Judging a book by its cover

I recently received a book as a gift. It is old and warn. At first glance this book might not seem very interesting, but the words inside that book are the same ones that come with a newer printing of the book.

All too often we see a book and for various reasons we do not open the book to find out what is inside. It could be that we don't like the look of the cover. It could be that we see just the title and back away. Perhaps we have read another book by the same author and didn't like what we read. That generally has a bearing on what the next book will be like, but it just might be worthwhile.

Does that mean we have to read every book to decide whether they are worthy of our time? No. We find out what a book is about by reading what other people say, by reading the comments from those who have read that book.

Sometimes, however, we just have to pick up the book and find out for ourselves. We might find a book, that was not highly recommended, to be very enjoyable.

Technology and Change

The other day I decided to get out my old vinal Records (LPs) and 45s. I did this because I had bought a new stereo for my husband as a Christmas gift. It came complete with a turn table, CD player, cassette player and radio. We hadn't had a turn table in our home for several years. We had given away the two we had when were first married. We had kept the old records, however.

As I got out one of the 45s my niece looked at it with wide eyes. Having never seen such a thing in her life she said, "That's a BIG CD." I told her that was she ought to see the larger LPs. I took one out and set it on the turn table. After listening to a bit of one side I turned it over to listen to something on the other side. "Wow!" She continued. "It has two sides!"

For those of us who grew up before CDs were the thing, it seems so odd that someone could not know about what life was like before CDs.

I guess that is the way things have always been. New inventions and technology take over and we cannot imagine what life was like before them.

My kids cannot imagine life without computers. My generation could not imagine life without cars, or washing machines or record players.

I wonder what invention will come along to change the way their kids will see things.

Certifiably Crazy

I was listening to the radio while taking my teen-ager to school this morning. The radio segment was called "Commit my spouse". The gist of this was that people were asked to call in and tell something about their spouse that shows that they are certifiably crazy.

It got me thinking about what my dear husband has done that would give me reason to "commit" him.

Several years ago we had my parents over for a 4th of July picnic in our back yard. My Dad liked to make "dry ice bombs". These are made by using a 2-liter pop bottle, dry ice and water. Usually they go off sending the pop bottle several feet into the air. On this particluar day, one of the "bombs" failed to go off.

This makes for a tricky situation as it still could go off at any time and so handling it is not very safe. (Note to anyone thinking of doing these: I believe they are illegal for this reason...well and they are considered an explosive.) If my Dad had been at home he would have pulled out his shot gun and diffused it in that manner. But we were at my house and the only thing my husband had of the kind was a sling shot with metal pellets.

So, he pulls out his sling shot (wrist rocket), aims at the undiffused "dry ice bomb" and fires. The pellet flew from the wrist rocket, bounced off the dry ice bomb and flew back hitting my husband squarely in the forehead.

He and my Dad made a trip to a medical facility and found that he did not need stitches. But upon being asked how this happened my Dad replied that my husband had been cleaning his sling shot when it went off.

Come to think of it, I am not sure which one of them is crazier. The jury is still out on this one.

The good news in all this was that his forehead had blocked the pellet from hitting our kitchen window.

The News that is "Real" to us

Every once in awhile a news story grabs a hold of me and hangs on. Such is the news of Elder Morgan Winslow Young. He was killed in Chesapeake, Virginia while serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This story hits a little closer to home for me as I served a similar mission in Virginia many years ago.

It is the stories where we find a part of ourselves in them that make them "real" for us. Such is the case with this story I read today.

BLESSED ARE YE WHEN MEN SHALL ... by Bob Lonsberry (Written January 5, 2006)

Beware! You will need tissues.

Thank you Bob for putting into words what I could not.