It's Saturday: spooky

This guy is spooky! And it is in our back yard here in Yakima. It scares me every morning when I go to the patio with my morning coffee. And I don’t scare easily! But it’s a beast! It’s an Alaskan Weeping Cedar. The other two types of spooky trees here in Yakima are the Green Arrow Alaskan Cedar and the Weeping Sequoia which all have the same nickname, Spooky!

This “It’s Saturday” could be like most books, maybe toooo long and maybe fails to find an audience! I’m just amazed why you read “It’s Saturdays.” I think it’s ‘cause I write about what you folks say; you are very interesting alright (i.e. some of you are really characters like right out of the comic books, some even spooky)! I have no idea if your stories are true! But I just write what you say!

ItchieBitche says”—I like “It’s Saturdays” ‘cause you don’t write grit-lits, you know the stuff that is all alike like my beer’s hot, my girl’s cold, my dog’s dead, my truck won’t start, I need a job but I’d rather drink, mama’s on pills, daddy’s in prison, etc. That gets pretty boring after a while (i.e. like IA football)! But did you know ItchieBitche that romantic trash books are the best-selling books? I have been told that they are about all the same, but the authors just change the characters a little and where it’s at, but they are all pretty much about smut and sex. And women can’t get enough of them. I talked to a volunteer librarian at our 55+ community a.k.a. Jeanne where we winter in AZ and she said—Yes, even old ladies like them! Spooky huh!

The fight is never fair when one side has the power and the money it seems. Spooky but probably as real as those spooky trees.

RickyRick says—"It’s rare to find someone who’s earnest about seeking God. Most of us want just enough of God to bless us, but not to change us.” Is that spooky or what! Robert, anyone can be a Robert, says—"We must be good news before we can share the good news.” In other words, we have little or no positive impact with what we say, regardless of how true we are if we don’t live our life that way.” Zig Zigler says—“The psalmist Asaph was so angry he couldn’t see straight! He felt that he had been given a bum deal: Evil people were flourishing, but he had followed God and was struggling. It wasn’t fair! He lashed out at God, and he sulked in self-pity. He doesn’t tell us exactly what he said to God, but we can be sure that it wasn’t pretty because he described himself as ‘a beast.’” But later Asaph figures it out. If you are interested, read Psalm 73:16-17. Easy way is to just Goggle it or ask Siri to find it for you!

Have you ever done stupid things? Maybe some were even pretty spooky! It appears that no matter how smart we are, how much money we have, how much education we have, how old we are, what kind of vehicle we have, etc., we seem to all have done stupid stuff! How about, did we do anything stupid yesterday? hahaha Little kids can do stupid stuff when they have their Halloween costume on as no one knows who they are! But what are we going to do; we have no Halloween costumes! Saturday question—Have any of you folks done something stupid that you wish you would not have done? Ouchy ouchy! I have a pretty long list! FlipThePancake! All of us have done some really good stuff also. Don’t forget those!

We were waiting at Costco to get our flu and COVID shots. A guy walked up and asked if we were in line. I said, no no, we are just in the line to get shot up! He then went on to tell us that he had surgery for cancer, and they opened him up and he was full of cancer (i.e. metastatic cancer). The doctors said that they could treat him for a year, but it will be really hard and brutal and if we are successful you might live another month. He decided not to do it and just live his life out. We said—You seem to have a very good attitude—I do, I enjoy life and have accepted my situation. His wife who was a nurse came by and was also very positive (i.e. we wondered why). Is that spooky to any of you? We talked about what we would do if we were in his situation. We really didn’t decide.

An old codger in our coffee group who is a great raconteur said that he has been soooo lucky in his life. But the luckiest thing I did was to marry my wife. If I wouldn’t of, I probably would have fallen off a bar stool and killed myself. Another senior said this about her husband to Jeanne—He can remember all the details of a basketball game he played in high school, but I send him to the grocery store to get bananas and apples and he comes home with peaches and pears. Another senior lady in our group told me that she believes only about 10% of what I say! We hang around with some spooky folks alright. What a hoot!

We borrowed Jeanne's sisters and brother-in-law’s e-bikes and rode them on the bike trail along the Yakima River. We have never ridden e-bikes before soooo it was a new experience. Something that we noticed was that there were homeless folks who were camping along the bike trail. Jeanne said that the trial has been a great addition to the Valley, but it has also produced some problems (i.e. such as crime) that have caused many folks not to use it. Spooky, huh! We were told that two popular injury activities for seniors are pickleball and riding e-bikes. Yikes!

We are uniquely different now aren’t we. Some of us might even think that others seem spooky as they aren’t like us. Crazy huh! CoachB says —If we do what they do, we will get what they got. The question is—Do we want to be like them and get what they got! Saturday question—Who do we want to be like? It appears that many times we don’t want to put in the work it takes to be like them; we would rather take the easy way out and will accept getting the same results that we are getting now and have been getting. Spooky! SusieQ says—We will either have the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Such is life.

I read this in one of my early morning devotions that made me think—"Saul is one of the saddest examples of what happens to a great person because of self-orientation rather than God-orientation” according to Kent, anybody can be a Kent. I really made me think of which orientations run my life. I think I have many and yes one is self-orientation. Saul was obsessed with self-orientation, and it ruined his life. I think all of us need to be aware of self-orientation sooo it doesn’t become a self-destruction of our lives. I read in a novel recently that the folks were just talking past each other (i.e. only just thinking of themselves when talking to each other). Now that is a good example of self-orientation, my opinion. Sounds rather spooky!

A spooky quote: “Of all the virtues we can learn no trait is more useful, more essential for survival, and more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge.” ―Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

VelvetElvis says—Many messages from the past deal with possessions and meals and generosity. They display that people are rarely persuaded by arguments, but more often by experiences.