Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor. With 38 songs in the Top 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts, he has sold more than 130 million albums worldwide.

Diamond was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Additionally, he received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and in 2011 was an honoree at Kennedy Center, he will be honored by The Recording Academy with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. On the Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary charts, he has had ten No. 1 singles: “Cracklin’ Rosie”, “Song Sung Blue”, “Longfellow Serenade”, “I’ve Been This Way Before”, “If You Know What I Mean”, “Desiree”, “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”, “America”, “Yesterday’s Songs”, and “Heartlight”. In January 2018 it was announced that Diamond would receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Today he announced to his fans that he has Parkinson’s disease and no longer has the capability to do concert tours. His fans did not complain. They were smarter than that, they donated the cost of tickets to his shows to research to find better treatments and perhaps a cure for Parkinson’s disease. His fans honored what he has taught them through his music.

Neil is one of my favorite singers, and I will always cherish the music he created and presented. I wish him the best as he deals with this condition.

“No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main” John Donne, poet (Jan 1573-1631).

These words were written before the founding of the United States as a nation. They are as true now as they were then. The message Mr. Donne has for us is that we must work together for the good of the whole. I pray for our national and world leaders to learn and practice this important lesson.

Do you want to hear about the latest inspirational and life-changing work the people of The UMC do around the world? Check out #UnitedMethodistNow: http://ow.ly/Adh330hTdQ2 
#UMC

A lot of fantastic life-changing mission is taking place in the United Methodist Church. This image is a copy of the UMC Twitter post. Click the link and read all about it! It will put a smile on your face!

To avoid a “Government Shut Down” the House of Representatives, The Senate, and the President of the United States must agree on a spending bill. Republican Mitch McConnel said earlier this week, he did not know what the President wanted. When the President lets us know, we will do it.

Now after an agreement has not been achieve Senator Chuck Schumer says, “The blame should crash entirely on Pres. Trump’s shoulders. … This will be called the Trump shutdown because there is no one, no one who deserves the blame for the position we find ourselves in more than President Trump.”

The world is witnessing our political system at it worst: dysfunctional. There is not reason for this shut down!!

This picture was posted to Twitter yesterday by Guardian Angel Basset Rescue. I have adopted two dogs from them when I lived in Illinois. While both of those dogs have gone to their forever home in heaven, I still am a dog owner and am enjoying the benefits of having pets in my family.

Just today at 5 am Scooter came into the bedroom and wanted his first belly rubs of the day. It was so much more pleasant to wake up and rub the belly of a dog you love than to wake up to the shrill sound of an alarm clock.

Have a great Friday!!

This map of the United States appeared in my Twitter feed today. The poster of the picture @zoo_quiz promised that if you answered 30 questions they could predict what state you live in. I took the test and was surprised at the results: I live in New Jersey! WRONG!! Not only do I not currently live in New Jersey, I have never lived there. The states I have liven in are: Illinois, Iowa, West Virginia and Maryland. How their tool chose New Jersey for me is a complete mystery. So, this is a reminder to all us not to take test results too seriously unless we know the accuracy of how the test is scored and/or administered.

Since the 1970’s Baltimore Street has been a brick paved outdoor mall with a prohibition on vehicular traffic. For the last 18 months our city leaders have been pushing a plan to remove all the bricks and pave the street. One justification for this action is that there is infrastructure under the service that needs to be repaired or replaced. Installation of fiber optic communication cables is another reason offered for the change. The infrastructure updates could be accomplished by removing far less than 100% of the bricks, and then the bricks could be placed back in their original location. This idea has not received serious consideration.

Many citizens, myself included, enjoy walking along the mall and patronizing the businesses that operate their because there is no vehicular traffic. The site has been host to many festivals and displays each summer. Antique car shows have been located there and have been well attended.

Our leaders are frustrated that roughly 50% of the buildings are vacant. They feel if the street is opened to vehicles, the buildings will cease being vacant. The real problem with the vacancy rate is that our area has a shortage of well paying jobs. We do not have the economic base to support more retail establishments.

People point to the Country Club Mall in LaVale and state they want downtown to have the occupancy rate of that the mall enjoys. The mall has a constant turn over in tenants. We hear rumors that 1 or 2 of the anchor stores will be closing. If that comes to pass the viability of the mall will be in jeopardy. This shows me that our retail problem is a declining financial base to support retail spending at the level the current retailers require.

I am firmly against opening Baltimore Street to vehicular traffic. If you agree I ask you to let your voice be known to the Cumberland City Council before this tragic plan is implemented!

The picture above is of Brian Dietzen who plays Jimmy Palmer on NCIS. He is at Living Desert Zoo & Gardens, 47900 Portola Ave, Palm Desert, Greater Palm Springs, CA 92260. One of the birds landed on his head. Good thing my friend was wearing a hat. Seeing this picture on Twitter made me ask myself the question, “When was the last time I had fun doing the unexpected?”

My answer came quickly, I was recently in St. Louis and was window shopping inside a Target store. I spoke to a customer who asked me a question about the location of an item of merchandise. I told him I had no idea because it was my first visit to that store. Later we ended up in the Starbucks café inside the store and had a wonderful conversation over our favorite hot brew.

So now I ask you, “When was the last time you had fun doing the unexpected?”

The recent false text message warning that was sent this weekend has inspired me to resume blogging. Part of my absence from blogging was due to illness and I have also been travelling. I hope to be more faithful in daily postings.

When I read about the false text message and how ordinary citizens who received it reacted I felt sorry for them because they were in terror mode when there was no reason to be in a terror mode. I am sure the state of Hawaii is taking precautions to keep this type of error from happening in the future.

We have grown disciplined to pay attention to emergency warnings. It seems like I receive text messages about Amber alerts monthly. Now our county sends text messages for weather alerts. With the number of cold weather days, we have experienced, I am glad to know when the weather is suddenly changing for the worse.

Hawaii emergency officials immediately issued a correction when they learned of their error. That is a good example to everyone: WHEN YOU MAKE A MISTAKE TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION TO CORRECT IT. If more people practiced this behavior our social fabric would be improved.

This is the image the United Methodist Church posted on their Twitter feed to celebrate this day of thanks. I love Thanksgiving, but I love it more than just for the special foods and the day off from work.

I love it because it reminds me to be thankful for everything I have in life now, what I have enjoyed in the past and those things, like retirement, that I hope to celebrate in the future.

For me thanksgiving is a life-style more than it is a holiday. I hope however you are spending yours that it is a special day!