Will Caribou off 175th & Hwy 50 at 10:00 work?

I went to several stores over the past few days to check out the 3 game consoles I've been considering and after much thought, Wii U is the one. PlayStation 4 wasn't going to work because one of the things we enjoy most about video games is being able to compete at the same time. The only racing games for PS4 were single-player. Xbox has two-player racing games but after trying the demo at BestBuy I walked away a little disappointed with the feel of it because (get this) it was almost too serious/realistic looking. We both like the Mario Kart cartoon look and feel. Plus, Wii is cheaper. I'll be going back to the Target store in Apple Valley in the next few days to make the purchase. There was a young guy there who spent at least 20 minutes with me, helping me to understand the pluses and minuses of each console. I left the electronics department so impressed with him that I dialed the store from my car on the way home to tell the manager of my experience.

I had a friend from work (can I still say that?) contact me last week to see if I'd be interested in meeting him at a coffee shop to chat for a while. We had been discussing things in private messages on Facebook, things both political and religious in nature and he felt it would be best if we sat across from one another to continue our discussion. I could not have agreed more.

We met last Friday morning for 2.5 hours at a Caribou Coffee shop 5 minutes from home. We covered a lot of territory beginning with some small talk about work but eventually got around to some of what we'd been discussing in our PMs. He expressed to me his concern about the things I'd been posting both here in my blog and on Facebook. I pressed him for specifics but he couldn't come up with any. I was sort of putting him on the spot and I didn't really mean to but I was curious about what it was I was sharing that had him so frustrated with me. The last thing I want to do is contribute in any way to the heap of bogus and misleading information. There's so much of that out there as it is. (See the image to the left that a friend posted this morning.)

We talked calmly about those things we disagree on and I did my best to give him some insight into why I'm where I am with my beliefs; that I'm not some knee-jerk liberal who doesn't think before speaking. I stressed that I choose my words carefully and that I don't write things to infuriate people although I realize that that's going to occasionally happen. If I really want to reach people I need to be less abrasive but as I've always maintained: I do this blog for me. If others like what I write here, great—if not, that's okay, too.

My friend also has some beliefs that I don't consider mainstream conservative Christian beliefs that impressed me.

I much prefer meeting as we did rather than battling it out with our keyboards. There's a human quality that becomes a victim to our need to make a point without being able to look one another in the eye and that's never good. I hope we can meet again and continue our discussion.

I took the pups to the vet today for their way overdue annual checkup. Toby and Allie were 12 years old last August and they're beginning to show their age. They both have cloudy eyes and Toby is nearly deaf. They also struggle with joint pain, especially in the morning. That was my main concern today along with finding them some relief. The doctor gave me a month's supply of 25 mg of Carprofen pills for them. I gave them their first dose a couple hours ago and noticed when I just let them outside that Allie didn't hesitate as she usually does at the top of the steps leading off our front porch. She bolted down the way she used to without hesitation or the nagging pain. It was nice to see.

I'll close this blog post with a video that seems very appropriate for the times and for those who are so quick to discount the Qu'ran as a book of hate and lump all or lots of Muslims in with that warped belief. When I hear people criticize the Qu'ran for its passages about killing the infidels or whatever, I have to wonder if they've ever read the Old Testament of the bible that many of them claim to follow. I'm pretty sure they haven't and the video below illustrates so clearly why I feel that way.


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