I'm Brilliant

Peanut and I were at the park.  We were running our cars down the slide when I suggested, "Let's race our cars and see which one is fastest."

"That," he said, pausing for emphasis, "is a brilliant idea."

Who Do You Think You Are?

Most of the time, I love the TV program Who Do You Think You Are?  Friday's episode was an interview with a famous, talented, and beautiful actress.  The actress's family was fascinating.  Her ancestors were exemplary people who made fabulous fortunes and took up important causes for the benefit of society.  I liked the actress herself.  Her personality was reserved, and she didn't deck herself out like she was auditioning for a part. Her personal life, though, wasn't one I'd be happy with.  She was living out of wedlock with a man and his son and her daughter. 

As I thought about the actress's impressive roots, I wondered what her ancesters would think of her conduct.  Then I began thinking, "I wonder what my ancestors would think of me."  That thought made me want to cut back on my whining, ramp up my serving, and make progress on my family history project.

The Happiness Project

For book club this month we are reading The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin.  I recommend it.  I downloaded it from Audible.com and really enjoyed listening to it read by the author. 

Enough Already

As you all know I am a Webelos Leader. Most of the boys in my troop live 15 to 20 minutes out of town, so their parents pick them up from school and bring them to scouts in town. Every meeting, except the Clay Arts Guild trips , somebody is late. (When we go the Guild I tell them 4:00 sharp - the Guild means it!) And this irritating.

Another ward holds their cub scouts and activity day the same day of the week that our ward holds these events. People from this ward live in town, so their kids are usually at the church 15 to 20 minutes early waiting for things to start.

EVERY week a nice lady from the other ward walks by my class and say, "Your children aren't here yet?" EVERY week she wants an explanation.
This is VERY irritating, and boring. My explanation is: 1) our children have farther to travel; and 2) some parents just don't care if their kids are late. The explanation never varys. Some kids are late most every week and for those same two reasons. Because I'm already annoyed with the lateness, this repetitive questioning and explaining is boring, tedious, and irritating.

I am considering trying Hermione's suggestion. Hermione suggested that next time the nice lady asks, "Your children aren't here yet?" I should reply in shocked tones, "What! They're not! Your kidding! I thought they were passing of their aquanaut badge in the baptismal font!" Any other suggestions?

Whining

There is no problem so bad that whining about it can't make it worse.

Tired of Being Silent

People who don’t agree with my views think my silence is golden. This week I decided I am fed up with being silent.

I am tired of being silent as people espouse the views that homosexuality is natural and normal and maybe even good. It seems from the liberal media and my liberal friends believe that I not only have to accept it, I have to like it and teach my children and grandchildren to like it too. I don’t want to beat up any one in an alley because of their lifestyle. I don’t want to deny jobs to anyone because of their lifestyle. But I’ll be danged if I think homosexuals should be adopting and raising children - as if children raised in this environment would have much chance of being “straight.” The only certainty for those victimized kids is that they will be mixed up.

Being gay is very popular. Why are gays portrayed on TV as smarter, more “with it”, more attractive, and just a little bit better than heterosexuals if the media hasn’t fallen in lockstep with the gay agenda? Obviously, their agenda is to normalize their aberrant behavior while gathering as many followers as possible. When what someone does in bed is his/her defining characteristic, doesn’t that speak volumes about his/her distorted perspective on life?

Possibly in nature in very rare circumstances a genetic aberration could cause an individual to prefer the same sex. If you look at all mammals, the occurrence would be very rare indeed. Possibly, trauma in the younger years could have the same effect. I can’t tell who cannot help having aberrant preferences and who can. I don’t want to sit in judgment on anyone because I don’t know when it’s a choice and when it is not. But don’t tell me it’s good, healthy, natural, normal, and that I have to like it and embrace it. It's aberrant behavior. That's that.

Pictures to go with the Stories

I thought it might be fun for you to see some pictures of the people in the stories from my last post.

OA Robertson, according to my Dad

OA Robertson, older.

Nellie Byrd - person who wrote some of the stories
John Byrd Jr. and Ina Kincaid's daughter

Nellie Byrd

John Byrd, born 1826

Henry Byrd, John Byrd's oldest born 1849. Person who gave me the picture told me that the photo was taken when Henry was getting the mail.

Henry Byrd, young man.