The Christianville Spirit: My Fascination with Weather Extremes

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

January 30th, 2019-TCS # 625

Stay Warm Out There, My Readers! Yes, My Readers, This is a Strange Greeting but, At This Moment, The Wind Chills in The States of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Even Ohio right now have Wind Chills of -30, -40, and In Minnesota -50. Yes, that is Right! Negative 30 in Indiana; Negative 40 in Chicago, Illinois as well as Toledo, Ohio and Cleveland, Ohio; and, Negative 50+ in The Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Now, that maybe A Normal Winter to You. But, to Me, It Fascinates Me! You See, In addition to My Geography/History/Politics Mind mixed Together, I have always in My Life, had a Fascination with Weather. It was Fascinating to me, to see how a Funnel Cloud out of The Sky could literally reach the Ground and Cause Destruction. But, I find that Most of My Weather Fascinations occur in The Winter. Now, What is Funny about Winter and Weather in General, as I was talking to My Mom about it This Morning, People in Different Parts of The Country have what I call “Standards of Normal”. In Other Words, What gets The “Oh Wow! It’s Bad! Get The Bread and Milk!” Reaction and What gets The “Ehh! Typical (Insert Part of The Country Here) Weather”. For Example, In The Spring Time, whenever I hear that There will be Severe Storms; A Squall Line (Basically a Line of Storms that are Strong); Possible Hail and Possible Tornadoes, I would say “Ehh! Typical Texas Weather”. So, like Up North in Minnesota, Their Standard of Normal is like Being in an Icebox in The Winter, Meaning either Air Temperatures or Wind Chills are Well Below Zero F. Meanwhile, Standard of Normal here in Texas, is anywhere from 30 to 40 Degrees F in The Winter but, Anything below let’s say 25 is Going into The Weather Extreme Category and That is where The Fascination comes in. Weather Extremes! Now, Weather Extremes don’t happen in Texas as it does in Places like New England, The Northeast US, or The Mid-West. I have written Many Newsletters about My Weather Extreme Fascination. The First Time that I remember writing about a Weather Extreme Event was a Newsletter that was  an Email to My Veterans. Sorry, No Referring to Here! But, I do have a Segment of an Unwritten Newsletter that I mentioned about it. It read like This

This Newsletter Quote was Written on January 23rd of 2007 (Newsletter 25)

“Personal News: well, Today. Jan 23. was the 2nd anniversary of the Blizzard of 2005. The Blizzard of 2005 was an Nor’easter that struck the New England Coast from Connecticut to Boston. it 

dumped ALOT OF SNOW in Boston, MA as in up to 30 Inches!!!” 

Funny Thing, At The Time, I thought that was The Biggest Snowstorm that I have seen! To Me, 30 Inches of Snow was a Weather Extreme to be Fascinated with. Later in Life, I found that That is What People in The Northeast would call a Typical Nor’Eastah! 30 Inches was nothing to Them. They would be saying “Ehh! Typical New England Winter!”. Another Storm I wrote about was a Weather Extreme that I referred to as “The Snow Storm I’ll Never Forget”. This Time, It was not just about a Single Snowstorm but, A Bunch of Snowstorms in Something called “Lake Effect Snow”. To Me, It is a Fascinating Weather Extreme. To Locals, Lake Effect Snow is Typical in Central New York. But, I think with This Event, It even surprised Locals. I will let the Me from 2008 Explain! 

This Newsletter was written on February 15th of 2008 (Refer to Newsletter 92)

 I called it “The Lake Effect Snow Machine of 2007”. Well, Today I think of that title and say “That’s definitely not a good title” Why? Is because

A. “The Lake Effect Snow Machine” happens every year

B. Syracuse and that part of Central New York is part of what is called the “Snowbelt”

So, what else can I call it? Well, WSYR Channel 9 of Syracuse called “winter in a Week”. In fact, this so called “winter in a Week” was so bad that they had a special on their news about. Now, back to the name, what do I call it? I think I’ll call it 2 names; “Winter in a Week of February 2007” and “ The Snow I will Never Forget”. For those of you who don’t know what happened, I’ll tell you. In Central New York around the Syracuse Area, there was a Lake Effect storm unlike any other. According to WYSR Channel 9’s website, Lake Effect Snow Storm’s only last a day or too and dump a lot of snow in one area. But, This Time was different. So; on February 4, 2007 it started to snow and it snowed until February 11. In the end, it snowed 100+ inches in Parish and Mexico, New York. And, of course the highest amount was around 140 Inches in North Redfield, NY. Now, you’d like to know what “Lake Effect Snow” I’m going to tell you. Well, first off, it occurs in The Great Lakes Region in the winter (Until the lake gets frozen over). When the lake water is warm, there’s an area of Low Pressure, the winds are blowing toward land, it makes it snow hard usually in one area. And, that’s how Lake Effect Snow works

As You can see, My Weather Extreme Fascination was Peaked on Many Occasions including Right Now with The Wind Chills in The Mid-West being So Low! The Weather People say that It has Never been This Cold! Now, bering in Mind, Sometimes, Weather People blow things out of Proportion but, at The Time, when They do, My Weather Extreme Fascination Peaks and I Start Researching, Watching, and Obsessing about It and How Cool I think it is that XYZ Event is Happening and Who it is effecting. It makes me wonder How it would feel to be in that type of Weather. All in all, No Matter where We live, We have different definition of What a Weather Extreme is.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. If You are in This Weather Extreme, Stay Warm!

The Christianville Spirit: Changes in Christianville

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

January 23rd, 2019-TCS # 624

Welcome to My World, My Readers! And, This Newsletter is truly a “Welcome to My World” kind of Newsletter. You See, If You are a Veteran of My Newsletter, You pretty much know about The Origins of This Newsletter as well as How This Newsletter got It’s Name. For Those of You, are wondering refer to The Christianville Classic Newsletter, Christianville Explained and The History of The Christianville Spirit Newsletter. This Time I will make The Referring Easy for You by Putting a Link for You. It is also on My Christianville Classics List as Well.

Refer to “Christianville Explained”

http://thechristianvillespirit.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-christianville-spirit.html

 Refer to “The History of The Christianville Spirit”

http://thechristianvillespirit.blogspot.com/2009/04/christianville-spirit-history-of.html

Check These Newsletters Out before Continuing to get a Back Story about Where I am going with This Newsletter. Go Ahead, I’ll Wait!

Okay, so Now that You get That. I am going to let The Me from 2007, Explain the Reason of The Story mixed with Modern Me. 

“I Love the made up things (I always have! I have always had a Huge Imagination) especially States and State Capitols. In my mind every person's body has a State and State Capitol {that is except for me}. In all cases of States and State Capitols, The State Capitol is in the heart. I base all the Cities, Mountains, Rivers, and Roads after things they like and their friends and a hole bunch of other things but, Likes and Friends are the base of it. The next door States to the East are a Great Friend. the State to the North and South are Family Members. and, of course that leaves The West. The State to the West is The Lover or The One or Current Boy/Girlfriend. finally, apparently everyone's favorite city. Christianville, TN. Christianville is not a real city in Tennessee but, i made it up to be there. the cities around Christianville or otherwise called "The Christianville Metro Area" are called Mapleton, Brooke, Steven, Karleen, Northchester....just to name a few. of course, there is my newsletter The Christianville Spirit. which i write about my life and friends and family. in real life The Christianville Spirit is a newsletter. but, in The Christianville Metro Area it's an actually a newspaper. 

So, The First Part Basically explains about How My Imagination works as well as The Origin of My Made-Up City of Christianville. At The Time, because I was gaining Readers from both Family, Friends, and a Few (Keyword Here, Few) PTLS Family Members that I knew at The Time, when I started writing My Newsletter on My Present Newsletter Site, I wanted to give My Readers a Tour of My Metro Area of Christianville that I made up. Because after All The Christianville Metro Area, or as I now call Metropolitan Christianville or Christianville Metropolitan Area is a Very Extensive Area that I made-up. It was Then that I gave a Tour of Christianville as well as The Suburbs of Christianville. 2007 Me Explains about The Tour. By The Way, at This Time of My Life, I not only did The Tour itself but, Added Opinions of People I made up that Live in a City that I made up.

Brooke's Streets are all grid-like streets similar to it's next door cities of Steven, Maplewood, and Karleen. The City of Brooke named after Christian's long time friend named Brooke Herrick and alot of the streets' names deal with that and other nearby things.{etc: Herrick Creek Pkwy., Brooke Ave., Brooke Pkwy. and more..} Also, the streets also deal with Christian (since it's his hometown} and what he likes. Brooke is the only city outside of The City of Christianville that has a day of Christians' Best Friend Festival, a celebration of Christian's best friends. 

the City of Steven was named after my special friend, Steven Vandeneykel. Steven, like Brooke, Maplewood, and Karleen are cities of suburban-ness. but, the roads are the same somewhat but, the difference would be the city's character. the City of Steven's character is all about Steven and his special friend, Tigger friendship. so, you could probably guess that many of the things in the City of Steven are none other than Orange and Black. well, i think your right. between the "Tigger-Tennessee League" baseball team The Steven Tiggerites to the Orange and Black to historic Downtown Steven.. I actually took a visit to Tiggerite Stadium or otherwise known as Tigger Acre Ballpark and i came to find that it was actually a good game and of course all of kids went nuts for the mascot, none other than Tigger. after visiting Steven i decided to go northeast of Brooke to see Maplewood. The City of Maplewood is a nice city to visit. it was named from a town in the Twin Cities Area of Minneasota. With it's Northerly named streets {etc: White Bear Rd.,Maine Jct. Rd., and Presque Isle Rd.} it sounds like a northern thymed suburb. We talked to a couple residents and residents from other cities around the area and here's what they said....

"Maplewood is an awesome city to live in. i'm very proud to live here" -Mary of Maplewood

"I Love three cities. Steven, Brooke, and Karleen"- Madison, teacher at Steven HS

Finally, we move on to the last city of on Day 2 of the tour, Karleen. The City of Karleen was named after my friend Karleen Frishman. The City of Karleen's character is very like The Kentucky Derby. with it's horses and stallion named streets and places{Etc: Stallion Lake Dr., Stallion Place, and The Estates of West Sedona Ridge}. As we explore Downtown Karleen we find a lot of stop with horse toys and nearly every one has a rocking horse in the front window. 

Anyway, as You can tell, It has been a Long Time since I wrote all of This back in 2007. Unfortunately, Something that I did not realize until I got older that in Life, Friends don’t always stay around forever. They are moving and shaking and so am I. I have heard Many Times, from both My Grandma Honey as well as Godly Sources that Friends will come and go during different Stages, Segments, Seasons, Whatever Your Word for It is. I have learned this over The Past Couple Years and It makes me wonder, What do I do about The Cities, The Streets, Events that I named after them. My Special Needs Logic would love the Way of The Swedish, Once You prove Yourself to a Swede, You are on Their Party Invite Guest List for Life. Same Thing with Me, once You are a Great Friend, You get The Honor of Being a Name in My City. I also wonder though about The Originality of My City. I have realized Two Things, one is that, The City of Christianville and It’s names can be tweaked but, They stay original. Lesson Two is The Hardest One, Choose Names that are Solid. For Example, I named, The Most popular street in Christianville from West Ali, Karleen, Madison (I think) Street and after I changed The Maps, I finally settled on a Solid Name like My Brother, Michael. So, Now It is known as West Michael Street. The Suburbs, however, Were not as Solid Names. Now, In My Mind, It would take an act of Congress of Change The Main City of Brooke because it is The Most Original City in the Metro Area. However, Cities like Steven and Karleen with their Disney and Horse References, I realized recently that It was Time that I chose a More Solid Name for Those Cities. I had many Ideas including naming it after My Childhood Crush and Friend, Lynee. I thought of Sankt Lynee, because Lynee is a Saint in My Mind. Sankt Lynee, by the way, means “Saint Lynee” in German. I would model it after a Town called  Sankt Margarethen in Switzerland. But, I finally settled on naming it after My Little Boy Dog, Paco and My Friend, Deb’s Mom who I refer to as “Ma”. The City becoming Paco-Ma. The Disney reference of East Tigger Road became Destiny Road after Ma’s position in My Angel Cabinet as “The Director of Destiny”. Orange and Black were replaced with Brindle (The Color of Paco) and Purple (Referring to Ma). Steven Tiggerites, The Baseball Team in The City which was a Tigger-Tennessee League Team at Tigger Acre Ballpark changed to Paco-Ma Mud Dogs, a Tennessee League Team at Paco Lighthouse Field (Referring to Ma’s Love of Lighthouses) Funny Side Note here, that Both Popi, My Mom’s Dad and Deb’s Mom (aka “Ma”) loved Lighthouses. I find that really Funny. Now, Part of The Challenge was changing Steven’s City to Paco-Ma, only because I don’t talk to Steven anymore. He is in His Own World, to say The Least. But, The City named after My Friend, Karleen, a Friend who to This Day, I am still friends with. I had named Her City and put Horse references in It, something I really did not want to Change. However, I realized that, Yes, Karleen may be in My Life now, but She has a New Life with Her Fiancé.

Now, Bering in Mind, I could be wrong, but The Same Time, I figured that If I was Changing The Map of The Area, I might as well, Change it too. So, after Hemming and Hawing, I settled on naming after My Lil’ PTLS Sister (Not Literally), McKenna. because She will always be My Lil’ PTLS Sister. So, The Horse References stay the same but, The City Name changes from Karleen to McKenna. The Reason why The Change in City Names and Street Names is that I basically had to redraw by Hand, a New Map of The Area, which was Very Frustrating because It was Very Detailed and I did not want to draw it differently. Being a Perfectionist, I did not want any screw-ups and have to do it all again. It literally took me to trace the Old Map perfectly aligned with a Pencil and then, Pen over It. All in all, I hated to do the Changes that they needed to done sooner or later. But, that is Life, Changes happen all the Time!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Embrace Change, Change with It!

The Christianville Spirit: People as Trains Rerun

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

January 16th, 2019-TCS # 623

Wah’ Gwaan, My Readers! I have used This Greeting before. I feel that This Greeting from Jamaica in The Most Unique out of The Greetings that I have used. Except, Maybe Ćiao from Slovakia. But, This Greeting means What’s going on or What’s Up in Jamaican Patois. It is pronounced “Wa-Goo-Ahn”. Jamaican Patois or Jamaican Creole basically sounds like Slang Words and English Words, mashed together. You learn something new Everyday! Anyway, so onto This Week’s Newsletter.  So, I was reminded of a Newsletter that I wrote back in 2015 about an Odd Dream I had that I called “People as Trains”. The Theory of It, which I am going to Rerun, is actually Good Advice No Matter where You might be in Your Life. Funny Thing that I probably should have mentioned at The Time that I wrote This Newsletter, is that Us PTLSers tend to be Very Fascinated with Transportation. For Me, It is Road Signs; The Sound of The Road; Pavement Changes of The Road at County and State Lines; I am interested in The Big Planes, like Double-Decker (either Half or Fully) Planes and How Big They can be. However, I know that There are Some Younger PTLSers that loves Trains and How they work. Maybe not The Loudness of The Horn because The Horn is Very Loud but, The Train itself. This Dream that I have, that sparks This Rerun Newsletter is that Trains run on Tracks and In order for The Train to run, It runs on The Tracks, therefore staying on Track. Anyway, I’m going to let the Me from 2015 explain. As They say in Television and Radio, Roll It Guys!

This Newsletter was written on January 14th of 2015 (Refer to Newsletter 433)

So, The Other Night I had a Strange Dream that I wanted to share with You. Now, Normally, I do not share about My Dreams but, This Time, I am going to because It has quite a Bit of Meaning. You See, I had a dream about Being on a Train. I think It was because I watched a Video from Cory (Mr. Safety) called “Beer Train” and I think that is Where it came from. For a Few Reference Notes, “Mr. Safety” is a YouTuber that I watched a lot when He was Dating another YouTuber named Kate (Katersoneseven). The “Beer Train” Reference; Cory made a Video about His Adventures in Alaska and Found that There is a “Beer Train” in Anchorage. It goes through some Very Beautiful Scenery and Gets a Little Wild. I was a little Curious about what happened because He said it was Crazy. Anyway, I remember waking up from The Dream with The Thought, “People as Trains, Gotta Stay on Track”. I thought, “Oh Man, I got to write this down!”, Following up with “Oh, I am sure that I will remember”. I didn’t. I remembered it the next day and told My Mom the Next Morning. When The Thought, “People as Trains” came to My Head, I wondered “People as Trains?! That’s Crazy”. It made more sense after Thinking about It. I can consider it a New and Interesting Theory. It is Interesting because Trains go through a lot and see a lot too. As My Friend, Deb tells me, “Life is not about Rushing to The Destination, It is about The Journey.” That is Very True! And, Trains do go on a Journey to get to Places. Not that I have I been, but, The Journey from San Francisco to Seattle is a Journey on It’s Own. Of Course, Trains also behave differently in their journey, as We would in Our Lives. We have Low Points and Go through Boring Parts of The Country. Also, We have High Points and Go through The Most Beautiful Parts of The Country like The Adirondack Mountains in Autumn; Montana; or Along The Pacific Coast. Trains, in their low points crash into Cars, Run Over Objects, or Just have a Conductor that just Lays on The Horn. My Brother tells me that They do that a lot when passing His House in Denton. “Sometimes, They just Lay On The Horn, It is so Annoying!” My Brother would say. Another Low Point, Going on a Crazy Train, You might feel like Saying, “I feel like I’m on a Crazy Train!” I’m sure that You have heard someone say that Saying before or Even “I Feel like This Train is moving Way too Fast!”  The High Points, Those are when Being on a Train or Being a Train is when it gets Awesome. Like How about a Train Plowing through The Snow in The Deep Woods of British Columbia! That is Beautiful! or Maybe the Honor of being The Polar Express and taking Excited Kids up to The North Pole. Sorry, I have seen that Movie a Hundred Times, I think I was getting Really Excited here! Another Cool Thing about Trains is that They take You to some really cool places! There are Times when People take their Vacations by taking a Train Ride to a Certain Places like Through The Mountains, Up to Chicago, Through The Alps, or Around Sydney. You don’t hear about it that often, but You would be surprised if You saw just how many People have their Luggage ready to go at a Train Station. Of Course, I should also mention that There are Different Types of Trains, The Regular Ones, The Historic Ones (like Grapevine Vintage Railroad or Savannah Historic Railroad), Amtrak (Here in The US), EuroStar (in Europe), and Let’s not forget The High Speed Trains (like The Accela Train along The East Coast of The US or High Speed Trains in Europe and China) So, What is The Point of All This? Well, If People are like Trains, We are on Our Own Journey. Sometimes We hit Beautiful Parts or Boring Parts of Our Journey. Sometimes We get stuff thrown at us or Objects like Ipads and Other Things put on Our Tracks (By The Way, You should NEVER do any of Those Things!). Sometimes, A Car, A Truck, and Yes, Even a Person may get in The Way of Our Journey and All While Trying to Derail Us. Sometimes, We will travel though Freezing Cold not seeing a Thing because of All The Snow, then Maybe We will travel through The Warmth of Florida, Mexico, or Spain. We’ll go though Many Cities and Many Railroad Crossings (both that are Lighted Crossarms or Some that are Not Lighted). We may Carry a Very Long Load of Cargo, Maybe Passengers, or Beer-Drinking Partyers. But, On The Other hand, We may carry “Precious Cargo” or Very Elegant Dinner Guests. The Scenery will always change, The People will change, and We Our Train-Selves will Change (like being Upgraded from just a Passenger Train to an Elegant Dinner Guest Party), or As Long as We stay on Track, The Track below us where ever We are, will Never Change. and, Who Knows, We may have More Unexpected Fun than We thought we would on Our Journey. All in all, Being A Train is a part of Life and You never know what You might Encounter.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Remember to Stay on Track on Your Journey.

The Christianville Spirit: Those Darn Electronics Rerun

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

January 9th, 2019-TCS # 622

Greetings and Happy January, My Readers! My Greeting is actually Greetings! That is Funny! Also, although I said Happy New Year already, It is a Happy January as well. Just because You enter January by saying “Happy New Year” does not mean You can not say “Happy January”. So, Boy, Do I have a Few Stories for You that relate to a Newsletter that I am going to Rerun. You See, not that I like to complain but, It seems that If I complain, It is going to be about Computers and Electronic Issues. You See, The Past couple weeks going into Christmas, I had been having different Issues with Different Elements of Computers and/or Electronics. Not that I make it known much, but, I have a Mac Computer, with that, Yes, does not come Viruses but, When Mac Computers have an Issue, let’s just say It is No Easy Fix. Because Macs are Very Intelligent. You See, All of a Sudden, while I was Cyber-Traveling, My Safari Application (Basically, Apple’s Internet Program. Sort of like Internet Explorer) froze on Me, which it does from Time to Time because either The Program has stopped responding or One Tab is not responding. I tried refreshing, Nope. Then, I tried Restarting The Program, It did not turn on. After Researching and Trying different Methods including Several YouTube Videos, I ended up having to Reinstall The Whole System. As I mentioned before, Macs are Very Intelligent. On PC, You would just Delete The Program or Offending File and ReInstall It, Simple. Nope, it does not work that way with Macs. It took a Long Time to Reinstall and then, It was working, but Many Things were Out of Date. I updated it and Now, We are back to Square One. I then called upon My Lovely Neighbour, Mr. Marshall, who really knows Computers well. All it took to Fix It was Deleting an Offending File, not from Safari but, From iTunes! Yes, Really! Apparently, Someone put some File in The Update of iTunes that only works for Updated Computer Systems (or MacOS). Listen, I respect You, Apple. I Love You, You provide iTunes Movies, You power My iPad, You don’t give me Viruses. But, at The Same Time, You force People to update to Whatever New System or iOS on The iPad (or Whatever device) and People either don’t have Room for Storage on Either or It adds things that They add across All users that The Person with The Older System really can’t work or use, therefore The Effect is useless, if that makes sense. Secondly, Which brought us all Quite a Lesson, over Christmas, Our Internet was Out! It was Out because of The Box that runs The Internet inside was Dead, Affecting Our Cell Service as Well. Our Neighborhood was built on a Former-Airport, I think It has something to do with that. Of Course, All This was happening pretty much the whole time that My Brother was in Town. I believe that It was to teach us that We don’t need the Internet to keep us entertained. I did not see it as a Good Thing but, It equalled to us having More Quality Time with My Brother and that was what We wanted in The First Place because It feels like We don’t get enough with My Brother when He is Here or With Us. So, It turned out to be a Good Thing not to have Internet for a Whole Week as well as Little Phone Service. Another Thing that has Me frustrated is that I am very Organized Guy. When I come across Articles that have References that I need to Save for Later, I quickly file them somewhere like Dropbox or Google Plus. A Couple Month ago, I found out that Google was going to Get Rid of Google Plus! So, Going into The New Year, I knew that I would have to find a Way transfer all of My Referenced Articles somewhere. So, I Figured that instead of Waiting until near The End Date of March of 2019, I figured that I would move them. It took me 3 Days to not only figure out how to move them, but Where to move them to. I figured that although I did not want to Dump a Bunch of Articles on Facebook to get them into My “Saved” Lists on Facebook, but that was The Only Way to do so. I also had a lot of Personal References to deal with as well. So, I decided to put those in an Email and Dropbox form because I did not want them on Facebook. Often I find that Big Companies like Apple, Facebook, and even Google, They don’t pay attention to what Their Users want. They just change when They see fit to do so. My Theory, What if They polled People about a Change that They want to make, see if Users want it or not and then, go from There. So, with all that said, I am going to rerun a Newsletter about “Those Darn Electronics”! Enjoy and Maybe, I helped you learn something! 

This Newsletter was written on January 11th of 2012 (Refer to Newsletter 282)

So, among the cool things that My Mom, My Brother, and I did for Christmas, besides having an “Italian Christmas,” that was a candlelit dinner and playing with one of My Gifts. You See, for years I’ve had an Ipod Touch to play on and by playing on it, I mean I researched things on the internet and listened to Music. Of Course, I never downloaded any games on it because that never interests me. Anyway, for this Christmas, I got an Ipad and I love it now. I’ve gotten many apps, including a Living Earth app that tells the time and weather of a location. Let me tell you though that this Ipad is quite addicting to use, I mean just the Living Earth and now, the Google Earth app is hard enough for me to put it down. Ho Ho! Now, you know, like any young person, I’ve followed the technology a little slower than others but, I followed it. However, there are times when Technology can get in the way. You See, I’ve noticed whenever I’m out with My Mom and Brother, I notice kids and their families playing with their Iphones or Ipod Touch and not talking to each other at all. You know that scene where a family of 3 or 4 are sitting together, 2 parents and 1 or 2 kids, the kids are playing their Apple Devices while the parents talk alone and eat. You Know, I’ve never done that and never will. You See, when I was growing up, we didn’t have any Apple Devices to play on and not talk to my family. In my day, it was that we all sat at the table and talked the whole time, when it came to leaving the table, you had to excuse your self. Believe it or not, I survived very well without electronics, Why? Because we had a trampoline and kids in all directions to play with. I mean, I consider myself quite lucky to have the childhood that I did, with no fences between 4 Yards and a cul-de-sac. Now, I know most kids here in Plano don’t get that kind of childhood but, still. As far as any electronics, what we had was the TV and a Nintendo 64, at times all the Herrick, Barsis, and others wanted to play. Of Course, when we’d go out, we would all sit and talk, and if we were at Joe’s Crab Shack, we would go and play on the playground sometimes for a couple hours, it was awesomely fun. So, of course, I learned my Social Skills pretty easily between 3 Barsi kids and 3 Herrick girls and of course, our trampoline in our backyard. Now, of course, to this day, whenever My Mom, Brother, and I go out, we talk the whole time. And, yes I make sure not to bring my Ipad to the table unless it’s something I really want to show My Mom, other than that, I don’t bring it to the table at home or out. It’s kind of sad to see families that let their kids bring their devices to the dinner table because and it shows how dysfunctional electronics can makes us. I’m saying this because everyone should be able to talk with one another and as My Grandma Honey would probably say, “There’s no one or thing on that device that is more important than Family.” Besides, the best way for PTLS Kids to learn to talk is by imitating those around us who are talking, not texting or playing on a device. All in all, put down those electronics and get back to basics. if your excuse is to use it for entertainment to keep your kids quiet when they’re little, don’t expect them to converse with you when their older. 

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Be your kids’ entertainment, not the give the job to electronics.   

The Christianville Spirit: Happy New Year 2019

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

January 2nd, 2019-TCS # 621

Welcome Back, My Readers! I would Love to Welcome You Back to Another Exciting, Much-Needed Awesome Year of Thought-Provoking, Heart Warming and Inspirational Newsletters to come. But, First, Happy New Year and Welcome to 2019! Wow! 2019! Never thought I would make it to 2019 somewhat unscathed! So, with that said, 2019, I welcome You with Open Arms! 2019! This Summer will be 20 Years since Graduating from Elementary School as well 20 Years since I started to going to a Brand New Middle School that at the Time, I was told, was Better tham the Middle School that I would have gone to. It would be interesting to see the Alternate History of that, which route would have been better. I digress. We will get more into that This Summer. So, (Clearing Throat), This New Year just got started! So, The Year’s Tagline and Theme of The Year is The Spirit that Knows Love, Now I am thinking both on This One. I, like Most Humans, think, anyway that We Know Love and Then, There is a Part of Us that believe that This Tagline will mean that The Spirit or The Year in This Context, I guess, will basically teach us about Love. And, by that I mean, True Love! So, Here is The First Lesson This Year about Love. I chose this Tagline because it is Credited to a Person, who to say the least is going through a Not Necessarily Pretty Part of Her Life at the Moment. I polled People last year about Taglines, and The Woman in Question; PTLS Member, Leonie Clements, put in The Mountain Load List of Tagline Suggestions. As You could Imagine, It is hard to choose just one Tagline that Someone suggested. This Year, I choose hers because that is Something that I want out of This Year, True Love. At The Moment, It is a Theme of The Year that I would literally Love to share with You. So, Leonie would say, What is Love? People say that Love is Complicated. But, that is what People see as Romantic Love. Really though, Romantic Love is not that Complicated. I actually wrote a Newsletter about It. (Refer to “Simple Affections (Series): Love Is..” Newsletter). But, In This Context, We are not talking about Romantic Love. In This Case, Love in general. For Example, To still hang out with a Friend that may have a Different Political View than You but, You still hang out with them and be not only cordial but, Treating them as They were still part of Your Friend Pack. My Friend that is Love. I still support My Friend, Gypsy January, even though, I truly have Never even met her in Person but, I see it as if I know her Very Well in Person and Supporting Her Dream of living in Her Soul Place. That is Love. There are Times when I am loving on My Little Boy Dog, Paco and I wonder how could I love that Dog so much. I often spoil Him! Sometimes, I might (keyword here, might) show Him a little too much Favoritism over Our other Two Dogs. In My Mind, anyway, Dogs are People too, Ya Know! There are just Four-legged Furry Things commonly known as an Animal. But, to Me, They are Family. So, They are Four-Legged, Furry Things are Your Family in Normal Context. Weird thing to say about Paco or Our Other Two Dogs. But, that is Love. Yes, there are even Times when You can Love Things like Your Prized Possession, whatever that might be. Like Me, You could also Love certain Subjects of The World! Mine is Geography, History, Politics (All of them mixed together), Road Signs, and more. You could love History, Math even (No, I am not judging!) There are People who enjoy Subjects like that! So, with that said, with Our Theme, We should make sure to do Things in Love. I actually read a Sign in an Mercantile Store with a Sign that quoted, What I thought was The Best Line about Love. Now, Normally I would not quote Bible Scripture in My Newsletter (Probably because I never have) but, Here It goes. “Whatever You Do, Do It with Kindness and Love”- 1 Corinthians 16:14. To Me, that Sums up Life as well as God in One Word, Love. God is Love and Love is God. So, What can We do to Spread Love? Well, The Most Simple way is One Random Act of Kindness at a Time according to Morgan Freeman in The Movie, Evan Almighty. But, One of My Ways is to do what I do Every Year and set Goals according to Love and with Your Heart.

So, Here are My 2019 Goals with Love and Heart!

• I want True Love. The Kind of Love that makes you Complete as well as Love that You can perfect over The Years. Love that makes you Fall in Love over and over, and You never get Tired of It; that Laughing at Something really Mundane kind of Love; Lay Underneath The Christmas Tree together or like Laying on The Grass looking at The Stars, with only The Christmas Lights at Night kind of Love; Singing to Our Favorite Song kind of Love; and, The Kind of Heart that will Love You No Matter what You look like or What You are doing kind of Love
• More Time with Friends, Near and Far!
• Learning to do Activities that I might Love like What  One PTLS Member Relation and Great Friend, Faith who passed away was going to teach me to Paddle Board. I would believe that Faith, herself, would still want me to at least try it.
• I do want My Mom and My Brother to find The Love of Their Lives too! And, for My Brother to become successful in What He Loves to Do because My Brother, Michael is worth it and deserves it! And, My Mom, She’s worth it and deserves it too! 
• And, Finally in The PTLS Front. I Love Geography so I  want to travel more to Spread Awareness about PTLS! 

So, Those are My 2019 Love Goals! This makes a Great Addition to My Love for Pasta, Yogurt, Music, Hallmark Movies, and Keeping it with The News around The World. All in all, I look forward to 2019, filled with Love of All Things. I Hope You find how you Love and Spread It for All to See!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Love comes in All Forms! Spread The Love!