Great Shock -Great Christmas!

We had a wonderful holiday with the family. I think it was the best in a long time, probably because we now have 3 small grandchildren. Addi and Levi were so excited. Hannah was smiling at everyone. We topped off the day with a real shocker. We talked to my dear Aunt Marie(Mom's sister, Marie Short who lives in Hurt, Virginia and my only aunt. She has been a widow for about 10 years and is a spry 82 years old) and she told us that she got an engagement ring for Christmas! She had told us she had been seeing a friend, Paul, from New York. She had also said many times that she wasn't looking for a man(Maybe one was looking for her.) They are planning to be married this spring. We really have something to look forward to in the new year. Of course we wish them the best.

Bargain Shopping- What Would You Do?

I love to find a bargain. Last week I found a John Deere lawn mower at Lowes(Wildwood) for a great price. The salesman said it had not been sold, but had a minor repair. We found that the flap assembly(where the grass comes out of the mower) was missing and I asked him if they would get me one. While waiting for him to see, another salesman told me that they would surely get me the part. The salesman then told me the dept. manager said they would not. I got agravated and decided not to buy the incomplete mower. Upon further reflection, I decided it was too good a buy to pass up. I went back the next morning and the mower was gone, but a similar one next to it was still there, missing the flap assembly that it had the day before. They sold the mower I wanted to someone else that same day, with the part from another mower. I am sure I will not get any satisfaction out of this, but do you think I should pursue it with the general manager? Since everbody is always calling such unfairness discrimination of one kind or another, maybe it was "fat boy" discrimination, or perhaps "preacher discrimination", or maybe even a "gray hair" bias. Think I should sue them? Any lawyers our there?

How Old, Again?

My dear wife Susan(who is and will always be older than me) really got a kick out of the latest attempt to deflate all of my ego. I dropped by her school library(which is by the way, new and beautiful)the other day and when she referred to me as Mr. Courington, one of her students asked, "Is that your Daddy?"
If I had enough hair, I would dye it(even though I took a vow several years ago not to ever do so). One vow I will not break (unless I go nuts) is not to get a toupee(Is that how you spell it? It somehow doesn't look right, and it never will!)
Guess I will just have to look distinguished.

How Old?

Since my late 20's I have enjoyed the benefits of having gray hair. Now I wish I had more gray hair. At first, I think I got a little extra respect from people who thought I was older than I was. In my 30's I started getting senior citizen discounts on occasion, especially when the cashier was real young. Now I can get some of them legitimately at age 51(next week 52).It is nice not to have to pay when ordering checks at the bank.
I guess I look older than my age now, considering that 2 people last week thought I was my Dad's(age 82) brother. Since the first one was an alzheimer's patient, I dismissed it, but the second was a nurse in the unit where Dad is in the nursing home. I might as well laugh about it as to cry though I am not really sure that a good sense of humor is helping me as much as I thought it might.
Anyway, at least I am not as old as Noah's grandpa, Methuselah. According to Gen 5 he lived to be 969 years old. One might think that he must have acquired a lot of wisdom in all of those years. But did you know that he died in the year of the great flood? We don't know for sure that he didn't die a month before it came, but we do know that one might live for decades, even centuries in this life and then be lost eternally. Then what will life have been worth?
I don't think that how old we are really matters that much. And however long we may live is short compared to eternity. I hope that you will join me in trying to live in a way that is pleasing to the only one that really matters- the almighty God.