Happy Birthday America

Today is July 4th, the official birthday of the United States. I thought I would reflect on that a bit. We live in a world that is basically separated be good and evil. Those who are in the "evil" camp believe they are the good guys because the believe in fighting for their causes. Those are in the "good" camp are willing to fight to defend their cause.

On June 7, 1776 Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794), VA, presented Congress a resolution urging Congress to declare independence. On June 11, 1776 Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), John Adams (1735-1826), Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Roger Sherman (1721-1793), and Robert R. Livingston (1746-1813) were appointed to a committee to draft a declaration of independence. From June 12 through June 27th, Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence at the request of the committee. On June 28, 1776, the draft was read in Congress. Between July 1 and July 4th, this document was debated, revised and adopted by Congress. For more information, go to Declaration of Independence.

This one document set in motion the birth of this great nation. The freedom that is eloquently expressed in this document is equally to none other. It is for this freedom that Americans are willing to give their life. As you celebrate this 4th of July holiday, please take time to reflect on the significance of this day. For many it is just a day off. How sad.

Do you proudly fly the American Flag in front of your home? If not, you should. If you do, retire the old tattered flag and put up a new one today. Do you thank military people when you see them? If not you should, they are fighting for the freedom you enjoy.

So as you enjoy the day off spending time with family and friends, take a moment to say Happy Birthday, America. And most importantly, thank God for this country and the freedom it represents.

Father’s Day and the Master Gardner

Today is Father’s Day; a day we traditionally honor the many Dads across the land. As I enjoyed my morning coffee out on the deck, I notice the roses needed dead-heading, so I set down the coffee cup and picked up my pruning shears. Dead-heading is the process of cutting off the rose flowers that have past their prime. This makes the plant look better and promotes new growth. As continued working through the roses, God spoke to me and said, “Just as you area working your garden, I must also work mine.” Not being the brightest bulb in the world, I asked. “What do you mean?” God said, “What do you do in your garden?” “I plant new plants after preparing the soil, keep the garden free from weeds and rid the plants from parasites and disease, nurture the plants by watering and feeding, prune and dead-head as needed.” Then I understood. I simple replied, “Thank you for caring enough to include me in your garden.”

Today I reflected on my Dad, the person who taught me about friendship, the person who taught me to look past the color of another person’s skin, the person who taught me about compassion and doing the right thing. How thankful I am that my Dad cared enough to teach me these things.

I also reflected on my children. Since they are adults now, I see them with a different perspective than a parent see younger children. They turned out pretty good, I think. I am not sure how much of that is due to anything I did or did not do. I hope I passed on to them the wisdom my Dad instilled in me.

A few weeks ago, I had the blessed opportunity to spend a week with my youngest daughter and her family in Dallas. Laura asked for my help in replacing a fence around their home. This meant working hard and playing with Gage, my Grandson. He is an eager learner. As I look at the photos, I have a clearer picture of how God works His garden.

Geezerette

Well, it is now official. Carol has joined me in the world of geezers. I know, geezers are guys. That is why she proudly claims the title of Geezerette. (If you can purchase Geezerette gear, then Geezerettes are legitimate.) Here she is enjoying the beautiful red/pink roses her DH surprised her with at breakfast with the ladies. You see for some time she has had a Saturday morning breakfast with a couple of dear friends. I decided to join them so it is me and the ladies or the three ladies and me. Saturday I planned to surprise her by having our waitress Carla bring out the roses. I only wish I could have seen Carols face when she saw the vase. Since I was sitting next to her that was not possible. Well of course she shed a few tears as did her two lady friends.

Here is a close-up of one of the roses. We have great places in Corpus Christi to purchase roses. I found these in the most unlikely place - our grocery store. They don't look like grocery store flowers do they? I did not think so either. Now I have several rose bushes in our backyard but none like this. I did by DW a new rose bush called Fragrant Plum. I hope it does as well as the other roses in our garden.

Today after church we went to the ball game. Here is DW at the entrance to the park. Whataburger Field is home to the Corpus Christi Hooks. This team is a Houston Astro's Double A franchise that Nolan Ryan brought to Corpus Christi. This year they are hot and have one 4-0 record. In the photos below, Carol is in front of the stadium, then we are at the mezzanine level looking down to row 6, finally Carol is waving at me while I am standing at field level.

Pretty good seats, if you ask me. Driscoll Children's Hospital is a corporate sponsor and on occasion, makes tickets available to employees.

In the next set, Carol is posing with Rusty, the team mascot. He is a hoot and likes to make the fans enjoy the game. In the middle is the meeting of the coaches at home plate, then the last photo is of our lead off batter in the first inning.
Did I mention the Hooks won the game today 6-1? What a great way to celebrate a birthday.

Whataburger Field is adjacent to the Port of Corpus Christi so every now and then you get to watch ships coming into port or leaving port. In the last photo set, the ship Charleston is coming into port. I got a shot of the ship's bow, then the stern as it was passing the field. A few minutes later, another ship was headed out of the port. Corpus Christi is a great place to live.

At the end of the day, we were both tired and Carols parting comments were, "Thank you, DH, for a wonderful birthday." I think I done good.