Okay Buna People.......You Are Warned

 I've been haphazard on a lot of stories I have written in the last few years. I've let a lot of stuff "Go." 

If I am going back into radio show business, well, I am going to have to be honest about stuff. I am not going to be able to " Let stuff go." 

A news story or event, well, we may, hell may, we will probably discuss it whether we know the people involved or not.

For the First Amendment to work, we have to have free speech, even if it upsets people. 

If you want to " unfriend" me on Facebook, well, I'll understand. 

Sorry, that's just the way it is....

Come On Baby....Come On....

 Last damn day of the year. 

I have literally been like a hermit most of 2021....Oh, we did make a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains, I did marry several ex-students of mine. ( Always an honor when I am asked to do so.) But in truth, nothing big. 

Here is hoping 2022 is better. 

Already planned....

- Jay and I are starting up the radio show on KJAS this coming Thursday at 7pm.( 107.3FM Jasper, and 99.1 if you live in Pineland) At first I was a little "gun-shy" but now, I'm pretty excited about it. 

- In April, Deb and I plan to take a 4 time re-scheduled...I'm not sure what is in her mind a crusade, a pilgrimage to Israel/the West Bank. I know she plans to get baptized again in the Jordan River, and already we've had a theological disagreement, I figure if Jesus was baptized only once, one time is good enough for me...anyway, I am going to going to try and pray at the West Wall, if they'll let me.....

- The kids( Reid and Zhou Yu) are moving to the Houston 'burbs. We couldn't be happier. 

- Deb is looking really hard at retiring in the late Fall...Good.....We can travel more. I have a trip to the Lake District and Wales already planned for a retirement trip for her. 

But as always and I'm going to paraphrase the Book of Psalms here, " Want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans." 

Happy New Year's and much love from the Compound-

I Stayed Pissed Off About This My Entire Time in Buna...

 So, some of you think I was just " Being mean" because I was strict about boys being cleaned shaved.....No, I was just pissed off. 

I had to be clean shaven as a male faculty member....and it made no damn sense, especially after I had a beard in my previous 3 school districts and no one cared. 

Once again, I did not understand the 1952 logic, and yes now the rules have changed for both Buna ISD male faculty and the male student body. 

So, one of my old school districts is getting sued under Title IX saying the boys not being able to have long hair is discrimination because female students can have long hair. And so far, the Federal Courts have agreed. 

Now I know some of you are all upset about it, with some sort of 1952 mentality about hair on boys....

I look at it this way.....You worry about your own damn kid. If someone else's kid has should length hair, how it is than any of your feckin' business?

The world changes whether you want it to or not....

Well, We Ain't Done This in a While... Buna....And Others....

 So, yesterday I wrote a couple of " Outlaw" blogs. 

And the second upset some people. My idea that homosexuality is not that bad. 

Look, I am not gay, I really don't understand the attraction of guys liking guys.....That said, I am convinced it is not a choice they make. It is something they are born with. Sorry, it just is. Just like being left handed and having red hair. 

I don't know, I am enough of a Paulinist to believe that more people are going to make it to heaven than we care to know. 

And Lord knows I got my own problems. 

Let me remind you, I am going to write things you're not going to agree with. Things that will upset you. 

The older I get the more of a libertarian I become.  

Hell, I have even thought about getting a Roman collar or an Anglican " dog collar" and wearing it up to Buna just to piss people off. ( I'm an ordained member of an denomination that allows it, and actually a member of an order within the denomination that requires it, but I don't because, well, wearing a bow-tie so much more whimsical...and a lot cooler....)

And I'm going to need to warn people more often as the blog is going to be on our " Not on the Payroll" website. 

Again, this is a warning. The blog isn't everyone's " Cup of Tea."

Okay, I Know I'll Get Someone Tell Me I'm Going to Hell on This Blog.....

 So, an alleged friend of mine saw me during the holiday period hugging a student of mine.....and the person I hugged just happened to be gay. 

Accused me of being LGBT......It was a girl I hugged....Come on man, what's wrong with you?

They quoted 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10. to me.....They left out the part about swindlers, slanderers, idolaters, adulterers, drunks, and fornicators....

I know good and well, they were living with their present partner for a while.....and have lived with several other people....But in today's world, I guess that's okay. 

You know, a preacher preaches on this today, well, they would get into trouble today and they're all about keeping that job as " Senior Pastor" or whatever position they call it in this day and age. ( I'd do it, but not in a way expected.)

Look, we all have stuff that we are doing is bad, as was beat into me in Dr. Penrose St. Amant's class in the seminary, the old Romans 7 verse...." The good I do, I do not, the evil I should not do, that is what I do." 

Pull that plank out of your own eye....Lord knows I got enough sin myself to fill up a 55 gallon drum...

Tend your own worries Karen....

I May Need to Take Some of You Out to the Cuss Porch.....

 So, I am minding my own business when I come across this story on one of the many sites I read. 

It's one in which it tell what is being searched on various sites. And minding my own business, I see what you are searching on "Porn Hub."

Yes, for those of you unfamiliar with the site, yes, that is what the site generally is...

Now me, I expected "Elves" to be the number one Christmas related "porn" look up.....I figured girls dressed as elves.

No, up by a whopping 500%, the most searched item was....Mrs. Claus.

I don't know if you have a fantasy to slip up to the North Pole while Santa Claus is on his " Appointed rounds"  got some sort of grandma fetish or just what? 

I don't know.......some of y'all are just nasty.....

Just Remember Folks

 I have several blogs written in my head, just not on paper, including another one on economics in 2022.

Saturday is Christmas. 

I hope by now you've gotten all your presents for everyone. I am one short and Covid, the supply chain is to blame. Just can't get the right model, color.....

Remember folks you only get so many Christmases. 

Enjoy each and every one. 

The people you love who will be here Saturday, might not be with us Christmas, 2022. 

Hell, I might not be around, no don't have cancer, no, my heart is not giving out, I'm just 64 years old and well, stuff happens to people at my age. 

Give hugs to people you love. I know I hugged a former student the other day I ran into at the courthouse. And I'm not a " hugging" sort of person. It's just, I've wasted a lot of my life being too damn uptight. ( Part of it was I taught 17-18 year old girls and well, it is just creepy for 30-40-50 year old men to touch non-relative teenage females...but now, I don't care, I'm just happy to see you, males and females.)

Probably will post again before Christmas.

So....I've Not Written a Blog in a While...

 As many of you know, I went to the Hill Country( Llano) to visit my brother and his family for Christmas, and then, come back by College Station to see my daughter in law receive her MBA from Texas A&M. 

Was a good trip, and while there I used some of the $2 dollar bills I received for performing a wedding....and it was in Llano, I first ran into someone who would not take a $2 bill. I had used them all over Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and no one batted an eye.....As a matter of fact in Iowa, LA at the Hardee's off I-10, all the workers came out to see them. ( I bought 4 $1 dollar sausage biscuits. Had exact coinage for the tax. ) The manager even traded me 4, $1 dollar bills for 2, $2 dollar bills. I bought a drink ( Fanta Black Cherry Soda, I am a fan of cherry sodas, and Buccess has a great pure cane sugar house black cherry soda) in the store adjoining the Hardee's. It was there and for the rest of the trip, my $2 bills were checked with the yellow "pen" to see if they were counterfeit. I did not know there was a problem with counterfeit $2 dollar bills in America....I think it is because people have not seen many. 

It was not until I took this trip in Central Texas did I run into people not accepting $2 dollar bills.

The first was at a doughnut shop in Llano. The girl had never seen one and did not think they were real. I put it on my Visa.

The second was in my old stomping grounds in Dayton, TX. We stopped at a Sunoco gas station for restrooms and snacks. The clerk would not accept it because he thought it was " bad luck."

There are several reasons why people think $2 bills are bad luck.

Here are a couple.

First, the $2 bill association with horse racing. Traditionally, there has been a $2 window for bets at race tracks.

Second, the belief around 1890-1910, the the cost of a girl in a brothel was $2 for a " date." As the girls in Nevada call it. In reality, the cost varied from place to place, girl to girl. So the story was " wives" would not accept $2 bills from their husbands( When they asked for grocery money, etc) thinking that they ( the husband) had more $2 bills to visit the girls later......And there was the fear that the grocer might think if you paid with a $2 you might be engaged in activities not suited for a member of the local Baptist or Methodist Church...

BTW- There are 1.2 billion $2 dollar bills in circulation.....1.7 billion $50 dollar bills......1.9 billion $10 dollar bills....11.5 billion $100 dollar bills....11.7 billion $1 bills......2.8 billion $5 bills.

Okay, I am Going to Hell This Morning....

 I'm going to use my excuse as a Paulinist, the old Book of Romans in which St. Paul wrote in Chapter 7...."For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."

I'll pray for forgiveness later....

But I was sent this picture of the street lights, and I'll be going through Buna later this evening, so I'll be assuming  the "Sex Toy in a Box" decorations are on the telephone poles.....

Here is the photo I was sent...It's in Glasgow, Scotland.  

The streets are lined with these....

I guess it could be worse. Here is a photo of the decorations from a small town in Michigan.....

Doesn't anyone ask a teenage boy about these? Then again, I noticed Buna's the first time I saw them up years ago when I first had a position there......But, for years, I said nothing.

 

Empty

 I don't know, it seems to me it is getting harder to get stuff this year for Christmas. 

I know there is a Christmas tree shortage, both real and artificial. When we were at the Farm in NE Texas the NBC station out of Tyler was talking about there were no more "real" trees to be had in the area. 

Heck, I had a hard time finding the specific anti-freeze we put in our pipes at the Farm this year. I finally found it at the O'Reilly's in Rusk, TX. ( At that point we were about to check-in at Rusk for a long rest.)

Once we got there, we were amazed at how empty the shelves were at the local grocery stores. ( Up there it is Brookshire's the 'cousin' of Brookshire Brothers in our area.) We hit the groceries in Quitman, Winnsboro, Mt. Vernon and still didn't find what we were really looking for......I don't know, I know the Dollar General is notorious about not keeping up with stock, but it seems the shelves are even more bare this year, my wife was even saying that Little Debbie Christmas Tree snack cakes are not to be found.  

I thought by now, we'd have our supply/ employment problems worked out in this country. 

Perhaps I am expecting too much? Perhaps I am spoiled? Perhaps the conspiracy theory people are correct?

So, my question today, are you finding what you are needing? Or are you having to hunt?

 

Man, It Don't Look Good

 Sorry, I've not blogged in a week, I've been out of town at the Farm in Northeast Texas, had to winterize the place. ( However at this point, I am not sure why? We ran the a/c while we were there.)

Still, everyplace we went there were " We Are Hiring" signs. I wonder if they actually are hiring? I know the numbers from Friday's job report were poor at best.

I know some of you are all worried about Covid( Get a damn shot) or the Maxwell trial or whatever......But don't take your eyes off the economy. 

I'm sorry but The Federal Reserve( The Fed) is pumping a trillion dollars a month into the economy to keep us from collapsing. ( I am so afraid we'll have hyper-inflation like post WW1 Germany)

The world, not just us are having supply troubles. 

I don't know, the stock market is artificially high at this point...I keep watching for it to turn bearish in a heartbeat. 

We are at each other's throats and in the latest poll, 52% of people ages 18-29 expect democracy to fail in this country.......MIT has upped its prediction that society will collapse in 2040 to sooner. 

I don't know, if you can, get out of debt. 

Watch your spending.

Might need to have a little cash, American money on hand. ( I keep foreign currencies available, not much, but that's just me)

You may want to buy a little extra food when you go shopping, something with long term storage dates.  

Hope I am so wrong here........