This and That — MidWeek Blues — Flag Day 2011

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Flag Day 2011

June 14, 2011, is Flag Day. June 14 has been Flag Day now in the U.S. since 1949, making it a 62 year old tradition. Although it is an official day it is not a national holiday. I believe that it is a state holiday in Pennsylvania.

At the right is our flag for 2011. An additional treat for MidWeek Blues is the smallish looking blue flower peeking out between the flag and the pole.

You can see it better below of course. It is one of our Lily of the Nile flower for this year. Most years there are two or three but our hard winter must have changed that for this year. They come up every year. To read about them, please click here.
Mrs. Jim's bridge group played bridge yesterday at our house. Although the others know that she has a husband the players all expect their men to be barely heard and not seen.

Accordingly I spent the afternoon getting some bills ready to mail, grabbing a cup of coffee and a few of the ladies' snacks, and heading out. I went to the post office, the grocery store, and then spent the remainder of my 'time off' in the library. I did have a book that I had requested to pick up also.

My time at the library was spent in reading the Houston Chronicle and the Conroe Courier. We only take the Wednesday through Sunday Chronicle so this was my opportunity to read the Monday paper for a change.

I learned some things:

Prince Albert II, Prince of Monaco, "hopes to have a family soon". That will include getting married to his fiancée and Olympic backstroke swimmer from South Africa, Charlene Wittsock (link). From my reading I believe that the Prince also includes having a child as a part of having a family.

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Blogger, "A Gay Girl in Damascus" had been arrested in Syria. Supposedly she was a young lady of Syrian and U.S. heritage. It turned our 'she' was an anti-government male. Perhaps you have read some of her blog.

Blogger, Tom MacMaster is now safe in Istanbul, Turkey. I do not know if he will continue his/her blog or not. He believes in a cause. We will see.

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"He never talks about his faith." This could be our President Obama. I fault him for that. But this time it isn't. It was said about our Governor (of Texas) Perry by one of his spokesmen, Mark Minor. "He grew up a United Methodist" and now "Attends" Lake Hills Church of West Austin, Texas.

The article was about Governor Perry's contributions to his church. Over the last 10 or so years he has given an average of 0.5 percent of his income to his churches. Lake Hills Church has NO RECORD of his giving since he has been in attendance there. As a Christian myself, I have always heard that we are to "walk the talk." Governor Perry does a lot of talking. We will check out his walking in other areas before we give him a final grade.

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A gigantic ash cloud from Chile has arrived over Australia and New Zealand shutting down most all air flights there. From what I read this could last the next several days.

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A new church, has started in Houston. It is for people who like to take naps. Nap taking is encouraged during the services. The Southern Naptist Convention was held here (Houston, Texas) on Sunday, June 12 at the 14 Pews.

Benefits of napping and meditation were a large part of the discussions. The Chronicle didn't have pictures but the Houston Press had twenty of them. Click here to view them. Click here to read the Houston Press story.

A group of napping devotees started the organization to promote napping under various circumstances (work, church, etc.). It evolved into a church/religion. Sunday nappers have 'naptures' when they meet. There is a 'naptism' meaning scattering feathers on new members who wish to join.

Their goals are to encourage people to become better rested and to remove the stigma given to taking naps.

An aside. In my office at the college one bookcase beside my desk had an upside down box. Under the box was a TV. I used the TV to watch Matlock which helped me somewhat in my teaching of Business Law classes. After Matlock was finished I would take about an hour nap. In fact, I had a nap today (Monday) first thing while the ladies played bridge.

I might be a good candidate for this new Church of the Napists.

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If you want to post a MidWeek Blues picture, go get directions from Rebecca by clicking on the logo picture on the right. She has a Mr. Linky and good directions . Just do what I did.