Christmas is upon us.

` I've been really busy and haven't had time to write much what with Christmas and I've had a music project I've been working on. But to anyone who sees this, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay in touch with friends and family. We're all in this together. Love, Gayle.

Halloween

` I really enjoy Halloween. I love "spooking up" my house with colored lights and weird sounds. I don't buy those giant store bought yard decorations, I have very few props. What I do is create a spooky atmosphere and the kids their parents that come Trick-or-Treating seem to really enjoy it. I get comments like, "Every house should decorate like this," or, "Your house is the best in the neighborhood."
` Everything I use to create my inexpensive "haunted house" fits into two shopping bags, so very easy to store. I have three strings of those little pumpkin lights, three sets of light-up eyes, one small rubber skeleton, two small plastic pumpkins, a Spooky Sounds CD, a selection of colored spot lights, and a strobe light.
` I internally light my shrubs with red and green lights which creates very spooky netherworld look, then I add a couple of strings of pumpkin lights around the edges of the shrubs. I strategically place the strobe light between two bushes flashing up the front of my house which gives a "mad scientist" effect. I line my foyer with the little pumpkin lights and colored spot lights, stick the light-up eyes on the front door, and I have the spooky sounds coming from a CD player hidden near the front door. My wife and I dress up in some sort of Halloween outfit (this year I wore a lab coat and spiked up my hair, and my wife dressed in all black and wore flashing pumpkin earrings and a colorful boa) and we hand out candy. It's always lots of fun.
` My favorite moment this year was when a five-year-old boy came to the door dressed as Superman. I looked down and said, "Ooo, you're Superman." He looked at me dead serious and replied, "I'm not real." Cracked me up. Later, another group of kids came up to my door, saw me in my lab coat, then one called out, "It's Dr. Frankenstein." I thought later I should have replied, "I'm not real."
` I added a new lighting effect to my repertoire this year. I placed a five foot long bar with two inch wide, thirty inch long strips of clear plastic hanging from it in front of the window in my dining room. I closed the blinds then put a red spot light behind the plastic strips so the spot was lighting up the blinds. I then put a small fan near the plastic strips so they would gentle move. Outside the effect was striking. The window seemed to wriggle with weird red mystical apparitions.
` I think I'll do more windows in different colors next Halloween. I love figuring out new inexpensive ways to make Halloween fun.

Hiking keeps me young

` I hike every weekend if I can. Mostly I hike in the Red River Gorge near Slade KY, but I'll hike just about anywhere with anyone. I even take hiking vacations. Whether I'm in the woods in Kentucky or in some canyon in Utah, I feel at peace, like I'm being embraced by Mother Nature. The physical and psychological benefits are amazing. If I've had a bad week, I hike and the bad week melts away and I'm new again. But then exercise in general is good for your body and your mind.
` Americans are not getting enough, if any, exercise. Obesity and depression are increasing at alarming rates. Our economy is slowing, the news is always bad (but then, good news is not reported, it doesn't sell papers on attract viewers), and things seem to be getting worse all the time. If you aren't getting any exercise you should get started, it will make you feel better, look better, and live longer. It helps relieve the stresses of everyday life.
` Hiking and walking is my exercise. I met my wife through my hiking club. So my life has dramatically improved. So pick some form of exercise that you'll enjoy, walking, biking, swimming, or whatever and start making your life better.

Litter Bugs Me

` I'm getting tired of all litter I see in my neighborhood and on the roads in my community. It used to be that all you would see along the roads and highways were pop cans and paper cups, but now it seems that the pitiful people that litter are throwing out their entire fast food meal containers - cups, styrofoam containers, bags, wrappers, plastic utensils, everything.
` I got to wondering just why this is and the only thing I could come up with is that these people must be unhappy in their lives and they want the world around them to reflect what they look like on the inside. They're stuck in jobs they hate, or marriages that don't work, or their health is failing because of lack of exercise, or tobacco addiction, or obesity. Basically I think they're suffering from poor choices they've made in their lives. Many of them might be depressed. Regardless, they're messing up our world.
` Cigarette smokers who litter our streets with butts are a different story. They've trained themselves to believe that cigarettes butts aren't litter. They're addicted to nicotine and they don't want the debris from their addiction around them to remind them just how seriously their addiction is. It's amazing how fast an ashtray fills up. And cigarette butts stink like death, like the lungs of smokers. So they casually flick away any reminder that they're going to die a slow breathless death. That's why they use our streets for their ashtray. I have no sympathy for cigarette addicts. Please dispose of your butts properly.
` I suppose I have some sympathy for the rest of the litter bugs out there, not much, but some. I'm sorry your life sucks. I'm sorry you feel the need to trash our world because your life sucks. Next time you feel like throwing out your super-size pity-me meal out your car window, stop and think about your children. Do you want them to live in trash? Stop yourself and think of something positive you can do to reverse the poor choices you've made. Get more education, work on your marriage, get more exercise, do something positive for yourself. Quit taking out your frustrations on the rest of the world.
` Personally when I'm walking in my neighborhood getting the exercise I need, I carry a bag with me and I pick up trash. One person can undo the work of multiple litter bugs in just a short time. If all of us would just pick up one piece trash occasionally the world would be a lot cleaner. So keep the faith and do something good for you and good for everyone else. Make your piece of the world a nicer place to live.

God is not on your side so get busy!

` God is not looking out for you, nor is God out to get you. I always get a kick from people who escape unharmed from some hazardous event (a storm or a car wreck) and claim that "God was looking for me," or "God must have a higher purpose for me," or "I must have a Guardian Angel." The reason that they make these claims is the fear of death, it makes surviving a catastrophe seem miraculous.
` Of course the other side of "God was looking out for me during the plane crash," is "God had it out for everyone that died in the crash." You never hear anyone say that, other than a few confused religious fanatics - ridiculous from any one's lips. If you happen to be in the right place at some critical moment you survive, if not, you die. It's pure chance.
` Death is only important to us. Death is not important to God. God is infinite and death plays no part in the infinite. When we die we simple return to God's fold. If you believe in a continuous soul then death is just a transition from this world to the next. However, having a continuous soul is a matter of faith and things that require faith, by definition, can't be proved. That's why we fear death. We can't know absolutely that our essence, our soul will continue after death. If death was a bad thing it wouldn't be part of nature. All things die.
` If you survived a hurricane because your home held together and your nieghbor's didn't and you now feel the need to get more education, to help the homeless, to start going to the church, to fight crime, to get into better shape, then by all means do so. Sometimes we need a boot in the butt to get started. Too often we don't do things we should. We'll get to it next week when we feel better, when we don't have so much on our mind, so much on our plate.
` You're not predestined to any thing, place, or event. The best part of our earthly life is that we have Free Will. We choose what we do, where we go, what seat on the plane we want (sitting near the back of the plane will increase your odds of surviving a crash - so much for First Class - God must out to get those people sitting in First Class).
` Don't wait for your "brush with death" to accomplish the important things, after all, you have no proof of a continuous soul. Accomplish what you can now. Get in touch with old friends. Mend broken family ties. Tell the ones you love that they are important to you, that you love them. You make your own Heaven or Hell right now, right here. Don't give up. Don't surrender an unfinished life to death. You have Free Will. Exercise it. Don't wait for God to remind you. Our world is full of dangers from which you have no protection, so get busy!

Prescription TV - "Ask Your Doctor"

` I don't know about you but I can hardly watch TV any more because I can't stand all the Drug Prescription Ads. I don't want to "ask my doctor" about some drug invented by some large Parma that needs to recoup its investment.
` The worst part of these commercials is all the "legal speak." Let me paraphrase - "Do not take these drugs if you're a living, breathing human being. Serious side effects such as heart attack, stroke, and death have been known to occur. If you experience one of these side effects please don't sue us. We only have your best interest at heart (that and we need to make the maximum amount of money) so 'Ask Your Doctor' if you have a newly coined term for one of our newly imagined diseases that our newly invented drug can cure. Your life (if you survive our drug's side effects) will be so much better."
` Americans are now so over-prescribed that all of those newly invented drugs are (from our treated sewage) showing up in our water supply. That's right, your tap water contains prescription drugs that apparently filters don't remove. Ask you doctor if you should be drinking the water. But don't worry - Big Brother Pharma will invent a new drug to counteract the side effects of tainted tap water.
`They'll probably call the new syndrome TWIT (Tainted Water Ingested Trauma) and the new drug to cure it CUP (Complete Unregulated Profit).
` The TV Ad campaign showing a young happy family laughing and splashing in a mountain stream near a waterfall while a voice tells you, "If you're one of those people that need water to survive you might be suffering from TWIT. Symptoms include: thirst and dry throat after hard work or exercise, headache, and feeling bad sometimes. Side effects include death, but not for everybody." Scene changes from close up on waterfall to water pouring from a home faucet and the young, happy mom giving her children glasses of water while her young, happy husband smiles knowingly. "Don't be afraid of your faucet. CUP is for your whole family" the voice continues. "Don't be a TWIT, Call Your Doctor today and have a CUP. " The scene fades while the happy couple hugs and shoos their happy children outside to play.
` Don't get me wrong, I'm not against taking a prescription drug if I need one. I get sinus infections from time to time and I go to my doctor for his advice. I don't ask him if I should take something I saw on TV. He's the professional, I trust his judgement, I let him tell me what I should take. He's much better informed than I am on the subject. I just happen to have a male doctor. Women doctors are just as imformed as male doctors.
` I think drug commercials should be banned from TV just like tobacco commercials were several years back. Ask your doctor what he thinks.

Politicians

` The lowest form of life on the planet is a politician. They don't "feel your pain." They don't care about you in any way, shape, or form. Their only interest in you is during election season. They will say anything and do anything to get elected. After they get in office they're only interested in the machine that got them there.
` I get a kick out of reading letters to various editors from people caught up in some candidate, claiming their particular brand of politician is better than your brand of politician. Politicians are all the same - they're politicians - interested only in themselves.
`How can you tell if a politician is lying? Their lips are moving.
`Why do politicians run smear campaigns against their opponents? Because they can. You don't have to look too deeply into a candidate's past to find dirt. Politicians live in dirt, they're politicians.
`Not that I don't vote. I vote. I hold my nose and try to pick the candidate that will be the least embarrassing to our country. The last two U.S. presidents have been nothing but embarrassments. We need to find some way of finding people for public office that actually care about us common-folk. The political machine that currently exists is broken.