Stuff
Well, that sucked.
So I'm going to re-write it. I didn't even look to see if anybody actually read it. I'm just gonna re-write it.
On Monday, at the courthouse, the future former Mrs. Cooper and I talked about stuff. She kind of left in a huff and left a lot of stuff here. The first time we tried to get divorced, the attorney I hired told me not to toss anything I didn't want to pay for. So I kept EVERYTHING.
Everything is actually quite a bit of stuff. A lot of it will get tossed because a lot of the stuff isn't pertinent to life anymore. Some of this stuff she's going to want. Some of it she probably doesn't even remember she has.
Some of it is stuff I gave to her once and she gave back because she was mad at me. She'll probably get that stuff too. It's not that I don't want to keep it because I do use it but it's like this: The stuff is just that; STUFF.
This whole week has been about stuff. It started on Sunday when I asked God about "why the picture frame?" It was then I came to know that the person who needed the third picture frame wasn't me and that still small voice said that Wendy was going to pick up her stuff. I told that unbelievable story to Miss June the day it happened, by the way, so no I'm not nuts or making it up after the fact.
You can ask her if you don't believe me.
Then on Monday, she was gonna pick up her stuff.
So now it's a matter of figuring out who's gonna keep what. My rule was that if she asks for it, she's going to get it. After all, it's just stuff. Some of it I use and some of it I have to sacrifice to give to her but it's just stuff.
All week it's been about stuff. Tuesday and Wednesday I heard about it during the Bible study program I listen to at lunch. That still, small voice has been prompting me that it's all got to go. Everything she asked for; even though there's enough to share and still leave us each with more than we'd ever use. The two or three family dinners we have at my house each year aren't going to be eaten on fancy plates and I won't be decorating a table at church at Christmas for the foreseeable future. But it's all right. It's just stuff.
A lot of this stuff they don't make any more. But they do still make stuff and I can get different stuff if it means that much to me. It doesn't. I have far better things to do than collect stuff at the rate I used to.
The thing is though, that at first I didn't want to give back the stuff. I like the stuff. I use the stuff. I want to keep the stuff. I want the stuff I lost back and that's never going to happen. We used to have two of this one really expensive thing. She took both of them and one of them was stolen from her. I wanted one of them but now there's only one and I won't ask for it back. So I have had some issues with stuff this week. At the end of the day, though, I remembered that anything you put before God becomes an idol and for whatever reasons, I'm to give up some stuff and put someone else who really doesn't like me first.
I think I read about that someplace. I'm all good with it.
Besides, I have enough problems with the stuff I have. My son reminded me of this today when I sent him into the garage to get the pressure washer. My boy, who I love dearly, did not inherit his father's ability to fix certain things. He's not really mechanically inclined. He, not knowing what a pressure washer looked like, tried to bring out the Snow King snowblower. Um, son, we need to talk.
I had him help with the boat. Part of that help was him sitting under a shady tree while I disassembled the carburetor on the boat. My son has learned one thing up here this week; sometimes you have to take a break and drink some water. He brought me water three times, the first two one right after another and after that, things started going well again.
We had to put new hull numbers on the boat today. We had nice big 4" script letters that had the hull number on it. What we have now is ghetto fabulous block letter black on white stickers on the side of the boat that I swear the guys from NASA could read from space. Some state legislator's brother-in-law must own the decal company. The letters were 67 cents a pop at HD and 57 cents a pop at Wally world. The law is so ridiculous; you have to add spaces or dashes between the letters and numbers that are equal to the size on one of the letters or numbers. There's and extra $2.50 for the four dashes because there are two letters, four numbers, two letters.
It's not the most ghetto thing on Dollar by far; there are several leaks that have been repaired with various chemical compounds. The latest one was repaired with some water-resistant JB weld. I've used that stuff before, but never on the boat. Hope it works.
Dollar isn't worth much. It doesn't get garaged. I did put a tarp on it this winter because I have one that covers half the back 40. I made a new middle seat for it a couple of years ago but never changed it. I did today. We bought a piece of marine vinyl (of course the kind that's not on sale), we had to go back to the store for staples to secure the fabric to the wood. We put new screws in a few places, cleaned out the whole mess, tried to find the leak on the tire which may have been finally cured by fix-a-flat. We have all the studs installed to hold the tire on. We have done a lot since the "I hate that boat conversation".
The thing is: I'm really starting to hate this boat.
There was one good thing about the boat though: The lights worked.
Hey, you gotta take what you can get when you have old stuff.
Anyway, the thing is this: I"m happy I have the boat. I'm grateful that for a small amount of money and some running around and elbow grease, the boat looks pretty good again. My son learned some stuff about mechanics. While we wanted to go camping and fishing today, we spent the day together. He's learning the value of having the right tools for the job (his brother has my tool set for the boat!) and putting the tools where they go.
He's also learning some big lessons about all the stuff we've moved to the garage. I've shared with him why I'm giving this or that thing back to the wife and sharing with him some important Gospel truths. He's not convinced but nobody could tell me anything at his age, either. But still, I'm grateful to God for the lessons and the opportunity to share with my son. I told him about what marriage ought to be and I hope he takes that to heart.
Well, the boy is bugging me and we're getting up at oh-dark-hundred to take the boat to a lake and catch some fish. Wish us luck!
So I'm going to re-write it. I didn't even look to see if anybody actually read it. I'm just gonna re-write it.
On Monday, at the courthouse, the future former Mrs. Cooper and I talked about stuff. She kind of left in a huff and left a lot of stuff here. The first time we tried to get divorced, the attorney I hired told me not to toss anything I didn't want to pay for. So I kept EVERYTHING.
Everything is actually quite a bit of stuff. A lot of it will get tossed because a lot of the stuff isn't pertinent to life anymore. Some of this stuff she's going to want. Some of it she probably doesn't even remember she has.
Some of it is stuff I gave to her once and she gave back because she was mad at me. She'll probably get that stuff too. It's not that I don't want to keep it because I do use it but it's like this: The stuff is just that; STUFF.
This whole week has been about stuff. It started on Sunday when I asked God about "why the picture frame?" It was then I came to know that the person who needed the third picture frame wasn't me and that still small voice said that Wendy was going to pick up her stuff. I told that unbelievable story to Miss June the day it happened, by the way, so no I'm not nuts or making it up after the fact.
You can ask her if you don't believe me.
Then on Monday, she was gonna pick up her stuff.
So now it's a matter of figuring out who's gonna keep what. My rule was that if she asks for it, she's going to get it. After all, it's just stuff. Some of it I use and some of it I have to sacrifice to give to her but it's just stuff.
All week it's been about stuff. Tuesday and Wednesday I heard about it during the Bible study program I listen to at lunch. That still, small voice has been prompting me that it's all got to go. Everything she asked for; even though there's enough to share and still leave us each with more than we'd ever use. The two or three family dinners we have at my house each year aren't going to be eaten on fancy plates and I won't be decorating a table at church at Christmas for the foreseeable future. But it's all right. It's just stuff.
A lot of this stuff they don't make any more. But they do still make stuff and I can get different stuff if it means that much to me. It doesn't. I have far better things to do than collect stuff at the rate I used to.
The thing is though, that at first I didn't want to give back the stuff. I like the stuff. I use the stuff. I want to keep the stuff. I want the stuff I lost back and that's never going to happen. We used to have two of this one really expensive thing. She took both of them and one of them was stolen from her. I wanted one of them but now there's only one and I won't ask for it back. So I have had some issues with stuff this week. At the end of the day, though, I remembered that anything you put before God becomes an idol and for whatever reasons, I'm to give up some stuff and put someone else who really doesn't like me first.
I think I read about that someplace. I'm all good with it.
Besides, I have enough problems with the stuff I have. My son reminded me of this today when I sent him into the garage to get the pressure washer. My boy, who I love dearly, did not inherit his father's ability to fix certain things. He's not really mechanically inclined. He, not knowing what a pressure washer looked like, tried to bring out the Snow King snowblower. Um, son, we need to talk.
I had him help with the boat. Part of that help was him sitting under a shady tree while I disassembled the carburetor on the boat. My son has learned one thing up here this week; sometimes you have to take a break and drink some water. He brought me water three times, the first two one right after another and after that, things started going well again.
We had to put new hull numbers on the boat today. We had nice big 4" script letters that had the hull number on it. What we have now is ghetto fabulous block letter black on white stickers on the side of the boat that I swear the guys from NASA could read from space. Some state legislator's brother-in-law must own the decal company. The letters were 67 cents a pop at HD and 57 cents a pop at Wally world. The law is so ridiculous; you have to add spaces or dashes between the letters and numbers that are equal to the size on one of the letters or numbers. There's and extra $2.50 for the four dashes because there are two letters, four numbers, two letters.
It's not the most ghetto thing on Dollar by far; there are several leaks that have been repaired with various chemical compounds. The latest one was repaired with some water-resistant JB weld. I've used that stuff before, but never on the boat. Hope it works.
Dollar isn't worth much. It doesn't get garaged. I did put a tarp on it this winter because I have one that covers half the back 40. I made a new middle seat for it a couple of years ago but never changed it. I did today. We bought a piece of marine vinyl (of course the kind that's not on sale), we had to go back to the store for staples to secure the fabric to the wood. We put new screws in a few places, cleaned out the whole mess, tried to find the leak on the tire which may have been finally cured by fix-a-flat. We have all the studs installed to hold the tire on. We have done a lot since the "I hate that boat conversation".
The thing is: I'm really starting to hate this boat.
There was one good thing about the boat though: The lights worked.
Hey, you gotta take what you can get when you have old stuff.
Anyway, the thing is this: I"m happy I have the boat. I'm grateful that for a small amount of money and some running around and elbow grease, the boat looks pretty good again. My son learned some stuff about mechanics. While we wanted to go camping and fishing today, we spent the day together. He's learning the value of having the right tools for the job (his brother has my tool set for the boat!) and putting the tools where they go.
He's also learning some big lessons about all the stuff we've moved to the garage. I've shared with him why I'm giving this or that thing back to the wife and sharing with him some important Gospel truths. He's not convinced but nobody could tell me anything at his age, either. But still, I'm grateful to God for the lessons and the opportunity to share with my son. I told him about what marriage ought to be and I hope he takes that to heart.
Well, the boy is bugging me and we're getting up at oh-dark-hundred to take the boat to a lake and catch some fish. Wish us luck!
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