Something new is coming!

This is a quick note to say; keep an eye on this space because I will VERY soon be back blogging about things around Indiana, America, and the world. So stay tuned and hang on; it might get a little interesting in here!

New web-site!

Told you I'd be back; just in a new location, www.jonathaneli.com. Check it out and subscribe to my blog. Just trying to sell a book or two.

This is the end my friends.

Well this is probably the last entry on this blog. My editor of my blog, my wife, left May 1st to go home. I guess GOD needed a Tax accountant. She did leave a void here though.

I've thought over the last month about all the things I wanted to say, including things not about my wife, but not much point right not; nothing coming to mind, but I'll let it work for a while and something might come up.

I did want to say, after 28 years of marriage; I'm allowed. Guys; have the conversations, do the things you always wanted to, learn what each of you want to happen in the end, and figure out where everything is in your life, home, and existence. Make is a lot easier to go though everything when something happens, trust me.

Plus I've realized just how many people care about you that you might never know about, or realize. Friends, relatives, people at your church, old school friends you haven't heard anything out of in years. And you'll appreciate every one of them.

You might even realize just how much your in-laws really love you. Even if you knew all along it's a little humbling after all. Thanks guys; I love you like you'll never imagine. When you should have been as devastated as I was you rallied around me, kept me together, and helped me make my way though all of what's happening.

I appreciate the number of clients, basket weaver members, dog lovers, and friends of my wife that have told me just how much she meant to them; and how lost they are going to be with out her around. Dido; you should be at my house sometimes.

Her family at work has been fantastic. They have helped me, and continue to, with finishing up tax projects, returns, and other things I'm going to need their help on for a while.

I've been a little blocked on writing. Guess you could understand. But I really want/need to get back at it. I have what I think will be a pretty good story coming up next. You'll see a little different side of my writing in this one; hope you like it. But I have to get started.

There will be a scholarship set up in my wife's honor at Freed-Hardeman University. Thanks Jenny for helping with that. Look out everybody; they will be looking for contributions to help get it started. It is a university after all!

A little business while we're here. I have been prompted to discontinue my comments on political subjects. So while it's is the last one I'll make a couple and make them brief.

Could you just imagine what they would all be saying if George would have been wining and dinning around Europe during Katrina? He had it bad enough, and to an extent rightfully so, as it was, but....

And would the Republican's find somebody worth a crap and run them against Obama. Even if they don't win it would be better than some of the ones running now! The best ones have dropped out. Can you blame them because of what the media would do to them and their families?

I went to Taco Bell and got a salad today for lunch. When I ordered I asked for extra dressing for the salad, the girl taking my order said they would have to charge extra for it (never had before but, okay?) So I told her never mind. Well that was to never might giving me any extra; I wanted what you normally get with the salad! Guess she didn't think I needed any! Thanks, Taco Bell for the GREAT service!

Okay, I've written enough junk for one blog. I do want to end with saying a heart felt THANK YOU to everyone that has contacted me, sent well wishes, came to two memorials in two different states (especially David Eldridge who drove two hours to come speak, thank you so much) offered help and has helped, and told me that there was NO WAY they were going to let me turn into a hermit in this house.

I get a feeling people are planning on keeping me busy; thanks to all of you.

Well like the Grateful Dead sang, "What a long strange trip it's been." Thanks, there will be another Jonathan Eli blog started, along with a web-site, in a couple months along with another new book coming out, Kat's Decision, so keep an eye on Facebook and ride along.

Peace,
Jonathan

The democrats are back! The democrats are back!

Run!

After 31 days of paid vacation in Illinois, the Indiana democratic legislators returned to their jobs. And they walked in like conquering champions!

They did so because the Republicans caved; it's what they do.

The Democrats have the gall to run TV ads stating that they courageously worked for Indiana middle-income families. They snuck out the back door and ran to Illinois.

One of them even equated their run-away tactics to a solider in Afghanistan! That one legislator should be ashamed of himself, but that's something they have no idea of.

Comparing the bravery of an American solider sleeping in hostile conditions, getting shot at, being away from family, friends, and loved ones for months to a few politicians sitting around the motel 6 in Illinois in the hot tub and watching porno then sneaking back into the state on the weekends to see their family and make sure the unions will keep paying the bills!

Makes me sick! But then in 2012, I’ll bet Indiana citizens will forget all about this and vote them right back in, probably in bigger numbers! Why do I say that? Because Democrats will do a much better job of spinning what happened and make sure everybody thinks the Republicans caused them to leave. They are already running ads telling Indiana families that they are the only thing that kept them from being put out of their homes, their kids starving at school, and their parents eating dog food because they can't afford to eat and heat or cool their home. They forget THEIR President is the one that said we should all PAY MORE for heating oil!

But what will the Republicans do? Nothing! They will run their regular race, cave to more demands, and act like they didn't win a majority in the state or the nation in 2010! For over 40 years, the democrats have tried to tax and spend this country out of business and they are about to win if we forget and let them!

Change of subject: you hear liberals talking all the time about how Christians should be tolerant and how we are so intolerant of others. Well, how about this: how many times in the last ten to twenty years has someone, of whatever faith or non-faith, done something against Christians and you hear about a dozen of them being killed by Christians? When the Muslims broke into the Church of the First Born in Jerusalem and defecated all over the place, tore pages of the Old Testament out of a Bible and used it as toilet paper (possible the only time they have used anything that way) was there a great outcry and murders of Muslims around the world. When an 'artist' (using American TAX DOLLARS) placed a crucifix in a bottle of urine and called it art, did Christians round up a bunch of artists and murder them? Didn't hear about it, and believe me if it had happened, you know it would have been major news on every channel and news outlet! How many ACLU lawyers have been beheaded for trying to keep a manger scene off public property? Please tell me if you know anything about it. No, some 'Christian' groups send people out to demonstrate at funerals of the people who died to make sure they had the freedom to do such.

And some of us wonder why GOD has let this mess go on this long?

Okay let's do a compare and contrast. Butler basketball and Obama! The reason I started this like this is because a couple of weeks ago we were treated to Barack picking his top 16 NCAA basketball picks for his bracket. Now with the Egyptian problem still going on, Libya was going crazy, Japan still had a nuclear plant on the edge of explosion along with all the other horrors there, plus all the neat things going on here, but Barack had to make his picks and we listened and watched breathlessly while ESPN showed it.

Now consider this as well. Several months ago Barack was in the middle of a press conference and turned it over to FORMER PRESIDENT Bill Clinton while he went to a birthday party for one of his daughters AT HIS WIFES INSISTANCE! Think of both these things and imagine this: what if Ronald Reagan or George Bush had done either thing? They thought Nancy Reagan ran the country anyway; could you imagine if he'd left a press conference and turned it over to Gerald Ford? For a birthday party? And I'll give President Obama points. I am glad he made time for his daughter’s birthday. But why use it as a stunt to get Clinton back in the limelight and try for a feel-good fluff piece for the evening news! Plus, think about if Bush had made his NCAA picks during the beginning of the Iraq war? That would have made the evening news, and you can bet ESPN would have never touched it.

Now finally, let's talk about Butler! Yeah, it was not the best game ever played. In fact it was one of the worst: both sides played badly on offense. I really think they had two of the best defenses seen. But maybe the biggest story was after the game when Butler's team came together and realized that it was just a game and that tomorrow they would all be students again and Indianapolis and much of America, if not the world, still loved the underdog, especially if it's a bulldog!

I have to say this. I am not a Duke fan in any way, shape, or form. In fact, my three favorite teams in college basketball are; Butler, Indiana University, and whoever is beating Duke! The way they treated (the school, faculty, and administration) the team after the Lacrosse deal, they certainly acted more like a junior-high school than a division one university! Guilty till proven innocent and unlikely to be proven innocent! But what the basketball team coach said after last year’s game about Butler; I have to give him a thumbs-up and say there is an exception no matter how bad Duke is.

I certainly hope Butler appreciates what they have, I am sure they do, and work to keep the team at the level it is now and to give Indianapolis another team to be excited about. So for next year; GO BUTLER!!!

Good Morning...but I digress.

For those of you (all three of you) that read this outside of Indiana, you might not know that the Democrat contingent of our legislature is taking a now over one month vacation in Illinois! I wonder if they are partying with the guys from Wisconsin?

It started over right-to-work. Which basically is that a company can hire a person for a union job and the union cannot require them to join the union. Doesn't sound right does it? Well there are a couple of things the unions and Democrats don't want you to know. The biggest being that if they don't pay union dues the union doesn't represent them. So it doesn't do away with collective bargaining. It just allows them to hire someone for a non-negotiated wage and benefit package. Most of the union members you see demonstrating at state capitols don't know that fact. Their union's stewards are keeping that information from them. Unions will tell you they are working for the middle class. How many middle class people do you know that are making 28-30 dollars per hour? Along with their health and retirement benefits completely paid by the company? Is yours? Mine is not and never has been. Also, if you don't do your job, or don't do accepted quality work, what happens? You usually lose your job and get to find another one. But if you’re in a union don't worry. You either get moved to another job if you're working in construction, or another line in a factory, or your supervisor is replaced with one you can get along with.

Growing up I heard stories from friends' parents about people they knew in the factories (UAW Chrysler and GM plants) that played cards all day, came in drunk or high if it was a second or third shift job, or left the factory and went shopping half the day. Nice work if you can get it. Remember the old adage about you never want to buy a car built on Friday or Monday? There is a reason!

Okay, I know not all unions jobs are bad and not all union workers are drunks or people who don't work. But what would you do if you knew your work performance didn't matter concerning you keeping your job?

A big part of the problem in Wisconsin and Indiana is teachers. You want to talk about quality of the product produced? In Wisconsin only 30% of eighth graders can read at grade level. Now they are making good money, getting fully paid health and pensions but not producing a product that will even be able to make a wage to be taxed to cover their retirement.

Indiana spends over $10,000.00 PER CHILD PER YEAR for education! Back thirty five years ago, when I was in school, it was LESS THAN A GRAND! And I bet I got a better education than they do now. Now I know I haven't taken into account inflation but I bet it wouldn't be nine thousand dollars. There are great teachers out there; there are even good administrators. You just have to find them!

Right now in Indiana you can hear radio ads about the governor taking half of that ten grand away from public schools. What they are not telling the listener is it's about school choice. Vouchers so a parent, the few that care about their kids, can choose where their children go and who helps mold their futures. Our president sends his kids to a private school in Washington; why can't you choose where your kid gets his education?

Plus it will force the public schools to COMPETE for those dollars. Maybe it will be more reading, writing, math, and science, and less how to put a condom on or political correctness classes. Think about any home-schooled kids you might know; pretty sharp kids over all. I know not every mother can hom- school their kids, but why can't you send your children to a school that will train and educate them how you would if you could?

Yeah, I know, now you wish I'd go back to writing a blog entry every couple months. I said, my wife reminded me of this the other day, that I'd write what moved me and I would probably make some people mad. Well here you go. I don't mean to make anyone made but it’s my opinion based on over fifty years on GOD's green earth.
Peace,
Jon

How quick can a month and a half go?

I cannot believe I've missed writing anything in my blog for a month and a half. I had something a few days ago, but after my wife (mini-editor) checked it she closed the file it was in and somewhere over the rainbow it went. So here we go again.

My wife has six more physical therapy sessions left and she'll be as good as new again. Well, her doctor did say she wasn't 20 anymore. so she might not be back to her old self, but she'll be in better shape than she was on January 14th!

I have a new found respect for what she does and has to put up with. You also listen, sometimes half-heartedly, to your spouse when they come home from work and they tell you about their day. Well, after working with her almost everyday for the last couple of months, I understand. Tax season isn't fun for the preparer either.

This reminds me of something that happened to me probably 15 years ago. I was having lunch by myself and sitting at the next table were four people, all very business dressed, laughing and having a good time, using a lot of accounting terms in their conversation, and it was around the first of April. Now at home there was no laughing, accounting terms were stated in less that joyous ways, and my wife would usually walk in the house, eat dinner, and drop into a chair falling asleep before she hit bottom: usually at nine in the evening!

When I finished my lunch, I walked over, smiled at all four of them, and said, "You have to be IRS agents. Nobody else I know could be having lunch on April first, talking in accounting terms, and having as much fun as you are." I got four 'deer in the headlight looks' as one of them showed me her IRS identification card.

Yeah, I figured I'd be audited for the rest of my life. So far so good!

One of the things I have been doing lately, while helping my wife wake-up and get dressed every morning: I've been watching the local morning news programs. You can get some great material there. Plus you can have some serious wonder about your fellow man.

First piece of evidence: there was a piece about a condemned former motel that the city was going to do a sweep of to get any homeless out of the building. I had a couple of thoughts there.

First, they were not planning on tearing the place down till fall; do you think they just might MOVE BACK IN between now and the fall? Plus, and this is what I really thought was funny, the girl relating the story then tells everybody that the lights they might have seen late in the evening while driving by were homeless people lighting candles in the motel. REALLY? I thought it was dogs and cats lighting fires TRYING TO KEEP WARM!

Second, talking about an auto accident with loss of life the news person said, "The police are talking with witnesses and the alcohol will soon be arriving at the scene." So are they going to give everyone a drink for helping them?

Third, there was another accident on an interstate north of Indianapolis. A State Trooper was doing a u-turn on the interstate and hit a SEMI! Now he didn't happen to pull in front of a semi at night not running any lights. He hit the trailer's rear wheels. Luckily the trooper was not seriously injured nor either person in the semi, but he hit the rear side of an eighty foot long vehicle! I certainly don't want him checking into evidence in a case I'm involved in. I bet the next meeting with his superior was interesting: explain just how you missed that!

Okay, now on another subject. Another town surrounding Indianapolis is thinking about changing their intersections into roundabouts. Now if you don't know what a roundabout is, watch National Lampoons European Vacation, the part where Chevy Chase drives around for hours trying to get out of one. Welcome to Carmel, Indiana!

When they first were installed nobody had a clue how they worked or how you drove in one. They have a yield sign; for some reason many people suddenly believed they turned into stop signs, and if there was a car anywhere you could see, you couldn't move! Remember, Indiana is a pretty FLAT state....

I've waited for several minutes, along with fifty or so new friends, while someone, several times a woman in a mini-van, waited for her engraved invitation to drive around the roundabout. I have also had an older gentleman driving TOWARD me blowing his horn, yelling, and making interesting obscene gestures while driving the wrong way around one. Here's a driving fact for you sir: if everybody else is meeting you instead of driving the same way you are, you're probably the one DRIVING THE WRONG WAY!

About a month ago I saw the best; I was taking my wife to work and I was following a person in a Buick SUV. There is a roundabout on the north side of I-465, in Carmel, and a normal intersection on the Southside of the interstate in Indianapolis. Well, this person driving the SUV stops and waits for several seconds at the yield sign at the roundabout, okay I've been there and done that, but then when they get to the RED-LIGHT on the other side of the interstate (don't get ahead of me now) she drives right through it never even slowing down!

So if you live, or know anyone, living in Beech Grove, Indiana. Pray for them! They'll need it for the next few months after the first couple get installed.

So hopefully I'll be back writing soon, although my wife told me yesterday I'll be helping her because it isn't April 15th yet, (see the above story about the IRS and you'll understand) and I'll get rolling on the first Jim Benjamin book which will be titled Elapsed Time. I'm going with drag racing terms for the titles of the books because it is a central activity in all the stories. I am also going to do a last go-over of Kat's Decision and ship it off to my editor, Lauralynn Elliott. So I am hoping it will be available from Amazon or Smashwords in a couple of months.

Kat is a private detective story set in Indianapolis. She is the daughter of a police officer and has four cop brothers. She's beautiful, tough, and has some damaged baggage to get though. You all will know when it's out!
Till then, Peace!
Jon

Pet Peeves I

Pet Peeves: we all have them. I have several; just ask my wife.

Thus I'm going to have to talk about one of mine today. Yes, I know it's been a while since I've written anything, but for some reason I just can't get what I'm thinking about and what I want to write in this blog to mesh together. But the other day, something presented itself and I just couldn't let it pass.

I was reading a blog from a Christian, Church of Christ, writer about talking to a group of women and one of the mothers asked her about appropriate dress for an up coming dance her daughter was going to! Well, first, I in no way think dancing is a good activity for young Christians. It was what was in the latter part of her message that waved its way right into pet peeve land in my mind, and it's something I've seen several times over the years.

While we teach and preach against a sin, we give no credit to ourselves for that teaching and preaching or to our children for listening to the lesson. In fact, we act like our kids are mindless, spineless, little masses of flesh just waiting to run amok as soon as we turn our backs on them.

I came late to the party. I didn't start going to a Church of Christ until I was 12, almost 13 years old. I didn't become a Christian until I was almost 15. But guess what? My parents instilled in me morals (Church of Christ parents don't have a monopoly on that, believe it or not!), the proper way and reason to treat the opposite sex (oops, probably shouldn't of used that term here as well), and how to properly act. In fact, I went to my senior prom, and nothing happened! (Yes, I can see the nay sayers that are out there saying they don't believe a word of what I'm saying now.) She was a very attractive girl (Oops, I said she was attractive; I'm sure someone will now say I was lusting after her!), but she wore a nice, covering dress, we didn't dance much, but we did a couple of times, slow dances, and I never thought about wanting to get her into bed.

Guess what. My parents' training, instruction, and morals were right there with me. And I would be willing to bet the person who wrote this blog (I knew her and her now husband in college) would have been able to be in the same situation with the same result.

Another example; I was talking with a mother at the congregation I attend and her oldest daughter was soon to be leaving for college. She mentioned how some people were telling her that once she was out of her house she would be doing all kinds of things. She young lady was just that, a lady, a young Christian lady that had good training and was reared by two Christian parents who trained her right. Now she is out of college and working and NOTHING happened, she didn't fall away, become pregnant, go on drugs, or any of the other things some Christians think their children and the children of any other Christian family will do as soon as they leave the nest.

Another example; the congregation I grew up in as a young Christian. It was a very conservative (then not now) congregation and the deacon that oversaw the 'youth group' ruled it with an iron fist. We were always lectured about any evil appearance out there, real or imagined. We were not trusted out of sight or past the end of their noses. The result; probably half, at best, of the people in that young group are now members of the Church of Christ.

So do we let our children run amok waiting for them to fall into sin? No. But should we treat them as criminals and give ourselves no credit for being about to raise good kids? If the latter please don't ask to be a deacon or elder at a congregation I attend. If we have no faith in ourselves and our children how can we have in GOD?

Well now that I've made the member of the church mad I'll talk about my books. Thank you if you've purchased a copy of Memphis Connection; please do a review or comment on it here. I would really like to know if you liked it or The Last Cabbandeum if you have it. Right now I'm kind of out of the writing loop taking care of an injured wife. But in three more weeks when she gets her wing back I'll be working on the first of the Jim Benjamin Series Elapsed Time. This book will introduce you to Jim Benjamin and the group of friends and people in his world. It's set in the mid to late '70's and if you like drag racing I hope you've found the book that you'll like. It's nothing like the Fast and Furious, it's realistic!

Peace!