Last Sunday, I did something I shouldn’t have done. After 54 straight weeks of going to church, I took a Sunday off.
This Sunday, I’ll be back – but I already caught some grief with my Bible Study group over it. The friends I live with and the other people in my group don’t go on Sunday for various reasons.
I guess I could go the “rules for me, not for thee” route. My friends go camping and sometimes go on vacation. Ditto the other people in our group, who have family away from Florida.
I didn’t. I just wanted to take a break.
This Sunday might be rough. It’s not only the first Mother’s Day without Mom here, but it will be exactly six months since she passed.
Not too long before this writing, the judge in the Donald Trump hush money trial again threatened the former President with jail time for violating the gag order repeatedly.
In a very perverse way, I don’t understand why the judge hasn’t already done this. The left/Deep State could have done this several times over the past year. If this is their goal, what’s keeping them from achieving it?
My guess is that it’s all about control. If they keep threatening Trump, they keep control. If they do it too much, they look ridiculous. Once they do it, they lose that control.
I think, as the kids say these days, they “want the smoke” as long as they can control it. If they cannot, then, I think China would come in and invade on behalf of the Deep State in theory. It’s also possible China won’t need the DS either, eventually, and would double cross them.
Also, if the Deepers actually turn the tables and jail Trump, he will meet the fate of Jeffrey Epstein and be murdered in a way that would make Trump look suicidal.
The DS would permit that because, as they say in poker, they have the nuts – the best possible hand.
It’s a dangerous game with a lot of fates at stake. Hopefully it won’t get played out.
I’m not feeling any better about the future of the country in the past few days.
The antisemitism going on at our colleges by these so-called Arab invasions (the big cities finally figuring out this was going on, and have shut these protests down) is not adding to my optimism. These are the George Floyd rent-a-mobs with Floyd out and the hate for Jews thrown in. They’re on the payroll of Soros, who himself is Jewish, but he betrayed his race in favor of the Nazis as a youth. Nice guy, not.
The persecution of Trump and the continuing betrayal of the GOP goes on, most notably by House speaker Mike Johnson. Who knows who will be the next traitor, but the traitors always seem to show their true colors just when you have things figured out.
Now, Biden wants to bring refugees from Gaza into America. As I think I’ve said before, Biden is more of an Anti-President because everything he does seems to be a punishment to the voters who voted Trump in 2016. The media and the fellow Democrats – I guess they have Stockholm Syndrome.
I am still planning to reduce my social media output when excrement hits the fan. It seems to be getting closer.
I’ve been doing this blog for over 12 years now, closing on 13. I don’t know if this is part of my Aspergian life or not, but I detest defecating anywhere other than in the home I’m in.
You probably could have gone through the entire life of this blog not knowing this, so if I spoiled something for you, sorry.
In my old age, I’m trying to loosen up from this idea, as I wonder if it’s somehow tied into my Asperger’s Syndrome. Yesterday, I’m in church (and I probably shouldn’t mention which church with what I’m about to share with you.) “You’ve Already Won” is being played – a Christian song (of course) most notably done by Shane and Shane. My stomach begins rumbling big time – uh oh. I’m now fighting a battle I’ve already lost.
My optimist’s brain sometimes writes checks I can’t cash – and I’m hoping to make it through the service before making it to the bathroom. But as the sermon begins (1 Corinthians 2), I feel another sensation going through my stomach. Can’t hold out any more – it’s time to go to the bathroom.
Sheepishly, I make it to the latrine. Oh, did I mention one of the reasons I hate doing the deuce in public is that I sometimes have thick, ummm, waste? I didn’t know what the flushing quality was of that particular bathroom – and I had no time to find out.
After extracting the waste and cleaning up as we all do – I flush. I hear the toilet operate, but not the sound of the toilet flushing down what I put into it.
Quite literally, oh crap! (If not in church, I would have said something stronger.)
Surely, there has to be a plunger in the bathroom. Nope.
So, I go back and sit down in my pew – that’s pew, not P.U. I wasn’t about to interrupt the service and tell everyone I clogged up one of God’s thrones. Anyone, not necessarily me, could have done that – but if caught, I would have given a full confession.
I thought I left my reading glasses in the bathroom – as I put them on to read the Bible off of my phone. Nope, I pocketed them when I realized I had them still on my nose.
We get through the service – and I make a beeline to the bathroom, to see if I had any luck resolving the situation. Someone was using the stall I had used – so either the problem had been fixed, or they were about to find the problem. Either way, me and my guilty conscience high-tailed it out of there!
Either it will be forgotten, or it won’t. If not – I’ll have another story to tell.
Much like religion, chess has been one of those things that’s been “around” in my life.
I once had one of those Radio Shack chess games, and then one of the Chessmaster Windows games. A few weeks back, I got the Chess.com app, and I play a few times a week
Much like how I’ve gotten into religion the past 18 months or so, I’m trying to learn more about chess beyond basics. I play for fun, not to be the next Bobby Fischer.
My game needs work. Even on the free version of the app, you can play all kinds of bots. A few hours ago, I got beat in five moves.
Usually, I play the bots because they’re unlimited time games. Playing online opponents involves a time element. The longer I can think about the moves, the better I do.
But I need to play online more. Maybe I just don’t like getting beat all the time. But I think to get good at this, I have to take my whippings.
Last night, I shut down my X and Truth Social accounts. I have since started a new X account for the purpose of news aggregation and nothing else.
I guess I chose peace over the rabid engagement social media presents. If you have a conservative point of view and state something, 10 accounts averaging 100 followers scream at you and call you things ending in i-s-t.
The topper for me was some nudnig in Scotland who was trying to convince I was wrong about Trump. I mentioned that the arbiter was using projection on me, a long-standing tactic most famously used by the Clinton’s. They accuse opposition of exactly what it is they do – a dirty, nasty tactic.
Anyway, Miss Scotland links an article for me when I mentioned projection – that says Republicans use projection.
Not long after that, I deactivated my accounts. You just can’t win dealing with these people.
I don’t know what the future holds, but I’ll just watch and not spectate in it.
A great tragedy disguised as justice is going on over the next few weeks in New York City with the so-called hush money trial of former President Trump.
I have to assume most of you know the details. A judge who should have recused himself due to a conflict of interest with his daughter has refused to do so.
The charge against Trump, using personal funds instead of campaign funds to pay off Stormy Daniels – who was allegedly blackmailing him – that’s a misdemeanor at best.
The gag order on Trump (and yes, Trump is violating it, I would too) is unconstitutional, as is the requirement of Trump’s attendance at all times.
If they convict him, will they throw him in jail? They have had that chance to do so a few times and passed every time. I don’t think they have the guts to do it.
Could I be wrong about that? Sure.
Blocks away from the trial, the immigrant situation is spiraling out of control, with protests that looked like the Occupy movement a decade ago.
They simply replaced the rented protesters with immigrants.
Now you know why I want to cut back on my social media presence. I might just remove social media from my phone, and engage from only the computer.
The culture is toxic.
We will see what happens with this. When a government decides to destroy one man, it won’t stop there. No matter what you believe, you and I are simply prey to these people.
O.J. Simpson died a couple of days ago. I did not wish him to rest in peace.
I was almost 23 in 1994 when it all began, culminating in that surreal car chase on the freeways of Los Angeles that millions saw on a Friday night in June.
CNN and Court TV covered the “trial of the century” the following year. Fox News and MSNBC were about a year away.
Once I wrapped my head around the events (which initially I had trouble with), I was convinced Simpson did indeed kill (and nearly decapitate) his wife.
O.J. had one unexpected benefactor: a stunningly incompetent prosecution totally mismatched by Simpson’s so-called Dream Team of defense lawyers. The flawed characters of the key police officers, such as Mark Fuhrman, didn’t help either.
The world seemed to stop that October day when Simpson was acquitted criminally. The civil trial that followed had a prosecution team that didn’t make the same mistakes – and O.J. eventually did prison time for an armed robbery in Las Vegas in 2007.
It’ll be interesting to see if Simpson had CTE from his football career, not that this excuses his criminal behavior.
But at long last, Simpson will meet his maker, and perhaps the retribution due to him.
Yesterday, I was invited to take in a high school softball game at The Villages High School in Sumter County. It didn’t go well for the Buffalo as Belleview beat them soundly, 12-3.
But I was impressed with the facility as a whole. They had a massive football stadium that’s probably bigger than some FBS schools, along with two practice football/soccer fields. All the fields had field turf as opposed to grass.
I also saw their basketball facility, which had four courts instead of one. I don’t know if that was a practice facility or if they played games there. The goals even had shot clocks.
Didn’t get to see their baseball diamond, but quite an impressive facility from what I did see.
We had another eclipse today like the one we had in August of 2017. It left me wondering if it will be the last I get to see in my lifetime. The next one the US gets is in 2045 – the one in 2044 will go over Canada.
I’ll be nearly 74 when the next one gets here, but it will be a total one for Central Florida.
This time around, the media didn’t swoon over Bonnie Tyler as they did in 2017. She’s in Europe touring – where she’s widely more popular. And that was fine.
The animals didn’t notice it – as we were at about 60% totality at its peak shortly after 3pm EDT.
Ella slept right through what will likely be the only eclipse of her lifetime. She would be 25 in 2045 and probably has an appointment with the Rainbow Bridge before then.
But of course, she doesn’t know what an eclipse is, so I guess she didn’t miss anything.
News wise, it’s just been another day – outside of the eclipse.
It’s been a long couple of years, but my foot wounds have finally healed.
I got the news last Friday, March 29th, that I am no longer in need of Wound Care.
Another improvement finished.
The only question left is whether or not I get on Social Security Disability, and that has to be answered before I can work again – because the decision affects what I can do without putting my SSDI at risk.
Yesterday, I started walking for exercise again, six tenths of a mile a day. Next week, I’ll double that by doing two laps around my neighborhood. My eventual goal is three miles a day or something around that.
I’ll be cleared to swim on April 12th, so I’ll add that to the routine.
I’m also playing chess to sharpen up my mental skills.
Whatever the future holds, I want to be ready for.
I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was going through the possibility of leaving social media if current events go a certain way.
Here’s what I would do:
First, I would not leave Facebook, but I would post a message and a phone number for anyone to reach me.
Second, I would keep this blog and my two YouTube channels up, and post on those outlets for as long as possible. Life With Ella, for example, would continue on.
Third, I would close all other accounts.
A certain set of conditions would have to be met, which would be:
First, former President Trump is jailed or killed
Second, Trump loses the election under questionable circumstances as he did in 2020.
Or third, the declaration of martial law or some other catastrophic political event similar to the first two conditions, or I am questioned for my social media posts.
This is no joke to me. There are already widespread rumors in the media of the FBI going to homes and questioning social media posters. I don’t know how they can violate our First Amendment rights, or declare the Constitution null and void – it would be best not to be an attractive nuisance to them.
A Slice Of Big Pauly 