Last year, This Year, Now

1/5/2019

It is a fine, sunshiny day on the mountain! Wow, what a difference an overnight can make! We’re going to have the pleasure of the Winter sun for about 5-6 days, then back to raininess. Which is ok, but not a great expectation.

The music (as SIMH) this morning was the old “Big Top Circus” theme. (Big Top Circus was a Saturday morning TV program in the 1950s.) We didn’t have a TV, but about 2 blocks away, my oldest sister and her husband had one. So, I got to see that show and one or two “cowboy” shows on Saturdays. Since that music didn’t have words, I can’t describe it properly: da dum, da dum, da deee, da, da dum, da dum da dee—-see, it just doesn’t “sound” right, does it?

Just a final word about 2018: when I mention about other Blue Jug stores opening, I should clarify something: “We” don’t own any of these stores. We are part of a wholesale company which sells the equipment and licensing of our name to people for them to own their own business and get the benefits of our experience and directions for reaching their goals. There are 7 principals involved at one degree or another, none of which have thus far profited from the wholesale company. We decided to learn how to handle growth this way. We have no debt, and it will be several more units open and re-investing capital made before the wholesale company is capable of creating an income for anyone. We’d rather do this than other options such as “sell” a portion or stock optioning, etc. 

2018 was a good year. We started with just 2 stores and a new one few days in December, ’17 and now we have 6 open, 2 more will be open in just a few weeks. We expect several more this year, but we face much work. It’s a great new year expectation. Hope you are interested enough just to watch how it all goes. I’m old enough to be genuinely happy to be a part of it.

Tomorrow, Barb and I are going to do one of our favorite things. We’ll be going to Grace bible Church in Chattanooga for morning bible classes, but before we go there, we’ll go to one of two favorite places for breakfast. The Daily Ration is one, the other is the former Egg and I, now called first Watch. Both have delicious breakfast foods from wide and varied menus. We’ll choose one or the other, leave home about 6:15 (we lose an hour going to Tennessee and/or Georgia) and have plenty of time to relax and enjoy the food and time together.

Day after tomorrow, I will restart my Monday night online bible class after taking the last two Mondays off. That’ll be 7:00PM, Jan.7, and it is a one hour bible class in the comfort of your easy chair (careful, don’t go to sleep  on me.) I’m looking forward to the class. I hope the Lord leads instead of me. You pray for that, too.

One of the big disadvantages of aging is it often requires planning conversations about subjects hard to talk about. Things like becoming infirm, incapacitated, or needing constant care. Things like which of you is going to go first, what if…, and then other what ifs are introduced. It can get to be long conversations which one day will have to include your children and possibly grandchildren. None of this is pleasant to do, but it cannot be ignored too long to one’s own peril. It’s like writing a will—a necessary evil. This may be a good year for these things to take more formal shape. We’ll see.

I better close this before it gets any more maudlin. How can one be maudlin on such a beautiful day? Let’s don’t. Let’s go enjoy the day and be happy!! The Lord is with us, amen?

Thanks for reading, the Elder