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Stories
FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 21st, 2017
"No Vision and you perish; No ideal, and you're lost; Your heart must ever cherish Some faith at any cost. Some hope, some dream to cling to, Some rainbow in the sky, Some melody to sing to, Some service that is high"
"Here is the list of Greeters for the month of AUGUST 2017
If you are scheduled to be Greeter for a particular Thursday, try to arrive at Grins by about 11:30am, put on the special Greeter's badge and then greet each and every member and visitors as they come in.
August 24............Del Brown
Attendance for August 17th 2017
Doug Balkman, Chester Banks, Del Brown, Frederick Case, Randy Cook, Pam Cook, Steve Furney, Charles Johnson, Moe Johnson, Rob Martin, Gary Nelson, Lon Shell, Kelli Whigham, Rhonda White, Ted Breihan, Beverly Crumley, Andrew Gary, Garry White, Tracy Herman, Francis Mendez, John Polk, Glen Rydl, Cynthia Bentley (23)
VISITORS: Jeanne Balkman (brought by Doug); Bill Stich (brought by Gary Nelson)
"BIRTHDAYS DURING THE MONTH OF AUGUST, 2017"
August 21..........Glen Rydl
August 28..........Pam Cook
THOSE WHO HAVE ANNIVERSARIES IN THE
MONTH OF AUGUST 2017
McBride & Elsie Wilson.......August 31
Board of Director's Meeting : DON'T FORGET .......This Thursday night, August 24th at 5:00pm at Brookdale San Marcos North
Last Week's Program
Thanks to Doug Balkman, last week's program was a very enlightening one. Todd Karch, the Regional Staffing Manager for Amazon here in San Marcos, was called away and was not able to be with our club. In his place were two outstanding workers at Amazon, John Capriccioso and Claudia Vega, both are in the staffing department and gave our club a lot of valuable information about this monstrous, but amazing distribution center in our city. They covered so many points about how Amazon operates, most of which we had no idea. I believe they indicated that they have somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 employees who work in a 1,000,000,000 square ft. facility that stocks over $30,000,000 in inventory.
Those that are employed there realize that the jobs they are expected to do is quite physical, just to mention that anyone who works there must be able to lift at least 49 lbs in merchandise, and be able to stand and/or walk at least 10-12 hours a day. There were many questions of John & Claudia and they fielded those questions in a most professional manner. I know that everyone in our club, as well as all of our city's residents and beyond are very fortunate to have Amazon in our city. Thanks Doug for arranging for this program.
The Program for this coming Thursday, August 24th, 2017
Beverly Crumley will be bringing the program for this coming week. The speaker will be David S. Glickler, a judge of the Hays County Court at Law No. 2. He was elected in 2014, effective January 1, 2015, for a term that expires on December 31, 2018. His past positions have been Deputy division chief, White Collar and Public Integrity Section of the Office of the Attorney General (2007 -2014); Special prosecutor, State of Texas,(2001-2007); Assistant county attorney, Williamson County (1994-1999); and Law clerk, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, (1993-1994).
Judge Glickler will be discussing the Veteran's Treatment Court (VTC), which is a 3 phased, specialized treatment court designed to address the unique needs of Honorably Discharged Veterans and currently serving active duty service members of the U.S. Military.
The mission of Veteran Treatment Court is to successfully rehabilitate veterans by diverting them from the traditional criminal justice system and provide them with the tools they need to lead a productive and law-abiding lifestyle.
Program eligible Veterans are those in the criminal justice system for behavior connected to physical and emotional injuries sustained during their service during deployments to hazardous duty locations, war zones, or conditions developed during service that have bearing on the defendant's particular criminal conduct.
Ramp Built for Santos Gonzales
On August 12th, volunteers from San Marcos Kiwanis Club, Heart to Heart Hospice, San Marcos High School Key Club, and youth from San Marcos United Methodist Church built a ramp for Santos Gonzales. The team loved having people from Heart to Heart join in, in fact the Physician Director, Dr. Jerry Castillio even came out.
The ramp was 60' long and when it was finished, Mr. Gonzales came out with a great big smile.
For the team to survey the site, build modules and cut the lumber at the warehouse, transport the material from the warehouse to the home, prepare the site for bui8lding, and then build the ramp took approximately 64 hours.
Texas Ramp Project uses a formula, created by Independentsector.org to estimate the value of the labor donated by our volunteers. If we had to pay fair wages to have this ramp built, it would cost approximately $1,607.00, which does not include the cost of the material, transportation, or other cost involved. Those members of our club that volunteered to built this ramp were: Gary Nelson, Gary Strunk, Doug Balkman,John Polk and Bill Stich (not a member, but is in on every ramp)
St. David's Foundation granted the funds to build this ramp. It was estimated that the cost for this 60' ramp to be approximately $1,920.00. We should continue to be thankful for the generosity of St. David's Foundation and their concern for the people in Hays County.
What do we Know About Other States in our 'Beautiful America?'-----Let's Go to the State of Vermont
1. Vermont was the first state admitted to the Union after the ratification of the Constitution.
2. With a population of fewer than nine thousand people, Montpelier, Vermont is the smallest state capital in the United States.
3. Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state without a McDonalds.
4. Until 1996, Vermont was the only state without a Wal-Mart.
5. Vermont does not sell alcohol to out of state licenses, you must have a liquor ID in order to purchase alcohol at liquor stores and grocery stores. This doesn't apply to bars, but can affect those traveling through the state.
6. In ratio of cows to people, Vermont has the greatest number of dairy cows in the country.
7. Monpelier is the largest producer of maple syrup in the U.S.
8. Until 1996, Vermont was the only state without a Wal-Mart.
9. Rudyard Kipling, living in Vermont in the 1890's invented the game of snow golf.
10.Vermont's state capital building is one of only a few to have a gold dome. Atop the dome is a statue of Ceres.
August 18th to August 24.
August 18, 1920. . . The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, granting women the right to vote!
August 19, 1934 . . .In Germany, a plebiscite was held in which 89.9 percent of German voters approved granting Chancellor Adolf Hitler additional powers, including the office of President.
August 20, 1833 . . .Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd U.S. President was born in North Bend, Ohio. He was the grandson of William Henry Harrison, the 9th President.
August 21, 1959 . . .President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Hawaii to the Union as the 50th state.
August 22, 1986 . . .Deadly fumes from a volcanic eruption under Lake Nios in Cameroon killed more than 1,500 persons.
August 23. 1927 . . .Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were electrocuted inside a prison at Charlestown, Massachusetts. They had been con victed of a shoe factory payroll robbery during which the paymaster and a guard had been killed. Following their convictions, all appeals for a new trial had failed, despite the lack of hard evidence and a later admission by a known criminal that he had participated in the robbery with an organized criminal gang. The days and weeks leading up to their execution aroused worldwide protests amid accusations of unfair treatment because they had radical political views and were Italian.
August 24, 1814 . . .During the War of 1812, Washington D.C. was invaded by British Forces that burned the Capital, the White House and most other public buildings along with a number of private homes. The burning was in retaliation for the Earlier American burning of York (Toronto).
The Age of Imponderables! - (There are no answers to these imponderables, but if you think of a good answer, let me know and I will put it in?
1.........Do you realize how many holes there could be if people would just take the time to take the dirt out of them?
2.........Do witches run spell checkers?
3........Do vegetarians eat animal crackers?
4........When dog food is new and improved, who tests it?
5........Ever notice how irons have a setting for "permanent" press? I don't get it.
6........Where are the germs that cause 'good' breath?
7........How can there be self-help "groups"?
8........Where does the fire go when the fire goes out?
9........Where does the white go when the snow melts?
10......How come wrong numbers are never busy?
C
"Goodbye Ugly Suit"
When the store manager returned from lunch, he noticed his clerk's hand was bandaged, but before he could ask about the bandage, the clerk had some very good news for him.
"Guess what, sir?" the clerk said. "I finally sold that terrible, ugly suit we've had so long!" "Do you mean that repulsive three piece pink and blue single breasted thing?!" the manager asked. "That's the one!" said the clerk! "That's great!" the manager cried, "I though we'd never get rid of that monstrosity! That had to be the ugliest suit we've ever had! But tell me, why is your hand bandaged?"
"Oh," the clerk replied, "after I sold the guy that suit, his seeing-eye dog bit me."
"Root Hog or Die!"
"Get to work or suffer the consequences. Although the earliest printed record of the Americanism so far exhumed dates only to 1834 - - "We therefore determined to go on the old saying, root hog or die": A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, it probably goes back to colonial times, or, at least, to early frontier days. And, probably, its origin was literal - - an admonition to hogs or pigs when crops were scant to forage for themselves in order to survive. In fact, the expression sometimes appears as a command as given to a hog: 'Root, hog, or die!' The way it appears in each of the seven stanzas of the folk song under that title in the Archive of the American Folk Song Society, Library of Congress, each of which closes with the line, is: Oh, I went to Californy in the spring of Seventy-six, Oh, when I landed there I was in a terrible fix. I didn't have no money my victuals for to buy, and the only thing for me was to root, hog, or die."
1........Did you know that in 2008, the planet Mercury was named, 'The planet that looks most like a holeless bowling ball'?
2........Mercury does not have any moons or rings.
3.........Your weight on Mercury would be 38% of your weight on Earth.
4.........A day on the surface of Mercury lasts 176 Earth days.
5.........A year on Mercury takes 88 Earth Days.
6..........Mercury is the smallest planet in the universe. It is just 4,879 kilometers across its equator compared with 12,742 kilometers for the earth.
7..........Mercury has wrinkles. As the iron ore of the planet cooled and contracted, the surface of the planet became wrinkled. Scientists call these wrinkles, Lobate Scarps These Scarps can be up to a mile high and hundreds of miles long.
8...........Mercury is the second densest planet. Even though the planet is small, Mercury is very dense. Each cubic centimeter has a density of 5.4 grams, with only the Earth having a higher density. This is largely due to Mercury being composed mainly of heavy metals and rock.
9..........Only two spacecrafts have ever visited Mercury. Owing to its proximity to the Sun, Mercury is a difficult planet to visit. During 1974 and 1975 Mariner 10 flew by Mercury three times, during this time they mapped just under half of the planet's surface. On August 3, 2004, the Messenger probe was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, this was the first spacecraft to visit since the mid 1970's.
10........Mercury is only the second hottest planet. Despite being further from the Sun, Venus experiences higher temperatures. The surface of Mercury which faces the Sun sees temperatures of up to 427 degrees C., while on the other side the temperature can be as low as -178 degrees C.
"America the Beautiful.....Montshire Museum of Science
The Montshire Museum of Science is a hands-on self-guided science museum located in Norwich, Vermont. The museum, including the building and nature trails, is located on over 110 acres of land. It has over 140 exhibits on anatomy, math, astronomy, mechanics, and natural history, among others. Its live animal exhibits include a hive of honey bees that is connect5ed to the outdoors and a colony of leafcutter ants. Outside the museum building, there is a two-acre Science Park including a scale model of the solar system (Pluto is located a two-mile walk away, and exhibits on light, sound, and motion; among the sound exhibits there are "Whisper dishes" and a musical fence built by Paul Matisse, grandson of painter Henri Matisse.
The Montshire Museum was established in 1976 across the Connecticut River in Hanover, New Hampshire, and moved to Norwich in 1989. The name Montshire is taken from "Vermont" and "New Hampshire". It was opened after Dartmouth College's natural history museum, from which the Montshire received its original collections, was closed.
"Here are some suggestions for making and keeping commitments:
1. Don't make commitments you don't plan to keep.
2. Learn to say no.
3. Make conditional agreements, ("If......then......")
4. Keep the commitments you make.
5. Write commitments down. (Keep a calendar.)
6. If conflicts arise, renegotiate at the earliest opportunity
Eighty percent of success is showing up........(Woody Allen)
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THOSE WHO HAVE ANNIVERSARIES IN THE 
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.Montshire Museum of Science
