We got snow

The weathermen kept preparing us for snow, or perhaps a dusting during the night. We never say they don't know what they are talking about, considering they have been right a few times. So, I really went to bed hoping we'd have a decent snow for the weekend.

Well, at 6:30, I woke up, looked out the window, and, sure enough, the ground was covered and the trees were white. But, that is about the extent of it. Right now, at 9:45, looking at our yard, you would never know we had snow if it wasn't still on the swing and up in the woods under the trees.

My husband put out bird seed this morning while he was out taking pictures of the snow. Seems the birds loved the snow! They were out in droves. We have had blue jays, robins, and wood peckers galore, along with a number of other species of birds. I looked out in the front yard awhile ago, and there were three northern yellow-shafted flickers and three blue jays pecking at the ground, probably eating the acorns from the trees. We usually don't see that many together around here.

This snow was nothing to compare with our snow storm of 1993. I had come home that day from Nashville where my husband had been transferred. I was coming to my granddaughter's third birthday party. My daughter was trying to discourage me because of the snow that was to come. We never have enough snow to paralyze us, so I came home anyway, even though I drove through a blizzard to within seven miles of our home. Within one hour, everything was white. The electricity went out around 7PM and came back on within 22 hours. But, I was snowed in at my house here for 6 days. Our state just is not prepared for a big snowstorm because it happens so rarely. They put sand on the main bridges around the towns, but never come out to these small side roads. Thank goodness, I had a way of keeping warm the first day and plenty of food to eat for the week ahead. It was quite an experience.

And, I might add - it also happened in March, in fact on Friday, March 12th. So, who knows; we might have a snow storm yet!

Linked at Conservative Cat

Technorati Tags: Snow, Weather, Cold

Little Inconveniences

We had a thunderstorm this afternoon with some pretty high winds. Somewhere along the line, a tree fell, knocking out our power about 5PM and it is still off. So, here we are, sitting in the dark without television or use of the Internet. Oh, I have a laptop with a two hour battery which will be gone perhaps before the electricity comes on. The power company said it would be back on around 10 or 11PM. We will see.

To us, this is just an inconvenience, one we have to put up with every once in awhile. But, our 13 year old grandson is here, so he has nothing to do except play the guitar in the dark. We do have a few candles sitting around and an oil lamp, but that doesn’t make for reading, and it doesn’t take care of watching television or being on MySpace.

I remember when I was a very young child. We had only one light stringing from the ceiling in each room. Candles were in use lots around our house. We didn’t have a television until I was in the 9th grade. We didn’t have a telephone until I was about 12. The existence of games was a monopoly game, checkers, and the like. We didn’t have anything like Playstation or Nintendo. There were no iPods or DVD players or PSP’s. We played outside lots with horse shoes or washers and they were the ‘real thing’, not those that now come from the stores. Basketball was very in back then, also.

I can’t remember ever thinking that these were inconveniences. It was just the way of life back then. We didn’t feel poor or like we were doing without. We didn’t know there were other things. In fact, there wasn’t where I lived. I even remember the day they paved our road by our house in the little town I lived in. Now, we think it’s terrible when a hole comes in one of the big Interstates. In my earlier days, we had no idea that an Interstate would ever exist. We were used to two lane roads running across country, and then came a few four lanes to take the heavier traffic. Now, it’s an inconvenience to be going to work even on a six or eight lane highway with traffic so heavy you come to a standstill before you make it into downtown.

Man has definitely become spoiled! And, when these little things come our way every now and then, it upsets us to have to do without for a few hours. And, as I wrote that last sentence, the lights came back on. I was praising the Lord! We have to admit we are very thankful for those things we have to occasionally do without. We need to thank the Lord more for those conveniences, things are forefathers never had. One set of my grandparents never had a bathroom in their home. And, I don’t know how we would do without the ones we have! They first had well water, but did finally get running water in their home before they died. And, I never once heard them complain.

We are having a heat wave!

The temperatures have been in the 90's for a good while. There is hardly any air stirring, which makes it extremely hot. I was at my Mother's today, and it was 96 under her carport. Out in the hot sun, it registered 102! She had guessed 100.

The heat is enough to make you want to stay in the house constantly. And, I do stay in most of the time. But, there comes a time when you need to go to the store or go out for other things. And, you are in an air-conditioned car, feeling really good, only to have to step out into the sweltering heat of the day. It is enough to make you sick. I can remember a time when we didn't have an air-conditioned car and we thought nothing of it. My husband and I dated in a 1957 Impala Chevrolet with no air-conditioning. We just rolled down the windows (it was a hardtop) and let the hair blow. And, we bought a 1967 Pontiac GTO in 1967 in Texas before he got out of the Air Force. And, it had black leather seats - and no air-conditioning. I don't know what we were thinking!

My children or grandchildren will never know what it is to be without air-conditioning, with the exception of a unit burning out. Then, you would think they are dying! When I was growing up, nobody had air-conditioning in their homes or cars. We had only one oscillating fan in our home and we made do. We opened our bedroom windows at night and let the cool breeze blow. Now days there seems to be no cool breezes blowing. Besides, I'd be afraid to open my windows because of the crime rate in our nation. You never know who is lurking outside in the dark.

I know that we are experiencing a heat wave, but think about how much worse the alternative to heaven is going to be like! I don't understand why anyone would not want to live for the Lord and go to heaven instead of living a 'good life' for the devil and going to hell. It apparently hasn't registered with them just how hot it is going to be. For me to burn a finger taking something out of the oven is hot enough for me! Just being next to an open fire makes you hot. So why would a person want to expose themselves for eternity to hell fire?

Some think that this is it - this life on earth will end and that will be the end of us. The Bible does not bear that out. The very first verse in the Bible says 'In the beginning God created heaven and earth'.(Genesis 1:1) If He had not meant to have His people join Him in heaven, why would He create heaven?

I leave you with the following verses of Truth from His Word:

• 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
  

Technorati Tags: Weather, Heat, Heat Wave, Heaven, Hell, Bible, Truth

Parched land

Perhaps we all need to pray for rain.......seriously!

• James 5:17 "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
  
• James 5:18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."

The grass is dying, the flowers look bad, and we are under a 'no burn' restriction for the whole state. My son, who lives only 15 minutes from us, got rain at his house the last of last week. He called to see if we received any rain, which we didn't, and said it poured down there for a good 20 minutes. Oh, that we should be so lucky!

Technorati Tags: Rain, Elias, Pray, Earth

Tornados hit hard in Alabama

Weather in Alabama today has been devastating. Tornadoes have hit several places. And, we are not out of the woods yet, according to the weatherman.

Enterprise High School in South Alabama was hit by a tornado at 1:30 this afternoon. The gym is in completely destroyed. Looking at the steel structure, it looks like the wind treated it like lumber. The report is that the school itself has lots of damage. Also, the students parking lot looks like a demolition area, with cars on top of one another, with twisted metal everywhere, and windows blown out. And, the most tragic thing is the 8 deaths that have come out of that, and many more with injuries. And, they say the death toll may go higher.

Many houses were destroyed. Trees were splintered as though they were little toothpicks. It is a tragic sight to see.

Also, a tornado hit down in Wilcox County. The news has just reported that there are 5 deaths in Wilcox County, a very rural county, although this story says there was only one fatality. Hopefully, the one fatality is all there will be found, and it was at Miller's Ferry.

So many people are in need now of material things, but most of all, they need our prayers.

Linked at Conservative Cat
Don Surber
Pirate's Cove

Technorati Tags: Tornados, Enterprise, Enterprise High School, Wilcox County, Alabama, Death

Hope dims as body of one mountain climber found

The body of one of the three missing Mount Hood climbers was found today in a cave near where the signal was sent from a cell phone. The identify of the man has not been released, but possibly is that of Kelly James, the man who made a phone call from a cave. His fellow climbers had left him in search for help.

There has been no communication from any of the three climbers since the phone call made on December 10th. And, the climber was found without a sleeping bag, suggesting he had gotten lost and had dug himself in to survive.

Linked at Is It Just Me?
Conservative Cat
Don Surber
Stuck on Stupid

Technorati Tags:Mount Hood, Mountain Climbers, Cave,

178 die in Indonesian floods and landslides

There have been rains since Monday, which has caused floods and landslides. Some think illegal logging has been a contributing factor in this. So far, it has cost 178 lives, and many are missing. They are feared to have been swept out to sea.

Seasonal downpours cause dozens of landslides and flash floods each year in Indonesia, where millions of people live in mountainous regions and near fertile flood plains close to rivers. Some environmentalists blame rampant deforestation, which they contend loosens soils on mountainsides.

Linked at Conservative Cat
Stuck on Stupid
TMH's Bacon Bits

Technorati Tags: Indonesia, Floods, Landslides

Billions feared stolen from hurricane relief

Millions of dollars have been paid by the government in bogus payments to supposed 'hurricane victims'. The money has gone for such things as football tickets, vacations, and a divorce lawyer.

Congressional investigators have found that prisoners, a supposed victim who used a cemetery for a home address and a person who spent 70 days at a Hawaiian hotel all were able to wrongly get taxpayer help.

It is believed that 16% of the money spent in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita was unwarranted. Testimony will be given today at the hearings of the House of Representatives Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations.

An undercover agent was given money, even after being found he did not live at the address he had provided. There have been all kinds of misuse of the money, including paying people twice, both for being housed in a hotel while being given money for rental assistance. And, on top of that, FEMA cannot establish that 750 debit cards actually went to the Katrina victims.

Linked at Conservative Cat

Technorati Tags: Hurrican relief, Katrina, Rita, Bogus payments, FEMA