Do you remember the old Bible story about how Jesus fed the multitudes with just a few loaves of bread and two fish? How did he make so little last for so long? I guess the only explanation was that it was a miracle.
It seems that we have a couple of much smaller miracles happening here. Okay, so they aren’t really miracles, but like those loaves and bread and those fish, they seem to go on forever.
I usually go through a toner cartridge for my HP laser printer about every three months. Typically I will get a notification saying that the toner cartridge is getting low, and past experience has taught me I can squeeze out another two or three weeks on it before the type starts getting too light and I have to replace it.
So back in late December when I got a message on my computer screen from my printer that it was getting low on toner, I ordered a new cartridge from Amazon. Using our Prime membership, it was here in just a couple of days. So I sat it on the bookshelf in my office, where it would be handy when I needed it. And it’s still sitting there. And though every time I print something a message pops up on my screen that my toner cartridge is dangerously low, it just keeps chugging along turning out crisp, clear pages. I’m not complaining, those things are not cheap and I hope it keeps on doing the job for a while longer.
The other similar “miracle” is a small flashlight that used to sit on Terry’s side of the bed in our Winnebago motorhome. I’m not sure how we missed it when we put the RV in storage back in late October, but when we were packing for recent trip Terry noticed that the flashlight was where she had left it in the motorhome, and it was on. She tried to turn it off, but something is wrong with the button and it won’t shut off. And we can’t unscrew it to take the battery out for some reason. It’s just a cheap little penlight and I suspect there is some corrosion on the threads holding it in place.
Since we were busy packing the rig for our trip, I told Terry to set it aside and I would mess with it later. Well, later never came and I figured eventually the battery would go dead, but the darn thing is still on! As far as I know, it was on all the while it was in the RV, since neither one of us turned it on and we didn’t even notice it was on until it got dark the first night. That’s been over two weeks ago. So now it’s sitting on Terry’s desk and we are just wondering how long it will last. Okay, so they’re not miracles, but can we call them almost miracles?
By the way, speaking of the Biblical bread above, ever since we started fulltiming way back in 1999, we would occasionally see loaves of bread on the side of the highway. Not just one, but sometimes a dozen or more stretched out over a couple of miles. If this had happened once, or even twice, we might think some unfortunate bread truck driver lost his load. But we have seen it many times. The first time was in Texas, then someplace in Oklahoma, then Iowa or Illinois (those I states start to run together in my head), and in Michigan. Those are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head, but I’m sure there have been others. What’s that all about?
Before I close for today, Miss Terry wants to thank everybody who sent her birthday greetings through the blog, email, instant messaging, Facebook and with telephone calls. You all made her feel really special. Of course, I already knew she was really special.
Over 130 people have already entered our latest Free Drawing and I’m not surprised, because we have a great prize this week, a one year subscription to www.OvernightRVParking.com. This is a great resource for RVers, listing well over 13,000 free places where you can park overnight. It’s a $24.95 value and it could be yours free if you’re our lucky winner. To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.
Thought For The Day – Hurt me with the truth, but never comfort me with a lie.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Nick, here’s one answer to your loaves of bread scattered over the roadsides. We used to stop at one of those discount bread stores where the left-over day old bread and cakes were on sale. After several days there, we saw several times that a hog farmer or someone like that would come and load all the left-over bread that didn’t sell into the back of a pick up truck and take off. If the load was very high and since they didn’t secure it in any way, it was logical that if they hit a bump, or the wind caught it just right that several loaves could blow off the load. We’ve watched that happen. The farmer doesn’t see it, so he doesn’t know he’s even lost it.
We’ve seen people scattering old loaves of bread in parks to feed the animals. this actually is harmful to wildlife, because it makes them more dependent on human interaction, but people do it.
Oh my Goshk !
I missed Miss Terry’s Birthday ?
I’m was pretty sure she didn’t have them anymore .
She seems to be getting younger !!!
And I want to know about that bread too …
You can sometimes squeeze a little more mileage out of a toner cartridge by taking it out of the machine and shaking it a little before putting it back in. Works on copier cartridges too.