Ok,



I love to go camping!!! I also enjoy fishing!!! If I could combine the two, what a happy man I would be. This past Labor Day weekend we spent at the beautiful and under utilized Kankakee River State Park. My reason for this post is to just say that I am the most blessed man in the world. We were able to spend some time with two of three kids (who happen to live in the area). We aslo got to spend time with my in-laws on Saturday. They came down and spent the afternoon and evening with us eating chili cheese dogs on the grill, beer bratwurst and watermelon. We also played "bags" well into the night under the romantic glow of the "Malibu Lights".



The weather could not have been better, and to top things off.....my wife, son and I were able to go to church with my daughter and her husband. What a treat!



So..DO I like camping? Yes, but maybe it's all of the fringe benefits that go with it that makes it so enjoyable.



Just a thought.

I've decided to "BLOG"

When I was a kid, the word "blog" (if it was even a word back then) would've most likely been associated with feeling ill. I admit that I don't always get the 'lingo" correct in this electronic age. To tell someone that you are going to write on their wall was absurd in the sixties, that usually meant graffiti. Today , people look forward to getting something on their wall. go figure. Well how about bits and bytes of information. What is that all about? Or better yet, all of the acronyms. TCP/IP, SMTP, SMB, FTP, what???? It can be very confusing not to mention so exhausting.

I do however find this very ironic. I teach basic computer skills, isn't that funny? I write this not to bash the computer age but to just help us remember that maybe, just maybe, less is more.

Think about it.

Pre-50

As I sit here contemplating turning 50, I am struck with many thoughts. Some good, some not so good.



I have seen many changes in this brief period of time.



Just in my lifetime we have been to the moon and back! Just think about that. The moon, that was a distant futuristic thought when I was a kid. There was no way this could happen, yet I remember that warm July night in Florida, 1969. My dad pulled the car over and made us look up at the moon as he explained "there really is a man on the moon". Unbelievable!



I remember computers that took data cards, and were as big as a garage, and yet now we have them in the smallest of devices. They are in the smallest of devices and powerful beyond comprehension.



I have seen a young boy, who had traveled all over the United States with his family, who was wild at heart and untameable, not only settle down, but raise a family that has far exceeded his dreams for them.



I have also seen the bad side of life in this short time as well.



I Have seen the Vietnam war start and end, and how we as a country treated those soldiers which such disdain as they returned.



I have seen the assassination of a President (JFK), his brother(RFK) and Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr. The attempted assassinations of two other Presidents(Ford and Reagan)



I have seen the World Trade Towers fall at the hand of terrorists. Something i thought would never touch America.



These are just a few observations that are running through my brain. I will save the others for another blog.



The one constant through all of these thoughts listed above is that my God is still control of the good, the bad and the ugly. Amen