29 March 2023……wow

I have been watching senate hearings of Secretary Mayorkas. In listening to what he says to the senators I would say he is trying to gas light the senators. 

Wow. How can anyone be as thick as Mayorkas. 

25 March 2023……ohf

Week 4

Make bread every week. 

     Good. We tried putting olive oil in one batch and the second batch butter. I will let you know what I think. 

Floss my teeth daily. 

     Getting better. Most nights I am getting it done lately. 

     

Grow chilli peppers and trees. 

     Everything seems to be growing well. That is the beauty of plants. After they are in the dirt they mostly need water and some plant food. Also, my trees are getting buds. I was worried about the Japanese maple for a while. 

   

Exercise at least every other day. Spend time out of my wheelchair.

     I have decided that spending time out of my wheelchair includes standing up. It works all the muscles in my body. So standing works so many muscles. Never realized. 

     

Help Hildete study English, at least one hour every day. Help her learn enough English so she can get a job as she would like and so she can go to the nail salon by herself. 

     I am really trying but it seems to be hard to work with her. She studies duo lingo a lot. But other things she is a very hard to work with. We did finally get her social security card so she could get a job. The problem is most people around here speak English or Spanish. Portugese is a one off. I’m at a loss. Any suggestions?

Work on money daily at least five minutes; budgeting, planning, or accounting, where did the money go, daily and make sure I am saving. Learn to be a good Jew, about money. 

     I am going to choose one day a week that I work on budgeting for NEXT month. Money  management and planning is very important. I just hate how much things cost. The inflation over the past year or so. Getting some things paid down is not the easiest. Also, we have been running around so much this week it is hard to do things. 

Avoid Television as much as possible, listen to audio books, or spend time writing.

     I have been having a hard time avoiding the gravitational suck of black hole caused by the television. 

Learn poker. Several different games and help my wife and children learn it. 

    I have been lazy most this week and not wanting to do anything. 

Study gospel topics, Book of Mormon, General conference, Old Testament, New Testament, Doctrine & Covenants.

    I need to spend more time with the scriptures. That is why I need to avoid TV, YouTube and other black holes. 

Like I said running around a lot. One dentist appointment. One orthodontist appointment. One oral surgeon appointment. One appointment with the primary care doctor. One sleep study. This has been a busy week. 

Plus on top that we have to ride the bus most places. I have a car. But I don’t have a license. My wife is finally able to do her driver’s course now that she has her social security card, the biggest speed bumb is the course is in Spanish. Spanish and Portuguese are similar, not the same. 

I am so confused at how some people think that humans are just animals. I agree that humans and animals have similar characteristics, but saying that a human is “related” to any of the countless animals is a leap of faith at best, and a leap in the wrong direction. 

I agree that animals can share similar attributes to humans. That doesn’t mean I or anyone is related to a great ape or anything else.  

Most of the sciences have evolved into humanistic religions that try to convince everyone that they are the only “true” religion. 

In order to convince people that they are not a “religion” is by not calling themselves a religion. Religion is a type of dirty word now days.  As an example, I can say “fuck” and almost no one will bat an eye. If I say “religion” I have commented a sin and must be chastised in most society. 

In recent days, I want a house. I personally like my apartment in many ways. My wife thinks we should have a house. My children think the same thing. I don’t know if my stepson wants a house. 

The fact that I use a wheelchair and don’t drive adds a layer of difficulty that most people will never understand. I would like to have many things close. At the same time I want to live set apart from a city. 

In many ways I like London, England because it is more walkable than other cities I know. The only city in the US, that I know, with similar walkability is New York. Living in New York seems like you are playing with your life, you have a death wish. Plus you add how expensive it is. No thank you. As lack luster as my life is, I seriously question anyone that wants to be there to live or anything. I wonder how miserable your life has become to have a man who had a stroke and uses a wheelchair feel sorry for you. That sounds almost condescending. Sorry if you take it that way. 

18 March 2023…..so a thought

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/10/31causse?lang=eng

I was reading this conference talk and the impression came, that our bodies are NOT our own. God has loaned us “our” bodies. For the time being they are his. Someday he will give them to us. When and how, I have no idea. 

That gives me insight when King Benjamin says, “I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.” Book of Mormon, Mosiah 2:21

For the time being “my” body in not my body.  Everyone’s body is on loan for the time being. 

I could try to explain further,but I would just confuse everyone. 

17 March 2023……why can’t life pause

Week 3

Make bread every week. 

      Good. We didn’t use as much this week. I might be doing it tomorrow. 

Floss my teeth daily. 

     This is hard and I don’t know why. Maybe I need to do it earlier. 

     

Grow chilli peppers and trees. 

      Good I had a friend from church help my get my lemon and Japanese maple repotted. 

   

Exercise at least every other day. Spend time out of my wheelchair.

      I am not exercising like I think I should be. I did have the idea that I need to practice getting out of my chair and back in. That is the hardest part for me. If I get used to doing just that it would get easier. Then I might not be so scared about out of my chair. 

     

Help Hildete study English, at least one hour every day. Help her learn enough English so she can get a job as she would like and so she can go to the nail salon by herself. 

      I really wanted to help the other day. She would not work with me the way she had before. What do you do. She has been walking around and saying phrases and words in English. Im glad to see/hear her trying stuff. 

Work on money daily at least five minutes; budgeting, planning, or accounting, where did the money go, daily and make sure I am saving. Learn to be a good Jew, about money. 

     I would like to say I am great here. I do ok. I need to read/listen to more audio books. I have been listening to one. I personally think that money is extremely important and the Lord wants us to learn to be a blessing to others. We can contribute to organizations that help, and we should. But we need to learn to help the “widow” that has given all. In many ways me need to evaluate daily, weekly, monthly, how we can help. Maybe we can’t help at times. That’s ok. 

Avoid Television as much as possible, listen to audio books, or spend time writing.

     So I am spending time writing now. Audio books are wonderful. I just can’t seem to pull myself away from the  TV. I started watching a program last night. I could tell I didn’t have any real interest in it. The TV was on to be on. I don’t understand that. 

Learn poker. Several different games and help my wife and children learn it. 

    I’ve tried to play on my iPad. I have been lack luster this week. 

Study gospel topics, Book of Mormon, General conference, Old Testament, New Testament, Doctrine & Covenants.

    I have fallen off the horse the past few days. I did read a conference talk. 

I went with my son to get my car inspected. We went and got the inspection done. For a minute I was not happy about my car. It is 11 years old and it’s not made anymore. The one man was beyond confused. Another man was more than willing to be helpful. But everything got inspected and oil changed and fluids topped off. 

Then we went to the grocery store and I was able to pay for my registration. In and out. We decided to get my son his favorite juice. Still if we were there 10 minutes, that was a long time. If you don’t have an HEB as your grocery store, you are deprived. To say I love HEB would be an understatement. The world definitely needs more of them. 

The other thing, my step son had to get a 3D X-ray. Apparently that is a thing now. We spent more time finding the office than having the X-rays taken. My wife and I were filling out the paperwork. They ask if he would like to go. He went and was done before we had finished filling out the paperwork. then we paid and headed out. I called my son who drove. He was amazed we were done. That was an amazing day. Things getting done so fast. 

I was watching a movie about Pompeii. I got me thinking about life generally. 

Life is an experience. No real fair or unfair. Good and bad, yes. I say that because I believe that this life is just a small part of a greater whole. 

We don’t have to understand everything. 

Tsunami. Just an experience 

Hurricane. Just an experience. 

Volcano. Just an experience. 

Lots of our experiences are less than fun. 

This week I had a wonderful experience with lots of things going better than I wanted. I have had plenty of experiences that were not what I wanted. For example, going to the Social Security office. Not fun. 

In an instant our experience could be cut short. Not specifically good or bad. Just reality. 

Pompeii happened. People where going about there lives; buying bread, or fruit. Selling bread or fruit. Going about there lives. Then everything changed. Not because any one person or group of people did anything. The mountain/volcano erupted. Life happens. It doesn’t stop. 

9 March 2023…….life is dumb.

Two weeks

Make bread every week. 

If I didn’t have my wife to help I would be in trouble. 

Floss my teeth daily. 

It is harder to do than you would think. 

     

Grow chilli peppers and trees. 

It is so cool to see the leaves coming out on on the trees and the chilis starting. 

   

Exercise at least every other day. Spend time out of my wheelchair.

     I have been running around a lot the past couple days. I need to get something so I don’t have to be on the floor to exercise. It was so hard getting off the floor last time I was out of my chair. 

     

Help Hildete study English, at least one hour every a day. Help her learn enough English so she can get a job as she would like and so she can go to the nail salon by herself. 

     I don’t know why this is so difficult for us this week. 

Work on money daily at least five minutes; budgeting, planning, or accounting, where did the money go, daily and make sure I am saving. Learn to be a good Jew, about money. 

     Good. This seems easier than other times. 

Avoid Television as much as possible, listen to audio books, or spend time writing.

  I have been so tired I feel like I have to watch TV so I don’t fall asleep. Falling asleep during the day and hurts. 

Learn poker. Several different games and help my wife and children learn it. 

     My children and I played 21/black jack. For dimes. Then I divided everything I “won” between them. It is interesting to watch them play. They say they don’t like it. I think they do like it. Especially because it’s not as hard as they thought it would be. 

Study gospel topics , Book of Mormon, General conference, Old Testament, New Testament, Doctrine & Covenants.

     I’m doing well at reading general conference talks. The others seem like more of a chore. 

So one thing that I want to do is blade making. 

In my apartment I don’t have an area that I could do that. At the moment I would have to go somewhere else.

I have thought of a couple of different styles I could do. I would need a jig either way. I don’t know what I would do for a knife handle. 

First I need a location where I could do anything. So until/unless I find a location I will be studying. 

That said, although I find the end product of bladesmithing amazing, trying to study everything that goes into it is less interesting. Maybe I don’t realize the amount of interest I do have because I study more than I realize. 

In other news I have been watching FOXnews and looking at the January 6 footage. I find it interesting that much of what is shown contradicts what has been said. Then so many people and news outlets are in some kind of hysteria about the footage. 

There are so many stupid options about everything. That’s why I like to focus on something I can do something about, like growing my chilis and my trees. I can watch them grow and just not worry about the garbage in life.