14.88 - Trusting (Short Story) - 2/18/2023 1:57:22 PM
A link to this story popped up in my email so I thought I would read it. I am very impressed with you and your wife in the way you are both helping others and blessing people.
May God continue to bless you both.
Sincerely
Scharlotte
14.88 - Trusting (Short Story) - 2/14/2023 4:00:25 AM
You and Bobbie continue to be a source of inspiration for making a profound difference.
14.88 - Trusting (Short Story) - 2/13/2023 10:56:57 AM
So poignant, your generosity and your faith in someone you never met. But Pastor Basilio kept you posted of his progress with all of those pictures and videos.
I do hope that you will have enough funds saved when you reach the point where you will need to take care of yourselves. When that happens, and it always does, I hope there are people around you will give generously of their time and love like you have to complete strangers.
Keep posting your pilgrim's progress for us to admire, and hopefully, emulate.
Ron
14.90 - Where Am I Today? (Short Story) - 4/11/2022 12:03:15 PM
Hearing once again of your generous adventures reminds me of your generous trip to my house and freeing me up to leave it for a day of adventure. And I see that you have not only expanded your missions to Central America, bringing clean water and eyeglass solutions for needy people, you have decided to forgo the idea of "retirement." If that has slowed your epic tome, so be it.
We have yet to see any hummingbirds, but a single pair of nesting white wing doves, mockingbirds, starlings, blue jays and cardinals grace our backyard along with myriad white chinned sparrows. Our sparse suburban ecosystem of concrete supports no more. We have recently added cardinal food only to have the sparrows, doves, a squirrel, and nightly possums scarf it up!
Looking forward to more reports in the future. My generosity is but a pittance of yours.
Ron
14.90 - Where Am I Today? (Short Story) - 4/11/2022 3:39:53 AM
Congratulations on your sobriety and all the strides you and Bobbie have made helping others achieve their dreams.
14.82 - Out of The Big Top (Short Story) - 8/18/2021 2:54:15 AM
May the force continue to be with you, in no small measure, Bobbie, the wind beneath your wings.
14.82 - Out of The Big Top (Short Story) - 8/17/2021 9:23:41 AM
Now that is what I call a "can-do attitude." You certainly have done 10 times what the average human does in a lifetime and are still at it when others are considering early retirement.
I must say that your visit and your willingness to go along with my frivolous tour of the area was a real high point of my last few years isolated primarily in my home. And we did run a marathon as you got my faltering car off the freeway and to the relative safety of the shop through Herculean efforts of restarting it many times in the process! Recently, my local mechanic replaced a sensor that had been a problem on that model, hopefully to fix it.
And taking me to visit my uncle was wonderful. He passed away peacefully in April just short of his 102nd birthday. They were out of that home and into a private home because the pandemic restricted access to their daughter and others who wanted to visit.
Will be waiting to hear about your next adventures into the world helping others. And so glad to see that you still have it when it comes to Herculean software projects that you undertake.
Ron
14.74 - Nicaragua Rehab Outreach (Short Story) - 8/4/2021 12:03:35 PM
I really was looking forward to hearing from you during the difficult time caused by the pandemic. I'm glad that you were able to continue your mission in an altered way that was still successful in Central America. But I wondered about Ethiopia, where you told me you were going to go in 2020. I guess that became impossible to achieve.
Bobbie and you have sacrificed both much of your time and your good fortune on these medical, economic, religious and technical assistance missions to Central America with great success. If only more people would be willing to donate and go on missions like this, worldwide, people would be better off.
However, there is a downside. These countries are either ruled by very rich entities that retain the old colonial practice of keeping the poor, poor even though the country may have rich resources and wealth. Other countries have been taken over by military regimes that actually tend to maintain the status quo when it comes to economic status, largely through bribes and other favors.
As result, so many of the poor in Central America, receiving such generous aid from many sources including the government of United States, think that United States can save them. So, when times get really tough, they migrate north and try to enter the promised land. They see people like you like you, ordinary Americans and tourists, and hear stories of great success.
I believe the Internet is the great equalizer. Providing the poor with information that they need to succeed where they are. What they really need is access to the Internet with simple, solar powered devices, so they can learn how to restore their land, solve many of their problems, and learn what it is really like to live in the United States.
Thank you, once again, for providing us with your journey. Your work with addictions that keep the poor in poverty is most appreciated. If it wasn't for so many addicted Americans getting their drugs of choice illegally from south of the border, the problem in South and Central America would virtually go away. The big problem we have here at home that we ignore.
Ron
14.74 - Nicaragua Rehab Outreach (Short Story) - 8/2/2021 3:09:18 AM
Congratulations on the profound difference you and Bobbie continue to make in conjunction with the American team's efforts.
14.62 - Joy (Short Story) - 2/24/2020 4:38:44 AM
May you continue to sparkle on the foundation of your principles, lending themselves to altruism for mankind.
14.62 - Joy (Short Story) - 2/22/2020 11:17:57 AM
Having experience your joy up close and personal, I can see why you now have reached the place where you are freed of so many demons that once chased you.
I can never experience where you have been, or even are. All I know about bipolar disorder is that it generally resides in extremely intelligent people. During the manic phase, great insight and productivity can happen. But on the depressed phase, all of this activity goes away in regret and depression. Elsewhere you have said that alcoholism was your medicine for bipolar behavior for a very long time. I have observed how alcohol affects others. I always stopped drinking before I became a fool.
You are so right about greed and when we should stop taking and start giving. I have not great wealth, but I have saved from my long working life enough to pay for my care by others, for a time. I have also, thanks to tax laws, given generously throughout my life to many worthwhile causes. I have to take care of myself, first. But I have made sure that my partner will be well protected financially after I'm gone and that my family will receive a small portion of what is left. And, finally, I have set aside a considerable sum to fund a higher education program.
Anyone who lives beyond what it takes to be happy, joyful even, is probably greedy. You are a good example of what we all should be, not what we think we should be.
Ron
14.58 - A Billion Dollars (Short Story) - 2/18/2020 4:43:56 AM
At the time of this reading, I imagine you and Bobbie are in the Bahamas where you're replacing roofs and hanging drywall. That's the spirit!
14.58 - A Billion Dollars (Short Story) - 2/2/2020 10:29:47 AM
I was privileged to go to Grand Bahama Island only once, about 1989. The free cruise from West Palm Beach was an old, worn-out, dingy and small vessel and the weather was bad in February… cold. We found the island rather poor except for the touristy "Wharf," where all of the excursions left from. The casinos were old and sleazy. The entertainment was good. I checked and they are all gone, torn down.
We tried again to go on the same Grand Celebration about 2010, but my two copies of citizenship, my birth certificates (with foot prints--absolute proof) from the hospital and from the county were no good. And even my partner's color copy of her citizenship was not good enough (needed to be original) so we had to cancel the Bahamas from our itinerary.
Your mission did enormous good for the people of the West End and I'm grateful that you did. But your effort was like a grain of sand on the beach compared to the devastation that I saw on the east end of the island with most of the structures completely destroyed. It will take all that the Bahamian government, with help from United States, Britain and other countries to restore the island to some sense of commerce again, although I believe the West End tourist industry is recovering quite quickly from cruise line efforts to continue itineraries and hotels/casinos.
I would hate to see Grand Bahama Island become like Puerto Rico, taking many years to recover, and then, potentially, experience more major hurricanes in the future.
Ron
14.54 - Isla Mujeres (Short Story) - 1/24/2020 4:30:32 AM
Many more Happy Second Anniversaries! How wonderful the two of you not only celebrated your fifth in splendor, but continued your charitable missionary work. The two of you didn't cancel your trip for a noble reason.
14.54 - Isla Mujeres (Short Story) - 1/21/2020 2:50:28 PM
I'm so glad your second fifth anniversary with Bobbie went off without a hitch and exceeded your expectations. But I would say that you had better be careful of those "virgin" drinks. You tend to overdo them a little bit. But then, you tend to overdo every good thing a little bit, too. So glad that you're able to. And, I can see that your missionary work did not stop while you were indulging in personal pleasure. It's in your nature now and I'm sure you will continue that the rest of your life. Looking forward to more adventures.
Ron
14.50 - H2Oh! (Short Story) - 11/22/2019 5:13:52 PM
Scott (and Bobbie), your zest for life shines through your writing. Interesting content, effectively written. A life well-lived and well- written about! Thanks for being an inspiration to us all.
12.88 - A Dog with a Bone (Short Story) - 10/25/2019 6:00:08 AM
much food for thought
enjoyed the read
Never Stop Writing!
m
12.88 - A Dog with a Bone (Short Story) - 10/11/2019 3:28:05 AM
May you never lose the sparkle in your eye!
12.88 - A Dog with a Bone (Short Story) - 10/9/2019 9:17:24 AM
Your logic in the first part of this chapter is an apology for intelligent design. The idea that man was created by God to be superior to all other creatures with brains, some as small as those in insects or jellyfish, but brains, nonetheless. I find nothing wrong with the theory and proof of evolution as a way that humans developed our intelligence. After all, even chimpanzees who we consider as animals, not human, have brains very similar to ours and DNA approaching ours. And recent studies have found Neanderthal DNA in humans from European origin. There is also evidence that Neanderthals had rituals involving mourning for their dead and engaged in cave drawing like Cro-Magnon people did. Are Neanderthals and Denisovans a part of intelligent design?
You seem to fear the "philosophy" of man created, inorganic, digital computing (AI) like portrayed in the Terminator series. But what about the philosophy of organic, chemical computing (brain) like portrayed in the Alien series? Is there any difference in what evil thinking can do? To my mind, thoughtful philosophy leads to a better way of life, ethics and cosmology. Not the other way around.
Like technically competent engineers and scientists that I've known in my career who couldn't write or present their ideas in ways that were understandable ordinary people, Nelson's superlative letter of recommendation shows me that you are, like me, dedicated to making highly complex computing easy for ordinary people to use. Almost every computer system that I've ever seen immediately has flaws and glitches related to who designed it. They seem not concerned with who they are writing the software for except themselves and techies. I applaud you for making your software reliable, user-friendly, and highly productive, saving time and money, as well as frustration, for users. For example, most automated telephone answering systems drive me crazy. Delays in getting an answer are horrendous.
Heartwarming tale about Remi and you engaging in half marathons and fishing for goodies at your townhome. What a joy! and that BrownE practical joke was a gem.
That very interesting, with a lot of assumptions, analysis of how much you personally know (if you have a photographic memory of a 1500 page technical manual you have a far superior memory to most human minds) and how much mankind knows about the universe, universes, other dimensions, etc. cannot be verified from what you speculate. By the same token, why would I say, just because early writers in many languages came up with a spiritual gods, or in the case of Judaism and some others, a single God, to explain why things were the way they were that they didn't fully understand, that God must exist making these things happen all? To ease my fear of death? Possible judgment after death? I hope not. Did ancient people who came up with God and all those religions and rituals know more than we know?
Ron
14.50 - H2Oh! (Short Story) - 9/14/2019 3:16:39 AM
you are doing wonderful work for a much needed cause
writing is provocative, thought provoking, well done
never stop writing!
m
14.50 - H2Oh! (Short Story) - 9/11/2019 8:17:41 PM
May both of you angels continue to wing it making a profound difference for those in need of clean water around the world. How rewarding and fulfilling!
14.50 - H2Oh! (Short Story) - 9/11/2019 8:20:08 AM
As I read, it certainly seems that you had some divine intervention or some, "Holy Coincidence!," for you to fall so easily into all of these good works with drilling nine wells and starting out doing missions installing WaterStep water purification systems in regions where clean water is difficult to obtain. To have WaterStep so close to where you live and your own Owensboro Christian Church engaging in those missions. Combining your optical missions with the water purification missions makes the contributions you are making all the more sweeter.
If there's one thing that this story teaches others is that there are two ways to go as we reach retirement age and a point in our life where we are free to choose. We can continue self-indulgence with our clubs and entertainment activities and travel to other places with groups of like-minded Americans on guided tours where we see little of the way that other people live in the world. Or, we can move away from the well-traveled tourist attractions and find a way to live with the local people, sample their customs and beliefs without judgment and learn that people around the world, regardless of their economic status, are just as intelligent and as engaged as we are in politics, education and learning how to live better. One thing every American should ask oneself. Am I an Ugly American? Scott and Bobbie are Angel Americans. What are you?
Ron
14.45 - Two Big Thanks (Short Story) - 7/26/2019 11:21:23 PM
I enjoyed reading your article, congratulations on sobriety, and knowing when help is needed
Never Stop Writing!!
m
14.45 - Two Big Thanks (Short Story) - 7/12/2019 3:34:47 AM
The only thing I'd change is the title to encompass Bobbie, not only the wind beneath your wings, but a full-fledge angel with her own set.
"Three Big Thanks"
14.45 - Two Big Thanks (Short Story) - 7/10/2019 9:33:05 AM
Very touching! Bravo, you are a real fighter. This article was very useful for me. I know somebody who might have bipolar disorder. I'll tell him about your experience.
Thank you so much for such an interesting life story.
Cheers,
Armineh
