Covid, Take Two

Yep. Mr Covid got 'aholt' of me again.

It has seemed a bit worse case this time. I really feel all of seventy-five years old right now.

But the disease has followed a similar pattern:

• a day or so of misery (fever/congestion/cough) till I got the Paxlovid
• the meds knocked the fever out immediately
• the other symptoms gradually got better. 
• an extremely bitter yucky taste for the duration of the meds. 

I was apparently Covid-free for 36 days after testing negative on a home test after the first bout on July 22 and again on July 24. When Sheila developed a cold we both got tested at the public testing site at the Fairgrounds on August 18 and were both negative. 

I felt sure I was coming down with the same cold a few days later. I took a home test again on August 27. I was so unconcerned about it being Covid that I didn't think to look at the strip till Sheila walked Ito the room and noticed the positive result!

Ugh!

And on a weekend again. Unlike the first time, this time it took the doctor's answering service hours to get through to the doctor on call; my wonderful doctor was not available this time. But a doctor did finally call and prescribed the meds. It was way past our pharmacy's closing hour when that happened. We had to drive through the 24 hour CVS out on Martha Berry Blvd near the by-pass to pick up the meds at about midnight. I was concerned that I felt worse, I thought, and had more congestion and a deeper cough and had run a fever for about 24 hours.  But when I woke up the next morning the fever was gone and the symptoms were less dramatic.

At this point I have one more day of Paxlovid. I will be very glad to rid myself of this disgusting taste, but I am so glad that, if I had to have the disease twice, both cases were when Paxlovid was available. The concoction is evidently made of equal parts battery acid and porcine excrement. It works but it ain't tasty.

I don't know whether this case is a "rebound" or a new infection. Sheila has managed to avoid it still and continues to spoil me rotten while enforcing my quarantine strictly.  When I suggested I do a little light yard work and get some sun and exercise, she put her foot down and insisted I stay in the AC and rest. 

So, we lost a week of our CA trip but managed to persuade Delta to postpone one week. We will --- knock on wood --- fly out Tuesday the sixth, stay in Vista a few days then attend a music festival in Bishop CA with all the Carlins, then fly back to GA with Brannon & the girls for a week, then John will join us for a few days in Mexica Beach before they fly home. So we septuagenarians will have a very busy four weeks.

Since our grandkids have a "countdown chain" that gets shorter each day till we arrive, we decided we needed to have one too:

 

Mother Had the Measles

My mother had measles when she was a baby. She'll be 96 in a few weeks. Her three-year-old brother had measles at the same time. The same measles Mama has survived for nine and a half decades killed her brother before he turned 4. My grandmother kept Leon's little shoes in her cedar chest till the day she died. She had no picture of him. She said his hair was a light brown like Tom and Jack not red like Charlie or Grice. Had Leon survived measles he would likely have been gone like all five of his older brothers by now. If not he would turn 100 this October. Even long life is short from my current perspective.

John Franklin Enders "The Father of Modern Vaccines"

My first cousin Lavay is only ten years younger than his Uncle Leon. He and my high school friends David and Robert were all crippled by polio. I got the vaccine. The polio forced Robert to spend most of his short life in bed and killed him before he turned 20. David has spent his life hobbling around, remarkably well, on crutches. Lavay managed despite a bad limp to walk all his adult life thanks to leg shortening surgeries as a little kid. David and Lavay both are now dealing with greatly reduced mobility due to the horrible effects of post-polio syndrome. I managed to avoid the disease long enough to take the vaccine in the mid-fifties along with all my classmates. And I have been awfully grateful for Dr. Enders and Dr. Salk and their vaccines every time I think of those three contemporaries of mine and little Uncle Leon whom I never got to meet.

Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine

Of course we must keep good records and always work to study the effects of all medicines and seek to improve outcomes. There are no guarantees. Even aspirin has side effects. But in the end I believe we must do what science tells us is most likely to protect our kids. 
Vaccines are in the news again as measles outbreaks occur here and there across the nation. A few cases have cropped up here in Georgia. No other vaccine preventable disease causes as many deaths as measles. Vaccines save many lives.
Give a listen to this man who has a unique perspective; he is a vaccine researcher and also the father of an autistic child ----
Anti-Vaxxers Brought Back the Measles

It is a wonderfully historic day in America.

I am proud to support a former Constitutional law professor as President of The United States,

And I am proud to support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (derisively called “Obamacare” by his political enemies). The American people support this act in almost all its parts, though a strong minority oppose it on principle amd a smaller group are confused about it and oppose the Act though they support its parts. A pretty large minority of the bill's opponents feel the bill does not go far enough!

First impression of the Results:

• it will energize the far right- but they are already pretty well all-out enthusiastic opponents of the President.
• it will also energize the President’s supporters. He has been validated as a Constitutional expert and as a leader. He has accomplished what Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Bill Clinton failed to do. What many of us have had as a major political goal for decades has been accomplished.
• many independents and conservative Democrats will change their opinions as they see the benefits of this act and it has the increased authority of having been tested and having passed Constitutional muster in the Supreme Court.
• the only part of the Act that was found wanting was the Romney/Republican idea of an individual mandate. The Democratic more-straightforward tax idea (which Roberts found in the Act de facto) has been accepted.

My joy is overflowing.  Just imagine:

• Health insurance providers can NOT cancel your policy because you get sick. 
• Kids won’t be denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions, NOW.
• Ordinary folks will be no longer be just one catastophic ilness or injury away from bankruptcy.
• Parent’s health insurance policies can cover young folks until age 26, NOW
• Grown-ups won’t be denied health insurance because to a pre-existing condition, as of 2014.

Thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership. You took a lot of grief from your base over your compromises, but I believe you got through a great, but flawed, reform that was probably about the best bill that could have gotten a majority in the Congress. You went for "what you can get" as Edward Kennedy advised you. The reform will be refined and improved over the years.

Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, for putting, in this instance, right and law ahead of politics. I wish (barring an opportunity for another Breyer, Stevens, Souter, or Ginsberg) you had been on the Court in 2000. I wonder if things would have been different.

Thank you Mr. President

I continue to be very proud of my vote in 2008. Thank you Mr. President for your efforts to unite us, despite the stonewalling of the opposition party and the name-calling and pettiness that you have encountered day-after-day. Thank you for living up to the overwhelming majority of your promises despite the stubborn recession that turned out to be even worse than any of us realized in 2008. After a fight of 100 years beginning with Teddy Roosevelt, you have helped us achieve, as you promised you would, a universal healthcare program. It is among the most conservative programs of its type in the world, but it is a vast improvement over the system it replaced.

Here is an Op-ed from the LA Times:
In Praise of "Obamacare"

Hurray!

After all these years of hard work, we have, finally, universal health care in America. Hallelujah!

I predict poll numbers will change dramatically and positively for Democrats as Americans see that this bill actually does those things that they supported in the elections of 2006 and 2008, and not the crazy things -- death panels, government takeovers, etc. -- that the Republicans and the insurance and other special interest groups tried to convince us of through their ads and speeches.

Barack Obama has lived up to this major campaign promise. He was masterful in negotiating pragmatic compromises. He went into the Republican lions' den and faced them down. He invited them in to negotiate with him. The final bill includes 200 Republican amendments, but garnered not a single vote from the party led by two political terriers who decided to make this issue the President's "Waterloo". The President refused to give up when the stonewalling Republicans seemed to be turning public opinion against the program they had supported in the election.

Hurray for Speaker Pelosi. Hurray for Senator Reid. Hurray for President Obama.

Thanks to these wonderful, courageous leaders, who refused to flinch in the face of falsehoods and hyperbole:

Every American will be covered under the toughest patient protections in history. Arbitrary premium hikes, insurance cancellations, and discrimination against pre-existing conditions will now be gone forever.

And we'll finally start reducing the cost of care -- creating millions of jobs, preventing families and businesses from plunging into bankruptcy, and removing over a trillion dollars of debt from the backs of our children.

But the victory that matters most tonight goes beyond the laws and far past the numbers.

It is the peace of mind enjoyed by every American, no longer one injury or illness away from catastrophe.

It is the workers and entrepreneurs who are now freed to pursue their slice of the American dream without fear of losing coverage or facing a crippling bill.

And it is the immeasurable joy of families in every part of this great nation, living happier, healthier lives together because they can finally receive the vital care they need.

- President Barack Obama

But most of all, hurray for America.
The special interests lost.
The American people won.

This is our moment!

The day has come. This is our moment.

Today is the day promised over and over during the campaign in 2008. Even the opposition talked of passing something very similar to this (despite all the silly over-the-top words of those folks in the last few weeks). It is not all of what I wanted but it is a big step. Hallelujah! After all these years, finally we will pass universal (or nearly so) health care for Americans. We are taking our rights back from big pharma and big insurance. Insurance companies will no longer make medical decisions for me or my family. Our doctors and we will.

Provided 216 Democratic Congressmen are brave enough to vote their consciences, I will have my birthday present for this year. Nothing further is needed or desired.

Let's all send one more e-mail or phone call to our Representative. 216 will be wonderful, but let's pass it with a cushion!

Rep. Steny Hoyer had this to say yesterday:

“... America is watching us. Some would say this is a partisan effort. They’re wrong. This is an effort on behalf of all Americans.

“George W. Bush, in 2002, said and I quote, ‘All Americans should be able to choose a health care plan that meets their needs at affordable prices.’

“Bill Clinton said, ‘The time has come to pull together and work in a bipartisan manner to deliver guaranteed health care coverage to all Americans.’

“[Jimmy Carter, in 1979,] said, ‘A universal, comprehensive, national health insurance program is one of the major unfinished items on America’s social agenda. The American people,’ he said in 1992, ‘have waited too long.’

“Gerald Ford, in 1974, said, ‘Let us affirm that this national legislation is only the beginning of our effort to upgrade and perpetuate this part of our total health care system so no individual in this country,’ said President Ford, ‘will lack help whenever or wherever he needs it.’

“John F. Kennedy said, in 1962, ‘Whenever the miracles of modern medicine are beyond the reach of any group of Americans, for whatever reason--economic, geographic, occupational or other--we must find a way to meet their needs and fulfill their hopes.’

“Dwight David Eisenhower, in 1955, said, ‘Clearly our nation must do more to reduce the impact of accident and disease. Two fundamental problems confront us: first, high and ever-rising costs of health services; second, serious gaps and shortages in these services.’ So said Dwight Eisenhower in 1955.

“And in 1945, Harry Truman said, ‘Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health …. The time,’ he said, ‘has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection.’

“And then another President said this: ‘Comprehensive health insurance is an idea whose time has come in America. There has long been a need to assure every American financial access to high quality health care. As medical costs go up, that need grows more pressing. Now, for the first time,’ this President said, ‘we have not just the need, but the will to get this job done.’ He went on to say, ‘There is widespread support in the Congress and in the Nation for some form of comprehensive health insurance…. [L]et us act sensibly. And let us act now--in 1974--to assure all Americans financial access to high quality medical care.’

“Our President talks about the fact that Theodore Roosevelt put this on America's agenda over a century ago. Barack Obama went to the people of this country and reached out to them and said, ‘If you elect me President of the United States, this is what I will do.’ There were no illusions of what he would do. There was no trying to hide it. It was transparent, and indeed, in the debate in October of 2008, he said exactly what he was going to do. And John McCain stood on that same stage and said, yes, I believe every American ought to have access to affordable health care. All of the presidents I just quoted tried to get something done, and it was not done. On Sunday, tomorrow, we will do it. Led by our President, who said to the American public, this is our moment..."

Happy birthday to me ... and all Americans.

If you'd like to hear Rep. Hoyer, here's it is:

Congressman Phil Gingrey

It is very disappointing that our Congressman, Phil Gingrey of Cobb County, has taken such a narrowly partisan approach to the current health care reform effort.

Yesterday I received a campaign -style “robocall” from the Congressman asking me to stay on the line to participate in a “live town hall” discussion of health care issues. “OK!” I thought, I’ll listen, maybe he is serious about hearing from the people". I put the phone on speaker and my wife and I listened, waiting our turn to speak or participate in the feedback promised. I listened as a couple of poorly informed local folk ranted about “government takeover” and such eliciting pompous agreement by our Congressman. Rep. Gingrey then interrupted the “town hall” to offer an opportunity for his constituents to let him know where they stand on the issue!

“Great!” I may be outvoted, I thought, but at least I can let the Congressman know that some Northwest Georgians want reform.

No. Instead the Congressman, again in a tone that can only be described as condescending, offered his constituents four choices: “What concerns you MOST about this legislation?” The first three “concerns” were blatant push-polling questions that could have been written by Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck. And the fourth choice? “All of the above”. To paraphrase: “Are you most concerned about this bill because of this scary issue (press one), that terrible expense (press two), or the other disastrous possible outcome (press three), or all three abominable things this awful measure would force on our nation? (press four)”

Classic propaganda.

One must grant him the assumption of reasonable intelligence. He managed to obtain a medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia. He knew exactly what he was doing last night.

There was no opportunity to express approval of the reform. If you disagree with Congressman Gingrey he has no interest in hearing from you.

To treat the voters in this way has become standard operating procedure during campaigns. I have received push-poll calls from politicians from State Representative candidates to Presidential candidates during election campaigns. That is insulting to voters. It shows an incredible disrespect of democracy. For a Congressman to do this under the guise of a “town hall” -- that great tradition of American political life where, supposedly, all viewpoints can be aired -- takes crass partisanship to another level. I do not know to what extent my taxes helped pay for this travesty.

Shame on you, Congressman Gingrey.

Gleaning Facebook: Health Goals

 Sheila baked chicken breast strips marinated in a concoction of the zests and juices of lemon, lime, and orange. She served it with brown rice and an orange/avacado salsa. mmmmmmmmm... We will celebrate our weight loss and vigor gains with our annual Independence Day barbecue feast on the river. Y'all come.

Joan Shaw Turrentine
Yum!!

Dana Jordan Alexander
wow that sounds great ...

Terrell Shaw
Four months to get closer to the profile pic. I'm keeping this profile pic for inspiration. I haven't been so slim since then... 1982 BC. May not get there in four months but maybe reasonably close.

Dana Jordan Alexander
Mr Shaw you are an inspiration all on your own ... no matter what you look like , in all of our eyes you will always be special ...

Cameron Smith
also skewer them, grill them, bbq sauce them

Rhonda Ingram Bramlette
Good for you, Mr. Shaw! We want you to stay healthy and hang around for a looong time to come!

Lisette Lewis
That chicken sounds great--do you have the recipe?

Barbara Jean Smith
That sounds awesome!

Terrell Shaw
It is very good, Barbara, Lisette, Joan. I ate the last of it tonight. Sheila isn't sure it's worth the bother and waste of citrus -- she hated to pour out the marinade after the chicken finished bathing. The recipe came from the AJC. If I find it online I'll post a link.
Now Dana, you are too sweet! Of course, I KNOW I look purdy, even fat! Sometimes these days I feel more spatial than special though! <grin>
Cameron, sounds like you will enjoy the link above. You'll havta make our party on the Fourth this year.
Thanks for the encouragement, y'all. I've been good for five days. We foodaholics have to take it a day at a time.
Oh, I am gonna be soooo bad on July Fourth! I do LOVE to eat.

Thanksgiving Week Flashback: Seven Blessings

Few have as much for which to be thankful on this American holiday. Here is a post I wrote about a few of my many blessings. It was written in February 2007.

_________

Seven Blessings: First Edition

I am surely the most blessed human being in the world. I am so incredibly blessed that it is hard to know where to start. Since this is the first edition of what will, perhaps, be a series, I feel an obligation to be basic.
Two of my sisters (I have five) have already posted theirs. You can check them out at Sunday Seven.
Here we go --

1. I am constantly blessed by my family:

I live with someone who loves me and whom I love and trust and have fun with. I have two daughters who love me, tell me so, and despite their occasional aggravation with me, seem absolutely devoted to me. I admire each more than they can know. I am the son of an incredible woman who is a pastor, writer, poet, wonderful cook, and loving mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. I am a sibling to six other people and a brother-in-law to several more and the uncle or cousin of a bunch more, all of whom get along remarkably well, with only occasional growls - usually about political stuff - all of whom love each other, treat each other's children like their own, and seem to actually enjoy being together.

I had a father whose love for me was unconditional, thank goodness, since I was a petulant teen at times. I was spoiled rotten by my paternal grandparents and adored my maternal grandmother and even though my mother's father died when she was a child his tremendous influence on her and her siblings was a positive influence on me as well. I don't want to leave out my wonderful aunts and uncles: Aunt Mary kept my baby picture on her bedroom wall till the day she died. Uncle Tom, the State Patrolman, let me off the hook and didn't tell Mama and Daddy when he stopped teen Terrell that night ("Please, Lord," I prayed, "don't let that be Uncle Tom!" It was.) Daddy's brothers called me "Sampson", Uncle Grady still does, and teased me mercilessly, (and I loved it) and slipped me nickels for slushy Cokes out of the barber shop Cokebox and dimes for ice cream cones down the street at the drug store.

My wife's family adopted me as soon as Sheila did, as a full-fledged member of that family, and I love them just as much as my own.

2. I am blessed to be an American.

Other countries' skies are as blue; their mountains are sometimes even higher; their flora and fauna as fascinating; their people and customs as intriquing; or as Lloyd Stone wrote in the wonderful hymn:

This is my song, Oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating,
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh hear my song, oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

I will not pretend that my country is perfect. It has often fallen short of its promise. But what a promise. What a dream. What a beacon of light it has been at its best!

3. I am blessed to have wonderful friends.

Friends like Mike Burton, Mike Bock, Steve and Laurie Craw, Mildred and Phillip Greear, and many more, have shared our joy in good times and helped us bear our grief or other troubles in hard times.

4. I am blessed to have a job that I enjoy.

They pay me a pretty good salary to corral a bunch of nine- and ten-year-olds every day and tell them the stories of our wonderful country and help them explore the wonders of our beautiful world. And I do it on a big campus that includes a beautiful brook, steep hills, mixed woods, some boggy bottomland, and grassy meadows and that borders a huge wildlife sanctuary.

5. I am blessed with pretty good health for a nearly sixty-year-old.

I take an aspirin a day, a small BP pill, and something for triglicerides. I have an achy foot and generally achy joints, but after I quit taking Crestor, the big hurts stopped (If you are taking that stuff and start to have major joint pain, talk to your doctor!) Trying to get the cholesterol down with oatmeal and walking is sometimes a pain, figuratively, but getting it down with Crestor was always a literal pain.

6. Speaking of walking, I am blessed to live where a wonderful walking path goes right past my backyard.

I walk at least 3 to 5 times a week usually 2 or 3 miles at a time, along our scenic Riverwalk or through our quaint downtown. My companion is a wonderful conversationalist, who laughs at my wit, and who loves me - my wife.

7. What a blessing singing has been to me.

It has made me a bunch of friends. It helped me win Sheila. It has allowed me to show out on stage in a bunch of musicals. It provided me some of my favorite experiences with my daughters. It gives me some of my favorite teaching moments. It has given me some of the most intensely joyful moments of my life.

Oh, my! I've just gotten started! But Sundays roll around every seven days.

He knows who he is.

President Barack Obama is grounded.

He knows who he is.
He knows what he believes.
He knows how he wants to lead America and why.

Yesterday I watched and listened as he talked with my students about their future and their responsibilities.

Tonight I watched and listened as he talked with their elders about their future and their responsibilities.

Tonight he demonstrated once again that he is the most dynamic, clear-headed, articulate, pragmatic but principled ... grounded... statesman to lead this country in my lifetime.

We are witnessing history.
We are witnessing a transformative Presidency.

I am proud to be an American tonight.

Our country is blessed with exactly the leader we need for today.

Ted Kennedy on Health Insurance

This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, "that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American...will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege." For four decades I have carried this cause—from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me—and more urgency—than ever before. But it's always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years.

— Ted Kennedy

I haven't always agreed with Ted Kennedy, but on this issue he has been absolutely, and tenaciously, right.

Why in the world would anyone prefer to have a private, for profit, insurance company rationing health care rather than We, the People, jointly sharing the costs and benefits?

I don't want the Canadian plan, but it's better than the status quo.
I don't want the French plan, but it's better than the status quo.
I don't want the British plan, but it's better than the status quo.

I want an American plan, drawing on the best ideas from all the other industrialized nations, a plan that will guard our right to keep our doctors and even our private insurance if that is what any one of us wants, but that also has a public option to help reduce costs and insure that every American has health care when he or she needs it.

Please call/write/e-mail your Congressmen and Senators. Doing nothing is not acceptable. Let them know we will not let them bankrupt our nation by refusing to reform the monstrous status quo. Let them know we are tired of for-profit insurance companies rationing health care. Let them know that the majority of us want universal coverage for every American.

Health insurance reform -- WITH a public option -- this year!

We the People...

...of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity should reform the health insurance system in 2009. IMHO.

Gleaning Facebook: Heath Report

 Mother is home and doing well. Warren's surgery went well according to Jane Ann. Lily's bone marrow test came back clear. Ron's Mom was shelling peas on her back porch yesterday. Charmaine is still up and going. None of them are completely out of the wood

Obama fires back

After all the snark from the McCain campaign, it is good to see Barack Obama firing back.

Peel and All!

The thing you have to know about me is: I eat the peel and all! Geeeeshhhh!!!!

Talk among yourselves a while...

Y'all talk among yourselves for a while. I'm busy giving birth to a Greyhound bus that the doctor chooses to call a kidney stone.

Ouch!

Sunday Seven

Seven Blessings: First Edition

I am surely the most blessed human being in the world. I am so incredibly blessed that it is hard to know where to start. Since this is the first edition of what will, perhaps, be a series, I feel an obligation to be basic.
Two of my sisters (I have five) have already posted theirs. You can check them out at Sunday Seven.
Here we go --

1. I am constantly blessed by my family:

I live with someone who loves me and whom I love and trust and have fun with. I have two daughters who love me, tell me so, and despite their occasional aggravation with me, seem absolutely devoted to me. I admire each more than they can know. I am the son of an incredible woman who is a pastor, writer, poet, wonderful cook, and loving mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. I am a sibling to six other people and a brother-in-law to several more and the uncle or cousin of a bunch more, all of whom get along remarkably well, with only occasional growls - usually about political stuff - all of whom love each other, treat each other's children like their own, and seem to actually enjoy being together.

I had a father whose love for me was unconditional, thank goodness, since I was a petulant teen at times. I was spoiled rotten by my paternal grandparents and adored my maternal grandmother and even though my mother's father died when she was a child his tremendous influence on her and her siblings was a positive influence on me as well. I don't want to leave out my wonderful aunts and uncles: Aunt Mary kept my baby picture on her bedroom wall till the day she died. Uncle Tom, the State Patrolman, let me off the hook and didn't tell Mama and Daddy when he stopped teen Terrell that night ("Please, Lord," I prayed, "don't let that be Uncle Tom!" It was.) Daddy's brothers called me "Sampson", Uncle Grady still does, and teased me mercilessly, (and I loved it) and slipped me nickels for slushy Cokes out of the barber shop Cokebox and dimes for ice cream cones down the street at the drug store.

My wife's family adopted me as soon as Sheila did, as a full-fledged member of that family, and I love them just as much as my own.

2. I am blessed to be an American.

Other countries' skies are as blue; their mountains are sometimes even higher; their flora and fauna as fascinating; their people and customs as intriquing; or as Lloyd Stone wrote in the wonderful hymn:

This is my song, Oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating,
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh hear my song, oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

I will not pretend that my country is perfect. It has often fallen short of its promise. But what a promise. What a dream. What a beacon of light it has been at its best!

3. I am blessed to have wonderful friends.

Friends like Mike Burton, Mike Bock, Steve and Laurie Craw, Mildred and Phillip Greear, and many more, have shared our joy in good times and helped us bear our grief or other troubles in hard times.

4. I am blessed to have a job that I enjoy.

They pay me a pretty good salary to corral a bunch of nine- and ten-year-olds every day and tell them the stories of our wonderful country and help them explore the wonders of our beautiful world. And I do it on a big campus that includes a beautiful brook, steep hills, mixed woods, some boggy bottomland, and grassy meadows and that borders a huge wildlife sanctuary.

5. I am blessed with pretty good health for a nearly sixty-year-old.

I take an aspirin a day, a small BP pill, and something for triglicerides. I have an achy foot and generally achy joints, but after I quit taking Crestor, the big hurts stopped (If you are taking that stuff and start to have major joint pain, talk to your doctor!) Trying to get the cholesterol down with oatmeal and walking is sometimes a pain, figuratively, but getting it down with Crestor was always a literal pain.

6. Speaking of walking, I am blessed to live where a wonderful walking path goes right past my backyard.

I walk at least 3 to 5 times a week usually 2 or 3 miles at a time, along our scenic Riverwalk or through our quaint downtown. My companion is a wonderful conversationalist, who laughs at my wit, and who loves me - my wife.

7. What a blessing singing has been to me.

It has made me a bunch of friends. It helped me win Sheila. It has allowed me to show out on stage in a bunch of musicals. It provided me some of my favorite experiences with my daughters. It gives me some of my favorite teaching moments. It has given me some of the most intensely joyful moments of my life.

Oh, my! I've just gotten started! But Sundays roll around every seven days.