Time Flies

It seems like just a few minutes ago I woke up. Yet here it is almost noon, and I am just getting to my desk to write something. Time is important to me, and at this age I relish every moment the Lord grants me. It is my opinion that when time “flies” everything is going well, and my happiness index is high. It is when time slows to a “crawl’ that I believe something is seriously wrong.

An example of what I mean when I say time is at a “crawl” is when I am in severe pain as when I had a kidney stone traversing my plumbing last year. It seemed like eternity to get to where it was headed, and I thank God it was a small stone which kept moving. Had it stopped along the way time would have stopped for me, and my happiness index would have dropped to zero. As it was my happiness was almost non-existent. I guess that is what Einstein meant when he postulated his theory that time is relative.

The planet earth is a mere 4.6 billion years old, and the universe is calculated to be 13.7 billion years. When we look at an average life span of man on earth of 78 years we are but a tiny drop in the bucket.

Take an average human who is 78 years old and divide by 4,600,000,000 years then multiply by 100 equals 0.00001695 percent of the total time we exist. I don’t think we can measure things that small using normal devices. Given such a short life span we have to really put our lives into high gear to amount to anything. I guess that might be why it bothers me when I lose a morning to mundane activities instead of amazing, exciting, meaningful actions. What is more surprising is that even with all of the time I waste, that I can count my accomplishments with pride. What scares me is that the time I have ahead of me is far shorter than that which I have lived. It tells me to get off my ass and accomplish something before the last grain of sand passes through the orifice of life’s hour glass. It tells me to take those baby steps, and to take them very fast.

And Then There Was . . .

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God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him, resting on the seventh day.
He inquired, "Where have you been?"
 God smiled deeply and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, “Look, Michael. Look what I’ve made.”


 Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, “What is it?”

 “It’s a planet,” replied God, and I’ve put life on it. I’m going to call it Earth and it’s going to be a place to test balance.”

 “Balance?” inquired Michael, “I’m still confused.”

 God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth. “For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while southern Europe is going to be poor. Over here I’ve placed a continent of white people, and over there is a continent of black people. Balance in all things.”

 God continued pointing to different countries. “This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice.”

 The Archangel, impressed by God’s work, then pointed to a land area and said, “What’s that one?”

 “That will be the Commonwealth of Virginia, the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes, forests, hills, and plains. The people from the Commonwealth of Virginia are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to travel the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, carriers of peace, and producers of good things.”

 Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then asked, “But what about balance, God? You said there would be balance…”
 God smiled, "Right next to Virginia will be Washington DC. Wait till you see the idiots I put there.

The View From The Kitchen Table

Nothing beats a February sunset. No matter which state you live in Mother Earth is awakening. She begins to show us her magnificent beauty. She seems to say, winter is nearing its end and I’m anxious to begin sprouting miracles from every nook and cranny I can find.

February days are a tad longer than grey dreary November and December, and those extra minutes seem all it takes to show us some color, especially if there are some low clouds hanging about.

This evening as Peggy and I mopped up the last drips of Marsala gravy from our plates this view appeared. It was our dessert.

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Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time the planet earth was covered in ice.  About two hundred years ago, people began to notice strange things around the earth. Boulders the size of a house were found in the middle of fields where there was no rock of the same type. Some how these people began to deduce that the ice field on the mountain pushed the boulder down.  Eventually, more people got on the band wagon and a theory developed about the glacial period.  I refer to it as the Ice Age.  In the two hundred years since the glacial period was discovered, scientists have learned that there have been four ice ages.  They  took place over periods of millions of years, but they did take place. Each time, the ice receded and melted. The last ice age was twenty thousand years ago. The arctic and the antarctic ice caps, and mountain glaciers are the remnants.  Let’s face it, there were no cars or power plants twenty thousand years ago to make all that ice melt, so what made it go away?

Today, we have a giant argument about how our CO2 emissions are causing global warming. True, CO2 does cause global warming, it is one of the mechanisms that made the glacial periods recede? Could it be that we are still in the recession period of the last glacial period? Could it be that all the cars and coal-fired power plants in the world running twenty-four hours a day could not have any effect whatsoever on global warming? Could it be that global warming is merely a natural cycle that the planet earth experiences?  Who has been around for a million years to tell us?

I once visited a great place near Tucson Arizona called the Biosphere 2.

Bio-Sphere 2 was originally designed as an experiment to determine if man could survive in a totally closed cell natural environment. They could not. The property was sold to a University that used the Bio-sphere as a closed environment where they ran full size experiments to measure the effects of  CO2 on the planet. The results were too erratic to continue.

While there, I saw a small-scale experiment which was more controlled. The exhibit was a series of twenty-gallon fish tanks. Each growing corn at different levels of CO2. What I recall is that it took a huge amount of CO2 in the atmosphere to cause plants to grow poorly. In fact, the plants did  better with more CO2. The amount of CO2 plants can handle before it becomes deleterious is huge. 

It is clear to me that the current evidence for CO2 emissions causing global warming are irrelevant when compared to the natural dynamics of the solar system, and the cycle of glaciation on planet earth. It is also clear to me that the CO2 content of the atmosphere is still at a level that will help things grow more vigorously. It is also clear to me that the current hysteria about global warming is based on a bunch of questionable data that has now mysteriously disappeared. It is also clear to me that the Cap and Trade system being foisted upon us is still another way for POTUS to grab more control over our lives.

Really Stacked

My Flag Flies Everyday

My Flag Flies Everyday

Here is another way to look at the size of a trillion dollars. If a trillion one dollar bills were stacked one on top of another, the stack would wrap around the equator of the planet earth 1.89 times.