Greg's General Store

Is anyone else tired of all these stories about seeing Jesus in everything from chicken noodle soup to hairdos? I guess anything is possible but really, enough is enough…………OR IS IT. Warning The following post is intended for mature audiences and is meant to be humorous. If you are easily offended, then read no further. Don’t quit in the middle either. That would be like watching half of "It's a Wonderful Life. I saved the best for last. First it was the amazing vision of Jesus on the cross in an ultra sound. Now it seems that someone found a likeness of Jesus in a Cheetos bag. I really can’t put much stock in either story for several reasons. First off both of these “images” were created by manmade machines. Machines can be programmed to make any image desired so finding a “Devine” image like those isn’t really a Miracle. Secondly, the truth is that neither of these items really looked like Jesus to ...

I must be in the giving spirit these days as I seem to be doing lots of things out of the goodness of my heart. It's called a Random Act of Kindness or RAOC for short. I am holding more doors for people, talking more openly with strangers and even giving discounts at the market just because I feel like it. It seems like the more I do it, the better I feel about myself and the more I want to do it. The key though is to do something nice for someone and expect nothing in return. If you do something nice and expect a return then it isn't a RAOC. So my advice for the day is to try it. I am sure you will love the feeling it gives you. Make an effort to do one a day. Now I need a favor. This doesn't count as your RAOC for the day so get that out of your head. If you look at the top right corner of my blog, you will see a little kitty. Please click on him and vote for my son's cat. He is the black and white one with Homer Simpson leaning on him. (#69) All you have to do is cli...

Well another birthday has come and gone and I am still breathing so I guess that is a good thing. I had a great day. I planned on sleeping in but got up at 5 am anyway. Since I usually get up around 4, that was like sleeping in. I realized that I was out of coffee creamer and I can't drink coffee without it so I decided to go out and buy a cup of coffee. After returning home, I made ham and cheese biscuits for my family. After breakfast, I worked with some plants in the greenhouse and then put the ribs on the grill. Around 1 pm, my mother in law, brother in law and his wife came over and we had lunch. The ribs were ok but not as good as I hoped they would be but they were still good. The tater salad came out great though and so did the beans. We also had two cakes and both were good. Anyway, thanks for all the well wishes and visits. Have a wonderful week, Greg

Isn’t it funny how we view birthdays differently at different points in our lives? I have a birthday coming up this Sunday and I am really looking forward to it. I have plans for my day but before I get to them, let me tell you about some of my more memorable birthdays. My earliest birthday memory: I used to have a picture of me in a high chair eating my birthday cake but I was sound asleep. It must have been no big deal for me when I was a baby. That picture tells it all. I ate, I drank and I slept. Kind of like I do now. Haha My favorite cake was, and still is German Chocolate. I don’t remember much about those early years. It may have been due to some kind of childhood trauma. I really don’t know. It must have been massive trauma now that I think about it. My best birthday memory: My fondest birthday memory from my younger years was the time that my father took me out to a restaurant for my birthday. It was just he and I and I think I was about 11 or 12. We went to this little ...

I have to tell you, nothing gets my blood boiling faster than someone who always makes excuses. I hear it daily at work. Some people will talk for hours about why they can’t do a job or explaining why a job shouldn’t be theirs when it wouldn’t have taken more than a few minutes to do the job in the first place. I get frustrated and end up simply doing the job myself. I know that is a bad thing to do but to tell the truth, I enjoy working and I hate complaining. I would rather do a little more work myself than have to listen to complaining. That may be why people complain. They know if they complain enough someone else will do the job. Well it finally happened. My new digital camera died just like the first one. Whatever happened to quality control? I guess buying the cheapest one on the market wasn’t a good idea. I want to start taking more 35 mm pictures though so maybe this is the EXCUSE I needed. OOPs I am making excuses here and I really hate that. Does this mean I hate myself? I b...

Remember the show Hogan’s Heroes? I used to love that show. I loved it when coronel Klink would come in and holler “Report” and Sergeant Schultz would say “All present and accounted for sir” His best line in the show was of course “I know noth----ing” If you never saw the show, Sergeant Schultz was a bumbling idiot and preferred to look the other way instead of causing trouble. I think we all do that from time to time. Isn’t it funny how it was ok to make fun of the Germans back then but now it is considered politically incorrect? Weather report Whew, that was a close one. That storm was just off the coast for several days and had the potential for turning into a bad storm. The only thing saving us was some dry air pushing down from the north. It prevented the rain from wrapping around the center of the storm which in turn prevented it from strengthening. All we got was some light wind, a little cooler weather and some much needed rain. The rain ended by Saturday though so we were ab...

Sorry this isn't my usual upbeat post but I had to get this out. I will return to my usual humerous self very soon. :) Have you heard the news? President Bush has signed some papers which will allow us to start drilling for oil in Alaska and off many scenic coasts which in turn will relieve the oil crunch. Our gas prices should be dropping any time now. The news hasn’t made it to the gas pumps yet though because I noticed gas prices were up again this morning. Gosh this all sounds too good to be true. Thank God the President came to his senses and allowed the oil companies to start drilling again. He has a heart of gold doing this for the American people. In the words of Earl Pitts American: WAKE UP AMERICA Why now? Why after many years of fighting drilling at home are we now considering this? Could it be that there is a different reason than high gas prices? If they wanted to lower gas prices couldn’t the oil companies just do it? Aren’t they boasting the largest profit margins ...

Before we get started, I will need each of you to complete form 2008 in it’s entirety. First time visitors only need to complete sections A through F but repeat visitors need to complete the entire form. If your last name starts with the letters A through N, please fill out only the applicable sections. If your last name starts with the letters M through Z complete sections C through V but omit the questions that don’t apply. If you are visiting for the first time but plan on visiting again, you will need to fill out all sections and also complete form 2007. If this is too complicated, you may elect to fill out form 2008 EZ however you will find it just as confusing and end up giving up on that one as well…………… Don’t you just love filling out forms. I love how they are so simple these days and so easy to fill out and understand. Yea right. And what happened to the internet simplifying things? I spent the greater portion of last night trying to fill out some tax forms. Step one was fin...

Do you ever feel like life is getting you down? Like you have so much to do that there is never enough time to get everything done? Like no matter how hard you try, your "to do list" keeps getting longer and longer? Do you feel like this pear tree, with so much to bear that you find yourself breaking? I used to feel like that a lot but now things are getting better. I shed some unwanted and unneeded baggage and things are looking great. I used to be like that pear tree. I would try to do more and more and get myself in a fix and before I knew it, I was bogged down with no way out. No matter how I tried, things kept looking bad and I would end up depressed and when all other options were exhausted, I would break down and ask God for help. I would tell God my plan and tell him how I wanted him to make my plan work. Usually it ended up with my plan still failing and me losing faith and giving up on God. I could rationalize that I asked God for help with my plan and I didn’t get ...

I have been working on another post but this came up and I just had to get it off my chest. Remember this old skit. Well what I have to talk about today, reminded me so much of this that I had to post this picture. About a week ago, I get a phone call from my bank. The man on the phone tells me that their records show that my home owners insurance policy is about to expire and that their records show that I haven’t made any attempt to renew it. After listening to the man, I told him that I would get with my insurance agent and see what was going on. The insurance agent tells me that they are waiting on a check from my bank. (the same one who called me) You see my insurance is paid out of escrow (at the banks request) so the bank was the holdup. So I call the bank back and tell them that the reason I haven’t renewed my policy is because they haven’t sent the check in. The guy looks at my paperwork and says “Oh I do see that it is paid out of escrow so don’t worry about it.” Why didn...

Sorry I haven't posted much lately, but I promise that I will have a good post soon. I had a really great weekend and I am as red as a lobster (sunburned) but feeling good about myself and life itself. I hope everyone had a great Forth of July. The highlight of 4th was when my son dropped one of the roman candles thinking it was done and it wasn't. The next shot went off and almost hit my wife and a friend. Both ladies scrambled just as the next shot bounced off a fence. The final shot ended up in the garden and almost set it on fire. Now that's a good fireworks show. Hope your 4th was just as exciting Have a wonderful day, Greg