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Some time ago this message was forwarded to me in my email. I don’t know the author’s name, but I was instructed to pass it on. I have not altered it in the least.

 Burned Biscuits

When I was a kid, my Grandma liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day. On that evening so long ago, she had placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my Granddad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my Granddad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my Grandma and ask me how my day was at school. I don’t remember what I told him that night but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that ugly burned biscuit. He ate every bite of that thing… never made a face nor uttered a word about it!

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my Grandma apologize to my Granddad for burning the biscuits. And I’ll never forget what he said: “Honey, I love burned biscuits every now and then.”

Later that night, I went to kiss Granddaddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, “Your Grandma put in a hard day of work today and she’s real tired. And besides – a little burned biscuit never hurt anyone!”

As I’ve grown older, I’ve thought about that many times. Life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people. I’m not the best at anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I’ve learned over the years is that learning to accept each other’s faults, and choosing to celebrate each other’s differences, is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

And that’s my prayer for you today… that you will learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of God. Because in the end, He’s the only One who will be able to give you a relationship where a burnt biscuit isn’t a deal-breaker! We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the basis of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship!

So, please pass me a biscuit, and yes, the burned one will do just fine and PLEASE pass this along to someone who has enriched your life.  Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

*********

Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #312

About: Happiness

 “We all have our own
vision of Paradise.”

 *********

From The Hints Book Almanac II
Cleaning your dishwasher, microwave & garbage disposal…

 CLEANING/KITCHEN – To make your dishwasher sparkle like new run 1 normal washing cycle using Tang®, instead of detergent. The dishwasher should be empty when doing this. Repeat every 3 months or so. If it gets soap buildup and starts to have a foul odor pour a cup of vinegar inside the empty dishwasher and let it run through a whole cycle. To eliminate this from happening do this once a month. Another solution would be to run two packages of lemon drink mix through a cycle in the dishwasher to clean it. NOTE; Not recommended for stainless steel. KoolAid® will also clean dishwasher pipes. Just put it in the detergent section and run a cycle, it will also clean a toilet. (Wow, and we let our kids drink this stuff?) Lastly, another way to clean your dishwasher is to turn it on (no detergent) and let the bottom fill with water. Stop the cycle. Pour 2 cups of white vinegar in, close the door and let sit for 30 minutes before finishing the cycle. To remove odors from your garbage disposal – pour a half cup of bleach down the drain. Give it a few minutes then follow by running hot water for 2 or 3 minutes. Also to clean and deodorize it try pouring 1/3 cup each of baking soda, salt and dishwashing detergent into disposal. Again, give it a few minutes, then turn on hot water and run disposal for several seconds.  Clean & deodorize microwave – Put 4 tablespoons of lemon juice in a microwave-safe bowl with 1 cup of water. Boil 5 minutes in the microwave and allow the steam to condense inside of it, wipe dry with a clean cloth. If the stains aren’t too bad plain water might work. Another way to clean stains on the inside of your microwave, dissolve two tablespoons of baking soda in one cup water and in a small microwave-safe bowl, let the solution boil in the microwave for a few minutes so that the steam condenses on the walls. Then wipe clean with a damp sponge. You might want to put something like a toothpick in the water when boiling in the microwave to prevent explosive boiling.

BROKEN HEART
© By: Richard L. King
From the book Memories & Time

White clouds, rain clouds, rainbows and rain
a broken heart, causing great pain.

Raindrops, teardrops, a hole in your soul
when you cry in the rain, no one will know.

Trash heap, ass deep, survive best you can
seek a way out, come up with a plan.

Moonlight, moonshine, that purple glow
a change in your outlook and you’re into the flow.

Move on, play on, survival the objective
memories and passions, not quite reflective.

Old love, new love, a kiss and a smile
a change in your mood, now feeling quite guile.

*********

Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #355

About: Angry women

 “One look usually says far more
than a whole mouthful of words.”

 ********

 From The Hints Book Almanac II
Today’s hints all concern cleaning floors

 CLEANING/FLOORS – Black marks – Pour a little lighter fluid on a paper towel and the marks will wipe right off. Lighter fluid works for a lot of other cleaning purposes too. For stains on concrete floors – Pre-treat stain with laundry or dishwasher detergent. Let the solution soak for about 30 minutes then scrub. Oily stains might also be treated with a shampoo designated for oily hair. Tar on carpet – Blot up as much as you can, don’t rub. Loosen the tar with a liquid lighter fluid or apply a solution of equal parts warm water and glycerin. Leave on one hour then spot clean with a carpet cleaner.  Other carpet stains – Grape juice stains 1. Six drops of Dawn dish washing liquid in two cups of warm water 2. Dampen white cloth lay over stain. 3. Set iron to low and lay (do not press) on top of white cloth for about 15 minutes. Wait for cloth to turn red   4. Then start rinsing once you have the desired amount of stain removed.   Do not rub the stain, instead dab. Shaving cream also. It’ll be easier to vacuum it off your carpets and upholstery if you mix 2 tablespoons of fabric softener in one cup of water in a spray bottle. Spray the carpet or upholstery, let dry a few minutes and then vacuum. When dusting “nooks and crannies,“ try using a clean, soft paintbrush. Spray it with a light coat of furniture polish to dust and polish areas you can’t normally reach.

By:  Richard L. King

I’m a big fan of the Miami Heat team in the NBA. Duane Wade recently retired and now that he has I feel that I can express my opinion. For years I have privately steamed at some of his antics. He has always been such a revered star that the sports writers never seemed to criticize him.

I myself have always wondered how a person with the coordination of a star basketball player, and Wade was a star who was exceptionally coordinated, how could that person always seem to fall down after a simple jump shot or after so many layups? I decided early on that McDonalds didn’t do him any favors with that advertisement in his first or second year, (the one where they praised him for falling down seven times and getting up eight). Certainly, they didn’t do any of the rest of us any favors. After that ad it seemed like he took it to heart and there just wasn’t any way he could stay on his feet.

Not only that, but he always embellished it each time he went down. He’d throw his feet up over his head and make it look like just a terrible mishap. The problem with all of that is, as play continued, he’d still be getting up off the floor and would be out of the next play.   Not to take anything away from the star that he was, but I just never understood how so many less coordinated athletes could stay on their feet when Wade couldn’t.  I blame it all on that ad.

I have also always been troubled by the numerous times Wade would still be in the backcourt when all of his teammates had gotten back on defense. Some of that was because he had been down on the floor, but many of those times it was because he had stopped to complain about the lack of a call by the referee. Many a lesser star has been chastised by his coach or by the media for such a transgression, but I do not recall every hearing anyone criticize Wade because of it.

Unfortunately, during this last basketball season Wade’s propensity to complain about “not getting the call” seems to have spread like the plague. I wish Coach Spolestra would talk to his players about all the griping they do to the referee’s. It’s an epidemic. Josh Richardson is one of the most likely to complain and you can see him, long after the play, still shaking his head. If I were his coach he’d either discontinue that or he’d be riding the bench. Referees notice that sort of stuff and contrary to what you might believe, it doesn’t make them any more likely to give you the benefit of the next call. What’s worst, after the 3 or 4 replays they show us it is usually obvious that the call was correct. Just once it would be nice if the player would just shut up and play the game. That goes for Justice Winslow, James Johnson, Hassan Whiteside and Kelly Olynick too.

Tyler Johnson used to be a big complainer too. Often you’d see someone at the line shooting free throws and Tyler would be in the background still grousing to the referee.  You see where that got him, don’t you? Traded!   Of course that big contract probably had as much to do with that as anything, but he was on the referee’s case far too often.

 *********

Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #309

About: Self-confidence

“He thinks he’s an “ace,”
…but he ain’t spellin it right.”

 *********

As a new feature, we will be adding hints from one of our Hints Books to our posts.
Today’s hint is from THE HINTS BOOK ALMANAC  II

 CLEANING/KITCHEN – Clean your copper, brass and stainless steel kitchen sinks by making a paste of salt and lemon juice. Scrub gently and rinse with water. Dry with a soft cloth. For copper bottomed pots, spray the bottom with white vinegar. Let sit and sprinkle with salt. Wipe to a shine. Another possibility is to mix equal parts of salt and ammonia to remove the ‘green’ from brass and/or copper. Still another possibility to clean and/or shine copper or brass, combine equal parts salt and flour. Add enough white vinegar to make a paste. Rub the paste on with a soft cloth and let sit for about an hour. Wipe off and buff. And finally, for those copper pots that you want to hang to display, but they don’t look their best, try Worcestershire® sauce on them to clean and shine them. The sauce breaks down the grease that accumulates on them. Rub the sauce on them until clean, then rinse and buff.

A scientist, I am not! Words of wisdom are usually passed on by those who have already screwed up. I am certainly no exception. For example:

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you removed a can of soda from the refrigerator and dropped in on a tiled kitchen floor?

When burning questions like that pop up, you can find the answer one of two ways. You can EXPERIMENT by dropping your own can of soda on your own kitchen floor, OR you can RESEARCH your question and ask others who may have already completed research in this important area.

I suggest RESEARCH and I know the perfect person for you to interview first ………………. ME!

When a soda can slips from your hand and falls to the tiled kitchen floor, it EXPLODES and sprays sticky Coca Cola from head to toe and ceiling to floor,,,,,,,,,,, into the crack between the refrigerator door and freezer door, under the stove, and even in between the pages of the cookbook you were preparing to use. The spray is even strong enough to fly into the next room, falling onto all those surfaces and soaking into all those little cracks and creases.

The only thing to do is grab a mop, paper towels, spray cleaners, maybe even a bucket of paint and a paint brush for the walls, and go to work. During this frenzy of cleaning you will probably hear tiny little ant voices in the distance saying something like “COME ON BOYS, FREE DRINKS, FOLLOW ME!”

After the kitchen and surrounding rooms are cleaned, throw yourself, completely dressed into the shower because you will surely be a sticky mess. By the time you’ve showered, the kitchen floor should be dry and you can perform the Cleanliness Test, which everyone knows is to walk on your floor with bare feet. If you don’t stick, it’s clean.

I’ve just completed the first portions of this exciting experiment, now it’s time for my shower, followed by the Cleanliness Test. (And there’d better not be any bugs in there looking for refreshments!)

*********

Gram use’ta say

“You can never over use Thank You or Please.”

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AFTERGLOW
©Richard L. King
From the book Memories & Time

Dried kisses
remain upon his lips.

Ravenous memories
devour his waking hours.

Radiant visions persist,
dictating his demeanor.

Melodic words linger upon his ears,
igniting his imagination.

Luxurious scents
linger upon his pillow.

Elegant footprints
adorn his garden path.

Moon rising over the Atlantic
…he awaits the anticipated return.

Through it all he remains
.… lost in the afterglow.

*********

Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #214

About: Aging

 “Live like life’s expiration date is imminent.
Soon enough you’ll find out, ….it is! ”