Holy Saturday, what's it all about anyway?

Here we are right in the middle of Easter weekend, Holy Saturday. Good Friday is past and Easter Sunday is yet to come. Pretty much nothing happens on Holy Saturday does it? It took me a long time to realize the reason for that:

Once upon a time, during my child rearing years a friend gave me a surprise entre' for my family's dinner sometime. "Great on the grill" he said. He had a small farm just south and east of Grand Rapids. He raised specialty food for a specific clientele. Many of his customers were first generation immigrants and simply wanted fresh comfort food from their homeland. He would grow the items to their exact specifications, for a very good price. It made him a good living as well as very interesting. I frankly couldn't afford any of his food on our family budget. As long ago as it was, he was getting $10 for a five pound bag of specialty potatoes, $8 to $10 a pound for the meat. Eggs were $2 a dozen when they were selling at the supermarket for 39 cents. That's why it took me by surprise that he gave me a package of fresh meat, probably about 4 or 5 pounds. Be that as it may after thanking him I took it home to my family. My wife said, "No way was I cooking that around our children, especially on Easter weekend!" That was that. I put it in the freezer and cooked it later that summer on a canoe trip with other adults, no kids. I can tell you, that grilled rabbit was absolutely superb.

Oh yeah, the reason nothing happens on Holy Saturday is that it is a day of waiting. For some reason I missed that in my religious education. Thursday was the remembrance of the Last Supper and the washing of feet, Good Friday is the Passion and death of Christ. (It was always said by the older folks that at noon on Good Friday the clouds would come in and cover the sun. I didn't find that to always happen though.) And the Easter Sunday was all happy and filled with celebration because it recognized that Christ rose from the dead. But Holy Saturday was quiet. No church services until late in the evening. Everything was shut down. It is supposed to be that way but I missed the concept. Now that I more fully understand I can participate the way it is meant to be. Holy Saturday is teaching me patience and appreciation for what was done for me. A day to prepare for a better life. And perhaps a day to become aware that grilling rabbit on Easter weekend isn't such a smart thing to do. Sometimes you just have to think things like that out.

Now it's time to try and publish this posting. Wish me luck. Happy Easter!

Things are happening around this blog site alright. I'm still nervous about any possible negative results resulting from my amateurish attempts at updating. Number one, I don't know what to expect. Number two, I don't know enough about what happens to know if a change is good or bad. Put that together and all I do know is that indeed some change has taken place, the blog seems to be operating and publishing and once again comments are being allowed. Navigating the new control panel is somewhat of a trial for me for the same reason I just mentioned and the template is foreign to my eyes.

All that being said: Back when I began this blog I needed someone at my side to help me with every move to keep me from voiding out the whole process. I have learned a thing or two and am confident enough to attempt it on my own. After all, what do I have to lose except hundreds of hours of writing history? I mean, what the heck anyway!

On an entirely different front, I have decided to learn more about personal finance and budget solutions. This Dave Ramsey guy gets people to yell out before the entire world that they are "DEBT FREE!" Most of them then speak about how they are going to prepare to accumulate money for their retirement years. All of that sounds wonderful to me except for one small part of that accumulation equation synopsis: I'm already well into that retirement age catagory. Also, the debt free thing is something I am not familiar with either. There is much to learn there I'm thinking. I made an appointment with a financial advisor that had been reccomended to me by a very successful business aquaintance. I put down the information she asked for and went. She looked the information over and for the next 45 minutes chewed me out about what I should have done in the past. "There wasn't much she could do but as a favor she'd try to do her best." I decided not to retain her services. In my mind it doesn't sound right when someone I am paying good money to infers they are doing me a favor.

this is the second attempt at publishing this posting. I guess the kinks ain't all worked out just yet are they.

Still here, I think. Blog repair

Having this wonderful blog site has been a boon to my ability to express myself and be in contact with others at any time, day or night. From close to home here in Western Michigan to Johannesburg in Southern Africa across the world again to Ukraine and off to the wilds of Australia, Alice Springs actually. With friends from my school years spread from New York to Hawaii to Alaska and most states in between this blog has been an excellent lightning rod of attraction and regular contact. Honing my ameteuristic writing skills, receiving constructive, and sometimes not so constructive criticism and bouncing ideas back and forth all at the same time. This incredible to me, medium of communication wasn't even thought of only a few decades ago.

All that being said, I am a person of little change when it comes to electronic wonders. That's why changing the settings on this blog site is so very intimidating. So far so good though. I made some adjustments yesterday and the computer is not smoking and from what I can tell amnesiawriter is still being published. So, on to a couple more changes. Ooh, even the thought of change gives me the creeps. SeeYaLater.....................I hope.

Fixing this blankety blank blog

I am going to attempt to update this blog site. To most of you that operation wouldn't be any big deal. For me, it's a major undertaking fraught with danger. What if I punch the wrong button? What if I send everything into the cloud and it never comes back? What if I do a total disconnect? There is no one here to stop me from incorrect actions. The terrible things that can happen are endless. I have no choice really though, the comment section is messed up, the counter section is messed up and interaction, which has always been so enjoyable and informative is messed up big time too. So, I am giving you ample notice that if this blog explodes I will eventually figure out another avenue of communication. Ah, the good old days when change took decades instead of weeks or days. So, here it goes. Bye for now. Wish me luck....................Later.....Joe