Would YOU wear this T-shirt in a deep red small town in a deep red State? This is what I'm wearing..

[Ghost in the Machine]

31. No, just lightweight cotton... I don't think I'd need kevlar around here, anyways. I actually got

quite a few laughs out of it, from people that I *know* are republicans! I didn't have any bad experiences at all, really. I wound up at the lake for a little while, sitting on the boat dock with my cousin who was there fishing. A bass boat came in with 2 guys in it, and one got out to back the trailer down. We could tell right away that the guy driving the boat didn't know what he was doing, as he couldn't even line the boat up with the trailer to get it on.

After his second attempt, and us hearing him tell his friend "this isn't MY kind of fishing, I'm just going to sell the boat because this is too much work", I noticed that the rear of his boat was floating towards the dock, in shallow water where his prop was about to hit the concrete ramp under the water. I ran over, laid down on the dock and pushed the back of his boat back out towards deeper water. He finally got it in reverse and started backing up, but wasn't watching the FRONT of his boat. I had to push IT away to keep it from hitting the dock.

He finally got it on the trailer, and told his friend to get back in the truck and go ahead and pull him out. That's when I had to remind him to tilt his motor up, or he would be eating his prop up getting pulled out. He trimmed the motor up and finally got the boat out of the water. When he got out of the boat, he came over and thanked me then, and I don't know if was because of the shirt or not, he asked me "Are you Saved?" I just looked at him and said "From what?". He said "Jesus is coming back soon, I can feel it in the air! Look at everything that's going on around the world right now". I told him that I was "Spiritual, but did not subscribe to organized religion".

He started talking about getting rid of his boat again and said "See this boat? I don't even NEED it because Jesus is going to be back soon!" I told him "Well, I just live about 5 miles up the road, if you don't NEED it, you can stop by and just park it in my yard". He said "do you have $5,000?". I said "No, but if you're really sure that Jesus is coming back very soon, you can't take the boat, or the money, with you and someone that is left behind is just going to claim it anyways, along with your truck, your house and everything else that you have, aren't they?"

He got a strange look over his face, like that had really hit home and said "that was something that I had never thought of before" then said "well, we have to get going, good luck to you guys". I said "thank you, and have a Blessed day!" He kind of smiled and drove off. My cousin, who is a church-going christian, looked at me and said "you handled that very nicely, Cuz, I'm proud of you. I really LOVED it when you told him to have a Blessed day!" My cousin used to be an atheist, but as an Engineer for the railroad, he had 7 people in 18 years either jump, or park on the tracks, in front of his train. The last one derailed the train, flipped it on its side, and slid for a long way. He was thrown down in the cabin, and was being crushed by the dirt and gravel coming through. He could barely breathe and was afraid that he was going to die. He said that he started thinking about his wife and kids, and just started to pray out of nowhere.... he didn't even know how to pray. He said that he blacked out a couple of times, but started praying again as soon as he came to. He was fighting just to get small breaths, and was just about to just let go and quit trying when he heard voices, then there was a lot of people there furiously digging him out. He blacked out again, and woke up in the back of an ambulance with an oxygen mask on.

His wife was already a church-goer, and she took the kids every Sunday. When he recovered enough, he started joining them. I do not begrudge him his faith one bit, nor do I begrudge anyone else, as long as they aren't trying to cram it down my throat, which my cousin never does. He is also a staunch Democrat, as his father and mine were in the same Union together. My dad just got his 60 year Pin back in November, his dad will get his 60 year Pin this year.

Sorry for such a long post, but I don't usually reply to everyone when I post because I usually just post news items. I will be answering others though, since I asked a question, and I am just going to refer them to this post number, so I don't have to keep repeating myself.

Peace to you and yours,

Ghost