My Blog

Veteran’s Day

samkcollins — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:37:27 +0000

It is odd that so many are making so much over Veteran’s Day when so many are being so negative about what Veteran’s do to become Veteran’s. In Viet Nam the hat for the war bled over to hatred for the solider. I am sure that what I see is a backlash to that feeling. We want the Vet to know that the country is proud of him even if the wars are unpopular. But still, these men and women are involved in war and war is by nature ugly. People don’t like ugly. I like to think of the sacrifice given by my dad in a very ugly WWII as being more than something to be proud of one day a year. Even if Vets return without a physical scar, they will have scars from war that we may never know. My dad was injured several times, but the physical injuries would not have slowed him down. He sacrificed his youth, distance from his young family and he sacrificed his mental health for the rest of his life. His family never knew the man he was before that ugly war, but they knew a man who was willing to give up everything to serve his country. I have always been proud of what he did and what he taught me about patriotism.
Thank you Ben K. Collins jr. for sacrificing what you might have been for what we all hold dear.

62nd birthday

samkcollins — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:25:47 +0000

Make a Smilebox slideshow



Long Day
samkcollins — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:23:02 +0000
This is certainly a Monday.  The three CIS classes have been taking tests and that has given me too much time while I wait for them.  Hope to be home with my sweetheart before long. That is what makes the days work form me.  Of course my being gone all day bothers her a little.  I guess all days have 24 hours so they can’t be longer than that.  

         


Newest Member of Marriage Class
samkcollins — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:03:36 +0000
His name is Jet and his mom, Kelley, will have to bring him to class for a while. I am grateful that the Lord has brought him to us for a while.  I am prayerful that the class can be a blessing to his mom.

         


Winter is here
samkcollins — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:41:56 +0000
It is finally here.  The Lord’s Day is actually here.  I have been waiting all week and it is here. Still waiting for the Lord to come again, but at least, it is the Lord’s Day.
Winter has come to the OK Panhandle. It is 28 degrees.  I just had to defrost the thick ice on my car windows and when I put the car in gear, the message on dash board said “Ice possible on the road, drive with care”.  Even my car knows that it is slippery.  I was in my car this early in the morning (7AM) so I could move it back in front of the house where I usually park.  It was parked on the side of the building because of the big Centennial Homecoming Parade in the wet cold yesterday.

 This herd of Long horns lead the Parade and it was feared they might do damage to vehicles parked near the street.  To appreciate what these  cattle went through yesterday you have to put a 29 degree temperature and a little wind with light mist and then put a few flecks of white stuff in the mix.  It was one cold parade!

All the other activities had a bite to them as well.  Everything that could be moved inside was, except the football game.  OPSU has been playing football for 90 of those 100 years. They celebrated with a win.  That was the only warm feeling that Homecoming was able to supply to folks.  That was one cold football game.  I was only there for minutes and decided it was too cold for these old bones.  I can hear my friend, Wayne Stewart, announcing and the crowd cheering from my house and with my binoculars, I can keep up with the score.  21- 14 is a nice end of a cold Homecoming day.
 Snug inside the Library was the newest member of the Kravig family.  Judd and Jannet Kravig  are some of our favorite Bible Chair alumni and Jocee is the two week old newest addition to the family. I had a cold when she was born and I wouldn’t go see her so this was my first close up view.

 Sweet big sister, Jade, was watching the parade from the warmth of the library door.

I hate it when our students graduate and leave us.  It has been a blessing that Judd and Janet came back to Goodwell, and continue to share our lives and let us play with the kids.
The week was cool and cloudy most of the time, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the students.  I had the most fun teaching Bible last week.  I was teaching Romans in my New Testament Survey class and I got carried away.  Part of my fun was having my computer back up and running but mostly it was having such a rich book to teach from. I believe you can teach a person everything he/she needs to know to be saved from the first 6 chapters of Romans and I taught that part in real depth.
The Liberal Church brought the food and smiles and served about 155 at our Outreach meal.  It was cold and wet outside but they brought stew and cornbread to warm the inside.  What a blessing!  I will share some of the leftovers to my group tonight.  It will be just the perfect thing again.
This will be a short week at OPSU.  Fall break starts Thursday.  I have classes in the afternoon on Wednesday until 3:40.  Somehow, I don’t look to see a large number in that 2:30 or even the 1:00 class.  Just as soon as the classes are over, Ruth and I will get in the car and head for Red River, NM.  Ruth’s Mom is up there now and we will spend the long weekend with her.  It has already snowed a little up there.  I will take waders for fishing, but plan to spend large amounts of time reading by the fireplace.  I am not praying to be snowed in, but if it happens, it happens.
I don’t know what the Lord has planned for us to do this week, but each day holds some pretty exciting prospects.

         


Good Day for getting things done
samkcollins — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:06:51 +0000
It is Friday, but Sunday is coming!!!
I was able to get up early this morning and get a lot done.  My two Ethics classes on line start on Monday and students will be getting on line to start looking at things by this evening so I got busy and updated my class and got it up and ready.
I also traced out and fixed a problem that showed up on my smartboard in class yesterday.  It was as easy as buying a new USB cable.  I didn’t even know they could go bad.   I had a 16′ cable and replaced it with a 3′ cable.
I took Ruth to the Hospital this morning to have a lot of blood work done.  Two doctors want to do tests and she was able to get it all done at one time with one stick, Yeah!
As soon as I got her home, I took off for my class in Web 2.0 on campus.  After it was over the faculty of the CIS department had a lunch meeting.  When it was over I got back to the office to make sure all my on-line stuff was finished.
I was able to find a video on You-tube that should help Amy with her kitchen cabinets.  It is about Faux Granite counter tops.  It is a way that she can take her mustard color counter tops and renew them to look like granite for about $50 and a weekend.   I am not sure what Ruth and I will do tonight, but I am pretty sure it will have to do with watching football together.
Saturday is Homecoming at OPSU and part of the 100 year anniversary celebration.  A parade with classic cars and a herd of Longhorns is scheduled to start at 10 AM.  We are supposed to get a messy cold front tonight with cold wind and rain all day for Homecoming.  My son would say that is football weather, but it is not the kind of weather that makes for the best attendance.

         


Computer is back in shap
samkcollins — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:50:25 +0000
It is pretty bad when a hard drive crashing can make you out of sorts and unsure what to do next.  I am thankful that I have a little knowledge and some really good friends.  If it was not for Vicky Pasque of the OPSU CIS department giving me the quick answers when I got stumped I would not have been able to get the new hard drive set up.  When you do it all the time as she does, the answers seem to be at your finger tips.  I do it only once every 3 years or so and when you reach my age, one nights sleep is enough to erase what you did yesterday.
I am not out of sorts at all now.  I am looking forward to teaching my Bible classes tomorrow on my Smartboard with my projector and PowerPoint. Yeah!

         


After a bad cold and a hard drive crash
samkcollins — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:58:34 +0000
My son commented that I hadn’t posted on my blog in a while.  Well, that is true. I don’t get sick often.  When I do, I am a real baby.  I was really sick with a cold last week and just to make it feel worse my hard drive crashed.  I found that when you try to recover from a hard drive crash that you have to think and I have not been on top of my thinking for over a week.  It was slow going, but I think I am now in charge of both my thinking and my hard drive.  Of course you never quit know if you have all the drivers that you need until you try something that doesn’t work.  It does look like I need a new flash player and pdf reader.  But other than that I am good to go.   I am still keeping the Kleenex close.
Col. 3:17
Sam

         


Early Morning Visits with God
samkcollins — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:10:38 +0000
It is 59 degrees an a light wind this morning.  I made a short trip over to the little store next door this morning with my eyes enjoying the starry ski.  It is on these short trips to get my biscuit and gravy and my cold caffeine that I always get the feeling of being in the presence of my creator. Usually it is the first glimpse of the moon that makes me aware of the great creator, the this morning it was the stars.  The stars at night may shine big and bright deep in the heart of Texas, but this morning outside the College Corner convenience store in the Panhandle of OK  they were shinning as bright as I can ever remember seeing them.  I always thank God for those moments when He reminds me who He is and who is really in charge of things.  Some mornings, I am so overwhelmed that I tear up and some mornings I just get this supper sized grin and am thankful that I am so blessed.  My thoughts were of the blessings of life as I looked at the stars and thought of my Savior who made them this morning.  I just repeat the Psalm, “What is man that thou are mindful of Him?” I just can’t quite wrap my mind around it but I try to understand it a little more each day. Thank you God for early morning visits.

         


Saturday is a great day!
samkcollins — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 12:12:50 +0000
I spent a lot of my adult life working in jobs that did not recognize weekends.  In some jobs Saturday is just an extra busy week day.  When I have found myself in that situation, I always tried to make the best of it.  But I have to admit that I always missed having a Saturday.  When you preach, you always have Sunday, but it is not a day of Worship and R&R.  It certainly is a day of Worship, but when you teach a lesson, preach two lessons, meet with elders and deacons and work with the youth, it is certainly not R&R.  I have always felt that Sunday was the best day of every week because I was able to Worship with the saints.  That is always the way I shapped my week-looking forward to Sunday. But when there is no Saturday in your week, it is hard to keep up your energy.  I think next to Sunday that Saturday is the greatest day of the week.  It is the day I get to have to get ready for Sunday.  I like lazy football Saturdays and busy erand filled Saturdays.  No matter how you look at it Saturday is a great day because Sunday is coming.