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As many of you may know I am a caregiver for the elderly. I got a call tonight from one of my client's wife. She called to tell me that my client had passed away and she wanted me to know because her husband, even though he had dementia really enjoyed me and he was by far one of my favorite clients. his dementia left him with speech issues, he would talk but his sentences made no sense. however that did not stop us from building a wonderful relationship. I will defenitely miss him as he gave me alot of laughs in a sometimes sobering job. may he be free from the chains that robbed him of his later years, wherever he is.

Here is what happens after you live a life of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. Mick Jagger on the left at 80 years old. Mitch is 81. Let that be a lesson to all of you young rockers.

Accidentally went grocery shopping on an empty stomach and now I`m the proud owner of aisle 7.

Fact: If you eat a slice of pizza fast enough, your body won`t understand how many calories are in it.

I got called pretty today! Well actually the full statement was "you`re pretty annoying!" But I only focus on positive things.

Fetch!

I will try and keep this as short as possible, but some things just need to be said. I was raised in a Christian cult, and brainwashed from birth throughout my development and into adulthood, and I was not a rebellious teenager (that would maybe have been better) but I embraced every aspect of the religion. My whole personality, my entire being was forged by what god wanted, what he approved. Who I was was defined completely by the faith. We were not allowed to mingle with non believers, we were not allowed access to information outside the faiths books, and I have to emphasize how strict this was, and it was under the guise of protection against demonic influence. I vividly remember whenever someone said anything contrary to what my god taught, I whole heartedly believed a demon or the devil was actively attacking me, and I had to fill my mind with prayer, and trust in god's strength...sigh. Anyway, the control went further and heavily influenced my view of the world. Material things were thought of as just temporary, and any desire to own anything was met with, and countered by meditation on scriptures like 1John 2:15 - "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." Growing up with that in mind, it became how I saw things. I remember as a child finding a toy car, and it was so wonderful. It was a small red sports car, and had doors that could open, but I immediately knew it would be a problem, so I played with it in secret. But my mom caught me, and my dad stepped on it with his boot, crushing it. I remember my mom's concerned face as she asked me: "Don't you want to go to heaven?". Beyond those traumas, another part of me that was heavily shaped was my purpose in life, and the meaning of life. My whole purpose was to please god, and the meaning of life was to worship him so closely, that I lived in union with him. Succes in the materialistic world was the purpose of the evildoers and 'worldly' people, and they would perish in the cataclysm and those in union with god would enter paradise. Now, I know there are people, and I've seen them here on this forum, who judge and ridicule people with faith, and think to themselves: "I would have gotten out early, I would have never been that stupid, or how could they believe such nonsense without proof." All I can say is sometimes vulnerability to religion isn't an intellect issue. Even though I am not faithfull anymore it angers me when people with conviction, and who preach their faith are ridiculed or degraded, maybe because those attacks feel personal somehow. I guess that's why I've been reluctant to comment here, and won't stay long probably. Regardless, to get to the point, I've been out of that faith for 10 - 15 years now, and went through the trauma of shunning and all that, but even now I am struggling to get to grips with reality. The contrast is immense. As an example, I used to look up at the stars and feel god was looking down on me, I felt he was powerful and cared about me, and not just that, he was planning my way forward, and I would cry tears of joy amidst the comfort and contentment of that place of mind. Now I look up and see only planets and satellites reflecting sunlight, or globes of gas burning light-years away. It is marvelous, but cold and empty. The grand spectacle reminds me of my insignificance and how alone I am. Alone at the mercy of nature, and alone in the face of death. I still find this hard to process. More than that, and maybe because my brain was wired like that all those years, I see no meaning or purpose in this material world. I have no drive to be successfull, and all the shiny things are hollow. Even love appears as just a carnal lust. But now I am left with nothing beyond that, no paradise or eternal life of bliss. No matter how hard I try to face reality, it's just pretty scary. I try to tell myself - it is what it is, deal with it or don't, but I find myself drawn to magic inevitably. For all the evil and lies that comes with magic (religion), it does come with hope. I feel hopeless, and things seem pointless without its greater meaning, even though it is false hope. Lately I have developed this irretating inkling, a nagging desire to experience that kind of hope again. Like the Israelites wanted to go back to Egypt when they were hungry in the wilderness (if that even happened lol). But there is no going back. Yes there was hope in faith, but it and it's rewards lie outside reality, and is a cage for the mind, although one with comforts. I cannot lie to myself and believe again just to experience that hope, but I can't process the cold hopeless emptiness of reality considering where I come from. I feel the lies of religion have dealt me a death blow. So my question is: How do I find hope in the face of my human fear of death, and my vulnerability to nature? How do I find meaning and purpose when we are just animals? How do I find comfort when no one above all these things is guiding me? What does hope even look like in a magicless world? I feel I don't have the mental tools for this And please, you intelligent folks, please remember where this question is coming from before you judge or mock. And my questions are direct and deliberate, not sarcastic or deceiving, it's really how I feel, even though the answers may be obvious. Thanks

Laughing at your mistakes can lengthen your life. Laughing at your wife's mistakes can shorten it..

Every morning, I jog around my block 15 times. Then I pick the block up and put it back in my toy chest..

Kinda crazy to think that we could go to any nursing home and find better candidates and representatives.

had a drs. appointment and my blood sugar was a little high. going through and making some changes. Even though my cappucinos are sugar free they still have carbs and carbs break down into sugars..... blah. So I am going to start by making those a once a month treat rather than a few times a week. tonight it was mashed cauliflower instead of the mac n cheese everyone else had. I am trying to stay away from insulin dependancy seeing as how i am diabetic, i do believe with a few tweaks I will be back to my A1C goal of below 7

Within the next few days we will be moving the site to a new server (at the same hosting provider). This move will help reduce costs over the next couple of years while also providing us with a hosting solution that's better suited to the site's current demands. If all goes to plan, you won't notice any difference in performance, site loading times etc. The migration will be handled by our hosting provider, so the specifics of the move itself will be out of my hands, however there shouldn't be much (if any) downtime or disruption. Server migrations are, thankfully, much smoother now than they used to be back in the day. When a migration like this occurs, the main issue tends to be that when the switch happens, some users will still be seeing the old server and some will be seeing the new one for a period of 24 hours or so while the IP information propagates. This can lead to, for example someone posting something on the forum while seeing the old server, which then won't exist on the new one (and vice versa). Generally speaking, though, most users should be switched over to the new site within a few hours. I'll update this post as things progress so watch this space for news on when to expect the final sync to take place.

Welcome to the new server

Auto-correct has got to be my worst enema...

UH OH! Another cell phone has committed suicide leaping off my belt under the front tire of my 444, then crawling under the bucket to put itself out of it's misery.....

It might not be the greatest tomato in history. It might be small, even by cherry tomato standards, but I grew it so I'm going to enjoy eating it.

This is a warning for anyone who buys big box store plants. Don't! Go to a small private garden center. Big box stores don't check their plants for diseases and Lowes almost wiped out the New Jersey tomato by selling blighted plants.

Link What an idiot. Should be dead.

Today an old work mate stopped by from the mid west to say hello. We went out to have lunch and talked about the old days. He is younger by a few years and hopes to retire in about a year or so. Although it’s been close to 20 years since we last saw each other it was amazing how much we recalled our working time together.

So this last while I have noticed the 3 legged dog I take care of is a babe magnet. Have had several women come up and fawn over Lucky while I am taking her for a walk in the stroller I built. They tell her how adorable she looks and how happy she is then like sentimental saps they tell me what a loving guy I am. I tell them shes not my dog and it doesn't seem to matter so I was thinking about cloning 3 legged dogs and building more strollers so I could rent them out to single guys.