My New New Book - The Grange

    I'm already thinking about and planning out my newest new book, and this one ...well, it won't be like the others. I knew it from the first time I began thinking about it, but I wasn't quite sure what genre I could or would eventually categorize it in so that I could plan the ending. You see, you have to have the end before you have the beginning -- at least, that's how I write anyway. 

     I knew the title of the book very early on; it comes from a place I love, absolutely love, and of course, it's in Edinburgh, Scotland. Oh, it's not Arthur's seat, the Salsbury crags, or even Calton Hill, Castlerock, or Canongate. The place that will be captured in the newest new book, is a cemetery called The Grange. Wait...what? Did she say it was going to take place in a cemetery? OK, that's weird, and it may be a little creepy too. OK, you've got me.

    I wanted to write a horror book. I did. I wanted to write a big, fat, scary, crazy-suspenseful book about blood, gore, and wickedness until I realized I'm not good at being all that bad. I keep thinking if I write something wicked, I may invite demons to dance in my head or something. No one wants that. I can't pull it off. I can pull off creepy. I can pull off strange, odd, weird, bizarre, and fringe -- but I can't pull off evil. It's just not there, and really, that's a good thing.

    The Grange is a relatively younger or newer cemetery, at least by Edinburgh or Scotland standards. Established in 1847, only a few graves were dug for a few years; it took a while for the dead to catch on. There will be a good enough story to tell about the place, and of course, as always, there will be some truth to it, and enough fiction to keep the book honestly untruthful. I can't have anyone accusing me of writing a true historical book -- not when I'm a novelist. That can't happen.  The disclaimer may be a couple of pages if I need to be really clear about some facts.

    Anyway, that's the big new story coming out of my heart right after the big new story I'm writing now, which took the place of another big story that I've set aside and will write it right after I write The Grange. I could use an entire year off so I could sit myself down and write the 10-12 books I have floating around in my head at the moment -- at least I have a plan! If I die before the plan comes to pass, so be it - if the Rapture comes before the plan comes to pass, even better. But...if we're all here, and nothing happens, I'll be the one writing -- and writing...and well, you know.

The Grange

Photo Credit:  Karen Treadwell 

STRATFORD -- the Book. Chapter 5 is DONE!

     If you are a fan of Oklahoma, and by that, I mean you really love the state, then you can't go very long or far without hearing the name "Alfalfa Bill Murray." He was the 9th Governor of the State of Oklahoma, and when it comes to being 100% Okie, well, maybe not; the man was technically a Texan when it comes down to it.  He was born November 21, 1869, putting him at my great-grandfather's age. My great-grandfather knew William Henry Murray and wrote about him in the Tishomingo Paper.  Another newspaperman, Irvin Hurst of The Daily Oklahoman, wrote often about the man, but they weren't friends. Irvin was my friend much later in his life, and by that time, by the time Irvin was in his late 80s, he had grown to love and respect his old nemesis, Bill Murray. 

     The former governor died about five years before I was born, but it didn't take me too long to learn about him in school. When I did, I remembered him for his reputation as a hard-headed man and his reputation for being good for our state.  He was a rough and rugged man, even if he was a string bean sort of character, sporting his long-handled mustache and keeping a cigar poking out of his mouth most of the time. When he spoke, he did so with a voice that truly carried - he was heard.

    My new book, Stratford, takes place between October 1933 and Valentine's Day 1934. It has a minimal and distinct timeframe and will showcase a few of the more interesting developments in government during such time. It will also focus on Governor Bill Murray, a central or semi-main character. If you wanted to compare the actor-comedian Bill Murray to the old man we knew and loved as our coming-of-age governor, there would be very little to compare. (You can laugh with only one of them) Alfalfa had a few too many things on his plate to waste his time cracking jokes. Still, those who knew him best said his wit, charm, and humor ran deep, if not ultimately a bit too dry for most.

    Chapter five introduces the man to the book's central theme and plot. The first seven or eight chapters of my books explain the rest of the book you're holding so you can follow along without worrying or wondering too much about facts and details. I would love to go into more detail about how Bill Murray became a staple in the Chickasaw Nation as a bonafide white man, a Scot by heritage.  Both his mother and his father were of Scottish descent, and one fascinating fact is that Uriah Dow Thomas Murray, the father of the Governor, moved to Bethany, Oklahoma, before he passed away. He's buried in the cemetery on 63rd and Rockwell -- in my hometown! That could be why we learned about Alfalfa Bill as early as we did in school.

    Anyway, the 5th chapter is written. I can get into the grove and type out a chapter a day for the next few days, then a few more over the weekends. By the end of the month, "Stratford" should be written. I think it will be a good book - it's already changed from somewhat mean-spirited to a more realistic and forward-thinking book- much to my chagrin. 

    I wanted it to be a blasting cap of a book, to really punch the people in the face who live in that city now who took me for an illegal roller coaster of a ride seventeen years ago -- I'll write about it in the "Author's Notes" section of the book -- there is a reason I chose to dump on Stratford. However, this past week, my favorite cousin told me her dad, my favorite uncle (married to my favorite aunt), was born in STRATFORD!! WHAT? So now I can't be as mean as I wanted to be. Thanks, Uncle Marvin!

    Anyway, that's the skinny on that—Chapters 6, 7, and 8 will be written this week, then 9, 10, 11, and 12 probably over the weekend. Maybe by this time next week, I'll be nearly halfway finished—we'll see. I like the method I'm using, and I like the way things are flowing—it could be that I wanted to write it this way all along, but I only thought I wanted to be nasty!

"Alfalfa Bill" Governor William H. Murray (9th Gov. OK. 1931-1934) 

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

KROGER on the Way!! ( My First Time to Order Online )

     I live in Oklahoma City, and we don't have a  Kroger grocery store here. If we did, I would go there. I love that store. I love Aldi too, don't get me wrong. I also love Trader Joe's, but I really love and have loved Kroger since 2010, when I lived in Indianapolis' suburbia city of Avon. LOVE shopping at Kroger, and yes, while I was there, I tiptoed into Meijer as well. Both are great, but the prices and the atmosphere of Kroger made me feel as if I could stick around and enjoy both good products with excellent pricing while shopping in what could be described as an upscale store.

    Well, here you go...it's 2024, and Kroger doesn't have a physical store here, but they must have a warehouse because they have online shopping and delivery here in my great city! I was super excited when I began seeing the ads for it, and then when I saw a Kroger store delivery van driving around town, I knew something was up. Honestly, I assumed they built a store, and I just somehow missed it. It's OK if it's just the food and not the physical store; most people must realize that Kroger brands are truly marketed name brands. As it was described to me, when they produce the product, it is divided; part of it goes to the left and is labeled with named brand labels, and the other side goes to the right, and a Kroger label is slapped on it! Bam!

    If Kroger is anything, it's affordable, and in today's wild and wooly days of inflation, having something affordable is a good thing. If you know me, you know I've been online shopping for about fifteen years - but I wasn't doing it in REALITY since I could only fantasy shop at Peapods, which was the only grocery delivery I knew of, and it was in Chicago. I wasn't in Chicago. 

    Peapods is an online grocery store and warehouse in and around Chicago, and you must be a member to use it. I learned about it in 2008 - and have been pretending ever since. Well, now... thanks to all the online stores that deliver, I can do it for real. I tried it with our Aldi, but it didn't work out. I don't know if I blogged about it, but yeah, no. I was not happy.

    Kroger it is! I use Sam's, of course, and still will. Since I can have Kroger deliver what I need when I either forget things or when I need things I can't find at Sam's, it's good there are choices - and I don't have to go out into the world, fight traffic, people in the aisles, and try to make it through the store wondering if there will be enough cashiers when I do get up to the front. That's a thing! They usually have 8-10 people in line before they'll open up another lane! No, thank you. Delivery is good, it's all about the shopping for me, not the check out!

    I used to laugh and say I'm going to get into photography so I can take photos of food...but that's a thing, too. People make good money doing that now. Crazy!! Food prices at Kroger are about the same as at all of the other stores I frequent, but now I don't have to frequent them - I can just pop online and "shop" or pretend -- or both. Best of both worlds!  Granted, I may not be able to eyeball the produce, but if they give bad stuff, I can put in a complaint, and I bet they don't do it again -- they're up on keeping those ratings as high as they can be. It's a good match; Kroger delivery and me.

    Kroger's brand is about 20-34% lower than the very same product that goes to the left at production to get a name-brand label. I like the savings and knowing that what I consume is good; believe me, you can't say the same about most store brands! I've tested them all. Kroger wins. So, I did it; I put in my first order, which comes tomorrow between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. (You get to choose the times, too.) I love it. Love, love, love it. I didn't think about the tip, so I don't have cash on me for the delivery person tomorrow - when they arrive, I'll see if they have a Venmo or PayPal account! Things are so very different now, aren't they? 

    Groceries and how they are sold, delivered, and produced may have changed, but my gratitude for it has only increased. God has been so very good to me - so very good. These types of services help in more ways than one. 

Photo Credit: Kroger.com 

New Work Clothes (I'm laughing)

    So many things have changed since we've been working from home, and let me tell you—I love it. I worked from home for years before the world was forced to work from home, but because we could be called on to show up to Zoom or Skype meetings (yes, Skype...remember?), we had to wear collared shirts or dresses. You can't see me laughing, but I am laughing.

    When I worked from home and never joined in on meetings, it was not beyond me to wear my fuzzy-wuzzy onesie pajamas if I didn't think anyone would catch me. It's just the way it was. This was before I was forced by the big bad economy to go into the office and work. The entire three months I was forced to do that, I wondered if I would be ridiculed for wearing the same things because I didn't want to put too much money into my wardrobe. At the finance place I worked, I was probably the ONLY one not spending half my paycheck on clothes and shoes to impress the others. Nope, not me. 

    So, now that I'm at home 100% of the time for work and about 60% of my personal time -- maybe longer, I wear a lot of T-shirts and joggers in the warmer weather, and all of my big, baggy, beautiful onesies come out the second the weather turns cool enough to zip those puppies up!  Today, the weather hit the magic number of 64 degrees (F) outside, and yes, I am wearing the latest - I tend to buy a couple each year and donate a couple each year; that way, they stay really nice, and I don't worry about my dogs ridiculing me for wearing the same ones!

    Today, and for no other reason than because I can, I bought a new tie-dye onesie with pockets, and every minute that goes by gets me closer to wearing it -- I'm counting down! It's amazingly pretty, and yes, I will post it. I buy most of my things (now) on Amazon, and tomorrow is a great day! Tomorrow, it arrives, and I will be testing it out to be sure that it fits and that I can move around without feeling tightly bound within it -- loose as a goose -- that's how I like them to fit. I work out almost every day and want to be free to move about when I do. (I also want to hide anything that has yet to succumb to my workout routine!)

    I got an email today asking me if I would be interested in working for XYZ insurance company as a fraud investigator, but they wanted me to drive about, knock on people's doors, interview them, and do a great deal of in-person work -- can you imagine? Who does that? We Zoom! I don't even want to put on "appropriate" clothes to do that; why would I want to get up, get dressed, drive somewhere, and then ...knock on doors...and talk to people?  What? What are they thinking? Who talks to people these days...in person? No...no, thank you. I have a monitor and a camera, and we can Zoom -- besides, I may be forced to wear a collared shirt for a meeting (not at my current position, which I will likely never leave), but I don't wear shoes...just socks.

    I counted my onesies. I have 7 now. That means I really can wear one each day and be OK...if I want to, and you know I will likely probably want to. I do have "costume" onesies as well, but I didn't count them if they had a "head" that covers my face. I have 4 of those...one is Eyore; it's too cute.  My daughters also work from their respective homes - I know what to buy them for Christmas, that's a gimme. They know what to buy me too. We can exchange gifts and maybe matching work clothes - wouldn't that be fun? I'm thinking GRINCH onesies!!

    My good friend, who is a nurse, just wrote to me that I was lucky to be able to work from home. I wonder how patients would react if she showed up to work in a onesie. I mean, it doesn't change how she works or what she could do professionally -- my lawyer friend told me she wants to give it a try but will wait until one or two days before she is set to retire. I had to laugh -- again. I laugh a lot these days. I'm pretty happy.

Bought it!  Photo Credit: Amazon.com 

Tornadoes and More (God is So Good)

 If you know anyone from "Tornado Alley," you may know someone close to God. You see when we pray out this way, we don't do it with all the hype and rituals associated with the prim and proper pious people. Oh no! We pray straight to God and close our prayers with "In Jesus' name" because we know who we're talking to, and we know we don't get to the Father unless we go through His Son!

    Oklahoma has long been associated with being one of the major hubs for tornadoes. We don't call them "twisters," no matter how many movies they make about them. They are all called tornadoes, not even cyclones. Nope, they are called tornadoes, and we know them. We are well acquainted in these parts. 

    When we see them (when we have warning), we watch them until they get really too close, and we head to the lower part of our homes, or to what we affectionately call our "Gary England space,"; giving homage to our all-time favorite weatherman, Gary England, who was actually in the first "Twister" movie -- he's a rockstar! We love the man. All the other great meteorologists living in our fair state are top-notch! They'd have to be if they wanted to show up on our television sets or be heard on our radios. We don't mess around with the weather here in the Sooner State, ma'am or sir!

    So, this weekend, right after we all turned our clocks back, God decided to twist things up in the skies above us. We didn't have that extra hour of sleep in our state, nope, we were jerked right out of bed by KOCO Channel 5's alert, followed by KWTV-9 weather alerts and three minutes later, we heard the sirens. Talk about being ill-prepared. First, I'm in bed, not awake. I'm thrown into reality, but the real part of that word didn't have a chance to catch up before we had to gather the dogs and cram ourselves into the tiny closets that we never got around to fully clearing out because tornadoes don't happen in November...well, apparently, they do!

    I found myself wearing the "wrong" bra, one I never would have chosen, but it was where my hands landed. I had on a pair of sweatpants backward because I had just put my two legs into them. This was followed by me not remembering my glasses, my keys, my purse, or my shoes! Thank God (and I do mean that) I had a pair of slippers in the dang closet. I did turn my sweatpants around in the closet, but I had to stand on top of a chair that I had stashed in it - while my dog lay under the chair in somewhat blissful ignorance of what was happening around her. 

    I darted out of the closet for what probably took fifteen seconds; I found my glasses, my purse, and my keys and checked on my daughter to be sure she had what she needed. We both found the bike helmets we stashed in the closets for these reasons and began praying. We couldn't catch one of the dogs, so we prayed over her as well. The cats never get taken into safety for obvious reasons; they'd kill us while we were trying to save their lives. They fend for themselves. If that sounds incredibly rude or mean, I apologize, but having been torn up by a tabby once, I made that decision long ago.

    The tornadoes passed us, of course, as they do. Then, out of NOWHERE this morning, just 28 hours later, it was time to rinse and repeat! WHAT? That's right - another wave of tornadic weather was beating down on us, and this time, it was beating directly down on our area. More prayers!! This time, and I say that loosely, this time I took three or four seconds to breathe. My alarm had gone off at 6:10, and the alerts hit two minutes later. I was up, found the right clothes, grabbed my glasses, my cell, my purse, and my keys, and I very quietly approached the dog we couldn't catch the day before.

    With everyone in place, we actually never had to take cover. God lifted the storm up to the north, then the other one went south, and we breathed again. We continued praying because there were still lots of folks these things were going to visit. That's another thing we do in America; we pray for others. We know the hardships; we've lived through a few ourselves. When we turn the television on in our house, because we're so busy with our lives, it's either to watch the weather or maybe catch the end of a good game that we remember was being played.

    In Oklahoma we have four seasons; hot, cold, storm, and football -- funny how we can also have all four in one day -- even in November!

PHOTO CREDIT: KOCO - Channel 5 Oklahoma City 11/3/24

STRATFORD -- The Book is Being Written (Chapters 1&2)

     Chapters one and two of Stratford are written, and I think I saw there are about 4600 words, so that's not bad. I think the entire thing will be the same as all of my books; it will be about 30-32 chapters, about 86000-90000 words, and a 5 x 8 book. I've already designed the cover, so I'm at least that far into it.

    Chapters one and two focus on our good friend Eoghan (pronounced Owen) MacRae of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is leaving Edinburgh, leaving Scotland entirely, and moving overseas alone. His wife of less than a full year, has decided to move back to her homeland of the Orkney islands in the far north of the country after suffering a dramatic miscarriage of their child. She was not expecting to lose the child, and doing so completely devastated her to the point she could no longer live around people she felt were uncaring and harsh. This, of course, wasn't how she felt about her husband or his family, but nearly everyone else she had encountered for years left her wanting to return.

    Because Eoghan is such a city dweller, and he had never been comfortable in the country or small towns without the hubbub and bustling of a live surrounding, Alice Ann knew he would be better off remaining where he lived. Theirs was a swift and indeed intense relationship, but it was over, and she was able to make that statement. When his children were carted off to be educated in London, and his mother followed, having sold their house, he lived virtually at the police station where he worked at the front desk. When the police chief let him know that the new budget wouldn't allow for him to be employed by them any longer, he was forced to make a decision to go where he knew he would be loved and welcomed and where he could sustain gainful employment; he moved to Oklahoma to be with Nick Posh and his family.

    Because the remaining Posh novels will contain a good amount of Eoghan MacRae and his experiences, I had to find a way to bring the two men together again so that it made sense to the readers. It really sucks right now for Eoghan, but through the book, he'll begin to understand that family and true friends are deeply rooted, and neither time nor space can separate them from loving one another. It works out. I promise.

    That's chapters one and two. Tomorrow, I'll likely write at least three or maybe four chapters. I'll also likely only write on the weekends, except in November, when I'll be off on my birthday, a Friday, and we're off Thanksgiving. The day after, I'll have a bit more time to finish the book around the end of November and/or the first weekend of December. I'll tweak and fluff it a week or two later, and it will be up for grabs around Christmas, but it won't be the one you want to start with! No, it's number 5 in the Posh series. You can't just pick up #5 and go on!  There are rules, you know!

Photo Credit: Me

Meet Kiba!! (our new puppy)

So, you guessed it - we have a fourth dog. He still counts, even though he'll never weigh more than six pounds. He's about one pound now, at 14 weeks. He was born around the first of July, but we'll give him July 7, 2024, as his official birthday because it's the same day that Laura's dog Yuuki was born in 2007 -- and he's mostly Chihuahua, just like Yuuki. 

    One of my co-workers was talking about his PomChi dog giving birth sometime in the summer; when I think about it, it was around the 4th of July. I just can't remember if it was before or after. I picked up Kiah on the 4th of July and thought to myself that if I had just waited, I could have just picked up one of his pups. But it's a good thing I have Kiah. I really like her. She's an amazing, crazy dog.

    So, my co-worker's little dog mated with a full-blooded Chihuahua, herself being a half-Chihuahua; therefore, the pups are 3/4 Chihuahua, and so was Yuuki, but his other part was Dachshund. This dog will likely only be between five and eight pounds; Yuuki wound up being 12 pounds. Ginger weighs 14-15 pounds, but she's much thicker and more dense than she looks. She's a Chihuahua mixed with Pug and Dachshund, so she's a little bigger.

    My friend was sad about two weeks ago, telling me that his puppies all contracted parvo, and two of the four live-born puppies died from the disease. He hoped the last two would survive, but the expense of having them treated was simply out of the question; he couldn't do it. I don't blame him, when Yuuki was young he also contracted parvo, and if we had to have him treated with all he needed it would have been $$$$ but luckily we had a vet tech friend, and she helped every single day with his IV and other methods of treating him.

    I remembered quite a bit of what she told us, and I could buy the meds he needed for both his puppies and have them sent directly to his house. He took them to the vet for training and consultation, and I paid for that as well. I also bought him some vaccinations online and had them sent to him as well -- the puppies would need them after they got over the virus. We prayed. All of us prayed. Several of my friends prayed, too. We asked not only for their healing but also for my friend to see God's amazing love and power through these little doggies.

    Well, as God would have it - not fate, we don't believe in fate. We believe in God. As God would have it, the puppies lived, and they thrived! Good poops, eating well, drinking well, running around, and they pulled through it completely!! My friend gave them their vaccinations a couple of days ago, and they came through that well too! All is good in puppy-ville! He was visiting his relatives up this way today, and brought Kiba to us!  Laura named the puppy Kiba, which in Japanese means "big fang"....I laughed.  He bit me.  I completely understand now.  (smiles)

    Within minutes of taking possession of the little guy, we headed off to Big Lots to get him some food, a collar, a little harness, and all the stuff he will need -- except because he's about one pound, nothing really fits. We brought him home, and let me just say he's the hit of the parade! All three girls love him; the cats could care less, but as we suspected she would, Ginger has definitely taken possession! She is the mother dog - and he has no problem with that.

    He's gonna fit in just fine. 

Kiba!

Big Decision (Well, for me, anyway)

 I was first licensed to sell life insurance in 1983. April of 1983, to be more precise, and I was one of those people you may have heard about who went from door to door to collect literally only a dollar or two to pay down tiny baby insurance plans that were started in the 1940s. Seriously, people bought policies that cost about three dollars a year, and I would go by their homes and pick up their change and/or checks for the amount, mark their books with a certain pen that nowadays could be purchased online, and they could mark their own books. 

    I've been in the insurance business or working in the industry in one form or another for most of my adult life, even when I was a paralegal or had other positions. I kept my insurance licenses up because retaking the test is a BEAR! I know; I've let the licenses lapse, and taking the test again was not fun.  Well, I'm about to let it go for good now; the life, health, accident insurance, property, and casualty producer licenses. I'm keeping my adjuster license. I am an adjuster. I  need it. I am licensed in about 12 states, and there are 17 more states where you don't need a license to practice, so I'm all over the place - in theory.

    I've decided to let the producer licenses go because I won't sell insurance in the future. I will investigate it, subrogate it, and examine it, but I won't sell it. I don't have a need to. It's something I've thought of doing for about two years, but because my licenses are renewed in about a month, I've decided to simply not renew those. I took some time today to study for the last required credit hours needed for the adjuster's license today - I'm in compliance. I will renew the adjuster's license.

    Laura, my middle kid, will take the adjuster's exam tomorrow, and when she passes, she, too, will be a property and casualty adjuster in the State of Oklahoma. She won't go to work with me, but she'll find a good company with good pay and good benefits. I'll help her do that, and we can share war stories because there are always war stories in this industry. It's the worst - and the best. It's a great industry, and it's very necessary to say the least. EVERYONE must have insurance on their homes and cars -- and other things.

    I'm making a good living at the subrogation company I work for. If I ever left it, I would fall back on my Xactimate education and do actual adjusting, I'm sure. I don't need to now because I'm doing well as a subrogator. It's not hard; it allows me to have the freedom I have and want, and if I had any complaint, it would be that the benefits aren't as good as they could be. Maybe I could pay for a better plan, and I'll check into that. I hope the Rapture comes, and I don't have to worry about it.

    The simple fact is that time has passed, and it's time to give up the producer licenses. I will forever investigate, and I will forever subrogate—I like this side of the equation. It makes me feel good to get into the mix, determine liability, and recover what should be recovered. I'm one of the fair subrogators, and if that sounds like an impossibility, you need to know there are a few of us.  It's best to be honest - honestly...I'm not lying.

Photo Credit: livemint.com

Kiah Update. She's Fine.

 Many people wanted to know how Kiah (my dog) is doing after her spay surgery about 3 or 4 weeks ago.  She's not only over it; she's been over it for a while. The vet told me she was up and at it about 15 minutes after the surgery, and he hadn't expected her to be so active.  He gave her enough meds to keep her sedated, but once he brought her back, he said she only rested a few minutes, and then she was ever so ready to go home.  She was on antibiotics for 10 days but only needed or wanted the pain meds 2x.

    Kiah, if you didn't know, is my new pup. She came to me in the middle of the Summer; in fact, I got her on the 4th of July. It wasn't a big thing; I wasn't going out to find a dog that day, but I was off work, and she was available, so she came home with me when I found her online. The owners said she was a smaller dog, and they had a photo of her, but it was a little deceiving, to say the least. As it turns out, she's half Schnauzer and half Border Collie! That's not a small breed. She'll top out around forty pounds. She's about 22-23 pounds now, at 8 months old.

    Kiah is a bouncy dog; if you know the two breeds in her DNA makeup, you may recognize them as being really active dogs. Both dogs are herding working dogs; the Border Collie is a Scottish dog, and the Schnauzer is a German breed. Both are and have been used in the past for herding sheep and other livestock. She has a nippy thing going on, too; when she wants me to do something, she's been scolded for it.

    Since the day I brought her home from the vet's, she's been going like gang-busters. She runs, jumps, and skips around. I had to keep the cone on her as best I could for 3 or 4 days, but that's as long as it stayed - she was not into it. I managed to keep her from chewing or licking her stitches, and finally, after about five or six days, they began either falling out or being chewed out, but they had done their job by then - she had ONE remaining stitch, and it lasted a full three weeks before I trimmed it and it came out. She was pretty happy about that. I think it sort of freaked her out a little.

    We have other dogs and cats, too, so she was not about to let them have all the fun, all the treats, and the better spots on the couch or bed. She wiggled her way right up into my lap every chance she got, and she still does.  I'm not going to lie, we have a  few animals, but we don't hoard them, we sleep with them. We live with them, we play with them, we love them, they go places with us and meet up with others when we can arrange it.  Kiah is one of the most active dogs I've ever met. I think she could be a good agility dog if I had the time to make that happen. 

    Most Border Collies can clear a fence. Luckily, Kiah hasn't attempted that, but she can do a standing jump, which is quite impressive. She also likes the mini trampoline in my room. I'd say overall, she's been happy to be home, and she probably won't trust me again if I say we're going to see Dr. Crosby. I don't believe in lying to the dogs, so I tell them what's happening. She should have been prepared, but alas, she was completely shocked at the entire ordeal of being spayed. 

    Kiah asked me to tell everyone hello -- so hello from the sweetest, crazy-faced dog I've ever owned.

Photo Credit: ME.  Kiah on the tramp.

    

    

Israel - (Rather Biblical) Watch Her!

    So, here I am, probably one of the few who realize that's happening right now in Israel. Most people, and by most, I mean MOST people, think that Israel is bombing Lebanon and Gaza and wanting to take over land, as well as eliminating Hamas and Hezbollah because of what they are doing or have done to Israel on October 7, 2023, -- it's partly that. That's the final straw. 

    If you read your Bible, you'll know that there must be a few events that take place before the Anti-Christ appears, and if he can't appear until these things happen, and these things are happening, he's either on the scene, and we don't know who he is, or he's on the scene, and we know him, but we don't realize who he is... bottom line, we're edging toward him being revealed, which can't happen until mid-tribulation, literally 3.5 years after it starts, and the Rapture doesn't begin that period. If it is happening, and it is happening, then the Rapture is VERY CLOSE.

    The Rapture of the church is NOT going to start the Tribulation. The signing of the 7-year peace treaty starts the Tribulation. The signing can't come until the Rapture, and the closer we get to a peace treaty that will allow Israel to rest and be falsely lured into a feeling of hope will be AFTER the Rapture. It will spark the Ezekiel 38 war with Russia, Turkey, and Iran coming against Israel, and then the rest of the world (ALL OF IT) coming against Israel as well.

    People now say, "America will not go against Israel", but I'm here to tell you, after the Christians are gone in the Rapture, YES, even America, or what is left of it, will go against Israel.  The Ekeziel 38 war can't happen until Israel is relaxed and at peace, and since they are about to attack Iran in the biggest way possible, the most surprising, the most lethal way, it we are not in the Tribulation...it hasn't started yet, because a peace treaty starts it. This attack will not start the Ezekiel 38 war, but it will start the alliance between Russia, Iran, and Turkey, as mentioned in the chapter. That will happen, and that could happen this week!

    In case you're wondering, here's the order - and no, I'm not speaking out of my hat - this is Biblical.  Israel will do something huge to create an alliance between Russia, Turkey, and Iran. That will be this attack. I can't say that it is the destruction of Damascus, but it could be the complete destruction of Damascus. That's also biblical - Isaiah 17:1, to be exact.  Once the big event (whatever it is) happens, and Iran retaliates, they'll invite Russia and Turkey, or Russia will insist, and Turkey will follow, either way, they align with Iran.

    Then, there will be war - but not the big Ezekiel 38 war. There has to be a treaty signed -- are you following? They'll offer a treaty to stop the madness. Israel will sign it, along with many, and that's going to happen very soon -- but before it does, or before it can, the Rapture must happen because the Rapture must happen before the Tribulation -- even the beginning of it. Some people believe we'll be here on the Earth for half of it, but we can't be. The Bible says we don't know when Jesus is coming, but if we count halfway through the time after the treaty's signing, we can also know when He would return. Nope, we don't, but we do know that the treaty starts the 7-year clock ticking.

    So, where does that leave us? Israel is just about to attack Iran in such a way to utterly surprise the world -- that much we know. The alliance will form. It can happen before the Rapture, but the treaty cannot. We don't know how long the war will last before the treaty is offered, but we know it will be negotiated with the NEW PRESIDENT IN THE WHITE HOUSE.  I'm pretty excited about this election.  Donald J. Trump is a lot of things, and I wouldn't want him to give me relationship advice, but the man is a damned good negotiator - we can't say he's not.

    Keep your eyes on Israel, but more importantly, accept Christ as your Savior while you still have time to do that. If you're still here when the Rapture happens, please find a way to feed the animals -- oh, and yeah, you can still accept Christ, but it will cost you a great deal at that point. Still, eternity in Heaven is worth it -Read your Bible!! Find someone to explain it to you - - it's happening EXACTLY as the Word said it would. 

This is not a drill. 

 

Photo Credit: Jooinn.com