Landlords are getting a bad rap lately
My mother lives with me now, but until she was 100, she lived by herself and supported herself.
She was able to cover her expenses because she had acquired some rental property years earlier. The property was originally owned by her husband and his two brothers, but they had neglected it and allowed it to get rundown. My mother kept nagging them to fix the property up, but they didn’t listen.
She ended up finding a secretarial job, and when she had earned enough of her own money, she bought out my father’s two brothers. Then, when my father died…
When spring comes, the deer are hungry
Yesterday six white-tailed deer gathered around the bird feeder in my back yard, trying to figure out a way to get to the cracked corn that was frustratingly out of reach. Another deer, not quite as brave, looked on from a distance.
This is nothing unusual in the Georgia community I live in. We are a busy part of the metro Atlanta area, but despite a dense population of humans, it isn’t unusual to see entire deer herds foraging around my subdivision.
Maybe that’s why Georgia designated the white-tailed deer as the official state mammal in 2015.
Deer Encounters are Common
With so many…
Americans are armed to the hilt, but this bill is extreme.
Texas Democrat Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee is sponsoring a new gun control bill introduced in The House on January 1, 2021, and there are three aspects of the proposal that should alarm people concerned about our civil liberties.
The Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act, or H.R. 127, is named for Sabika Sheikh, a 17-year-old Pakistani exchange student who was among eight students and two teachers killed in the 2018 Santa Fe school shooting attack.
Sabika’s death, like all deaths by random gun violence, was a tragedy. The teenager had been due to return home to Pakistan in just…
Humor
Accusations continue to swirl
According to anonymous sources, Democrats considered bringing Trump back to be president for a week, so they could blame him for the power outages that left Texas reeling in the wake of snowstorms and plunging temperatures.
“We might even be able to impeach him again, if he comes back,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said wistfully.
But they quickly discarded the idea when President Joe Biden said, “No way Jose, I am not sharing the Oval Office with somebody who refuses to wear a mask.”
The focus then shifted from Trump to Senator Ted Cruz, who was spotted wearing plaid boxers…
Was it supernatural or coincidence?
I have always had an uneasy relationship with Lent. Maybe it’s because my mother never observed it. Or maybe it’s because I can’t find it in the Bible. But until I joined a Methodist church that religiously observed it, Lent was never on my radar screen.
For those who aren’t familiar with Christian religious terminology, Lent is a religious observance in the Christian liturgical calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later, at Easter.
It is supposed to be a six-week period of fasting, moderation and self-denial designed to draw us closer to God. But I…
Humor
He might get you to have a physical
Since my husband retired, he has built a new deck, started a website, sold stuff on Craigslist, painted three walls, and wrangled with insurance companies, service providers and businesses to lower our bills and send us refunds.
I approve and support these activities. They are productive, lucrative, and more importantly, they don’t involve me.
But that all changed yesterday. “Can you be home between 2 and 6?” He asked. “We can get a hundred dollar gift certificate if you agree to be here.”
“Okay,” I said, immediately on my guard. “What are we doing to get $100?”
“The health insurance…
We each have our own destiny
I was in a Zoom meeting the other day when one of the men in the group said, “I’ve got a question. Do you think it’s fair for an NFL football player to sign a contract for millions of dollars when most of us don’t make that much money in a lifetime of hard work?”
Different people weighed in. “I think nurses and school teachers should make more than football players,” someone said.
Another person thought frontline workers in grocery stores should earn as much as athletes. “They’re risking their lives during a pandemic.”
The comments continued.
“What about doctors…
Even during a pandemic
Before 2020, I helped at a nonprofit, belonged to several service groups at church, and regularly visited a friend in a nursing home. One of the many negative aspects of the pandemic was the end of those volunteer activities.
The constraints of Covid-19 made me feel like a passive Christian.
Mother Teresa said we are the wire and the current is God. We have the power to let the current pass through us, use us, and produce the light of the world: Jesus.
Passive Christianity, when the current of God isn’t passing through us, is religion losing its strength and…
Satire
When groups object to the term human milk
UK health officials threw hospitals and nurses into a quandary when they ordered nurses and midwives at two hospitals to substitute the term “human milk” for “breast milk.”
“We recognize the importance of providing inclusive, respectful perinatal care to all pregnant people and their families,” Brighton and Sussex Hospitals (BSUH) said in the statement. “And breast milk does not represent that inclusiveness.”
But one nurse’s group objected to the term “human milk” as being more discriminatory than breast milk. …
Humor
Recipient describes Award as Biggest honor of his life
President Joe Biden and his chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci have teamed up to award their first Covid-19 Good Citizenship Award, which they hope will inspire people to remain vigilant about staying safe and healthy.
Accepting the award at a special Zoom ceremony, recipient James Johnson said he was more thrilled than he had ever been in his life.
“I have never won anything before,” Johnson said, tearing up. “This is a big honor and I vow to continue avoiding the coronavirus for the rest of my life.”
Johnson’s voice was muffled by the ten masks he wore, but…
