The Muse is Loose

It seemed like an April Fool's joke...on me! I had someone else do my taxes for the first time ever. That is many, many years. I was forced to because this last year was too complicated and they sent me no booklet or forms. It was scary. She soon put me at ease. She wasn't Mrs. H.R. Block, but she did the job and well. After almost three hours I walked out a free man, and my tax return finished except for Ann's signature. She has signed since then. I am getting a $32.00 refund. The money I paid was the best I have spent in a long time.

Taxes are complicated. It has moved beyond our being able to do it ourselves. It's like changing the plugs on a new car. Can't do that anymore. That is proof as to how flawed the whole system is. It will not make the big change in my lifetime but one will have to come some day. Everyone needs to pay some. No one should escape. On the other hand paying on the basis totally of what one made is not fair. There just has to be a better way.

Anyway, my form is in and accepted by IRS. I have NEVER filed this early. Usually the fifteenth, but never earlier than the fourteenth. I like this much better. Thirty two dollars back. How am I going to spend all that money? ( I forgot for a moment. Ann's name is also on the form.)

It wasn't easy, but most things worthwhile aren't. It wasn't even all that easy being a girl-aggie a few years ago. Now their basketball team has clawed and scratched and battled their way to the BIG GAME....the National Championship!

Stanford beat them up pretty bad. At times it looked like scenes from West Side Story! I thought girls at Stanford were like those of Harvard or Yale. They played like toughies from the coal mines of West Virginia. It was obvious the announcers were ready for a Stanford/Connecticut final. Wrong! The Aggies will take on the Irish from Notre Dame! Connecticut bit the dust as Stanford did! Tuesday night we will see who rises to a place above the rung. You know there will be priests on their sidelines so let's go out and get some Texas preechers for the Aggie side. I just happen to be available that night. Don't want to fly, however. Southwest is using convertibles with a hole in the top. I think the wind would bother me.

The rules have changed! Basketball has become almost as brutal as football, and they don't wear helmets! I think it is a sign of the times that we want body slams and roughhouse play. It is fast turning me off. The slam dunk is over-played. Anyone knows if you are a reasonable athlete and 6'6" or more you can reach up over others and put the ball in a hoop. On the other hand, nothing more graceful than a two handed jump shot from about twenty feet out!

I remember well the first basketball games I ever saw. I was in the lower grade of a school house that held all twelve. The court was outside. It was dirt and rocks. The Cavanaugh Redskins played out there in winter when their skins were ALL red! Spectators stood along the sidelines. These guys wore shorts....the short kind! When a player was fouled he shot two free throws. None of this sideline in stuff. You did not hack or shove or push or mug other players. It was a fun game to watch. The best player wasn't always the tallest. Scores were in the twenties or even less. That was back in Arkansas in the fourties. (Last century). The only thing still the same in roundball is the center jump.

Does anyone out there remember such times? Am I the only cave man alive?

It was FOUR years ago today that tiny Calvin Duprie found his way into this world. He was a whopping 25 ounces. His life would be, in the next three months, centered in the neonatal ICU unit of University Hospital, San Antonio. Laura and James would make the daily trek there to see this little guy. After ninety-three days Calvin traveled to his first home away from the hospital It was near Comfort, Texas.

He is the apple of this Paw Paw and Maw Maw's eye. He is sharp, and healthy, and active. We all receive his love in return, as we love him so much. He made the fifteen-day trip with us from Fort Lauderdale to San Diego in December/January. He held a big sloth in his arms, and allowed a huge iguana in his lap. He is fearless. I am sending a pic of him when he was so tiny. Happy birthday, Calvin! !!!!

CALVIN AT 9 MONTHS:

The storm gurus have spoken. They are predicting sixteen storms in the Atlantic who will earn a coveted name. Nine of them will become hurricanes. Five of them will be "biggies". Which one of these has OUR name on it for 2011? We hope NONE of them, but time is running out. There has been no major hurricane slamming our coastlines in nine of the last eleven years. We have not had one in the Rockport area for many, many years. I have "boarded up" twice and no storm came.

Here are the names. Care to pick one as "our" storm? I had rather not. I have friends and relatives on this list, including a son and grand-daughter! Take your pick if you are a picker. Arlene, Bret,Cindy, Don, Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katia, Lee, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Phillippe, Rina, Sean, Tammy, Vince, and Whitney. There they are; names awaiting storms to be assigned them.Some will be the BIG winners and we will be the losers.

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me.
When the storms of life are raging, stand by me.
When the earth is tossing me
Like a ship upon the sea,
Thou who ruleth wind and water,
Stand by me.

This is not about age. It is about speed limits. At a time when thousands hold their collective breaths as to whether or not the State has found enough money for schools, they are pushing through such bills as one already through the House to raise the SPEED LIMIT to eighty five! O, I know they say "after engineering and traffic studies", but EIGHTY-FIVE???
I have news for them; it has BEEN eighty-five for YEARS on the causeway to and from Corpus! This will actually slow some people down.

I thought about legitimate reasons for increasing the limit, not on a selected few highways, but all of them. l. It will decrease hospital needs as fewer victims of accidents will live to get there. 2. It will increase our need for oil, thus helping this depressed industry in their fight against wind energy and smaller, more fuel efficient cars. 3. It will allow persons to arrive at Doctor appointments on time, giving them more minutes to finish their crosswords as they wait. 4. It will help get these elderly citizens off our busy highways. 5. It will make the worn-out and damaged roads easier to travel over at higher speeds. 6. It will give a boost to wrecker and junk yard business. 7. It will help sell more cars. 8.It will cause drivers to watch their driving better and do less texting. (At eighty-five those small letters will be a blur.) 9. It will allow House members to get to Austin quicker so they can pass more stupid laws like this one. 10. You write one.

E-mails, and stories they often contain, remind me of the olden days when some preachers loved to deliver tales of events from the pulpit that seemed just a bit incredulous. Often they were more than that; nothing but embellished stories someone created while looking for a good sermon illustration. Some of these tales are rising from the ashes. They are often dated, as when the transportation of the day was a horse and buggy or steam engine!

I received such a story recently. It was a great story. It had one significant fault. It just wasn't true. I did some research, which was really quite easy, and discovered there was almost NO true facts at all. Why did I research it? I was so moved by it I was thinking of using it as a BLOG! I had never done that. Doubt that I will now. Research showed me I would have been a sucker for someone's tale.An OLD one!

Dear reader. These stories abound today. Some of them are politically motivated. They easily cross party lines. Some of them come from religious settings. Horatio Alger-type stories are the best.

My kind advice to you and to myself; Research the tales coming your way before you deliver them on. Upon doing that you may find the DELETE button is appropriate. If you really must have a good, made-up tale on a given subject, just let me know. I can deliver what you want, as long as you understand it won't have an ounce of truth in it. We "men of the cloth" are good at that.

We are in to another countdown. This one involves BIRDS. We hope LOTS of them. We have a four person team this year. Three of them are hardened veterans. One is a rookie. He will come through for us without a doubt. As the winners of our division the last two years it could be easy to become complacent. We are not. A new team has emerged from Rockport elementary. They have two of the best birders to be found instructing them. They are all fifth-graders. We take them on on Saturday. This is an eight hour ordeal involving lots of miles and looking at many many birds. We need to record well over a hundred to have a chance to win. That's what we want to do...win. Our team is the Roadrunners. Our Divison is known as the Roughwings, named after a kind of hawk.Saturday morning EARLY the Roadrunners will take the road. It will be fun!

This classic is featured as "the biggest, longest, wildest, birdwatching tournament in the United States!" How could that be? Let me tell you about some of the friendly, but very competitive events: ROUGHWINGS: Younger birders ages 13 and under. Eight hours of actual birding. Three to five members on each team. Kids have to see and agree on each bird. Adult leader confirms or denies their call on what the bird is. They cannot have birds pointed out to them by their leaders. This was the THIRD YEAR for our ROADRUNNERS from Rockport to compete. They were sponsored by Rockport Chamber of Commerce. They came in FIRST PLACE for the third straight year seeing 143 species of birds! That is an incredible accomplishment by our team of four this year! We had a new member in Caden Rozacky. This "rookie" did a great job as our youngest member. Three year veterans, Savannah Rozacky, Emily Duprie, and Olivia Smith led the charge. They were amazing!
The SECOND PLACE team was a new one. They are from Rockport and led by two outstanding birders, Dr Robert Edwards (dear friend) and Bron Rorex. They found 125 birds in their very first year of competition. This speaks of the area being one of the birdiest in the entire country in the spring of the year.

Others competitions are these: GLIDERS: Young adults 14-18. ADULT TEAMS: Ages 19 and older. BIG SIT: Teams from 1 to 10 members. They bird from a single location of an imaginary circle of just a few feet for 24 hours! They can come and go as there is a need. All their birds have to be seen from within that circle. OUTTA SIGHT SONG BIRDER TOURNAMENT Teams must consist of three but no more than five who are BLIND or visually impaired. If a sighted person is on the team he/she must be blindfolded. They identify by call. They can have one sighted driver and a record keeper. All ages can compete. WEEKLONG TOURNAMENT - It goes day and night and covers all the areas of the Great Texas Coastal Birding trail all along the coast of Texas. They can also go as much as 200 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. Three to five members, and runs from 12:01 AM on Tuesday to 11:59 PM on Saturday. These guys and gals encounter episodes with snakes, animals, law enforcement, and curious residents. It is a marathon beyond belief. Their list of birds is enormous. There is a $2500. entrance fee per team. All teams have fees. The monies are used for prizes of monies dedicated to improve some birding habitat of the team's choice. Our kids get some prizes, like bird books and even binoculars.

Oue WINNING TEAM had to miss the awards ceremony that was today. It was in Orange, Texas, too far away after birding all day Saturday. We don't know the kid's prizes. Last year they received a personalized copy of Kaufman's "Field Guide To Birds Of North America". Each were autographed and our kids posed with the writer, Kenn Kaufman, for pictures. He was a real nice guy and famous birding authority.

So there you have it. The Roadrunners hit the road at 6:30 Saturday morning and did a great repeat as CHAMPS of their division! Three in a row.

Our long-time friend, former TWA Pilot, John Gilman, lifted on his final flight this morning at 5:00 A.M.. He had clearance to reach Heaven, and I know he did. John flew while my brother was also piloting for TWA. They lived in Kansas City and attended the same church. Their wives became fast friends. John's wife, Jeanah, had been one of Ann's best friends as they attended Nursing School in Houston. After we all had retired we traveled together RVing across the West. John was great fun around a campfire. He became a minister after retiring, but had been a dedicated Christian since High School days in Oregon. It was brain cancer that finally got him.

John was one of very few pilots who foiled a hi-jacking attempt. It was back when that was popular. He told about it on Nightline a couple of years ago. It is a great story. No one was killed but the hi-jacker was shot. He recovered.

John decided after he retired he wanted to finally get his college degree. He went back to school and got it. He said it was interesting to be in classes where the students were so young.

John was successful at everything he ever tried....except golf. The game was not kind to him. He took lessons, practiced, and had all the right clubs, but the low scores eluded him. He would not ride in a cart. He always walked. He never beat me and I never beat John. He would beat himself by trying so hard. He was always a good sport about it. A real gentleman.

Kansas City was simply too far a trip for the two of us. The service is tomorrow evening. We will be there in thoughts and prayers. It will be a celebration as John would have wished.

It was the beginning of Jewish Wednesday, but would have been Tuesday for us. The Gospel of Matthew speaks this way: "When Jesus had finished saying all these things (found previously in Matthew 24-25) he said to his disciples, "As you know, the Passover is two days away - and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."

At those very moments the plotting of his death became intense: "Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him, "But not during the feast", they said, "Or there may be a riot among the people."

Were these men religious? Very much so. Were they cowardly? Even more so. Did they play into the Hands of Almighty God? I think so. The death had to happen. The Perfect Sacrifice for the sins of all people had been prepared. A motley crew of twelve had been picked, along with some other Believers Jesus had accumulated, to deliver this cross and resurrection event to the world.

It would seem impossible events are stacked on each other. No problem with God. He had a plan bigger than any Satan could create. That plan began, even with the evil plotting of these "holy men", and the ultimate crucifixion. The one event where no one was needed would take place Easter Sunday. Unaided by mankind the Son of God would reveal forever who He was and is.

Does that make our Easter Sunday a joyous event? You better believe it! Bunnies and baskets and eggs don't even begin to tell the story. They CAN make Easter a happy day for kids, and that joy can evolve, with our help, into helping them see the greater happiness and joy in the Resurrection. At least that is what happened for me. Celebrate!

On this special day when we hope for a focus on the cross and the Christ who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, a small-time "preacher" from Gainesville, Florida finds the spotlight as he protests again, this time in front of a Dearborn, Michigan mosque. Terry Jones, and a small contingent of sidekicks from Dove World Outreach Center, will manage to get the spotlight of the world. He claimed yesterday, when asked about it happening on Good Friday, that he didn't even
KNOW it was Good Friday or that Sunday is Easter!

Such is our media world today, along with men like this, who under a guise of preaching the gospel, have a message of discord and hate. I have seen it over and again in some fifty-plus years of ministry. I always wonder when men like this come along if they ever ask the question. "What Would Jesus Do?". Jones has a book to sell and T-shirts, and whatever. He also carries a gun, but doesn't know where the safety is. It discharged in his car yesterday.

On this day 2000 and a few more years ago, our Lord hung on a cross as He was crucified by "religious folks" and Roman soldiers. His response to it all was, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they are doing.". I am trying to pray that for Terry Jones, but it is hard. He knows what he is doing. The work of outreach to Muslims and other non-Christian groups with the gospel takes a hard hit from such actions as those happening today at Dearborn.

We are at a crisis time for the need of rain. Crops cannot hold out much longer. Wildfires are devastating hundreds of thousands of acres, burning homes and causing deaths. It is a critical situation. Governor Perry has called for a three-day concerted prayer meeting for rain. We are in it now. We should honor this call and pray that God might favor us with showers from the skies, even as we can pray for "Showers of Blessings". A severe drought following a damaging winter with freezes, and hail storms tearing apart roofs, should call each of us to recognize anew Who is in charge of this grand world. He can make the rain fall on just and unjust. He can open a cloud the size of a man's hand and pour rivers of moisture from the skies. God can do all that and more. He may choose not to, but He just may be waiting to hear from us on the matter. Let's lift our prayers to the Father for much-needed rain.

We have used it as an expression to speak of someone, or some team, having trouble winning or making it to another level. "They seem to be snake-bitten." I have no idea where such a statement was birthed. We have a dear friend, Marge Williams, who can speak of this awful event in the first person.

Marge and Don Williams live on a lovely Estate at the edge of College Station. Deer graze in their yard, along with all the other critters of the wild. Man and beast live together there in peace and accord. There are, however, snakes. Copperheads dominate. These snakes are not usually as aggressive as water moccasins. They carefully sneak about in the undergrowth, leaving we humans alone....most of the time. Saturday morning as Marge moved a netting, covering some of her plants, she came across a very angry Copperhead. He(or she) had gotten tangled in the netting. Marge did not see this snake, but she felt it as it bit her knuckle. Quickly, swelling began to move from there to her hand and arm. It was a fast trip to ER and the Hospital. A venom for pit vipers was available and she was cared for. Hopefully Marge will be up and around real soon. She had a close encounter of a scary kind.

We are planning to go to their home this coming Friday so we can attend a wedding of the daughter of one of our dearest friends, Ross Arth. I love to go to this place. It can be a birding paradise. I am hopeful the birds will be flying close to the house so I can see them from the deck. I plan NOT to grub around in the flower beds while there. That is a job for some Master Gardener of which I am not.

I hate to reveal my ignorance in this seventy-eighth year of life, but I had NEVER read or studied the life of a man named Marco Polo. My daughter found a book "The Travels Of Marco Polo" among some books being given away. I started reading it casually, and since have been captivated by this man and his incredible journeys of almost a thousand years ago.

Marco Polo was a Christian merchant and trader from Venice. With his father he traveled through the Middle East and much of Asia.He was only seventeen when he began. He became fluent in four languages. It was estimated he traveled some 15,000 miles in 24 years, returning to Venice in 1295 a very wealthy man.

In his travels one powerful man took a liking to Marco Polo. He made Polo a part of his court and relied on him in many ways, never wanting him to return home. That man was Kublai Khan. This powerful ruler never claimed Christianity. He did want to know more about it. He asked for 100 Christians to come from Rome and teach the Seven Arts. He also wanted oil from the lamp in Jerusalem. Marco Polo helped fill that request of Rome but it took years! In his incredible journeys he kept mentioning from country to country the religion of the people of that area. It was almost always Mahomet (This was Mohammedanism1)

Khan honored the festivals of Christmas and Easter with great pomp. He would ask for a Book of the Four Gospels to be brought to him and devoutly kissed it, demanding his nobles to do the same. When asked his motive for this it is said his reply was: "There are four great Prophets who are reverenced and worshipped by the different classes of mankind. The Christians regard Jesus Christ as their divinity; the Saracens, Mahomet; the Jews, Moses; and the idolaters, Sogomombar-kan, the most eminent among their idols. I do honor and show respect to all the four, and invoke to my aid whichever amongst them is in truth supreme in heaven."

The world really hasn't changed all that much in these nine-hundred plus years. These four "religions" still vie for followship. Mahomet seems to be forging ahead, while Christianity wanes. Judaism is terribly weak, and idolatry in newer forms, is prominent.

Khan wanted them all. That is NOT possible. Not then, and not now. "Choose you this day whom you shall serve...."

Heard from my brother-in-law, Hershel Garner, who lives in Rison, Arkansas. They have had over SIX inches of rain in the last couple of days. He said, "The creeks are risin' in Rison". He would like to send us some of the rain and we would like to have it, but the system just doesn't work that way.

When will we get the rain we need? In due time....maybe past due time. I am praying for it to come soon, but God is in charge of that part of the operation. He simply says in the Word: "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matthew 5:45)

When it comes it will be equally shared with those who honor God and those who ignore Him. It is His fair way of doing things here. I am glad that is so. It would not be good for folks to be able to drive around Rockport and notice "that yard is greener...they must have gotten a rain because they are so good". I am afraid if I depended on that kind of rain we would be living on a sand dune.

"There shall be showers of blessing. This is the promise of love.. There shall be seasons refreshing, sent from the Savior above Showers of blessing. Showers of blessing we need. Mercy drops 'round us are falling, but for the showers we plead!

I will NOT be running for President during the next election! I know that is a great disappointment to you, but I simply am not eligible. I never really knew that until the ado about whether or not our President has a legitimate Birth Certificate.

Not only do I NOT have a legitimate birth certificate, I have no other kind. This wasn't discovered until several years ago when I needed a passport to travel to Israel. I contacted my state of birth, Oklahoma, and they had no record of my being born. LeFlore County, my county of birth, had no record. Now I am getting a bit concerned. Maybe I really am an outer- space alien, as some have suggested. I had twice served in the military, served on a jury, received a couple of degrees, and gotten married, all without proof of birth. Finally the powers that be accepted a record dug out of the archives of Fort Smith Public Schools showing I attended first grade at Cavanaugh, and on the records it stated my birth date and place. That was accompanied with a copy of family births my Mother had written in front of a family Bible. Everett Dale Pogue was born June 13, 1932, at Cameron, Oklahoma.

Technically that is incorrect. I was born at a place called Liberty Hill. There is no store there, only a little church called the Liberty Hill Baptist Church. The nearest town is Cameron. It had, and has, a single store. The train used to stop there. Farther down the highway is the County Seat town of Poteau.

If I could run for President, which I can't, which party standard would I run under? None of the existing ones, for sure! I would create a new Party. That is permissable. It is also a sure guarantee one will not be elected. What would my platform be? I think I would want a movable one of oak that I could take from town to town. It would be a tall platform, placing me well above the crowds of people. How do I feel about taxes? I like taxes but since I think I was born in Oklahoma, I would have the Oklahoma/Taxes game in Tulsa each year. How do I plan to solve the energy crisis? That is an easy one. I would see to it that all the hot air in Washington and Austin would be conserved and pressurized. Cannisters would attach to our vehicles and propel us, instead of fossil fuel. Fossil fuel is hard on engines. Regular is much better, but needs to be leaded. Fossils clog up the head gaskets.

Who would be my running mate? That's a tough one. Normally, I would choose Ann, but she can't run anymore. She can still move pretty fast, however. I definitely want my running mate to be a woman. I oppose two men being on the same ticket as running mates. I know that is old fashioned and out of step with the times, but you have to have something for the press to feature for a controversy. Give them a good one, I say. No birth certificate is not enough.

There you have it, dear reader. Another dream squashed. Time is running out for my fifteen- minutes of fame. Guess I'll have to write a book.

While we wish for rains here in South Texas there are no wishes to have the awful devastation that has torn through the South and Southeast. Over two hundred deaths are estimated, and that could go much higher. Thousands of homes have been reduced to stacks of brick and broken lumber. Cars have revealed their vulnerability as they are seen twisted like something a train collision might produce. We are once again reminded of the immense power of winds out of control. Tsunamis have shown the awesome power of water. Earthquakes demonstrate the unleashed power beneath the earth. Where can one go to escape all these natural powers? I don't have any names. We simply have to live with the risks of natural disasters. They have been around since the first BIG ONE Noah faced. It took him a lot of years, lumber, ridicule, and faith, and he came up with a plan of escape. It worked! God gets the glory.

There is an ultimate plan of escape offered today from everything mentioned and much more. It is not so much an escape out of.....but to. It is not a temporary protection, but one with a full warranty backed by God Himself. We call it salvation, or being " born again". It is putting full faith and followship in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Without it one lives on the brink of eternal destruction. With it one lives with the promise of God for a storm-proof security that is good for.........ever!