Special Thanks, To A Fading Friend

I found out some bad news yesterday about a friend of mine. My friend Stacie left a voicemail on my cell phone to give me the bad news. I had goosebumps all over when I heard the news.

My friend Al Bruno had been potting some new perennials with another employee from Good Earth garden center all morning long. The other employee had to leave him for awhile to get her hair cut. When she had arrived back to the plant farm she found Al lying on the ground not making any type of movement at all. When she got to him he was somewhat alert and was making no sense in his speech at all. Al had suffered a severe stroke and had lost all movement on one side of his body.

Al is one of my mentors in the plant industry, he taught me a lot about plants. I had to learn their Latin names because that is all he called them by. I only knew them by their common name,but because of Al that changed.

The three years I spent at The Good Earth I was Al's perennial potting partner. Some times we were back at the potting table 9 or 10 hours a day. Especially in the Fall when our big shipment of spring perennials came in. He talked all the time about his life and his career and his travels. I always looked forward to working with Al. He always brought donuts every morning to the store and would get on me and Stacie about how we would eat all the donuts. He didn't know how much seeing his donut bag on the counter meant to us. We knew Al would be at the store to tease us and tell us some more stories.

Al used to manage the Good Earth for many years so he knew every inch of that place and he knew how to motivate young "ding-dongs" like me and Stacie. It would bug him on the weekends when we were slow and everybody kind of used Saturdays as a break from the rough work week. He would say "If I ran this place still I would work the heck out of you young guys, there would be no standing around." I would re-butt back by saying jokingly, "You're no longer in power so back off, pal."

Al was the fastest perennial potter I ever saw, he could work circles around me. By the time I had three potted he'd have ten ready. He was in his early 80's when I first met him and worked like a 20 year old. He had bad attitude about lazy workers and would send you off if you didn't keep up or talk. It took me a couple of days to learn his process and I never got sent away. He talked fast, worked fast and smoked his pipe very slow. What a character!

Stacie called me today and told me Al was not going to make it. His lungs were filling with fluid and he had lost the ability to cough. I don't know if Al has left this world yet, but if he has may he leave knowing he was loved and truly respected by many.

The only thing I never knew about Al was if he was a believer in God. I don't know, because I never asked and it probably never came up in our conversations. That's to my shame, to know the many hours I worked with him and I never asked the most important question of all.

To know we have the ability and power to ask a great question. "Do you believe in God?" How hard is that for us to ask? It's time to come out of our shell and ask the saving question and then a follow up question. Do you believe in God? If "NO" then the follow up question should be. Do you want me to show you how?

I will give an update tomorrow about Al and how things are going. The doctors gave him an hour to 72 hours to remain with us. Have a good day!

Bonds Branded Home Run Ball!

The public has spoken and voted. The guy who bought the Barry Bonds 756 home run ball on Ebay for $750 thousand. Put the vote to the people of the Internet to determine what he should do with the ball. So he gave three options.

1) Brand it!

2) Bestow it!

3) Banish it!

The result was to brand it with an asterisk and send it to the Hall of Fame. How funny is that? Bonds did call the owner of the ball an "Idiot." But it does show how the fans of baseball feel about Bonds and his stand on his possible steroid use. I voted for the Asterisk. How would you have voted? Have a good weekend!!!!!!!!!! : )

We Are Not Alone!

How quickly my day went downhill. Nothing panned out right all day. No sales, people in my way, others going way to fast on the interstate, spending valuable gas money! To me it was a lousy day! Then I got home and opened my email and someone sent this to me, and then my mood changed. How Satan allows me to forget that there is a God cheering for you and I. He's guiding us in the right direction covering us with his blessings. Then we just roll right over top with our fear, anger and disappointments.

Satan is a piece of JUNK! He covered my eyes up and led me into the wrong direction. I feel guilty for missing the hope and blessings that God showed me today. I pray I won't miss them tomorrow. Watch the video and your mood will change also. Have a Great Day and Night.

Scientists vs. God

I watched a show tonight on The History Channel that was titled "How the Earth was made." It talked about how a meteoroid 6 miles long hit the earth and devastated the planet and wiped out the Dinosaurs. Volcanic ash hovered over the planet and ended up making the planet empty with no air to breath. Ok maybe?

Then it talked about how the earth's platelets have moved over time to form a new geographical form. Ok I can see that maybe?

But then man showed up and of course we looked like monkeys. Ok this is evolution. Old news!

During the whole show they talked about how Earth is it's own being. It just does it's own thing, no God involved at all. Ok Mother nature theory! Which I don't believe. They still continue to go against a Creator. I think scientist evolved from monkeys the way they think. So if i didn't believe in God I probably would've believed them. At the end of the program they come to figure out that earth will eventually run out of power and burn out like Mars. Ok, we'll see. But I won't be around in 50 million years to see it happen.

So the next show came on and it said that scientist's believe that a huge gamma ray explosion will one day destroy the earth. What? I thought they just said earth would end by it running out of natural ability. So it proves they still haven't got it figured out yet. I do! When Jesus comes back, the earth will be done. Easy enough! Our God above is still the only theory to prove itself to all Christians. Until the scientist's can give a good argument, we Christians will stay with ours. Nice try guys and girls.

Have a good Lords day.

Bonds Can't Play For the Giants!

Say it ain't so Barry! The Giants used him for a marketing tool. 756 happened and is now another memory and boosted the Giants piggy bank. He says he's not done yet. Who will get him next year? This has Yankees written all over it. Big Stein will dish out the money somehow to get another Big Name, so the Yanks will win their 500th world series.

Guilty Famous People??????????????

GOOD GRIEF!!!!!!!!!!! What is this mess? He looks like one of those muppets off Fraggle Rock. A hung jury? Take a look at this hair dew. I think this is his reaction when they said it was a hung jury. He was shocked because he knows he's crazy and guilty. I just don't understand the hair. WHY?
Please don't televise the trial, again!
I thought this was funny. I took picture this at the Harding bookstore. You have a bison with legs way too long and a stand holding a shirt with no neck. Kind of silly. It's as if the two one night after the bookstore closed traded with each other. "Hey I'll trade you short legs for that long neck." And there you have it.
With all funniness aside. It's still amazing what Christ could still do for these men mentioned above. I know we all cast guilt on them and others and condemn them to hell. But yet Christ's love is for anybody who repents and washes away their sins through baptism. We all sin and no sin is greater than the other. It's hard but many can still feel His love if they decide they want to.
I still ask that you pray for Mrs. Hatcher. She was supposed to be Brayden's teacher and she was diagnosed with cancer. The spots on her lungs are making it difficult for her to breath. Things just don't sound to good for her. She went down to M.D. Anderson in Texas and they turned her away because of her insurance. We believe she is down there still, there have been mixed reports. But I pray that whoever reads this blog will pray hard for her and that the doctors can find out where the cancer originated from. It breaks my heart to think about it, but prayers from many people can turn things around quickly. Have a good week!

WELCOME TO THE SOUTH!

The annual White County Fair parade was Monday afternoon, where they show off their their fancy cars for the crash derby. I sat there thinking why am I here watching this? Well I guess to take pictures and put them on my blog.

I've been to the derby one time and it was interesting. They don't go very fast but when they crash the crowd goes "YEE-Haw."

I'm sure this goes on in the North I just don't recall of ever hearing of a Derby taking place anywhere.

The Fair brings out all kinds of creatures great and small, I'll leave it to you to figure that one out. I don't want to offend anybody, but I think you all know what I mean?

A weird thing happened last night while I was writing my blog about 9/11. The doorbell rang about 10 o' clock which has never happened before. So I went to the door with a weapon in the back of my shorts (A knife). I took a knife because some cars had been broken into lately and I thought they might be trying the houses now. It just rang once so I looked out the window and nobody was there. Ok this is weird!

I went back to writing and started smelling this burning scent. The bell part on the wall started humming and that is where the burning scent was coming from. So I ran and got the ladder out of the garage with a screw driver in hand and I'm shaking afraid I was going to get electrocuted. I finally unscrewed the wires and disconnected it. So I worried all night about what I did and if I actually disconnected it right. Has that happened to anybody else before?

Crazy night! I hope everybody has a good week and that the Steelers keep winning and Michigan continues to lose. Later, Clint

9/11 A Terrible Day

6 Years is that how long it's been? I saw the flags at half mass today and I was wondering why they were. I thought somebody important had died. I just couldn't figure it out. Until I got home and Shannon said "Uh, duh! It's 9/11." How ignorant am I?

Today is also Shannon's 29th birthday. Her last year in her 20's so I said enjoy it while it lasts.

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I was so focused on her birthday I just plain forgot about the real signifigance of this day. How quickly we forget.

The question everybody asks on the TV shows is, Do you remember where you were on 9/11? Of course I do!

I was on my way to work in Little Rock. I usually always listened to the morning radio shows on the way, but for some reason I decided to listen to a CD. I was listening to one of my favorite bands "Better than Ezra" it was their new CD so I had to listen to it. So as I joyfully sang with the CD and probably played some air guitar with it, I didn't have a clue what was going on in our world.

I was pulling in the parking lot of work and as I got out and entered the garden center everybody was in total shock. So my joyous trip in the car went from joyous to complete disbelief. After the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon it felt like the world was going to end. We all waited to see what was going to happen next, when one women said they could blow up a good portion on of Arkansas if they hit the arsenal in Pine Bluff. Oh! that made things a whole lot better.

As the work day had ended I get a call from Shannon saying I needed to get as much gas as I possibly could because they said it was going to run out. Do you all remember that scare?

But to put this day into perspective we still remember the days and weeks that followed. The pictures of the missing hanging anywhere there was space. The many days and months of cleaning up at ground zero and the stoppage of work because someone thought they heard a voice out under the rubble.

I don't like to recall what happened that day, because it was a bad day for all Americans even worse for those who lost loved ones. But through it all I think alot of people saw God for the first time and haven't let go since. Many brought God back into their lives and yet many never acknowledged Him at all. What does it take to see the Almighty? For some it's just reading His word or seeing other Christian examples, and others have to see Him when things are completely bent out of shape and out of the norm. Remember this day forever and praise God because nothing like this has happened since. May God protect our country and His children.

Steelers Superbowl Bound?

What do we Steelers fans think? Will they go 8-8 again or will we see Mr. Rooney hold another Lombardi Trophy? Questions, questions ,questions? I guess we'll see what the outcome will be in January! That's all I'm going to say. I don't want to jinx the season!

Faith In God- Not Money!

The only time I think I worry about anything is when we have a shortage of money and finding the right career in a small town! Those two things are constantly on my mind. But when money shows up I'm in a better mood about things and a feel a little better about living in a small town. I've never had a commission based job before and I'm kind of 60-40 about it. The 60% percent of it is I like the freedom. The 40% is that I like what I sell, but the commission STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just another company that fills you with alot of hype saying you could make $150 thousand a year. OK, maybe in Little Rock or New York but not in Searcy and it's surrounding area. I thought about all the people that have tooted their wealthy horn at me the past couple months and I put all their stories and locations they started out in together. And I can see they had a huge population and a huge business buffet in front of them. So they made their money and had a lot of businesses to go to. Not so with me I've hit about every business in Searcy and not quite as satisfied as they are.

But no matter what, I've had some kind of money come through. It was the Grace of God that has showed me that He will not let me starve. My faith in Him has grown strong because of His mercy and greatness, and to Him I stand in awe.

I went into AFLAC thinking I would make good money. Not true! This is a job that has a process that can draw out for a long time. It's the businesses that can put you on hold for awhile. It drives me nuts because I need a paycheck and they are poking around. It just seems to be a pain after awhile.

That brings me to my next thought. I know of so many people I would like to help if I had the money to do it. But it never seems to pan out. So I think the people in the world who have money are the wrong ones. Do you ever think that? You would think that if God wanted us to help the poor and the needy why did people like the Trumps or the Bill Gates get so filthy rich and those of us who want to help others and not hoard it for ourselves not get it? I'm sure Trump and Gates do give a lot of money to charities. But is it out of the kindness of their heart or because it's a tax write off. I think it's because of the taxes!

So I put those thoughts together and tried to come up with an answer. God has given us Christians a more powerful thing than money, He gave us His Son. And through His Son we have the power of Faith and with faith comes a heart felt prayer and great compassion toward others.

Sure we could pay the bills for those in need and feed the hungry. But with the power of Christ we do it out of love and faith. Usually it's all done by a network of loving Christians not just by one individual. The love of a nationwide Christian network was there helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina way before Bill Gates money was. It's not the American government establishing Churches of Christ's in places like Uganda or Honduras. It's hard working Christians backed by an eternal bank of love from God.

Prayer and Faith have helped more people in this world than money ever could. And that's a hard and true fact. A strong prayer followed by great action by many, and a faith that can move mountains in God will always get the job done. Put your Faith in God! Not money!

#5 GOLIATH GETS BEAT BY UNRANKED DAVID!

How funny is this picture? To John and the many Buckeye fans this HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!! This is like OVU going to N.C. and whooping up DUKE. If there is ever a story that the media needs to blow out of proportion it's this one. How embarrasing for Michigan will this be for them. They could beat everybody on their schedule and still the BCS will laugh when Michigan says they should be playing for the title. The BCS's response: " Yeah we know you are Michigan but didn't you get by the Bad News Bears."

The first week in college football was a complete blowout. The big schools need to play better teams. I was excited through the first quarter and then I went off and did something else more interesting. Next week will be a little better I won't see any of the day games because soccer starts for brayden next week. It always begins with the Jamboree we play 3 games that day.

It was very exciting Friday night when I saw WTRF was streaming live the Sports Zone online. It was great to see Park highlights and some OVAC football in action. I didn't even know Park changed their helmets, that shows you how long I've payed attention to OVAC football. GO PARK! Have a good week!