Well, Cheri and I got up on this beautiful hot summer morning, had a couple of bran muffins, and then worked in tandem to complete the Sunday Crossword puzzle and the crytoquip. She then headed out to the gazebo with her laptop to do the prep work before she sees patients this week. I am in my office, having just sat down at my desk, and then having to get up again because Phoenix, our fat orange cat, wanted to get up on one of the chairs in the office for her morning nap. We have this entire ritual now, that I have been trapped into doing. First, the chair has to have two blankets folded neatly on the seat. Then, usually when I am busy trying to gather my thoughts, she will start her meowing/howling as she sits at the foot of the chair. Now, although pretty plump, she is also very strong – strong enough to jump up on the chair by herself, but she has become accustomed to having me lift her up onto the chair, which then allows her to straddle the arm and dig on the thing with her clawless paws. Then, when she is satisfied, she will jump back to the seat itself, and sleep for a good two or three hours.
She does that with the boys downstairs as well. Often, she will stand at the top of the stairs, meowing, and waiting for someone to come up and give her an elevator ride down. What often happens, however, is that they will spend about five minutes encouraging her to go down the steps herself, which she does, complaining on each step, until she makes it to the bottom and then demands to again be lifted up onto the couch – which she can easily do by herself, but apparently she has everyone wrapped around her little paw. When she feels it is time to go back upstairs, she will then sit at the bottom of the staircase, howling until (usually Aaron) will give her an elevator ride up. Spoiled anyone? So, here I am at my desk, and once again, I feel the need to explore the strange, quirky, arcane pieces of knowledge that no one would probably ever consider if it weren’t placed in front of you. So, as we begin this third full week of July, here are some things you probably never knew… The average iceberg weighs 20 million tons. How they figure that, I’ll never know. A four-year-old child asks an average of 437 questions a day. The average teenager in a home will speak less than 437 words to his/her parent in a day. The average person over 50 will have spent a year looking for lost or mislaid items. If the population of China began walking past you in single file, the line would never end, due to the rate of reproduction. 83% of people who are hit by lightning are men. Most likely this happens because men are the ones usually dumb enough to stand outside in a thunderstorm. Black-eyed peas are really beans. A can of Spam is opened every four seconds around the world. Almonds are a member of the peach family. In its natural state, butter is totally white. It was the first food product allowed by law to have artificial coloring. In Japan, Christmas Eve is the time to eat strawberry shortcake and fried chicken. Miss Piggy once said, “Never eat more than you can lift.” Probably a good thing to follow… While we eat Danish pastry in the US, in Denmark, it is called Vienna bread. In communist China in 1956, The “Physical Culture and Sports Commission” recognized the sport of hand grenade throwing. The French dice game known as “Hazard” was introduced in the US in 1813 by a Creole in New Orleans, Creoles had the nickname of Johnny Crapauds, which means a toad or frog. The game was referred to as Crapaud’s game, but later was shortened to “Craps.” The English gold coin, the guinea, is named after the country in West Africa where the gold used to make the coin was mined. 28 percent of Africa is wilderness. 38 percent of America is wilderness. Because it so rarely snows in Africa, the children there are told the fairy tale of “Flower White,” instead of “Snow White.” More people play bagpipes today than at any time in history. Well, that’s probably enough to digest. Don’t we live in an incredible world? What we don’t know makes up so much more than we will ever know. That’s why mystery and surprise should always be part of our lives. Enjoy the day! Word to the wise for the day: “Be careful who you let on your ship, because some people will sink the whole ship, just because they can’t be the captain.”
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AuthorAfter 43 years of ministry, Randy Cross lived his "fourth life" and shared about retirement, living boldly and intentionally in our world. To be sure, there was some North Dakota thrown in. Archives
March 2023
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