February 4, 2026

Mr. Tomar

It never ceases to amaze me how stupid someone can be who fits into an ideaology that goes against reason, common sense, and/or as Sgt. Friday used to say, “just the facts, ma’am”. I should be clear that even I fall into this vast group during certain arguments or points in my life when I want to shake up things. But I do retreat back into the realm of sanity rather quickly, more times than not, before I have made an enormous faux pas, resulting in devestation for a certain period while I did out from under the ruble brought down on me because of the resulting avalance. Maybe some of you have seen that straw sticking out of the pile I use to breathe while working toward the sliver of light at the end of the tunnel?
The anti-Trump liberal so filled with TDS is a dangerous person. While I have many talking points concerning the inability of Obama and Biden lack of ability to be fair, I also have a few issues with Mr. Trump, which I have written about before, i.e., the biggest one was allowing the country to be shut down and administered by that weasel, Faucci. So I am not one of what CNN or Hilliary calls a cult member of MAGA. But I would rather be on the side of MAGA rather than the Democrat side at the moment because one side is on the 80/20 side of the main issues.
How many of you have heard of Lucio Tomar? He is an example of the result of being on the 20 side in the 80/20 results when discussing crime in the US. The Daily Caller spells it out thusly:
“Lucio Tomar — a Cape Verdean national who has been arrested at least 19 times on open and gross lewdness and indecent exposure charges since 2006 — is no longer being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody following a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The exhibitionist was ordered removed by an immigration judge in July 2024, but the appeals court effectively halted his deportation in January, finding that his conduct wasn’t necessarily sexually motivated.”
I am having a hard time understanding how indecent exposure is not “somehow” sexually motivated. Because Mr. Tomar has not actually attacked someone to date begs the question of why he has his johnson, (I would take bets and give odds Mr. Tomar has a special name for his penis), out in public. And he has been caught pleasuring himself in public. Is that not somehow sexually motivated? And he had 2 charges against him for not registering as a sex offender. Why was he ordered to register if he was not convicted of some sexual deviant crime?
Some background on the law lets you know that 2 sexually charged incidents on an immigrants record requires the sexually deviant to be deported, and Mr. Tomar was ordered to be deported. Mr. Tomar lost his first appeal so he tried another door and it opened for him.
More background for your edification is the 3 Federal Judge panel were nominated by Biden and it was the First Circuit. Birds of a feather flock together. The decision was 3-0. I do not know if all wrote concurring opinions but I wouldn’t be surprised as they probably all wanted to put their 2¢ in the pot.
Let’s be honest. Why should this man be able to stay in the United States outside of prison? I guess that liberal mind says over and over that he is not actually harming anyone but himself, so why should he be incarcerated or deported? I will admit I did not follow up to see what kind of person Mr. Tomar is when he is fully dressed. He must be something productive or else you and I are supporting his wandering zipper. Now that really should make us a little upset if he is being supported by tax dollars and not making license plates to at least pay some of his expenses!
I will also lay odds that this story will never make it to CNN or the new MSN Now station unless someone like Scott Jennings brings it up.
I think Mr. Tomar should be confined to each judge’s home town who released him in a 4 month rotation and let him wander their streets or stand on the corner with a open tranch coat. After all, he is not sexually motivaed, so what could be the problem in them entertaining him? Maybe it could even be a corner thsy pass every day on the way to their chambers to pontificate out another zinger. It is time they live with their decision instead of making the rest of us suffer with idiotic results they pat themselves on the back for making.
Tally ho, Mr. Tomar. First up is Judge Samantha Elliott of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, who penned the decision. Then we have Judges Julie Rikelman and Seth Aframe ready to take their 4 month turn with Mr. Tomar. I wonder how long it will be before there is a new deportation order in place to remove a man who is not really sexually motivated but acts out like Mr. Tomar?

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Starting Up – Again
February 16, 2026

I think I am getting a glimpse of some of the reasons I never seem to finish all my tasks. One glaring reason is I am easily distracted by the swinging watch telling me I should look at this wonderful new toy, or follow the bouncing ball that never seems to stop, or chase the ball shot from the cannon, or [fill in the blank]. I have been trying to unsubscribe a few email box stuffers each day for a short period of time. I have a gift of subscribing while sleeping to sites I seem to only find in my dreams. It is amazing how one person can receive 5 or 6 hundred emails a day.
Then I sit down to start the days daily Grist and the phone rings with a spam call, I stop the ringing and check to see if anyone has made a move in one of the many ladders where I play Chess and Backgammon and also have to notch one more game in my Freecell march to the next thousanth game. I started at number 1 and I the last one I played was number 20,200. I get really excited when I arrive at each of the 10,000 plateaus. I am not riding the bus as often as I used to so there are long periods between days of celebration for this challenge.
I have been moved by reading a few of the copywriters, an internet marketer, a lady selling journalling as a balm for what ails you, (Suleika Jaouad), and hearing the word on Sunday from Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills. I don’t know if it is jounaling but I wrote almost every morning during a period in 2020 when the extended flu season was imposed on the world and sent it to the lifegroup I was attending at the time, with the recipient list eventually growing each week.
I kept it up for approximately 6 months and stopped for a period. The lifegroup ended the study we were doing, the hoiday season was starting, and I probably had a few more excuses to take a break. As I reflect back, I am not sure why I did not make the switch at that time to what I started up later on, which was the website, “thegristforthemill.com”. I started writing there and have continued on sporadically with “journaling” in that manner for the last few years.
Somehow, I began the old pattern of finding the email box needing attention, the chess game needed a move to crush the opponent, causing them to resign, or, [fill in the blank one more time]. To top it off, I am working on a couple of projects which require time and my priorities seem to change constantly, thereby getting zilch accomplished.
To top it off, I have had at least 5 direct challenges to stay focused and to stay dedicated to what I want to accomplish since the end of 2025, and too many to count indirect admonitions along the same lines, e.g., I watched a few events at the Olympics and thought about the ability of the athletes and their practice schedule to get where they are. I know one sermon was directed at me, even though there were a few thousand others hearing the same words.
I decided to spend 6 bucks a month to let Suleika Jaouad and her passion for jounaling get me started back on the path of putting a few words on the “Grist” each day. I am not sure my “journaling” is what the others who are in her 30 day journaling challenge are doing but mine is not to question why, but to write or die. I may even be in a camp with differing viewpoints and talking points than my platform walls have written on them but I know I have built my house on the Rock and it can withstand all manner of trial and tribulation.
So, buckle up matey, I am going to work on finishing this task/goal/desire.  Day one is in the books, (actually online), and tomorrow will be 2 days in a row.

Follow The Bouncing Ball

Tuesday – February 17, 2026

When I stopped writing in September of 2020, I had a schedule or pattern I had fallen into and I kind of looked forward to each morning knowing how my day was starting. In hindsight, (which someone said was always 20/20 vision), I believe that is one of the reasons I felt it was time to stop. I did not realize it at the time but being the great self-analyzer that I am, I can see it now. I have proof I am good at analyzing because I have two witnesses, Ali and Dorothy.
Those of you who have tried to hang with me for any period know that at some point I will tell you that you have to know who you are. And that group also knows I follow the doctrine of do as I say, not as I do when it comes to knowing who you are. Don’t get me wrong, I work on that premise but I call the time outs when I feel like it, which obviously does not apply for all my fellow self-analyzers. Only I call the time-outs because God has appointed me as the caller of time-outs. Well, maybe that was not exactly how God stated it but that was how I interpreted it.
AND, therein lies the problem we all face, sometimes at the most inopportune times, and always to our detriment, whether we know it at the time or not, and whether we experience that detriment immediately or at some point in the future. The bottom line is we want to be the God of our life, (and often others), we want to sit in judgment of the Scriptures instead of the Scriptures sitting in the King’s chair and judging us, we want to determine what Scripture says, (the meaning), and how it applies rather than letting Scripture give us the 411. \
Now, granted, because the rich young ruler was told to sell and give away his wealth when he wanted to join up with the merry band of disciples, doesn’t mean we are to go do the same unless we are in the same boat as the rich young ruler. Actually, he was not in a boat because he walked away very sad, so we will walk away very sad with him if we are hanging out with him. I wouldn’t have been knocked over by the avalanche of amazed readers if just as Abraham found the ram in the bushes when he obeyed God and went up the hill to sacrifice his son, the rich young ruler obeyed and woke up and found the camel he bought turned out to be the fastest camel in the land and won the pot of gold in the Olympic Camel Races held annually in Rome.
I have not found all the daily rants and ravings I wrote back in 2020 in a file so far. I certainly have not looked in every thumb drive or external hard drive but I have found them in my “sent” files in my email box. I needed to clean up my computer because it keeps saying I am out of space and I had almost 5,000 sent emails so I started deleting and found those emails sitting in there asking me to save them rather than sending them into never never land.
I have not been reading them but I noticed a lot of them were really long-winded as I copied them for saving into a file on the external hard drive. I realized one reason why they are long-winded is because I start writing and take a lot detours as I work towards the final period of the day. Another reason is I often put the first few words down and they are only filler until I get to where the Lord is leading me that day. It is almost like I take off for San Diego and wind up in Arizona or Vegas.
It could cause one to experience whiplash while reading the golden words I put forth. It could cause one to fly through the windshield because of the sudden stop when as the Doors sang, “This is the end, my friend”, and the punchline was at the beginning and not at the end, if there ever was a punchline. Maybe it was just a page of rambling that only made sense to me as I wrote it and mumbo jumbo when I read it at a later date.
Believe it or not, I was going to go back and work on something I wrote yesterday when I sat down with a keyboard in front of me. I never got to that something and as I sit her putting words to paper, I can’t for the life of me remember what is was without going back and looking at what I wrote yesterday. Probably mumbo jumbo anyway.
I have to go get ready for the old foggies class at church. You have to be over 50 to qualify for a free breakfast and an ear pounding. I wonder what they would do if a 49 year old tried to sneak in? While I believe we should have a valid ID to vote, it would be a little too far to require ID for a Bible class. After all, there are some limits to how far our personal life can be intruded upon.
See you tomorrow, Keep smiling, it makes them wonder what you are up to. Lord bless you.

Words and Inflections

Wednesday – February 18, 2026

While I was taking Joshua out to deposit his gold in the magic spot he was looking for this morning, the thgought crossed my mind about how I wasted portions of my life. Now, how you say things is important, just as the words that slither through your mind are important. I have often used the example of saying, “I love you”, with a smile or through clenched teeth with an upside down smile to show how you say things give the words a different meaning than the message the words are supposed to convey.
The words, “I have wasted portions of my life”, brings a real downer mindset. The words, “I could have been a little wiser in my life choices during protions of my existence”, even though they contain more words when filling up some of the empty space in the noggin, leave room for maybe a discussion with yourself about what you learned and how when that trap door opens again, you will put a grate across it and stay out of that hole with all the shiny lights, bells, whistles, and loud speaker calling out your name.
Another issue comes in the flavor of repetition. If I keep uttering the sentences using the word, “wasted”, it will eventually consume and control me. One of the verses in the old foggies Bible study class yesterday was Genesis 4:7, which says: “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” NASB The reference yesterday had nothing to do with my thought process today, but it came to mind as the sentence was being completed at the beginning of the paragraph. To keep the record clean, the word crouching hit the airwaves and I thought the verse was Genesis 3.
I believe one of the issues these troubled people who finally make the decision to act on the bad advice they have been given and continue to give themselves through repeating over and over some words, e.g., wasted as used above, and commit a horific act of some kind, with the ending of their own life most often being the ultimate result. I know none of you think any of these troubled people just woke up one morning and said it seems like a great day to take out some school children, or I think I will take a drive to the parade and see if I can take out more people than parking meters by driving on the sidewalk.
I could use all the above for background as Jack Hibbs says before starting the message on Sunday morning. There are so many verses to use, e.g., the tongue is a rudder and steers a large ship. But the disatribe started with what was a reflection on portions of my life. I don’t know if I actually wrote on it but one of the times I was thinking I stayed too long in a work relationship, I changed the words to include the fact I stayed too long without saying anything to make the situation change for the better, which included leaving the desk for another to take my place
I looked at the reasons I didn’t say anything, some of which were positive and the more than one that was unusable and should not be available to me as I move foward to the day I meet the Lord and finally get a singing voice that is not off key. Words and inflections matter! And by the way, so long as you leave that sin crouching at the door on the other side with the door shut tight and locked, and leave by the door on the other side of the house, you will have mastered it. You just have to look out for the roaring lion found in 1st Peter 5:8.

Chasing The Past

Thursday – February 19, 2026

I made it clear during the first go around that since this is my show, I get to make up the parameters, (some call it the “rules”), concerning how I conduct my “journaling”. I try not to change them each day but I do change them to fit the situation, if needed. I may even go back to what might have been the original parameters, but in reality, those were lost years ago so it probably only seems like they were the original parameters.
At one point I equated my running of the streets and making up the rules, e.g., not covering a white line on the map because it was just an alley or the space behind townhomes leading to the garages if there was no gate, and even then, not entering the space if the gate was open and not subject to closing in the immediate future, with the rules for Journaling and changing them to fit my needs. When I started back after stopping in September of 2020, I tried to follow the same format and was miserable under that format. I actually stopped for a period simply because it was more of a chore than a feeling of accomplishment to get to the publishing period.
So, I have learned to be a little more flexible now in my sliding down the journaling pole and have found it is nice not to have those jagged edges, (on a round pole), stopping me on the way to the finish. I think it is somehow tied into the word “freedom”.
I used to have to start almost immediately upon my eyes opening from the last hour of tossing and turning. There were mornings when it was still dark out but the lights were on in the computer room. Joshua had to wait until I pressed the send button. At first he would try his best to break up my new routine but eventually he bought into the program and patiently waited for the magic moment to happen when he would race me down the stairs on the way out to greet the morning in his own way.
As I said above, things were different now and that model was unworkable for the long haul or the short haul for that matter. What was different? I could not describe it I had to in order to save my family. It just was different.
I do think I was trying to recreate what was exciting during my first trip to journaling heaven. I wonder how often we try to recreate something that had a hold on us, (almost started signing that song), only to find it does not have the same influence as it did previously.
The country named Israel ceased to exist for a number of years. I thought I knew a little more than I actually did know, if that makes sense. I knew about coming back into existence in 1947 but wasn’t sure about an exact timeline for the history of Isreal. And after reading a couple of articles right now, I still am not sure about an exact timeline. One article said Isreal became a corporation, with the legal corporation expiring in 2022 and could not legally be renewed with the same name. I don’t have time to spend checking all this out but I know it bears some investigation.
My point I was working towards has to do with how many times Isreal was captured, invaded, marched into slavery in places like Babylon, and rebuilt, (think of Neamiah), God stayed the same but the people had to be different because of their experiences. Yet, since God is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow, His rules, (or parameters), do not change. There is only one way into heaven according to Scriptures and that has not changed. There is only one true God and He created us.We should have no other gods before the God of the Bible. I could go on and fill up pages and pages.
I know it was a long way around to this paragraph, but here is the thought driving today’s skirmish with the keyboard: Living life changes us and we have to adapt to those changes rather than trying to back to the golden days of old. I loved writing a daily thought and had a system down that worked. I stopped for a period and when I went back to the daily rant, I could not do it in the manner I previously did it. I still loved the daily interaction, but I could not capture the elusive manner that worked so well in days past. My joy that was supposed to come in the morning never seemed to get off the station and land on the platform where I was set up. And to top it off, God had not changed, but I had and I wanted that relationship with Him I had during the 2020 period.
The funny thing is that the rest of the day during 2020 I probably did not care much about
experiencing again. So, if I got the good part in the morning, did I have to take the rest of the day? Now that changes everything. I really hadn’t thought this through, which is how most of work on everything we do, we only think about a part of the equation, not the whole equation.
I have wandered around enough today. If you are having a hard time following my line of reasoning, if that was even what I was doing, it is because I have changed directions more than once while attempting to follow the winding road to the finish. I believe I fell in the ditch more than once. Good thing there was no quicksand in any of those ditches, although I’ll bet there is someone who would disagree with me.
And I never did get to the thought about being stuck in the past so you can never move forward.

The Health Directive

Friday – February 20, 2026

It is basically the end of the work week. At least that is how life used to be in the old days. Obviously there were some that worked on the weekend, but it seemed like they were in the minority as the majority of people worked Monday to Friday. As I write this, I seem to remember working on Sunday at the grocery store paid a small premium but almost every other store was closed on Sunday, including gas stations.
The history of being open on Sunday is a recent phenomenon. I remember being stationed in North Carolina in ‘66 and ‘67 and there were what were called dry states on Sunday, which meant you could not buy liquor on Sunday. We would load up at the PX and drive to South Carolina and have a great time as the party people would come out of the woodwork when we pulled up with the hooch.
I briefly looked up when the change in Sunday store openings started and Google said it was a shift in priorities and values in the 1970’s when the crack in the dam opened. It was in 1994 that the UK passed a law countermanding the Blue Laws which were suppressing the selling of goods on Sunday in the UK. The first Super Bowl was in 1967 and had a marching band for the halftime show. The Saturday college football game had a lot more importance than the Sunday pro games back then. Life was definitely different before the phone didn’t need to be attached to a wall in order to work.
Even though life moved at a much slower pace when I grew up, life expectancy was much lower than it is today. I believe these movie stars and their acolytes having kids today in their late 70’s and 80’s are selfish and stupid, but in reality, only a few were even living long enough to make that happen during my formative years.
“Quality of Life”, is a term used in lawsuits when assessing damages for restitution when a judgment is being rendered. The idea is pretty simple and most of you already know what the meaning entails. I will admit I have that vision cross my path on more than a few occasions during a week. It is really being brought to bear as I take care of Joshua during his remaining time with us.
Joshua has a growth on his front left leg which the vet says would take surgery to remove. The problem is he has some nodes in his lungs which make the surgery rather risky. He won’t stop licking the growth and is now being forced to wear a cone. We tried the soft cone but he is too smart for that and gets it either off or in a position so he can lick that growth. We now have a stiffer one, which is still not as big as those clear ones that cause him to bang into every thing in his path. And he has arthritis in his back legs and hips which makes him uncomfortable and I think it is what makes him sometimes have a difficulty depositing his gold during our walks. I feel the lowering of the quality of life for Joshua as he looks at me with those questioning eyes when I put that cone on him.
We put out animals to sleep when life gets too difficult for them. If you have even the smallest bit of humanity clinging to your heart, you have feelings for one of your family. Joshua is a part of the family and losing him will bring great sorrow. I am having trouble keeping my keyboard dry even as I think about the day that is just around the corner.
But if we can take the plunge with a family member with a supervising vet, why is there such a furor over allowing a supervising doctor’s help for someone who wants to stop their breathing apparatus working when their quality of life is -100. I have told Ali for many years I don’t want to be laying in a bed with or without my faculties intact, while people stop by to view the shell of Roy on display. It will be even worse if I do have my hearing intact and have to listen to the comments of the “loving” throng standing at attention by my bed.
I think the lady was named Shively who the husband wanted to pull the plug and the parents wanted to keep her hooked up to the machine, which was how she was being kept alive. They had more than one appearance in a Courtroom in Florida and further up the ladder than just Superior Court. The machine was finally turned off and she survived for a short period if I remember right. If that is not at least -1000, I don’t know what would be.
And what if I am laying there thinking about all the things I wanted to do and didn’t do? Or all the things I did I wished I hadn’t done? And all I can do is try to wiggle my finger or blink furiously, which is misinterpreted that I am still alive and trying to get everyone’s attention to tell them to keep me going when I really am asking for the plug to be pulled! Where did I put my health directive?

Three Fold Cord

February 21, 2026

How many times have you poked your nose into a controversy, a debate in full bloom, or an actual argument? I am not speaking about rescuing a little old lady or man, (or some other defenseless person being lambasted by a bully), who needs rescuing. There is a decided difference between being a Good Samaritan and poking your nose where it does not belong. On those times you have inserted yourself into the fray where you didn’t have a dog in the fight, I will lay odds you came away more battered than the original combatants.
But how about when you weigh in on something taking place, mostly to give your 2 cents worth as you opine on the right and wrong of the earth shattering event taking place? I guess your position is the Don Lemon position of you are a journalist and allowed to report the facts, especially in the manner as you see them.
The background for my opining in a moment started with an article I read that stated Mamdani is appointing only Muslims and Communists on his City Council and Administration posts. One of the latest is a lady who was with CAIR, which was finally designated as a terror group, and is in charge of the immigration in NYC. I finally checked on the statement about who was being appointed and it did not appear the statement was true. It did seem none of them were anywhere near the center, but what should we expect from this new mayor of New York City?
I had been mulling the statement over one day while rewording that little train song to say, “I told you so, I told you so, I told you so”. Anyway, I am not sure you can be a Communist and a Muslim at the same time, but if so, Mamdani walks like a Communist/Muslim, talks like a Communist/Muslim, so he must be a Communist/Muslim. I really think the truth is Mamdani wants to be the first, one and only, Communist/Muslim. I wonder how many personalities that will take? Probably more than the lady they made the movie about who had over 5.
Then I read about Nerdeen Kiswani, the co-founder of the pro-Palestinian group, “Within Our Lifetime”, who made a statement about New York is coming to Islam and dogs should not be indoors because they are unclean. Then there was the article about killing all the dogs in preparation for a big shindig, which didn’t really have anything to do with the Muslim statement but did add fuel to the outrage concerning the treatment of dogs.
Randy Fine, a Republican from Florida, told her to pound sand. The response came back that she was only kidding and can’t all the dog owners take a joke. Fine’s response was to the effect that he didn’t believe she was kidding because her religion does lead to the belief she espoused and if it came to choosing between a dog and a Muslim, making the choice would be easy. Fine has now introduced legislation protecting dogs.
Of course, the media is telling the story that Fine was comparing Muslims to dogs, which definitely was not the case. There goes one more lie from the MSM when they could so easily tell the truth rather than slant the story to make a Republican look bad. So, that was all the background for me wanting to polk my nose in this debate and give my two cents worth of valuable opinion. I am sure when I do, if I do, I will only stir the pot harder and probably hard enough to spill the contents over the side of the pot.
I am sure most of you haven’t heard or read Adam Corolla calling out the complainers and criticizers of the Christians, especially those of the alphabet community for their hypocracy. They run down Christians and stand up for Muslims, who would throw them off the rooftop, both for who they are and for even having the temerity to speak against them.
I could continue for many pages, but for now, I will join the side of Fine and Corolla. It says in Scripture that a 3 fold cord is not easily broken. “And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.” Ecclesiastes 4:12 NASB. There goes the muck over the side of the pot!