Charles W. Moore

A 2020 Recap

End of 2020

December: No break, even at the end of the year.

One would think that after a pretty terrible year it would end well. Nope, not for us at least. SAM said she wanted to go to the grocery and since I had been in the RV since the cold snap started, I told here I would take her. I dropped her off at the entrance of Walmart and told her where I would meet her at the end of the row. It was very busy and the row extended, as did other rows too, a long way out.

I parked at the end of the row and was surrounded by vehicles. As time passed the rush seemed to dissipate and one then another and another left leaving me more or less isolated out in the boondocks. I was stationary, in Park and trying to tune the Amateur Radio and all of a sudden CRUNCH and I was thrown forward and to starboard. A guy driving a 25’± RV hit my aft port side of the Civic. I jumped out and told him to stop moving. Well, the next hour was spent taking pictures of each other’s data and calling the police (who did nothing but run both the RV & Civic plates). The officer said it was private property and did not write up police reports in cases of no bodily injury’s. We continue to try and sort out the repairs and other post crash data.

The rest of the year summary

This year 2020 started out with us in our RV at the Escapees Rainbow’s End RV Park in Livingston, TX.   We commute from Livingston to see family on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.  We enjoyed being with the family on many of the days during this holiday season. Covid-19 had not become a major issue yet but this Influenza B was a killer too. We lost a couple of friends.

After New Years Day we started to prep for our early January travel but on the morning of our departure our slide would not retract.  We finally found someone to repair the hydraulic system. On the way East along I-10, we stopped at a Lodge in Slidel, LA. We were going to spend time in New Orleans but Covid 1-19 was rearing its head and left early

Farther to the East along I-10 we stopped at Summerdale/Foley/Fairhope area to check out the Escapees RV Park.  We really enjoyed our time here and explored the area from Pensacola to Mobile.  The highlights were touring the Battleship USS Alabama (BB-60) and Submarine USS Drum (SS-228) plus we went several times to watch the Blue Angels fly at NAS Pensacola.  We left Alabama mid-April and since Covid-19 was in full swing and accelerating we drove straight home with two overnights enroute near Athens, AL and Columbus, IN. 

Our Summer was spent more-or-less hunkered down in our small town.  We did become Boondockers Welcome hosts, an organization, whose members allow free camping on their property and enjoyed talking with new arrivals – socially distanced of course – down at the beach watching bondfires.  Our summer ended with prep for the Fall departure, lawn work and chainsawing all the wood from the summer storm.  The bad news for the summer was the 15” DIAMETER TREE THAT FELL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HOUSE ROOF.  Our insurance company was great but some of the repair crews not so much.

This 2020/21 Christmas season finds us in Southern Alabama.  We are staying all season in a RV Park.  It is a rather spacious park that is perfect for Covid-19 separation.  However, nothing is happening in the park as all buildings are closed and all social groups are banned except the biking group. Every evening at 4 PM we go out riding for 3 miles – some, like us, ride even further. We also walk most mornings for a mile+ while being lead by our little dog. 

May God bless you and your families for the remainder of this year and into the next.

If There’s Any Justice

Stephen Miller is an American government official who serves as a senior advisor for policy to President Donald Trump. His politics have been described as far-right and anti-immigration. He was previously the communications director for then-Senator Jeff Sessions.

Mother of Evangelists

“Many Samaritans in that city believed in Jesus because of the woman’s word when she testified, ‘He told me everything I’ve ever done.’ So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.Many more believed because of his word, and they said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is truly the savior of the world’.” (John 4:39-42)

Photini: Mother of Evangelists. The link below will take you to an amazing story that I had never heard of before. It is not too long and worth the read. It is the written version of Eastern Orthodox church oral history passed down throught the generations.

https://knowyourmothers.com/photini-mother-of-evangelists/?fbclid=IwAR3w-SFhriBUf-2SeHqUwAJ7qBUTERXY7UL465Th-s1M6VObkP_q8kJ8e8k

The story of Photini is one of the longest stories in the Bible about a woman and it is the longest conversation that Jesus is recorded as having with anyone. Photini is allowed just as much speaking time as Jesus, however she remains unnamed in scripture.

Positive / Negative View

Perhaps, it is possible, just possible, that very poor people from farming villages pooled their $$ together to risk a last chance for the brightest of their community to escape to the “Land of Opportunity”.

Positive: This is similar to my grandmother, who came from Denmark in very early 1900’s, spoke flawless English, became an American citizen and raised my father who sent all his three kids to university , who then matriculated and sent their children to various areas of advanced learning. I will not even discuss all the grandchildren who are excelling as police officers, college professors, engaged in entrepreneurship, extended military excellence++. A worthy kid, given a chance, will become exactly the same given the opportunity.

Negative: A Trumper posted on FB all the children in detention were not brought here by their parents but were brought by drug cartels, slave traders, et. al. And it follows the mindless rhetoric passed to unthinking people by the propaganda machine of shrewd, calculating and unpatriotic Americans.

Religious Based Healthcare

New York State accused a major Christian group on Tuesday of deceiving customers by illegally offering health insurance to as many as 40,000 residents since 2016.

The state filed civil charges against Trinity Healthshare, the Christian group, and Aliera, a for-profit company that markets the plans. The complete article is below:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/health/health-insurance-christian-cost-sharing.html?referringSource=articleShare&fbclid=IwAR1lToS_i3v5z70zpqb6ZniqE0rO2XFsgOGYLx4XkA3leNBIKsd5Sb9JmMk

Source – nytimes.com: New York regulators said patients were often left with thousands of dollars in unpaid medical bills. A woman with leukemia was denied coverage for an emergency hospital stay that cost thousands of dollars because she was told she had a pre-existing condition. Aliera denied a $15,000 claim for breast cancer treatment, according to regulators, while another patient said even routine doctor’s visits were not covered by Trinity.

Clickbait

I did a speed read of this article but should have read it in more detail – perhaps I will do that this afternoon.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-34213693?fbclid=IwAR0Z1IF8NBfUasZZP5ky5ow7cPzJiZF8h9DJu5H4ZNZgVGcRCd5rmErJiCE

It is a golden rule of journalism, taught to any news reporter at the beginning of their career – your introduction should grab the reader straight away.

If you cannot hold someone’s attention for a sentence, you have no hope of getting them to read the rest of your article.

The same is true for headlines; stark, witty or intriguing ones can draw the reader’s eye to a story.

Headline writing has long been considered a skill but, in the digital age, a new word has become synonymous with online journalism – clickbait. Ha ha, did I get your attention? Finis.

Media Bias in a view

This is an easy way to view your preference for types of news at a glance and determine if the source has the bias you really desire. I only want to view neutral bias sources since I do not want to be radicalized by the media since I am a Centerist type of person.

I must admit that I am partial to BBC, Reuters and Christian Science Monitor but am happy with NPR, Politico and The Economist, et. al.

Sixty-two Films That Shaped the Art of Documentary Filmmaking

The idea of what a documentary is has shifted according to what has—and hasn’t—been possible during the past hundred years. But the artistic preoccupations of their creators have not changed radically in that time.

By Richard Brody

“Since the pandemic hit and social life became severely constrained, I’ve been obsessing even more than usual about documentaries. Their very essence is to provide virtual connections to people in far-off times and places—and to experiences that would otherwise remain unshared, even among people close by. Craving such virtual connections, I’ve been watching far more documentaries than I usually do—especially given the dearth of new releases—and more of them than I can squeeze into the regular round of reviews.”

Psychological Traits vs Political Tendencies

Worth the 9 minutes listen to explore the world around yourself. I have felt so much better since I have deleted all 100 politico emails I receive each day!