Stories and other stuff

At the five hours left of 2013 mark, I am laying in bed watching a movie and waiting for my roomie to come home.  She's been tending kids. She's late. I had a visitor earlier today.  It was not a happy visit.  It was the end of something that started out pretty good about a week after the divorce was final.  It wasn't meant to be.  It's funny how little things come back to you.  One today is a stern talking to I got from said MIA roommate about saying "no". I said no a lot at the end of 2013. It didn't always result in a positive ending. This is how one went:  "You said no...so bye."  Curt and to the point. That didn't hurt. Much.  It's not like it was the first time I'd said it. There's nothing left from 2013 to carry into 2014.  Other than the immigrant, it's just me and the dogs and her pussycats.  The pussycats are not long for this address.  Saying no means saying no to unreasonable things in my own home. ...

I had a bit of a conversation about Scripture and homosexuality earlier this week with someone who goes by the name Xander.  Part of it was about love being a sin.  Well, sometimes whether or not we like it, love can be a sin.  It's not exclusive to homosexuals.  There are lots and lots of times that love between a man and a woman can be a sin. Here we go. One of the most famous examples of this I can think of is a romance between Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn.  Mr. Tracy was Catholic and divorce for him wasn't an option.  And the rest, as they say, is Hollywood legend. But what about when that chicken comes home to roost closer to home.  Earlier this week, I found myself in that position. And I had to say no to something that I couldn't find a scriptural way to make right.  I found myself at that intersection of my own life and Scripture and I had to make a decision: "Do I love God more?" For me the answer was yes, I love...

Cooking for one isn't something I can do.  I'm not even gonna pretend.  That's why I'm putting in a shameless plug for my foodsaver gadget. I smoked a turkey for sandwiches.  I sucky-saved some.  I also sucky-saved what was left of the Christmas roast.  I have another turkey I roasted.  Both were very small turkeys; just for sandwiches and for roasting.  I got to try sausage stuffing in the turkey I cooked yesterday.  It's still in the fridge. Dinner tomorrow and Sunday.  I might make some rolls tomorrow for the sandwiches.  Or not.  There's always turkey clubs with the bacon left from Christmas breakfast.  Then again, open faced turkey sandwiches sound pretty good too.  I can still make gravy from the drippings I saved. The bones from the roast are in the oven now, covered in barbeque sauce.  They had lots of meat on them so I decided to cut the roast at the bone and save them for lunch or dinner.  ...

I'm not gonna let this Christmas thing go.  I mean that.  You shouldn't either. I know a little bit about what the world looks like with no Christmas because I had the good fortune(?) to spend a Christmas Day in a place where Christmas doesn't exist.  I was in a place where lots of things don't exist, like religious freedom, freedom of speech, and a lot of what we as Americans take for granted. Here were the rules for celebrating Christmas:  Small decorations were allowed but could not be viewed from a window.  No large gatherings for religious ceremony.  Small groups OK, but only at the compound and only small groups.  No liquor.  Period. Christmas Day, 1990 was spent in Saudi Arabia.  At the compound that housed American contractors.  We had a special meal.  It was called a special meal, not a holiday meal.  Other than that, it was just another day.  It came and went without carols, snow, hymns and songs about Jesu...

This isn't what you might think it is although when I spent $100 on a roast I think it's time to rethink a little bit of Christmas up around in here (we don't eat like that always, but still...).  This is for my non-believing friends. A friend of mine mentioned on Facebook the other day he likes some of the little memes I share because they're positive.  He also made a point of telling me he's not a believer. But you couldn't prove that by looking at his Facebook page. He shared a photo a few weeks ago of his Christmas tree.  Today it was a photo of his Nativity set.  I want to ask him, but won't, of course, how he reconciles the the latter with the former.  It kind of seems to me he believes in something.  Kind of anyway. This is one of them things where I'm not throwing rocks, by the way.  I was like this for most of my life so I have no room to talk and if I were to say anything to my friend (or to you dear reader) it would be simply that yo...

I do try to tell my stories but often they're lacking because I don't take this particular piece of advice.  I tried it once and it was a really horrible idea. I actually stole this meme from a Christian post on Facebook.  I think it's OK to tell our stories but sometimes the equally important thing our mothers taught us when we were young should rue the day.  That gem is "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". Which of these is more full of wisdom, dear reader, is for you to decide. It's in the vain of the latter, as opposed to the former that the rest of this post is written. I figured out the whole KISMET thing.  Actually it was figured out for me by some legal papers I received in the mail the other day.  They, when final, will put an end to the saga of the last four years. The irony is that the same man's name I have on numerous sets of orders for the military also appears as the Attorney General for ...

I woke up this morning at six thirty for no particular reason.  Well, that I know about anyway.  I couldn't get back to sleep so I did what I've done a zillion times before in my life; I turned on the TV.  There was a short movie on from MGM from back in the day.  It was Scrooge in about five minutes.  I'm sure it was snippets of a longer movie they made.  Anyway, after the Scrooge bit, they went into an advertisement for the movie KISMET.  There's a word you don't hear every day, right?  Anywyay, the guy holds up a record album (for you kids that are too young, CDs used to be called albums or records or both) of the soundtrack of this particular film.  Then they cut to a scene from the movie.  I wasn't feeling it so I changed the channel for a minute then turned the thing off. I don't think too much of things.  I mean that. I can't help but see the things I do.  You never know what each day will bring.  Keep that in min...