This good news story about a good Samaritan who broke into a school during a snowstorm in Buffalo, NY:

What is not being discussed is how he went to 10 houses offering up to $500 just to sleep on their floor before being turned down. I took a look at the area around the school and was expecting a sparsely populated area:

Nope, it’s densely populated. I’m surprised not more people could help these motorists. I’m surprised the municipality didn’t open up the school in a time of blizzard for those stranded. I realize that the blizzard could have come suddenly, hence there were so many trapped. But somehow I believe there should be better preparedness in time of disaster so that death and injury could be avoided.

We are now 5 months into this pandemic. I haven’t been inside of a church building since our March trip to Hawaii. My trips inside restaurants and grocery stores are few and very limited. It’s drive through and curbside pickups. I worry that it might be years before we see a vaccine. I worry that my wife and I won’t be able to travel for quite some time. The most scary thing is the unknown. Someone cannot give a definite time when this could end and things could get back to normal. The uncertainty is really bothering me. I miss worship services, hugs, and traveling. I want this to end soon but I know it’s going to be months still.

Last night my wife and I woke to around 12:30 AM to the sound of a car alarm going off in our neighborhood. My wife looked out the window and confirmed it wasn’t her car parked outside in the driveway. She had said that she though she heard the door open and went to investigate. I really should have gone with her. She came back to say she locked the kitchen door leading to the garage.

Now Mt. Juliet is not known as a crime capital. At the worst you’d have some teenagers breaking into cars. My mom had things stolen from her car before. Home invasions and burglaries are rare. Still it had me thinking what I would do if someone did break in. I’m not a gun owner and I don’t plan on being one. Guns are dangerous and would be more likely to hurt a loved one than an intruder.

I’m thankful that I live in a relatively safe city, but still the episode last night made me think about precautions I should do should I need to protect my family.

As I was watching the Olympic opening ceremony’s parade of nations, the commentators were commenting about particular athletes. Seems that many citizens of first world countries will compete for 3rd world countries.  Some of them have ties to those countries like a parent or even a spouse from that country.  Others have no ties.  Azerbaijan has embraced naturalized citizen athletes in hopes of winning gold.

Sub-sequentially many have wondered how ethical is this?  I understand the prestige of being an Olympic athlete, but is it truly ethical to send ringers in to compete?  Isn’t the purpose of the Olympics for each country to show the best athletes from that country?  And aren’t these results skewed when you have an athlete from the USA skiing for Mexico?

I just have this feeling that had I lived in ancient Rome, I would have spent more time at the library rather than at the Coliseum.

Yep, it’s been going on forever.  Mankind loves their sports.  Rome had their Coliseum where gladiators would fight to the death.  Today we have baseball, football, and basketball which seem to invade my social media feed and conversation at every designated season.

Friendships have formed; enemies have been made, all to the tune of who thinks their sports team is the best.  And most of the time, except for some rare instances where the fan actually attended the college they are cheering for, the actual players have no direct connection with the fans.

Professional sports teams recruit from all over.  There is rarely a hometown player anymore.  College teams do the same.  Fans are fickle in their support, jumping allegiances based on which team is winning at that particular time.  This is the precise reason why we see so many Alabaman flags in Middle Tennessee.

And I’ve come to this realization:

If you are a sports fan, then we cannot be [close] friends.

There, I said it.  If all you talk about is sports, then there is no real connection.  If sports is being spoken about at a party, I leave the room or shy away into a corner.  I have nothing to contribute and I despise talking about something so fickle in nature.  I’ve overheard football plays spoken about ad nauseum.  “Well his foot was within the goal line.”  “Well the ref made a bad calls.”  I simply do not care because in the grand scheme of things it does not matter.

Please give me a good movie or documentary where the story presented matters.

I awoke this morning at 3:30AM from a troubling dream to the sound of dance music from the outside.  This caused me a bit of stress when I thought to myself “My neighbor must be having a party at 3:30AM.”  But by the time I got up it had stopped.  I deduced it must have been a car stereo with a door opening for an occupant to get out or get in.

This brings to mind how people are up doing all manner of things during all times of the night.  Yes, someone was out driving around my neighborhood at 3:30AM this morning.  And yes, there were passengers flying in a jet airliner overhead at 11:00PM last night.  These are unreasonable hours, but transport and entertainment (it seems) must go on.  As for me, I’ll be asleep in my bed at those times.

I remember seeing a partial eclipse in the 2nd or 3rd grade though a borrowed welder’s mask.  It was interesting and I was expecting a similar occurrence this time around with the “Great American Eclipse of 2017.”  It stretched from Oregon to South Carolina and right through Nashville.  We experienced totality at around 1:30PM today.  It was amazing.  It was spectacular. It was dark, but not complete darkness.  I felt like dusk with a sunset all around you.  Streetlights came on.  We saw the glow of lights in our office in front of us.  I took this photo above which I’m quite fond of.

I wonder what indigenous people must have thought when, without a forecast, the sun was eclipsed.  I could see how they thought it might have been a sign of something foreboding.

This is what it must have felt with 3 hours of darkness from noon to 3PM when Jesus died on the cross.  I don’t know if it was an eclipse or more unexplained divine phenomenon.  It must have made witnesses frightened; hence the Roman soldier’s proclamation that “Surely this was the Son of God.”

Yesterday I was driving to my girlfriend’s nephew’s birthday party. On Lebanon Road heading east at a curvy, double lined, two lane portion I heard the sound of a motorcycle engine. This couldn’t be as I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a car. Out of my peripheral vision I saw a motorcyclist passing me on the right in the bicycle lane. This bicycle lane is on a very narrow shoudler with a steep drop off in places. Basically I laid on my horn, but I doubt that he heard me or cared since I saw he was doing the same thing…that is passing cars in the bicycle lane. Plus he probably couldn’t hear my horn over the sound of the wind and motorcycle engine while wearing his helmet.

As I watched him weave in and out of traffic, passing cars in the bicycle lane, I wondered if it would do any good to call the police on the non emergency number. I didn’t have the non emergency number and would probably have to give up my personal information in order to file a report. Plus he would probably be long gone before the police could mobilize and catch up with him.

As I pulled up the light to turn onto state route 109 north to Gallatin, I saw him waiting at the light. This surprised me a bit because I figured since he was disregarding the rules about passing in bicycle lanes, he would run the red light. He turned left toward Gallatin which is where I was going. I figured I’d probably see him in an accident in a few minutes if he continued to drive like he was driving on Lebanon Road, as 109 is narrow in places and has no bicycle lane.

Yet I saw him pulled off to the side of the road facing the road. With adrenaline pumping I approached him. I rolled down my window and yelled “YOU’RE GONNA KILL SOMEONE!” “What?” was his response as he fiddled with his helmet. I repeated myself “YOU’RE GONNA KILL SOMEONE!” After I had made my point, there was nothing else to say so I continued on my journey. I noticed in my rearview mirror that he turned around and went the other direction. Maybe he figured he had caused a stir with motorists and needed to go a different direction so as not to get apprehended by the police.

I realized there is a mentality among teenagers and 20 somethings to try to go fast in order to impress themselves or those around them. I was there and had a tendency to drive fast during my younger years. Now I find myself pretty much going the speed limit. But I draw an exception to this guy. He was driving very recklessly in the bicycle lane. Bicycle lanes were not meant for overtaking motorists. Rather it is vice versa…for cars overtaking bicyclists.

There seems to be a disregard among motorcyclists in general for those around them. I am reminded of this every time someone rides a motorbike with engine whirling through my residential neighborhood. I saw this on a trip out west to Colorado when we would have a huge group of motorcyclists overtake us.

I realize there are more mature motorcyclist who are courteous toward other drivers. But seemingly I remember these negative experiences with other motorcyclists which causes my disdain for motorcyclists in general.

Let’s hope this particular motorcyclists toned it down so that he doesn’t injury himself or others around him.