Having just read the post from Spokenfor titled "Sex in the Shower," I was reminded of the time my Bride and I were showering together and having a sharp discussion; about what, I don't remember.

In the midst of the discussion/shower my Bride tried to say two things at once.  One began with "But, ..." and the other was "Will you pass me the soap, please?"  What came out of that combination was "Bill, pass me the soap please."  Oh, BTW, my name is "Tim," and not "Bill."

I never let her forget that my name is NOT Bill, and sometimes I remind her of that event.  She blushes as a young Bride should, and tells me to "Shut up!"

I love my Bride, but we really were just showering.

While I was on active duty with the USAF, and stationed in Japan at Three Swamps, I worked for a supervisor that I could not please.  This man hated my guts, and made work a daily nightmare.  We had difficulty on both the personal and professional levels: he tried to prevent my promotion to E-7 (MSgt).  This situation was so bad that my Bride would not let me stay to work through lunch in my office, but took me out to lunch everyday to force me to get a break from the work situation.

This bad blood at work also overflowed into my sleep and my dreams.

The time in question, I had fallen asleep with my right arm twisted under my body so that the blood could not flow to my arm, and in my sleep my arm "went to sleep."  In my dream this boss that hated me (his name was Melvin Muroka) had me by the arm, then jerked the arm off at the shoulder, and proceeded to beat me with the bloody stump of my own right arm.  This vision was so real in my mind that I woke up screaming, and bolted straight upright from our bed.  Standing there still mostly asleep, I awoke in the arms of my Bride as she stilled my beating heart.

Years later I saw this man across a crowded room during lunch time, and lost all my appetite and nearly lost my lunch.  I had to leave the room immediately, so visceral was my reaction to seeing him.

   

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For those of you who happen to read my blog (thank you very much), and especially those with a historical bent to your education or interest, here is a web page that I hope you will find interesting: http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html.  This page has all the inaugural addresses of all the Presidents!  Did you know that there have been five Presidents who did not give inaugural addresses?

I went looking for Lincoln’s address where he said something to the effect that every drop of blood extracted by the whip should be paid for by a drop of blood drawn by the sword.  I knew the quote was from Lincoln, but I just did not know where to find it.  I searched for it in Yahoo! and this was the fifth hit on that search: Lincoln’s second inaugural address.

Not only did the page have the quote I was thinking of, I was utterly amazed by the Scriptural references used by Lincoln!  I knew that he was a Christian, but I did not know how many times in this short address of four paragraphs he referred to God and the Bible, maybe you will count them.  Robert Newdow would have a fit if Obama’s inaugural address had one reference to God, let alone what Lincoln said!  Lincoln’s final paragraph is an oft quoted citation:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Yet the paragraph that had the quote I was looking for was more powerful to me than that concluding one was:

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Could you imagine someone in leadership of our nation being willing to take such personal responsibility for the War?  Ours has become the “T-ball generation,” where no one wins and no one loses, no one is responsible and no one suffers; thus no one benefits, no one gains, and no one learns the lessons of success and failure.  Being created equal, yet we have not equal resources, abilities, or circumstances; and no government can do more than give us equal opportunity to use the resources we are afforded.

Can you imagine a president today so readily and openly acknowledging God and His providence in the affairs of State?

In less than a month Lincoln would be dead of an assassin’s bullet to the back of his head.  Was Lincoln a casualty of war?

When I was in the sixth grade, our US history teacher asked the class to name the primary cause of the Civil War.  I raised my hand and said "Slavery."  I was rebuffed by the teacher who vehemently said it was states rights.  Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address puts that to rest!  It's pretty short, and worth reading.

My Bride gave me a wonderful Christmas gift.  There was this wonderful couple we knew while we were in Japan, but we lost contact with them after he left the Air Force, went to seminary, and then on to minister in churches.  I think we saw them once in 1997, but not since.  My Bride Googled his name and found him referenced in several places, but never with a contact. Until, that is, this Christmas Eve when she found him listed on his home church web page with an email.  His reply was one of two wonderful Christmas gifts I received this year.  Thank you Sweetheart.

Then one of our church people gave us this gift:

Look at it!  This cross has a Nativity scene in it, complete with the Holy Family, wise men, shepherds and sheep, angels, and the star above it all! 

What a thoughtful gift!  This person knows my Bride has decorated our house with crosses, and that I love Nativity sets.  She was able to combine them both! 

Like I said, two great Christmas gifts: a Cross/Nativity and a reconnect to an old friend.  Praise the Lord!

  Here are some pictures of items on our Christmas tree.  This blog was inspired by our Christmas service last Sunday, where the sermon was about the persons in the nativity.  Anyway, here are some photos.

This is a shot of our decorated tree. HEY, I didn't cut the star off the top.

This is the snowman bloodtypo made when he was in the 5th grade.

Sonnetjoy at age three, our first year in Three Swamps.

Cornsilk at age three, our third Christmas in Three Swamps.

Some decorations came from tubes of M&M's.

Some, like this hand colored angel, we don't know who created them, but they came home with the kids from Sunday School.

There are several Nativity decorations.

Some that commemorate the Lord's Supper, which is always part of our family Christmas dinner and Thanksgiving dinner.

We don't ignore Santa;

but at our house, Santa bows down at the creche.

Of course, it's all about Jesus.

There are lots of classy, traditional, ornaments.  There are lots of others too, an entire set of wooden ones that my Bride hand painted, paper chains were our church did a self examination of our possessions and compared ourselves to people in third world missions, hand decorated sand dollars, and more ... too many to fit onto the tree; and that's after the kids have taken the ornaments that are most meaningful to them for their own trees (now that they are adults).

But the creche stays empty until Christmas morning, and the dog waits impatiently for the coming of the Christ-child.

Even so Lord Jesus, come quickly!

Does anyone remember the Watergate scandal?  How much of it do you really know?  Did you know that Watergate was the first time that the yellow press brought down a sitting President?  There are things that are popularly known about Watergate by way of the movie “All the President’s Men;” but as much truth as there is in the movie (and that is both limited and twisted) what do you know about the motives behind the mystery man “Deep Throat?”  What was going on with that?

Here is a link to an open source intelligence report called Stratfor.  To know the Paul Harvey of Watergate, you need to read the article by Stratfor.

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