Goodbye HD - Hello New A/C

Over the years, life throws us all a few curves, a few sinkers, and a slider here and there. Life happens. Still, sometimes, it really sucks.

While on vacation last week, my wife asked me if I wanted to convert the spare room into my gameroom and office, complete with a new HD TV. I've never had one. I'm glad she was driving, or I would have driven off the road.

So, I get home and hit the streets and the internet. I researched reviews, talked to techies, and talked to hard core gamers. I found a 32" Vizio at COSTCO for 599, which included a two year extended warranty. The 20" was 399, but was just too small for me to see. The cable guy was coming today to drop the new line. I was pumped!

Yesterday, the A/C went south. Six grand. It WAS 23 years old, which is almost as old as some of you. Every year the repair man joked about putting a historical marker on it. So, it was time. But it's kinda like buying tires or a new toilet. But, you gotta do what you gotta do. Texas in July without A/C is not fun, although I did it many years when I was a kid.

But, as I've gotten older, I've come to realize that some things are just not that important. I was concerned about the financing, but why? I can only control what I can control. God will take care of the rest.

I want you to please stop and think about today, July 4, 2007. Eat the hamburgers, watch the fireworks. . .but contemplate freedom and the price paid. I am sick and tired of the war being used as a political pawn. Do you think those politicians are truly concerned about the troops? Think again. They are more worried about getting Bush out of office. I'm sick of people complaining about our government when they have no clue about what is going on and how lucky we are to be Americans. I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I am an American, and I'm awfully proud of that.

Remember the veterans and active military today. Recall the sacrifices made and the ones that will be made. You want to do something meaningful? The next time you see a member of the armed forces on the street, walk up, shake their hand, and thank them for what they do. I salute our military, past, present, and future. I don't agree with everything our president does, but I pray for him and our other government officials. I encourage you to do the same. I don't care what you think you are politically, pray for the man.

God bless you, and God bless America.

RAGGED OLD FLAG

I walked through a county courthouse square,
On a park bench an old man was sitting there.
I said, "Your old courthouse is kinda run down."
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town."
I said, "Your flagpole has leaned a little bit,
And that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it.

He said, "Have a seat", and I sat down.
"Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"
I said, "I think it is." He said, "I don't like to brag,
But we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag."

"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there
When Washington took it across the Delaware.
And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key
Sat watching it writing _Oh Say Can You See_.
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans
With Packingham and Jackson tuggin' at its seams."

"And it almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on through.
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag."

"On Flanders Field in World War I
She got a big hole from a Bertha gun.
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp and low by the time it was through.
She was in Korea and Vietnam.
She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam."

"She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
And now they've about quit waving her back here at home.
In her own good land she's been abused --
She's been burned, dishonored, denied and refused."

"And the government for which she stands
Is scandalized throughout the land.
And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin,
But she's in good shape for the shape she's in.
'Cause she's been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more."

"So we raise her up every morning,
Take her down every night.
We don't let her touch the ground
And we fold her up right.
On second thought I DO like to brag,
'Cause I'm mighty proud of that Ragged Old Flag."

Written by Johnny Cash