Stories and other stuff

To take my mind off my troubles today I wanted to mow my front lawn.  I went to start the mower and the engine is seized up.  It has oil and gas but it's deader than a doornail. It gets to the point where you quit feeling sorry for yourself, though, and you just have to laugh.  So I laughed.  Hey, at this point it's all I've got.

I picked today's title because it was a question I was asking myself earlier today.  When I started out today's blog about four hours ago, the theme behind it was going to be from this little chestnut: No good deed goes unpunished. I kind of felt like that today.  Sometimes it seems that when I try to do the right things, even with the best of intentions, there's always something that goes along with that.  The feeling didn't last long though.  As I was thumbing through my Bible, the following passage caught my attention.  Part of the subheading in my Bible said this:  Suffering for doing good. The reference is  1 Peter 3 .  Although it might feel that way today, it's nice to know it's just another step in my walk with God.  Sometimes, not always, but sometimes it's easy not to see the forest for the trees and the Bible never lets me down.  I can usually find something in it that describes my circumstances and shows me that with tr...

Today is the Lord's Day.  I was so beat down from working so much this week that I didn't really want to go to church, or anyplace else for that matter, today.  I have some yard work that I should finish today... should.  But I really didn't feel like doing much of anything. I got up early though, because my friend wanted to borrow my pickup to get some mulch for his garden so I had to clean it out.  I had coffee, sat on the back patio, and finally, about 10:30, I got ready for church. I'm so glad I did.  Every now and again, lazy tries to get the better of me on a Sunday, especially after a long week like this week, but off to church I went, and I feel refreshed, spiritually and physically.  Tami went to church with me and she also enjoyed the service. It's been nice having her here to visit.  After everything that happened last year, that we could remain friends is saying something.  And as I'm living in the light, friends is all  we ...

still here, still alive, still working more OT than I should be.  But boy, am I tired.... I already have 20 hours of overtime this week.  Eat, sleep, work... that's been it this week, except for the road trip to Salt Lake to buy birthday cakes yesterday. I'll have something to post tomorrow. God Bless, Coop

Today's post is based on Galatians 6:7-8:  7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (NIV) I heard a sermon on the radio last week from Dr. J. Vernon McGee, who is now with Jesus in Heaven but the topic was this verse and the crux of the message was this: Chickens come home to roost. Boy, do they. I've mentioned this before and talked frequently about the things that have happened in my life.  I had a chance to share these verses with someone today; shared the concept of "Cognitive Dissonance" as well (don't know how much good it'll do, Pastor Karl, but I shared it anyway) too.  It's odd, but far more than I care about the personal situation this person and I share, I care enough about this person to want to see them in Heaven at the end. Today, I'm asking you to th...

Well, the garden didn't get planted.  I did drive to the church today to mow the lawn but it looks like it's not ready and turning brown in a couple of places, so I let it be to help it retain some moisture and green up.  I have the blade set the same height as what I cut mine at home, so it should be green and longer.  That's OK, though, I wanted to get back to my Wednesday schedule anyhow, so that will work.  Hopefully, we'll get some rain tonight and tomorrow.  The sky looked a bit angry a while ago, so we'll see. We had a lazy day here at Lark Circle.  We did get some flowers planted though but most importantly, that nightmare of a patio is clean and pressure washed.  I forgot how big it is.  There are still some plants that need to be planted but once that happens, we're back to having a patio again and I'll add some pictures to my Facebook album.  The back 40 gets planted tomorrow.  I had to fix a leak in the pool today and the d...

I posted some pictures of my back yard on my Facebook page last night.  My yard is greener than it's ever been because of all the rain.  I've talked about Lark Circle Farm a lot and most of my friends live points south of Salt Lake, so they're a bit reluctant to make the drive without going all the way to Idaho to buy lottery tickets, so I shared some photos of the joint. One of the photos was of my ghetto fabulous, shabby chic' swimming pool.  In the picture, you can see what appears to be a gigantic rubber ducky wearing sunglasses floating on the top of the pool.  In fact, my friend Tami Jo made a wisecrack about my rubber ducky.  After all, the kids are grown well past the point of rubber ducks, so it looks a bit strange for a grown man to have one in his swimming pool. What you can't see in the photo is that the duck has a job.  A very important job, in fact.  Attached to the bottom of the duck is a cylinder that holds the chlorine tablets that...

Here's a picture of the view from my backyard this summer.  That white stuff on the top of Mt. Ogden isn't supposed to be there this time of year!

My mother-in-law helped me learn a very valuable lesson today. For all the talk, sometimes I find I can be a bit selfish.  Miss June had a very simple request for me today.  She was off work and asked if I would please take her to a nursery I'd heard of in Layton.  She also wanted to buy a new filter and pump for me for the pool.  For some reason, the pool is important this year, though neither of us can put a finger on just why, but that's a different story.  She suggested we could stop off in Layton at the Wal-mart on our way to the garden center. I didn't want to.  I just wanted to run to Wal-mart, get the thing and get home.  Two hours, three Wal-marts later, no pool filter.  Each store was out of them in Ogden. I came home and realized that Miss June does a lot for me without ever asking me.  She feeds me, sneaks my laundry in, does just a bunch of things for me.  She asked me to do something which was not a big deal and I did...

I stole this from a Chicago (the band) song but am so going to use it out of context this morning. Most of us run our lives on a schedule.  School starts at this time, work starts at that time.  We plan to get up early enough to get things ready for our day.  When that schedule gets messed up, when things don't go right, when someone hogs all the hot water in the morning, you know your day isn't going to start well.  We get frustrated when things don't necessarily go our way.  We're by nature, I think, impatient, which causes us our own grief some days. We have things to do, places to go, and because traffic was a mess on I-15, or those $#^& miles of orange barrels with no workmen in sight have our street closed down to one lane; we're late.  Not just late, but angry at the world late.  You know that kind of day.   That $#^* that just cut us off doesn't help much and if only we could get to him (or her) we'd tell 'em a thing or two. Someti...

"It could be worse...could be raining"  is a line from Young Frankenstein when Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman are digging up a body.  No sooner does "Igor" speak the line, than it starts raining. It IS raining today in Ogden.  It's just incidental to the post.  I think there's a little bit of truth in that little sentence today, though.  For some reason this past week I've felt like I was on an emotional roller coaster.  Nothing I really want to elaborate on but thinking of this little line reminds me that things could always be worse. Sometimes, I think I dwell on things too much and I'm not so sure that's a healthy thing.  At least I can catch myself doing it and avoid what I heard one radio program presenter a while back refer to as falling into a "Pity Party Pit".  I never forget that the things I'm going through, as much as they weigh on me, as much as I'm confused and frustrated by them, in the grand scheme of things re...

Yes, things change.  Sometimes a lot sooner than you think they will. More news when it's appropriate.  For now, though, it's a time to mourn with those that mourn.  There will be time for rejoicing with those that rejoice later on. God is great and I thank Him for giving me the answer I needed so desperately. Coop.

I've turned into a bit of a night owl.  It's just because of the hours I work, I know.  Take tonight for instance.  A lot of you are in bed asleep and I've got macaroni salad and homemade beans with sausage on the stove.  The coals are heating up now and someplace around 12:30 or so, I imagine we'll be eating dinner. Grilling out after midnight.  Just another way to enjoy the end of a very tiring, trying, but yet, beautiful and wonderful gift from God.  Each day is a gift.. even the bad ones. Tomorrow, depending on my mood, I might, and say might, just give all y'all an update on what's happening with my life. Bless you, Coop

Yesterday, I found a "7-level" pencil while looking for a really neat pen I own that I seem to have misplaced.  (a seven level pencil is a mechanical pencil that has a red lead on one side and a graphite lead on the other and it's a common commodity among Air Force airplane mechanics).  I thought that was neat, I kind of needed one for work.  About twenty minutes later, while looking for something, I found another one.  Both still had plenty of lead in them.  I thought to myself, I know a couple of guys I work with would like to have one of these.  It's too bad I don't have three of them, because I could share the other two with the two guys at work. I went about my day and was organizing my toolboxes again.  I knew I had a ratchet in the truck that needed to go back into the toolbox, so I went outside to get it.  As I was rummaging around in the side pocket on the truck door, I found the third pencil. I haven't found my pen but I really didn'...

First off, I want to start the day by praising and giving glory to God!  It's a beautiful day and my first full day of not smoking again.  I might be a little testy for the next couple of days, but in my heart, I'm filled with joy for whatever the day will bring. I'm going to share some verses with you.  You have to look them up yourselves though.  No links, no helpful hints today.  If you want to know what they say, you gotta read them on your own.  These are in a specific order, not cherry picked... and the last is my random(?) for today. First look at 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (Or read the whole chapter...there's something in there that's pretty interesting too). Second, and EVERY married person should know these verses by heart, read 1 Corinthians 7:1-20. Please keep in mind that the Apostle Paul wrote these two books of the Bible.  Here's today's random(?) piece of my little moral dilemma: 2 Peter 3:15-18

Today's story is about suffering because it seems to be the theme of the day. Of course, I have to tell you a story before I can tell you a story (or I just wouldn't be me). I lose stuff sometimes.  Last night, I was sitting on the patio with a nice fire in my little fire pit, just kind of reflecting on the day.  I have a little radio on the patio and of course I was listening to the Bible Broadcasting Network (99.5 f.m. in Ogden) but thought I'd like to listen to some different music.  I couldn't find my iPod (which was hiding in plain sight) so I grabbed the laptop (affectionately known as Herbie, the one I used to take TDY with me wasn't good enough to rate being called Bob by Wendi, so laptops are Herbies) and went in search of a cable for it.  I took it into the spare bedroom and set it down and promptly forgot where I put it.  I set some stuff on top of it, so it wasn't hiding in plain sight.  After a thorough search, I just gave up and listened t...

I seem to remember reading this in the Bible someplace and most days, that's what I do.  Today, I enjoyed myself.  The things I did weren't work, per-se.  They were things I wanted to do and enjoyed doing them.  It was a beautiful day to be outside and that's where I spent the afternoon. I watered and weeded the strawberries, mowed the lawn, even under the apple and apricot trees in the back 40 (miss my hammock), watered the back 40 lawn, washed the cobwebs off my front door, fixed an Adirondack chair that I built a few years ago and painted it, and somehow managed to get everything put away, too.  I trimmed up the apple trees too, so I can walk underneath them again. Here are some pictures of the yard, one of Katie, my dog, and one of the infamous "paint the bedroom" episode.  The bedroom used to be yellow with oak-colored wood trim.  It's now purpleish (the fluorescent light makes it look more pinkish than it is) with white trim.  When I was...

I got off work early because some other people got off work early which made the work I was asked to do at work impossible to do. I came home early and started puttering around the house.  Here are some things I noticed: Toilets, tubs, and showers don't clean themselves. Mildew grows under the bottles of conditioner you don't ever use. You never have enough cleaner to clean everything when you want to clean it, but you can find almost empty bottles hidden in stuff under the sink to get the job done. Mail piles up when you don't open it. Your toenails don't quit growing just because you can't remember what you did with the clippers. A paring knife is a poor replacement for toenail clippers. (No I didn't, I'm just sayin....) Apparently laundry doesn't wash itself and the immigrant is holding me to my word that I need to start doing things for myself.  I always thought clean clothes just kind of, well,.... happened. Dust accumulates weekly. The ...

I have far too much stuff. My pastor made a joke the other day about my house sounding like an episode of "Antiques Roadshow".  I don't know if I'd quite go that far but let me tell you of today's finds. We cleaned off the patio the other day and as I was sitting there contemplating the day, getting ready to go to work, I heard one of the cats softly mewing from underneath the potting bench I made Miss June for Mother's Day a few years ago. I looked to see what was wrong and noticed the pussycat was laying on a remnant of carpet that came out of my bedroom.  It looks to be just big enough to replace a spot here and there, including the one that Bucktard ate. It's headed to the washing machine, then to the hole in the bedroom carpet. That's not the only thing I found.  I need to re-seed or over-seed if you will, the grass I planted under the apple trees.  It needs to be a shade mixture.  I thought I'd had some left-over grass seed but couldn...

Gang, The ol' blog is getting a bit too personal for comfort, so it's time to change the subject.  New chapters in my life will open, old ones will close, and life will go on. I'm pretty well at peace and as for the Mrs., well I wish for her what I wish for me:  God's blessings, happiness, love, and a peaceful life. That's where I'd like to leave it and like it to be the last word on the subject. There have to be other things to talk about.