Papa Dave´s Blog

Where no child­ren are, the house is clean, but much joy comes by the laugh­ter of kids, grand­kids and great-grand­kids.

For Fletcher, Walker, Ashlynn, Lexie, Landon, Lillie, & River.

Proverbs 14:4
(Paraphrased by Papa Dave)

Depression is like death by a thousand paper cuts. Nobody really cares that to got a peper cut, but eventaully they just become too much to bear...

I don't know if Debbie forgot about the last time she left Ashlynn and me alone to baby-sit each other, or she just thought maybe we grew up. But as she's walking out the door she looked back and said, oh, and you'll need to make yourselves dinner. OK, we can do that. We waited until her GPS (yes, she's tagged, but don't tell her) said she arrived at her destination and then I asked Ashlynn what her favorite foods where and she said pizza, ice cream, sprinkles, whipped cream, and cinnamon buns. (And she said her favorite place to eat was in a tent.) I said that's a coincidence, me too, and we were off! (Eating at Papa Dave's is like eating at NEVER-NEVER land, you NEVER have to eat what you don't like, and you NEVER have to stop eating what you do like.) Now, I know what you're going to say, all that sugar and she's going to be bouncing off the walls, (and not in a good way). Well that's the beauty of the situation, she's a grand kid, I don't keep her. When the evening got late and she started bouncing off the walls, (and not in a good way), I just called her mother and said, hey, she's bouncing off the walls, (and not in a good way), you need to come get her. Papa Dave, spoiling the children, one grandchild at a time.
 

I’ve learned that peo­ple will for­get what you said, peo­ple will for­get what you did, but peo­ple will never for­get how you made them feel.

Wowie zowie, if I remember correctly, and that's one thing I don't do a a lot of lately, it involved, a trip to Burbank in the winter, and swimming (I have a picture of me, shirtless, playing the guitar), in the river, (which is one of the first things that caught their attention), and a visit to a public school (just out of harmless curiosity), while I sat in the car with the engine running, (it was not a "get away" car, I don't care what they say).

Now I may be mix­ing up more then one trip here, but, the police chief picks us up for questioning, in a borrowed car, because his wife was using the only police car the city had for shop­ping. (Did I mention it was beautiful down town Burbank?) I think he might have taken us to his home for questioning, but not sure of that fact. (Heck, I'm not sure of any of the facts.)

I think he thought us more strange then dangerous, (the term domestic terrorism hadn't been coined yet). And everybody thought hippies were more of a nuisance then anything else back then.

And, as punish­ment we had to write some sort letter to the city, or the school, maybe apoligizing, probably just explaining, (more then likely to the children), why they should never play hookey from school, go swimming in the winter, and visit a school unannounced, whilst one of the party sits in the car with the engine running.

Now as­sum­ing this was a real trip, or trips, and not just one I took while dis­croporated, I'd love to go back to beautiful downtown Burbank and check out the school, or library, or town hall, because I'm sure they still have those letters posted somewhere as a warning to all the Burbank children, past, present, and future.

You sure you weren't there Big Jim? Because as the group was leaving to visit the school, and I waited in the car, (it was NOT a getaway car), I distincly re­mem­ber stick­ing my head out of the car win­dow and tell­ing you to be sure and wake me, shake me, don't let me sleep too long . . .

One thing I've learned during this past election is that I've got to stop ask­ing peo­ple, how stu­pid can you be? Too many peo­ple are see­ing it as a chal­lenge.

Master Jack is life, and life is Master Jack, but the true meaning of life still stands at 42, because, although nothing ever stays the same, some things never change.

One of the things that most every single parent brings brings with them is guilt because they’re depriving their children of a “real” family, and by real family they mean a two parent family. They look at their married friends and think that's what family is all about, without really seeing what they have right in front of them.

We all have felt the guilt of not giving our children the ”tra­dition­al“ two parent family. It comes with the territory. Of course, in most of our cases, it was not by choice and there was nothing we could have done to prevent it, change it, or fix it.

But the funny thing is that when we’re not laying a guilt trip on ourselves we pretty much agree that we & the kids are a whole lot better without the missing spouse. And by better I mean safer, physically & mentally, happier, and much better off. Even in the middle of some of the most difficult times, getting back together with the other spouse is usually NOT an option we would consider or even desire.

And yet, we feel guilty because we aren’t providing a two parent environment, and covet those that do. As if we had the power to do that, if we wanted too, and must of us didn’t, or don’t.

My kids are all adults and they all think their childhoods were special. None of them think, gee, I had so much fun, but it would have been twice as fun if I had two parents at the time. There were tough times, but those seem to fade over time. The good times on the other hand seem to get better with each retelling. And we do retell them, a lot.

A single parent family is a full family. It's not less than, or half of, or inferior too, any other family. A family is not defined by the NUMBER of peo­ple in it, it's defined by the PEOPLE in it. Whether it’s two of you, or you and a gaggle of kids, it IS a complete family. It is your family. It is your children’s family. And it is as special as you make it; laughter, tears, warts, and all. It’s yours, and it’s as good as any other family out there. Probably even better, because as a single parent you are totally focused on your children and your family.

Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” It may be hard to appreciate how much you have when you’re in the middle of difficult times but it is important to stop looking at everything else around us, and start seeing what is right in front of us.

Dave Bower

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

So Debbie says we are on a new diet, that sugar is out, and all the other stuff we thought was bad, is in. (The movie "That Sugar Film" is our new reference.) So I said great, ham­burg­ers are back in. And she says, NO WAY, a Tex Mex Bacon Thickburger has 26 grams of sugar. I said WHERE!?!? She said in the bun. I said that's insane, a ham­burg­er bun serves the same pur­pose as toilet paper, they just need to KEEP YOUR HAND AWAY FROM THE MESS, neither one of them needs to be sweet!

I can understand why good things happen to bad peo­ple, and why bad things happen to good peo­ple. I think the Bible makes it pretty clear, and life makes it pretty obvious. But sometime I struggle to understand why good things hap­pen to me.

A WiFi access point can handle 30 users at one time. Apple's top of the line wireless access points claims to be able to handle 50 users. They either exaggerate, or, the fine print says they can't do that many all at once.

This may sound strange, at first, but how many times have you said, or heard somebody remark, that their home wireless service slows down when the whole famile is home and all using the WiFi? And in most families were talking a half dozen parents and kids, or less. Just ask the parents when happens to their WiFi when the kids are downloading or streamin.

By "user" I mean a device that has connected to the access point and received an IP address. It is NOT peo­ple actually accessing the Internet at any given moment. And in the case of public (no password) wireless access, like a church, as soon as someone walks in the building their phone automatically connects to our WiFi. No surprise there, we all have our phones set to prefer WiFi over data, it saves money. And (usually) is faster.

Let's put that in perspective:

In a church, for example, the first 30 to 50 peo­ple that walk in the Worship Center on a Sunday morning, with a phone in their pocket, will fill up the access point, whether or not they even pull their phone out of their pocket and use it.

The first 30 to 50 peo­ple that walk down the hallway in that church past the office (assuming there is an open access point in the office) will take up a spot on the access point in that office, and prevent others from using it until their lease is up. (Lease explained below.) Same for a room full of peo­ple. The first 30 to 50 peo­ple in a large meeting room, or just walking by, will fill up the wireless access point. Just by being near to it.

And it gets worse. They will hold that slot for a number of hours, even after they leave the building, which means the 8 o'clock service in a church could conceivably prevent the 9:30 and 11:00 services from having WiFi available. (Moral: if you want WiFi and a good parking space, come to the first service.)

The lease.

When a person's phone attaches to a wireless access point they get what is called a "lease." It is a guaranteed period of time that their phone will have the ability to use that access point, and nobody can bump them. A lease can range from minutes to days but usually is 4 to 8 hours.

So, if the lease on an access point is four hours then everybody in the 8 o'clock service will suck up all the available slots on the wireless network for four hours, which means that the 9:30 and 11:00 services don't have any available wireless access.

One way to prevent devices from attaching to a wireless access point automatically is through the use of passwords. You can limit the number of peo­ple that have passwords. But that also makes free public assess inconvenient.

But the bottom line is that supplying WiFi to a large group of peo­ple is difficult, expensive, and messy. And if that group is in one room or area, it gets even worse.

I once sat and watch­ed a dog chase his tail for 10 min­utes, and I thought, wow, dogs are so easily a­mused. And then I re­al­iz­ed I just sat and watch­ed a dog chase his tail for 10 minutes.

Where no child­ren are, the house is clean, but much joy comes by the laugh­ter of grand­kids.

Proverbs 14:4
(Paraphrased by Papa Dave)

So me and my bride were sitting on the couch, watching Oprah, sip­ping Jack and Met­a­mu­cil, on the rocks, and I said, “gee, it seems a little warm in here, I wonder what the A/C is set on?”

And she says, “I don't know I'll check it.” (She's good like that.) And so she gets up off the couch and walks across the room, past the thermostat, into the kitchen and picks up her smartphone. She then walks back, past the thermostat, into the family room, sits down, logs into the thermostat with her smartphone and says you're right, I've turned it down.

The words blame, fault, & mistake say more about the person using them then the person they are directed at.

Dave Bower

Stare closely at the green dot and the yellow dots will disappear. It's called “motion induced blindness.” The yellow dots do not move, change, or go away. Your brain just stops seeing them because of the green dot in the center.

Nonsense. Children should never be sent to bed. They always wake up a day older, and then before you know it, they're grown.

All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.

Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice every­thing else for it.

J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood, Washington D.C. June, 2009.

I hate getting flashbacks from things I don't want to remember.

The words blame, fault, & mis­take​ should be stricken​ from the work place, and from the home. While we deal with the actions these words describe, these particular words have negative connotations and imply wrong doing, when they should recognize and ac­knowl­edge ​ownership, effort, and advancement.

Thomas Edison had made over nine thousand experiments trying to devise a new type of storage battery without producing a single usable lead, when a friend remarked what a shame it was that after all that work he had no results to show. To which Edison replied, "Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won’t work." (Edison: His Life and Inventions by Frank Lewis Dyer)

Edison's many inventions were not preceded by “thousands of mistakes” but rather his great body of work was built on thousands of trials and experiments and a fantastic amount of effort, both mental and physical.

Solutions are not always evident, and oftentimes it is necessary to determine what won't work and to do that requires testing and retesting ideas and suppositions.

And that is not ​only ​ true in the scientific world, but in life also. Good judgement comes from experience, and experience come​s​ from bad judgement. If you think the cost of a higher education is expensive—try the school of hard knocks.

Fault is a word that has no use at all when dealing with human behavior and efforts in any situation. ​We should be re­spon­si­ble for our actions, no matter what the outcome. The word fault says more about the person using it then the person it is directed at.

Blame is also a word that should be retired. ​A person should not be blamed for an action, they should be given credit for it, in an atmosphere the encourages them to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for it.

Nobody blamed, or faulted Edison for making thousands of mistakes in his efforts to produce so many great inventions. Instead he is remembered for the tireless, and tremendous effort he applied to the situation. He was re­spon­si­ble (his fault) for the thousands of ex­per­i­ments and trials, (his mistakes), that lead to so many important discoveries for which he which he is credited, (not blamed).

In an environment where peo­ple are encouraged to try new things and think outside of the box, where they are recognized for all their efforts, credited for their actions, and not judged by predetermined expectations, they grow and everybody around them benefits. Conversely f you use shame words to describe a persons actions, they will be ashamed of what they do, and not likely to try anything new.

Technology is a good, God-given gift. Created in God’s image, we have a mandate and a desire to create technology. Technology is the creative activity of using tools to shape God’s creation for practical purposes.

Like everything else in creation, technology is subject to the curse. Though intended as a means of honoring God, our technologies often become idols and compound our sinful rebellion against our Creator. In fact, technology often is an enabler of other idols in our lives.

It is the human application of technology that helps us determine if it is being used to honor God or further human sin. Discerning the intended use of a technology, examining our own use of it, and reflecting on these purposes in light of Scripture disciplines our technological discernment.

Tim Challies
The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion

Debbie was always complaining that I never checked to see if the dishes in the dishwasher were clean or dirty before putting my dirty dishes in it—and then she found this nifty little magnet at the dollar store. Problem solved.

So I'm at work and Grandma calls from New York and asks if I packed an extra lunch for Ashlynn for "After Care" and I said NO, nobody reminded me. And she said, "for crying out loud--I'm in New York!" And I said, SO?

So I ran down to the church kitchen to see what I could find. And sure enough I found Leonard's Sunday morning supplies. He'll never miss a few donuts, cookies, & crackers. (Fortunately for me I don't think Leonard is on Facebook.)

So I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for being so resourceful and making a really great lunch with lots of variety; white donuts, chocolate donuts Orieos, chocolate chip cookies, crackers and cheese and not having to make a trip home. And I run the lunch down to Ashlynn's teachers and they take one look and said that looks like a Papa Dave lunch and no way was that going in Ashlynn!

In my defense, it looks a lot better in Leonard's spread on Sunday morning then it did in that plastic bag!

And if you ever wonder if I make this stuff up just ask Kelly what Ashlynn had for lunch during After Care. (I can only tell you what she didn't have!)
 

Tiles A and B are identical colors, (#787878), believe it, or don't. (Are you going to believe your eyes, or your brain? (One of them is lying to you.)

It's OK to believe in evolution, a lot of ​brilliant peo­ple do. But to believe in something because you're mad at God, hate organized religion, rebelling at your parents and hate their God, their religion, and the horse they rode in on, or just because your peers think it's cool is just plain lame. Blind belief is a fool's tool, and a very dull one at that.

It's also OK to believe in creationism, or intelligent design, a lot of brilliant peo­ple do. But to believe in something because it's good enough for your parents so it must be good enough for you, because you always have since you were a baby, because you think God is not the God of science so smart peo­ple must be wrong, or because any new thing, be it technology or explanations about the universe are the devil's tool and should be shunned like the red guy himself, is not a belief, it's a thinly veiled disguise for ignorance.

​You don't have to believe, you can know. But to know, you have to think.​

​Neither evolution or creationism require blind faith. They both do require a small leap of faith. But since they are mutually exclusive you need to pick one. But whether you do that by flipping a coin, asking your parents, going with the crowd, or whatever, that first step is taken "on faith," whatever "on faith" may mean to you at the time.

But once you say, "I chose you," to whichever system suits your fancy, for whatever reason, at the time, you take the single step that begins a journey of a thousand miles. (Lao Tse, not Confucius, from the Tao Te Ching.) A journey that will take you back a billion eons, on the evolutionists side, and to infinity, and beyond, if you choose the path of creationism. Let's just say that you're on a never ending journey once you pick a direction. A most fascinating journey.

To some it won't be easy, by any means, because the proof is not in the pudding, so to speak. But to others the choice will be clear, because nothing has been hid, just not fully understood yet. But you can know exactly what you believe in, and why. The truth is out there.

So, how can everyone come to a place of complete knowledge to support their believes if both sides are mutually exclusive?

There­in lies the co­nun­drum. The end result you are trying to explain is US, the human race. And no matter which explanation you choose for our existence, either created in the image of God, or the random and chaotic mutations over billions and billions of years, the end result is the same because everyone does agree on US. That we are an intelligent, sentient species, sitting at the top of the food chain, on the third rock from the sun, and as far as we know, living in a statistically impossible universe that was created, or evolved, to a point where it not only supports us but allowed for our creation. And that, as far as we know, our little solar system is the only spot, in all of time and space where this happened.

The information is out there, but it seems that not only have the two sides each put it together and come up with two different answers, factions on each side take the same information and fail to agree on why their way is the right way. Once you choose creationism you need to decide if you are a young earth, gap theory, time-relative, old earth, progressive or day-age creationist, to name a few. If evolution is more your cup of tea, then do you believe in atheistic, or naturalistic evolution? Do you subscribe to the theory of evolution, or just evolution? You might go for deistic evolution or one of the two flavors of theistic evolution. While blind faith is the wrong way to believe, it certainly is the easiest.

You don't have to believe, you can know. But to know, you have to understand what you believe.

Dave Bower

I don't know, but I've been told, how in the heat of the day a man died from cold.

Robert Hunter

A back­up of a file is NOT a backup if your backup file is the only copy of that file.

• I had one church member ask me to recover some very important back­up files. When I asked why they didn’t use the original files he said he deleted them when he backed it up.
• A backup is a SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH, OR MORE, copy of an important file. If it is the only copy of the file it is not a backup.
• A true backup of a file consists of at least 2 copies of that file. One on site in the same building and one off site at another remote location. (And the original still exists.)
• A backup must not be stored on the same computer as the original file.

A cloud service, (Dropbox, Sugarsync, Box, Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, etc.) is NOT necessarily a backup.

• The most popular cloud services, like Dropbox, sync your files so you have the same files on all your computers and can work anywhere. When you change a file it is changed everywhere.
• When you delete a file, it is deleted everywhere, immediately!
• I worked with a person who had 30 years of contacts and vendor information synced to a cloud service (Dropbox I think) and he deleted it off his work computer. When he did that it immediately deleted it off of his other computers synced to this account. He had no other backups.

A USB, key, or thumb drive is NOT a good place for a backup.

• Wash it, lose it, or zap it with static electricity and your file is gone.
• Don’t store priceless data on a medium that cost a few bucks.

What is a good (minimum) backup strategy?

• The original is on your computer.

AND choose one, or more, of the following:

• A copy stored on an external hard drive, CD, or DVD and stored in the same building.
• A copy stored on an external hard drive, CD, or DVD and stored in another location, like home or work.
• A copy stored on a cloud BACKUP service, NOT a file sync service.

Dave Bower

Most peo­ple don’t listen to understand, they listen to reply.

Stephen R. Covey

Would a rose, by any other name, smell the same?

I say, NO! You change the name and you change everything about the rose. While there would be no physical changes to the rose, to most peo­ple it would not look the same, smell the same, be the same. For all intents and purposes it would not be a rose.

What´s in a name?

I think we tend to wrap up every thing we feel and know about a person in their name and that becomes a vital part of who they are. Amputate a person's name and replace it with something foreign and we have a hard time relating to the person that we knew. The new name is either empty or filled with traits not related to our friend and there is a disconnect that we can’t un­der­stand and most peo­ple have a very hard time deal­ing with.

I have witnessed a name change by a close friend. It did not go well for him, his family, or his friends. Those around him, including myself, got angry, refused to accept it, and generally made his life miserable. He moved out of town and I haven’t heard from him in 35 years. Looking back I think we felt betrayed. Betrayed because everything we knew and felt about him was tied up in his name. And without that name he didn’t look the same to us.

Names can go both ways. I love nicknames. It’s kind of special when someone per­son­al­izes my name and makes it theirs. Shelia always calls me David. Sure, that’s my name, but when she says it, it sounds different and special. A co-work calls me Davey, to Thomas I’m Super Dave, to Wil I’m Computer Dave. There’s just something special about a special name.

My favorite nick-name is Papa Dave, although I didn’t like it much at first. When the first grand child was coming the family matriarch gathered the women folk together to decide what the new baby would call everybody. With marriages, divorces, remarriages, and most of the family local I guess she figured she needed to maintain control of the naming pro­cess.

Well, I ended up with “Papa Dave.” And I didn’t really warm up to it at first. Recently married I was the new kid in the block and feeling more then a little bit insecure about my position in the family. And the name didn’t help. But that changed during a family gath­er­ing with everybody present, including the parent and grand-parents from the ex’s side. There was just a little undercurrent of competition to see who was top dog, the favorite parent and grand-parent. And, bless his little heart, my grandson goes around singing “I love Papa Dave.”

And, to make matters worse (for everybody else), the kids didn’t really pick up up on the assigned names. My wife became Papa Dave’s Grandma. And it stuck through five grand-kids. The younger ones didn’t understand what it meant. To them it was one name, her name. (i.e. I love you Papa Dave’s Grandma. Can I go with you Papa Dave’s Grandma. I’m hungry Papa Dave’s Grandma.) And to make matters even worser (definitely for everybody but me) the matriarch of the family, the one who tried to control the names, became Mitzi’s Grandma. Mitzi was her dog! It just tickled my heart to hear them say, I love you Mitzi’s Grandma, can I have a cookie Mitzi’s Grandma? Booya! Who’s your daddy?

I have one other name, although I don’t know what it is. It’s not my given name, or any name or nickname I go by now. It’ll be a name change, a new name, but it will describe me even better then Dave, or David, or even Papa Dave. It will not only be the perfect essence of who I am, but it will also be a description of everything good that the giver sees in me.

“. . . I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.” Rev. 2:17

This is God's nick­name for us. And the love and warmth and everything else conveyed by our names, pales in com­par­i­son to a name writ­ten on a white stone by some­one who loves us more then we can ever imagine.

It won't be stupid, or worthless, or loser, or degrading in any way what­so­ever. It will describe who we have become through the glory of God, not who we could have been if only we tried just a little bit harder. What we are is God's gift to us; what we be­come is our gift to God. And this name will be the em­bod­i­ment of all the good things we have be­come. This name will per­fect­ly de­scribe some­one that God is so proud of He sent His only be­got­ten Son to die for so he could en­joy his comp­a­ny through­out all eternity.

So, no, a rose by any other name would not be a rose, or a top seller, or the most popular flower. And even if I ask you to call me Jake, or John, or Jack, I will never be a Jake, or John, or Jack to you. To those who know me I am, and will always be, Dave, or David, or Davey, or Papa Dave, or Super Dave, or Free Dave...

Dave Bower

Source: Unknown

Hallelujah

It doesn't matter which you heard, the holy or the broken hallelujah. It's not a cry that you hear at night, it's not someone who's seen the light. It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen

Good Day Sunshine

I need to laugh, and when the sun is out I've got something I can laugh about, I feel good, in a special way. I'm in love and it's a sunny day. We take a walk, the sun is shining down, Burns my feet as they touch the ground. And then we lie, beneath a shady tree, I love her and she's loving me. She feels good, she knows she's looking fine. I'm so proud to know that she is mine.

John Lennon, Paul MacCartney

Good Day

This day is fresh and new; there's hope on the horizon, skies are blue. This day's a gift from You, and I finally see that! This day I won't look back; there was darkness behind me, but I'm over that. This day I'm moving past all the roadblocks in my way. And it's a good day, what else is there to say? It's finally a good day! It's a good day, it feels so good to say it's finally a good day! This day is all I've got; I won't spend another thinking 'bout what I'm not. This day I'll take a shot at trusting and waiting. This day I'm on my way; I haven't arrived yet, but that's okay. This day I'm gonna say I'm enjoying where I am.

Beth Champion Mason

So Grandma said can you make Ashlynn break­fast? And I said, sure, how hard can that be? And she said NO pop­sicles, NO ice cream, NO can­dy. And I said, wow, that raises the level of diffi­culty, what else is there? She said make waffles, 30 sec­onds in the toaster. And I said what can I put on them? And she said, I don’t care! And that’s all I need­ed to hear…we had waf­fle splits. Technically sprinkles are an in­gred­i­ent, and there­fore not can­dy, and ice cream is dairy, and whip­ped cream is a con­di­ment.

So Grandma went away and left me and Ashlynn alone, and when she came back she couldn't find any toilet paper, and somehow it's our fault?!?!

“The world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled but there are moments when we can transcend…and reconcile and embrace the whole…mess, and that’s what I mean by ‘Hallelujah.’ That regardless of what the impossibility of the situation is, there is a moment when you open your mouth and throw open your arms and you embrace the thing and you just say, ‘Hallelujah! Blessed is the name.’ The only moment that you can live here comfortably in these absolutely irreconcilable conflicts is in this moment when you embrace it all and you say, ‘Look, I don’t understand … at all – Hallelujah!’ That’s the only moment that we live here fully as human beings.”

Leonard Cohen

Hallelujah is a word best shouted, standing up, with arms raised to the Lord. Or from the back pew when when the pastor gets it right and you want to say something other then amen. Hallelujah, brother, is the Sunday morning equivalent of right on, brother. It's a slap on the back, it's great to be alive, and I want you all to know it kind of word.

But sometimes, when you're wrapped up in a heavy blanket of sadness & despair, when not being alive seems to be so much easier then being alive, it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah.

Free Dave

1. I did my best, it wasn't much
2. I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
3. I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
4. And even though it all went wrong
5. I'll stand before the Lord of Song
6. With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

"Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen

Source: Unknown

Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

Free Dave, circa 1966 - 1969
(Kris Kristofferson & Fred Foster)

He was was nick­named Super Dave after Super Dave Osborne first by Thomas Hunt. (And, eventually, by many more.)

Super Dave Osborne is billed as an "accomplished" stunt­man, though he rarely suc­ceeds when performing the stunts de­picted on-screen. Typically the he perform out­rageous dare­devil stunts which often go disastrously awry and result in the appearance of grievous bodily injury. These in­clude such mishaps as riding inside the hub of a giant yo-yo sus­pend­ed from a crane (the yo-yo broke free of its string and rolled off a cliff into a ravine) and being flung by a catapult in­side a giant foot­ball (the catapult malfunctioned and “spiked” the foot­ball in­stead of throw­ing it). After such a mis­hap, Super Dave would usually appear torn apart, stretched, or otherwise in­jured. (Wikipedia)

It's wasn't meant to be a compliment.

“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist.”

Stephan Hawking

“…the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”

God, Hebrews 11:3

A Book
by Adelaide Love

A book, I think, is very like
A little golden door
That takes me into places
Where I've never been before.

It leads me into fairyland
Or countries strange and far
And, best of all, the golden door
Always stands ajar.

With apologies to Mrs. McNeil, 2^nd Grade
Chambers Elementary School, 1957

So, for me at least, phone etiquette dictates that I don’t make calls after 9 pm.

Phone etiquette says you don’t call peo­ple after a certain hour. For some it’s as early as 8p, and for others it’s as late at 10p. Most times I don’t need/want to talk to the person, I just want to leave a message on their answering machine while the thought is still fresh and have it waiting for them to hear at their convenience.

Enter email. It’s great. If I’m up late or can’t sleep with all kinds of thoughts of what I need to do and who I need to tell I can just put it in an email. An email doesn’t wake anybody. An email sits patiently until the recipient is awake, at the computer, and chooses to read my message. If it’s a business then my issue is at their door when they open.

NOT!

Now, more often then not, my emails at 5 am in the morning or around midnight are immediately answered. I suspect some peo­ple aren’t turning off their computers at night. And I know a lot more leave their cell phone ringer on. And when the ringtone dings they just have to pick it up and check it out.

And then it happened. I’m in a meeting. A financial presentation. And the suit leading it hands out his business card and says call anytime if you have a question and my email is there too, but don’t email me after 10 at night.

Sure, “call me anytime” implies anytime between the normal phone times of not to early and not to late, but apparently he had been awakened late at night by fools who send out emails any time of day and night.

I think what he meant to so was I’m so full of myself that I leave my phone on all night and I have to answer it. So don’t bother me while I’m trying to sleep, thank you.

So, for me at least, email etiquette dictates that I don’t send email after 9 pm.

“Numbers do not lie. Politics and poetry and promises, these are lies. Numbers are as close as we get to the handwriting of God.”

Hermann Gottlieb, Pacific Rim

The universe shows us God’s majesty. The arts show us God’s beau­ty. But mathematics is how God explains to us how he did it.

Unknown
(Maybe Dr. Michio Kaku,
Professor of Theoretical Physics, CUNY)

Had to go old school today. I was at my church office when I got around to doing my devotions and didn't have a WiFi connection and for some reason my electronic Bible wouldn't open. (Yes I'm the network administrator. Yes it's my fault/responsibility when the WiFi doesn't work.) But if I took the time to fix it one thing would lead to the next and I wouldn't get back to my reading.

So I had to find one of those old paper Bibles. I found one, battered and torn, and definately well used. It was an old one of Debbies. Not sure how it ended up in a box of computer parts at the church but there it was.

But what a treat. It had the smell of aged paper pages like you only find in old Bibles. And it had a feel all its own. That because it's made of a premium grade of book paper commonly called Bible paper. A special and unique blend of paper.

It smelled of the early chuches I'd been in where everybody had a paper Bible and the Preacher kept us flipping pages. I remember the rustling of pages but I didn't realize the unique smell that created, until now. And it felt familiar. It took me back to some of the places I'd smelled this kind of paper before. The USS Saratoga in the early 70's where I started reading the Bible in earnest. Bible studies in Naples, Itay at the servicemen's center. Many, many, times at Good News Baptist church in Virginia Beach where I was introduced to the Baptist ways by a God-fearing, King James Bible preaching, fire and brimstone kind of preacher at a Fundamental Baptist Church. Repleate with tent revivals, gospel singing, traveling preachers, and lots of that good old fashion religion! What an opener for this old Catholic!

With everything we do there is an opportunity cost. Every choice we make to do something is also a choice not do it an other way, every time we chose a path we lose the opportunity to explore the alternate path.

On my smart phone I have a dozen Bible versions, Matthew Henry's commentary, among others, the complete concordance, Greek dictionary, Hebrew dictionary, regular English dictionary, and probably more reference books then I've owned in paper form in my entire life.

And I read, and study so much more because I always have my phone with me and I can pull it out of my pocket anywhere, anytime, any place. Whether I have a minute or two, or an hour or so. And I do.

But that opportunity cost me the opportunity to experience the look, feel, and smell that only comes from a often used and well worn Bible made of premium grade Bible paper. And while most of the younger set won't understand my fascination with the smell of an old book, trust me, the memories that attach themselves to that smell, and that special touch, are priceless.

It's inevitable that nothing has to happen.

"Free Joe and the Rest of the World" is a short story by Joel Chandler Harris. It was published in The Century Magazine in 1884.

The story is about Joe, a freed slave who finds his freedom which puts him into a worse situation than when he was enslaved. Calderwood, the man who owns his wife, Lucinda, forbids the two to meet. Joe sends his dog to fetch her and has secret encounters in the woods. When word gets to Calderwood that the two have disobeyed him, he secretly sends Lucinda sixty miles away. When his dog is unable to find her, Joe fears that Lucinda is sick and seeks help from a fortune teller. Joe learns of Lucinda's departure and decides to wait for her at their meeting place. He sits at the tree near the Calderwood place until he dies.

Master Jack was Free Dave, who was born out of Free Joe, who is no relation to Country Joe. Al­though they did collaborate for a number of years. A number of very good years.

It's a strange, strange, world we live in Master jack.

David Marks
Performed by Four Jacks and a Jill

Please don't dominate the rap Jack if you got nothing new to say.

Robert Hunter

And so it begins...