The Blog of Bonnie J.

Excuse the post below, it was so short, it could hardly be considered a post. Thank-you though, for your gracious comments :D

You know you're going to die. Your clock has been set, it's ticking away. There's nothing you can do to stop it. Tick, tick, tick... As Ray Comfort said, "Your heartbeat is the drumbeat of your own funeral march." (or something like that, my memory is failing me already!) The hands you are typing with are going to get old and feeble, your body won't work so well, your eyes will fade, and then you will die; unless you die young. Either way, you're still on your way to an end that will sever you from your human body. In 100 years, your body will most likely be rotting in the ground, unless, of course, the Lord should come back. Anyhow, the only clues to your existence will be what was. Just think, at some point directly connected to this moment by time, you will die. 10 out of 10 do. Think about dying for a minute, and how this will be your end, and then compare it to the issues you've been arguing today, the things you had fights about, the things you took offense at. Compare them to the fact that 1000, 500, or even 100 years from now, no one will care about the exploits of your life, if you happen to be someone commonly in the public eye, you might be thought about now and then.
Some people find death a dark and gloomy thing, and indeed, they ought to! Living this life without Christ, headed towards death, would be a frightening thing. I find the thought of death is an incredible motivator. For one thing, it is the only thing that separates us from eternity. Many souls are on their way to doom, uncaring, unknowing. It is also humbling. God is powerful and everlasting. Our bodies, however, are but a vapor, and will pass away.

The saying is so true: Soon this life will be past, only what's been done for Christ will last. Make everything you do count. If you're not a Christian, I urge you to consider the laws of God that you have broken, and what you face on judgment day. God is just, and He doesn't and can't excuse sin without payment. Realize what Christ has done for you by His sacrifice for you on the cross, turn to Him, and make what you do count!

And Christians, stop bickering, put things in perspective and keep your eyes on the One above. It's not worth it. The material things we consider so important now must absolutely not keep us from our goal, they are just not worth it!

Kent Hovind in his lectures shows a tombstone of someone long past, with a name and two dates (1899-1948), then asks, "What are you going to do your dash?" I ask you the same.

Wow. We have DSL. No more signs on the computer screen: STAY OFF THE PHONE. I'M USING THE PHONE RIGHT NOW. I'm listening to the radio station at bluegrasscountry.org.

I'm being kicked of by the many "sighs" of another family member, along with mentions from him/her about the worth of what I'm doing online. Goodbye for now!

Happy 23rd Anniversary, Mom and Dad :)

Short story of their lives; Grew up, met each other, married, 23 years and 8 kids later: (the picture below).

Waiting for company to arrive.

I got up at 4:45 this morning to make it to WalMart to get a little 256mb flash drive for $14. We got back a little bit later and I went back to sleep. My brother used his flash drive to transfer a bunch of old pictures on his laptop to mine. OH MY! The pictures are so cute. Except the ones of me. I seriously had a weird thing going on back then. My little siblings were so adorable. I'll have to put pictures online as soon as I get them transfered to this computer.

Back to the present; the local/regional newspaper put an article of us in their Arts and Entertainment section - front page! This is the picture they put at the head of the inside page with the article.



The photo was taken by Mike Phillips.

This morning I woke up early for the purpose of getting in some practice time on guitar. You may very well ask, “If you are supposed to be practicing, what are you doing online?”. I two things out this morning; I have a cold, and five hours of practice does make your muscles sore. Yesterday at our concert I had a few pains shoot down my arm, so I took it easy at the concert, but in the evening I practiced some more. Now this morning I just move my hand to the playing position and I can feel sore muscles. I’d really hate to get some sort of weird repetitive motion disorder, so very sadly, I can’t practice at least this morning. WAH. Now if you haven’t noticed, blogging is like my personal therapy session. I don’t blog about these things for sympathy, I just have to say them to get them out of me. By listening to me rant, you have SAVED my family from continual ranting, all day long.

This is more like a complaint than an observation though; I have a cold! Yuck yuck yuck. (And if you’re REALLY observant, you’ll notice that I don’t really like colds). They are sort of going through the family though, so I guess it was inevitable. I could chomp some garlic, the smell should be gone by tomorrow when we go to our neighbor’s. But you know, garlic betrayed me. I had go on antibiotics anyhow for that ear infection. All that nasty smelling stuff and it didn’t do much. Ah well. I suppose it might do good anyhow, at keeping me away from the dreaded ills.

And...Happy Holiday-Set-Apart-For-Thanksgiving-But-Please-Give-Thanks-Always!

This afternoon I was playing guitar on the front porch when my brother came out with his unicycle. A few minutes later, the rest of us that unicycle were out and he was asking if my sister would try to get some pictures before it gets too cold. Here are the results. And yes, we REALLY were playing. It's surprising how one part of your brain takes care of the balance and whatnot, and the other parts will still allow you to musically render I'll Fly Away.





Also, in a week or a little more, we should have DSL, which means I might be able to upload some videos!

I told myself to see how much guitar playing I could get in, in a day. So far today I've only got 2.4 hours in :( That's better than what I get in day to day, but for trying to get in more than I've ever gotten in before (a little over 3 hours), it's not that great. I still have some time though, especially if I get off the computer :p

This afternoon I came home from work to an almost empty house for the first time I can ever remember. It was quiet, the lights were mostly out, I could hear the TV playing in my grandfather's room. The other day I called home from work and I could hear my brothers and sisters in the background, and I MISSED them! (This might be a mawkish post, but I just feel like it!) I remembered the times I called home, got my oldest brother on the phone and wondered Who IS that? Last night Vincent DROVE us home from the Mass RMV! I thought he did a great job, considering it was pouring rain, and dark as night (basically, it was night, heh) out there.

Ok...done with the sentimental part. I was thinking a few days ago; how interesting a person would I be if all I did was post about going online? Or how interesting would a movie be about someone who just watched TV all day? If I have no life, the internet is really just a total waste. I've noticed sometimes that I see people online who post at forums constantly, they have a few thousand posts (in a short period of time) and seem to be online all of the time. How interesting is that??

I'm wondering how long it would take to get in 1000 hours of practice on guitar? Could I do 5 or 6 hours if I had a free day?

November rain brings... flowers??



Flowers I made this afternoon, that is.



I have more things to blog about...but I am so unbloggy today I just can't write them down.

First off, check out the two new blogs: Sarah and Caleb & Jeremy.

Thinking...thinking...thinking...

Sometimes when I sit to blog, I can't think of just one thing to talk about. While I was at work today I did a lot of thinking. That's the great thing about being employed in the housecleaning industry; I can think all I want about whatever I want. I generally work alone, and it's pretty quiet a lot of the time. I thought a bit about how blessed I am to have the employers that I do. I just can't express in words how I feel about the way God has been blessing my family. My thoughts usually run in circles about this; first off, I feel unworthy of what God has done for me. I live in America; I have 10 fingers; I have both of my legs, two arms, and the average use of each capability; all of my five senses are intact; I am free from the many, many deadly or greatly painful diseases; I have a family that's not split up; I'm not being tortured; I am not in prison; the list goes on. Not only do I have all of these things, but God has given me the capability to realize and appreciate them. You and I, as a humans, created in the image of God, have more capability to honor God than anything I can think of. I think in disgust of the many times I have thought a moment to wait for something was a moment to complain about. No moment, unhindered by pain, is a moment to complain about. I suppose I might be learning an elementary principle, but I am so amazed at what a little patience will do. Instead of waiting for things in your life to happen, go and do something for God. People talk about waiting to know the Lord's will; yes, God does have a plan for your life, but if you are finding yourself unsure what to do, don't just wait. Do what God has already commanded us in the meantime. He has commanded us to love. If you use a little common sense, you could figure out what I'm talking about. There are a lot of hurting people out there, physically and spiritually. Go and help someone. If you wait for God to say "Jimmy, go next door and help the old lady fix her car," you might wait a while. If you're standing on a street corner and wait for God to tell you which people to hand out tracts to, you might be spending your time unwisely. It's important to listen to God, but He has already spoken a great deal in His word. Listen!

Ok...so I forgot about whatever else I was going to blog about. Oh...I remember. Ok, so once I've realized how much I've been blessed, I feel compelled to pray and thank God. But as I pray, I wonder how meaningful just saying "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" is. And I think there must be a tangible way to show how I feel, and I'm reminded of the verse, "If you love me, you'll obey my commands," and I feel doubly compelled to obey God and want to please Him. And the more I obey, the more I realize the blessings! The more I observe this in my own life, the more amazed I am at it. And I keep coming up with thoughts and observations that I can't explain to anyone but God. It might never make it make sense to another human in my words, but God understands, and that gives me such a peace.

This morning I had a very nice cup and a half of coffee at Marshall's Towing, in Mantua, NJ. If anyone breaks down there, call Mr. Marshall :) It was very enjoyable, and it was great to see all of the Marshalls and Marshall relatives again.

I also had a donut. I abstained from eating anything till lunch (rather accidentally) and then dined on an apple. I sort of forgot to eat and when we got home from our trip at 5:00pm or so, I was so lightheaded! I also felt slightly nauseated. Ahh...what a good cup of coffee does improperly combined with poor diet. It WASN'T the coffee's fault, I'm sure. Perhaps the donut.

I was reading outloud as we drove through New Jersey from a book called Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, by Phillip Yancy and Dr. Paul Brand. What shocked me was that at intervals during my reading, a few of my siblings would say "Shh, Bonnie's reading!" It was, of course, a nice surprise to find out that they were actually listening, and beyond wonders, wished me to continue. Though, it wasn't the quality of my voice; the book compells you to listen on its own. Just listen to a passage.

"Underneath the skin in the palm of the hand lie globules of fat with the look and consistency of tapoica pudding. Fat globules, so soft as to almost be fluid, cannot hold their own shape, and so they are surrounded by interwoven fibrils of collagen, like balloons caught in a supporting rope net...[W]here stress occurs, such as on the palm of the hand, fat is tightly gathered and enveloped by fibrous tissue in a design resembling fine Belgian lace.
"I grasp a hammer in my hand. Each cluster of fat cells changes its shape in response to the pressure. It yields but cannot be pushed aside because of the collagen surrounding it...constantly shifting and quivering...Engineers nearly shout when they analyze this amazing property, for they cannot design a material that so perfectly balances elasticity with viscocity."

I could go on. It's just so interesting. Now everytime I think about the way our bodies work, I am just SO amazed!

I got lots of practice on guitar in on the bus as we drove home. I'm so happy to be able to practice and have 10 working fingers (technically eight fingers and two thumbs).

Today I have a post that I typed up for a response to a post at a forum. The original poster put up a fake email about the response in an emergency of North Dakotans compared to those in New Orleans. I didn't see anything in his post that looked racist, but a in few posts down came a scathing repost about how racist he (the original poster) was. I see no reason for this. Let's stop being racist; a book I read a while back about the United States had some statistics on Hawaii. The minority was listed as being natives (non-whites), but statistically speaking, natives are the majority. I believe the state rated high in minority jobs and whatnot, but being true to the facts of the statistics, they should have listed the job quality of whites, being the true minority. What hogwash. Might I propose that the liberals who are demanding racial equality are the true racists. Mind you, I'm sure serious racial discrimination occurs, but I believe that the left has blown it up and made it more of a problem. And...the post:

By making such a big deal out of race, we're making it an issue. When I walk down the street and see someone white, I don't want to think, oh, she's black, I'd better not say anything that might make her think I'm offending her. I can't help it sometimes because it's what's been drilled into me by society. I don't want to think of anyone as higher or lower than me simply because of the color of their skin. Yet it's hard for me not to be concerned about offending black people when I see them, and I don't like that. That's not being fair to them.

Whites aren't the only ones who can be prejudiced. We're all human. That's the point. We're equal as humans. Don't excuse any person for doing evil, whether white or black or anything, and don't saint someone for doing good because of their race - whether they be white or not. I saw a movie on the Hallmark channel the other day that had some rather odd comments about someone being white and it just sunk into me more that it can indeed go both ways.

Bah...I don't really know how to say exactly what I'm trying to say. Discrimination because of skin color is ridiculous; let's think of those who do so in an appropriate manner to their behavior, and let the rest of us who are higher than them get on with our lives.

Sorry for the rant. I just had to get that off my chest.

Miss Garlic has crumbled.

The doctor reported a perforated eardrum; an absess. At approximately 1:00pm, EST, the subject received the first of five doses of antibiotic.

I haven't been able to hear normally for nine days. I was awakened this morning at 2:00am with pain in my ear. I thought the pain might go away so I sat downstairs until 2:30. It wasn't lessening any, so I took an ibuprofen and waited for it to take effect so I could go back to sleep.We went to the doctor this morning and he gave me two prescriptions for antibiotics. It seems a shame to have fought it off this long and now give in, but I don't know what else I could have done.

Tonight it's off to DE for a concert tomorrow. (The generator is fixed!!! Wheee!) Then we stay in NJ for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm very much looking forward to it, and I'm hoping my ear feels better once the antibiotics kick in. Thank God that they are available.