Where's the gold watch?

Then Moses climed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, acros from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land ...And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said.

David son of Jesse was king ovr all Israel. He ruled over Israel forty years -- seven in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. He died at a good old age, having enjoyed long life, wealth and honor.

Well gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel. -- George Appel, moments before he was executed by electric chair in 1928.

Last words are fickle. You might convey what you want, you might not. So bear with me if there are readers.

Tonight ends, for all intents and purposes, what I had fashioned to be my career. Funny thing is I ended it by doing exactly what started it. Lo those decades ago, I covered a baseball game and wrote what I saw. Tonight in a place called Breaux Bridge, I cover a football game and write what I see.

No big deal. Lots of people end their careers. They do it every day.

What I can't get most to understand is this is not an end, it is a beginning. I pray God has heard this message, for I didn't do a lot of financial planning and I love my Mary and want her to have food to eat. But I digress.

The end is near, the signs tell us, and by that I mean more than the cardboard ones. We might be counting down on this old world. Wars and rumors of wars and such.

But this remains true: There is always someone to replace you. No one is irreplaceable. No one. Except, except one: Jesus Christ. See, Jesus is the only one who was never replaced. No one else, not Mohammad, not Buddah, not Jimminy Cricket, no one ever said he was God. Except, except one: Jesus Christ.

That's what makes him remarkable, among other things. Not as a teacher, though he was the best. Not as a loving person, though he was the best. Not as a water walker, though I can't find many of those around. He was God, he said. In that declaration, he became unlike Moses, David and even me. He became irreplaceable.