JPPENS

  THIS TIME IS DIFFERENT... this time it is holding all the winning numbers in a lottery only waiting for the last draw. this time it is 2 out, bases loaded, bottom of the 9th, tie game and we are the home team, only it's no game. this time it is plain and simple, no gray area. this time there is no blue or red, only common sense and conscience. this time it is for good or for evil. this time it is for a free republic or a ruled one. this time it really is for all the marbles folks. VOTE for what you know in your gut, heart and brain is best for America.

Biltmore Estate sits along side one of our beautiful rivers and the entrance has been totally destroyed. The shops, hotels and restaurants that make up the village now all need to be restored totally or partially.  No telling what will come back but the Biltmore Estate will be open once again at some point for the Holiday season.  Our beloved River Arts District is another matter...they are still in the heavy mud and debris phase of cleaning up there.  All the working art studios, gallery's restaurants, shops are either totally destroyed or in some state of destruction.  It was a flavor and heartbeat of what made Asheville so cool, unique and amazing...we pray it will somehow overcome all of this and return in some new form. So yes, the sun still shines on our beautiful Asheville but we are forever changed to some degree.  People here still need help and support.  We are thankful to every soul who has contributed in some way to our restoring of lives, keep ...

always has...                                                                        From the time the universe detonated planet earth into the universe SHE was charged with the task of carving and forming using her tools of fire, water and wind... Her artwork graced our planet with crawling glaciers, volcanic towers, deep canyons, wild oceans, thick coated forests and crystal clear rivers and streams... She has birthed, nurtured, guided and led since the dawning of time... SHE took her charge to create our planet most earnestly and she shared it all with humankind gracefully by providing all that was needed...         we took and took, we trashed and polluted, we stripped and denuded... She gave us warnings, she let us know we had to stop and that there was time to change...     ...

...bah boom, bah boom, bah boom... To say my summer of 2024 was different from any other in my years of summers would be an understatement.  Life changing in fact expresses my summer accurately.   Getting a cardiologist to join my health team consisting of a primary care doc, a dermatologist, an eye doctor, a dentist, an orthopedic doc and after spending #21 sessions in Cardiac Rehab with dozens of other fortunate souls to still be seen and not merely viewed, I fully realized just how fortunate I was to be alive!  I have, as most of you know, spent most of my life in gyms. I feel comfortable, at home and know what to do so my introduction to Cardiac Rehab was not that unusual for me. What was unusual was that the folks in that specialized gym had gray and snow covered heads with faces telegraphing their roads of experience. Translucent hands mapping deep blue streams as thin as my own gripped the handles of treadmills, recumbent bikes, hand weights and walkers. Deep ...

My spouse is taking the time to actually read every single word of this extremely scary document, all 922 pages of Project 2025 and yes, no matter how much he claims to "know nothing about it" his MO is now in print for the would to see just how evil and sick he and his cohorts are that wrote and are now promoting this historical agenda of the police state of dictatorship they believe is "the way". His recent words to the Christian conference in Florida is the dialogue of the intent of this document...last time you will ever have to vote...please... the document and his attempts to momentarily remove himself from its content is his typical style...claims no knowledge until he thinks it's in his best interest to say he "did it". The fight for democracy is now front and center. Those of us whose parents and grandparents lived through the rise and fall of Germany and it's dictators leadership and the atrocities that went with it have passed their st...

  ...moment, turn, breath, swallow, swing, step, bend, fall and it becomes a life changing EVENT . It is literally that simple and fast and can happen anywhere. ...it gets your attention ...age matters not ...shelf life becomes reality ...might be fortunate to get another chance Sunny warm day, swinging a club on the 4th hole and my heart EVENT  happened. Positive self talk of "I'm not going to die here" over and over and over got me to where I needed to be. I love golf, but it was not where I wanted to be exciting the planet, at least not yet! Thankful for another chance.

 ...a volatile and difficult issue to discuss and to elucidate. Why is this issue so emotional and so polarizing? People fear what they don't understand so a world of phobias exist...discrimination at every level and of every kind. People that are different than those who view them... religious indoctrination... A lack of appropriate education pertaining to understanding labels like  Bisexual/ Gay/ Lesbian/ Transgender/ Queer/Pansexual/ Non-binary and Transvestite to name a few.  It is  important to know that not all transgendered people are gay. Gay is not synonymous with all of these labels, being different is. These topics cannot be discussed without mentioning the word " SEX " and once that word is read or spoken most people's minds immediately go somewhere else.  Put " sex " and "sports" in the same dialogue and it's volcanic!  Highly combustible words elicit strong emotional convictions. This is why it is so polarizing.  Let me first say ...