[GRAPHIC PHOTOS INVOLVED]

In the interest of full disclosure, and I wasn’t going to show you at first, I must admit that yesterday I pulled a pretty bone-headed stunt.

For those not familiar with the safety rules of a table saw, keep in mind that one of the most important rules is that you have control of the wood on BOTH sides of the blade at all times – meaning the tail side, away from the rip fence (if one is being used) and the stock side (the side between the blade and the fence). Failure to maintain control of both pieces could result in the stock piece either jamming between the blade and the fence, or, in my case, being grabbed by the blade and spun back towards the operator at a very high rate of speed and lethality, also known as “kickback.”

I was not in the correct position for handling the piece I was cutting; if I was the kickback would not have happened. I was using the table saw for a cut that I should have grabbed a circular saw for – and I paid:

Keep in mind this picture was taken well after the oozing and everything had stopped. The shirt I was wearing has a nice high-speed wear pattern on it, too. Oh, and this was a glancing impact, since I wasn’t directly behind the blade.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday toooo meeeeeee,
Happy Birthday to me!

I pray that your Christmas was a blessed one, and that you received not what you deserved, but what you really needed.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Can you believe it’s only five days ’til Christmas?

I grew up in Colorado and Ohio. I live in the Phoenix, Arizona area now. Christmas just doesn’t feel “right” here sometimes.

There’s no snow. And, no snowshovels!

Most of the trees are fake. But well decorated! There’s even a tumbleweed “tree” in Chandler – they rustle up a bunch of tumbleweeds (Russian Thistle) and tie them together in the form of a Christmas Tree, and string lights on it and everything.

I used to ice skate, or play ice hockey, or go sledding the entire month of December, as soon as school was out. If I want to do that now, it’s a good two hour drive to the nearest white stuff. I’d rather spend my time on the back porch barbecuing the steaks, thanks.

In Ohio, the ground and nearly all the water freezes in mid-November and stays that way until March of so. In Arizona, mid-November means it’s time to plant your new trees. I’m still working on mine.

Santa wears fur lined clothing in the snow country. Once he hits this area, he swaps out his boots for flip-flops and sheds his coat. The old boy would have heat stroke if he tried to keep all that fur-lined stuff on.

There’s never a problem with the malls being closed because of a snow storm here – heck, if it did snow, we’d all e out looking at it before it melted. It’s snowed twice in downtown Phoenix that I know of. Once, on Christmas Eve, in 1999, and before that it was about the middle of January in 1987 or so. My memory is getting old, so forgive me if I’m off a bit.

But one thing about Christmas, no matter where you celebrate it – it’s still the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord, for sending your Son to us, to take all our sins upon Himself, to die for those sins so that we don’t have to, so that we may join You at the last trumpet’s call.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Still working on a special “Christmas in Arizona” post for my friend, Loon. What rhymes with sunshine?

Looks like another gray day here in the Valley of the Sun. Weather has been weird, much cooler than normal and pretty wet for this time of year. I’m not complaining, since we had a bit of a dry year, but the cold is aching in my bones. Must be all that Global Warming AlGore keeps talking about. Doug has lots of info on that.

Some people should just stay in bed to begin with. Pop a happy pill, Guy. At least you woke up on the green side of the grass.

If you are stumped for a gift for that special someone, try this over at Our Sovereign Joy. Books are always a good choice. I think OSJ got our weather, too.

If you are in a giving mood, Nancy Pelosi always likes flowers. Don’t believe me? Just ask Jenn.

That appears to be the latest updates, as of this morning. I’m sorry if I missed your latest witty entries; I will try to do better next time.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!

Well, the filling-in for the delivery went OK – except for the lack of sleep part, but I kinda knew that would happen.

Today was a charity auction at TMBWitW’s work; she is the go-to person for the auction, the whole department is supposed to help out and be involved, but once again (for, like, the ninth year in a row) (did i mention she’s been doing this for nine years? coincidence? i think not!) she pretty much did everything. Last night we were up until very wee hours of the morning getting the last minute details worked out. Naturally, MEG decided that since we were up, she needed to be involved. MEG finally crashed at about 11:30. TMBWitW was almost in tears when she was finishing up the wreath she was working on. It was a “Twelve Days of Christmas” wreath, with plasticine ornaments that depicted the twelve gifts. As she was attaching the drummer, the attachment in the top of his head came out. The drummer hit the floor, and broke a leg at the knee and his head was snapped off his neck. It was ruled an accidental death, and TMBWitW sighed, looked at me and said, “That’s it. I’m going to bed. No wreath this year.”

Well, I’m not one to watch a tradition go lightly by the wayside. I knew I had glue that would fix the drummer, but the challenge was in finding it. She went to bed, but I searched. I finally found the model glue (i could have sworn i had crazy glue around somewhere, but i just could not locate it.) and reattached the drummer’s leg, head, and hook.

The alarm was set for 5:00 this morning. MEG beat it by six minutes, when she rolled over and scared herself over the loss of her sleeping aid. I stumbled into her room, found the wayward item, and restored peace to her corner of the world. TMBWitW rolled over, asked me what time it was, and made herself get up when I told her. I mentioned that if she looked on the counter, she would find some encouraging news. She found the drummer, attached him to the wreath, and let me sleep another half hour before I had to get up and feed the animals and get the trash to the curb. I beat the trash truck by about two minutes.

We had to wake MEG up at 6:00, and then hustle buns to get to TMBWitW’s office by 7. I stopped off to grab breakfast on the go, and met her at the parking garage. We had so much stuff to transport that it took both vehicles. All went well, the auction was a success, and MEG was very well behaved all day, for being overstimulated and lacking sleep.

Now, it’s off to church. Tomorrow, I may get to sleep in a bit – but I am not counting on it.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!