Another week is done

Well, another week has gone without much to show for it. This is getting to be just a tad bit ridiculous. I really have to get off my butt.

The rains have pretty much stopped, and now the normal sweltering heat and humidity has blasted its way in. Welcome to St. Louis in the summer. Not a fun place to be if you don't like sweating like a pig and air-conditioning bills that are sky-high.

It's official. Got the bill from the IRS. Wow. And all thanks to Obamacare. I'm trying very hard not to say things that I shouldn't about our so-called president and congress. But it ain't easy right now.

Been watching "Alone" on the History Channel. Have become almost addicted to it!

The little garden is producing pretty well now.

Deb picked this pepper and tomato a couple days ago

And I picked these tomatoes and cukes yesterday

I can't wait to get a real full-size garden in next year. I'm thinking three 4'x8' beds. One would be about eight tomatoes and various squash in round cages, with maybe some pole beans and onion sets scattered between them. A second one would be smaller vegetables such as peppers, onions, beets, and kohlrabi, and a third with salad greens and smaller vegetables like carrots, radishes, and the like.

That would pretty much use up the available space in our small yard, and give us plenty to both eat fresh and to preserve for later use.

At some point, I'm also thinking of planting things like blueberries and rasberries along the fence lines.

Finished my involuntary time off work and went back Thursday night, only to get clobbered with a horrible toothache that was so bad I had to leave early. This has been a reoccuring thing for months. At first the dentist just prescribed antibiotics for the gum infection, but this time said I had to come in. So yesterday I saw him. One molar has a bad cavity below the gum line and has to come out. But that has to wait until the infection gets knocked back. So, yet another round of antibiotics and this time vicodin to take care of the immense pain until the antibiotics really take hold. I was in such pain that I had to double the dose of vicodin, which meant that it was at such a level that I couldn't safely drive. So I lost another night of work. Right now it is under control. I hope it stays that way, so I can work tonight. This is going to be a real killer on the paycheck!

Oh joy. I have jury duty the first week of August. Was originally scheduled for it in June but was able to get it postponed. But not this time. So I'll be missing work AGAIN soon. There's just no let up.

Here is a post I put on Facebook recently:

Our nation, our Western culture, is going to hell in a handbasket. To find the beginning of the slide down that slope would be a difficult task, akin to the legendary searches for the headwaters of the Nile. The rise of liberal theology a century ago? The sexual revolution of the 60's? Roe v. Wade in 1973? Pick your poison, the journey has been a long one, but it has accelerated tremendously the last 10 or 15 years, and now seems to have reached the level of an unstoppable avalanche.

We rant and rave about our recent "evil" presidents and politicians, yet we forget that if God had not allowed it, none of them would have been elected. In short, God elected Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Barack Obama. He just allows us to think WE did <smile>. Why? Why has God chosen to put such people in such important positions? :People, from our local town councils to the White House, that more and more and more are actively seeking to undermine, indeed to eliminate, Him from our national consciousness.

An analogy may be found in Scripture, in Gen 15, when God chose to allow the Israelites to suffer for 400 years. Why? Because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet complete. God allowed the Amorites to reach the final level of sinfulness before He unleashed His wrath on them.

We are under the judgement of God, my friends. His wrath is going to be unveiled in a great big way, sooner or later. There is NOTHING we can do to stop that. Nor should we even try. What we SHOULD do, indeed what we MUST do, is for all of us faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, to individually and corporately fall on our faces and repent! Repent of our self-indulgence lifestyles, our ignoring the spiritual plight of our family members, our neighbors, our friends, out nation.

We MUST put aside all the worldly encumbrances that hold us back and weigh us down. The time-wasting frivolous pursuits. The constant "keeping up with the Jones'". Mind-wasting crap like American Idol and soap operas and silliness of all kinds.

We MUST stop letting our lives go to waste! Get out there! Live for the Lord as if your life depends on it, for it really does. As if your child's soul depends on it, for it really does! As if your friend's soul depends on it, for it really does!

Heaven will NOT rejoice over that new fishing boat. Or over your latest tattoo. Or over any of the worldly pleasures we indulge in. Scripture only mentions Heaven rejoicing over ONE thing, and that is when the Son of God is glorified by the saving of souls! The angels throw a party whenever a sinner repents and turns to the Lord to be saved.

I look back on my life and I weep. I weep for all the years I've lost that could have, should have, been devoted to the work of the Lord, but were wasted on frivolous nonsense. NO MORE! I'm done with that! It's far past time to get it together and get about His business, in whatever way He chooses to lead me.

Who will join me? Who will seek to become, as Noah in the days leading up to the Flood, "preachers of righteousness"?

On a lighter note:

That's it for this week, folks. 

God bless you all!

Ron and the Debster

Weekly round-up

Well, another week is done. Can't say that I got much accomplished. But nevertheless, it has been interesting.

First, the garden. It has been growing like crazy!

The two tomato plants are as tall as I am, and just loaded with small green tomatoes. Our plants are so large and so loaded with fruit that they overwhelmed the trellis I had them tied to, shoving it almost completely flat. I had to prop it up to keep the plants off the ground. We should be harvesting quite a few fairly soon, now that the non-stop rain seems to have finally gone away, and the sun and the heat can start them ripening. We did manage to harvest two small ripe ones a couple days ago. The Debster swears they are the best-tasting tomatoes she has had since she was a child, helping her dad pick them from their garden. Personally, I don't like tomatoes, but the Debster is more "normal" than I, so I grow them for her. And, maybe next year if I put in more than two plants, I can try making my own spaghetti sauce and stuff, which I do like. But that is for next year's blogs. Moving on ---

Two more large cucumbers here, ready to harvest. You can barely see the second one hiding below the one on top. They are now sitting on the kitchen counter, waiting for the Debster. Like the tomatoes, she loves cucumbers and I detest them. Yes, I know, I am weird!

Here are two of many small zucchini that we are watching. They have a ways to go yet, but hopefully the one plant will, in the long run, yield between 8 and 12 of them. I don't care for them raw, or even cooked in large chunks, but grated into zucchini bread and stews and stuff, they're OK.

The green pepper plant has one small fruit still growing. Going to be disappointed if that is the only one we get.  The romaine lettuce, rosemary, chives, and green onions are toast, smothered by the cukes and the zuchinni. The spinach is struggling as well. Some of the basil has fought its way through the jungle and continues to grow. 

Even if we don't get a ton of produce from this year's garden, I am "harvesting" a lot of lessons that I can apply next year. So, as in most things in life, even a "total failure", which this is not, can be a positive thing if I learn from my mistakes.

Our new puppy, Gidget, is now almost 15 weeks old. She has learned to scamper up the stairs like an old pro. Going back down them is still a bit of a problem, but she is getting better. She only falls on her nose every third step or so now. By next week I expect she'll be running down them like it was never an issue. So much fun raising a really young puppy. I haven't done this in many many years, and had forgotten how much fun it could be.

We are having vehicle problems. A few weeks ago, we had to put our 2000 S-10 Blazer in the shop; it was running horribly. No power, "service engine light", and most concerning, a bad knock in the engine. With 260,000 miles on that engine, I feared the worst. Yep, engine was shot. We thought about buying a used car, but any decent used car would cost anywhere from $4,500 on up. Which we don't have, and I refuse to go into debt. 

So I talked to Terry, the owner of the shop, who is a long-time friend of the family, about options. Rebuilding the original engine would have cost well over $2,500, and replacing it with even a rebuilt engine, not to mention a completely new one, would have cost as much as a good car. We decided to go with replacing the engine with a used one. This was done, to the tune of about $1,900 parts and labor, which we did have although it wiped out most of our savings. It did come with a 30 day warranty. The engine had 146,000 miles on it.

We got the Blazer back. For a few days, it seemed OK, other than a problem with a fuel evaporation sensor, which we got fixed. So, we took it to the park two weeks ago. Uh oh! Oil pressure bottomed out to zero! That was NOT good. Parked, let it cool a few minutes, checked the oil. It was quite low. I put oil in, and the pressure came back up. Still lower than normal, but acceptable for the moment.

As we were pulling into our driveway, the pressure went down to zero again, every time the engine dropped into idle speed. The next day, I nursed it the couple miles back to the shop. We still haven't got it back yet. Terry is making sounds about maybe having to replace the engine, and the place he got it from doesn't have a replacement on hand at the moment. I am not happy, and the Debster is semi-furious. Right now, we are forced into a wait-and-see-what-happens mode.

In addition to the car troubles, we got a letter from the IRS this week. Due to Obamacare issues, we owe them over $2,400, which must be paid in three weeks. No idea where we are going to get that money. A friend of the Debster's has offered us an interest-free personal loan with very generous repayment terms, but, like I said, I hate going into debt, especially to a very dear friend. Guess we will try to work out some kind of payment plan with the Feds.

I'm not going to get into details about my problems at work, but suffice it to say that I have to take a 3-day unpaid "vacation". My own fault, completely. But still, it comes at just the WRONG time! Losing that large of a chunk of pay is really an issue right now ...

On the positive side, the Debster's health keeps improving. Her legs are really doing well, and she is getting around pretty darned well. She still goes for exercise therapy twice a week, and it is doing wonders for her. You go, girl!

Did you all notice that photo in my blog a couple weeks ago, roasting hot dogs with my nephew? 

Do you see that gut on me? That is just plain disgusting! No wonder my back and feet hurt all the time, and that I am "pre-diabetic", and have high blood pressure, and have so many other issues. I have obviously known that I have gotten really fat, but I guess it didn't strike me as such a big issue (pun intended) until I saw this picture. I MUST do something about this, or it will eventually kill me. Literally.

So, a couple days ago, I started the Adkins diet. I did this once before, 12 or 13 years ago, and lost almost 90 pounds. Then, I did what so many others did. I went off the diet and resumed my old eating habits. I gained that 90 back, with plenty more to boot. Took time, but ... here I am, morbidly obese again. So, back to the diet, with even greater reason to stick to healthy eating habits and lifestyle.

And, beginning Tuesday, I am going to start a course of physical therapy at the place where the Debster goes. Even if my insurance doesn't cover it, it only costs $5 per session, 2 or 3 times per week. A therapist will evaluate me in detail, and set a course of supervised exercises and probably also diet. So though progress will be slow, it should be steady, and maybe a picture like this next year will show a much-different man. 

Well, that's enough for now. 

God bless you all!
Ron, and the Debster