Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †
Posted in Uncategorized
Oh, what an interesting couple of days this is going to be.
Oh, and in so many ways …https://nexttobagend.blogspot.com/2020/12/trolling-for-trouble.html
Look at this big toy my pet got me …
Leon ,
I’m such a ding-dong I had to
think about that for a minute ..
..then I Laughed and Laughed !
Merry Christmas to You !
? Merriest Christmas to Sundance and Crew
and All Stellar Treepers in this
Fabulous Treehouse Full of Knowledge !?
I’m Honored to be on a *Learning Branch*
Amongst So Many *Brilliant Branches* ?
I Lovingly Thank You All ?
Amen!!
This U-tube video
It’s amazing what you can do if you have to or want to. Paratroopers jumping in combat equipment will almost always be overloaded. Many a paratrooper jumping into combat had loads equal to or more than their own body weight. This is part of the reason why superb conditioning is a must to be an effective paratrooper. Weak sisters are not only a danger to themselves but also to others.
And this is why I always have and always will object to standards, mental or physical, being lowered for females so they can be qualified in any specialty. One standard for all! PERIOD!
These bad exits don’t show the results on the troopers but those results would range from no harm done to broken bones, joint dislocations, lacerations to face and neck when the metal connectors on the parchute risers hit their head or face or neck.
Keep in mind that all these were taken in daytime in training conditions. It is worse at night and of course even worse in a real combat jump.
shows some of the bad things that can happen when a paratrooper does a “weak” or improper exit from an aircraft. Understand that by the time a typical jumper jumps from a fixed wing aircraft he has been “in harness” with parachute and combat equipment for hours! He has gone through pre-jump training, including practicing parachute landing falls, putting on the gear, standing for the Jumpmasters Pre-jump inspection and then sitting on the ground in his stick order waiting. Then he has gotten up and waddled up into the aircraft with that equipment on. Quite often been crammed into a nylon and tube seat like a sardine.
The images show jumpers with large numbers on their helmets are most likely taken at Jump school with jumpers still in training making one of the five qualifying jumps required.
Typically during a combat equipment jump in SF my 185 lb frame would carry:
Parchute and reserve – 35.0 lb
M-16 – 7.8 lb
M1911A1 (pistol) – 2.4 lb
Web gear with:
two each one quart
canteens. First
aid pouch., Emergency
Strobe, compass in pouch,
three ammo pouches loaded
with three each 30 rd.
mags for M-16,
Bug out/survival kit,
large knife in sheath,
ammo pouch with two
each mags for pistol,
etc————————– 35 lb.
Rucksack 90 lb.
Uniform with boots,
helmet, and
assundry items in
pockets like maps,
and with short
fighting knife attached
to calf———————22.lb.
TOTAL about 192 lb.
It’s amazing what you can do if you have to or want to. Paratroopers jumping in combat equipment will almost always be overloaded. Many a paratrooper jumping into combat had loads equal to or more than their own body weight. This is part of the reason why superb conditioning is a must to be an effective paratrooper. Weak sisters are not only a danger to themselves but also to others.
And this is why I always have and always will object to standards, mental or physical, being lowered for females so they can be qualified in any specialty. One standard for all! PERIOD!
These bad exits don’t show the results on the troopers but those results would range from no harm done to broken bones, joint dislocations, lacerations to face and neck when the metal connectors on the parchute risers hit their head or face or neck.
Keep in mind that all these were taken in daytime in training conditions. It is worse at night and of course even worse in a real combat jump.
My friend, Jerry, a retired green beret’s father was a Jedburg, and had parachuted into France to run secret missions. A bomb they were setting on a railroad track went off prematurely and his father was knocked unconscious. His Jedburg friend was standing next to the bomb and engulfed in flames.
When the father came to, he saw that his friend had carried him into the forest and away from the burning field. He saw that his friend’s feet had been blown off, and he’d carried the father on his bloody stumps. The hero’s name…was Jerry.
Our Manifest Destiny
By Pastor Ricky Kurth
“In hope of eternal life, which God…promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2).
In the Law of Moses, God promised the people of Israel that they could “live” (Lev. 18:5)—live eternally—if they kept His commandments. We know that’s what Leviticus 18:5 meant because the Lord Jesus quoted that verse to a Jewish man seeking eternal life (Lu. 10:25-28).
But God promised us Gentiles eternal life before the Law, even “before the world began.” But unlike the promise of life He made to the Jews in the Law, He didn’t reveal His promise to us Gentiles for thousands of years! Speaking of that promise (Tit. 1:2), Paul added,
“But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me…” (Titus 1:3).
When God finally decided to reveal His promise to give the Gentiles eternal life, He “manifested” it through Paul.
If you’re not sure what that word “manifested” means, it is well defined in something the Lord said about things that had not yet been revealed about God’s prophetic program for Israel:
“…nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest, neither any thing hid, that shall not be known…” (Luke 8:17).
So to make something manifest means to make known something that was secret or hidden. That means when Paul says that God “manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me,” he meant that he preached a secret that had been hid but now was made known. Doesn’t that sound like what he wrote in Colossians 1:25,26?
“…I am made a minister, according to…the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest.”
But now, here’s the thing about the hidden, secret mystery that Paul made manifest. It involved more than just the fact that God promised eternal life to the Gentiles before the world began. It involved what Paul talked about in Ephesians 3:8,9,
“…unto me…is this grace given, that I should…make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.”
Paul wasn’t just called on to reveal the mystery that God promised eternal life to Gentiles before the world began. He was called on to reveal the fellowship of the mystery, something he explained a few verses earlier in that passage when he said,
“…God…made known unto me the mystery…that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs and of the same body…” (Ephesians 3:2-6).
The fellowship of the mystery is that Gentiles could not only have eternal life, they could be fellow or equal* members of “the same body,” the Body of Christ, with Jewish believers. And Paul was raised up to make this equality manifest.
In the 19th century, many Americans believed that it was the “manifest destiny” of the United States that our nation would expand across North America. But in the 1st century, the Apostle Paul made it manifest that even Gentiles like us are destined to live eternally as equal heirs with Jewish believers in the Body of Christ for all eternity. Glory!
· We know the word “fellow” means equal because in speaking of Christ, God the Father called Him “the man who is My fellow” (Zech. 13:7), and Christ was God’s “equal” (Phil. 2:6).
·
https://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/our-manifest-destiny/
Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;
Leviticus 18:5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.
Luke 10:25 ¶ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
Luke 8:17 For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.
Colossians 1:25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Ephesians 3:2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.
8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Zechariah 13:7 ¶ Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.
Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
“But unlike the promise of life He made to the Jews in the Law, He didn’t reveal His promise to us Gentiles for thousands of years!”
The “promise of life” as it related to personal salvation was going to have to be through “the seed“ that was to be the recipient of promises to Abram / Abraham throughout Genesis, since the conditional law given to the Israelites was one that no one ever kept perfectly — save for the seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ.
Genesis 18:18 — “Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?”
Genesis 22:18 — “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
Genesis 26:4 “And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”
Paul pointed out in Romans 4 and Galatians 3-4 the place of grace and faith in the covenant to Abraham and his seed (Christ, per Galatians 3:16) that preceded that of the Mosaic law. In the midst of this contrast set forth in Galatians, Paul referred to the timeline of the law in reference to Abraham and a confirmed covenant:
“Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. It does not say “and to seeds” as of many but “and to your seed” as of One, who is Christ. Now I say this: The Law, having come four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not annul the covenant having been confirmed beforehand by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance is by the Law, it is no longer by a promise. But God has granted it to Abraham through a promise” (Galatians 3:16-18).
“Paul wasn’t just called on to reveal the mystery that God promised eternal life to Gentiles before the world began. He was called on to reveal the fellowship of the mystery, something he explained a few verses earlier in that passage when he said,
“…God…made known unto me the mystery…that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs and of the same body…” (Ephesians 3:2-6).”
The above verses pertain to the “mystery” (Gr. mystērion); Paul shared more about “the mystery by revelation” that God made known to him:
Ephesians 3:2-7 “Surely you have heard of the administration of God’s grace, having been given to me toward you, that He made known to me the mystery by revelation, just as I have written before in brief, which, by reading, you are able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as now it has been revealed in the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles are joint-heirs, and a joint-body, and joint-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus, through the gospel, of which I became servant according to the gift of God’s grace, having been given to me according to the working of His power.”
Who are some of the other “holy apostles and prophets” spoken of “to whom “now it has been revealed in the Spirit” that “the Gentiles are joint-heirs, and a joint-body, and joint-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus, through the gospel”? (And what is an important implication of all of this joint participation?)
Note how post-ascension and post Pentecost apostle Peter received direct revelation “out of heaven”:
Acts 11:1-10 “Now the apostles and the brothers being in Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. And when Peter went up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision began contending with him, saying, “You went to men having uncircumcision, and ate with them.” Now Peter having begun, set forth to them in order, saying, “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, a certain vessel like a great sheet descending, being let down out of heaven by four corners, and it came down as far as me. Having looked intently on it, I was observing it, and I saw the quadrupeds of the earth and the wild beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air. And also I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Having risen up, Peter, kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘In no way, Lord. For nothing ever common or unclean has entered into my mouth.’ But for a second time the voice answered out of heaven, ‘What God has cleansed, you do not call unholy.’ Now this happened on three times, and all was drawn up into heaven again.”
Note how the Holy Spirit told Peter to go to meet Gentiles, “not having discriminated”. Note further emphases by Peter of the sameness of the experience:
Acts 11:11-18 “And behold, immediately three men having been sent to me from Caesarea stood at the house in which I was. Now the Spirit told me to go with them, not having discriminated. Now these six brothers also went with me, and we entered into the man’s house, and he related to us how he had seen the angel having stood in his house and having said, ‘Send forth to Joppa, and send for Simon who is called Peter, who will speak words to you in which will be saved, you and all your household.’ And in my beginning to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, even as also upon us in the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God has given to them the same gift as also to us having believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, how was I able to forbid God? And having heard these things, they were silent and glorified God, saying, “Then indeed God has given also to the Gentiles repentance unto life.”
Note how those who did not view the Gentiles as a “joint-body” at first (Acts 11:2-3) appear to have received, after to listening to Peter’s testimony, an important level of “insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as now it has been revealed in the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles are joint-heirs, and a joint-body, and joint-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus, through the gospel” (cf. Eph. 3:4-6).
Happy Cursday, Treepers!
Sometimes you get the dog. And sometimes the dog gets you.
It’s been a trying day and I don’t do “trying days” well at all because my tendancy is to catastrophize even small details.which, of course, only maks things worse. Beyond having a good lunch and a some time to read Chronicles magazine, the day just seemed to slide past until it was too late to get any more done anyway. So I just turned on the Christmas lights about sundown, fed the kitties, and did some ‘net surfing r-and-r. One of the benefits of retirement is that nobody but you has to to keep score. So a screwed up day here and a screwed up day there doesn’t really cound all that much because, when you think about it—-everyday is Saturday.
And so here I sit, having emancipated myself and not having any gult at all for not having accomplished much today, I’m going to finish this second glass of Ezra Brooks—a good inexpensive sour mash by the way—which will pretty much guarantee that I’ll sleep like a baby tonight.
Be well, Treepers . . .
Lady, you’ve got a heart of gold!! God bless you and your family!!
Even in the darkest of days, truth always finds a way to shine through. 🙂
Garrison ,
Beautiful Song with 2 Awesome Singers and Lovely Illustrations for the video ?
I saw Mark Knopfler solo quite a few years ago when he toured with Bob Dylan ! What a Treat that concert was !
I enjoy All the music You Post , Garrison and All the Interesting Background You
Provide ,, especially about the Guitars and the Musicians !
Thank You and Merry Christmas to You and Yours !
And the same Merry Christmas to you, friend. In many ways, we’re all lucky to have found the Theehouse. Or, who knows, maybe the Treehouse is lucky to have found us?
Garrison, thank you for stimulating our hearts, our emotions, our memories with your music selections and the stories around them.
A very Merry Christmas to you!
Every Christmas I like to do something I never have done before that is Christmas related. Last year I bought some Cracker Poppers. This year I decided to eat some sardines for the first time. Any suggestions on how to do this without being grossed out. I was told just put them on toast.
Head first.
I only eat the ones packed in olive oil. They are best (to me) on either very fresh, soft bread or bread lightly toasted. Enjoy!
Have fresh lemon or lime juice on hand to take the bitter taste away.
After putting the juice on, the sardines should smell like mayonnaise or have hardly any smell at all.
Not my favorite, but they are a very nutrition-packed food.
Sardines are an acquired taste. One that I acquired when I was very young. Fortunately, so did my wife.
We occasionally enjoy sharing a tin of sardines (packed in oil) by eating them with saltine crackers, a bit of regular yellow mustard, along with (on the side) some Spanish and black olives, a bit of Cabrales (bleu) cheese, and a chilled bottle of not-too-dry red wine.
After which we open a window and air out the room. ??
?
It was Christmas Eve..
..and the phone rang..
I didn’t have to answer it.. but I did..
after a year on the team I had learned some harsh rules..
too hot.. too cold.. too tired.. too much of a pussy.. too much in love.. too fck’n bad..
It was a quickie “live boating” (long “i”) mission.. a subsea valve if I recall correctly.. live boating can be potentially dangerous.. the screws on the workboat are constantly revving.. turning.. churning..
the captain had to constantly keep the boat over the work site with the diver and umbilical in the water.. out on the open sea.. cowboy stuff.. there were only five of us.. and everybody had to know what the fck they were doing..
even the boat captain.. he could make it or break it.. but I could tell this wasn’t his first rodeo..
I was at a decompression stop.. just hanging out there in open water.. like a worm on a hook..
out of the blue came two black tip sharks racing toward me.. like fighter jets.. they broke off at the last moment then circled excitedly over and around me like electrons around a nucleus..
I reported to topside I had some company.. ‘yeah.. ok.. you have ten more minutes..’..
they were only around five feet long.. young and cocky.. I kicked when they got too close.. then they would break away.. and the dance would start all over again.. circling closer.. and closer.. ..kick..
it was Christmas night when we pulled back into Port O’Connor..
out and in.. a 24 hour job.. ‘..Merry Christmas..’
..I was paying my dues..
to be a [Company] diver.. the best in the world..
I didn’t pick them.. they picked me..
in the nightclubs.. and in the company..
and I wasn’t about to quit.. no matter what..
..you live for the fight when that’s all that you’ve got..
I was living the life.. in Uptown.. Houston..
Memoirs of an Oilfield Diver
The Epic Archive
1984-1992
Well said, Texian. When you add to the lore, the story always will continue. When I live there, a bunch of Red Adair guys—replete with the red Cadillacs—lived in the same apartment complex I lived in. It was a time when if you wanted a job, you just literally walked out the door, started looking and in no tme you got hired. I almost got on at AMF Tuboscope as a tech writer but ended up instead at NASA. Definitely a different time. I often thought about what would have happened if I’d signed on with those Red Adair guys . . . if they needed a tech writer. But, then, writing ability was a scarce commodity in the oil patch so who knows? Maybe I would have been descriging how much explosives you needed to extinguish a well-head fire in Saudi . . . Riding around in a Red Adair red Cadillac would have been cool.
Red Adair lived a few houses down, growing up. Didn’t know who he was, other than, Fire Fighter Oil Wells Global. Whatever. After college, saw John Wayne movie, Wayne was Red Adair.
A street over from Adair, Dad’s friend, nickname, Fighting Tiger. A Delta pilot, one of their first. Saw another John Wayne movie, in the 80’s, Wayne was a Fighting Tiger.
Neither man, Red or Fighting Tiger, was a big deal. NASA was across street, most of the men, aka all-our-dad’s, NASA engineers, former test pilots, Gemini, Mercury, Apollo, Shuttle. Several original and later choice astronauts.
Saw Red Adair many times driving his red Cadillac. Better, seeing astronauts driving their Corvettes.
Enjoy your stories Texian. Left Houston for quaint Dallas in that era, college. Your Houston, your playground, your work. Humbling how you owned it.
A college boy dated, worked topside a Gulf Oil Rig one summer. Said he dreamed of getting hit by moving metal and killed several times.
Before Aldrin on moon, I was in his home swimming pool with him when mom played bridge at their home. Several kids in the pool with Mr. Aldrin. He was in scuba gear, swimming about, slowly.
Knew Aldrin the worst brain at NASA, real dads were across the street in Bldg. 1 designing rockets etc.
Saw Nova special, in my 30’s. All about Mr. Aldrin, inventing Space Walking. He was working NASA those days in his pool at home, kids minnowing around him. Aldrin came from Navy background.
Sundance, your lion pic with flames is all those NASA dads. When you grow up with FLAMING lions, aside from performing with grades/sports, you learned not to draw their attention.
Dad died 2012, age 78, still full time NASA. Dad said oddest thing after doctor left hospital room, lung cancer diagnosis. “I used to think you and your sister would get out. But I don’t think so anymore.”
What do you mean dad? He described what is happening now, globally. How did dad know? For decades he listened, when weather right, to his bedside am radio late at night. Stations from continents came in. Knew he was crazy.
Now, dad’s descriptions, names spoken, are here. Not crazy.
After 1973 oil embargo I overheard dad talking with a neighbor, engineer at oil refinery, in our kitchen, about ‘energy’. He knew there was already energy cheap/clean, but oil industry bought up all rights/patents. Again, crazy dad.
From a link at the TreeHouse I discovered Operation Paperclip. Dad worked with one of those nazi engineers, Wernher von Braun. After a bit more research, discovered von Braun, most likely, basis for dad’s crazy energy statement ca. 1973.
Dad was strong believer in God, Jesus, Bible. He knew the math underpinning Universe too perfect.
Garrison, thank you, always enjoy your music and descriptions.
“He knew there was already energy cheap/clean, but oil industry bought up all rights/patents. Again, crazy dad.”
On some thread maybe two years ago, I read that some scientists were studying comets. It was a long time ago, and I don’t remember the details, but I’m pretty sure they were American scientists.
They came up with an imaging technique that showed an amazing abundance of oil deposits on the earth. So many, that virtually any nation could be energy independent if only they knew where to look and had the technology.
They posted the data to the internet. A short while later their data was disappeared. Dad not so crazy.
🙂
A little history most do not know about.
Though the Boeing 314 was the most famous of the Pre-WWII flying boats used for transcontenental passenger service it was by no means the only one. Sikorsky and Martin both manufactired huge flying boats used for luxury transcontental passenger service and these were also known as “clippers”. But the Boeing 314 is the one remembered by most and the most modern of prewar designs. It was a Boeing 314 named “The Dixie Clipper” that was used by FDR to get to and from Casablanca for his meeting with Winston Churchil and that was the first time a US president flew on business for the nation.
Wow! thanks, Rah. Great story! Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Is this being suppressed?: https://twitter.com/JosephJFlynn1/status/1341759922724364293?s=20
Barack Obama and James Brown take a kayaking vacation for the holidays in Hawaii…
Definitely looks like a man.
That’s it, Frankie – now we’re ALL in hell…..
WeeWeed we need eye bleach!
WeeWeed! ?????
Darn! Where are the submarines when you need one…?
Or an errant undersea mine still floating around….
?
Thank You, Jesus, for blessings received and prayers answered!!!
Great to see you back!
duchess! There you are! Welcome home! You, and your daily blessing posts have been sorely missed. Merry Christmas to you – and to all the Treehouse Patriots. What a wonderful gift this morning…
Praise the Lord! Our thread is getting back to normal! We have souls and a country to save! Thank you duchess01 from the bottom of my heart.
Merry Christmas sweet Duchess! So happy to see you back! Blessings and Peace to you and your family from me and mine!
So very Happy to see you, duchess!!
A sight for sore eyes… To be sure!!
???MERRY CHRISTMAS???
Duchess01 ,
So Very Happy to See You and Pray All is Well ! ?
?Wishing You a Sparkling Christmas?
? I Missed You Bigly ?
Verse of the Day for Thursday, December 24, 2020
✟
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”
1 John 4:11 (KJV)
Be My Voice
Merry Christmas Dutchess!
ONE THOUSAND LIKES.
Merry Christmas duchess01!
???
We must print this picture in the mind of all Americans.
What a great Christmas present – you’re BACK!
Missed you!
Merry Christmas Treepers!
As the apostle Paul would say, “grace to you.”
???
Christmas Eve, 2020.
What a year our Lord has given us, according to His plan.
I love this version of ‘What Child’. Especially how they do the last verse.
This has been on the Tube for a few years, and is still pure joy. The Ode.
Merry Christmas Y’all!
It is beautiful, thank you!
A light still shines, and always will, no matter the nature of the darkness that surrounds it. Merry Christmas, Everyone. Don’t know what I would do without all of you. Thank you, Almighty Lord, for Sundance, and for this Treehouse, built with your guiding Hand, and nestled among the branches of Your Tree of Life.
Merry Christmas, treepers.
Peace to all , on the day of our Lord’s birth…
Our family celebrates Christmas on the eve of Jesus’ birth. Here’s one more of my favorite renditions, performed by three wonderful women…
Our Bishop has unofficially declared the ccp virus crisis is no longer by granting no excuse for missing Holy Mass. Hallelujahs! Beloved Church, here we come.
What diocese??
Check Georgia’s!
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Merry Christmas fellow Treepers.
A couple of my favorite albums of Christmas song.
Attack on the west side of Bastogne, shortly before Patton’s forces broke through to relieve.
A news story on the wild boars rooting where the Chernobyl reactors radiation cloud fell are showing signs of much higher than expected radiation levels and it got me remembering the support mission to Belgium I was on when that reactor melted down.
We are told quite often that the US is not respected and not like by a majority of the populace in Europe. The legacy of the Doughboys and Dog faces/GI’s long forgotten. Even the cold war protectors of Fulda Gap and all Western Europe from the military might and aggression of the Warsaw Pact not appreciated. Well, this may be true for some Europeans but it was not my experience in some of the places I went during my time as a US soldier in Europe.
In 1986 I was a team member on ODA 071, Co. A, 1st Bn., 10th SFG(A) stationed at Flint Kaserne in Bad Tolz, Germany. As was typical at the time, most of this Battalion was tasked to support the various special operations sub-exercises of the huge annual Reforger exercise in Europe. We set up and helped run the various special operation exercises for teams coming out of CONUS (Continental US) to participate.
The largest and best known of these special operations sub-exercises was the one conducted in Germany named Flintlock. But what many SF soldiers that weren’t in 10th Grp didn’t know was that there were smaller exercises of a type similar to Flintlock conducted in about all NATO member nations in Western Europe. That year my team was tasked to support Osprey, which was the Belgian equivalent of Flintlock.
So, in early April of 1986 my team drove up to a Belgian Army facility in Arlone, Belgium. Being a paratrooper, a student of military history, and an admirer of George Patton, I was very happy to be spending time in the area of the Battle of the Bulge. The city of Arlone had been on the southern edge of the bulge and where the lead elements of the 4th Armored division passed through during their drive to Bastogne.
After getting settled in to our Belgian Army barracks our first major task was to survey all the Drop Zones (DZs) the teams jumping in would or might use. Several of those DZs were near towns, villages, and cross roads with names that will forever be remembered in US military history. Bastogne was one of them.
The DZ we were surveying was on the west edge of Bastogne. There was a long triangular patch of woods between us and the town to the east that served as the division between two fields. The woods was about 200 yards wide at road at it’s north end and then tapered down to nothing but a fence line as it ran to the south along the top a ridge forming a triangle about 1/4 of a mile long. We were on top of a ridge and as one looked out to the east he saw a series of rolling ridge lines with their long axis running generally north-south and they went that went on as far as the eye could see. It was all open farm land for the most part and as I remember I could see about a half dozen church steeples sticking up over the ridge lines marking the locations of villages that were nestled down in the valleys between the various ridges.
As we were working on our survey a farmer walked up to us. He, spoke pretty good english and introduced himself as the owner of the land and we told him what we were doing.
I asked him if he knew what had happened there abouts during the battle of the bulge and siege of Bastogne. He said yes he did, his father owned the land then and he was a little boy and witnessed some of it. He pointed over to the triangular patch of woods and said some of the American defensive positions for this side of the town are still right there just inside the tree line. We walked over with him and he showed us.
Sure enough there were the rectangular depressions of what had obviously once been two man fox hole fighting positions spaced evenly about 30 feet apart all along the west side of the woodline. There were small irregular depressions that appeared to be from artillery strikes too. Further back in the woods there was one big hole which he told us was where after the battle the troops piled up a bunch of the debris and left over ammo and ordinance and blew it up to dispose of it and make it inert. As I looked closer at the ground I started to notice bits of metal laying right on top the ground unburied after all that time. Most of it was twisted junk from the explosion but then I started finding bent up .50 cal brass with 1943 stamped on the base. I found the remnants of the cylindrical german gas mask container and a damaged by easily recognizable part of a bazooka rocket round. There were also pieces of track from some kind of tracked vehicle(s) laying about.
Then the farmer explained that after the Germans surrounded the town and several attacks from different directions failed they tried attacking the west side of the town coming across the fields to the moving east with some armor moving along the east west road that the base of the woods ran up to.
I stood and looked out and tried to imagine what it would have looked like and I could see it in my minds eye. The Americans would have been very exposed to artillery preparation even in their foxholes. Shells hitting the trees in that woods would have rained shrapnel down upon them so if they had not put stout wood and dirt covers over their holes they would have suffered severely. Then as the Germans attacked they would have been sitting ducks if they did not have either smoke or fog to conceal them. As they crested every ridge on their approach and for a ways down the east face of the two nearest ridges they would have been perfect targets. Same thing for their Armor support. Then they faced a near assault right up the west face of the ridge we were on. It had to be hell for both sides. This attack happened the day before Patton’s 4th Armored broke into Bastogne with the tank “Cobra King” that I wrote about before leading the way. It was the last desperate attempt of the Germans to take the town for Patton’s forces reached it.
I researched this engagement extensively after that visit and here at home online years ago. History shows that the Germans had already lost the battle by this time. But history also shows that in the next few weeks far more combatants from both sides would die as the Americans retook the ground they had lost than died when the Germans were on the offensive.
While four of us were finishing up our survey of that alternate DZ we looked over to the road where our CUCV was parked we noticed a little white van with a guy standing by it. As we approached our vehicle the man appeared to be an old Belgian farmer. He wore the blue coveralls with trouser legs stuffed down into to tops of his high rubber boots typical of the work uniform for farmers working with livestock around that area.
The man greeted us and after finding he spoke German (thankfully, since none of us were fluent in French or Flemish) we understood that he would like us to follow him in his vehicle a short distance to show us something. We were done for the day and so agreed.
We followed the white van the short distance around the north side of Bastogne until he pulled up in front of a medium small building set on the edge of the rolling farm fields outside the NE side of town.
The two story building looked ancient. Stone and stucco with green paint on the large paned window frames pealing away to reveal the paint of other colors below from countless previous paint jobs. There was a huge set of carved solid double wooden doors under the covered entranceway, one of which was open due to the mild weather. We followed our host through the door and found the place to be a kind of tavern. To the left was a small room with a couple of the old wooden table games using tops or balls. In front a beautiful old wooden staircase leading to the second floor. To right was a single larger room. All the floors were plain concrete that appeared to me to have been poured over the original stone floor.
In this larger room there was an ancient ornately carved wooden stand up bar that ran along the whole back of the room complete with a large mirror and liquor shelves behind it. A couple of naked light bulbs hung from the ceiling by their wires supplemented the light coming through the widows. Scattered about the room were old wooden tables and chairs.
The room with the bar was filled with old Belgian men. Most of these men appeared to be farmers since they wore garb similar to our host’s outfit. I got the impression that it was a place for the local farmers to gather, talk, and drink after a days work before going home to dinner.
They all just looked at us at first when we came through the door and then after a quick introduction by our host they all came towards us and shook our hands and embraced us like we were long lost old friends. They offered us drinks of Cognac and beer, which we accepted. A couple of us that smoked offered them our American cigarettes which some of them accepted.
At first I was shocked. But then as we sat there drinking and smoking and conversing with these old Belgium men I came to understand. Most of these men were old enough to remember what happened here during the winter of 1944-45. And these guys had seen our paratrooper wings and that is all they needed to know to invite us so openly into their world. They wanted to shake our hands and press our shoulders and let us know how they felt even 42 years after the event.
It was not us that earned this greeting, friendship, and respect. The reason we were here was because we were American soldiers enjoying the legacy of those that had come before us. Freezing, frost bitten, hungry, besieged paratroopers who had fought and bled, and in some case died on the land these farmers worked had earned what we were now enjoying now. Most of them were old enough to have remembered some were not, but they were there too and showed us respect and so the legacy of what had happened there had been passed on to them by their fathers or grandfathers.
There are Europeans around that remember. This was one of several experiences I had during my six weeks supporting Osprey. I drove all over the area where that battle occurred and got to look over so much of the ground I had read and studied about. We got a personal tour of Belgums national war museum and I actually got to touch the sleeve of one of Napoleons uniform coats and had many other wonderful experiences in that museum. I never understood how little Napoleon really was until I saw his uniform. I had read about it of course but to see that uniform really brought it home like nothing else could have. I’ll bet I was larger than him when I was 8 years old!
I had a similar experience in Italy also. But that story will have to wait until later.
Anyway, when a Special Forces ‘A’ team, like the one I was on, deploys for training or anything else, like our support mission for Osprey they take what they need with them of their personal and team equipment and the rest is inventoried and packed away in locked wooden or metal boxes and placed out ready to be put on aluminum palates for immediate air shipment. This is done in the event that the team is called to deploy for a “real world” mission while they are away training so their equipment can be shipped to their location, where ever they are going to stage for the mission, as efficiently as quickly as possible.
Included in the standard SF team equipment was a radiation warfare kit. Among the various items in this kit were two “doseimeters”. Doseimeters do the same function and the radiation badges that people that work in places where they may be exposed do except these little devices that are about the size and shape of an old fountain pen are reusable. They measure the cumulative amount of radiation they are exposed to in “rads” between the time they were last calibrated and “zeroed” and when they are read.
We did not take our radiation warfare kit with us to Belgium. The items in the kit were packed in their rubberized canvas cases which in turn were packed inside of one of those supposedly airtight metal breifcase things, which in turn was packed inside of a heavy plywood wooden box. That box along with every thing else was layed out and stacked ready for shippment on our “team room” floor.
Our “team room” was located in the first underground floor of the huge quadrangle of Flint Kasserne which was built by the Nazis during WW II as an SS officers training school. This huge quadrangle building was of heavy steel reinforced concrete construction with 4 above ground floors over our team room topped off with a typical red tile Bavarian style roof. There was a small “well window” in the team room.
When we got back both dosimeters read 5 rads! The commo man, who’s responsibility it was to pack the dosimeters swore that as per SOP he had calibrated both dosimeters and zeroed them before they were packed away.
De Oppresso Liber
Rah ,
What a Wonderful and Interesting Story ! Thank You So Much for Sharing Your Experiences !
Merriest Christmas to You and Yours ?
Since we celebrate Christmas on both the eve and the day I would like to take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas to all here and to all that keep this site running and so great. It really has expanded my horizons and I am eternally grateful.
Today some of the kids will be here to celebrate with Sherry and I and then typically on Christmas day we go to my Dads house to celebrate with him and all my siblings and their families. I won’t be going to that part that year for obvious reasons.
Peace on earth and Goodwill to all of you and may your Christmas be all that desire it to be.
Prays for your health, Rah! Merry Christmas to you and loved ones.
Merry Christmas to you as well, rah!
Merry Christmas, rah! Hope you are recovering well from your surgery.
THE HIDDEN LIFE
“Your life is hid with Christ in God.” Col. iii. 3
The Spirit of God witnesses to the simple almighty security of the life hid with Christ in God and this is continually brought out in the Epistles. We talk as if it were the most precarious thing to live the sanctified life; it is the most secure thing, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most precarious thing is to try and live without God. If we are born again it is the easiest thing to live in right relationship to God and the most difficult thing to go wrong, if only we will heed God’s warnings and keep in the light.
When we think of being delivered from sin, of being filled with the Spirit, and of walking in the light, we picture the peak of a great mountain, very high and wonderful, and we say – “Oh, but I could never live up there!” But when we do get there by God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak, but a plateau where there is ample room to live and to grow. “Thou hast enlarged my steps under me.”
When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When He says – “Let not your heart be troubled,” if you see Him I defy you to trouble your mind, it is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. “My peace I give unto you,” it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. “Your life is hid with Christ in God,” and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.
Oswald Chambers
December 24th Devotional
Funny, my post was ‘moderated’ out.
Thank you again Sundance and admins for all of the work involved in almost flawlessly migrating to our new Treehouse. Although I’m concerned for a few Treepers who for some reason have not yet made the transition, I’m finding CTH 2 to be very comfortable. I especially like the ‘edit’ function.
One request which I think is already on the ‘to do’ list: I appreciated the notification which we could receive when a comment was ‘liked’ or replied to. No response told me that my post was redundant, misplaced, or otherwise inadequate.
Thank you again for a wonderful site.
May God bless and keep you and yours.
Merry Christmas
Viganò: Vatican’s Nativity Scene Is Obscene
No one endowed with common sense would identify the horrible statues in St Peter’s Square with a Nativity scene, Archbishop Viganò observes in a December 22 statement.
He calls the Nativity figures disturbing “totems” and “obscene ceramic statues” in which there isn’t anything Christian.
https://gloria.tv/post/8a4A7Y7QmZPpDNkNrvpVNPgqX
Wasn’t last year’s a mess, too? They put up some sort of pagan mess.
https://twitter.com/Jord_45/status/1341749353338134534?s=20
Bless our first family, what a wonderful photo.
Melania looks exhausted. POTUS looks tired but able.
Good bless this family.
Melania is probably happy to be away from D.C.
Merry Christmas and a video to enjoy!
. . . but deliver us from the Evil One.
Prayer of Saint Ioannikios the Great (+ 846)
My hope is the Father, my refuge the Son, my protection the Holy Spirit. O Holy Trinity, glory to Thee.
The Jesus Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.
http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/pr_prayer.aspx
Just wanted to let all know, there is some kindness left in America. Last night my wife and I participated in a great show of support for a small 4 year old boy who has cancer. He was allowed to come home from St. Life’s for his last Christmas. God Bless all who organized and participated. #jeepsforgeorgie. Guinness World Record turnout type of event. Please visit on social media and need outlets for information. We helped make a difference for one small not during Christmas. God Bless America, and all of us Jeepers.
St. Judes. Spellchecker got me, AGAIN.
Gab TV just opened:
https://tv.gab.com/channel/dennis_rucker/view/people-are-awesome-2020-5fe4a85186130acf836a3c6a
I’ve been enjoying Gab.com alternative to Twitter.
I heard about that, it’s fantastic, weather. Gab is the place! I haven’t signed on yet, I’ve been watching the tutorials and prepping for a new computer and a new path in the New Year. Merry Christmas to you!
Thank you Margot, and Merry Christmas to you and yours.
I signed up with Gab to support him and have not been disappointed in how Andrew Torba spends the $$’s. He’s a very interesting young man…here’s his story:
https://news.gab.com/2020/11/28/who-is-gab-founder-andrew-torba/
Gab TV will be a refreshing alternative to YouTube!
Thank you for that, weather. It’s interesting to me that he hails from the area where my father’s side of the family is from. And his father has been a Fed-Ex courier in the Pocono Mountains for 30 years! Wow, that’s not an easy area to service. I look forward to being on Gab after the first of the year. Hope to see you there!
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I’ve written how my father Roy, 81, (a Ham Radio operator), died unexpectedly in his sleep last week, in my home. While going through his papers I was touched to find this article he had clipped:
This WSJ editorial was written in 1949 by the late Vermont Royster and has been published annually since.
It touched me to my core:
In Hoc Anno Domini
When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.
Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.
But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression—for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?
There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?
Read the rest…
https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-hoc-anno-domini-11608765784
This is a very sad Christmas for me. My mother passed away in the fall of 2019 and I miss her terribly. My father who will turn 86 in February has been locked down in his assited living facility since last March, without any visitors allowed. His memory is going and we don’t know how long he will even recognize us kids. The last time I spoke with him on the phone he said he wanted to get out of there and live with me, he would pay all the bills, etc. Then he talked about walking out of the facility to a car dealership so he could buy a new car (he no longer drives). Then of course he talked about how much he misses my mother (they were married 60 years). Poor man is going through his memories of all the things he liked to do. His grandkids are right there in Chicago nearby but they are not even allowed to go see him as the facility lockdown is absolute. It makes me terribly sad especially as the holidays at Thanksgiving and Christmas were always such enjoyable times for our small family. Of which there is hardly anything left as my mother’s only sister passed in 2017 and my father’s only brother passed in 2018. He is the only one left. And he is forced to live out his days alone in virtual prison. I’m finding it hard to feel very Christmas-y today. Sorry to be such a downer.
Will… your family is in my prayers.
Thank you, wondering. Merry Christmas to all…
Will, can you get an attorney and get him the hell out of there NOW???!!! No matter the cost of private home care, get him with family!!
Sadly we just moved him to that facility from another one in Wisconsin. Not much we can do at this point. But thank you for your thoughts. Merry Christmas.
I posted this in the past on the old site. If you feel down or despair about the future, as I am sure many do its ok. I had soldiers under me, that in trying times I could see it in their eyes as well when things looked desperate. If you are reading on this site, you are made of stronger stuff, as my men were, the sense of community helps to smooth the anxiety. Remember as emphasized in the prayer “Thy will be done”, God knows what is best, it’s our job to stand up and rejoice in that, no matter the outcome.
After World War II, the Communist Party assumed control of Romania. Once the Communists came to power, they proceeded to co-opt the Church. They spoke of love and tolerance, but these words masked their true intentions.
Those Christians (including the clergy) who did not have a strong Biblical foundation were easily deceived and many who did were intimidated into silence.
After the takeover, the Romanian Communists convened a congress of four thousand priests, pastors, and ministers of all denominations in their Parliament building with the proceedings being carried in a national radio broadcast. One by one, the ministers got up and had nothing but words of praise for communism and assured the new government of the loyalty of the Christian Church.
One of the pastors scheduled to speak was a man named Richard Wurmbrand. As he listened and waited, his wife Sabina leaned over to him and said, “They are spitting in the face of Christ. Richard, stand up and wash away this shame.”
He said to her, “If I do so, you lose your husband.” She replied, “I don’t wish to have a coward as a husband.”
So Wurmbrand rose and instead of repeating the same thing every other pastor said, he told the assembly how wrong they were and how this flew in the face of Christian doctrine.
At this point, the broadcast was interrupted and the martyrdom of the Wurmbrands began. Sabina went on to serve eight years in prison while Richard served a total of fourteen years, eight of which were in solitary confinement. As Richard Wurmbrand said,
“In solitary confinement, we could not pray as before. We were unimaginably hungry…The Lord’s Prayer was much too long for us—we could not concentrate enough to say it. My only prayer repeated again and again was, “Jesus, I love You.”
After he and his wife immigrated to the United States, he was called to testify before the United States Senate, stripping to the waist to reveal the scars of eighteen wounds received from frequent tortures. A reporter with the Philadelphia Herald said of Wurmbrand’s time in prison, “He stood in the midst of lions, but they could not devour him.
Very interesting.
Richard Wurmbrand had an inner strength.
The history of Romania during those decades is rather more complex than is generally realized.
For anyone who might be interested, I would recommend a book titled “Resisting Unto Blood” by Constantin Bujor. Itis about the persecution of the traditional Orthodox Christian Church for 65 years.
A short Life of Saint Glicherie of Romania (+ 1985), who suffered at the hands of the Communist atheists as well as the State Church, is shared here.
http://www.brookwoodblogger.blogspot.com/2018/06/saint-glicherie-of-romania.html
Hard to believe she is the AG of MI
https://mobile.twitter.com/MIAttyGen/status/1341745382850748416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1341745382850748416%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2020%2F12%2Ffascist-mi-ag-dana-nessel-threatens-lawyer-released-results-forensic-exam-16-dominion-voting-machines-antrim-co%2F
MERRY CHRISTMAS Everyone…
May God almighty be with each of you this glorious day.
May each of you have a most fulfilling HOLIDAY…
Let us all remember its Christ our saviors birthday and honor it in true prayer blessing …
Thanks for allowing me to sit on one of the lower branch’s to puke my head in every once awhile..
Merry Christmas ,be safe and stay warm..
GOD BLESS…
At Thanksgiving, we were unable to travel. My mom went to my sister’s, and all of my nieces and nephews were able to come in for the holiday there. When we were sitting around talking the night-before, my kids told me about this online game called “Among Us”. It’s a networked game, so once you set it up, up to 10 players can join from anywhere and play in real time on their smart phone, iPad, laptop or PC. We played and laughed for an hour or two, and I thought, “Wouldn’t this be a fun thing to do with the family on Thanksgiving after dinner?”
So we texted and emailed our family back east to set up the approximate start time. Their dinner ran long, but that was fine because we’re 2 hours behind. At any rate, we rotated players in and out for 2-2.5 hours playing this silly game. At the same time, we set up two phones to “FaceTime” (just putting two phones on speaker would have worked just as well, since we couldn’t see everyone anyway) so we could all interact with each other which is a key part of the game. It’s a “whodunit” game where one or more people are the villain and everyone else has to figure out who the villain is.
We had so much fun! So I did a bit more investigating and there are a TON of online games like this. I’m not a gamer like my kids are, so I started looking and there’s Scrabble, Uno, Rummy and a host of other games and most are free. We love to play Rummy, and we play it all the time around the kitchen table with our kids with real cards…but now we can play it online and rope in my mom and other family. Since there are a lot of cheap and easy ways to hold multi-party calls, we can get toasted and play these games together.
I’m not sure what we will play tomorrow, but I think it’s incredibly important to just “be” with people right now, and it doesn’t have to be a long phone call where you wonder if you’re interrupting dinner. With these games, people just wandered in and out (bio-breaks, for example, or just to let someone else have a turn), and it was pretty fun.
So, I know people are feeling a bit isolated from family, but maybe that’s an option to look into. It’s weird at first, and you might have to play a lot of games “open hand” to teach those with less tech savvy. Once I knew how to get my little dude to run around on the screen in Among Us, the rest was just learning tricks to fool people or root out the villain.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. Please use it to recenter, recharge, and plan for what could be tough days ahead. I’ve always loved the opening scene in “White Christmas” for this reason…take a few minutes to appreciate and be grateful for the little things. Home, hearth, faith and family.
A very Merry and Blessed Christmas to All!
Here is my Christmas present to everyone who hasn’t yet read this wonderful information.
https://www.mynaturaltreatment.com/natural-alternatives-to-hydroxychloroquine/
PS – Stay healthy by eating healthy foods that boost your immune system. Use DuckDuckGo or Startpage to search for “foods that boost immune system”
Thank you.
1Thessalonians 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
This is horrifying.
https://nypost.com/2020/11/20/makers-of-grow-your-own-human-steaks-say-meal-kit-is-not-technically-cannibalism/
https://www.ourochef.com/
Apropos of nothing…
Miami is having a cold snap. Forecasters are warning of falling iguanas. When night temps fall into the 30’s and 40’s they become immobile and sometimes fall out of the trees.
Gotta love a state where the bars are open and it rains iguanas!
Perhaps our politicians are iguanas and that’s why they are immobile.
Saturday night Vernon McGee’s sermon “It Was Christmas When Christ Was Crucified” will be broadcast on BBN radio. You can stream it:
https://bbn1.bbnradio.org/english/home/all-programs/conference-pulpit-various-speakers/
Lord, thank you for giving Vernon just a few more years of life so that he could do his five-year Through The Bible talks. It saved countless people.
Just say’n… 😉
Merry Christmas to all;
to all, Merry Christmas.
https://twitter.com/Austin_Zone/status/1342167010864746497