Necessary Roughness

What would it take to have “faith in these words”? I would think you’d have to know something about the God you were dealing with and what he has done for us, you’d have to know what forgiveness is, and you’d have to know what sins are.

I do think the girls are going to have that down long before the customary admission to the Lord’s Table in 8th grade. Both children recite the Lord’s Prayer. The older one can recite the Apostle’s Creed, the younger with help. The older one can rattle off the first nine of the Ten Commandments; she has a little problem with manservants, maidservants, oxen, donkeys, and everything that is her neighbor’s.

I love fireworks. When I was a kid in Missouri we’d have the firecrackers, bottle rockets, Roman candles, sparklers, and so forth. I even made Roman candles as science demonstrations in high school. I wonder, though, if open defiance of the fireworks law reduces the psychological need to change the law. If that’s the case, then setting off fireworks has a more serious effect than lying (perjury) on that affidavit that promises those fireworks will be out of the state in 72 hours.

We did really well on Thursday, almost as well on Friday, and Saturday was two-thirds yet of Friday. The basement is bigger, and what wasn’t sold will be donated, sold to Half Price Books, or sold on EBay. We still have the treadmill and the two cribs, but amazingly the two double-strollers sold.

Inner monologue for customers who want to talk me down on the first day of a garage sale.

This is a pretty nifty tool once one gets the hang of it. I’d reinforce the steel tine so it wouldn’t hyperextend, and I’d harden the cutting edge to tolerate underground rocks. Alas, then it wouldn’t come in at $23.