WE REACHED 100 DEGREES

for the second time this year. It'll probably be the last time. Yeah, sure.

It does curtail activity though. Yesterday, for instance, our foursome teed off at 7:00 AM, and all four of us had a twenty minute drive to get there. We finished in the accustomed 4 hours, then it was pool time. After that I walked three miles and had muscle cramps while sitting in front of the tv.

But that was yesterday. No golf today. The walk was much earlier though still hot and sticky. Well as sticky as 16% humidity can be, but last week we had 2% humidity which was as low as humidity can get. At least that's what the meteorologist Dave told us. He, by the way, has been appointed to announce The Second Coming on the 21st. At least he has that kind of presence.

So more pool time along with a purchase from a tree nursery called Moon Valley. A Mexican bird of paradise, hey appropriate for next week's Rapture, though I'd pictured Heaven rather than Mexico. A store run to stock up, and then inside stuff like blogging.

I'm kinda lost since my Bible Study Fellowship class is over for the Summer. What a study the book of Isaiah was. I just finished 9 years of BSF and this may have been the best of all. Called the Fifth Gospel, it's an OT book that I knew was important (I mean what Book of the Holy Bible isn't) but one I needed help for understanding (I mean what Book of the Holy Bible isn't one I need help for better understanding). But if I'm not in a formal Bible study (our Small Group is also on hiatus for the Summer) then I'm not in the Word like I should be. It's called self discipline.

So that was my day on May 14, 2011. Every time I write the year, it seems so space age, so in the future. Where did the 1900's go? They seemed a more comfortable time. The early to mid-1900's would have found Arizona windows open, as in the picture, sheets wetted down for the long, hot Summer.

Next week, Dave is calling for temps in the 90's--a welcome relief. Already.

"DON'T MESS WITH_____"

Fill in the blank. With Texas, Bill, or me and mine.

My next door neighbor, a doctor recently retired and whose name is Beheler (pronounced Be Healer--how cool is that for a physician''s name) recently had surgery at Mayo Clinic. He felt a little bad in Recovery because of all the other patients there who had had brain surgery and heart surgery. He had had his big toenail removed.

It reminded me of the movie "Alice's Restaurant" when Arlo was in jail for illegal dumping. He was incarcerated with "murderers, rapers, and mother rapers".

But to show you the kind of stock I spring from is the animus for this entry. My brother, who is older than I (not many people are anymore) went out to fetch his paper. Upon his return he badly, badly stubbed his toe on one of his steep steps leading to his front door. He went through the house bleeding profusely he knew.

He sat at the kitchen table and accessed the damage. Blood and a curled up big toenail on the left side of his right foot. He knew nothing else to do but tear the rest off. He pulled off his big toenail. If that doesn't send shivers down you, then we might be related.

"I saved it. I'll mail it to you," he responded. Then he laughed and decided to just wait until I returned to MTV to share it.

And that, dear reader(s) is why you shouldn't give me any trouble.

THE 21ST

I was in a comedy once in high school. It was a play entitled "It's Coming". Some scenes, some slapstick compete with a pie in the face stage fight. We drew a crowd, but not as large as the All School Play or other venues.

The picture at the right is from Easter Sunday at our church. We always draw a crowd. Counting all our Sunday services which began at 6:30 and ended after the 1:00 worship service, we had over 9,000 in attendance.

And as sure as I believe tomorrow is Thursday, I believe in the Rapture when Jesus will return to earth. I just don't believe it will be May 21, 2011, as some have suggested. Nor do I believe it will be in 2012 as the Mayan calendar indicates. I also didn't believe Nostradamus or some seer like him when he predicted a massive earthquake on the New Madrid Fault back in the 1980's, though some schools did and cancelled on that date.

All I need to know to be a believer is that Jesus is who He said He was and He is who God said He was. When Jesus said no one knows when the Rapture will occur, not even Him, but it will happen in a twinkling of the eye, then that's what I believe. So it may be that the Second Coming will occur on May 21. It may occur in the year 2012. But it will be because a sovereign and Mighty Lord decided it. Certainly not some man.

And no one alive at the time will miss it. Oh, they may miss being raptured because of their disbelief, but they will witness; they will know who Lord of Lords and King of Kings is.

It won't have to announced by any human like Jerry Hicks who uttered the last line of my high school play--It Has Come. For all will know.

AT THE HILLS

Indian Hills wasn't the best golf course in MTV, but it's where I cut my golf teeth. Also, it was a place where I had some of the most fun playing golf anywhere.

One particular day, a friend of mine showed up with the top of the line golf equipment and duds. I knew he was a pretty good athlete. So I just figured he was a pretty good golfer.

He wasn't quite as decked out as the picture of the guys sporting a product called Loud Mouth apparel. But he was pretty close. The one item I focused on was his red and white golf shoes. Bright red and brand new.

As he stood on the tee box of number 1, a short dog leg Par 4, there was enough of a gallery of old timers who had noticed Barry and had taken their brews of choice out to observe his tee shot.

It wasn't pretty. It wasn't a whiff, but it dribbled off the tee. A Breakfast Ball or mulligan was called for. With a swing as close to Charles Barkley's as I've ever seen (who, by the way authors the worse swing I've ever seen) Barry's second drive sliced over the parallel Number 3 fairway and was headed last seen to the Number 4 rough.

He carried his brand new bag over his shoulder and went to play it. Smart money would have selected the dribbled drive which was closer to the Number 1 green. He looked great as he headed for his ball. But the gallery had seen enough and they headed back to the bar.

The moral is a simple one. If you're going to dress like that, you had better be able to play.

Barry couldn't, and I never recall seeing him at Indian Hills again. He may have learned his lesson. Or started taking them. At another course. Without a gallery. And hopefully without the flare of wild golf clothes.

ROY G BIV

I don't know what color indigo is. I kinda thought it was purple but violet takes in that shade. Maybe pink. I could look it up. Naugh.

But Roy G Biv has helped me through the years when I need to know prismatic colors. Let's see: that's never. Kinda like naming the countries in the Fertile Crescent. Mnemonic devices are cool, but isn't that all there really is about knowing them? When do we need them outside of a trivia challenge. And when we do, do we have to rely on memory? I mean if this isn't the Information Age, I don't know when it was and how I missed it.

So, if you need info, then avail yourself to it. Electronically. Or the old fashioned way. Research.

Gray, red, blue, purple--that's what I found when I looked up indigo. I know, I was a little late, a little out of order, a little incongruent, but hey, so is indigo. It apparently can't make up its mind what color it is.

Instead of Roy G Biv, I'd just remember I. It's the universal color. See what you get when you research? It's like asking the grade school teacher how to spell a word and her telling you to look it up in the dictionary. Ok, but how do I spell it to look it up?

All these thoughts caused by a picture I couldn't undestand either.