It's September 24, 2009

Good morning. Thank you, Lord, for another day. Welcome to my brand new blog.

I'm excited to be entering the blogosphere - not that adding my voice to the internet din will be of any particular influence - but I do think blogging is a communications tool with an amazing amount of potential, including some fun and laughs. Am I mistaken, or do we all need more fun and laughs in our lives? I know I do, and I hope this will give me a chance for a few. And a political rant or two every now and again? I think that might be in the cards, too ...

My trepidation, of course, is based on the fact that I cannot get my head around the idea that anyone would care to read my musings in addition to the bazillion other communications we all receive every day through e-mail, TV, radio, the newspapers ... and, oh yeah ... just talking to each other face-to-face. Let's not forget that concept ...

But, trepidations be damned! Did a rainy day stop Ben Franklin from flying his kite? Did almost no singing ability whatsoever stop Bob Dylan? Have you seen some of those tryouts for American Idol?? They all pressed on and so must I! Let's get on with it!

I want to start my musings with a ringing endorsement of the newly published book by Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code author) entitled "The Lost Symbol". It's a thriller with plot twists, hidden messages, historical trivia, the CIA, thought provoking philosophical and religious considerations, good vs. evil, God Bless America ... it had me on the edge of my La-Z-Boy (a great place for my ritualized combination of read/doze/read some more/doze again). I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but somewhere past the age of 50 I developed the pattern of not being able to read more than 40 pages in a book without the ZZZZZ monster overtaking me. But I persevered and got to the very appealing ending in just three days. I know it's not for everyone - for example, there is absolutely no love interest in the book at all - and it's particularly appealing to me because I love all the history and the symbolism the author uses to drive the story, but if you love a thriller with a big dose of, "Now how in the world are they going to get out of that predicament??", then this book's for you!

And, hey - you know what's not fun? Writing your first blog entry and going, "What's that smell?", only to find that this morning's shower water apparently didn't make it all the way out to the sewer system, and the resulting backup created about an inch of water on the laundry room floor with an odor that only a rat could love. Can you say, "How about spending a day with the plumber?"

And so it is - blessings to all