It’s been awhile.

It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged. Why? I’m not real sure. I have been very busy but I think I kind of rebeled against my own blog. I can see that people are still visiting my page. That’s pretty cool.
I’ve had alot going on lately. My kids have been playing sports, my wife and I’ve been working alot and it’s summertime. I’m not spending a ton of time on the computer. I spend more of my time on my cell phone. I can do almost anything I want on my blackberry or my iPod touch.
My wife and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in June. We are very proud of that. While we were dating everyone said that we would never last. But thank the Lord that we did.
The baseball season is half over already. My White Sox are doing pretty good. Can they make the playoffs? I think they have a chance. Will they win the World Series? Who knows. But I will enjoy it while it’s here.
Football is right around the corner. I’m excited that the Bears have a real quarterback. Fantasy football will be great as well.
Well that’s it for today. I just thought I’d right down my thoughts for today. Talk to ya soon.

Drug testing the poor?

Some people say nothing good ever comes out of  Texas I’ve always disagreed. (especially now)

Texas has recently enacted a new law requiring that food stamp recipients undergo drug testing. The Texas law requires food stamp applicants who have convictions for certain crimes within the previous five years to submit to drug testing. If they test positive for controlled substances they will be denied benefits for 12 months. Those who do not test positive for controlled substances will be required to undergo monthly drug tests while receiving food stamps.

The law goes into effect on September 1, 2009

The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that 10 states are considering random drug testing for food stamps, jobless checks and other state entitlements. Is your state one of the ten? Here is the list, (Florida, Arizona, Hawaii, California, Illinois, Iowa, Arkansas, West Virginia, Virginia and New York).

Many people against this legislation say that it’s unconstitutional because it violates the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unnecessary search and seizure.They also say that it would cost too much. Proponents of the legislation claim that while expenses would be incurred, the states would be saving money by not supporting and feeding drug addicts with food stamps and welfare money. Is this the right thing to do? Should we drug test people that are in need of assistance? Here is my take on it……………………….

I want to start off by saying that I do not believe that everyone on food stamps, unemployment or welfare is a drug addict. I think there are some very good people that have fallen on hard times, that need a little help to get by. When I was a little kid, I remember a time that my family needed help. We had food stamps and I even remember us having a discount card for school lunch. The important thing is that it was temporary. It was not a lifestyle that we loved and took advantage of.

I think drug testing is a great idea. I see many people everyday taking advantage of food stamps . In the state of Illinois we have the link card. It is a debit card that has a certain amount of money put on it every month. I see people stocking up on non-essential items in the gas station all the time. The only people that will have a problem with the drug testing are the people doing drugs and the ACLU. As a truck driver and someone that has a CDL, I am subject to random to drug tests. All they have to do is tell me, “Hey, your names  been pulled for a random, let’s go now”. If  I refuse that means I fail. So if I have to take a drug test to feed my family and pay my taxes, then why shouldn’t someone who counts on my taxes to provide for their family or habits take one as well? This debate is well worth watching. I support it and I hope you will to. Call your Senator or Congressman and tell them this is a great idea.

Stop and look

Working outside during the third shift has its advantages and disadvantages. Instead of telling you all my likes and dislikes I want to tell you about one thing I love. But first let me tell you about a friend.

My friend recently told me about how me loves to wake up before his family, brew some coffee and enjoy some quiet time with his Bible. It’s time for him and God. I think that’s such a great idea. It made me realize that, I’ve been doing it for a long time just in a different way.

The thing that I love about working outside during the third shift is that I get to spend time looking into the sky. Some nights are better than others but even on a cloudy and rainy night it’s a sight to see. When you look into the sky everything else around you seems to fade. I look at the different stars, some twinkling, some just blue and others that seem so far away. Then there is the moon. A planet that looks so close sometimes that you can hit it with a rock. I love to stare at it, watch clouds pass in front of it and even imagine what it would be like to walk on it. This time I spend looking at the sky gives me a chance to thank God for his creations and to realize how powerful he truly is. God created this for us to see and enjoy. The sky is so mysterious, we have so many theories on how and why things are the way they are. The neat thing is that he has all the answers. He placed the planets right where he wanted them. He took each shining star and set it in the perfect spot. It is exactly how he imagined it. When is the last time you looked at the night sky and thought about God? I recommend you try it. Worst case scenario you may be very relaxed or have a sore neck.

One thing I’ve been wanting to do for a long time is grab my Bible and go fishing. If I can get to a lake with a cup of coffee, throw a line in the water and then read my Bible it would be great. If I can do it with a friend I will. If I have to do it alone that’s fine too. I just need to make it happen.

My favorite hot dog stand.

I want to let everyone know about my favorite Hot dog stand. If you have been there you will know what I am talking about, if you have not been there then you don’t know what your missing.

Gene’s and Jude’s is located at 2720 River Rd in River Grove, IL. As you can see in the picture below, Gene’s and Jude’s is a very small place that has no seats inside and can be seen from some distance because of the bright yellow lights.

What makes Gene’s and Jude’s so special? Well it’s not the appearance of the store or the rough looking people behind the counter and it’s definitely not the fact that you are forced to eat in your car or stand at a counter inside.

I think it’s the steamed buns and hot dogs that are made Chicago style. Did I mention that they are topped with a handful of greasy “fresh cut” fries that are cooked in lard. I always get the “double dog”. That’s two hot dogs on one bun and they are topped with those healthy fries. I have a picture of that as well.

I bet you are saying to yourself, ”Ok it’s a hot dog with fries on top, what’s the big deal?” All I can say to that  is you won’t understand unless you’ve been there.

Opening Day

 

 

Spring is in the air, well sort of. When you think about Baseball you think about hot dogs, bratwurst and maybe a cold beer on a hot summer day. Well not in Chicago, not in April. In April you think about hot chocolate and a warm pair of gloves.

 But hey, the season always starts off cold but by mid – summer you won’t even remember it. Opening day marks the next few months of checking box scores and updating my fantasy Baseball roster. Opening day also allows me to plan a trip, a trip to US Cellular Field home of the Chicago White Sox. I love planning these trips. I love to show up several hours early, get a good parking spot and do some old fashioned tailgating. I always have to make a very hard decision before going tailgating. What should I put on the grill? Hot dogs, brats, burgers or maybe even some pork chops. What kind of chips should we eat ?  What should I fill up the cooler with? Some  people want pop,  beer or even a cold bottle of water. These questions are never easy to answer. I always get it  figured out, then I pack up the tables and chairs and head down to the ball park.  

Today was opening day in Chicago for the Chicago White Sox. It was suppose to take place yesterday (like everyone else), but instead we received a nice spring snow storm. The storm dumped about two or three inches in the area and the temperatures were in the 30’s. (that doesn’t feel like Baseball weather) So the game was rescheduled for today at 1:o5.  Today was cold and windy again but the game went on. The White Sox had a 4-2 Opening Day victory over the Royals before 37,449 at U.S. Cellular Field. The White Sox took the lead in the 8th inning after “Mr. Incredible” Jim Thome hit a 400ft. homerun to center field. Then it was up to Bobby Jenks to close out the game as he always does. I hope this is just one victory of many for the Sox. The Sox have cut payroll alot, moved some older players to get younger and if all goes well, will be facing the Cubs in the World Series in October. Ha!!! Did I say the Cubs in the World Series? I better not jump too far ahead. They need to start by winning at least one playoff game.

remembering man’s best friend

One of my dear friends dog named Sally passed away on Monday. Sally was a ten year old yellow lab. She was a wonderful dog that loved to be pet and loved to lick (I didn’t love that part). Sally was a very beautiful dog that left way to early. But that got me to thinking about pets in my life and the impact that pets have on others.

My whole life I’ve always had some type of pet around me. If it wasn’t considered my dog, cat or bird, it was my parents or grandparents. I think my favorite thing about a dog or cat is that they never judge you and they are always there for you. They don’t care what you look like, even when you think you look your worse. Have you ever noticed that when your sick, they know it? I have a dog named Riley that is very loving. She is always by my side. She even sleeps at the bottom of my bed when I sleep, except when my wife or kids are sick. She will lay by the sick person for most of the day. She only gets up to eat and go outside. My Grandpa died this past August of cancer. He was at home on hospice for his final days. Within the last few days he was alive, his dog would not eat and would lay right by his bed and cry. I truly believe that animals can sense when something is wrong.

Dogs, cats and many others types of animals become part of the family. Have you ever taken your pet on vacation with you?  How about this one, have you ever had a bad day and your pet was there to comfort you?

Some Christians don’t believe that animals have a special place in Heaven. Some people believe animals don’t have a soul. I asked several knowledgeable people about this and they’ve all said “the Bible doesn’t mention it”. I just wonder how something can show the most wonderful of all emotions (love) and not have a soul.

Studies have shown that having pets around ill patients is very therapeutic. In some cases, patients attitude totally changed after being around animals. They went from not wanting to fight their illness to making a full recovery.

As you can tell I am an animal lover. I will probably have some sort of animal my whole life. Not because I’m so lonely that I need  one around but because I know I can give an animal a great home with tons of love. I also know that animal with give me unconditional love as well. So to Sally and all the animals that have passed in all of our lives, we love you and thank you.

Please just tax us to death.

We ar in a recession. People are losing jobs, companies are losing money and so is the Government. Who’s fault is it? Who suffers the most? We do…….

I live in Illinois, one of the most over taxed states in America. We have a sales tax anywhere between 6.5% and 10% depending on where you go and what you buy. Illinois has an average state income tax around 3% and if our Governor gets his way it will be raised to 4.5%. I drive a truck for a living. My job requires me to have a class A CDL. It currently costs me $60 to renew it but under the new Illinois taxes it could cost me between $80-$100. A Illinois license plate sticker currently costs $78. The plan is to raise that by $20. Have you ever taken a ride on the toll way in Illinois. Almost every toll is between $.80 and $1, unless your in a truck, that will cost you between $2 and $6 per toll. What about our gas tax? They believe now is the best time to raise that tax as well. From all the info I can find the Illinois fuel tax is between $.19 and $21.5 cents per gallon. How much more can they raise it?

Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn says that the state of Illinois will finish the year in about $8 to $11 billion dollars in debt, that’s why we need to raise taxes. But he doesn’t mention anything about cutting costs. I understand that all of the states financial problems are not his fault but he should cut as much as he can out of the budget to make up for the financial shortfalls. Two other things I didn’t mention was a new cigarette tax going into affect and paying higher prices for hunting and fishing licenses. Non-smokers, non-hunters and people that don’t fish (non-fishers just doesn’t work) will most likely not care about new taxes, but taxes that continue to increase will open the door for other taxes. A good example of that is, the city of Chicago has a tax on bottled water. ($.5 per bottle) Why can’t the state do that as well? They can tax bottled water, a higher tax on fast food or what about a higher tax on coffee?

Now let’s talk about the Federal Government. They are giving Federal loans(hand-outs) to GM,Ford, AIG and every other company that has messed up. Now we find out AIG is giving millions of dollars in bonuses to employees and former employees. So the Government had the idea to go against the Constitution and put a retroactive tax on those bonuses of 90%. First off, I think it’s wrong for AIG or any other company getting help from the Government to hand out millions in bonuses. I don’t believe that these bonuses are the fault of every employee that has received them. I’m sure that some people had bonuses in their contracts but, would you be able to accept one without feeling guilty? Does the Government really expect to get that money back? I bet that this new retro tax will be taken to court because it’s Unconstitutional. I bet that court battle will cost millions.

Time to sum this all up. I will pay whatever taxes they come up with, not only because I have no choice but because the Bible tells me to do so.

Romans 13:7

Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

 

I think the Federal, local and State Governments need to stop taxing us to death. You may not have noticed but I have not mention Democrats or Republicans in this blog until now. Most people have thought of one or both while reading this. Get that out of your head, they are both guilty. Both parties are spending tons of money and not making any cuts. They don’t have a problem raising your taxes. All of the tax cuts that Barack Obama is putting in place won’t do anything in Illinois because the small amount of taxes that have been cut will be washed away by the state of Illinois. I love this country, I love this democracy but I am really frustrated that this country wouldn’t grow up and won’t become a financially responsible country.  But I do know that we are all depending on it.

stupid crooks

For many years now we have seen tv shows that show videos of places being robbed by stupid crooks. It always makes us laugh and wonder why would he do that. Over the last several days, I have heard three stories that I have to share.

A man in Waukegan,IL. tried to rob a gun shop. He got into an altercation with an employee, then he jumped the counter to try to take things, then the employee pulled out his gun and shot the man three times.(employees of gun shops wear bulletproof vests and have guns on their sides) the robber was shot twice in the chest and once in the leg. The man is hospitalized. Charges against him are pending.

A man and his wife come home, when they realized someone was in their house. So the husband sneaks into his house, grabs his gun from the closet and confronts the robber. They made the robber clean up the mess he made, while he was looking for things to steal. After he cleaned the mess at gun point, they called the cops.

The last story is the stupidest.

A man walks into a convenience store, grabs a pop from the cooler, then approaches the clerk. That’s when he pulled out a gun and told the clerk to hand over the money. The clerk handed over the money from the register and told the man he has to pay for his pop. So the robber handed him his debit card to pay for the pop. The rest is history.

See I bet you laughed at least once. The last story is my favorite because that is really bad. See it doesn’t pay to be a thief. Especially a stupid one.

It’s never too late

I finally got off the bench and onto the court. What I mean by that is, I finally did something I’ve been wanting to do for nine months, but never have. We will get back to that in a moment.

Have you ever avoided talking to someone because of something you did or failed to do? Have you stopped calling them, avoided the places they hang out or even ignored their calls so you could avoid confronting that person?

That’s what I’ve been doing for the last nine months. As I take my walk with God, I’ve been trying to fix things in my life. Not everything needs to be fixed, but some issues need to be addressed. I’m trying to be a better husband, father, family member and friend. I was avoiding this person because I did not contact him when something very important was going on in his life.(his wedding) After the fact I felt really bad. I was embarrassed that I didn’t call him and I thought he would be mad or disappointed. So for the last nine months, I’ve been a coward. Afraid to make that call. Afraid of what I thought he might say. The stupid part on my end was that I had a real reason why I couldn’t be there. If I would have called him and explained it he would have totally understood. But I did nothing and this has been weighing heavy on my heart for too long. I thought about calling him several times but chickened out. Until yesterday.

I finally called him and he was genuinely excited and happy to here from me. The first thing I did was apologized to him and told him I’m not going to give him an excuse because there really isn’t one. I also told him that I should have at least called him. He said, he has no hard feelings. He wasn’t mad at the time and wasn’t mad now. Then I thanked him. He was the person that helped lead my wife and I to Christ. He was witnessing to us as teenagers, explained a lot of Biblical things to us and even introduced us to the Church that my wife and I were eventually saved and baptized in. He just praised God. Then we just talked about things going on in our lives like nothing ever happened. He even said that I made his day by calling.

After I hung up I instantly felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I sat there and realized how big of a fool I’ve been. My life has changed a lot over the last two years. I’ve lost several friends and I’ve had some very important family members pass away. Life is too short to not talk to people, hold grudges or to have conflicts with.

Do you have someone you need to call? If cowardly Bob can do it, so can you. It’s never too late.

Being protected by God.

Last Saturday night my wife was on her way home from work (around 11pm) when she hit a patch of black ice, spun around three times and landed about ten feet off the road into a ditch. (She wasn’t injured).

Last night I was on my way to work when I realized I wasn’t wearing my seat belt. (Which was weird because I always do) So I reached back to put my seat belt on and continued to drive. As I approached the next stoplight I found myself happy because the light was green for a change. Just as I start to make my left turn at the light, a car that was going very fast , flies past the front of my car. I think he was less than a foot away from me. I stopped in the middle of the intersection and looked up at the lights. I said to myself “Yep I still have the green light”, he just blew the red light.

Within three days my wife and I had two very close calls. When my wife spun out she could have hit another car, a poll or even a tree. With my close call if I wouldn’t have taken the extra few seconds to put my seat belt on I would have been T-boned without my seat belt on by someone that blew a red light. There is only one way to explain all of this. “God”

Two weeks ago in Church I heard a sermon based on the book of Daniel. Daniel 3 The story of Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego. It was a story of how they were thrown into a fiery furnace because they would not worship a golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had made. They were not killed, not one hair on their bodies were burned because God sent an Angel to protect them. Today I read Daniel 6 the story of Daniel and the lions den. In this story Daniel was helping King Darius in many ways.He was preferred by King Darius because an excellent spirit was in him. The presidents and princes got jealous of Daniel and tried to find a way to get him in trouble with the King. So the presidents and princes tricked King Darius into making a decree that for the next thirty days no one can worship any other God. They can only worship the King and that this decree cannot be changed. If anyone was caught worshiping any other God then they would be thrown into the lions den. Daniel new that this decree was signed but he went home to pray anyways, he always prayed to God three times a day.As he was praying he was noticed by several of the presidents and princes and was brought before the King. At that point the King knew that he had been tricked by these men into signing the decree and he also knew that he couldn’t save Daniel from the lions den. Daniel was cast into the lions den where he was not harmed. God sent an Angel to shut the lions mouths.

First I want to say that I summarized these two chapters of Daniel to keep this blog from being extermly long. But I encourage you to read these chapters (Daniel 3&6) to get all the details of these stories.

In these two chapters people kept their faith in God even though it could have cost them their lives. Both times God sent an Angel to protect them. In my life there have been many of times that I could turned my back on God and didn’t. My faith was recently attacked by someone I work with and I stood my ground and stood up for God and what I believe. I’m not sure if Angels were with my wife and I over the last few days when our situations could have ended up very bad but all I know is that God was protecting us from something worse. Both situations could of ended in a very different way in a matter of seconds. So thank you God for keeping us safe.