WHAT IS YOUR WORTH

Do you greet the poor man

As though he was of wealth.

Do you look him in the eye

And treat him with respect,

Or do you turn the other way

And wish that he would go away.

For true worth is not measured

in riches or in fame,

It's measured by

What's in your heart

So can you truly say --

That you are loving and forgiving

Compassionate and kind,

Do you greet the poor man

Or turn the other way?

AND THEN A STRANGER COMES ALONG

Every once in awhile someone comes into your life that has an impact on you. Sometimes it's just for a brief moment. Someone you meet on the street, in a store or maybe in a restaurant, somehow a few words are exchanged and a conversation ensues and you may never see that person again, yet they will return to your mind over the years because in some way they have made an impact. They have indelibly stamped their impression into your mind and you almost wish you could run into them again. You even look for them when you go to that same place hoping you will run into them again but alas they are lost forever.

What about your neighbors, are they all friends? Anywhere you live you are going to have neighbors, some of them you will learn to avoid and others will become friends. There are all kinds of friends. There are the ' hi, how are you' kind and the ' let's get together ' kind and then there is that one special person that comes into your life that becomes a life long friend. The one that you can tell your deepest darkest secrets to and know they won't go any further. The one you laugh with when one of you is happy and cry with when one of you is sad. The kind of friend that becomes more like a relative over the years.
A true friend, a friend to love and cherish.

But can you become friends with someone you have never met? Can you love , can you cherish the friendship of someone you have never seen.

I think Blogspot has made it possible to not only meet new people but make new friends and I think anyone who has ever read a post or a comment can see that bonds can be formed with strangers.
We all have blogs that we stay away from and we all have blogs that we migrate to.

But what makes us migrate to the blogs that we tend to go to? What makes us keep going back? At first it may be just the fact that they wrote something that you found funny or interesting so you go back and back again. But over a period of time people tend to revel a part of their selves and their personality begins to shine through and we begin to not only like their posts, but we begin to like the person behind the post.
Suddenly the stranger is not such a stranger anymore and you find yourself caring about them, even missing them if they are gone to long and hoping that they are alright.

I think it is possible to find a persons personality in their written word and I am so glad to have had the opportunity to have formed these bonds, these friendships, with what used to be strangers. Strangers that have shared a part of their selves with me. Strangers that I have gotten to know and care about. Stangers with happiness, sadness, hopes and dreams.

People that I used to call strangers, I now proudly call friends.

SPAGHETTI

For several years a wealthy man had an affair with
an Italian woman .

One night, during one of their rendezvous, she
confided in him that she was pregnant. Not wanting
to ruin his reputation or his marriage, he paid
her a large sum of money if she would go to Italy
to secretly have the child. If she stayed in Italy
to raise the child, he would also provide child
support until the child turned 18.

She agreed, but asked how he would know when the
baby was born. To keep it discrete, he told her to
simply mail him a post card, and write "Spaghetti" on
the back. He would then arrange for child support
payments to begin. One day, about 8 months later, he
came home to his confused wife.
"Honey," she said, "you received a very strange
post card today." "Oh, just give it to me and I'll
explain," he said. The wife obeyed, and, watched as
her husband read the card, turned white, and fainted.

On the card was written: "Spaghetti, Spaghetti,
Spaghetti. “Two with meatballs, one without."

WOE IS ME

I hope your weekend went better then mine. Up to this point we have had a pretty interesting winter. I have never seen such a mild winter in all the years that I have lived here. Kinda scary, but nice.

When fall first started it was the normal little chill and leaves falling off of the trees, grass began to stop growing, etc. But that only lasted for a very short time.
Mother nature did a quick U-turn and it warmed back up and stayed that way all through winter, even the grass started growing again. It has been like a very warm spring. Highly unusual.

Although we don't get but an occasional snow, it is usually
so cold here that you don't have to mow the lawn until the following spring. The flowers die and the grass puts on it's coat of brown and gets ready to meet the winter, but this year the grass is still growing and I had planned to mow the lawn this weekend and spend some quality time with my grandson since this is spring break and he will be out of school all week. He has some over night plans with some friends during the week so this weekend would have been perfect to do something outdoors together.

Mother Nature just had to throw a monkey wrench into my plans, after we got home from school last Friday, it began getting very cold, then late that night it began to rain -- and rain and rain. I knew some rain had been predicted but good gosh I didn't expect a monsoon. It rained all stinking weekend, not just a little bit, not just a lot either. It poured down like God had opened the heavens and poured all of the rain that he could muster up on this one little area of the world. The ditches, streets and my yard are all flooded and to top it off the water in the little creek has risen so high it is touching the bottom of the bridge. Oh whoopee the bridge is going to flood. That is my only way out of the little road that I live on, so that lets out going to town.

Oh woe is me, all is lost --- or is it ?
What's wrong with some really good quality time at home. Warm and snuggly. Eating good food, making cookies, picking out old movies that we've watched a million times but still love. Making popcorn, talking laughing, enjoying each others company, sounds good to me.

All is not lost, let the rain beat down we are having fun.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Celebrate with some traditional guinness and corned beef and cabbage

The Luck Of The Irish Is

Finding a four-leaf clover
The wearing of green
Kissing the blarney stone


History of the Blarney Stone

The Blarney Stone is a stone set in the wall of the Blarney Castle tower in the Irish village of Blarney. Kissing the stone is suppose to bring the kisser the gift of persuasive eloquence. The legend says that an old woman cast a spell on the stone to reward a king who had saved her from drowning. Kissing the stone while under the spell gave the king the ability to speak sweety and convincingly. It's difficult to reach the stone. Kissers have to lie on their back and bend backward or downward holding Iron bars for support.

And if you catch a Leprechaun he'll have to give the some gold.

hehehe

LET'S TALK ABOUT BLOGGING

I am so ashamed of myself.
I've never been very political, I find politics hard to understand. Oh I try to do my little part but only when it's time to vote for local officials or for a new President.
When it's time to vote for President I do try to become as well informed as I can about the candidates running and vote for who I think will be the best one, or in some years it's not a choice of who will be the best, but who will be the lesser of the two evils.

Now I find myself wondering, what is wrong with me? Where have I been all of my life? I must have been living under a rock not to have noticed what is going on around the world.
Living In my own little world, oblivious of what has been going on in the world around me. Finally seeing and realizing that the freedom that I was born into, that I grew up with and sadly took for granted, some people are still fighting for, longing for, hoping for. Not just in one country but in many countries.

Let me clarify, before someone decides to scold me or bash me, you can save your breathe, I am well aware of the horrible things going on around the world, but I never thought about me and how lucky I was to have this one little thing, this thing that I never gave any thought to, freedom of speech.

Now there is a ban on blogs in Pakistan. I am saddened and it has made me wonder, do other countries ban blogs in certain places and we are just not aware of it and in the future can this someday happen to me? It is something that I never thought about. It is the one thing that I always took for granted. It is my right, but can that right be taken away from me. I'm beginning to think that anything is possible.

I can not imagine being told that I can not do something that I enjoy as much as I enjoy blogging. I can not imagine not being able to talk to people in other countries.

But I can imagine, meeting people from other countries, enjoying their posts, learning of their customs, getting to know them and learning to care about them only to have them snatched away.
Friends -- gone in a blink of an eye. Like a Genie popped out of a bottle and made them invisible over night. I hope that will never happen, at least not in the long term, it would be a terrible loss.

Last year I learned of one of Pakistans holidays, 'Basant Bash', it was wonderful to read about someone else's holidays, the pictures were beautiful. I enjoyed it so much.
This year my daughter read a post from a friend living in the US. He told her of going to Pakistan for the kite festival and he posted pictures. She mentioned it to me and wondered about it. It made me feel good that I was able to tell her that I had learned about it last year. Something I probably never would have learned had it not been for blogging.

Now I wonder about the future. Will things get better or will they get worse. Will I be able to read more stories from Pakistan and other countries around the world in the future. Or will they disappear altogether and if they do, I wonder if my blogger friends will miss me as much as I will miss them.

When I discovered blogging, it opened up a whole new world for me, one that I would not have been able to travel if it were not for blogging.
Blogging has taken me all around the world from one chair. I have met people from many countries and all walks of life. Pakistan, Norway, Canada, Australia, my own United States and the list goes on.

Blogging is nothing more then a way of sharing, a way of learning, a way of getting to know one another. To discuss, debate, and learn from each other.

Blogging helps to bridge the gap between cultures and to take away misconceptions of one another. It helps to take away fears of the unknown and creates compassion.

Yes, blogging can sometimes be misused, but the majority of the blogs are used for good, to create knowledge and understanding, hope and friendship.

What could be better then that.

PAKISTAN HAS BANNED THE BLOGS

I am bewildered, dazed and confused, but most of all disappointed and hurt that Pakistan saw fit to block there own bloggers from posting or even viewing there own and other blogs.

Some of the nicest and most interesting blogs that I thoroughly enjoyed visiting where those from Pakistan.
They were all written by highly intelligent and interesting people. One that I can think of was particularly enjoyable. It had wonderful stories of this persons travels in their own beloved country, Pakistan. Their writing was so descriptive and beautiful that I felt as though I was taking these wonderfully enjoyable trips with them. You will be dearly missed!

There were no blogs that I read from the people of Pakistan that were offensive to their own country, but instead they were informative interesting and helped people like me ,to know of and understand things about there holidays , customs and religious beliefs for which I am very grateful.

For some of us that are not as lucky as others to be able to travel and visit other countries blogging is the only way to get to know each other and try to understand each other. It is a wonderful way for some of us to make new friends around the world. To the government of Pakistan I ask that you please reconsider and allow it to continue.

If only the government of Pakistan could realize that most of their bloggers have helped not hurt their country. They have been the best ambassadors that they could have.

I can only hope and pray that the government of Pakistan in their wisdom, will realize that if this ban has arisen from someone posting something unpleasant, that everyone should not be punished for the actions of one.

And since I have no other way to convey this message I hope that someone, somewhere, someplace with the knowledge or the power that I do not have, will find this post and do something to help.

WOULD YOU LOOK AT THIS

YET ANOTHER NEW DISCOVERY

I think it's beautiful. This new crustacean was found in the South Pacific and resembles a lobster.


It is white, covered with what looks like silky, blond fur.

It is also blind, for whatever the reason it had only "the vestige of a membrane" in place of eyes.

It was found in waters 7,540 feet deep at a site 900 miles south of Easter Island last year but I only just found it on the news today.

It was named Kiwa hirsuta and it was so distinct from other species that they created a new family and genus for it. This species will be named Kiwaida, from Kiwa, the goddess of crustaceans in Polynesian mythology.

Well, if they keep making all of these new discoveries they may find Bigfoot yet.

ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK

Looks inviting doesn't it?

I always thought that if I where invited to use someone's hot tub I'd jump in with both feet without hesitation. I even thought of how nice it would be to have my own someday. But after reading an article on hot tubs and whirlpools I'm not so sure.

A new study about whirlpool bathtubs showed that they can be a breeding ground for a host of disease-causing bacteria. O.K. that's understandable, I'm sure there is a lot of care involved in owning one, but then again you don't know what kind of care that hot tub or whirlpool is getting from it's owner.

A & M University tested 43 water samples from both private and public whirlpool bathtubs. Every tub tested had some kind of microbial growth, and that's without testing for viral infestation.
In 95 percent of the tubs, bacteria derived from feces were present, while 81 percent had fungi and 34 percent contained potentially deadly staphylococcus bacteria. Yuk!

A teaspoon of normal tap water contains about 138 bacteria and many samples are bacteria-free. A teaspoon of whirlpool tub water, on the other hand, contains an average of more than 2 million bacteria.

The interior pipes of whirlpool baths that are not filtered or chemically treated, and non-maintained hot tubs, are prime areas for potentially infectious microbes to congregate and grow. These organisms often form a biofilm - a community of organisms, which work together and are more resistant to cleaners. Resistant to cleaners, Yiiiiks!
When the jets are switched on, the bacteria-packed water gets blown into the tub. "Due to the movement of the water, an aerosol is created that carries these organisms down into your lungs or other orifices.

The bacteria found in whirlpool baths can lead to a number of diseases, including urinary tract infections, skin infections, and pneumonia.
So who is most at risk? "Of course the young and the old and the immunocompromised should not be exposed, including breathing in the aerosol from outside the tub."
Think about it, you can breath in these diseases just by standing next to the tub because they are airborne.

A chemically maintained hot tub should not be a problem to a healthy person (emphasis on healthy) but if you are having recurring infections, consider the tub as a potential source."

Hot tub party? I don't think so, seems like risky business to me, so should that invitation arise I think I'll just have to play it safe and pass.