Sunday Special - Jack O Lanterns

There is an overwhelming display of carved pumpkins in the Internet. Here are a few I thought interesting.

 Don't know what this had to do with Halloween, but it's well carved.

 Death Star anyone?

 Oh, no, Mr Bill!

And there's even one for you WVU fans

The Adventures of Bob the Dog – the First Single

The beginning of  Bob the Dog's adventures can be found here.

Bob the Dog and his band – The Back Yard Howlers – have released a single that’s beginning to get a lot of airplay. Frankly, I’m surprised. I thought yodeling was pretty much a thing of the past, but Bob sings some too. It’s interesting that when he sings there’s no trace of the Aussie accent. I’ve heard the song and it’s not that bad. Sort of a throwback to the days of Jimmie Rodgers, but I’m guessing that’s before your time.

The song is titled “I’m So Lonesome I Could Howl” and the last I saw it had been given an “8 kibbles” rating by City Dog/Country Dog magazine. In an accompanying article, Bob’s agent said that the band was in the studio working on their first album.

Meanwhile there’s been a lot of bad press about Bob in the newspapers and entertainment news.  Why am I not surprised? It seems he’s been accused of yodeling in the wrong back yards, among other things. He denies it, and says that it’s just “yammering from some jealous bitzers, and that he’s living on the true.” I'm not so sure about that.

One news item quoted the manager of the Opreyland Hotel as saying, "Bob has certainly worn out his welcome with us. We try to be sensitive to the the needs of guests, but repeatedly diving off the 4th floor balcony into the atrium pool is not behavior that we can condone or permit."

In the mean time, Entertainment Tonight says a French Poodle named Yvette has obtained a restraining order from the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, which bans Bob from coming within 100 feet of her. Bob claims that it's a case of mistaken identity - she's got him confused with some other bloke.

This is not my dog.

...to be continued

It was the demons who saw him first.

When his boat was just a speck far out on the water they became agitated, and when the demons got agitated my life became a living hell.

But then, it always was the demons in control. Even as a boy they would seize me and make me do unimaginable things. When I was small, my parents could control me, could hold me down until the seizures stopped, but as I grew older and stronger, so did the demons. At first my family locked me in a storage room and pushed food in through a little window, but I was soon able to kick the door down and whenever I got free I would destroy everything in the house. Every jar, every chair, every garment. Then they tried chains and shackles, but the demons simply broke them, so they tried stronger chains and more chains, and posted guards, but it didn’t do any good. No chain was as strong as the forces within me. No man could restrain me. At that point they drove me out of the village. It took every man in the village to do it. Maybe some of you were part of that crowd.

Do you know what it’s like to live like an animal? No, worse than an animal. Much worse. A naked, raving lunatic, living out in the hills among the tombs, howling at the moon all night, screaming at the top of my lungs all day, raging at any and everyone who comes near. I cannot tell you how many times I tried to kill myself, but the demons wouldn’t let me. I would cut myself with sharp stones and bash my head with rocks, but they would never let me finish the job. Evil spirits were in control of my body and my life. Maybe some of you knew me then, remember what I was like. Maybe you threw stones at me. Maybe I threw stones at you.

Then one day he sailed his boat right up to the shore and stepped out and said something to the demons and suddenly they weren’t raging – they were terrified. They began shrieking and wailing and they made me run down to the shore to him, and then they threw me down at his feet. And then the strangest thing happened: they called the man Jesus, Son of the most high God, and they begged him not to torture them! They begged him! The demons that snapped chains and cast off shackles and broke the bones of those who tried to restrain me groveled at his feet and begged for mercy!

He asked them their name and in a thousand voices they replied, “My name is legion, there are so many of us.” Then they begged him to let them go into the herd of pigs that was on the opposite hill, and when he told them “Go!” it was like every fiber of my being was ripped from my body. But when they were gone, for the first time in my life, I felt at peace. I felt whole. I felt like a human being again. I began to kiss the feet of this man, but he had me sit up, and someone handed me a garment, and then he began to talk to me about the most wonderful things.

Everyone else was watching the pigs running down the hill to the bluff and plunging into the sea, but he was looking only at me; talking only to me. I tried to tell him what my life had been like, but it was like it had never happened. Instead, he began telling me what my new life was going to be like, and it was wonderful.

We were still talking when some of the town’s people came running up to see what the commotion was. They saw me and immediately picked up rocks and stones to drive me away, but when they saw that I was just sitting there, having a normal conversation, you should have seen their jaws drop!

It got ugly after that. When they saw what had happened to the pigs, to their livelihood, they wanted no part of Jesus, Son of the most high God. Some begged him to leave; some even threatened him if he didn’t, so he got back in the boat. I begged him to take me with him. I wanted to serve this man for the rest of my life. I wanted to be his slave! But he wouldn’t let me. He told me to go tell my story, so that’s why I’m here.

I am here to tell you that I was already dead – worse than dead – and he gave me life. He defeated my demons and set me free, and he can do the same for you. He is stronger than whatever possesses you; he can defeat whatever drives you. I beg you, find this man and fall at his feet and acknowledge that he is Jesus, Son of the most high God, and ask him to release your demons.

He did it for me. He will do it for you.

Monday Meanderings - Oct 25

Uhhh... we may have a problem here. Accompanying a news article about the increase in bank robberies in Texas was a photo.  A photo that one might think looks familiar.

This is a photo of the "I-35 Bandit" (courtesy of the FBI, no less). If you think it looks like someone you know, IT'S JUST A COINCIDENCE!  But I may have Barb do all the banking for a while, just in case.

The tomato plants played out a few weeks ago. They quit setting fruit and got really scraggly, so Barb set the containers aside and we quit watering them. You know where this is going, don't you? Yep. Six tomatoes coming on strong. Same thing with the pot of chrysanthemums that we thought got killed in the cold of winter.  Maybe we don't have this gardening thing figured out.

Mixed sports bag this weekend; Rangers won, Horns lost, Browns won. We seldom see Browns games in this part of the country but CBS routed the Browns/Saints game to us and it was neat to watch Colt playing like a real NFL quarterback. He did not put up great numbers, but unlike the other QB, he did not hurt his team with mistakes.  Of course, the sports weekend isn't over until we see what miserable errors great plays the Cowboys have in store for us on MNF.

Speaking of the Rangers, one of my children is a true Yankees fan, to the point that he changed his Facebook picture to the Yankee logo during the playoffs (you are going to change that soon, aren't you?). To his credit, he has been loyal his team while catching a lot of grief from his friends on FB. I didn't say anything until the Rangers won, and then it was a modest comment if I do say so myself. He replied, "This coming from someone who cannot name 3 players without a program?" That's not so, I replied.. "I can name 3 players. Of course, they are all Yankees."

And I'll pass along the thought for the day.

The Adventures of Bob the Dog – Tishomingo Take Down

The beginning of  Bob the Dog's adventures can be found here.

Last week I got a $300 bill from a Veterinary Clinic in Tishomingo, Oklahoma for “Surgical repair to the left ear of a Blue Heeler named ‘Bob’.”

I waited to see if I would get any more news about this particular issue, and sure enough in a couple of days I got an email from Bob. I’ll let you read it in its entirety:

Bob Dog bobdog1215@gmail.com to me

G’day Mate

I guess by now the postie has fetched the docket from the vet. Just put that on my shirt tail and I'll pay you back when my first album goes aluminum.

Me and the mates were playing for pints and petrol in a little joint in Tishomingo when things got a little barney. We had done both sets and were loading out when a Rottweiler who was full as a boot began howling at us. I tried to never mind him until he began going on about me mum – you know what I mean – and that's when I decided he needed sorting.

We took it out the back but it was a tee-up. The Rott and his mates had hosed down the alley and there was about a foot of muck back there and me being at least 20 kilos lighter than the Rott I didn't have much of a purchase. Well, to wrap it all up, he blinkin' near tore my ear off and if Leroy hadn't tapped him about a bit with the inn keeper’s baseball bat I might have carked it right there.

As it is, the doc needled me up and when I get the cotton out of me ear I'll be able to hear again, and of course, I do need to be able to hear so as to be able to yodel, so thanks for helping me out, mate.

Bob the Dog

Glad I could help, Bob.

…to be continued