Beech Tree News Network

Who are our senior citizens? Senior citizens are commonly defined as elderly persons, usually those who are more than sixty or sixty-five years of age. About one in every seven, or 14.5%, of the population is an older American (https://aoa.acl.gov/aging_statistics/profile/2015/2.aspx). As I celebrate another birthday, I’ve been thinking about senior issues: income, health concerns, and personal attitude.

I’m told it is harder to burn a thin cow than it is a wet mule. I didn’t learn this in agricultural college- hold that thought. The Bible says that “the love of money, not money by itself, “’is the Root of all Evil”. Hold that thought too, zee voux plais, that’s “French”… or a stab at it. 

On Saturday, at Walmart, a cashier thanked me for leaving the heavy things in the cart, so she could simply scan them, instead of having to move them from the moving belt to the bagging area.  She had waited on a woman previously who refused to do that, she told me.  The cashier had suggested the customer leave her several boxes of sodas in her cart, saving them both a lot of unnecessary lifting.  The woman refused, choosing instead to heave each box from her shopping cart onto the moving belt.  The cashier scanned the sodas then told the woman she could put them back into her cart.

Genesis 28:1-2 records Isaac sending Jacob to Padanaram to find a wife among his mother’s people. After some traveling, the Bible says Jacob spent the night in a certain place (v. 11). As he slept, he had a dream in which he saw, “a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it” (Gen. 28:12). In this dream, God blessed Jacob, promising him the same things He had promised Abraham and Isaac in previous years (Gen. 28:13-15). Please take a moment and notice the responses Jacob had to this prophetic dream.

Hi ya’ll!! I hope your week has been fantastic. Driving the country side, I came across a treasure! Nothing says country more than a tractor or a barn. I know I was raised in the city, but I’ve always said I was just misplaced because my heart is pure country. I love to run across scenes like this. There’s just something about country life that is so soothing for the soul. There’s a peace there and most city folk just don’t get it. Not that I’m bashing city folk (my husband is from Louisville so he’s pretty city) . I take him to the country every chance I get to show him the peaceful life.

Visits from advocacy groups, a ceremonial bill signing, and rallies in the Capitol Rotunda, along with the bipartisan passage of bills, marked a busy Week Four of the 2017 Legislative Session. We were excited to welcome the children of Kentucky National Guard members from across the state for the First Annual Kentucky Military Kids Day. It was an honor to host these families who have sacrificed so much to serve our state and our country.

 TECHNICALLY- I have a propensity to get just a little disjointed with my thoughts, when in conversation with other folks. It is just the way my mind works, I do not think in a linear path, there are others like me, maybe not the majority but a sizable portion of the population, whom see patterns and connections in a “big picture” sort of way and we have our thoughts going around in a kind of circular direction, instead of in a straight line.

Powell County, Kentucky was founded in 1852 and named for Lazarus Whitehead Powell, 19th governor of Kentucky from 1851-1855.  He was later selected to serve in the U.S. Senate from 1859-1865.  The county seat is Stanton.  The largest city is Snakey Holler.  Estimated population as of 2015 was 12,269.  

Friendship is a little like marriage: we tend to take one another for granted. I recently learned that February is International Friendship Month, and National Friendship Day is the first Sunday in August, established by a 1935 U.S. Congressional proclamation (http://www.friendshipday.org/when-is-friendship-day.html). Although I’ve never celebrated either, I am extremely thankful for my friends. They are an important part of my life.

If you can stay “healthy as a horse”, don’t get “sick as a dog.” Twenty years ago the average patient stayed in the hospital for more than one week. Today the average length of a hospital stay is less than five days. 

In 1980 for childbirth, women stayed in the hospital almost 4 days. Now, it’s 2.6 days. In the same time frame, heart attack patients stayed from 12.6 days to just 5.5.