Food for Thought Friday

"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run
than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." 

~ Helen Keller

You've got to go out on a limb sometimes because that's where the fruit is.

~Will Rogers

I didn't want to hurt them.  I only wanted to kill them.

~David Berkowitz



Wordless Wednesday

The Goose's Acre

The hustle and bustle of The Woodlands.  Love it ............. NOT.

However, nestled in the corner of Waterway Avenue and the waterway, is a piece of Ireland. This is a place where I will overlook the busy-ness that IS The Woodlands, and spend a few hours enjoying the atmosphere, the food, the music, and the beer.

The Goose's Acre was a pub opened in 1886 in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland.  There it was passed down from father to son until forced to close it's doors in 2005 to make way for new development.

The current owners then purchased the Goose's Acre and moved her piece by piece to Texas.  She is truly an authentic piece of Ireland.

If I could change ANYTHING, it would be traditional Irish music at least one day a week!  But having said that .. I love her just the way she is.

Food for Thought Friday

"Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you;

you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for."

~ Bob Marley

"Never let a

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

become more important than a

PERSON TO BE LOVED."

~ Thomas Spencer Monson

"A clown can get away with murder."

~John Wayne Gacy

"Mission complete, Houston"

“Mission complete, Houston, after serving the world for over 30 years, the shuttle has earned its place in history, and it has come to a final stop.”

And with those words, Commander Chris Ferguson announced the safe arrival of  Atlantis and her crew, as well as the end of an era.

NASA's STS-135 MCC Status Report #27 reads as follows:

"Atlantis landed at 4:57 a.m. CDT Thursday, wrapping up a successful 13-day mission, ending its own 33-flight career and closing out the 30-year, 135-flight Space Shuttle Program."

Welcome home Atlantis.

... One Giant Leap for Mankind ...

At 10:56 p.m. est on July 20, 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, spoke these words to more than a billion people listening at home:

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

.. and became the first man to walk on the moon.


Ed "Buzz" Aldrin joined him on the moon's surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, and ran a few simple scientific tests.

.. and became the first person to hold a religious ceremony on the moon.

Aldrin radioed Earth: "I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours, and to give thanks in his or her own way."

Then he gave himself communion.  You wouldn't see this reported, however, because even in 1969 there was commotion from the atheists.
_________________________________

Having grown up on the Space Coast of Florida, with dad that was empoyed "out at the cape" .. I consider myelf blessed to be considered a bit of a NASA brat.

Admittedly, I cannot watch a launch without the lump in my throat and the tears clouding my vision. During the shuttle launches, I couldn't breath until the solid rocket boosters had fallen away... and will admit, unashamed, that I cried like a baby and couldn't speak for some minutes after STS-135 left the ground on July 8.  I'll be crying again as they come home tomorrow.

God Bless the crew, and everyone who made these Shuttle missions possible.

God Bless America.

Words ...

"You, with your words like knives and swords and weapons that you use against me

You have knocked me off my feet again got me feeling like I'm nothing

You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard, calling me out when I'm wounded

You, pickin' on the weaker man

Well, you can take me down with just one single blow

But you don't know what you don't know"     

~Taylor Swift

Words ...  why are they so important?  Why do the words of others affect us so?
 
Proverbs 18:21 says "Death and Life are in the power of the tongue.."
 
Lord, let me focus on YOUR words and be who YOU say I am.  Help me to be the person who doesn't rely on the affirmation of OTHERS, but can rise above based on YOUR love alone.
 
Give me LIFE .. through YOUR WORDS ..  ~Amen.

Oh No You Don't - You Masked Bandit!

Raccoons.  I don't care how cute they are anymore.  I hate them.

They have ripped chickens apart and pulled them through the wire.  They have ripped hardware cloth off of cages and killed all chickens inside. They get into EVERYTHING and leave NOTHING.

Everything, that is, except the big coop.  Although I find footprints and claw marks, they have been unable to rip into, open the door, or destroy the fortress that is our "Big Chicken" coop.

They were working on the banty coop, when I decided it was time for the banties to live with the big chickens .. for their own good.  Just threw them in there one night.  They have been getting along famously since, and I don't have to worry about coons ....  or do I?

Sneaky little bandits decided if they can't kill chickens at night, they'll come out before dark.  I lost two pullets last week, right at dusk as they chickens were going to roost.  As a result, I began going out about 30 minutes earlier and just hanging out until they 'put themselves to bed'.

Last night I started out and heard the commotion.  A chicken screaming, and everyone else alerting and running for cover.  Running up the hill, I lost my shoes somewhere and ran to the coop just in time to see the raccoon with Uno (the Salmon Fav hen) in it's mouth.  Effortlessly hopping over a downed tree, it started to slip into the woods with my hen's head it's mouth.

I reached down and picked up a piece of branch or something, yelled at the coon (calling it quite the foul name) and it stopped and looked at me.  I threw the piece of wood at it - and missed.  Luckily for Uno, the coon let her go and she sprinted back to me and buried herself in my bare feet.

Mr. Bandit and I stared at each other for a moment and he slipped away.  Hungry.  Little Creep.

Tonight I go out an hour early .. with my camos and the .22 .................  wish me luck.

A Stolen Life - by Jaycee Dugard

"I don't believe in hate. To me it wastes too much time. People who hate waste so much of their life hating that they miss out on all the other stuff out here." ~Jaycee Dugard.

I want to say, first of all, that I'm glad to be blogging again .. AND I'm excited to be READING again ..
I used to be an avid reader, and then my eyes started getting more and more stressed with reading. So, in May, I got GLASSES .. whoot! Although it took several weeks to get used to the progressive lenses, I just don't know what I did before .. obviously: NOT READING.

So I bought a book Monday evening. A Stolen Life, by Jaycee Dugard. I finished it last night. Wow. What an amazing, brave, strong young woman.

The quote at the top of the column is a great quote, but coming from someone that was held captive for 18 years and repeatedly raped from age 11, it is an amazing testament to the strength of the human soul.  The ability to not become a victim of HATE, the power to forgive.  The power to LIVE and not let your soul be eaten away with hate and bitterness...  I don't know if I could be that person.

March 16, 2007 (In her 16th year of captivity.)

"Affirmation to counteract the negative feelings I have inside:
1.  I am a creative, positive, successful, and happy person.
2.  I can achieve anything I set my mind on.
4.  I am a strong and capable person.
6. I will have a strong and healthy body and mind.
7. Anything and everything is possible with love.
11.  I will make it a habit to be happy.
13. Today is a glorious day.
15. I make every day a positive day."  ~Jaycee Dugard

(Missing numbers are my choice,  I chose the ones that spoke to me as well.)

God forgive me .. what have I got to complain about??