Brainstorms for 5/18/2023

Well folks taking the guns away from the nut cases will not make America a “Garden of Eden”. Some guy in Virginia took a ball bat to two staff members of a congressman. It put each of them in the hospital. Oh, the lawmaker is a Democrat if that gives any clue as to why the attack. Police have arrested an individual for this dumb act but have not released any reason for his action.

Elijah, James, William, Henry, Benjamin, Theodore, Oliver... The Social Security folks keep records on such stuff and say these were among the top ten names for new born boys in 2022. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Each of these names appear repeatedly when looking at a list of our ancestors. Probably Elijah is the most seen, but the others are also repeats from generation to generation. The girl names are not so much repeats from my past generations, but several do occasionally appear. My names are not that popular. First name John is not in the top ten and my middle name is way on down the list, even though I am a Junior. All that information is worthless, but we enjoyed looking it up.

This part of the United States is often the last to adopt popular changes and this supports age-old jokes about ‘us country folks.’ However, while much of the country struggles with a flood of illegal immigrants, we basically just read about it in the newspaper or watch it on the tube. Then this week we read that New York City has leased whole hotels just to house the overflow of these immigrants, who have no other place to live. The article featured a young couple who had reserved 20 rooms for family members from around the world who were coming to their wedding, only to have the reservations canceled at the last minute because of the influx. Glad we had not traveled thousands of miles for a wedding and couldn’t get a room to sleep.

The City of Elba has officially closed any talk of revamping the recycling system, thus it all goes to the landfill. We say it again, “This upsets us!” Each time we put a piece of paper or an empty peanut butter jar in the garbage, we want to scream.

The school year is fast drawing to a close, with graduation plans actively underway. These kids completing their high school days are hopefully looking forward to an exciting life as they go out into the world. It is hard to grasp that the days are flying by so fast, but it is reality. We wish these young folks the best and pray that they can plan for “The best is yet to come.”

Be safe, wear your mask when appropriate, social distance, wash your hands AND get the shot(s) and/or boosters (the newest one)!