Sadness

This is my entry in a neat meme called I Heart Faces. Click on this button to check it out





While I was visiting in a very poor neighborhood in Rio Bravo, Mexico, many of the neighborhood kids would crowd around curious about a strange looking visitor in the area. Most of the kids were very outgoing, but this little one was shy. The sadness I see in the photo still haunts me.





A tour guide at Houmas House plantation on the Mississippi river in south Louisiana. The story of slavery should leave us all with a sense of sadness.

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I am very involved in my local Relay For Life. You can view my Relay For Life Blog here.

Witness Quartet

Last night Gina and I attended the Witness Quartet concert that was held here in Mena. Witness Quartet has been singing together here in the Mena area for the last 15 years. Last year they released their first CD - Still Climbing. They are a very talented group. The first time that I heard them was when they sang at my friend Carney Williams wedding. I was his best man.


CARNEY WILLIAMS AND I ON HIS WEDDING DAY, MARCH 26,2005

Sometimes life seems to have interesting coincidences, and this was one of those instances. Friday, Carney was seriously ill, and had to be taken to the hospital. Saturday Gina and I were visiting him in the hospital just before we went to the concert. They are going to be doing some more tests today. We are praying that those tests go well.

Here are some video clips from last nights concert. If you enjoy good Southern Gospel quartet music you will like these.


GIVE IT AWAY - WITNESS QUARTET


THE ANCHOR HOLDS featuring KRIS LYLE


BEULAH LAND - WITNESS QUARTET

You can listen to more of their music on the Witness Quartet My Space page.
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I am very involved in my local Relay For Life. You can view my Relay For Life Blog here.

Noblesse Oblige

Rottlady of Lovin' and Livin' Life in the Ozarks has given me the Noblesse Oblige award. Thank you Rottlady for the honor

The rules are :

The Blogger manifests exemplary attitude, respecting the nuances that pervade amongst different cultures and beliefs.

The Blog contents inspire; strive to encourage and offer solutions.There is a clear purpose at the Blog; one that fosters a better understanding on Social, Political, Economic, the Arts, Cultures and Sciences and Beliefs.

The Blog is refreshing and creative.The Blogger promotes friendship and positive thinking.

The Blogger who receives this award will need to follow the following steps :

1. Create a post with a mention and link to the person who presented the Noblesse Oblige award.

2. Display the award conditions on the post.

3. Write a short article about what this blog has thus far achieved - preferrably citing a post to support.

4. The blogger must present the Noblesse Oblige Award in concurrence with the Award conditions.

5. The blogger must display the Award on their blog.

I would like to pass this award on to the following bloggers


It's me..just me 'N' us



Actualizado Belize



One Day In Hania



Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo


And last but not least
A Yankee-in-Belgrade

Please check them out. Each one of these blogs are interesting windows into different parts of the world.

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I am very involved in my local Relay For Life. You can view my Relay For Life Blog here.

The Wisdom Of Teeth

"The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil." That quote has been attributed to Cicero, a Roman statesman and philosopher. Cicero is widely considered to be one of Rome's greatest orators. I had an experience this week that made me start thinking about wisdom.

For the past few weeks I have had a very painful toothache. I went to the dentist on Tuesday. After taking x-rays, he told me that second molar on the lower left was in bad shape. One of the reasons that it had deteriorated was because it was up against my "wisdom tooth". He recommended that I have both teeth pulled.


Having the teeth pulled was quite an ordeal. The wisdom tooth was laying sideways, and the root had a hook that was in the bone. The procedure wasn't that painful, but the pulling, pushing, cutting, tugging and prying made it very uncomfortable. When the anesthetic wore off I was in a lot of pain.

While I was at home nursing a very sore mouth I started wondering why the third molars are called wisdom teeth, and why we have them. I found out that they are called wisdom teeth because usually they come in when a person is between age 17 and 21 or older; old enough to have supposedly gained some "wisdom". Wisdom teeth are the third and final set of molars. Sometimes these teeth can be a valuable asset to the mouth when healthy and properly aligned, but more often they are misaligned and cause trouble.

I found the explanation of the term "wisdom teeth" to be somewhat amusing. 17 to 21 year olds aren't the first age group that I think of when I think of wisdom. Wisdom comes with experience. The dictionary definition of wisdom is "the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; discernment, or insight.

We to often aren't sure of the difference between wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. There is some overlapping of the definitions. Wisdom is knowledge with understanding. Anyone can get knowledge, but understanding is another thing. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 3:13, "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding".


I crave knowledge. I am curious about so many different things, and want to learn about them. It is interesting to me to see all the different "facts" that you can find on a given topic. Sorting through the "facts" can make understanding an almost impossible task.

1 Corinthians 1:19-20 tells us "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world"?

I want to make sure that in my quest for knowledge that I look to God for understanding.
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I am very involved in my local Relay For Life. You can view my Relay For Life Blog here.

Nina Bonita

This is my first entry in a neat meme called I Heart Faces. Click on this button to check it out



In 2007 I spent a week in Mexico. I stayed with a friend of mine, Nic Garza, in Mercedes, Texas, and each day we spent in Mexico. I was the speaker at a revival meeting in Valle Hermoso, Mexico. Nic was my translator. One night after the meeting we stopped at a restaurant in Rio Bravo, Mexico to eat.



It was a great restaurant with an open fire pit. We met this little girl out in front of the restaurant. She was so cute that I just had to take her picture.

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I am very involved in my local Relay For Life. You can view my Relay For Life Blog here.

Z is for Zephyr

It's time again For ABC Wednesday. If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday, you are missing out on a lot of fun. This week the letter is Z. I am curious to see what everyone posts. Z is a hard letter. My post is Zephyr. In 1936 Lincoln introduced the Zephyr, named and styled after the streamlined Burlington Zephyr express train. Several years ago I spent a lot of time manipulating photos to look like paintings. One of the photo/paintings was of a 1939 Lincoln Zephyr


1939 LINCOLN ZEPHYR

My Daddy has a used car lot, and has always had a number of old cars. That has given me lots of cars to photograph. I have a number of other old car photo/paintings. This one is of a 1942 Desoto. The most distinguishing feature of the 1942 DeSoto was its "Airfoil" headlights. Squarish doors hid the lamps until an underdash lever rotated the covers upward and turned on the lights. Though hidden headlights had been used on 1936-1937 Cords, they were still very much a novel idea in 1942.


1942 DESOTO

The Coupe deVille was introduced by Cadillac late in the 1949 model year. Part of the Cadillac Series 62 line, it was a closed, two-door coupé, Cadillac's first pillarless hardtop. Intended as a prestige model, at $3,497 it was one of the most expensive models of the Series 62 line. It was luxuriously trimmed, with leather upholstery and chrome 'bows' in the headliner to simulate the ribs of a convertible top. The first-year Coupe deVille sold 2,150 units, but 1950 sales were more than double


1950 CADILLAC COUPE DE VILLE

The 1938 Graham was introduced with the slogan "Spirit of Motion". The car looked like it was in motion when standing still. The fenders, wheel openings and grille all appeared to be moving forward. The design was widely praised in the American press and by American designers. It also won the prestigious Concours D'Elegance in Paris, France. Its cut-back grille later gained the car the name "sharknose",


1938 SHARKNOSE GRAHAM

The Edsel is most famous for being a marketing disaster. Indeed, the name Edsel came to be synonymous with commercial failure. The main reason the Edsel's failure is so famous was that it flopped despite Ford’s investment of $400,000,000 in its development. There is no single reason why the Edsel failed, and failed so spectacularly. Popular culture often faults the car’s styling. Marketing experts hold the Edsel up as a supreme example of corporate America’s failure to understand the nature of the American consumer. The Edsel was "the wrong car at the wrong time."


1959 EDSEL

All of these cars belonged to my Daddy and were photographed and digitally manipulated by me.

Christmas in Jamaica

I know that it has been awhile since Christmas Day, but I have been so busy that I am just now getting to go through my pictures. It seemed very strange to take a cruise over the Christmas holiday. Once we were on the cruise ship it didn't seem like Christmas at all. There were very few Christmas decorations on the ship. There was a Christmas tree in the lobby with a Menorah right beside it. There was also a Christmas tree near the casino.


DOCKED IN MONTEGO BAY JAMAICA

When we woke up Christmas morning we had arrived at Montego Bay, Jamaica. Gina had a hard time with the fact that it was the first time she had not celebrated a traditional Christmas. She made a quick ship to shore call to Baton Rouge. and felt better after she had talked to Cynda. It was a quick 2 minute call, because ship to shore rates are 7.99 per minute.

We had booked a tour for the day. We traveled by bus to the Croydon Plantation. The bus trip was breathtaking in more ways than one. The scenery was beautiful as we traveled into the mountains, but we saw several accidents on the narrow twisty roads. One of them involved a tour bus.


TOUR BUS SANTA

While we were traveling through the countryside we passed many houses that were very close to the road. The hillsides are so steep that the houses are right by the road, and the children play in or very near the road. On our tour bus was a man who had long white hair and a beard. He had spent the entire week on the ship wearing a Santa hat. As we were riding through the countryside, the children along the road would see him sitting in the tour bus, and their eyes would open wide, and they would run following the tour bus.


JAMAICAN GIRL

Croydon Plantation is a working plantation that has many different crops. It is set in the mountains with the hillsides covered with pineapple, citrus trees, coffee, and many other crops.


COFFEE BEANS


CROYDON PLANTATION


CROYDON PLANTATION

On the plantation they grow 17 varieties of pineapple. Here in the U.S. we mostly eat Hawaiian pineapple, and we are used to only one variety. Were were given samples of three different pineapple varieties, and they tasted quite different. A pineapple plant produces one pineapple, and takes 18 to 24 months to mature.


BABY PINEAPPLE

After we toured the plantation we were fed a home cooked meal of jerk chicken, fried plantain, rice and beans, and cooked local greens. We were also served world famous Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee. The trip back to Montego Bay was beautiful and enjoyable.


BACK TO THE SHIP

We were back on board ship a little before sundown. We were able to watch a beautiful sunset over Jamaica before we left port. The Royal Caribbean cruise ship was in port next to us.


MONTEGO BAY SUNSET

By the time we left Jamaica, the sun had set and the countryside was sparkling with lights. The cruise ship next to us looked beautiful as it sparkled with light.


CRUISE SHIP AT NIGHT

Our Christmas 2008 in Jamaica will be a Christmas we will never forget. It will probably be one we won't repeat. Next year we will be celebrating a traditional Christmas.