Greg's General Store

Yes it's the season for The Super Spectacular Christmas Edition of: "I See What You're Saying" Please watch the following non-paid, non-solicited, non political advertisement. For more information, please visit Linda's blog by clicking here . Even if you aren't participating in the video event, check out her blog, it is a hoot. And make sure and tell her you heard it here first. Just in case she hits the lottery and has some extra cash to give away, I want to be on her "nice" list this Christmas. Also I have been tagged by Edie so stand by for some exciting facts about ME. I know you can't wait. :) I will post the results in a day or two. Have a great Sunday, Greg

Either I am asleep or I died and went to Heaven. This morning, my son and I headed out at 445 to do the last of our Christmas shopping. My wife and other son left shortly thereafter. Did anyone else go out? Very few people in our area did. We got to the mall at 530 and were able to get a great parking spot. Inside Belks there were very few people. We finished shopping there in about 45 minutes.Everything we bought there was at least 50% off. Then we went to Dicks sporting goods and shopped there in less than 30 minutes. Everything we got there was on sale too and we got some great deals. Then it was off to Home Depot and Lowes which is where we entered Heaven. Normally those two places are a ghost town when it comes to finding some help but not this morning. When I got out of my car at Home Depot, someone greeted me before I even got to the door. Just inside the door, two more sales associates greeted me. Then while I was shopping, no less than 10 sales associates asked me if I need...

When you hear the name Luke, who do you think of? Some people immediately think of Luke Skywalker. Not me, I was not a big fan of those movies. Others think of Luke and Laura. Oh come on confess. I know there are a few General Hospital fans out there. Ok ok I will go first. Many years ago, in the time of Like and Laura, I was a General Hospital junkie. For about an entire year, I watched General Hospital without fail every day. Those days are behind me now though but I remember them well. Still others (myself included) when hearing the name Luke think of the Gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But soon thereafter I think of Matthew, Mark and Mike. Which brings me to my subject for the day. "What happened to Luke?" My Aunt and Uncle had two boys. Their names were Matthew and Mark. When we heard that they were expecting another child, we just knew if it were a boy they would name him Luke. They did have a boy but they named him Mike instead. We all thought she was on a Bibli...

We are having unusually cold weather for this time of year. It really caught me off guard. Usually we don' t get this cold until January or February. Normally we spend a lot of time in November and December gathering wood for our two wood stoves. We have one in our house and one in the greenhouse. We also supply a lot of wood for my mother in law who heats her house with a wood stove. The reason we wait until this time of year (other than me being a procrastinator) is that the cool weather gets rid of snakes and spiders and makes it easier to work. This year, the cold just kind of slipped in and was upon us before we knew it. One day it was warm and the next it was cold. It was cold at the market yesterday too but I was prepared for it. I wore my long underwear and brought along a heavy coat. I also didn't bring very much stuff because I knew the crowd would be sparse because of the cold. It was a good thing I packed light too because I was hit with another obstacle when I arri...

Thursday was exasperating for me. I traveled to Columbia with three co-workers for some company training. The training itself was good but several people in the class were very annoying. One particular person did nothing but complain and try to find fault with the system. He had a "this will never work" attitude and it was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. I think nothing sets me off faster than a bad attitude. I guess because it is totally unnecessary. Not only was he disrupting the class but he was doing it in a way so as to try to get others on his side. I really think he felt that he was speaking for the entire class when he was whining. He did manage to get two others complaining but the rest of the class and the instructors were just aggravated. I could feel myself getting close to saying something so I just began cutting up whenever he was talking. My co-workers and I would just go off on our own little tangent and totally ignore him when he spoke. The funny thing ...

Hey I stole this from My ADHD Me but don't tell her. Here are 15 random things about me that I am not afraid to admit. Actually if I were afraid to admit them then I just wouldn't list them. So you will never see a post that says 15 random things I am afraid to admit. If I did, it would just be a blank page. Enough already, let me get to them. 1. I took two years of German in high school but I can only say two or three things. I am however available to accompany you to Germany and when asked I can tell the waiter that you don't like bratwurst and that we aren't from here. I had to take a foreign language and the only other language open was Spanish. I didn't think it would be of any use to speak Spanish. Who knew. 2. My father was one of the first lifeguards on Daytona beach. When he was a lifeguard, on a good day he would have 15 or 20 people on the beach. Now they have 15 or 20 thousand. When I was young, we would go to the lifeguard parties on the beach. Talk ab...

Well I am back. I bet you didn't even miss me. Sunday morning my oldest son and I went on a road trip. We went to visit a college that his is interested in. Here is a hint as to which one it was. The weather was great for traveling. It was cool and clear and traffic was light. There was however a lot of traffic going the other way on Sunday. Saturday night was a big game for the Tigers and they beat Duke in Football. My son isn't interested in going there for the football but he does like the team. We stayed in a nice hotel in Anderson which was on Clemson Blvd. The same road goes by the college so it made it easy to get there this morning. Not much else happened. We did have a nice dinner last night at Applebees and then got a good night sleep. This morning, we had a great free continental breakfast at the hotel and then we had an interview at the college. My son is still a junior in high school and they were impressed at how motivated he is. The counselor said that she doesn...

Wow so much to report on so little time. It is 5:15 am and I have to get ready for the Market but I think have just enough time for a quick post. So here goes; I went with the hotdog sales idea for Good Neighbor Fund. Like anyone thought I would have selected one of the other options. And I am happy to say it was a huge success. The odds were stacked against me for several reason. The last person who was in charge of GNF used to schedule these fund raisers and then forget about them and the people finally gave up on them. I guess they had more faith in me though because lots of people participated. I had 3/4 of the plant workers buy hotdogs. Reason two for failure was that there was a class going on at the plant yesterday and they decided to go out to lunch instead of supporting my cause. No biggie I still did well. The third thing going against me was that I didn't start advertising until Wednesday afternoon. The reason was that we had another benefit lunch on Wednesday and I want...

Have you noticed how many people are praying these days? People who never used to pray or at least were never outspoken about prayer are now vocal about it. I guess it could just be that they kept it to themselves. I remember back at my last place of employment when I put on a luncheon for the people who worked for me. I invited the support group to joins us as well. Before the meal, I said the blessing. After I finished one of the ladies said; “Way to go Greg, I never knew you could pray like that.” I can't believe she said that. Anyway, people are praying these days much more than they used to. I guess it is a sign of the times. We start our little town meetings with a prayer. An elderly black gentleman usually does the honors. I like his prayers because they are so inspiring. He starts out with grand descriptions of God, then asks God for his blessing on the meeting, thanks him for the blessings he has given us and then gives a short ending. At the last meeting though, he was ...

I know some of your remember that song. It was by the Five Man Electrical Band. I wonder what ever became of them. But this post isn't about music. It's all about signs. One of the big no-no’s discussed at that town hall meeting the other night was the use of signs. For some reason the people of our great island are opposed to signs. They of course were directing this complaint toward one person who just happened to be the owner of the winery. It was just one of many complaints that the planning board heard from the good citizens of Wadmalaw. The person leading the discussion objected to the winery signs because they are “not part of the natural scenery of the island.” However there are lots of other signs on the same road which also are ‘not part of the natural scenery’ and no one complained about them. It was obvious to me that the real complaint isn’t about signs at all. However after giving it some thought, I agree that it would be great not to see any signs at all on our ...

I don’t really know where that expression came from. I understand the concept and in part it is true. There is a guy that does the TV show Man vs Wild where he eats all kinds of dirty things and he "appears" to be healthy. So are bugs and dead animals really good for you? If you broke them down to proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals you would find out that the basic foods he is eating are the same as the ones normal people eat they are just in a different form. I will stick to my good old steak, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy. No worms are going in my mouth. At least not willingly or knowingly. This morning, I read that the opposite is also true. You are what you don’t eat. Now that’s a strange statement isn’t it? Said a different way that is; what comes out of your mouth and not what goes into it determine what you are made of. Who the heck said something so crazy and what does it mean? Well our bodies are basically fuel burning machines. No matter what we...

Veterans Day means a lot to me. I really appreciate all that our service men and women do for us and want to say thank you to all of them. It makes me angry to hear people talk about what they do like it means nothing. In today's world, freedom comes with a price and there are those out there who really don't appreciate what they have. They cut down our nation and complain and gripe about how bad things but the truth is we have it pretty good. No we have it great. I have been to other countries and see real poverty and am thankful that God allowed me to be born in this country where we have so much. Our preacher touched on this subject this past Sunday and I realized that it was true. Those of us who were fortunate enough to be born in this great country need to get on our knees and thank God for allowing us to be here. Then we need to rise up and thank our service men and women for allowing us to remain here and enjoy the freedom that we have. So today I challenge you to go ou...

Ok so I got these hotdogs and don’t know what to do with them. First off, they are frozen and have never been thawed so they are still good. Eventually my 11 year old would eat them or his kids would eat them once he grows up and has some so they won’t go to waste. I just hate taking up all that room in my freezer for hotdogs. So I have come up with a few ideas of what to do. Let me just toss them out and let you decide what to do. First off Thanksgiving is just around the corner and since we are cutting back just like everyone else is (or should be hint hint) I could always serve them for Thanksgiving dinner. At first I had this great idea of blending them up and trying to form them into something that resembled a turkey but after I got that image in my head I got sick to my stomach. Then I thought about serving them just like they are but the best part of the Thanksgiving dinner is in my opinion the stuffing and I don’t know how to stuff a hot dog. I could always get one of those tu...

Hot dogs anyone? We were expecting a big crowd at the winery for the Blessing of the vines but People just didn't show up. We had some people but only about half as many as the summer festival. So now we have lots and lots of hot dogs. The weather was just about perfect so that wasn't the reason for the sparse crowd. I guess the economy has everyone scared. This mountain of hot dogs has me scared. Not really, I do have a plan. I will tell you more if I am able to pull it off. The BBQ people next to us didn't do well either. They also brought bottled water but they were selling it for $2.00 a bottle and we just couldn't do that to people so we kept our price at $1.00. Once people found this out, they came to us for water. At the end of the day, we barely broke even so we didn't get rich like we planned. This morning I got up early and went out and got a cup of coffee. I felt I earned it by working all day Saturday. After I got the coffee I went down to the local boat...

Left over chili. If you came for the left over hot chili, I hate to tell you this but you are too late. It’s gone. All of it. Not a bean or an ounce of sauce is left. Wait I forgot about that bean that rolled under the stove but you don’t want that one. It must have been good. But since you are here, let me give you the recipe. Greg’s hot chili: (This feeds about 8 (men) or 10 (women) depending on how much they love chili) 3 lbs lean ground beef 1 cup chopped onion 1 cup chopped celery 1 cup chopped sweet pepper 1 tsp garlic salt 1 tsp salt 2 tsp black pepper 2 tsp chili powder 4 cups (or two cans) great northern beans (I use dried beans but you can use canned if you like) 2-15 oz cans of tomato sauce 2-15 oz cans of diced tomatoes HOT INGREDIENTS: 2 tbs red pepper 2 tbs crushed red pepper 2 tbs Tabasco Habanero sauce In large pot, brown the ground beef until it is almost done. Drain off most of the oil but leave just a few tsps . Return the meat to the stove and continue browning on ...

My world is coming to an end. I thought yesterday’s news was bad but now this: “Lucci eliminated from 'Dancing” Sorry wrong Lucy. Try this Lucci: Oh horrors of horrors. What will we do now? In less than 24 hours, the headlines went from presidential elections to Dancing with the stars trauma. Actually I really am relieved to see us put things back in perspective. I mean Lucci has been on All my Children since.....well since I was a “children” and she deserves to make headlines. In other late breaking news, I am making chili today for the people in our office. And since our office is as split on this issue as it was on the election, I made two kinds. I made a pot of mild chili and a pot of “fire engine red” chili. I prefer the hot stuff but a few wimps whined and asked for mild so I caved in. Now for those brave enough to try the hot stuff I recommend having some ice water handy to put out the fire. This stuff is guaranteed to bring ...

I have told many stories here on my blog about growing up in Florida. They were about happy times and fond memories from my youth. There were many of them and I have more to share, however life for me as a child wasn’t always rosy. In fact there were just as many bad times as there were good. Growing up in a three bedroom house with five children, an alcoholic father and a bi-polar mother was often a scary environment for a boy like me. Being quiet and shy, I kept my feelings to myself and only let them out when they had built up to a point where I could no longer contain my anger and pain. My sister would often joke about how I was a time bomb waiting to go off and how you didn’t want to be the one that drew the last straw. She would warn people to watch out for the “quiet one”. And it was true. I did hold too much anger inside but I had no way to let it out in such a close environment. When I got a little older though and began to roam, I found a sanctuary. It was a little Garden ...

There is a lot of worrying going on today. I heard about it on the radio, TV, at the gym and now here at work. It’s only 7:30 and I have already heard about voting problems, possible riots, fights and angry voters. The streets are full of cars with people trying to beat the rush to vote. Too late people, there are already long lines at the voting stations. This morning I even heard one person say they were still undecided and they were thinking about not voting because they couldn't make up their mind. I told them I had decided so vote my way. For some reason I am not worried this morning. I woke up in another one of my good moods. I had a good workout at the gym. Took a nice long hot shower and got to work a little early. My coffee was outstanding and I brought along a blueberry muffin to go with it. I was the first one here and I began singing this song: Don’t worry about a thing, cause every little thing gonna be all right. Singin: don’t worry about a thing, cause every little t...

No more rain. I don’t know how it is in your neck of the woods but things are soaked here. Of course the Weather channel said this would be the driest year in history but obviously they weren’t talking about us. Or simply put, saying something will happen, won’t make it happen. My back yard is a swamp. When I walk out there, mud squishes up between my toes. They are calling for more rain today too. Because of this, I got up a little early so that if it was raining, I could drive even slower to work. That’s right. I slow down in the rain. Right after I got up, I went to the front door to look out and see if it was in fact raining and how cold it was so that I could decide what to wear. When I got to the front door, I cracked it open and stuck my head out to survey the situation. I flipped on the light and almost screamed. There staring me straight in the face was Tigger Tiger on a ladder that my son had left by the house. We were literally face to face and only about 6 inches apart. And...

There is a lot of talk these days about diversity. I know where I work they like to get a "mix" of people with different backgrounds and beliefs. According to some, that makes for a better work environment. It does make things more "interesting" at times. When they talk about diversity though for the most part people think about skin color or nationality. However each of us is different so whenever you have more than one person working in an office, you have diversity. Just because two people come from similar backgrounds doesn't make them think or act the same. Throughout history, people can be traced back to narrow common backgrounds however we are still diverse in our thinking and actions. Small groups of people with the same interests and beliefs settled in remote areas however through time, they became different in their thinking. It happened with the first Americans and it happened with the Israelites. Both escaped from slavery and wanted religious freedom...