Psalms 25:6-7

Psalms 25:6-7
6     Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindnesses;
for they have been ever of old.
7     Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions:
according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.

Kari read this to me last night and I spent a lot of time today thinking about these verses.The two parts that touched me were:

"O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy loving-kindness"
and
"Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions"

"Lord's tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ." (David A. Bednar - April 2005)

Every day I pray to the Lord and ask, "Oh Lord, please try not to remember how stupid I was as a young person."...I wish I knew then what I know now...Life would have been very different for me.

I remember when Tim was about 12 or 13, he went with me to the LA Temple. I went in for a couple of hours and Tim hung around outside, tormenting the newly-wed brides and watching movies in the Visitor's Center. On our way home I stopped to get gas. Tim went inside the store and I filled up. As I filled up a VERY skuzzy- looking woman came up to me and gave some cock and bull story and said she needed money for blah blah blah. I told her to go away and buzz off. She walked away and all of a sudden it hit me, "What if her story were true and she surely was in trouble and needed cash for blah blah blah." I stopped pumping gas, took about 10 steps over to her and gave her $10. I returned and continued pumping the gas. After we drove off, Tim asked me why I had, "given that woman some money," (he had watched me out the window of the store). I told him that she needed money for blah blah blah and I felt the Spirit move me to give her some money. Tim said, "she went onto the store and bought cigarettes and a couple of beers. Dad," he continued, "you gave her money for tobacco and alcohol." I thought about this for a couple of minutes and then told Tim, "I did as I have been taught to do...Christ has taught us to help the poor and the needy...I acted in a Christ-like manner...the burden is off my shoulders...and onto hers...someday she will have to account for the fact that she didn't use the money for blah blah blah...I can hold my head erect and report to the Lord that I obeyed His commandment that said, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you..." Tim and I drove on chatting about this and that and other things.

About 45 minutes later, we were driving down this windy road (Garlock Road), when all of a sudden there was a car screeching around the bend up ahead... in my lane!!! As the car swerved back into its own lane and passed me, I saw that it was filled with laughing teenagers and moving at least 30 MPH over the maximum speed. I slammed on the brakes, as I rounded the bend, and came to a stop. All of a sudden it occurred to me...the amount of time that I had missed being in a head-on collision was equal to the time that I had spent walking over to the skuzzy woman, giving her the money and returning to the gas pump.

Happenstance luck or tender mercy of the Lord????

I know what I believe...and you'll never convince me otherwise.

I believe that only through the tender mercies of the Lord, I remain on this Earth to tell you this story.

Obama vs. McCain vs. Barbie

[caption id="attachment_144" align="alignnone" width="490" caption="Obama T-Shirts"][/caption]

So I ask you.... If Obama is so popular....Why do you have to buy a T-Shirt (at $16.99 each) to show you're voting for him? Shouldn't he give you a free shirt to win your support.

It's kind of like the age old question....If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy friends to play with her????

The Brothers Boisvert (cont.)

While continuing our investigation into the Brothers Boisvert notorious family crime organization, a very telling picture of Frank Boisvert was found in the Shreveport Air Force Base Police picture archive. Mr. Boisvert was detained in 1999, when it was learned that he was intimately familiar and deeply involved with the movement of many Weapons of Mass Destruction. While the people in charge were fast asleep, Mr. Boisvert and three of his co-conspirators would enter the "Load Barn" and remove weapons that they had been directed to remove for their diabolical plans. After being detained, for a long period of time, Mr. Boisvert was released, without bond or criminal indictment. Mostly because of very circumstantial evidence being used against him.

[caption id="attachment_137" align="alignnone" width="412" caption="Frank Boisvert mug shot taken during his detainment in 1999."][/caption]

Please rest assured that the investigation into this crime organistation called The Brotheres Boisvert, will be continued until every one of their dark secrets are reveled and reported.

Want To See My Magic Wigglee?

I asked my sons Tim and Frank if they wanted to see a picture of my magic wigglee?

One called me a "Pervert" and the other threatened to call the police and have me arrested.

So I ask you, my faithful blog readers.....

Do you want to see a picture of my magic wigglee?

Look further down the page.....

.....further down .....

.....further.....

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[caption id="attachment_132" align="alignnone" width="490" caption="My magic wigglee"][/caption]

ID This Picture ... Win A Burger

[caption id="attachment_129" align="aligncenter" width="490" caption="ID This Picture And Win A Burger"][/caption]

So starts the 1st Periodic "ID This Picture And Win A Burger" Contest. The rules are simple ... Identify this exact location and I will buy you a burger. (Contest closed to Kari!!!).

The Brothers Boisvert

Ridgecrest, CA (AP) This normally quiet desert town was jolted awake this past weekend to the announcement of the landmark resolution between the notorious Boisvert brothers. (See “Landmark Resolution in Local Family’s BMW Hullabaloo”)

These brothers were brought up in a typical middle-class family but decided to take the path of a criminal syndicate. Following these brothers’s history is like watching a TV mini-series about the Mafia-gone-crazy.

There have been numerous run-ins with the law for the brothers Boisvert. They have racked up many clashes with the law including firearms and explosives violations, indecent exposure, dumping of toxic wastes and public intoxication. It has been rumored that they prefer “younger” females and make no secret of their preferences. This behavior seems to be “normal” for them. The older bother, Frank, has even been overheard stating, “Yeah, so what if she is young…It’s no big deal, as a matter of fact she’s pregnant with my child.” It brings back images of Jerry Lee Lewis in his younger days.

The younger brother, Tim Boisvert, has made several suspicious overseas trips this past year. He has shuttled between Europe, India and southeastern Asia several times. When his family and friends were questioned about these trips they admitted, “We have no idea what Tim does when he’s over there.” It has been rumored that his trips involved drug running and illegal overseas shipment of advanced technology arms to organizations unfriendly with USA foreign policies. Unfortunately Tim has managed to stay one step ahead of his investigators.

Frank Boisvert, the older brother, has had his background investigated several times, in the past dozen years, by federal authorities, but nothing significant has been revealed. Through “Yellow-Dog Politics,” this brother has managed to cover his tracks and elude prosecution.

The “Landmark Resolution” article makes reference to “local resident” Steve McGee. Mr. McGee is actually Glenn A. Brownlee of Rexburg, ID, where he is posing as a student at a major university. Brownlee is living with his “wife” and will soon be moving. Could they too be trying to flee the police? In addition to the “McGee” alias, Brownlee has also gone by the pseudonyms Gladys O’Mally, Schmooglie Poo and Googly Bear. His exact involvement in the Boisvert brothers crime syndicate is unknown at this time.

The items of the “Landmark Resolution” article indicated that the brothers agreed that Tim Boisvert would be acknowledged as the “first owner of a BMW in the Boisvert/Brownlee family. This acknowledgment is completely untrue. A check of DMV (California) records indicated that the Boisvert brother’s father, a Mr. Robert Boisvert of Ridgecrest) owned a BMW a least 20 years before Tim Boisvert claim to fame. The BMW was gray in color and used by the young and troubled Boisvert brothers as a flogging device on trips to desolate desert locations.

The “Landmark Resolution” also acknowledged that Frank Boisvert was the more superior driver of all vehicular except sail-boats. When this question was verified with Robert Boisvert, patriarch of the Boisvert/Brownlee clan, he indicated that if his son Frank was a good and superior driver, “It’s because I taught him everything he knows about driving a car.”

Mr Robert concluded the interview by stating that the part of the article that upset him the most was the reference to his “penis” truck. I would prefer in the future, Mr. Boisvert said, “If they were going to reference my truck, they should have refered to it as a “BIG, LONG, RED, hard bodied” penis truck.”

It is obvious that this it NOT the last time we’ve heard from these infamous brothers.

Navy Uniform

While Kari and I were tele-dating (before I flew to Norway and she swept me off my feet), she delicately asked me...knowing that I had served to hitches in the Navy... Does your uniform still fit? "Heck," I said, "The only part of my uniform that still fits are the socks." In a heartbeat she said, "Maybe it's time to give the top back to Donald Duck :-)"

Whenever she sees a picture of me in my Navy dress-blues she calls it my "Donald Duck Suit."

Submarine Sea Story (1)

I was stationed at Pearl Harbor for two years in '72/'74....USS Tautog (SSN639). Believe it or not but I was a diesel mechanic. HUGH Fairbanks-Morse ND 8 1/8" opposed piston monster. There's a picture at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Opposed_piston_engine_1.jpg of the same model engines on a boat (USS Pampanito)....she had two engines and the Tautog had one. Those were crazy days. I went there as a "lost" 19 year old and left as a 21 year old husband. Worked 14 hour days and every 3rd day a "stay on the boat for 24 hours day" duty day) when we were in port. That's when I did some really dumb youthful things that I have spent a lifetime trying to forget. ;-)

In '72, the CO made us disconnect the "starter" system (high pressure air), before we went into places we didn't belong doing things that shouldn't have been done...so there was no way the diesel could be "accidentally" started since its noise would have given us away in a second...scariest hours of my life. I remember shaking I was so scared.

I'm afraid that were it to happen NOW I would say to the captain "Please let me off the boat" if they announced we were sneaking into an enemy harbor today. I've become very cautious in my old age.

In '74 I changed my job from mechanic to Sonar Technician and that's where I learned electronics, digital electronics and "computer repair." I was "trained" about computers on a BiTran-6 trainer. http://www.iavalley.cc.ia.us/~thatcher/bitransix.jpg I don't remember much about it, except we programmed it in machine code and punch-tape. It had like 1k of memory and we were SUPER impressed with "all that memory." When I got to my next boat (USS John Adams SSBN620) our sonar computer had 64k and I remember thinking..."What are we going to do with all that memory!!!!" We used it to calculate the speed and path of sound in the water.

In my pre-married days I was a hard charger. I would work all day in port and after work was over and before we could leave the boat I would go in the head and scrub with Lava soap up to about 3 inches above the wrist bone. Then I'd scrub my head, face and hair...all this at the sink. We had to go on liberty in dress uniform (you know, the Donald Duck sailor suit? Only I wore pants.) we'd party until 0200 or 0300 and then get back to the boat and crash until 0600. (The bunks had vinyl covers that zipped up over the matrice and sheets...so you could lay on the bed and not stain the sheets from your dirty greasy bodies. We'd get up exhausted and hung-over and yet work a full day...just to do the same thing over again that night. On the third day we had to stay onboard the boat over night (called "having the "Duty"), so that was when we would properly shower, eat a decent meal and get a good night's sleep....unless you had "guard duty" from midnight until 0400. :-( In the six months between the time I reported aboard and when we went into the shipyards we were in port like 20 days. There was no alcohol allowed on the boat (Navy commandment!!!!) So when we were at sea we had to sober up and fly straight. So when we were in port we felt we had a lot of partying and drinking to make up for.

Trust me... I DO NOT miss those days.

Saturday and Sunday was "stand-down" and there was minimal work on the boat while it was in port. So if you had "duty" on Friday you would have Saturday and Sunday off and didn't have to report back to the boat until 0700 Monday morning.

I started drinking Saturday morning at like 0900 and pretty soon everything goes fuzzy. The next thing I specifically remember was being woken up at 0600 in the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room behind the #1 Oxygen Generator, face up on the floor. My uniform was cut and ripped, my shoe laces were missing, my wallet was missing (I found it later devoid of money) and I had a HUGH bruise on my right chin/cheek. I found out later that I had gone to a strip club and got punched by the dancer when I tried to tuck a dollar bill into her g-string...from the wrong direction.

After that experience I pretty much swore off drinking hard alcohol and would rarely even have a beer. I quit drinking all alcohol in about 1978... A year before I got out of the navy.

Chicks Are into Closets and Men are into Entertrainment Systems

In the "Comment: section" of the last post our friend "D" commented, "That closet is AWESOME. Did you design it or did you use something like ClosetMaid?

Kari designed it with the help of IKEA. We talked about it for a long time and we decided that if we were going to do it, it would be a dream closet.  She got an IKEA catalog and studied it and went through about 43 ka-gillion revisions and then she got on the computer/phone and found out which stores had which pieces.

We then had an IKEA day where we went to three different S. Cal. IKEAs and brought it all home in my truck.  We also picked up about a ton of garden rocks. Needless to say the truck was VERY top-heavy that night. We (with the help of our young friend Emery) unloaded everything into the garage. The INSTANT the contractor put the finishing touches on the closet we started pushing him out the door,  The we started dragging stuff in and building. It took about 15 hours total over three days. We then sat on the floor and enjoyed our handy-work. We invite people to see our remodel. The men all look at the entertainment alcove and the ladies all head straight to the closet. Whoever said men are from Mars and women are from Venus really hit the nail on the head.

 

The most amazing thing about the closet project is my darling wife. We built the closet in the highest part of summer heat, shoulder to shoulder, sweating like a couple of pigs...and we didn't exchange a single cross word to each other. She's an amazing woman. She'd catch my mistakes and I'd catch hers....Then we'd laugh and fix it.

 

Life is sweet with Kari. :-)

What an amazing woman that I'm married to.

Remodel

After six glorious months the Boisvert "Garden and Bedroom Remodel" is almost (99%) complete.

Here is a link to the pictures. (Kari ***LOVES*** the closet (I call it the "Chick Closet") and we spend a lot of mornings and evenings sitting on the patio watching and listening to the waterfall.)

BTW... In March we went to San Diego and while there we went to two plant nurseries. We wanted to buy a potted Bird of Paradise. All the people at both nurseries told us that the BofP would NEVER grow in the desert...too much heat.

We bought it any way and we have been attending to it all summer. We named the plant "Birdie." Birdie has been sending up new leaf shoots all summer so we know the heat was NOT doing her in... Two weeks ago two new shoots came up that looked different. Kari observed to me one day..."I think Birdie is sprouting two flowers." I am proud to announce that Birdie's first flower opened today.

Kari and I would like to announce the opening of our first grand-baby-flower. No name yet but it is an incredible orange, blue and green flower. I will send picture and statistics later.

....and they said it couldn't be done!!!!!

PS... Thank you Russ Hurst for all your dedicated work. :-)

New Growth

It's not unusual for the C-Diff bug to take two or three med cycles to kill off. It happens 15% of the time. I think it is very resilient to even the strongest anti-bacterial/anti-parasitic meds. If even ONE bacteria/parasite get's past the meds it only takes a short time for it to build another colony.

I have become very "concerned" about anti-biotics over this whole incident. From now on I will not take another "broad spectrum" antibiotic...I'll just wait for the culture to come back. On my last visit with the specialist I asked him to rate the severity of my illness. He said, "You had a mild to medium case of C-Diff Colitis." I said, "THAT was a mild to medium case? What happens with a SEVERE case?" Without even blinking he replied, "I take your colon out." :-(

I feel that I've grown from this incident and that I have learned several "life lessons" from this. My mother died of breast cancer that metastasized into the stomach. She fought it for five years. The last year of her life was miserable and horrible. The Lord granted me the tiniest taste of what she went through. :-(