Greg's General Store

I decided that it was time I started participating in “ Thankful Thursday ” since I have so much to be thankful for. So without further ado, here goes. 1. I thank God for giving me the strength and drive to get up every morning and head off to the gym and my job. Sometimes I don’t know how I do it. 2. I am thankful for good friends, new and old who motivate me to keep bettering myself. 3. I am thankful for my family who keep me on my toes. Otherwise I might be a slacker. 4. I am thankful for the abilities that God gave me like the ability to fix almost anything and the ability to grow almost anything. 5. I am thankful that I am still able to learn new things like the new phrase I learned this past week; El Shaddai. Have a great Thursday, Greg

(photo from internet) Lots of you have been asking what’s up with this market thing so I am going to tell you. It all started in a little town in Florida when I was born the son of poor sharecropper. Ok although we were very poor, my father was a Fireman, not a sharecropper and that’s going back a little bit too far. It would take way too much time to write so let me start at a more recent point. How about 5 years ago. That’s when our plant business began. That summer, my oldest son was bored and also wanted some money so he decided to set up a lemonade stand in front of our house. Well if you knew where we actually live you might think this was a bad idea because the only ones who drive by live on the mile of road that lies past our house. Well except for the mail lady and an occasional lost person. So he sat out there day after day and sold lemonade to the mail lady and a few neighbors. Business was slow and there wasn’t a lot of money to be made at 50 cents per glass. So one day he ...

This is my boat. Well one of them. I do have a smaller one too. Talk about a nice day at the beach. The sign on the left says no dogs. They are prohibited because this is a bird nesting island. Saturday at the market went well. We had a great time even though the crowd was less than the week before. The weather was beautiful and we made a lot of sales. It was just a great day. Then Sunday afternoon we decided to take a boat ride out to a local island. There were a few people out there but more creatures than people. I tried my hand at fishing but the water temperature is still too cold so I just did a little beach combing. The beach was littered with horseshoe crabs so I decided to save as many as I could by returning them to the water. Many of them were stranded and upside down so it would only be a matter of time before they cooked in the sun. I thought that some of you who had never seen one might find this interesting so I did a video of me letting one of them go. I am sorry about ...

Yo, check this out. Well that's how my day started. And it just got better from there. We participated in Earth Day at Bon Secours Hospital and it was a blast. Everyone was very interested in ways to save, recycle and grow their own. Tomatoes that is. We just about gave away tomato plants along with pots filled with potting soil and a stake to tie up your tomatoes. It was a big hit. We also gave away day lilies and then sold our other plants. We had a great day and it was very rewarding. In addition we met some really great people. I hope we get asked to do it again next year. Well I am tired and looking forward to going to bed early. I hope you enjoyed the video. As soon as I connect with the girl that organized the event, I will get some photos to post. I was so busy talking with people that I didn't have time to take photos myself. Oh and in case you couldn't tell in my video those little things I had in my hand were turtles that we got when we were in Mexico. Have a gre...

Well tomorrow is Earth Day 2009. I hope everyone does a little something to make this world a better place to live. I suggest planting a tree or anything at all. This year, many of the stores are running out of vegetable plants because of the large number of people who are growing their own. Growing your own vegetables does several things. First off anything that goes into the ground is absorbed by the vegetables and eventually end up inside you. Commercial growers use pesticides and herbicides. When you grow your own you can keep your garden small enough so that you don’t have to use those. Also when you buy vegetables from a grocery store they are usually picked green and then gassed to make them ripen. Then they are shipped long distances to reach the grocery store which uses up fuel and pollutes the environment. Tomorrow we are participating in Earth Day at Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital. We will be giving some demonstrations on how to grow your own veggies and how to grow othe...

With all the distractions around me, I am finding it increasingly difficult to stay focused on my goals. Another thing that is preventing me from staying focused is the lack of results. You know what I mean, you diet and gain weight, you do more work in the office and keep getting further behind. That sort of thing. Ironically, that was the subject of our sermon yesterday; “Staying focused when it doesn’t appear that you are making any headway”. We had a super weekend. My son and I both did great at the Farmers Market. The crowd was a little thinner than the week before but there were more people buying instead of just looking. Saturday night, my wife and I attended a drop in at a friend’s house. This friend is from Trinidad and since I have known her has always been warning me about certain foods which might be too spicy for me. Well I like spicy food so up until Saturday night, the warnings weren’t needed. Well she had some kind of sauce for the fish she prepared and she said “Watch ...

I heard these this morning on my drive into work and I thought they were impressive so I thought I would share them with you. 28% of working Americans don’t file income taxes. I wonder if any of these people are complaining about being taxed too much. 29% of Americans shoplift on a regular basis. I must be missing something. Is shoplifting legal? When asked, 40% of Americans said they go to church on a regular basis however when asked what they did in the previous week, only 26 % mentioned Church. Maybe they forgot. (these were two different groups that were asked) Only 54% of eligible Americans voted in the last election. And we are proud of our “right” to vote. So even though America is still one of the best countries (in my opinion) just think; At least 28% of us are cheaters, at least 29% of us are robbers, at least 14% of lie about our religion, and at least 46% don’t care enough to vote. Just sume little tidbits to think about. Workout report: I skipped the gym this morning b...

Well it is day three of the 30 X 5 challenge and all is well.I got up a little early so that I would have time to shoot these videos but for some reason, I got to the gym about my normal time. Because I am a video nerd, I wasn't able to edit these videos so I had to post two of them. Sorry people. During the taping of that first video, my finger accidentally hit the stop button so it ended kind of abruptly. Please go on to video #2. You probably noticed that there is no video #3. Well I took one but to tell the truth I was huffing and puffing so hard that it was hard to tell what I was saying. Then the girl on the machine next to me said "what" (thinking that I was talking to her) and I had to explain what I was doing and as I was doing that another girl showed up on the other side of me and gave me a funny look for taking photos of myself working out. Bottom line is I didn't show it because it was too bad (actually I just looked too bad). I also had the TV on at that...

After much badgering by Linda over at Second cup of coffee , I agreed to participate in the second edition of the 30 X 5 Challenge. Now being the only man on the planet brave enough to enter such a challenge I must say that I will not only excel, I will boldly go where no man has gone before. I will video tape some of my training. I plan on documenting my journey in a way that will not only amaze you, it will send my children running in the streets shouting "Oh no you di - ent Dad". I will humiliate not only myself but all men to a point that I may be banned from future postings on Blogger or attending any sports function. To tell the truth, I have always believed that my body was a temple: Unfortunately my temple is more like this these days which is why I accepted this challenge: Now most people know I am really in shape but what shape is the question. Well I don't mind saying that I have been compared to a famous person on numerous occasions. This person is very wel...

Can I get a Hallelujah? I think this past weekend was about as close to perfect as anyone could ask for. The nights were cool and the days were warm and sunny. Despite the rocky start to my week, I ended up feeling rested and relaxed by the time it was over. Friday we spent working in the yard, getting things ready for the Charleston Farmers Market. I took most of the day but like I said, the weather was just perfect so we didn’t mind having to work outside all day. Working in the garden never feels much like work to me anyway. The day ended with a surprise visit by my daughter. Saturday was the first day at the Charleston Farmers Market in Marion Square. Obviously a lot of people were waiting for it to open because the crowd was great. At several points during the day, there were so many people that you had to push your way through to get where you were going. I heard that part of that was due to a cruise ship being in port which may have been the case since there were a lot of visito...

I had a lot on my mind last night. There were a lot of things troubling me and I was thinking about blogging about them today. You see I watched the news and there was one bad story after another. It is really depressing to watch the news. But this morning I decided that posting about the bad things would only spread more bad vibes so I am instead going to post about something else. But before I do, here are the items that I found upsetting: Pirates of the non Caribbean kind, Our leader bowing to the wrong king, Degrading video going unchallenged, Power grid hackers considered not a big deal, Selective reporting based on politics, I can discuss any of these if you so desire or if you are interested but I am not going to bog down my blog with the details. Besides this is Easter week and there are more important things to talk about. This morning at the gym, I was talking with my new friend “Pastor Frank” about Easter Sunrise Services. Have you ever been to one? They are usually very mo...

A funny thing happened on my way to work this morning. As I pulled out of my driveway, I saw a raccoon sitting across the street from my house. I didn’t think much of it. About a block down the street, I saw another raccoon beside the road. (Still not too uncommon.) About a mile later there was another one and then about two miles later there was a fourth. It reminded me of the animal conspiracy theory from my last post. I laughed to myself and then thought “I’ll show him I’m not scared” so I hit the brakes lightly just to show an act of defiance. I was the only one on the road at that time so there was no harm in slowing down a little. Just as I tapped the brakes, a very large buck walked out of the woods right in front of me. I continued to slow down. He walked out in the road, stopped and looked at me and then walked off into the woods. I think he was saying “Just keep laughing, we got your number.” I shook it off and drove the rest of the way into work. So I was thinking this morni...

Ok I knew something was up but in my wildest dreams I never imagined who was behind it all. The first indication that something was awry was the squirrels. You know those cute little rodents that are akin to rats. Well for the last year or so I noticed that they were out there watching us. Not just occasionally but all the time. Then it was the possums. I think about every other day one or two ran out in front of me as I drove to work. Not to mention the one that attacks me at my door nightly. And what about the raccoons? Is it coincidence that whenever I had do swerve to dodge a possum there was always a raccoon watching the incident unfold? And finally the two deer incidents within one week. This should have been my signal to turn and run. But nooooooooooooo I stayed and fought it out. Well today was D-Day and I finally put it all together, only it was a little too late. You see the squirrels were doing surveillance on us humans. Waiting, watching and letting the big guys know when i...

Thank goodness it’s Monday. I really need some rest after that long weekend. Yes I took some time off to get a few things done around my house. Sorry I didn’t allow much time for blogging. I wanted to make some bluebird houses but after taking most of the day Friday making them, I am thinking I like Carolina Wrens better. They aren’t particular where they nest and one of them has already decided to make his next in my shed. If you sit down and compare the two birds you will have to agree that even though they are both birds, they are very much different. They remind me of a lot of people I know. Bluebirds are showy and very pretty. Yes they eat bugs but they aren’t very friendly. They are very particular about their houses and expect you to clean it out after they are done with it. If you don’t clean out the birdhouses after they are done nesting, chances are, you will get a different type of bird in them next year. Right now we have one pair of bluebirds in one of our houses, and a pa...

As some of you know, my goal for the last year and a half was to read the Bible from cover to cover. Well I am happy to say that I completed that goal. I actually finished it last Sunday but I am just now getting around to reporting it. It was actually my 2008 resolution to read the Bible daily and read it from cover to cover. Well despite my best efforts I would say that I only read about 95% of the days but I did pick right up where I left off after missing a day. Now in my defense, I did read your blogs daily and some of you posted Bible verses so I did read the Bible daily. Thanks Kelly, Dorothy, Sharon and Edie just to name a few. See you didn’t know I was using you to complete my mission. Which just goes to prove that you better write nice stuff on here because you never know who may be reading. And I know that none of you wonderful Ladies would judge me because...... Well you know the answer. Thanks again everyone. Now where was I? I found the Old Testament quite interesting and...

When the going gets tough, the tough get blogging. Or something like that. We are at DEFCON 1 in our office. For anyone that isn’t familiar with that term it stands for Defense Condition 1. It is the highest alert condition and it means that an attack is imminent. And it is today. I can feel it. You know I feel fortunate to still have a job and I feel sorry for anyone that has lost theirs. But let me tell you what has happened since you have been laid off. First off the company is still here and operating. Everyone that has remained has had to double up and do twice as much work and for the same pay. The attitudes in the office are very low and there is a lot of grumbling going on. Upper management however isn’t grumbling because there were no layoffs in that area. And since there was all this extra money lying around after the employee cuts, upper management gave themselves a raise just to insure that they keep quiet. Life is good. At the top that is. As I mentioned there is a lot of ...