Stories and other stuff

I hope that 2013 is a better year for all of us.  I mean that.  It's been a divisive year in our country, in our politics, and I can't help but think that a lot of that spills over into our relationships as well.  I'm hoping that spirit can change.  I'm always hopeful, though, and really want to believe the best in people.  Often, I'm disappointed, though. I'm not heartbroken to see 2012 go.  A lot of bad stuff happened.  My friend lost his wife this year, and that left a bit of a hole in the lives of all who knew her.  My old boss passed away, too.  We'd drifted apart over the years, but it's always sad to know that a person is gone.  My wish for 2013 for these folks' families is that their grief is subsided a little bit.  Sometimes, though, there are wounds that time just can't seem to heal. I have hope for good things because I know Jesus.  As I look back at 2012, I know I only got through it because He lifted me up, and...

Heard this song on the radio today and just felt I had to share it.

I know, you already know how I feel about this.  I don't believe in coincidence.  I got to share that thought with middle son today.  I had lunch today with my two youngest children, a minor miracle in and of itself.  A few months ago, that wouldn't have been possible.  What my children saw today was a different dad than the one they used to know and I saw today a man in my middle boy, and myself about forty years ago in my baby, who is anything but anymore. Middle boy had something happen to him last week that was a perfect example of the argument for providence.  I asked him to look up the topic online and then compare it to his experience and decide for himself.  What he attributed to coincidence, I account for as God's providence. It's nice to have a relationship with my kids again.  I missed out on so much I'll never get back, but I do love them so.  I also understand they don't have time for me at their ages but it's always nice to ...

Do you ever stop to think about the things God does?  I've been thinking about that lately, what with the Christmas story and all being prevalent over the last month or so.  I wrote about this the other day.  God's prophets proclaimed the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.  God chose Mary to be Jesus' mother and she lived someplace else.  So, God instead of telling her or Joseph in a vision to just go to Bethlehem, He instead used Caesar Augustus to accomplish His will.   Then He sent them to Egypt.  Then back to Nazareth, so that all the things foretold about Jesus by the prophets would be true.   A had to happen, then B, then C, etc... and just the right thing at the right time, too!   It just amazes how God does what He does!

Well, the world didn't end on the 21st.  Christmas came and went, and the new year is rapidly approaching, where we start the whole thing all over again.  There's always a tinge of optimism and hope that the new year will be better than the old.  We make resolutions we don't keep.  We're finally gonna get around to taking that trip, to call or see this or that person, or whatever that thing is you keep putting off, but the time files and before you know it, you're faced with the whole thing all over again. I had an interesting conversation this morning with a friend of mine.  Over coffee, we had an opportunity to chat about Jesus, more from a historical context than anything, and like I did last year at this time, I'm going to address some remarks to the "keep Christ in Christmas" crowd. I want to start off by reiterating something I've said before.  No matter what your belief system is, when Jesus came to Earth over 2,000 years ago, he changed...

One of the really cool things about my old job was that every now and again, the President of the United States would come to Utah.  Once, I got to shake hands with George Herbert Walker Bush; another time, he gave me and my friend Ed a thumbs up. We were standing on a corner, having a cigarette, with an armed security policeman standing across the street from us, by the way, as the presidential motorcade made its way to the flight line.  The leader of the free world leaned forward, looked out the window, and gave me and my friend a thumbs-up!  I'm sure it was the uniform, but still, I thought it was cool then. I still do. Mr. Bush is in the hospital and not doing well.  I thought it would be a nice day to share that little story with you because it's not every day you get to meet the President.  I passed up on a chance to meet President Clinton; mostly because I was pissed off that I had to leave home for two weeks because Saddam was acting up.  I me...

Stories! You know I have a story for every occasion and on this particular Christmas Eve, I'm going to share this one, for a friend. Last Friday night, one of the guys in the hangar was being funny, and blasting a moldy oldie; Tiny Tim's Tiptoe Through the Tulips.   I looked at my boss and told him sternly, but jokingly, "Fix it.  Make it stop!"  His reply, "you have far worse problems in your life than this". Merry Christmas to me. The snow is falling, the tree is decorated.  There are presents now where there were none before, and thanks to God for the overtime money which provided them.  I found just the right gift for each person on my list.  I found some things I didn't even know I was looking for, too.  And although everything I did was last-minute, the things I bought would have been on my list to begin with. My poor sister, though, is again a victim of her brother who feels like he needs to buy something for her.  My mom won't ac...

My friend Kenny asked about my view of faith when things like the unspeakable tragedy that happened Friday, or for that matter, the shooting in Aurora happen. I understand why it might be hard to have faith in God when things like this happen, but what you saw afterward was an outpouring of faith, from our President on down.  Churches were filled as people turned to God for comfort, and to join in prayer for those that need God's comfort more than anything right now. Sometimes, when horrific things happen that we can't understand, faith is all we have.  I could go on and on about God's place in our culture and in our own lives, and probably will in the coming days. But for now, all I can say is this: I have faith in God and God's people.  I have an understanding that none of us can understand the slaughter of innocent children.  The thoughts of it make me weep and just want to hold my own kids, and they're grown. My faith isn't in man, and it was a human...

OK, maybe that's not an apt description of what I'm going to recommend today for some reading.  I'm following a "read the Bible in a year" plan which started way back in January.  Yesterday's reading was 2 Timothy.  Today's reading was Titus.  These are short books, but boy, if you want some perspective on things happening in the world today, take a read at what the Apostle Paul said would happen and see if it doesn't ring true today. They're short books and it won't take the average reader long to finish them.

I'm pretty selective about my Facebook friends.  In fact, sometimes I wonder about the whole "friends" thing and if I'm missing the broader point. I know there are people that Facebook thinks I ought to be friends with that, and I'm sure the feeling is mutual, um, thanks, but no thanks.  Then there are the friends I should never have, like my kids.  I don't need to be facebook friends with my kids.  They're grown and I probably don't want to know, you know.  Any more than I would've wanted them to know some of the things I've done in my past.  Sometimes things are just better left unsaid.  Nowadays I wouldn't have a problem, my life is pretty much an open book, but back then, well, I didn't act that way around them too awfully much, let's say. Past that, though, I know every person I'm Facebook friends with.  Some of my friends have unfriended me from Facebook, too.  Hey, that's up to them.  I've unfriended a few mys...

I read about it.  Everything I read about it said not to do it.  Me, being me, had to go ahead and do it.  I did it twice.  Because I'm dumb. All day it's been threatening to snow.  All day it hasn't; until now.  And now it's snowing, albeit lightly.  Still, though, snow is snow and everything I read says don't make candy on stormy days, but I wanted some divinity. The first batch I burned.  The second batch didn't set up.  Inbetween, I destroyed a candy thermometer and ran out of eggs, so I had to go to the store. D'oh! Why do we do that?  What makes us think we're smarter than everybody else?  I blame mine on curiosity, really.  I was kinda bored and I want to get a start on holiday stuff.  I put the tree up and decorated it with what I could find of our decorations.  I put the train up and oiled the wheels of all the cars.  I had to do that... poor thing didn't want to move.  It's working good now...

After I finish writing this, and hopefully before it rains, I gotta get to the store.  I need a few provisions and then I'm getting my cookie on. Y'all know I'm a bit old school and one of my old school treasures is a cookbook my mother had from her high school home economics class.  I don't know what it is about this cookbook but on e-bay this one sells anywhere from $45-$100 depending on condition.  The one I have the cover is gone from; that happened years ago; and a few of the pages are missing, but all in all, it's an awesome cookbook. I bought another copy of this book on e-bay a while back and suggested to my sister that we ought to go in halfsies and buy my mom one.  My sister thought she'd never use it.  Last year, my mom walked out of the house with my complete one and I still have hers.  Fair trade.  My mom has been so good to June and I. Anyway, in this cookbook, there is this great picture of nothing but racks and racks of cookies th...

So, the walls are framed and the drywall is up in the basement.  That's a great thing but the project is at a crossroads and I've got some decisions to make. The biggest one right now is about what to do in the bathroom. There's no way around the fact that the bathroom in the basement is ugly because it's sharing space with a water heater and two furnaces. With the layout of the bathroom, there's really no way to frame these appliances off and keep everything that's crammed into this area.  There's just not enough space, which is fine with me because how much time do you spend in a bathroom anyway?  Granted, from a female perspective, it would be better if it were constructed differently, but sometimes when you're operating on a limited budget, you have to make do. The bathroom downstairs is a busy place, though.  It's where two toilets live side by side.  There is a double sink vanity.  There is also a washer/dryer hookup on the wall opposite ...

Well, I dodged a bullet, so to speak, last night.  My co-workers and I didn't win the lottery.  That's a good thing in a lot of ways because there are a lot of things I don't have to do today because I didn't win. First off, there is this guy that goes to our church.  One of his "things" he thinks is funny is to ask folks for a million dollars.  I would have had to give it to him and as bad as his life looks to me from the outside, giving the man a million dollars would make it much, much worse.  We're both better off without that headache. I don't have to worry about disputes that would have arisen with my children's mothers.  Money tends to bring out either the best or the worst in people.  I've been around too many things and places to do anything other than hope for the best from people but expect the worst.  I'm not saying there would have been "issues", but now I don't have to worry about it. Another thing I don...

You know you attend a small church when: Our regular organist was not at church today and her backup was ill today, so we did it the old fashioned way.... without accompaniment. I'm happy there are folks in the church that are really familiar with the hymnal and could lead us into making a joyful noise to the Lord.  The thing that made me laugh was the singing of the Doxology.  We sing this every Sunday.  Granted, there are two arrangements for this and we seem to switch off from time to time, but we sing it every Sunday. And it's the one we had to start over. It kind of made me laugh.  And it made me think about little churches that don't have fancy organs, or maybe back to the days of people doing just what it says:  Making a joyful noise unto the Lord. The congregation of First Baptist is never going to win a Grammy.  We're not gonna get recorded and sell a million albums of our fine hymn singing.  We're blessed with some in the congregati...

One of the many things the good Lord is working on changing in my life is my spending habits.  I'm really getting to the point where I hate to spend money on anything.  I've never been like this in my life and I'm having a hard time adjusting to it.  I mean, I don't even like buying things I need. I did need a new to me washing machine.  I really want the shiny red ones but they're not in the budget any time soon and that's all right.  The used appliance store was open and I decided it was better to buy a used one with a warranty than buy one off KSL not knowing what I was getting.  That and my truck is in SLC, so by the time I drove down to get it, drove back up with a washer, and drove the truck back down, it would have added $50 to the cost.  It was cheaper to go to the used store and have them deliver one.  I really hated doing it, but I found a washer.  I'm waiting for the guy to clean it up and deliver it sometime this evening. He g...

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I enjoyed mine.  We had a good afternoon and a Washington win; the first ever for the team on Thanksgiving, against Dallas only made the day better.  I'm enjoying a lazy day.  I worked on my bathroom project for about a half-hour today and ventured out to look for a washer.  The used appliance store was closed today, though, so that didn't happen.  Tomorrow is work on the car day.  A friend of mine is going to let me use his driveway to change the brakes on the Saturn.  It's getting new plugs too.  But today is normally the decorate the house for Christmas day and that didn't happen. I just didn't feel like it.  But then my sometimes roommate blew in and informed me that when she's done watching babies sometime late tonight or in the wee hours of tomorrow, which I'm used to seeing anyway, that we will be going through our Christmas decorations.  Oh, O.K.  Maybe I should have hung up th...

If I started listing everything I have to be grateful for, this would take you two hours to read and I'd only make a dent in the list.  But on a day like today, I think it's well and proper to give thanks to the gracious God who has blessed me in ways I'd never even dreamed of. Above all, today I'm thankful for God's grace.  I know, first hand, that God is God and that I'm even able to write this in the comfort of a warm home is a testimony to His grace.  I've seen Him do mighty things in my life and each and every one is a reason to be grateful and thankful.  I am.  And I know that everything in my life stems from the grace I found through accepting Christ as my savior. I'm also thankful to God for an abundant harvest from the garden.  In the cupboards and freezer in my home, the product of that blessing is well-evident.  Today, we'll be enjoying some of the vegetables we saved from the garden for this day.  There will be green bean casserole...

I haven't been this tired since last year when I drove 2/3 of the way across this country after a three hour nap.  I guess I'm getting old and need my sleep.  Sleep, though, has been pretty tough to find the last week, with working and all of the things going on around here.  This week looks to be no exception because of the holiday on Thursday.  If I hadn't already purchased the meal and invited people to dinner, we'd be dining out. Yup.  Dining out. I heard Golden Corral puts on a pretty good feed on Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving.  It's my second favorite holiday, next to Christmas.  I love everything about it, even the cooking part which has fallen back to me.  I like to cook so it's not a big deal.  It's just going to take a few extra days to get things done and time seems to be at a premium. I started the prep work today by making things that could be made ahead of time, like a cheese ball and the spinach dip.  Those wil...

I was really happy today.  I still am, and for no particular reason. I'm just happy.  I can't explain why.  I don't know why.  Maybe it's because I'm getting excited for the holidays.  Maybe it's because I haven't had much sleep lately.  Maybe it's because it's hard to not be happy when you've been blessed as much as I have in my life. I really don't know. Maybe part of it is starting to be comfortable with my job.  Some of the bigger, more complicated tasks I've done a time or two.  I think that always helps.  Some of the stuff I do can be a little intimidating.  I get to wear a hard hat for some of it, because we have to use a crane to lift the flight controls into place. I'm getting the hang of keeping the pieces from swinging back and forth when they're on the hoist.  I can tell you though, that if most people saw what holds airplanes together, they'd take a train instead.  It's neat to me and I really enjoy my j...

Blessings come in the strangest of ways sometimes.  Here's today's story: I got home at four a.m.  I'm quite surprised the number of people out and about at that time of the morning but that's another story.  We were fortunate to have the opportunity to put in some overtime this week and working a 12 hour day isn't a big deal. Sleeping, though, takes up a big chunk of your day when you're putting in hours like that.  When sleeping isn't an option, the days become long. I told one of my co-workers that I was "stupid tired" last night.  When you've been up a long period of time without sleep, you start to get a little dingy and I was at that point last night right about quitting time.  Stupid tired is gonna kick in earlier tonight because in the last two days, I've had about eight hours of sleep.  I've had lots to do this week, and today was no exception. I woke up about 8:45.  The doggie alarm clock went off.  I rolled out of bed a...

I never know from one minute to the next what's going to happen to me.  Today's adventure begins with a phone call from area code 614.  It's Columbus, Ohio and the voice mail said that the company calling was a contracted representative of the Ohio Attorney General. Add "contracted representative of the Ohio Attorney General" to the list of conversations you never want to have.  I ought to be freaked out, I suppose, but I'm not.  For once, the thing isn't my fault.  I can prove I've lived here for my whole life.  I filed the proper tax return with Utah, and if I have to file an amended Ohio return, I gladly will.  But there are things you would just rather not deal with. Like this one. My life.  Never boring.

"Hey, does this floor drain work?" It does now.  I have a snake.  That hooks up to a battery powered drill.  And it does a good job of clearing small clogs.  I'm assuming the clog in question was just backed up sludge from the ewww.  Anyway, the floor drain does. I used to have a water softener in the house.  I knew that, but at some point in the past, it actually used to work.  It's missing the tub for the salt and now it leaks water, which is what prompted the question about the floor drain.  I'm a be sweatin' some pipes tomorrow so it won't leak anymore.  It started leaking when the contractor moved it.  He was going to fix it when he comes back up, but I don't want to pay the extra on the water bill, so I'll fix it tomorrow.   Yesterday, I loaned him my sledge hammer and crowbar to demo some cabinets.  His was on another job.  Hey, I don't mind.  I have everything.  Except a saws-all. (OK, nobody c...

I was at Home Depot today.  I was looking at stuff for the basement and didn't find anything I really liked.  Tomorrow, I'm going to Lowe's.  I'm toying with sucking up looking like the world's biggest loser and thinking about going to a movie tonight.  I probably won't, but I'm seriously thinking about it. I want to see the new James Bond movie, but to me, alone at the movies on a Friday night screams "Loser!" Oh, yeah, the home improvement store.  Sorry about that. We've morphed into bathroom vanities, kitchen cabinets, and countertops.  I'm pretty certain the Thomasville cabinets are a bit out of the $31 a linear foot I'm being allowed to replace them, so it' stime to look elsewhere.  Maybe Lowe's has something, well, affordable. I'm thinking about white cabinets.  The old ones are cheap and the upper cabinets were not damaged so they're not being replaced.  Nice white ones would blend in better with the old one...

I work.  I pay child support.  I insure my children.  After paying my bills, in the circumstances I'm in, I have $400 a month to pay my utilities, buy gas for my car, give to my church, and buy groceries each month.  Christmas at my house will be non-existent this year, save for a scaled down dinner that is our holiday tradition.  I don't get bailouts.  I don't get handouts, and I make too much money to qualify for help, even though I could use a little from time to time. I voted for Mr. Obama.  Given the choice I had, I felt compelled to vote for him and I'd like to share with you why. For me, it was a personal choice based on the circumstances of my family.  I have a son who will have a pre-existing condition for the rest of his life.  He was born with a cataract in his left eye and the vision in it never developed.  He may have to have one more surgery in his life to replace the lens that was implanted when he was five.  It's...

I'm at round two with the mortgage company's representatives over fighting with them about my basement.  I received some additional funds to repair the basement and had to send them that check.  They'll get it tomorrow.  It'll take them until Friday to upload the documents I sent with the check.  I'm hoping by a week from next Friday that we'll have a check back from them for the additional 1/3 of those funds.  This would be so much easier if the insurance company could have paid the contractor directly but I understand why they can't. I also found out that my mortgage company contracts out with another company for these services.  The internet is a great tool for finding things out.  It's not just my mortgage company that contracts with them.  Several others do, too.  Surprisingly, their customers have similar complaints to mine.  Hopefully, though, we've given everything they've asked for so far and we'll get some cooperation from th...

My pickup truck gets a lot of use.  Mostly these days, it's for other folks and I don't mind that.  I like helping, but sometimes, those who want your help make it hard to want to help them.  But sometimes, God answers prayers and it seems that He's working on a prayer to help make someone that's difficult to love a little easier to love. That happened today.  The person in question sometimes forgets that just because I own a truck doesn't mean it's always available for me to run over and do his bidding.  I explained to him that I have some work around here that needs to be done and I'll be using my truck to collect the debris from the yard over the next few days. And he offered to help.  That surprised me!  And he wasn't the only one.  Another of the gentlemen in the congregation heard the conversation and also offered to help me.  I'm very blessed to have that happen.  It's nice that the guy I help recognized that I might need...

Over my lifetime, there are probably a billion things I take for granted.  I take for granted that lights will come on when I turn on the switch for example.  I can't see the electricity, but I know how and why it works.  I don't think about that, though, when I turn on the switch.  It's just there as long as Rocky Mountain Power gets their cut. I take for granted that as long as America is around and that I keep showing up and doing a good job, that I'm going to have said job.  I'm taking it for granted that said job will be around, barring any attempts at privatization of said job by the unfriendly small government crowd. I take for granted that I have a roof over my head, to a certain extent.  I take for granted the cup of coffee I have.  There have been times when that coffee wasn't there, though.  But I take for granted that sooner or later, I'll have enough money to buy a can of grounds. I take a lot for granted, but slowly, I'm learni...

I thought you might like to see some photos of the basement.  The before photos are photos of the flood.  I thought about sharing the photo of the toilet but I'm not going to.  I had to send it to the insurance company today.  I'll bet they're sorry they asked for it.  I was sorry I had to send it.  I didin't share it with you, though.  Thank me later. The demo photos are the pictures of how it sits today.  I'm waiting to hear back from the insurance company about how much more this is gonna cost them.  As I said, I had a really bad day yesterday.  Today was better because they're going to cover, under the protection I have for building law and ordinance coverage, framing and insulating the cement walls properly.  It's just another thing. This will give you some idea of what the basement looked like before:  This is a view of one of the partitions that used to separate the big room into three smaller rooms. The ...

If you were curious, or creative, you may have figured out what the worst thing that happened to me yesterday was. And I remembered to give thanks. I opened my Bible to the book of 1 Thessalonians and then the dogs started barking.  The mailman came and I want to share this with you. The content belongs entirely to BBN Radio and is lifted from this month's copy of their newsletter, The Voice.   I don't think they mind me sharing it. The headline says:   How do I give thanks in spite of my circumstances? 1.   Give thanks to God from our will and not our feelings.   2.   Remember to be obedient to His will "in all things give thanks for this is the will of God for you" (1 Thess 5:18) 3.  Be assured that "all things work together for good to them that are called..." (Romans 8:28) 4. Choose to see God's hand in the circumstances you are in and to focus on the promises of a mighty God. (Phil. 4-19) Like I said, I made some choices and thes...