Reading The Book of Revelation

     I'm still reading my Bible and have recently reached the Book of Revelation. I always thought reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation would take like 20 years.I actually started my reading sometime last Spring and with just 20 or so minutes per day am almost finished with my first reading
     There are many things in the Old Testament that refer to Jesus that I'd never realized and I look forward to my second reading after going over some things that I really want to go over once again  just to clarify a few things.

     Hopefully I'll get my cataract surgery soon and with my "new eyes" I'll be able to see better and read more easily.

This Is A Drought?

     According to the weather reports, this part of Mississippi is still in a "mild drought". Okay, I live on the side of a hill. The Southern half of Tina Lane is relatively flat and the Northern half (where my house is) is on the side of the hill.Walking across my back yard is like walking on a muddy sponge. So it looks like this Spring I'll be ordering at least one truck load of "brown dirt". That's what the folks at the dirt for sale folks call it.

     Anyway, I'll mix enough with compost from my bins to top off my raised bed gardens and use the rest to at least fill in all the holes and make pathways across and through the back yard. My neighbors have told me that most of my property was once filled with pine trees. Had the pines still remained I never would have bought the place after the ordeal of pine needles at my previous residence.

     Well, that's all the news here from Soggy Bottom U.S.A. other than we are expected to get a couple more light freezes over the next week.  Needless to say, I am more than ready for some deep Sunshine and warm weather so I can get my fingers (and toes) back in the dirt.

Smokin'

     All right, kids! This morning coming home from work it was warmer than the warmest part of the day for a while. Today should top out at about 70 degrees. I could not help myself when I heard that forecast so day before yesterday I started marinating a pre-sliced pork loin
     After my morning routine of giving thanks, letting the kids out to pee pee & boom boom, I fired up Black Beauty, my smoker. The grocery where I work has hot Italian sausage and several other varieties in sale for 4 days, I think ending today. Anyway, I got 5 pounds total, 3 of the hot and 2 sweet. The hot is of the link variety and the sweet is patty.
The loin and a pound are in Black Beauty right now making glorious smelling smoked pork aromas. Soon I'll be shoving some porky goodness into my grocery hole. And plenty left over for smoked pork sammiches and sausage po-boys!

     And best of all, it is warm enough and the Sun is shining so I can get outside and recharge my batteries and burn off some of the mildew that I've grown during the freeze!

     One last note. At last count the City of Jackson was well over 200 water main breaks due to the unusual cold here and more are expected as the lines and surrounding ground thaw. One way or another, Jackson will get new water lines to replace the crumbling 100 + year old lines.

Rest Well, P.K.

     Last night as I was prepping for work I turned on the news for the weather report & forecast as I usually do. The breaking news was a double homicide in Jackson, Mississippi. I had one shoe on and the other in my hand when the reported said on of the victims was Percy King, age 57. My first thought was that it could not be my old friend, P.K....
Then his picture came on screen and I froze up. Percy King who I always called "P.K." shot dead along with another younger fella.

     P.K. was known all across central Mississippi as "The Snake Man" who went to any charitable function, did birthday parties, etc. along with his traveling menagerie. I met him before he bought his first snake, was with him when he did (and I believe he bought a caiman as well). A more gentle soul I have never met. Always smiling even when, in his own words "was having a bad hair life".

     I cannot say "P.K. was..." or that I loved him. He still is and always will be as long as us who met him remember him. I will always love him as the beautiful and beloved child of God that he is.

     I can forgive those who did me wrong. But the rat bastard who took P.K.'s life did far, far more. Percy was a shining light in and for the city of Jackson where there are too few shining lights. He brought happiness, love and joy wherever he went. I'll have to pray extra hard for God to let me forgive P.K.'s killer.

     In my 58 years on this Earth, I have lost many family and friends through various causes. This is the first time I have lost anyone to murder. The whole idea of murder is just so alien to me. I know many times I've said I wanted to kill someone  but that was just gassing off at the mouth. Especially someone as loving and lovable as P.K. who I can't even imagine having one enemy in the world.

     Sorry if I'm starting to ramble but I'm trying to come to grips with this thing.Last night I don't think there was 10 minutes he wasn't on my mind in one way or another.

     I guess in closing I'll just say this...

Rest well, P.K.
I love you like a brother from a different mother. I'll see you again when my time comes.

The Epistles & My Tribulation

     I'm still reading my Bible during my breaks from work and am now reading the Epistles of Paul to Timothy.I have noticed that the Apostle, Paul mentions in all so far, his hardships he faces in prison and such.
     When I read my Bible, I prefer to sit alone in my car with no distractions of any kind. The longest time I have is only about 20 minute, not really time enough for the interior of the car to get warm  So my own personal tribulation is "how much do I want to spend time alone with God?"

     Enough to sit alone in my car, reading the word of God when the temperature is in the teens. My next book in The Good Good Book is Philemon. It won't be long until I'll be reading Revelation. 
     You know, it never cease to amaze me how many Bible scholars call it "Revelations" with an s. I'm just a redneck who at age 57 felt the call to read the Bible for the first time and am learning so much.  At age 58 I am almost done with my first reading. God willing, it won't be my last.
   
     Since staring my readings, I have become calmer, more at peace with myself, others and most importantly, with God.

     Try it, you might just like it!

Jowl Bacon & Weather Again

     The other morning as I was walking past one of the meat toughs at work I saw a sale tag "99 cents per pound" . Needless to say, I had to check it out. There was ham and jowl bacon both for that price.  I grabbed about 3 pounds of ham and all of the jowl bacon, about 10 pounds of it.
     Some of you may ask, "What is jowl bacon?"
     It is the fatty meat from the jaws or jowls of a hog, treated just as pork belly for regular bacon. The jowls are somehow fattier than the belly but I like to render the jowls for the fat then eat the crispy slabs left over. A slice of lean ham + some crispy fat on a biscuit is like Hog Heaven. Then
I have all the porky goodness of the rendered fat to cook other stuff with. It for sure isn't vegan nor kosher but damn it is good!
          My grand mothers, especially on my Dad's side cooked a lot with lard, which is basically hog fat. It may not be healthy but it sure is happy!

     The weather is crazy! We got some snow again today, about an inch. Enough to make Mississippi drivers be 101% stupid. Luckily, I didn't have to work tonight so I stayed at home.
     This is the first time that I can aver recall having 3 winter storms is a row quickly enough I can remember their names; Grayson, Hunter & Inga .We'll have highs this week from 31 to 67 and lows from 16 to 54. A guy I knew years ago in California said the 4 Seasons there were: mud, flood, earthquake and drought. Seems this year he was especially right. And I thought Mississippi weather was insane!

This Winter

     This Winter weather has been absolutely insane! We've had record cold, record days in a row cold and now we're having almost balmy temperatures. The only thing we need is Sunshine to make perfect outside activities weather. I haven't seen the Sun for a while, had rain like could drown frogs. The weather report calls for us to get Sunshine soon but also back into the freezing temps again.
     This week we had had lows higher than last week's highs and it's said we'll flip back to highs lower than this week's lows.

     Meanwhile, I'm still working my compost bins and beds to fortify my gardens. I haven't gotten as many bags of leaves from my neighborhood as in previous years but am getting plenty from my own year and closer by neighbors. Coffee grounds from work are filling up my bins rapidly and other assorted good things are gonna make, I believe, some good compost for the gardens.

     I've mentioned before that I believe that prices for fuel, food and everything are gonna be higher this year than last. So I highly suggest we all get a bucket or 2 if dirt and try to grow at least a little bit of our own food. It may not make a difference in our bills, but it is so much fun getting my hands in the dirt!

Doctor, My Eyes

     Some of you may remember the Jackson Browne song, "Doctor, My Eyes". We,, this post is about my eyes. I've really been having eye problems as of late, especially getting any focus in my right eye. So I made an appointment a month before my yearly check to have Doctor Taylor check my peepers. At last visit she said I had the beginnings of cataracts, especially in  Well, the cataracts are rapidly getting worse, again especially in my right.
    I always thought a cataract was like some scale buildup on the lens that could (or had to be) scraped off but it's actually the lens going to Hell in  a hand basket and getting foggy. I was hoping to get my lenses scraped clean and put back in but, oh no! The actual procedure is this.... I go in to the eyeball surgery place and get my eyeballs measured first. Then they set up an appointment for one eye and then the other a few days later. During the actual surgeries, they cut a slit in the front of my eyeball. Then they take out my old, foggy lens and throw it in the trash. Using the measurements they took, they replace the old lens with a new plastic one which should restore my vision to close to, if not 20/20. I never knew!

     It is just one more example of God giving more than we ask of Him. I was praying for my vision to be restored back to where I just needed a stronger prescription but He's gonna give me possibly perfect eyesight again. Something I can't remember ever having. I thought I could see normally until I had to get an eye check for my diver's license when I was 16 years of age. Then I found I needed eyeglasses. I was so amazed to see leaves on trees instead of a big green blob. My brother who took me to the driver's license office and eye Doctor's thought I was crazy (or worse) when I got my first eyeglasses. He's a couple years older than I and he'd never had less than 20/20 so he'd always seen what I had not.

     Anyway, I'll be getting my eyeballs measured soon and have appointments for the surgeries not long after, hopefully. I am a bit anxious, I must admit but have no fears. I'll simply tell my boss that I may need a few extra days off in the near future and if he can't schedule me for paid days off, unpaid will be worth getting my vision back to a level  I've never known.

     Mom had cataract surgery a few years back and she said that everything looks brighter. She thought it would wear off after a while but then her Doctor said it's normal for everything to be brighter. It's like after looking through a smoky glass then looking at the world without.

     I do not like the idea of going under anesthesia whatsoever but I'll be taking my Bible with me and right before I go under I'll put everything in God's hands.
     I'll come out rested and soon looking at the world with new eyes!

World Wide Extreme Weather

     I came home from work this morning and as usual after letting the kids out to pee pee and boom boom, turned on the TV to check the weather report.
     Here in the USA we're having some of the coldest in recorded history, in temperature, length of the extreme cold or both. Actually, here in Mississippi we are still in a drought. We did have a good soaking rain last night and this morning but are still way below normal rainfall for this time of year.
   
     What really caught my attention was a weather report from Australia where they are experiencing record highs for their Summer time on that end of the world "down under".
     The North American continent is having record lows while the other side and end of the Earth is having record highs? It doesn't make any sense unless one reads the Bible

     Meanwhile, after all the fires in California they are supposed to get some rain. Even before the folks on TV were talking about it I was saying all that scorched earth is gonna be prime makings for mudslides. It gonna be one Hell of a mess out there. And I've been telling anyone who will listen that food prices this year are gonna be significantly higher than last year.  I'm stocking up whenever I see vittles on sale and suggest you do so too.

Water Woes

     Last post I said at latest I'd heard, the city of Jackson, Mississippi had either 37 or 39 water main breaks. Now the latest count is 97!
     Well, yesterday at about noon I went to refill the dogs' water bowl and had no water pressure. I called the water department and old gal told me there was an outage. It was all I could do not to say "No shit? That's why I'm calling!" Anyway, I asked when I could expect restoration of service and she said there was no estimate yet. After I awoke at 8:80 PM to let the kids out to pee pee & boom boom, I heard a knock at the door. IT was Goober from the water department asking if I had water to which I as politely as possible replied that I did not. Then Goober said that he hadn't gotten any call before 4:30 PM. Now that I've had time to chew on this I think it's my civic duty to call the water department and/or the mayor's office and chew on some buttocks regarding this matter.
A#1 I called at noon and was told that the city knew about the outage already.
B#2 Goober said he got a call at 4:30 PM, so why in the Hell did it take him and his crew another 4 hours and 15 minutes to get there?
     Now I realize than Tina Lane isn't a major thoroughfare but still, I pay my water bill and my taxes in a timely manner and I expect my utilities to be repaired likewise.

     This may be too much information but here it is. As I had no water, not even bottles I had to work with what I did have on hand. I had the choice of brushing my teeth with either lemon lime soda or beer. I opted for the soda and actually, it wasn't bad although I did foam up like a rabid dog. Now the rude part... A few times last night at work I hunkered down where I got a whiff of my unwashed self. All I could think was, "You reek fella!" After not washing myself I must say that I stank I can spend days out in the woods and be comfortable if not oblivious to my own B.O. Hey! Out in the woods, hunting and/or fishing  men are supposed to smell a bit gamey. But in town, around women folks I don;t think we should smell  gamey,  especially to the point that we offend ourselves.
     So after letting Vlad & Bella out to pee pee and boom boom  I crunk the water in the shower up to "Boil" and had a happy, happy shower!

It Feels Wonderful!

     The temp now is a balmy 35 and we are expected to get into the high 40's today.  Still expected to drop below freezing for the next couple of nights but the hard freeze warning should pass by noon today. I mentioned in previous posts that I have a portable garage in the back yard. Well, Obviously I didn't cinch the bottom clamps down tight enough and the rain we had became big chunks of ice in where the material was sagging. I've been spending as much time as I can until my hands get too cold trying to beat the chunks into smaller pieces and chucking them into the yard, just to get them off the fabric. I finally finished that project this morning.

     On a side note, I think I've mentioned that I do have an unpleasant little condition known as Reynaud's. Everybody's extremities get cold in cold weather but with Reynaud's it is extreme. Those of us with it take very little cold before out finger and toes turn white from lack of blood. Well, I've been digging in ice water, flinging chunks of ice and lo, and behold! Instead of turning deathly white, my hands have only gotten beet red! I have no idea what this means regarding my circulation condition but I'm happy to see red instead of white fingers after digging in ice water.

     Meanwhile, I am praying hard for the folks in the New England area of the USA. I watch the weather closely on the Weather Channel and local news as well. I have seen some hard freakish weather reports coming from that part of the country.

     I haven't heard any reports on the fires out in California this past week so I don't know the status there. Are they all put put or is Winter Storm Grayson taking all the news and weather time?

     Two things I am sure of...
1    The weather is changing. Maybe not global warming but at least in the USA the weather is getting more extreme
2     Due to #1, grocery prices and most likely, all prices are going to be higher this year than last year.California had a record fire Just the other day I saw that Juneau, Alaska was warmer than Jacksonville, Florida. Meat animals need grass and grain which will be in short supply due to the weather. Fruits and veggies will be in short supply again, due to the weather.

     Even if you live in an apartment, if you have a balcony, it would behoove you to fill a couple of buckets with dirt and grow some container veggies like maters. Even if a bucket garden of maters doesn't help your budget, it will help your state of mind. There is nothing that makes me happier than taking off my shoes and socks and getting out in my gardens.

     Love & peace... Stay warm! I love you all, Merlin
   

New Year's Day 20118

     Today is New Year's Day, 2018 and it is bitter cold out The predicted high for today is only 30 or 32 depending on which source I quote. It was 17 when I was driving home this morning and tomorrow is supposed top be even a couple of degrees lower than that. We are in a deep freeze here in Mississippi, one most natives are not accustomed to. We'll have deep, hard freezing nights petty much all of this week
     Now for the good news... The rain stopped early yesterday so the roads were and are still dry And the glorious news is the Sun has finally come out a bit today. I haven't seen it for 2 days.

     I'm the kind of redneck who can take the heat well into the 90's and even into the triple digits as long as I have 3 things... shade, a fan and some ice cold beer. It has been some 2 decades since I even wanted to venture out when it is cold. What we're having now is what I call ABC, or "Ass Biting Cold".

     At any rate, I am blessed that the roads aren't icy, that I have a cozy home to come to, plenty of fresh, frozen or canned vittles and fresh water. Things I (we?) so often take for granted. I'm gonna make a twist in the traditional New Year's meal of ham hocks, black eyed peas, sliced carrots and some sort of greens. The greens can be (I am told) anything from cabbage to good old Southern collard greens. As much as I like fried cabbage (in bacon grease) I am a collard green eating fool! Anyway, I am rather burned out on ham after Christmas ham eating for the past week and this time of year hocks (which normally can't be given away at the grocery store) are stupid expensive.
     I'm just gonna open a can of black eyed peas, one of sliced carrots to have a bite of each (or two or three) then dump the rest into my soup makings freezer bag. What I'm really feeling the want for is tomato soup and a pimped out grilled cheese sandwich. My pimped soup & sammich recipes follow:

SOUP:
1 family sized can of tomato soup
1 can diced tomatoes and chili peppers
1 soup can milk

SAMMICH:
wheat bread
your favorite sliced cheese
deli sliced ham
bacon (about 90% fried out, not quite crispy but not greasy)
sliced tomato (salted and peppered)
collard greens
just a dab of mayo & mustard