Archive by Author

My First Car~Part 1

10 Feb

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Small Red Plane

 

I believe I have mentioned before that I started working at an early age (see “I was a 12-Year Old Businessman” blog 01/23/2013) because I had big dreams of things I wanted to do. One of those dreams was to own a car that I could work on and call my own (As I was growing up, my mother always told me she thought I was mechanically inclined). If you can believe it, that didn’t seem so far in the future to me, as the law in New Mexico, at the time, allowed a person to get a driver’s license at age 14. I started my dream adventure at around age 10 by mowing lawns with a push mower (In case some of you younger readers don’t know what that is, the mower doesn’t have a motor on it and the power to cut the grass is provided by you).

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By the time I was 12, I had saved enough money to buy a Sears self-propelled gas powered mower (Of course you know what those are, right). I spent a lot of time pushing those mowers around the neighborhood to my various jobs. As my lawn mowing business grew, my parents helped by driving me and my mower to jobs outside our neighborhood.

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My lawn mowing reputation grew and in the winters I had a paper route to help supplement my income. So, by the time I was 14, I hadn’t saved enough money for a car, but I needed better transportation than a bicycle for the paper route and to get around town. Strange thing about this was that my parents didn’t want me to have a car, but they were OK with me having a motorcycle. Go figure! Most parents won’t even talk to their kids about having a motorcycle. So, after I got my driver’s license, I bought a used Harley Davidson 125cc motorcycle. Boy could I carry a lot of newspapers on that machine. And, I could go anywhere in town without breaking a sweat.

3

When I was 16 I got a part-time job as a bag boy with a super market that opened a new store in town. With this job and my paper route, I was making enough money to make payments on a larger motorcycle. My parents helped me buy a new Harley Davidson 165cc motorcycle and now I felt like the “King of the Road” on my bright red cycle. This was the mid-50s and “Fonzie” was a big hit in the “Happy Days” TV show. So of course I had to have the cool “Fad” threads to play the part (leather motorcycle jacket with lots of zippered pockets, Levis jeans with rolled up cuffs, motorcycle boots, and a “Duck Tail” haircut) and complete the scene.

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Now I know it’s hard for some of you to imagine the Bill Lites you know today as ever having been one of those motorcycle bums all those many years ago. And I’m sure that, those of you who know me don’t believe I ever had enough hair for one of those hairdos. Well, just take a look at my sophomore year book photo.

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Now I know, with the title of this blog, you were expecting to hear all about my first car, and it’s coming. I promise. It was a growing process, so hang in there, I’ll get to it (maybe in Part 2). At the super market I worked my way up to “Checker” (Cashier) that paid more and wasn’t near as hard work as carrying out armloads of heavy paper bags full of groceries to customer’s cars (in all kinds of weather), unloading truckloads of heavy boxes (at 4:00 am) and mopping/polishing floors. The lawn mowing jobs and the paper route went to others who would work for less.

—–To Be Continued—–

 

 

 

 

 

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The Bug Man

8 Feb

My Take

DiVoran Lites

 

 

Author, Poet and ArtistWe have a cat that is allergic to fleas, so we had to sign up for a pest control program. Our particular account majors in fleas. Bob, the technician is a nice man. He likes to chat when he goes about his work. Bill is usually here to talk to him, but today I was elected because Bill had another gig.

I watched Bob out the big front window mixing his potions from the back of his truck. He’s not a big man, nor particularly small, not heavy, not thin. He wears glasses and a blue ball-cap as he goes about his work. I’d say he’s in his early 50s. I wondered what he and Bill talked about, but didn’t try to start a conversation.

Our cats, Jasmine and Lily need to stay off the carpets until the insecticide dries, so we put them in their carriers and move them to Bill’s model airplane hangar. When we started the service I stayed with them, played music, worked on my laptop, or painted. They cried the whole time anyway, so I decided to go on my walk while the floors dried.

Today I was sitting at my computer waiting for Bob to finish the spraying. He asked me if I was the artist. Yes, I am, I have my paintings all over the house. That may seem immodest, but sorry, I like them and so does Bill. I think other people do too.

Bob liked a picture in the “studio” which used to be the garage. It’s a pastel of a painted bunting. He could hardly believe it when I said, “Let’s see if there’s one on the feeder now.” Unfortunately, none was, but as you can tell from the picture they are a beautiful bird. The male is multi-colored and the female is green, the only green bird in Florida. When I told him that he said,”We have green parrots beachside in Melbourne.” They have a distinctive squawk, but I like them okay.”

Bunting

Painted Bunting by DiVoran

Oh, yes, parrots. I’ve seen them here in Titusville, too. They lived in holes in palm-trees, but I don’t think they’re here anymore. They’re considered exotics. The painted buntings are migratory and are here for the winter with their little green wives. They vie for seeds with the bigger birds and the cardinals seem reluctant to take them on. We talked about the other exotics in Florida. We both shivered at the thought of the huge iguanas we’ve heard about down south that fell from the trees one year when the weather got too cold for them. I remembered, too, that down there they have boa constrictors whose parents escaped from zoos during hurricanes and bred more boa constrictors. The climate of south Florida suits them fine.

Fast Facts (from National Geographic site)

Type:

Reptile

Diet:

Carnivore

Average life span in the wild:

20 to 30 years

Size:

13 ft (4 m)

Weight:

60 lbs (27 kg)

Group name:

Bed or knot

Did you know?

Some South Americans keep boas in their houses to control rat infestations.

 

Bob got down to business when we moved to the kitchen. He said the flea repellents people get from their vets are almost eradicating fleas in homes and the younger techs don’t know how to spray for them. We moved here in 1965 and had nothing to combat them with so I fully appreciate that.

Bob says the nemesis is now sugar ants. Ooh, we’ve got some of those. Actually, I originally brought them in by letting the cat food sit on the porch and collect them. They are only about as big as a period. I opened the cupboard and showed Bob the diatomaceous-earth powder I’ve sprinkled on the shelves. He seemed truly interested. I asked what the pest control guys use inside the cupboards, and he said, “We don’t put anything inside the cupboard. We use non-repellant insecticide outside and the ants carry it into the nests and contaminate them. I’ve been doing that for you here.” He said. I thanked him.

I was flabbergasted. I wondered why we hadn’t had to move out of the house because of those scamps and all the time Bob had us covered. It kind of reminds you of God, doesn’t it?

 

 

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Five promises to erase loneliness

6 Feb

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

Janet Eckles Perez

 

I zipped my suitcase shut. And my 4’10”, white-haired Mom walked in. “I worry about you traveling alone,” she said. “Someone will be staying with you in the hotel, right?”

I imagine having her blind daughter travel to another country by herself concerns her.

“Sure,” I reassure her to erase worry because after all, traveling to speaking engagements is one of the passions I have.

Although I’ll have no human accompany me, I’ll have someone better—the Holy Spirit.

Think I’m kidding? God’s way to make sure we’re never alone and know how to conquer loneliness is true.

How else can I, being blind, navigate through hotel rooms, unpack, find the bathroom, get ready and sing with confidence while doing it?

I admit. Sometimes, temptation to feel lonely tries to slip in. But I have found five ways to conquer it:

  1. In the hotel room of loneliness, the Holy Spirit is the concierge to meet all our needs.

  2. His presence is certain.

  3. His protection is constant.

  4. His companionship is sweet

  5. His comfort is forever.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16).

Father, sometimes even when surrounded with people, the loneliness is cruel. But thank you for filling the void. For bringing reassurance to every moment. For whispering protection and provision. Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit, for we know you’re present now, and you’ll be present in the happenings of our tomorrows. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Be sure to visit Janet’s website to read the rest of the blog.  Five promises to erase loneliness. | Janet Perez Eckles

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Reflections of the Heart: When Does One Grow Old?

5 Feb

From the Heart

Louise Gibson

Louise Gibson

 

I woke up in the morning,

mind refreshed and full of hope.

There is so much I want to do-

all within my scope.

 

My mind is willing, my mind alert-

I’ll spring right out of bed.

My mind is saying, “Go girl!”

but my back says, “Whoa”, instead.

 

Ego! Yes, ego is the culprit

in this aging game we play.

I don’t mind saying , “I’m 78,”

But, getting old???”No way!”

 

Happiness is an inside job.It stems from-3

Source: Reflections of the Heart: When Does One Grow Old?

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Circle of Fire

3 Feb

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

Bill Small Red Plane

It’s amazing how much trouble young boys can get into when not supervised! I remember one very dangerous thing my friends and I came up with one summer evening. Our neighborhood was laid out with alleys behind the houses for city trash pickup. We would station one boy near the entrance of the ally to alert us when a car was coming our way down the busy side-street. We would take an old discarded automobile tire and pour some gasoline in it. We would wait until our lookout gave us the signal that he had gaged the speed of the next car coming down the street would get to our alley. We would set the gasoline on fire and, without any regard as to what hazards we could be creating, would roll the flaming circle of fire out of the ally into the path of that oncoming car.

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Can you imagine the shock of the driver when that flaming circle came rolling out of nowhere, right across the street in front their car. Of course we were long gone before the driver had time to stop his car, and get out to see what was going on. In most cases the driver was able to stop before he hit the tire, and it rolled on across the street to hit the far curb and just fall over.

2

Sometimes the driver was going faster than we thought, and the car went past the tire missing it entirely. And then sometimes the driver was quick enough to swerve around the flaming tire without hitting it.   It never dawned on us that if some driver couldn’t stop fast enough, and hit that flaming tire, that gasoline could splash onto the front of their car and cause a major incident.

4

Or, if a driver over-reacted, and swerved into the curb or into oncoming traffic, what a terrible accident we could have caused. We just thought it would be fun to scare the drivers and see how they reacted to that sudden horrific sight.

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Of course, if we had caused one of those accidents, we could have found ourselves in jail for a long time. Luckily, nothing like that ever happened and we were never caught in that mischievous act. One of the more dangerous games some teenagers in our town played (not me) was called “Ditch’em.” This game usually consisted of at least two car loads of (sometimes drunk) teenagers chasing each other around on neighborhood streets with their lights “off.” This potentially fatal game did, in my recollection in the town where I grew up, cause the death of one young girl who was hit by one of these cars one night while crossing a street on the way to a friend’s house.

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This is why, in his book “Making a Good Brain Great” Dr. Daniel Amen says our brains are still maturing as teenagers and really don’t fully mature until around age 25 or 26. This means we don’t have the decision making capability when we are teenagers, and why we do some of the crazy things we do. After we become adults, we usually can look back on our teenage years and wonder how we could have done some of the harmful and dangerous things we did.

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I never knew any of the people we scared when I was taking part in those “Circle of Fire” episodes when I was a young person, but I would like to personally apologize for the part I played. I have asked God to forgive me for my part and I hope whoever those people were, that they can also forgive me, even at this late date.

 

—–The End—–

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Five reassuring truths to conquer stress. | Janet Perez Eckles

30 Jan

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

Janet Eckles Perez

What were they thinking? The Israelites had God by their side. They had food shower from heaven. And they counted on God’s protection against those awful Egyptians. But as they shuffled through the desert, were they grateful? Not really. Check out how they react.

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14: 10-14)

Those last words from Moses should be enough to calm the heart and soothe the soul with reassurance. But it wasn’t for them. And, so sadly, often it’s not enough for us either.

So when we flee from the Egyptians of stress, uncertainty and anxiety, we can count on these five reassuring truths:

  1. We know God is aware of the battles we face and of the enemies of anxiety that chase us through the desert of life.
  2. We recognize those battles are beyond our human capability to conquer. They require a God-size warrior to defeat them.
  3. Acknowledge we’re not abandoned. But rather, God is powerfully present in our every encounter with adversity, of disappointment and of setbacks.
  4. We receive His invitation to win the battle for us. When we step aside and allow Him to do what only He can do, triumph is the next step.
  5. Rather than wring our hands, fret and worry, we engrave this in our heart: “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

For Janet’s closing comments visit her blog:  Five reassuring truths to conquer stress. | Janet Perez Eckles

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Reflections of the Heart: Somewhere

29 Jan

From the Heart

Louise Gibson

Louise Gibson

Somewhere there is a place for me

A place I have a need to be.

A new plateau, a goal to meet-

Purpose, direction, without defeat.

Oh, God, give me strength to greet each day

With a cheerful countenance, don’t let me sway.

Please let me focus on the issues of life

That bring joy to others-

to relieve their strife.

To have victory over the enemy called Fear-

the energy and stamina to persevere.

Blue with Sea Shell copy

Painting by DiVoran Lites

Source: Reflections of the Heart: February 2007

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Five Reasons Not to Fear a Power Pressure Cooker

28 Jan

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

Five Reasons Not to Fear a Power Pressure Cooker

Did you know there is an overwhelming about of articles and blog post on how to generate more traffic, thus more readers to a blog? Many have the same advice- give readers a reason to read your blog. They suggest a blog post have titles like 5 Easy Ways too…… or 3 Simple Hacks….

I suppose it is good advice since, I tend to be tempted into reading how to posts. I decided to attempt to follow this model, but for the life of me, I couldn’t think of anyway to turn my rambling words into bullet points. I cast my eyes over the house, surely there is something here I can write a few bullet points about. Inspiration escaped me until I saw my favorite Christmas gift, a Power Pressure Cooker XL. I love this pot!

I grew up using a pressure cooker and I am completely comfortable with them but most of my friends think they are scary. I currently own three pressure cookers, a large one and a standard sized one at our home in North Carolina  and a standard one we have at our daughter’s house in Florida. ( I cook her meals during the winter to earn my keep.)

So why would I need another pressure cooker? Because this one is cool! No really, it is cool. The steam remains in the cooker. In Florida, keeping the house cool with minimal A/C use is important to one in my “time of life. Meals that usually require using the oven, I can pop into the Power Pressure Cooker, no heat and cooks fast too.

See, it doesn’t look scary at all!

So here we go, my five reasons to not fear a power pressure cooker!

  • No more scary sounds- Have you been traumatized by the hiss and jiggle of traditional pressure cookers? Fear no more. The new electric power pressure cooker is pleasantly silent except for  an occasional bump as the pot builds  pressure.
  • It’s a rice cooker– Yes, it cooks rice.  It has a rice setting with 3 sub settings for White Rice, Brown Rice, and Wild Rice. These individual sub settings are program specify for each rice with time and pressure.
  • It’s a slow cooker– Have you ever wished your slow cooker had a delayed timer? Well this one does! Of course it turns off automatically once the cooking time has ended, then it goes into stay warm mode.
  • Set it and forget it-If you have used a pressure cooker in the past, you know that you have to keep an eye on the cooker until it begins to jiggle, then adjust the heat to make sure it jiggles at the correct frequency. ( Ok, explaining jiggle frequency is just too weird.)
  • Great meals- A power pressure cooker is 70% faster than oven or stove top methods. The literature claims more nutrients are retained in the food, due to the shorter cooking time. I don’t measure nutrition so I can’t back this claim up but I can tell you, everything I have cooked in mine tastes great!

Our daughter Rebekah, loves Italy and after reading  Under The Tuscan Sun-At Home in Italy,  she bought The Tuscan Sun Cookbook-Recipes from Our Italian Kitchen by Edward and Frances Mayes. Last night I made a recipe from the book and adapted it for the Power Cooker. On a funny note,when I went online in hopes of locating the recipe so I could copy/paste, I found it on the AARP website! I am sharing it and making notes on how I modified the recipe.

Chicken With Artichokes, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Chickpeas

INGREDIENTS

  • 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • 3 chicken breasts, halved, skin on ( I used 4 chicken thighs, skin on. I think chicken breasts are very unforgiving.)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • ½ cup red wine
  • ¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 2 cups cooked chickpeas ( I used one can of chickpeas, drained)
  • 2 14-ounce cans water-packed artichoke hearts, drained ( I used quartered ones, canned of course)
  • ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, slivered, or 1 cup sliced oven-roasted tomatoes (I soaked these in the ½ cup of wine for 30 minutes)
  • ¼ cup fresh thyme or fresh marjoram leaves or 2 tablespoons dried
  • ½ cup black or green olives, pitted

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Nope, no heating the oven for me!

Over medium-low heat, in a large, enameled ovenproof pot with a lid, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Sauté the onion, and after about 3 minutes, remove it to a medium bowl.

I  pressed the chicken meat button, added 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sautéd the onions for two minutes.

Season the chicken breasts with the salt and pepper. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil to the pot, raise the heat to medium-high, and brown the chicken for 3 minutes per side. Add the wine, bring it quickly to a boil and then turn the heat off immediately.

I didn’t change the settings, just put the meat in and browned it for about 4 minutes. Since I had soaked the tomatoes in the wine, I strained the tomatoes and put the wine in the pot to bring to a boil. Once it boiled, I lifted the inner pot out of the cooker and set it aside.

Combine the onion with the parsley, chickpeas, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, thyme and olives. Spread the combined vegetables over the chicken, and bake, covered, for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces, turning the chicken once. Serve right from the pot or transfer to a platter.

No baking for me! Once all the ingredients were together, I put the inner pot back in the cooker, changed the setting to soup/stew and left it alone.(I chose that setting since the meal seemed liked a stew. Once it pressurized, the cooking time was 6 minutes.

Another nice thing about this pot is that once cooking  completed, it remained in the warm cycle while I put the finishing touches to the rest of the meal

And it was wonderful!! This is the photo as shown in the book.

 

Thank You AARP for posting recipes from the cookbook. Click this  link to view this recipe as well as as others.

My daughter found a great deal on my Power Pressure Cooker XL at Kohl’s. It was on sale plus 30% off and she used Kohl’s Cash. It is also on Amazon and comes in 6, 8 and 10 quart size. Mine is a 6 quart and a good size for a small family.

Now that I have followed blogging advice, I simply need to sit back and watch our reader numbers soar…..right?

I would like to hear your pressure cooker stories. What is your favorite food to cook in one? Or share your fears and scary stories.

 

 

 

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That Hot Loaf of Bread

27 Jan

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill Red Spot Plane

 

My family moved from Dallas, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico when I was six years old.   I went to grade school at Monte Vista Elementary School there in Albuquerque. As I remember it, I was not the most cooperative student. I spent many sessions in the Principal’s office for a myriad of reasons.

1

Some of those visits required a stern vocal reprimand by the Principle, while others required more severe physical action, which many of you may also remember. Over the years, I’m sure there were the occasions of someone hitting someone and some pigtail pulling, that caused me to visit the principal’s office.

2

But there is one episode that I remember most vividly. My best friend and I cooked up this very creative way to skip school. We would take our sack lunches and sneak away from the playground during morning recess while no one was watching, and have the whole day free to go and do anything we wanted. Boy, were we clever! Of course it didn’t take long before we got hungry and were looking for a hiding place to eat our lunches. We picked the top of a garage (flat roof) only a couple blocks from the school that we accessed from a low fence in a back alley. We were sure no one could see us as there were big trees on either side of the garage to hide us.

3

While we were eating, the owner of the house saw us and called the school to advise them that there were two boys on his garage roof that looked like they should be in school. Great plans don’t always work great! As it turned out we had really picked the wrong garage roof to eat our lunch. Not only was the owner at home, but it just so happened that it was my family’s pastor’s house. The truant officer took us to the principal’s office and our parents were called. That was one of those cases where I got (you know what) at school and again when I got home.

4

On a lighter note, I have many fond memories of my time in grade school. One of the most memorable is when I was in 6th grade. Just up the street from our school was a small bakery, and when the wind was from that direction, the smell of freshly baking bread made my mouth water. One of our school field trips was a tour of that bakery. We got to see how bread was made; from the hand mixing of the dough (with long metal spatulas) in large stainless steel tubs, to how the dough was left to rise in individual bread pans, then baked in a huge rotating oven, and finally how the finished loaf was sliced and automatically wrapped. It was all really amazing to me and the rest of the class.

5

After that experience I spent a lot of my spare time at the bakery watching the bakers work, and talking to them about the different stages of the bread making process. They were all very friendly to this inquisitive 12-year old. They didn’t run me off, and let me watch as long as I wanted. They told me about all the good ingredients, and how good bread was for a growing boy like me. I bet I ate a lot more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after that. While I was in 6th grade, one of my favorite things to do (when I could afford it) was to buy a 15-cent loaf of warm unsliced bread from the bakery and eat the middle out of it. You know how kids don’t like the crust, right?   It’s amazing how wasteful kids can be, but I just couldn’t seem to stay away from that bakery. Of course all that came to an end when I moved to Junior High school the next year.

6

However, I still love the smell of freshly baked bread, and it always reminds me of that time in my life when I would look forward to making another trip to that small local bakery. I can just smell and taste it now. Yummm!

 

The End

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Love to Read?

26 Jan

On the Porch

Special Editon

Onisha Ellis

I'm a winner

Hi friends,

I love to read, always have since I was in second grade. You could call it a life long passion. It’s funny now, when parents are begging their children to read, but as a chid, I was always getting in trouble for having my nose stuck in a book. Reading all the time could be why I was a late bloomer in my social skills.

Little girl dream

This week, a Clean Indie Reads, one of my favorite Facebook groups is having a book sale with 140 eBooks offered at free, discounted or everyday low price. I love this group of authors.  They have set themselves to prove there is a market for fiction that does not rely on course language, sex and gore and they are succeeding!

You can click the picture below or click HERE to visit the sale page.

2016 mid winter 140 books

Usually, my daughter, Rebekah Lyn would have at least one book in the sale, but sigh, I procrastinated too long. If you would like to take a look at her Christian fiction novels, she is on Amazon and the first book in her Seasons of Faith series, Summer Storms eBook  is currently free.

Seasons of Florida fiction winter collage

Did you know our talented and sweet DiVoran Lites also has a novel series also available on Amazon and at the Titusville Book Rack

The Florida Springs Trilogy

Available on Amazon and at The Titusville Book Rack

DiVoran and Rebekah would be delighted if you would stop by their book website.

Rebekah Lyn Books

After my rambling, I am re-posting the link to the CIR Mid Winter Sale.

HERE

Cozy up mid winter sale 2016

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