This is a rather strange entry.  Currently it is snowing like nuts outside and I decided rather than go home and try to make it in the morning to go ahead and stay the night at good old Boone Hospital.  When first faced with the realization that I would be staying here I was scared b/c I didn't want to get stuck on a cart so I got the bright idea to find an empty room.  However, all the rooms that were available on the first few floors I looked in were ones that I one time or another I was sure I had picked up bodies in which is incredibly gross.  Then I realized that although I hadn't picked up bodies from the other rooms on some of the other floors I was sure that within the 30 years those rooms had been there someone had died in them, afterall this is a hospital.  So I stook perplexed for a few minutes and then decided that I would venture over to the new end of the building in the short stay and multi-services area and sure enough I found a room, snatched a nice bed, and now have a shower nicer than what is found in most hotels.  I should be fat and happy the rest of the night.  Peace out and hope everyone gets a good nice rest b/c I may not. 

Is it me, or is this new Facebook detailed whatever stuff with everyone you ever talked to or never did, and yet are "friends", thing where you can see all of their activity extremely weird and a little creepy?  Please pardon the run-on sentence.

Yesterday when I was at church a thought came to me.  It's about two years to the day since my dad first noticed that there was something wrong with him and it ended up being cancer.  At about the same time yesterday a story that I used in my Book of Life for a project in high school psychology came to mind as well.  I'm sure many of you have read it before but I would really like you all to read it please, here it is:

Just Checking In

A minister passing through his church 
in the middle of the day, 
Decided to pause by the altar
and see who had come to pray. 
Just then the back door opened,
a man came down the aisle,
The minister frowned as he saw 
the man hadn't shaved in a while.
His shirt was kind of shabby
and his coat was worn and frayed,
the man knelt, he bowed his head, 
Then rose and walked away. 
In the days that followed,
each noon time came this chap,
each time he knelt just for a moment,
A lunch pail in his lap.
Well, the minister's suspicions grew,
with robbery a main fear,
He decided to stop the man and ask him,
"What are you doing here?"
The old man said, he worked down the road.
Lunch was half an hour. 
Lunchtime was his prayer time, 
For finding strength and power. 
"I stay only moments, see,
because the factory is so far away;
as I kneel here talking to the Lord,
This is kind of what I say: 
"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD,
HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER'S FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY,
BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS JIM
CHECKING IN TODAY."

The minister feeling foolish,
told Jim, that was fine.
He told the man he was welcome
To come and pray just anytime.
Time to go, Jim smiled, said "Thanks."
He hurried to the door. 
The minister knelt at the altar, 
he'd never done it before.
His cold heart melted, warmed with love,
and met with Jesus there.
As the tears flowed, in his heart,
he repeated old Jim's prayer: 
 
 "I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD,
HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHER'S FRIENDSHIP 
AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN. 
I DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I 
THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS ME CHECKING IN TODAY." 

Past noon one day, the minister noticed 
that old Jim hadn't come. 
As more days passed without Jim,
he began to worry some. 
At the factory, he asked about him, 
learning he was ill. 
The hospital staff was worried,
But he'd given them a thrill. 
The week that Jim was with them, 
Brought changes in the ward. 
His smiles, a joy contagious.
Changed people, were his reward.
The head nurse couldn't understand
why Jim was so glad, 
when no flowers, calls or cards came, 
Not a visitor he had though though he always kept a chair by his bed 
The minister sat down with him,
He voiced the nurse's concern: 
No friends came to show they cared.
He had nowhere to turn.  
Looking surprised, old Jim spoke
up and with a winsome smile;
"the nurse is wrong, she couldn't know,
that in here all the while everyday at noon 
He's here, a dear friend of mine, you see,
He sits right down, takes my hand,
Leans over and says to me: 
 
"I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, JIM, 
HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP,
AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN.
ALWAYS LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY, 
I THINK ABOUT YOU EACH DAY,
AND SO JIM, THIS IS JESUS 
CHECKING IN TODAY."

A few days later the minister came to visit Jim only to learn that he had passed away.  The nurse did mention one thing though.  She told the minister that as Jim died he layed his head on the empty chair next to him and said, "Isn't that odd?"

This story has changed over the last few years and I tried to make it as I remember it being.  In his last days my dad was bed-ridden and could not attend church.  However, when he died he layed on the bed as though there was somebody on the other side of the bed cradling him in their lap.  Since my dad could not attend chruch he spent a lot of time praying and reading his bible in bed, and as I sat there in church yesterday I realized that it was Jesus himself who was there that day with my dad cradling him in his last moments, and could have quite possibly told my dad something similar to what He always told Jim.  I find it neat that you go to church expecting one thing but get some insight totally different than what you expected.