each Sunday.
I came across a You Tube guy who said Hibbs was preaching a false Gospel and he had three examples. I started watching and he included Rick Warren in the group of false preachers in his introduction and I knew Warren had a prosperity Gospel working but he still had, as far as I know, the basics of Christianity sprinkled in his messages. If I was going to dig further into this creatures accusations, I would check Warren out but that is not what I wanted to see which is where Hibbs was off track because I had not seen it yet.
The character said he was using Scripture to show the false Gospel preached by Hibbs and started with Ephesians 2 where Paul says we are dead in our sins. He said Hibbs says we have a tiny spark which allows us to chose Christ’s payment on the Cross and that is impossible if we are dead and a corpse because a corpse can’t do anything.
I stopped right there and did not continue watching the rest of his diatribe. That is not the meaning of that section, i.e., that we were a corpse because obviously they were still walking around on the earth. We and the people Paul was speaking to, the Ephesians, were spiritual dead to the things of God, which is where all those Progressives and Communists are today. I would say many in the media are in that boat also. And by the way, there are many boats with the name Titanic written on their side.
You may or may not like Dennis Prager. I disagreed with him vociferously concerning immigration as he thought it was ok for people to sneak in to America to better themselves. But I picked up a mantra from him, which was to follow the premise to see what the consequences were, and using a Cordell Walker mantra, “Actions Have Consequences”.
I also learned not to throw out the baby with the bath water, so I might check out this guy on some other subjects and see what he has to say about the price of eggs in China. Who knows, I may learn something from him.
The real issue is that if the Muslims, Communists, Progressives, Fascists, get into power, we may not be able to use our critical thinking powers. They know better, or least they believe they do and if their word is the final say, look out. Mamdani just put New York on the hook for tax payer money for grocery stores, hotels for the homeless, and a tax on what you already own and have paid for with your own blood, sweat and tears.
If you check out these new “leaders” concerning their platform on their SDA site and listen to their leader, you will find they want to abolish the Presidency, the Senate, Ice, prisons, and privately held corporations, amnesty for all illegals, universal healthcare and urgent care access, free education and student debt cancellation, workers’ rights and union protections, universal basic income, social housing and rent control, criminal justice reform, including anti-death penalty measures, environmental sustainability and climate action, reproductive rights and gender equality. I know there is some things about the Constitution they don’t like but you see where they are heading and very little of it is good for a free society.
The Democrats have let the wolf into their big tent and the Grizzly Bear has ripped a hole in the backside and come in to find out what the campers have left in the open for them to devour. Let’s see what Spartacus has to say about his turf being invaded. I can’t help him right now as I have my own turf in the garage that is being invaded. There are priorities in each of our lives and my good stuff is under attack so Spartacus is on his own for the time being. I just hope both the Moderate Democrats and my good stuff are not both gone by the midterms.

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August 7, 2026

Don’t Follow Lee Marvin

I had at least five great openings for this morning. When I sat down at the computer, I could not bring one of them to the frontal lobe, (is that where it needs to go to get out?), and I picked enough lint from the belly button to make a pillow while I waited for one of them to spring forth.
I have no more lint to pick so I have to start something here or get up and return like Arnold at some point later today. In the meantime, I will share with you some thoughts about a video I watched on You Tube last night. As a preface to the video, I have thinking about all the things I used to do when younger which are not done today. My daughter keeps telling me that it was different back then and she is right. But because it was different does not mean simple rules that made sense should be cast aside.
Suddenly, a flood of openers come piling in, all saying, “write me down”, “me first”, “ain’t I the one for you?”. Maybe, if I was super clever, I could incorporate all of them into one “Grist”. Or I could take a break and make some notes. I have tried that before and all I wind up doing is scratching my head as I look at them and wonder what was I thinking about when I made that list.
Anyway, this video was from a tape made by Lee Marvin concerning his critique of movie stars during the dinosaur days of Peterson’s youth and how they wronged him. It was supposedly made on his death bed, which was in 1987. It said there were 6 men, and he really disliked the 6th, but I only counted 5 on there. I asked Ali how many of them she had heard of and the only one she knew was Clint Eastwood. The five were John Wayne, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, and James Coburn.
One of my favorite films was with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine, starring together in the 1973 film “Emperor of the North”, which was a gritty drama set during the Great Depression. I doubt many of you ever rode a train like the hobos of my day did, but I made a few free trips, albeit, nothing like in the movie, but still it was pretty exciting and challenging to slip on the train unnoticed and get off in another state. As Ali said, things were different back then.
I have hitchhiked not completely across the country, but from California to Colorado, North Carolina to Daytona Beach, Florida, Washington D.C. to North Carolina, Florida to Georgia and Alabama, just to mention a few of my trips, The last time was around 1964 when I started out in Orange County and wound up in Denver, Colorado.
As I watched the video, which obviously was put together years after Marvin died, I found myself wondering how much of what was being claimed as actors upstaging Marvin was nothing more than what I imagined was normal business in what was a somewhat cutthroat industry to start with. Lee complained that people walked on his lines and inflated their own parts to the exclusion of his. I have read articles over the years about stars and their desire to be the only one on stage even though the play, movie, etc., could not go on without more than just that person in the limelight. A man with no name does not work without Tuco.
As I stated in the beginning, some things do not change. I read about stars of today and how they are enamored with their image in the mirror. The things that are said about Leonardo, Jay lo, Ellen, all rival and eclipse the things Lee complained about the five men were doing to him.
I think back on my days on the Courtroom. There is a person sitting on the bench who often thinks more of himself or herself than is allowed. The lady on the Supreme Court who can’t define a woman believes she is there to make sure her point is made, which she believes is to make the decision bend to the will of the people, even if the law says something different. Those are her words if you want to check it out.
Moses used to be the one who everyone came to for the settling of grievances. In Exodus 18:14, Moses’s father-in-law asks him why he is the only one sitting as a judge. The line is long, the hours will only get longer, and Moses has other things to do as the leader. I kind of took a few liberties on what was said, but I imagine most of that was included in the discussion. If you think the Bible has every word that was said in each conversation, please order some of the red bricks from the bridge I have on special today.
So the system of judges in Scripture was started and look how many we have today. Roosevelt wanted to pack the Supreme Court and Harris is going to make that part of her platform in 2028. As I have stated more than once today, some things keep popping up from the past and if they were a idea the first time, they probably are still a bad idea.
All these rabbit holes to go down either have no light at the end of the tunnel, have a snake waiting down there, have unpicked ripe fruit growing, (are mushrooms a fruit?), or even a vein of gold or silver waiting to be mined. Since I am scratching the surface today, we will have to wait for another day to see what is waiting just below the surface.
My question for today concerns the damage done to Lee from carrying all that hate for over twenty years, when the other parties first, may not have even known he had these feelings, and second, even if they did, probably would not have done much about it other than to shine it on and keep moving.
When you see the video, you have the feeling that Lee died with a lot of bitterness consuming his being. There are people who I could feel the same way about as Lee felt towards those 5 men, (I wonder who the 5th was). But I don’t want to be consumed by bitterness. I am not going to invite the offenders to every party I have, but I am not going to go out of my way to exclude or seek payback on my own.
I am a firm believer the reason Romans 12:19 says: “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.”, is because God’s wrath is greater than my wrath. He knows where it hurts the most and John Edwards stated something about it not being good to fall into the hands of an angry God. And the rest of Romans 12 does not allow me to think like Lee did for all those years.
It does not consume me, but I do on occasion wonder why is God waiting to lower the hammer on a few people?

August 8, 2026

Total Obedience

I sometimes wonder if I am more of an Old Testament person than a New Testament person. The reason is I like the stories in the Old Testament which teach while describing real life rather than the long sections of do’s and dont’s, admonishments, with the book of Acts being the one setting the stage for most of the do’s and dont’s. I know there are many stories in the Gospels, but they are not as plentiful as in the Old Testament. Maybe I am making a bigger deal than I should about this subject. And I wonder if I am digging a hole deeper and deeper by continuing on and on with this admission.
Anyway, I was reading about the time Saul went to visit the Witch of En-dor in I Samuel 28. I actually started with a short study on Saul visiting a medium, but the verse that stood out to me was I Samuel 28:18, “As you did not obey the Lord and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek, so the Lord has done this thing to you this day.” The lesson made the comment about “partial obedience” being a sin.
The lesson was mainly concerned with Saul seeking a medium, or witch, and bringing Samuel back to give him a pep talk because God was not answering his questions concerning the gathering of the Philistines outside his door. But those words, “partial obedience” went straight to the heart. Nothing came to mind immediately but I knew there was something on a slow boil on the back burner.
The backdrop for the “partial obedience” had to do with Saul not bringing the wrath of God on Amalek and “completely” wiping him off the map, along with anything connected to him. Saul kept some of the best cattle and other livestock for himself and that was a no-no.
I will admit, I think I may have looked at some prime livestock and wondered how it would look in my pastures. I am not known for making my arguments from an emotional state but I wonder if I could make an exception and believe God was really concerned with Amalek, I was taking care of him, and isn’t God a God of mercy: He wouldn’t want me to waste all that prime livestock, especially when one consdiers the cost of those cellophane packages in the store.
I am not saying I think it was ok for Saul to do what he did. I am saying I may have made the same mistake Saul made. And as Paul Harvey said, the rest of the story is, I know I have made the same mistake as Saul, and made it more than once. \
What is even worse, is I know I have not even made the “partial” part of the obedience come true on more than one occasion in my walk on the narrow path. I have written about some of those times and I know the key is to recognize I got off the path so I can get back on the narrow path as quick as I can.
Gibbs has his rules and I have my mantras. I once tried to give my mantras numbers but that is not how they work for me, There are times I finally realize I am off the narrow path because one of my mantras smacks me in the face. One of my problems is I probably walk on the edge of the path instead of smack dab in the middle. Doesn’t make me any less or more spiritual than the one in the middle of the path, it is just who I am, which sounds out one of the mantras, you have to know who you are, i.e., what your gifts are, what you have an ability to do, what you definitely are unable to do without an instructor, etc.
I did not have the best relationship with my mother but she did instill in me a spark of that Norman Vincent Peale “Power of Positive Thinking”, in that she helped to believe I was capable of more than what was being stated in my original puny assessment of the situation. It was not a confirmation that I could so what was literally impossible but that I would not be afraid to step farther into the situation than others said I could.
I was able to be confident my basic abilities were greater than a lot of others and I did do things others often were afraid to try. Sometimes it meant doing a what was a little dangerous. There were only two of us who jumped off the cliff at the senior party into the lake below. That may have a little dumb but nevertheless, I knew I could do it, even if almost everyone else was afraid to go over the side.
This trait at times makes me get over my skis and I start thinking I can do things without either seeking God’s will or God’s assistance. And being on the edge of the path makes it real easy to tumble over into thinking it was my strength or ability alone that accomplished that magnificent feat and the glory goes to me, not the Lord. I don’t think we have to run around with the only words coming out of our mouth are “Praise the Lord”. But that is when it suddenly slaps me on the behind and I realize those words are not coming out of my mouth at all. I am thinking I am more than I am because of what I accomplished on my own. That is a little different than the degree of obedience being discussed, but it does mean I am not walking in the Spirit, so I am being disobedient.
So, those words struck a chord from the study of Saul visiting the witch at En-dor, “partial obedience”, and I knew I could have been guilty ot that on some occasions. As I said, nothing jumped out at me, but I knew there was either something coming up where it would be an issue or God would cause me to learn from a past example in my life. I am a believer of God using real life situations for us to make choices so we learn to listen to the Holy Spirit’s guiding light. The verse that gives me a glancing blow says that to whom God has given much, He requires much. The parable in Luke 12:35 to 48 ends with these words: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.” For me, that “much that is required” is, “total obedience”.

August 9, 2026

What To Read and Watch

Yesterday, I met Kirk and Gunner while covering a few streets on my map. I did not get the Gospel story worked into the conversion. It was about to come up and off Kirk and Gunner went. It almost seems like he knew I was going to take that next step. Maybe not, but that is what I thought. I did ask the Lord to bless him as he turned to go. There was a wave of the hand and I was left standing there watching him and Gunner move down the street.
I am always amazed at how God works. I wrote about obedience yesterday and the message this morning was given by Todd Starnes about obeying God or the government, using Daniel and his three friends as the basis for the message.
This is not the first time the message has bolstered what I wrote during the week of the message or the day before the message. If I was one of those individuals who were always looking for a conspiracy, a confirmation from God, a hidden message from God for me, etc., I would claim to be batting 1,000.
I started reading fiction again a few weeks ago and have finished 4 or five books, three of which were a trilogy from Greg Isles. I used to read at least a book every week at different periods of my life. I remember when we moved to Florida, I was in the 6th grade, and I went through all the Hardy Boys books and Nancy Drew books in short order. I would check out the maximum number of books at the library, read through some of them and be back exchanging those I read for new ones so I could continue reading on the schedule I was keeping. Another thing that we did back in the dinosaur age, use the library card to check out books. I am willing to bet the majority of you have never even been in a library. I spent a great deal of time at the Law Library down on First Street many years ago. I wonder if it is still there?
It has been a few years since I have been reading fiction books. I am personally struggling with the language and sexual situations and descriptions in those books. I have not been to a movie in years and I suppose I would struggle with the same issue there. It is not that I never used the language, it is that I no longer use the language everyone seems to be so fond of. Even the president tries to gives me a wink and nod that it is ok to use vulgar language,
I started watching Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld because I am not a person who sleeps the number of hours they say you have to sleep. I had a fake id and used it from about the age of 16 on. The Georgia Driver’s License back in the day was easy to cut off the bottom, fill out the information, and since there was no picture, voila. I was working for a company that laid ceramic tile and terrazon floors and there was not always work when I showed up at 5:30 am, sometimes straight from the partying. If there was no work, I would be knocking on doors, getting people up and making enemies for the day.
I say all that to say that when I gave my life to the Lord, it took some time, but there was a gradual shift from the course life to a more peaceful and tranquil life, albeit, there were times of being on a slippery slope heading back down into the mud.
I made it through the books so far but I am personally struggling with what God wants to fill my mind with and what the authors, movies, and tv shows of the day want to fill my mind with. I think of that saying about “garbage in, garbage out.” I think of the verse found in Philippians 4:8: Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” NASB
My salvation is not in question, I know I am saved by grace by faith and this was not anything I did to earn it. But, we are back to that narrow path issue I have put forth on more than one occasion and the Scriptures work it over in more than one verse. In the message this morning, Todd was telling about a question asked of someone who was going to undergo a serious operation and could not come out of it alive. The question asked was, “what is the worst thing that could happen?” The person responded with they would pass away and the clergyman said, “No. The worst thing is you would still be here”.
This was not the first time I heard this or even used it before in a trying moment. If you are saved, you are going to heaven if you pass on and that is a much better place. It is not like the Muslim idea of heaven where 70 virgins are waiting but one with streets of gold and there are no questions seeking to be answered about who is God because we will be able to worship him along with all the other believers. My earthly offkey voice will be transfixed into a heavenly voice and there will not be any more fun made of lack of signing ability.
Jesse Waters, Greg Gutfeld, and Harold Ford, Jr,, are having a morning Bible study with each other. Let’s see who listens to what the Lord has to say to each of them through this study. In the meantime, I have to see what the Lord has for me as I seek to incorporate Philippians 4:8 into my daily walk.

August 10, 2026

The New Chant

Whether you blindly followed the Covid rules or tried to debate the overreach and nonsensical Covid rules, you must acknowledge the facts now demonstrate Fauci lied, mostly because he admitted he lied. He acknowledged he made up the 6 foot rule because it sounded like it was right; getting the shot did not keep you from getting Covid; he exempted rioters from having to stay indoors; he did fund gain of function research, and the virus did come from a lab and not a bat.
It is disgusting how the MSM is circling the wagons around Fauci and blatantly making him a hero even though he shut down the schools and caused irreparable damage to untold millions of children. Of course, we know the reason they have to keep him on the pedestal, they backed his play without any questioning of his “science” or origination of the virus. They are all in the same bed and the sheets have not been changed in six years!
I voted for Trump and have to listen to the false claims about millions of lies and the false claims of Fascism and Hitler. The left should go after Trump for allowing Fauci to be in charge and not listening to the people on his side of the fence that were screaming loud and clear that the two weeks was up and the country should be open again. Alas, power was available and the left certainly was not going to turn the faucet knob to off. If we are honest, we still have not recovered from the Covid flu bug.
I am not sure why Trump did not take a stand and force some voices to be heard besides Fauci’s. If I was able to ask Trump one question, that would be it. There were doctors whose credentials were as strong as Fauci who made sense. The whole issue over ivermectin was a farce. Trump even took it and it worked, we had been using ivermectin for over a hundred years, and yet it was called a horse pill and discarded as a solution to the problem.
Nobody has ever made the claim Trump is afraid to go against the grain. Yet, here he was, like a lamb being led to Fauci and the media’s slaughter house and America went with him.
The second worst faux pas Trump did was not checking out the auto-pen blanket Presidential pardons. It was obvious Biden was missing in action and had no idea what was going on in his administration. When you take your cues from the Easter Bunny, the claim of being all there is hard to make. Even more telling is, why do you need a pardon if you haven’t done anything wrong or been charged with a crime? A bigger ball was dropped there than the one that comes down every New Year’s Eve on Times Square.
Since we are unable to prosecute Fauci, we do need o make his life miserable unless he accepts responsibility, asks forgiveness and uses some of his millions to make things right. Maybe he should pay reparations to business owners who he put out of business?
Even more importantly, such a big deal should be made of Fauci’s fraud and the media’s complicity, that when the next person uses his position like Fauci, we can change our “Remember the Alamo” to “Remember Fauci and the Media”.

August 16, 2026

One Main Reason

Someone asked me to make a donation for a new swimming pool.
So I gave them a glass of water.

I watch and read all the pundits claiming they know why prices are high. I believe noone has hit on one of the main reasons.
The experts from the left obiously claim Trump is the boogy man as the basis for all their claims, even if it has nothing to do with him. I remember during the Fauci/Covid era, one meme showed a man under a pallet dropped on him making the claim that he died from Covid. The same principle applies to the TDS crowd when speaking about Trump.
Suffice it to say, I do not give Trump a free pass, as he is the President and the buck stops with him, as a former President stated and had the block of wood on his desk with that famous statement displayed for the world to see.
Of course, the conservative uses the former administration with the open border and the freedom to steal as a basis for all their claims. There is a grain of truth found in both premises, there is no denying it.
But I say one of the driving forces for increased prices is the increased cost of labor. I would lay this at the doorstep of the liberal who wants the hamburger flipper to be paid $20..00 an hour so he can support a family of four, the person making the beds at the Hilton to make $25.00 an hour so their five kids can all have the latest Apple IPhone.
The examples could go on and on. No one wants to state the obvious, working the drive-up window at Burger King is not a job for a mother or father of four children. It was never meant to be a job for parents of multiple children.
So the cost of a burrito went to $20.00 because not only did the cost of tomatoes go up, but the cost of labor went up even more. Of course, the labor issues were not confined to the burger industry. It spread thoughout the United States like a horde of grasshoppers, chewing into the profits of each and every industry.
You can’t have the dental technician making $25.00 an hour when the burger flipper is making $20.00 an hour. And the plumber can’t make $40.00 an hour when the lady making beds is getting $25.00 an hour. Everyone knows what a domino effect is but refuses to acknowledge it in this case.
Of course the professional person, now has to raise his prices as they were once making $200 or $300 an hour and everyone has to keep up with the Jones’. Besides, those $20.00 burritos eat into the profit that existed when the burrito was only $8.00.
The pundits do have some factors right. The influx of illegals caused a shortage of housing so the market adjusted accordingly and prices went up dramatically.
Everyone knows the government only makes money through taxes, even it they won’t admit it, and yet the government spends way more than it can possibly receive through taxes. The politicians claim balancing the budget is one of their platforms as they hold their crossed fingers behind their back.
While I know the issue, finding the solution involves more than waving a magic wand. Once we started paying the exorbitant wage, there was no taking it back. Mamdani wants to open a grocery store and charge 30% less for everything. Grocery stores already operate on a 1-3% profit. Who makes up the difference? Since government does not have a source of income other than taxing someone or something, that is who will cover the loss.
This was tried in Kansas and failed. It has been tried in Communist/Socialist countries and failed. Other that “saying” it will work in New York City, nothing on paper has been presented that makes it so. I am not going to get into the tax on private property being tried with the fancy French name, but that will have a short life before it is found unconstitutional on a number of reasons so that is not going to save the day.
Of course, the wage issue in paramount in New York as the raising of wages is in the works. When that happens, burritos will be $25.00 to $30.00 and still no one will acknowledge one of the main reasons for the alleged “price gouging”.

August 21, 2026

Freedom

How many of you remember the reason given for going overseas to fight the Islamist creatures over there so we would not have to fight them over here? I believe that statement has been used on more than one group of radicals and more than once in the past. It looks like we were not successful as they are here. The problem is we are not fighting them here. At least the party they have attached themselves to are not fighting them, they are welcoming them into the big tent.
What is even more amazing is the group that says Trump is trying to kill democracy, is embracing the group that kills democracy. There is no free speech in the Muslim world. Try to show a picture of Mohammad. Who were those cartoonists over in the Balkans who drew cartons of the Muslims and Mohammad? Wasn’t their office scattered into the street and bullet holes placed in the walls and staff?
In the Muslim world, a woman has to have 2 witnesses for a rape charge to stick. And Muslims do throw gays off the roof but that makes no difference to the Gays for Palestine. And have you seen the Muslim Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition? Or the Muslim Playboy magazine?
This guy in Michigan has admitted he is a man of Shariah law, believes in it, and would always follow it. Those are his words from an interview a few years ago. We do not have anything close to “honor killing” in our laws and Muslims have tried to use that as a defense when they kill a family member. Maybe that is the defense Lindsey should be using?
Another cry made over and over has to do with no one being above the law. Why does Paul Pelosi still have a driver’s license. And how did he get he car started if it really had the monitor on it? Of course Omar can have 30 million one week and be broke the next. It is racist to go after the Somalis and their Lerning Center fraud. Dodge found billions in fraud and as far as I know, all the fraudsters kept the money and stayed out of jail. How many millions have been spent on “growing” the homeless population? Brennen, and his two buddies all committed perjury and kept their security clearance while on stations that have an inability to hide their TDS. Let’s see what happens with Swalwel before we put him in the Democratic free pass society.
Mohamed Bailor Jalloh was the terrorist who tried to kill the ROTC cadets at Old Dominion in March. The background is amazing and most of you probably do not know it, Jalloh pled guilty in 2016 to a charge of getting weapons for Isis to use against the United States and received an 11 year sentence. He got out in 2024 on early release, returned to classes at Old Dominion in late 2025 and in March of this year, shouted his Allah Akbar and wounded two ROTC soldiers before being killed by other ROTC soldiers. He never should have been in the United States after getting out of prison. Then, at least we would have had to fight him over there and not here.
Not all of the crazies are Muslims. Nevertheless, their platform wants open borders, dissolve the Senate, the Presidency, ICE and the police, no prisons, free medical for everyone, and homes for everyone. It is bad enough that Muslims refuse to pay interest because it si against their religion, but free housing goes a step further and negates the mortgage also. Watch Nixon with her bullhorn when she doesn’t agree with a bill being voted on and think about her in the audience when the State of the Union Message is being given. Al Green could take a lesson from her.
How would you like to be the Ringmaster in the big tent of the Democratic party? The Ringmaster should kick out the interlopers as they are not Democrats or even close. The Rhinos at least vote once in a while with the Republicans. That might happen once a year with the big tent but the bills brought up by the crazies will be unAmerican and will not carry the day this go around. But the more room they take up in the tent, the more likely it is they will have enough to force the few remaining moderates to go along with them.
What did Regan say, something about the loss of freedom is only a generation away. His actual statement was” “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction”. They are working on it!
John 8:32, which more than 50% of you should know, says: “and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” NASB You may have different takes on all of the above, but it is all true. So, if the DSA/Progressives/Communists/ etc., get in charge, you will know the truth, but you will not be free.

August 22, 2026

The Point is?

What rock group has four guys who can’t sing or play instruments?
[Answer at the end]

It was hot out there today. I completed 4.62 miles, with the ending time approximately 12:30 p.m. I am not sure why I can’t seem to get out of the house before the thermometer hits 90 degrees. Dorothy didn’t come down until around 8:45 a.m., so if I was into blaming, she would get the mantle for today.
I was finishing the article I started yesterday and read the following message from Winston Churchill from his book on the River (Nile) War: “The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities … but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.”
It was around 1900 when Churchill wrote those words. I don’t think anything has changed in over 120 years since those words were written.
I miss Joshua. I see others out with their dogs on walks and remember how important our time together was when we were outside, whether it was around the house or covering some streets on my map. He knew when I picked up the leash and harness and we went out the back door, he was going for a ride. He checked out his bush and went to the car door, ready to get in the back seat. He liked the windows to be lowered, no matter what the weather was outside, so rain or shine, down they went.
Dorothy said to throw out the beds, we were not getting another animal. There will never be another dog that could replace Joshua so she may be right, but not for the reason that she thinks, which is we are not having any more animals in the house.
We are going through Proverbs in Sunday morning. We are in chapter 3, which has a couple of my favorite verses, verses 5 and 6. You must have seen them referenced on more than one occasion over the years in my musings.
I seem to be having some difficulty with keeping my attention on the subject matter each Sunday morning. It is not because the sermons are uninteresting or boring. I try to find a nugget each message and for the most part, I am successful.
Yet, the messages are not sticking with me. But, in reality, as I look back, that is more the norm than not. It is not my desire to drift during the message. It is my desire to grab hold of every word, well, maybe every sentence so there is a thought involved, and make sure I get the point stuck in my bone marrow.
Maybe that is the problem, I am trying to get too much out of the sermon. I am capable of walking and chewing bubble gum at the same time, and even getting some pretty large bubbles going before they have to be popped.
But sponge can only hold so much water before you have to wring it out so it can get some more inside. I probably have so much stored up that there is no room for more information to get in there.
But I know there is a leak somewhere. I try to remember some words I want to use and they are not there for me to write. I want to put a name with a face and all I get is sometimes remembering what the first letter of the name starts with. I have to look up where verses are located more than I remember where they live in Scripture.
I was thinking about my ailments as I made my way to shave and shower. I don’t make a big deal out of them but there is more than one thing that is not working as well as it did when I was in the service all those year ago. I almost always want to shout out one of my ailments when someone starts listing all the non-functioning limbs and owies they live and that is why they can’t do something, but I just smile and put them on the list of people I am not asking to join me on my 100 mile run.
I’ll bet you are wondering where the grist is going today and what is it’s main point. So am I. Maybe it was just another Saturday in the life of RP.

Answer to Question: Mount Rushmore.

August 29, 2026

Run The Race

“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” —Vincent van Gogh

AMEN! But, I do not think I have to cut off my ear to demonstrate my passion. Nor do I have to stand in front of the Supreme Court and bang on the door because the Supreme’s decided what I considered was the wrong way. Now I may raise a challenge to a Supreme that believes they are there to decide in favor of the majority, even though the decision is the exact opposite of what the law clearly states. The one I am referencing is Ketanji Brown Jackson, who actually said she believed she was there to vote the way the public wanted her to vote. She was the voice of the people.
We have lost what the Supreme Court was meant to be for the Justice System, probably a long time ago. The Supreme Court is not there to rubber stamp whatever the current administration wants, whatever the country wants, or what the judges want. They are to interpret the Statutes, the Common Law decisions, the Constitution, in such a way that the words they operate from are the beginning of the decision making. What they want does not change with the wind, which is what the people who want the Constitution to be a living document argue for.
Bork was a Strict Constructionist and that is why the retards threw him away. Brown is not even a Living Constitution person, she is just a make it up as you go person.
Trump should be making an argument on why his EO’s are valid, not just expecting the Court to rule for him. The same is true for all of the presidents and their sycophants and minions.
Another issue is how the blood thirsty bleeding heart woke liberals pick their cases to champion, Francis Clifford Smith died in his sleep this past June at a Connecticut nursing facility. He was 101 years old. He’d spent nearly eight decades behind bars for a crime that even the arresting officer eventually doubted he committed. Where were the people banding together and staging an uprising on his behalf? I had a number of options to pick from but his case seemed the most egregious.
I don’t know if Mr. Smith was guilty or innocent. But I do know Mr. Floyd, according to the autopsy report, did not die from a knee on the neck And Mr. Brown did not have his hands up asking for the officer to not shoot. So whether Mr. Smith was guilty or innocent should not matter to rioters. And the Supreme Justice Brown would support the rioters because she is on the side of the people, not the whether it is right or wrong according to the Constitution, the laws, statutes or Common Law.
We are back to one of my gripes about what is wrong with the woke positions, we go on feelings and emotions, not facts and what is right and wrong. I am reading a book by Ken Follet, which is set back in time where the people were called herders, woodlanders or farmers as a community and flint was the instrument that was used to make most tools and weapons and the people of each community seemed to have their own rules for dealing with crime.
There had not been a murder in years and each community seemed to handle it a little differently. One group would allow the relatives to take a life, but problems arose when the wrong person was taken and the killing would go on and on, probable like the Hatfields and McCoys. At the minimum, there would be an extreme shunning and the murderer and his family, (they all seem to be male dominated societies, even though there are women on the Elder Panels that make decisions and are involved in some measure of leadership), wind up slinking away in the night, never to be seen or heard of again. I guess someone could go to another country and start anew but it is getting more and more difficult to do that in today’s societies.
But even those people, which we would probably call a little backwards, did not allow there to be no punishment. I would say they were way ahead of the woke progressive no-bail people of today.
The Old Testament is much clearer on what to do with a murderer. Not so in the New Testament. You may be forgiven in the New Testament, but there is certainly an element of repentance that accompanies the forgiveness. Paul speaks about whether you should go on sinning in Romans 6:1,2, about contining in sin once you are saved and forgiven, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”. Obviously, the answer is you can’t continue living in sin. Hebrews gives advice for those who hear and continue living in sin, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” Hebrews 10:26 NASB I do not have the inside scoop, but I think I could name some possibilities for this group.
This was one of the questions I had when operating as a Chaplain at the Union Rescue Mission. These men were coming forward for years and still were found passed out on the sidewalk with an empty bottle on one side and a bloody knife on the other side. We bring them in, wash them up , feed them, clothe them, sit them in the chapel, they come forward, get on the program, slip away one night, they slink back in to stay in the dryout room for three days, we lean them up, feed them, clothe them, get them back on the program, and the cycle starts all over again.
There were success stories and I guess that is where leaving the ninety-nine to get the one lost sheep is worth it according to Scripture. I wonder how different that is in the church. The story is probably the same as far as the routine, but as Sgt. Friday would say in my remake of his famous words to make my point, ‘Just the facts have changed”.
Do we give up? I say no as the clanging symbols come together. Let us run the race God has set before us, [“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Hebrews 12:1 NASB], each in their own way, with the gifts God has entrusted to them, so we may being glory to God, and hear the words at the Pearly Gates say, “Well Done, My Faithful Servant, In Whom I Am Well Pleased”.

August 30. 2026

Left Over Tasks

Doctor: Your Liver is enlarged
Patient: Does that mean it has space for more whisky ?

I was listening to one of those short reels with the Christian songs being presented among other things. There was also a reel about Prop 40, (the billionaire tax initiative), that was really hilarious. But the words of one of the songs stuck like glue to me: “I have run into some of my tomorrows today”, and “I have traded some of God’s Promises for a false promise”. I think the glue might have slipped a little as I read them back, I get the idea but it seems like the message was clearer the way the song said it.
Anyway, if neither of those sayings come close to where you have lived at one time or another, you are a better man than I am, Gunga Din, or woman with whomever she is named coming at the end. I think I could add that some of my yesterdays have stayed with me up into some of those tomorrows I ran into today.
The month of August is almost over and I haven’t finished all of my chores left over from not being finished from June and July. If I look back over the list, I will bet I have items on there from the first of the year, that were left over from 2025.
I am going to tear up whatever list I still have on September 1, 2026, and make a new one out. I can’t keep dragging around a list from 2025. I know what you are saying, my new list will just be one with a new date containing some of the old items. Nope. They may seem like they are from the prior list but they are worded differently and rearranged differently. I have been at this game for a long time and know how to play it better than most.
I know I need to get back into regular reading of Scripture. I am finding I know what I want to reference but it is not always where I thought it was. I thought one of the references was in Corinthians the other day and it was in Romans.
I am worried about the kids growing up in the education system of today. We had to look up things in the library and Encyclopedia at home if you were lucky enough to have a set bought from that guy that went all the country selling them. I had to go to the library. I liked the library. There were no men dressed up like women showing their packages off while reading some fairy tale to kids.
The problem for today is everyone just asks their phone the question and it tells you way more than what you were asking. I kind of like it for looking up verses at this stage of my life, but I at least do it on the computer and not on my phone. I do have a Bible on my phone and it should come in handy more times than I actually use it. In fact, I should use it, period, more than I do.
Part of what prompted me to opine on this at all was the Governor of Oregon just made it possible for kids to graduate without knowing how to read, write or do arithmetic. Amazing. She said it was to benefit those having trouble so they won’t feel bad. Hogwash. We are not talking about handicapped students, we are talking about lazy, uneducated students, who want something for nothing. What they want is for you to support them because they are busy playing games on their fancy computer.
As I had to continue this day’s grist, I wondered if I could continue the thread I had started. I know, you say I don’t continue the thread when I write the entire grist in one sitting.
But I know one reason why I was required to continue today’s grist after tending to important business. It came to me that the forgiveness has nothing to do with the accountability resulting from whatever action you took that was unlawful, sinful, or an abomination to God. The ultimate forgiveness has to do with entering the city with golden streets where there are no tears or sin. The basic forgiveness is not carrying an enmity against someone any longer. Being required to to pay the price for the sin is a form of forgiveness but is forgiveness for the harm caused.
Scripture talks about “cities of refuge” for the person guilty of manslaughter. I realize the Old Testament is the Old Testament, but are not the words enshrined in there words from God and how he feels about certain situations. What do they say, don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Read Deuteronomy 19 and see what God has to say about sin and dealing with it, especially verse 13.
I don’t wish I had all the answers because then I would be like God and I believe that is blasphemous to take that position in this life. I won’t have to worry about it in the next chapter as the real God will be there for me to worship properly. And I don’t know what is the “proper” way other than to give Him the praise and worship and thanks for taking care of me in my struggle to walk full of the Holy Spirit all the seconds of my life. Maybe I can say that takes up all my time and that is why I haven’t finished all those left over tasks?