Hodge Podge

I sit here in an elementary school computer lab with a plethera of thoughts running through my head. I am thinking about my son who is recovering from a bout of pneumonia. I am wondering how does the government justify collecting $.56 on each gallon of gas sold no matter what the price. I am also pondering how I want to spend my three day weekend coming up. One thing is for sure that I want to spend some of it relaxing, however, I need to mow which will take care of my walking for two days so I won't have to go to the mall (yes, I am a mall walker). I have Judgement House rehearsal on Saturday so two hours are taken care of.
Judges, Ruth, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone... What do these have in common? Yes they are all books. Yes, I am reading these books and more than likely will finish all three during the next three days.
Christmas is ONLY 63 days away (as of October 23) and I am thinking about outdoor lights this year. It is supposed to be a nice weekend so I might put up the porch lights. Then again, maybe not. I definitley will be playing the tunes of Christmas though. I also might do some research for a new post in my Disney blog. For those of you who are not aware I also have a blog about Disney called Confessions of a Disney Addict... . But for now I will end this post as usual with This Week in History the October 19-25 edition

October 19, 1216: King John of England dies and his nine year old son Henry becomes king.

October 20, 1818: The US Canadian border is established at the 49th parallel by the US and Great Britain

October 21, 1529: The Pope names Henry VIII of England Defender of the Faith after defending the seven sacraments against Luther. Ironically in five years (1534) Henry VIII will break away from the Catholic Church and form the Church of England...

October 22, 741: Charles Martel dies and his kingdom is split between his two sons
October 22, 1957: My brother John Dragstrem was born...

October 23, 1707: The first Parliament of Great Britain meets

October 24, 1929: Black Thursday first day of the Stock Market Crash that led to the Great Depression

October 25, 1760: King George III is crowned

Until next time good bye from the Mad Genius...

Area 51

Today I turn fifty-one. Hence the name of the post. Today also is the anniversary of the "discovery" of America by one Christopher Columbus. There is no doubt that a member of Columbus' crew spotted land on this date in 1492. There is no doubt that the landing and exploring of the islands of the Caribbean began a period of European dominance in the Western Hemisphere that has lasted for over five-hundred years.
Columbus was not the first European on American soil. There is a plethera of evidence that the Norse "Vikings" visited Greenland and parts of Canada some five hundred years before Columbus bumped into America. So, do we ignore or downplay Columbus' part of history? No, we cannot ignore the facts. Should we deify the man NO, there has only been one man that came to Earth already deified.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:
October 12, 1492 Columbus lands in the Caribbean for Spain thinking he had landed near China in the Indies he named the natives he found Indians
October 12, 1964 My birthday...

October 13, 54 Nero succeeds Claudius as Roman emperor

October 14, 1066 William of Normandy defeats King Harold in the Battle of Hastings
October 14, 1912 Theodore Roosevelt is shot during an assassination attempt in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

October 15, 1917 Mata Hari (double agent spy) was executed by the French government

October 16, 1859 Abolitionist John Brown leads a raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry

October 17, 1777Americans win huge battle at Saratoga
October 17, 1931 Al Capone begins prison sentence

October 18 1767 English surveyors draw Mason Dixon Line
October 18, 1867 US obtains Alaska (Seward's Folly)

Have a wonderful week!

I Hate Being Sick!

I know who likes it? Well I don't and that is all there is to it. However, I really hate it when I am just sick enough to feel icky, but not sick enough to stay home. The last week I have had this @$#* cold and it has slowed me down. I haven't been able to smell things like food or my wife's perfume. The bad thing is that my nose began to work when low and behold my youngest decided to load his pull-up last night. I can't smell apple cider but I can smell that? Where is the justice? Really, my biggest complaint with this bout with a cold has been, how exhausted I have felt. I wasn't able to muster up my semi-daily walks to keep off the pounds. I have managed to get to work and I did make it to Judgement House rehearsal but I paid for it afterwards.

Speaking of Judgement House it is on Halloween night and Sunday along with the following weekend in November atWoodlawn Baptist. I play Satan this year like last year and some peole don't think it is a stretch. After I am done here I am going to work on my lines so I can get my evil on. Now it is time for this week's version of THIS WEEK IN HISTORY...

October 5, 1813 US defeats British in the Battle of Thames breaking the Britain Indian alliance and protecting Detroit during the War of 1812

October 6, 1927 The first talkie The Jazz Singer premiers
October 6, 2001 My daughter Corri Rae Dragstrem was born

October 7, 1765 The Stamp Act Congress meets in New York

October 8, 1871 The Great Chicago Fire begins
October 8, 1956 Don Larsen pitches a perfect game for the New York Yankees in the World Series

October 9, 1888 The Washington Monument opens to the public

October 10, 1911 The Panama Canal opens
October 10, 1973 Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns
October 10, 1992 Pete and Jule Dragstrem were married in Mason City, Illinois

October 11, 2002 Former President Jimmy Carter wins Nobel Peace Prize

That ends TWIH and we'll be back next Monday on a very special day for me!

Fear Equals Reverence and Awe...

I am being upfront with all of my readers that this post is biblical and built on my observations and research. If you are offended by the Word of God in the form of the Bible I suggest you not read this. With that said for those of you still with me here I go.

In my daily bible reading I am currently reading Psalms and Proverbs in 31 days. It has come to my attention that God asks us to "fear" Him multiple times throughout both books and after a little research I see it is a recurring theme throughout the whole Bible. I must admit that when I was younger and would read "fear the Lord" I wondered why I should be afraid. I can truthfully say I was perplexed and when I found that He asks us to FEAR Him over one hundred times in both the Old and New Testaments I was inquisitive. For those of you who don't know the word fear has multiple meanings and the one the bible uses translates into "to revere and stand in awe of Him..." Which for me makes more sense than to be afraid of Him.

My favorite verse is Proverbs 1:7 which is "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction." As a teacher in a public school I would always write someting like Respect is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction... DON'T BE A FOOL.

Now that I am done the Mad Genius is ready to carry on the tradition of a This Week in History starting with September 28...

September 28, 1781: The Battle of Yorktown begins.(last major battle of American Revolution)
September 29, 1981: Frank Peters Sr. (my grandfather)  passes away ten minutes after his first great-grandson was born Ryan Joseph Dragstrem (my nephew)
September 29, 1982: cynide laced Tylenol claims sixth victim
September 30, 1938: Munich Pact signed (Hitler appeased)
September 30, 1951: David Dragstrem (my brother) is born...
October 1, 1890: Yosemite National Park established by Congress...
October 1, 1949: Mao Zedong proclaims Peoples Republic of China
October 1, 1971: Walt Disney World Resort officially opens
October 2, 1967: Thurgood Marshall sworn in as first African American Supreme Court Justice...
October 3, 1863: President Lincoln proclaims official Thanksgiving holiday
October 3, 1990: East and West Germany unite after 45 years
October 4, 1965: Pope Paul VI becomes first pope to visit US

Walt Disney World...

The Church Guy!

What a week, I got to perform a "mock" wedding, I witnessed a fourth graders version of the wee wee dance and I rehearsed my role as Satan in Judgement House. Just another regular week in the life of "CHURCH GUY!" Let me explain. Thursday Spetember 17, 2015 I was given the name by a little boy in my class. Another teacher wants to invite him to her wedding in April and contacted his dad about it and the father must have told the boy about it. Well in his mind it meant that the boy and the teacher were getting married because at breakfast on Thursday he told the teacher, "Guess what? We are getting married..." and then he turned to me and said, "and you are going to be the church guy." He then informed me that I was to say do you take this woman... so I was aware of what "church guy" meant. Being the fun group that we were we organized a wedding and I officiated.  I don't think I will ever live that name down and I don't want to.  By the way the boy who got married also performed the above mentioned dance. I wish I could have photos for you but I didn't have my camera with me and I couldn't post them anyway because of confidentiality.

As I am here watching the Night of Champions on the WWE Network I am reminded that tomorrow is Monday so it is time to finish this post. So in traditional fashion here is your Week in History...

September 21, 1780: Benedict Arnold commits treason.
September 22, 1862: Abraham Lincoln  issues Emancipation Proclamation
September 23, 1806: Lewis and Clark returns to St. Louis
September 24, 1789: US Supreme Court established with the Judiciary Act of 1789
September 25, 1957: Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas was desegregated...
September 26, 1580: Sir Francis Drake becomes first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe...
September 27, 1940: The Tripartite Act is signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan...

Have a great week...

The "Church Guy" saying bye bye...

Observations and Wyatt

I am a day behind in writing this so I will make it short with some observations from the weekend and yesterday. First of all let me begin by saying I work with "exceptional children" or as they once were labled special ed. I work in a third-fifth grade cluster class with children who teach me everyday. One of my biggest lessons came early this school year "Mr. Dragstrem, books are for reading (then a long pause) NOT eating or burning..."  I have that lesson written up on my message board by my desk. Another lesson I have learned is to "just deal with what the good Lord gave you..." We have children who have lost their mother or are from a broken home and on top of that they are either autistic, physically disabled, mentally disabled, or a combination of all three. These children get off the bus or out of their car with a smile on their face and a great attitude. This leads me to my youngest child Wyatt.

Wyatt is fondly called our "last" child. He has the chronological age of eleven but the developmantal age of around four. He has a brain disorder called pachigyria which is a form of "smooth brain syndrome." His disorder causes seizures and developmental delays in some children it cause SEVERE delays which makes Wyatt seem "normal" I air quote normal because NO child is normal. Each child comes with their unique abilities and burdens. With Wyatt his smile and ability to brighten my day when he squeals "dad" like he hasn't seen me for a long time even though I seen him not five minutes ago. There are days I wish I could see the world through his eyes. We went to a park on Sunday and he got the opportunity to get his feet wet in a creek and walk in the crisp air. We saw birds, fish, and chipmunks on our nature hike (he was in his wheelchair and loved when we would go over a little rough patch along the trail).

Enough of my observations here is my "Week in History" list... Happy Constitution Day on the seventeenth...

Wyatt and his happy outlook...

September 14, 1901: Teddy Roosevelt becomes the youngest United States President on the death of William McKinley.

September 15, 1862: Confederates capture Harpers Ferry during Civil War.

September 16, 1620: Mayflower departs from England (100 days until Christmas)

September 17, 1787: US Constitution is signed.

September 18, 1793: US Capitol cornerstone is laid.

September 19, 1881: President Garfield dies becoming the second assassinated President

September 20, 1519: Ferdinand Magellan sets out on trip to circle the globe....

Have a Magical Week!

Reflections 9-11

September 7, 1776 World's first submarine attack during the American Revolution...
September 8, 1664 New Amsterdam becomes New York
September 8, 1974 Ford pardons Nixon
September 9, 1776 Congress renames the nation to United States of America
September 9, 1850 California becomes 31st state...
September 10, 1833 Andrew Jackson closes Second Bank of the United States
September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on US soil...
September 12, 1940 Lascaux cave paintings discovered...
September 13, 1814 Key pens Star Bangled Banner

I began this entry the way I usually end my other ones. Why? It is because I am going to concentrate this post on one of the above historical events. It is one of those events that come around for each generation where we can reflect on it while it occurrs and know this will be remembered forever. It was like Pearl Harbor and the JFK assassination.

On September 11, 2001 I was student teaching at Havana High School in Havana, Illinois (not Cuba). One of my students asked me if I heard about the plane that hit the World Trade Center in New York, which I hadn't. It was just ten minutes later that the principal got on the PA and informed the school about what had happened in New York and that there was another plane that had just hit the second tower. We kept on hearing updates throughout the day and tried to grasp our minds onto the tragic events of the day and what it would mean in our small Central Illinois community. A girl asked me tha question and I really couldn't answer it until I saw her waiting in a long line for gas along with what seemed like the whole community as the price of gas spiked to almost $2 a gallon (wow have times changed).

That night we had a football game in Beardstown tht all that day we assumed it would be cancelled but it wasn't so after the gas station I had to go to Beardstown. We won the game and then I headed home alone as the rest of the team and the coaches rode the bus I drove to my home in Mason City to my son and wife who was pregnant. The drive home was surreal. The radio was filled with sowhmber reflections, there was very little lighting on the roads only the porch lights of the few farm houses until I got closer to home.

In the days that followed planes were grounded, games were cancelled and the country had come together as it does during times of crisis. Church attendence skyrocketed, People wondered if there would be more attacks. When you looked into the sky you saw no jet trails only clouds and blue sky. One funny thing that happened about three weeks after 9-11 to me on a Saturday as I was driving to a football game when I saw a plane come out of the sky and begin its ascent I pulled off the road and was about to jump into a ditch when the plane began to dust the crops. I probably have seen dozens of crop dusters in my life but this one I irrationally thought  was some kind of terrorist attack.

Now we are coming on the 14th anniversary of that terrible day when we lost our trust in mankind for awhile.  Until next week God bless you and goodbye...