Papa Pat Tiny Devotionals

Disclaimer: I hope not to rain on anyone's parade! If you are in one of those wonderful moments when all is going well, I celebrate WITH you, and FOR you! That's GOOD stuff! This post AIN'T about the good times, though, so if you want to stay bouncy, you might want to stop here and come back later when you need it. In 1972,  Dan Jenkins published a book about professional football, and players, and hangers-on, and it should have been sold with a sweaty sock that had been worn during a game, and then left in a gym bag for a week. (Because the book was rough, gruff, and stinky, you see.) It was wildly popular (#7 on Sport's Illustrated's 100 Best Sports Books of All Time) with people who loved football and sports in general, and who celebrated a world that was run on testosterone, money, and whiskey. The book had the title 'Semi-Tough.' (FOOTNOTE! ) Then, as now, people used understatement for emphasis.  Today, when people say 'a minute,'  it doesn...

          Greetings, friends, neighbors and family out there in Internet Land! (The reason for that particular greeting: Old Timey radio preachers used to greet their audiences "out there in Radio Land." I'm just updating it.) I'll get to the relevant part in a minute. But first, here's this: One of the many songs that made a MINOR contribution to my messed up mind in 1971 was 'Rain Dance' by the Guess Who. TODAY, I discovered that all the cryptic references in the song were all about local things in Winnipeg, Canada. In particular, the freakiest phrase to my addled mind, because it was spoken without music, was "Where'd you get the gun, John?" And it turns out that is a whimsical reference to John W Gunn Middle School in Winnipeg, named after a prominent local politician of prior years. John W. Gunn Middle School, Winnipeg, Canada And the 'rain dance' is all about the drought that hit Winnipeg, right after they had built a huge drai...

Greetings, friends, neighbors, and family out there in Internet Land! I just utterly misread / conflated two emails. I'm not sure what was THERE, but what I SAW was the Bank of America offering me a free Bible if I opened up a savings account with them. But that got me to thinking....WEIRD stuff. Such as: if religious groups were also in the business of running financial institutions, would they do business with pagan/heathens or not? Could you have a First Fellowship Savings and Loan of Sodom and Gomorrah? The only precedent I could find for this: The children of Israel borrowed gold from the Egyptians right before they bugged out. Now the sons of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have their request. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. (Exodus 12:35-36, NASB) But then I remembered...

In my dream, he was still alive and vital, and I was looking forward to showing him that I had gotten my pilot's license. He flew commercial for decades, and when he made the Final Take-Off, on a Wing and a Prayer, he had 28,000+ hours in his log-book. For some reason, I was transporting two unruly children to a facility near his house, and I  planned to go by and see him after dropping them off. It didn't work out, though; you know how dreams go. Ralph & Bebe Wedding Day, 1958 It was good to think about seeing my dad again. He wasn't my bio-father, but he took up those duties when I was five years old. Perhaps it's because I'm now 65, and he passed shortly after his 67th birthday, but I've had occasion to think of him recently. His last few years were not healthy; that's what genetics will do for ya. His own father was 56, I believe, when he passed. Would you want to have that information available to you before choosing a mate? The dating websites ask ...

This is what is sitting on the table, waiting for the kids to get home. Since I got a flour mill a few months back, I have been milling my own Hard Red and Hard White wheat, and making various breads out of that. Without exception, they have all tasted WONDERFUL, and the only adaptation I had to make was to realize that without all the processing done to commercial flour you buy at the store, I'm probably not going to be making light and fluffy biscuits.  I had a recipe for Banana Yeast Bread, and it was GOOD, but it really didn't have much banana taste. So, I just took a conventional recipe for banana bread and modified it. The results, you can see above. I had just a smidge, and it is YUMMY! It's so soft & moist, it reminds me more of pudding than bread. Since I ground my own flour, substituted honey for sugar, and used lard in place of vegetable oil, I'm gonna claim this as a recipe that might have been presented at my birth home on the dirt road in Macon, GA, wh...

Howdy, to all my friends, neighbors, and family out there in Internet Land! Shortly after school started at the beginning of August, I re-formalized (again) the chore duties for 13 year old Kenneth and 12 year old Alicia. In addition to the individual stuff (cleaning their rooms, etc) they each have ONE biggie whole-house job: Kenneth is in charge of trash & yard, and Alicia is in charge of dishes. Kenneth on the left, Alicia on the right. School walk-through, 7/31/18 Kenneth and Alicia change a tire on the Suburban 8/16/18 I gave both of them a specific deadline by which the chore was to be accomplished. And I offered to negotiate with them for compensation. Kenneth opted to do the trash for free, and to spot-negotiate for specific yard-cleaning tasks. Alicia Ann, however, was in a snit, and didn't want to get paid, because she preferred to regard herself as horribly put upon: Cinderella, child slave labor, all that stuff. It's impossible to maintain that attitude when cas...

Greetings, to all my friends, neighbors, and relations out there in Internet Land! Background. I have previously written of range trips with my youngest and largest son , the Moose, so named because his real name is Mickey, and he was 10 lbs. 9 oz. at birth, and we knew we had no Mickey Mouse, but a Mickey Moose. He now TOWERS over me at around 6'5" and it's a strange sensation for me, at 6+ feet, to hug someone and have my head only come up to their shoulder. He diligently and gently cares for his Papa, as do all my children and grandchildren, and all of that is a great comfort to me and to my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA. Purpose of the trip. This range trip actually had a distinct purpose, other than the sheer joy of punching small holes in pieces of paper. I had acquired two firearms I'd not yet fired, and had another non-functional firearm returned to me from the gunsmith I n...

              Greetings, friends and families and neighbors out there in Internet Land! If you have a ad-blocker running, you won't be able to see them, but there are clickable graphics at the top of this page that take you to " Empire of Man " and " Throne of Stars " on Amazon.  (And I'm going to write reviews at some point, but not yet.) I do not wish ANYONE to miss seeing a lovely graphic, so here are a couple of non-clickable graphics that won't take you anywhere, except possibly to the place where you say "Aww, that's so CUTE/SWEET!" These are two of my favorite people in the whole world:  my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA, aka GRANESSA(!!! ) holding grandson Eliott, and Eliott having lunch. Behold, I shall not lie to you (this time): the past several weeks have provided me with numerous opportunities for personal growth. Or, at least that would be th...