BLUE ICE FROST

It doesn't seem that long ago. I'd look out our back windows and see frost on the golf course. Not that we had a lot this year, I'd estimate 10, but my goodness it doesn't seem that long ago.

No more. After 10 straight days of 100 degree weather, I've altered my lifestyle. I arise at 4:30; sometimes earlier. I eat breakfast and walk 3-4 miles. When my wife joins me, we vary our route. Mine is too boring.

We tee off at 7:16 or later 8:10 so we can finish before or near noon. The strangest thing that I'm having trouble adjusting to in AZ is that noon is not the hottest time of day. Three or four o'clock is. Although last night at 9:05, the old thermo was still 95. With 7 % humidity. So it was bedtime.

My blogging time has changed as well as astute reader(s) may have noted. I can't early morning between cups of coffee now write because I'm hitting the pavement. While it's not sticky tar on my shoes as it would be later in the day.

If , however, my golf game is early enough as not to allow walking, I'm "loco walking." My neighbor walks from 2-4 PM daily in all kinds of weather. People call him Loco, trans. Crazy. And when I walk at those times, no one else does.

"Living the Good Life," or "Living the Hot Life?" In an extended Summer time in AZ, I'm not sure.

I NEVER SAID THAT, EVER

"Pardon my French." Also I never said, "I reckon". Or "Long time, no see."(Sounds too much like Tonto). Another word I never used was "youins", for "you all", which come to think of, I've also never uttered.

Give me time and I'll think of more annoying expressions that I've never said. "Go Cubs." Or even worse, "How about those Cubbies?" (Right--they've only been losers since 1908.)

But words are powerful. They can heal, break, or mend hearts. And they can help save a soul. Recently I was asked what words were used to lead me to salvation. Also, who said them?

They all came back to me from the year 1957. I hadn't thought of those words in years. A Sunday School teacher simply said, "Teddy, you need Jesus as your Savior."

Of course he was right. I still do. Now, don't misunderstand my words. I did receive salvation. But I still need Jesus as my Savior. Every day.

If He's not your Savior, if you've never taken that stand for Jesus, and by the way if you haven't, then you've rejected Him, then feel free to borrow the same words I was offered so long ago.

Please don't make them words you would never say.

OUR ROSE TRELLIS

Mainly got in my way when I was young. It was really more than a trellis although that's the way it started. Then it grew from our house to our garage, not connected to our house. Another trellis grew on the other side of the garage.

Lots of wiffle balls, basketballs, even rubber gym balls used for playing dodge ball knocked off beautiful red rose petals. And there were more roses planted just 90 degrees or so from home plate near a fence where neighbor kids and I jumped from yard to yard in play. Yes, rose petals were accidentally kicked off the hybrid pinks and yellows, again to the dismay and disappointment of my Mother.

Fresh roses in the day were used to freshen household smells before any of us knew what potpourri was. They were also used to decorate graves on Decoration Day as my grandmother called Memorial Day. You could never have enough roses for both purposes.

While I respected the flowers and enjoyed the smell, I always tied them into the end of school. So I loved the roses. They were worth getting in the way.

But as I am getting older, I find I enjoy lots of flowers more. I can identify flowers now that I had only heard of in books previously in my life. The heliotrope, for example. I'm not sure what that means. Maybe all the years my wife has grown, cultivated orchids has finally gotten to me. Now that she really can't do much growing of them in AZ. Now, Trader Joe provides.

One constant remains. I still like dandelions. Now that I don't have to mow or cut them out. And where we live now, believe it or not, roses are abundant year round. I still like them, but not as much as the ones blooming on that trellis that signaled two great words, "School's out!"

WORLD'S FASTEST GROWING TREE

I bought a bottle, or a vial, or a Visine size container of some kind of growth promise for plants. It's not Miracle-Gro. It's not RoundUp, the weed killer that a maintenance worker at MTV threw on the high school football field last July to help grow the grass for football season.

But it promises that if you follow directions, you can have a healthy plant grow radically, I forget the exact term. And I'd have to get up from the computer and walk probably 42 steps to examine the actual bottle. Much too much effort required, but you get the picture. Or you will when I tell you.

So it tells me to mix one drop in a gallon of water and douse the desired growing area. One drop from the eye dropper enclosed. Now if it's that powerful and I wanted a huge navel orange tree that produces as many oranges as my juice tree then all I'd have to do is add 20 drops. Right?

Now, if someone wanted to hide the old car in the picture, after a hit-and-run accident, all they have to do is buy 12 bottles and mix with one gallon. The little tree would explode in fast growth and help hide the car.

It only makes perfect mathematical sense. And if you think it doesn't; if you think you have another explanation for this picture, then I, for one, would like to hear it.

A LUNA MOTH BITES MORE THAN DUST

So what could I drum up about this picture. A picture I like. But what stories do I have about moths?

One of my favorites is trying to explain something, anything to someone who has no intention of listening. Even when it may be good for them. A luna moth serves to illustrate. I assume a luna moth is nocturnal. We've all seen moths enamored by lights. We've all see their shells splattered when they prolonged their attraction. No matter what we do, we can't stop a moth from being drawn to that light. We can't help them help themselves. Much like people who are bent on destruction. We simply cannot take away that pull. We're wasting our efforts on both moth and bull head.

Moths also have a mean side of destruction in them. When one gets in a closet, it never, repeat never eats anything you don't care about. It always goes, knowingly, for your favorite article of clothing. And, if that's not bad enough, they always go for some material that cannot be easily mended. Plaids in the most noticeable places--that's their specialties.

When you kill one, and they are hard to kill. A week ago when one entered our abode I smacked him hard with a towel and he survived. I mean I smeared him, I thought, with enough force to maim a small dog. He shook it off and then took off. I discovered him 5 days later, belly up in the bathroom in the exact spot where I shellacked him earlier. Belly up and belly full of some cool clothing item that I won't notice until I try to wear it. As I said, and when you kill one, he leaves his stain on the wall on on your hands. An almost iridescent reminder that he might be a dead bug, but he's till bugging you.

That's it. Moths hold no special memories or heartaches. I didn't know I had such animosity towards them. But tonight, I'll be armed. Just in case that guy's relatives come for revenge.

DONALD TRUMPED

When I first went to Trump Towers in New York, I was amazed at the opulence. At the sheer conspicuous consumption. When I saw a Trump casino in Atlantic City, I chose not to go in. When the city of Scottsdale voted thumbs down on a huge Trump building, I was thankful.

But I still watched The Apprentice on tv. In fact, I thought after the first two years, it should have been required viewing for business majors. That all changed with The Celebrity Apprentice last season.

This season was worse. My last. And here's why. I'd like to write Joan and Melissa Rivers. But it was more than those two spoiled brats. And mother Joan was selected as the celebrity apprentice. What a joke!

All season long, most of the actors were filthy in their language. It's not like they had never been in front of a camera. They just couldn't control their vulgarity. Beeps were numerous. It was worse than disgusting. Runner up Annie Duke was so obscene in one of the last shows that I won't even go there. But she certainly thought that gutter humor was funny.

Trump lost it when last season a contestant, Androsia and Pierce fought on the air. So this year, he thought a la Jerry Springer that that's what the audience wanted, so he kept an inept mother/daughter duo in the running way too long. Melissa's exit was one for the annals. Of poor taste. But if that's what the audience wants.

I could go on about the unjust firings, one for a DUI conviction totally unrelated to the task, but I'd rather stop. Just like I'll stop watching anything associated with The Donald.

Not until he grows up.

A LITTLE FINALITY: A LITTLE ASSURANCE

I loved Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. And Jingles. I didn't want the show to be over on Saturday mornings, usually one of the last shows I watched at 11:00, I believe. But when it was over, there was always the song, "Happy Trails." What a great song. Wishing me happy trails and assuring me we would meet again. Next Saturday.

Maybe that's why I always dismissed my classes, well, that's not right, the bell dismissed my classes, but I always added, "See you tomorrow." I thought some just might have needed that assurance, that God willing, I would be there the next day. Sometimes in their world there may not have been that routine, that pattern, that security. That whatever happened to them when they left my class that day, that when their trail led back to me, I'd be there.

A statistic I heard this week from Patrick Morley revealed that in 2003, 40% of children went to sleep in their house without one of their biological parents present. That's staggering to me. And that was 6 years ago. Do you think it's improved? Me neither.

I just hope when the one who left the child wished happy trails. Or should I have written happy trials?

As the giver of the statistic said, "Divorce is never final. Don't even think about it."

And if your parents stuck together, weathered the storms and rough patches, give them thanks on Mother's Day 2009.