Posts

Showing posts from May, 2015

and begat a son in his own likeness,

Image
Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: Yesterday my grandson was over. He brought a stack of books for us to look at together. I ignored the Star Wars books, and instead chose a large rather comprehensive nature book with him. It really was quite advanced, going into depth about the different taxonomic ranks: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. I always like to ask my grandchildren questions which make them think. Mikah likes facts. . . facts are comfortable. . . there is security in facts, but facts in of themselves are useless. If thoughts are sentences, then facts might be seen as the nouns. Nouns alone without verbs, adverbs, adjectives, articles, and prepositions do not convey much information. A toddler begins with nouns. . . mama. . . papa. . .cookie. . .dog. . . water. . . A young learner loves facts and he is proud when asked

The Little Nuthatch. . . Mating for Life.

Image
This little fellow was at my bird feeder a few days ago. I love watching the little chorus of nuthatches, titmice, and chickadees which frequent my feeder every season of the year. I wanted to know more about nuthatches, especially about their breeding and nesting habits so I researched them on the Internet. The following is from the Audubon Field Guide: Pairs remain together on nesting territory all year, may mate for life. Courtship behavior begins by late winter. In courtship display, male raises head, spreads tail, droops wings, sways back and forth, and bows deeply. Male also performs much courtship feeding of female. I don’t know exactly why, but this deeply touched my heart. I have come to expect larger birds. . . swans, geese, raptors, etc. to mate for life, but for this to be found in a small songbird greatly effected me. . . I have come to greatly value, 'mating for life.'  In my own life I have experienced first hand the awful effects of divorce. . . o

My Way. . .

Image
From Social Security, I recently received the summary of my wages since I began working. I keep looking at it. Jackie has noticed and commented on my picking it up several times over the past week, and perusing it. . . I takes me back. . . mile stones in my life. . . 45 years of work. . .all on one sheet of paper. . . but each of those years have treasured memories of faces, friends, and travels. . . My first job was as a bag boy at Kelly's grocery store. I made $1.60/hour. For that first year, working after school, I made $1,237. My first year of full time wage after graduating high school in 1972, I made $6,465. I took a considerable pay cut when I went in the army. My first full year there, 1976, I made $4,885. My last full year in the U.S. army, after 3 promotions, I made $6,030. After the Army, my first full year at Speedgrip I made almost 3 times as much, $17,944. I took a big pay cut to go into engineering a couple of years later. 2009 was a trying year with the eco