Friday, October 3, 2008. After picking up my brother from Phoenix Sky Harbor, we met TMBWitW and MEG at My Mother’s Restaurant for lunch. My brother and I then motored north to Flagstaff for LeaAnn’s service.

On the way north, interstate 17 passes through the Verde River Valley (the area is also known as Verde Valley, or Camp Verde – Gawfer, you know the area I’m talking about!). Going north into Verde, the interstate goes down a long and winding grade. The speed limit drops to 65 mph there, and I usually just drift on down with the car in gear, letting the motor take care of the speed. This time, however…

My brother and I had been talking, and the cruise was set between 75 and 77 mph. Dropping over the top of the grade, and easing down, the traffic as very light and the conversation was steady – not involved, but steady, if you see the difference. The car didn’t build up a LOT of speed, but by the time the grade flattened out, the speedometer was reading 82 as I flashed past the trooper sitting in the median.

Yup, got pulled over, as I should have been. We were slowing for the exit, to get sodas for the rest of the trip, and the tropper pulled onto the exit behind us, and gave us a light show.

I had my license and the car registration out, ready for him, when he introduced himself. He also asked for proof of insurance, and I couldn’t find the current card – but I did have to look through all the previous cards to make sure I didn’t have the current one (he even asked to see some of the previous ones).

“Mr. Cartter, the reason I stopped you was because radar clocked you at 82 miles per hour at the bottom of the hill. Now, the 75 mph zone doesn’t start up until another hundred yards or so beyond where I was sitting, but even in the 75 zone 82 is a bit fast. Now, if you will just wait right here while I run your information through the computer to make sure no one else wants to talk to you, I’ll be right back.”

My brother and I sat there and chatted about previous tickets we had gotten (believe it or not, we were kinda wild in our youth) until I saw the trooper headed back to my window with – could it be? thank you, Lord! – a clipboard in his hand.

“Mr. Cartter, I checked with the fifty states and you are not wanted in any of them…”

“Thanks for not checking the other seven…” slipped out before I could stop myself.

“…and two points for the Obama reference” he continued with a slight grin. “I have written a warning for you, to watch your speed and make sure you get a current copy of your insurance card in the vehicle. You never know when you’ll need it.”

My surprise was written all over my face, and I said “Thank you for the warning. I do apologize, I was talking to my brother, down from Salt Lake, and we were headed to our sister’s funeral.” I signed the warning, he gave me a copy, and we continued to the convenience store to get a couple of cokes.

When we got back in the car, I looked at the warning. The nice trooper had written it for 80 in a 75. What a wonderful example of God’s Grace, I thought. I deserved a ticket, I was waiting for the ticket, and instead I received a warning.

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

222?!?

Today on The O Word: AIG’s spending habits – with YOUR MONEY, How to gain the attention of the FBI by using someone’s full name (Barack Hussein Obama) – Where are the dollars going in the bailout? – Private jet passengers next on the list to be screened – speaking of Obama, this video has some interesting information – prying1, Gawfer, and AnnieB make huge contributions.

Remember I told you that I had scraped my leg on a couple of screws on Tuesday?

Oh, sorry – I should have warned you.

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

218

Are You Wearing Red?

Today on The O Word we talked about my vacation being over, water temperatures, shaving (shaving?), the Post Turtle appearing on Snopes (along with the obvious leftist bent of snopes.com), the Federal Bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, “Chasing” WaMu, To Debate or Not to Debate?, The Political Ten Commandments courtesy of Richard and how the Diamondbacks have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Big thank-you to prying1, Gawfer, Candelo, and Rosee for stopping by during the show.

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget.

Never Forget!

Never Forget.

For those of you out there in blogger land who followed the lead of Hoosier Boy (#18) and GuyK, I understand what you are saying.

I’m going to try something a bit different today – I will be publishing as I go along, since I visit the sites I am writing about and in the past I have had site owners reciprocate the visit before I had posted the round up. So – check back often this entry is going to grow as time goes on!

First off, I want to welcome a few new members to my blogroll. First is Autorotate’s Flying Circus. In spite of having a big ol’ picture of Blackhawks at the top of his blog, it’s more of a conservative blog than a flying blog; Texas Fred pointed me to Autorotate and I would like to thank Fred for that. I gave you a brief glimpse of Autorotate yesterday, today you should go over there and explore his whole site. Today he has a post up about the left’s desperation to make McCain look bad, since they can’t seem to make Obama look good.

Second up is the blog of Cyber Pastor Ed Boston and his crew, Do The Right Thing. Along with his crew of top rate writers (including his wife, Mrs. CP) it is another stop on my trail of keeping the True Hope alive. Today the Pastor is sharing an e-mail exchange regarding the BTR Moving Right convention.

Third (and I am remiss in that he’s been here for a while, and I forgot to mention him earlier…) is mdconservative, who is large and in charge over on Conservative Intelligence Report. My apologies for missing him! Talk about a good strong writer and thinker – go see for yourself!

On with the listing:

Dumb Looks Still Free is talking about the Greatest Moral Failure. By the way, DLSF wants you to vote Cthulhu in 2008 – why choose a lesser evil?

Richard At The Water has a nice picture up of some very serene folks at the end of the dock. Bonus time! First one to leave the correct answer in the comments wins a complete set of “The O Word” broadcasts, contained in a nifty and convenient spot on the web: What is the name of Richard’s first great-grandson?

GuyK is in fine spirits over at Charming, Just Charming.

Akinoluna has a funny one and a serious one. The serious one may show up as a topic tomorrow.

Third Wave Dave has a word about “The Obama Delusion” – good read!

RattlerGator didn’t watch Day 3 of the DNC (do not call?) but has an insightful rundown of Hillary’s speech on Day 2.

Blackfive – starts with a Message of Hope and moves out from there. Always something of interest and a good read. If you like your politics a little on the over-easy side, skip this link.

Doug at Political Pistachio has another review of DNC Day 2. No love lost there for the Clintons, let me tell ya…

Samantha over at Samantha Speaks has a good piece up entitled “Participating In Governement” – can’t give you details, that would ruin another entry here…

RegularRon has some fine words for Denver’s “finest” on The Old Right Daily.

For a brief (but much needed) break from things political, stop by and say “Hi!” to Steve (the lucky stiff who lives in some of the greatest landscape in the world) over at A sense of Place. Take all the time you need there, it’s very relaxing…

A good thought of the day over at Andrew Tallman.

Texas Fred (mentioned above) lets us know about the preparations of a certain low-lying city in the face of yet another (gasp! shock!) hurricane that is capable of swamping them.

At Mary’s World there is a review of Martha and Mary – go, check it out!

Jenn over at The Jungle is having a great time with her resident troll. Come to think of it, we all are. Don’t miss the visit from the Euro-weenie preaching on how to run a country…

And now, for the reason I didn’t tell you what was on Samantha’s site: Gawfer has a petition up that starts a discussion on a national primary – wouldn’t you on the tail end of the country’s primary rotation loved to have had the chance to tell Fred Thompson that you believed in him?

Carried By Christ has a word on Success.

Oddly enough, a founding member of CAIR calls Michelle Malkin an “enemy of the people.” Details on Amboy Times.

Old Soldier has some pictures up from the Olympics, taken by a guy he works with.

cube has an exclusive preview picture of The Obama’s stage for tonight’s speech on the BLOG.

Amazed In His Presence is another in my stops along the path to bettering myself. Today Johnny has a word about Thoughts and Thinking.

cookiecrumbexpress has some figures on democrat voting trends.

Scott, while looking forward to moving to his new calling in a new church, has a quick and easy-to-understand study on how Jesus is viewed by two of his apostles, on Our Sovereign Joy.

By looking at the MSM (DEM, according to BZ) you would think nothing but the DNC is going on right now. Join the discussion on Bloviating Zeppelin.

Mail Call! celebrates two years of Wednesday Hero postings.

For a fine example of patriotism, visit the lake at One Loon’s Tales. More love for America there than any five members of the deomocRATic party…

prying1 has a piece up on Rhymes of the Lost battalion – quite interesting, and worth the time to download.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I am sure there are plenty more good reads on the old blogroll – but if they don’t update, I don’t mention them in the (somewhat) weekly round up. If you are on the list of those who did not get mentioned, I am sorry, but time constraints keep me to mentioning only those what have the “New Entry” next to the blog name. I really do visit and read the updated ones, I have a lot of blogs listed that aren’t as active and I delete the ones that fall by the wayside. Economics of time and space, you know.

For those of you kind enough to share your thoughts, thank you for your concern about Logan. He will be missed.

Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, listen to The O Word on BlogTalkRadio, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!