Uncle Thor's Lessons, Anecdotes and Humor

Urus is another Rune that must be maintained. Strength is not something you can put in a closet until you need it. Strength must be maintained. Strength of body comes through physical activity. Strength of mind requires putting your intellect to use. Spiritual strength comes through spiritual practice. In all three, maintaining strength requires action. [...]

One of the funny things about electric trains is that they need maintenance. Just as a car needs a tune-up, so those little locomotives need to be lubricated and cleaned. The small gears require a touch of grease, and other points demand a drop of oil. Wheels and track need to be cleaned. Sometimes the [...]

Every so often I return to this statement. I call it “The Paradox of Tyr.” Students of military history and strategy are familiar with the concept. I will put it as plainly as I can: “Did we win, or did they lose?” Put another way, “Are we that good or are they that bad?” And [...]

My wife and I need to find an acoustic guitar. We do not need anything fancy. Audrey was a music major in college and played several instruments. The reason for the guitar is another project. Realizing that we do not have our own Yule songs, Audrey and I decided to come up with a few [...]

The whole Northeast got plastered with massive amounts of snow this week, but today things are pretty much back to normal. No matter what happens, people tend to bounce back. We see it after many disasters and unfortunate incidents. Somehow, some way, people bounce back. The word for this trait is resilience. It is like [...]

It is Yule. I am still trying to get back into my normal routine. On top of shaking off an illness, we got hit with a massive amount of snow. I had to shovel, and it was a slow process, to say the least. Of course, I am paying for it now with the usual [...]

I have been slowing down due to being stretched too thin this season. Today it caught up with me. I’m not feeling well and will likely be out of action the next couple of days. I apologize that the daily lessons have been spotty the past couple weeks. Hopefully I can get things back to [...]

The higher the monkey climbs, the more his ass shows! This is a Jamaican saying that ought to be a warning to anyone in a prominent position. In view of the recent scandals involving governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina and golfing pro Tiger Woods, there’s a lot of ass waving from the treetop. These [...]

On Saturday and Sunday this weekend, my wife and I do the annual Train Show. It is in a town called Ocean Grove, NJ. Ironically, it used to be a tent revival town. We have been part of the little show for nine years now. All we do is set up our old electric trains [...]

It is natural for children to seek the approval of their parents. This is a psychological proclivity of humankind. We seek to model our behavior on that of our parents. Their approval is an acknowledgement that we are succeeding If you read my last post, you know that I did not have that luxury. My [...]