Greg's General Store

Well here it is, my video blog. This was my 4th attempt and if you think this one is bad you should see the others. No you can't though because I deleted them. To see more of these "See what I am saying video's go to Second cup of coffee Blog. Have a great evening, Greg

You know we are in trouble when congressmen and women actually show up for a congressional meeting. What is this world coming to? The truth is there is little the average person can do to help the situation other than not panicking. The best thing we can do at this time is to sit back and do nothing. Well except to voice our opinion and tell our Congressmen and Senators how we feel and what we want them to do. In the mean time, I give you my: Top 10 signs we might be in a financial crisis. # 10. Disney World ticket prices may drop below 100.00 a ticket this year. Yea I may be able to go now. #9. Martha Stewart is thinking about going back “in” where it is safe (and free). #8. There is talk of selling Alaska to Russia since “they are so close you can see right across the border.” #7. McDonald's has a new jingle for the big Mack that goes like this; Special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onion on a day old bun. (read my lips, no more meat) #6. The 12 days of Christmas has been reduced ...

We arrived at the market early today. My son and I simply woke up early so we decided to get things set up early and then relax a while before the people showed up. Around 6:30 we had everything unloaded and then we heard someone about a block away singing at the top of his lungs. It was actually more like a cross between yelling and singing. I can't write here exactly what the man was singing but I will tell you that it went something like this: Noooooo moreeeeeeeee N's. followed by I hate N's. We are all adults here and I am sure you all know what he was saying. Imagine my surprise when this man reached the market and I found out it was an older black man. Now I live in the south and hearing the N word isn't that rare but hearing it coming from a black man that isn't a rapper is a little strange. But wait that isn't the strangest part. Get this now. This man was dressed in a hot pink dress. I am not lying here. After he reached the market he got right in the m...

Sorry people for the confusion on my last post. I guess all those double negatives confused some people. So let me clear one thing up. I will be voting. I always vote and I plan on doing it this election. I think every American should vote or get the heck out of America. Ok you can stay if you don't vote but you have no right to complain about things if you don't. The point of my last post was to encourage voters to cast their votes wisely and not base their vote on rumors or things that really don't matter in an election. Things like age, gender, race etc. I hope this cleared things up. See you at the polls. I am now off to the market. Maybe I will get a picture of the hippie protesters today. I love freedom of speech. Don't you? Have a great Saturday, Greg

You heard me right. I am considering the option of not voting in this presidential election. I didn’t come up with the idea myself. No I actually got it from some other bloggers. Don’t ask me to name names though. It’s not that I am above finger pointing. It’s just that at the moment, I don’t remember who actually posted about this concept first. You see, I sometimes bloghop and I really don’t remember where I saw this. Not familiar with the term bloghop? It is where you start out on one blog, then see an interesting comment from someone else so you go to their blog. Then you follow someone to another blog and before you know it you are lost in blogworld and you can’t remember how you got where you are. But I am off the subject so let me back up. Yes I am thinking about not voting and to tell the truth I am not alone. Thousands, maybe millions are already planning on doing it too. But before you jump all over me and call me a communist, let me post my flag so that you can see I am a tr...

Hopefully people will be seeing less and less of me. This morning, I started my workout routine at the gym. I joined last night and started exercising this morning. So here is my new schedule. I get up at 4 am. I then have 15 minutes to brush my teeth, shave, start a load of laundry, and then get my things together. The gym is about 30 minutes from my house which is perfect. It is on the way to my office so I don't have to go out of my way. This morning, I arrived at 4:45. My card key wouldn't work though so I couldn't get in the door. I know the girl that registered me did something wrong though because she was new. Someone else showed up a few minutes later and I managed to convince him to let me in even though there is a sign that says not to do that. I did have a card and a gym bag from the place so it was a pretty good bet that I belonged there. This afternoon, I will get my card fixed and hopefully that will correct the problem. I did manage to get in a quick mile and...

We had a great day at the Charleston Farmer's Market on Saturday. The weather was cool and there was a slight breeze. The crowd was a little sparse early in the morning but when it began to heat up a bit, people came out in herds. Here are some photo's I took: This is a picture of a painting of a picture of the friendship fountain in downtown Charleston. I thought that was kind of a cool concept. This is the church at the end of the market. I still don't know the name of it but I like the steeple. One of my friends there at the market makes and sells baked goods. These pastries are out of this world. If you have ever been to Charelston then you know about sweetgrass baskets. There is a lot of work that goes into making them so they tend to be kind of pricey. This lamp is very unique and at a price of $475.00, I think I will pass on it. It stayed cloudy all day but check out this crowd. The Mayor of Charleston even came down and had breakfast. This display is from a lo...

A few weeks ago I took my family out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. Applebees. I like eating there because the service is usually fast (not always but usually) and they have lots of different things on the menu. I like to get one of their sampler platters which give you a little bit of several different things. It makes overeating almost guilt free. You can just eat three ribs, three quesadillas, some chili cheese nachos and a big batch of fries by ordering only one thing. Sometimes I even stuff down a small desert if I am feeling particularly guilt free. But the thing that makes eating there so special is the way the present the check. It comes in one of those leather folders. The server will lay it on the edge of the table and politely tell you that they will take “that” whenever you are ready. One of these days I will immediately say “I’m ready” without putting anything in it to see what happens. Inside the leather folder, the bill is neatly tucked inside its designate...

"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought,cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." ~ Hedley Lamarr, Blazing Saddles "Ditto" Here I sit with so much to say that I don’t know where to start so I just don’t say anything. That does happen to me a lot. My mind will be so full of unorganized ideas and I feel like they need to be let out but I just don’t know where to begin. But then that is where blogging comes in. Lately I have found that the best way to start is just to go ahead and do it. I begin by writing down my thoughts and once I start they all begin to pour out and before I know it, I have cleared my brain. Once I have most of my ideas down on paper, I then go back and weed out the bad ideas, doctor some of them and add a few more and end up with something crazy. Sometimes my brain needs lots of weeding. Sometimes it could use some herbicide. Wow after weeding there aren't many plants left. There really isn’t much to write ab...

I still haven't mastered my new camera but I keep trying. Today I tried to zoom in but as you can see I got too close and things were out of focus. I also tried all day to catch our little hummingbird but every time I got the camera out he flew away. I think he may be smarter than I give him credit for. Anyway, we had a lovely day and here are the pictures. This is a praying mantis. I guess he knew it was Sunday because he kept praying. This is a ginger plant that my sister gave me. I don't know what kind it is though. So I just say it is Ginger and not Mary Ann. I wish i had gottem a better shot of this grasshopper. He was on a banana tree and his colors were wonderful, Again I got too close to get a good shot. You need to enlarge this picture to see what is going on. This young cardinal was begging his mother for food. He is way too old to do this but I guess if she keeps feeing him he will never stop. This is one of the benches like I made for the new school in Charleston. ...

A Day of Caring Yesterday I participated in a Day of Caring. For those who have never heard of it, It’s a United Way sponsored event where companies or other groups of people get together and make a positive difference in their community. These events happen throughout the year but many of them have zeroed in on 9/11 due to the significance of that day. We can never make the events of that day go away but at least we can do something positive in the world. About 100 people participated in our event and approximately 5000 people in the Charleston area participated at various other locations. We worked at Catholic Charities of Charleston. They are a Catholic organization dedicated to spreading the word of God by helping meet the basic needs of individuals. It’s hard to convince a starving child that God loves them. They provide food and other support to needy people in our community. They also help out with other worldwide events like disaster relief. Yesterday we made repairs and improv...

Is a failure to communicate. That is my favorite line from the movie Cool Hand Luke. It's an oldie but a goodie. Nothing upsets me more than a person that doesn’t listen to what is being said. This is especially true when the person talking is me. Now I am not saying that I am always right but I will say that I usually am. And there is a reason why I am usually right when I speak. (At this point if my wife is reading this she is rolling her eyes and saying; Oh here he goes......) First off at a young age, one of my teachers told me that you learn more from listening than talking. Because if that, I spent most of my younger days being quiet and listening to what other people had to say. So through many years of listening I gained a lot of knowledge. (now you can't get me to shutup) The biggest thing I learned was that some people talk like they know what they are talking about but in reality, they don’t know much at all. There is a term for this but I will keep this post rated “...

I really love my new camera. I also love zinnias and butterflies. And when you put all three together this is what you get. I recently planted some new white and yellow zinnias. The butterflies love them. This morning my entire front yard was full of butterflies. In addition to these yellow and orange butterflies, I spotted a Small back one and also one Monarch butterfly. They left before I could get the camera but at least I got these. I hope you enjoy your Sunday and these pictures. If you turn on your sound you will hear my pond fountain which is hidden inside these Mexican Petunias. I could sit there and watch them for hours. Have a wonderful Sunday, Greg

Well we made it. We had a lot of rain last night but the highest winds topped out around 15 MPH. Not much of a storm if you ask me. The weather this morning is cool and clear. I do appreciate everyone's concern though. The next one may not be so kind. So this morning the only evidence that we had a storm was a few extra leaves on the deck and the pool level being high. The goggled weather man is back in hiding until the next storm appears. But here is a short video I took this morning. The birds sure like this cooler weather. I need a blind so that I can get in really close. Can you identify the true kinds of birds in this video? Have a great day, Greg

By the time you read this, we could be ankle deep in water from Hurricane Hanna. Well we could be but probibly not. The latest report says that the storm will pass us to the east and all we will get is some rain and a little wind. That is ok with us though because I really didn't want to do that evacuation thing. Now if you watch the weather and the storm happens to make landfall south of Charleston, say a little prayer for us. Right now though the winds are calm and all is well on Wadmalaw Island. I got the goggle idea from that fake "weather authority" AKA JC of the Weather Channel.This is my first video so please be kind. If this works there will be more to follow. Have a great day, Greg

OK enough talk about The Weather Channel being the "Hurricane Authority". They are no more the Authority than I am. In fact I have more experience so if I were you, I would listen to me before I would listen to them. Here is how they work. They start out making a broad prediction about where the storm will go and how strong it will get. Then each day, sometimes several times a day, they change their prediction to adjust for their inaccuracies. As a storm gets closer to land they narrow their prediction. When they storm actually hits land, they make one last prediction and yes yes yes they hit it right on the head and got it right. I for one can see right through this smoke screen. Just last week they predicted that Hanna would brush by Dominica and head up along Florida and then hit land somewhere between Brunswick and Savannah. Then much to their surprise, it stalled around Dominica and now it is heading towards North Carolina. They have made this new prediction this morning...

Oops, I meant to write H Preparations. Those are two distinctly different things. The H stands for Hanna or Hurricane or the ever popular "Hunker down". Since many of you have never been through a Hurricane, I thought I would do a series of posts as a public service to my fellow Bloggers. I did a video last night with my new camera but since I am still learning how to use it, I totally messed up. The video came out great but I had it on the highest quality setting and Blogger wouldn't let me load a 125M video. I will try again this evening and try to get the settings right. Well here we sit waiting on Hurricane or Tropical whatever Hanna to arrive. Right now the skys are clear and the air is cool and no one would suspect that a storm was bearing down on us. The last advisory that I saw put Charleston right in the center of the projected path. Our company is already making preparations and I am ready at my house. I still have to pick up some light things from my yard and p...