It is a Christmas Tree!!

I have been staying off of Facebook because I did not want to see any ignorant posts about a certain incident. I popped on today to respond to Thanksgiving posts and share some joy when what to my wandering eye did appear but the following poster.

I immediately looked up the verse and actually the verse does not forbid, does not even use the word forbid at all. The verse is not even speaking about the tree. It is the fashioning of idols from the tree and worshiping them.

I want to reply to my cousin Mason but am not sure how to do so in a positive friendly way that will not appear to be aggressive, ignorant or challenging. Ughhhh!!!!! 

I originally typed this “Sweet cousin.... no, that is not what it says.... it says not to fear idols made by people from other nations that are made from trees. The idols cannot harm nor can they do good.”But it was not enough to be clear about the true meaning of the verse. Maybe I can simplify it but I have not figured out how and keep it non-aggressive sounding.

10: 1-25  Hear what the Lord says to you, people of Israel.

2 This is what the Lord says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them.

3 For the practices of the peoples are worthless;  they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.

4 They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.

5 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried  because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.”

6 No one is like you, Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.

7 Who should not fear you,  King of the nations? This is your due. Among all the wise leaders of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.

8 They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols.

9 Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish  and gold from Uphaz. What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple— all made by skilled workers.

10 But the Lord is the true God;  he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.

11 “Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’”

12 But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

13 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;  he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

14 Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. The images he makes are a fraud; they have no breath in them.

15 They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish.

16 He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the people of his inheritance— the Lord Almighty is his name. Coming Destruction

17 Gather up your belongings to leave the land, you who live under siege.

18 For this is what the Lord says: “At this time I will hurl out  those who live in this land; I will bring distress on them so that they may be captured.”

19 Woe to me because of my injury! My wound is incurable! Yet I said to myself, “This is my sickness, and I must endure it.”

20 My tent is destroyed; all its ropes are snapped. My children are gone from me and are no more; no one is left now to pitch my tent or to set up my shelter.

21 The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the Lord; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered.

22 Listen! The report is coming— a great commotion from the land of the north! It will make the towns of Judah desolate, a haunt of jackals.

Jeremiah’s Prayer

23 Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps.

24 Discipline me, Lord, but only in due measure— not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing.

25 Pour out your wrath on the nations  that do not acknowledge you, on the peoples who do not call on your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him completely and destroyed his homeland.

Can you see my dilemma? Some anti-Christian has once again twisted the Bible to their own delight. But then the Bible does warn us that this will happen. This chapter is from the New International Version. The King James Version does not say forbid either. I actually looked at the verse in 10 different versions of the Bible and not one verse says forbid.

I like this version from The Message the best….

The Stick Gods

10 1-5 Listen to the Message that God is sending your way, House of Israel. Listen most carefully: “Don’t take the godless nations as your models.  Don’t be impressed by their glamour and glitz, no matter how much they’re impressed. The religion of these peoples is nothing but smoke. An idol is nothing but a tree chopped down, then shaped by a woodsman’s ax. They trim it with tinsel and balls, use hammer and nails to keep it upright. It’s like a scarecrow in a cabbage patch—can’t talk! Dead wood that has to be carried—can’t walk! Don’t be impressed by such stuff. It’s useless for either good or evil.”

Maybe I should just post this as a reply to his wrong, uninformed poster. I am truly disturbed by this. How many non-Christians will post and re-post this without ever reading the verses to see for themselves. Maybe instead of reposting The Message version in word I could just post up the link and let them follow it for themselves.

Maybe I will just walk away…. And finish this letter.

Well I just heard from a friend who says she drove by a shopping center and people had tents up already in line waiting for Best Buy to open. Seriously?  I am going to take the Deviled Eggs to my brother’s  house eat some smashed potatoes, come home and decorate the tree. 

Camping out for a $119.00 86 inch flat screen? Insane!!!

 I hope he made coconut pie!!

Do not worship trees!!!!

Spleen Eating

My phone rang yesterday morning and on the other end; my daughter, except it was silent. That is always a bad sign. Usually she joyfully squeals “Good Morning” as though she is surprised she woke up. She has nothing to tell me she just calls to say good morning. Yesterday however drama unfolded that lasted all day.

Her cousin, Calvin had been drinking the night away at her home. My daughter went to bed and in the wee hours of the morning Calvin decided to take her car keys. He then took her car. What happened next is a bit of a blur since she got the story from someone else. But apparently Calvin was still drunk when he decided to return home. According to the tow company, with who she spoke to several hours later when she finally located her car, it appears that Calvin drove up over a median and something that was on/in the median. The engine is damaged as though it hit something with incredible force from beneath the car. A tire is completely knocked off and the wheel frame bent. The car is also banged up.

The police were involved in this incident but failed to arrest Calvin. Her insurance company does not cover towing and the car has been now towed twice. The adjuster refused to go to the lot where the car is in temporarily in storage and insisted she have it towed to her home. The tow company refused and claimed that was an odd request for an adjuster to make. I agree!! I always see the Geico adjuster at body shops I pass. I think her adjuster is a “perv”!!!

She is now without a car and the entire family is involved. As much as we love Calvin this is not his first stupid mistake. However this is not just a mistake. We are all viewing this as an attack upon his female cousin whom he has sworn a family oath to protect and guard for all his life. More importantly he did this to my daughter.

Just a slight description of the drama unfolding in my head. Getting into my black Ferrari 458 Spider driving at Mach 2 to her home at midnight. Waiting until he goes outside for a cigarette and pouncing on him while shape shifted into a large wolf and ripping his throat out and feasting on his spleen.  

That is all. I am once again getting angry about it while I write this. Making a trip over Thanksgiving weekend to go car shopping was NOT on my agenda!!!!

This feels like Cain killing his brother Able!! Grrrrrrr!!!!

Bone Wishes

I have been struggling for a few days with writing these letters and then I struggled with why I was struggling and that spiraled into a churning chasm of despair and panic. The panic was over “What if I can never think of a quirky, irrational word to write about ever again?”

This morning during my devotional study the subject of old wives tales concerning food came up. The study is about to discuss that part of the Lord’s Prayer that says “Give us this day our daily Bread.” This is curious as I have never heard of any food superstitions so, let’s explore.

Garlic wards off Vampires – we all know this

Crush the eggshells after you crack open eggs or witches will gather them, create boats and sail out into the sea and create huge storms

If you spill salt- pick some of the spilt salt up with your right hand and toss it over your left shoulder to blind the devil. Legends indicate that the devil will lurk behind you to the left.

Before baking a loaf of bread you should cut a cross into the top to prevent the devil from sitting on top of it and ruining it while it bakes.

If you are served a cup of hot tea – never put the milk in before the sugar or you will never get married

If there are bubbles floating on your coffee catch them in a spoon and eat them and you will receive some unexpected money

Never hand a friend a hot pepper it will bring discord and strife to the friendship, instead lay the pepper down and ask them to pick it up

Eating a peanut during a race, card game or other gambling type of event brings bad luck

Sticking pins into an onion and placing it on your kitchen window sill will keep out bad spirits

Never bring bananas on a boat – you will never catch any fish

After eating a boiled egg create a whole in the shell to let out the devil – apparently he likes the sulfurous smell of eggs as it reminds him of hell

Planting rosemary by your doors will keep witches out of your home

I will end this with the practice of breaking the wishbone since it is a popular Thanksgiving tradition and has been practiced in my home for as long as I can remember and was also practiced by my grandmother who learned it when she was little so it goes back even farther. 

After the meal is over the wishbone is brought out and two people each take a bone piece and pull it apart while making a wish. The person that ends up with the longest piece receives their wish. This practice is well over 2000 years old and is based on the bones of chickens being lucky.  Ancient Etruscans would dry out the wishbone or furcula of a chicken which were revered as sacred birds and the people would touch it and make a wish. The Romans caught hold of this tradition and would also hold the bones of chickens as reverent and make wishes with them as part of their feasting tradition. As in the case with many parties involving warriors the tender caressing of the bones turned into a duel between comrades and the goal changed to whoever ended up with the largest piece of bone after breaking it together would have their wish granted. The easiest piece of the bone for two people to grab and break with fairness was the furcula bones found in chickens, geese, ducks and later as the English moved to America where turkeys were abundant, our Thanksgiving day turkey.

Enjoy the tradition and Good Luck!

Boycotting Penney's or Not

My friend Ava and I had gone over to the Mall to pick up some Christmas gifts I had ordered to come into the store for pick up. Her husband suggested that if we were near Penney’s we pop in and see if they had any jeans in his size. She does not normally shop there except for him so we did. I will shop at Penney’s however, after yesterday they are very close to once again being on my boycott list. Years ago in the 1980s after refusing to remove an item from a mannequin and completing a sale they chose not to and lost not only that sale but I placed an arm full of merchandise on their counter and left. I did not return to shop there until a random incident over 10 years later led to a meeting with a manager who apologized for a store that was hot hers.

My first complaint is there is no sign of Christmas in the store. There is the word jingle and Cringle and Santa. No Christmas and no Holiday. It is Christmas people deal with it!!! This special day of celebration would not be here if it were not called Christmas. No one is pulling out all the stops and creating special cookies, drinks, decorations to celebrate the birth of Tamara. There is no Happy Tamaramas.

 My second complaint is there was a sale going on in the store yesterday that had all the appearance of a last minute idea. There were photocopies in black and white of a sale coupon stacked in baskets held by sharply dressed mannequins at the front door as you enter.  20% off if you use your Penney credit card and 15% if not. That first of all is a problem for me. I am going to give you cash and my reward for access to instant money in your pocket is a 15% discount. Yet people who use your credit card and may or may not end up paying you get 20%?  How about I do not shop and you get no money?  The list of restrictions on products on the coupon were longer than the legal mumbo jumbo about the coupon. No Levi, no Disney products no this and that product and on and on it went. Maybe it would have been more user friendly had they listed what we could use the coupon on. “Good only on black socks store wide.”

My third complaint is about the cashier. First of all as we walked up she was handling a challenge with a prospective customer on the phone which she did with no hint of care or respect in her voice. After she hung up she mumbled out loud a complaint regarding the recently ended phone call. We were not the only customers/guests in queue waiting to check out so others also witnessed this. As Ava presented her coupon the woman states that the sale does not apply to Levis. Keep the coupon then says Ava I still want the jeans. When the transaction was complete the clerk handed Ava her receipt and then walked away leaving the bag lying on the counter. Now maybe that is not such a bad thing to some people but in both Ava’s and my world we are not treated that way and were stunned. At Neiman Marcus which is where I shop for all my beauty products the clerk cashes me out picks up my bags walks around the counter and brings them to me thanking me for shopping with them and with the store. It is Number 2 on my list of reasons I will drive 45 miles out of my way to shop there.

Neither one of us felt welcomed or appreciated by your cashier. You want to know what your problem is Penney’s??  I can understand people having a bad day. I am ballsy enough to ask why they are cranky. I do not know that just 11 hours earlier her husband came home drunk and admitted he had been cheating on her for the past 8 hours with a woman named Pearl. I can quickly forgive a slightly bad attitude if I know that as she opened her front door to leave her dog ran out and into the street and was run over as she starred in helpless horror.

One more thing. As we walked through Macy’s whom I am still boycotting not one person greeted us or said hello, welcome, thank you for coming in here today (the first reason I am boycotting). But, as we wandered through Victoria Secret I was greeted and spoken to by every clerk including Iris who said to ask if I needed anything. Which I did and the moment I said out loud “Iris does this sale price include these larger items that are also on this table?” She came right over, collected them and took them for a price check. Do you want to know how many people greeted and spoke to us throughout your store, both floors? NONE!!! With all of the choices out there and places I can spend my money you should be stepping up your customer game and outshining the others.

I probably will not be shopping with you this Christmas season. That may not matter much to you but remember I am also not shopping at Macy’s so my money is going to Kohl’s, Dillard’s and specialty stores. Maybe I am not your demographic but again can you afford to lose customers?

It is once again that time of year when I need to find an evening gown for the Gala. I was thinking something blue this year but the dresses I have seen so far are all black or ghastly muted colors and not very pretty at all. Most of them look like Mother of the Bride dresses. NOT wearing one of those. Maybe I can find an old Vogue pattern on ebay and have a vintage 1959 evening gown made. 

Something worthy of having been worn by Joan Crawford at the Academy Awards.  I think I will hunt one down right now.

Cheers!

Drive on Fool!!!

I have been suffering through what I have affectionately called the Mongolian System. 

It is like allergies, a cold, and the flu but not quite as severe as any of them but not behaving exactly like one or the other. I am not alone in this .I have business associates who have the same symptoms. It lasts about three weeks and makes no sense to a doctor who would prescribe symptom relief but feels the symptom is not quite right. Antibiotics are not necessary they are each told. 

Now, with that being said I have not wanted to go to a grocery store and risk infecting others and contaminating food. I just got back from Barcelona so there was no food in my house and I have been forced to be creative with nothing. I did however, go out once a day to the post office to drop off a letter and pick up something hot with protein from a fast food vendor. It was during one of these exploits that I sat in the drive through lane and waited my turn. The truck in front of me had just received their food and instead of driving off with it they decided that was a good time to rearrange the interior of the vehicle. So with the truck rocking about and the driver moving around this away and that way and the brake lights not on, telling me the vehicle is in park I waited and waited and waited. Finally they switch to drive but fail to step on off and I wait some more. The driver settles further into the seat and off they go. REALLY~!!!!!! Are you serious? You could not have pulled up and over about 27 feet and done all of that in the parking lot just to your right?

 I have 7 words with which to describe you and all of them are being delivered with a liberal spreading of loathing. You are a selfish, fustian, usurious, miserly, discourteous, contemptible, megalomaniac.  Do you truly believe that you are the only creature on this planet? Please tell me you are NOT a parent and raising nefarious little mini versions of yourselves.

The next item on my list is being delivered to the creature who perpetrated an attack on my daughter and granddaughter. YOU, vile, gutless, appropriating, spineless, milksop. I have no idea what your circumstances are nor do I have a need to know but let me assure you that what you did for evil GOD turned into something else. Nice try!!! I am actually going to say thank you.

The latest update on Scarlet who still sits in the living room staring at shadows of birds outside as they flitter around leaving alluring shadows to crisscross the curtains. She still does this and it keeps her engaged for hours. I can only imagine what she would do if I had large fish tanks. Oh…. The hours of sweet torment as she tries to figure it out.

They are once again going to shut off the hot water here and pretend to work on the boiler. This is day two. So I must get a shower before repairs commence.

Hopefully this will also be a police free day here. Friday was like the Wild West. Screaming police cars, tearing through the parking lot, county vehicles of all shapes and sizes and then more police. The good news is there is no yellow crime scene tape anywhere. I will once again start the search for a place to live besides here. This place is just so spacious for the amount of rent I pay….