Stories and other stuff

For once, I am ready for my weekly Wednesday meeting before hand.  I spent some time this morning reading my book and completing the corresponding lesson in the companion workbook.  I won't have to do this tomorrow.  I did this before getting ready to leave for work. I had all of my things together for work.  My shields for my glasses, my badge, my toolbox keys, and my wallet.  What I forgot was that there was a car parked behind me and my roommate and I are now even.  I called my insurance company and my boss.  I didn't want the night off.  Turns out I would need it. This week started off with some thoughts about how things would go.  Crazy but good crazy seemed to be the thought.  Monday went all right.  Tuesday though; well you can keep this day.  I had to deal with issues with each of my roommates. I mentioned about the car.  That was all on me. On Monday morning, I will be without one roommate.  S...

I'm writing it all down.  I'm not rounding it off.  It's every penny and every day I'm accounting to God for each one spent. That might sound a bit ridiculous but after the week I had where God let me know He's here, I'm not taking ANY chances that I heard that still, small voice tell me I was to do that.  Everything else I've tried with moolah hasn't worked over the years.  This one is. I spent $8 yesterday I probably didn't need to.  I bought some seasoning salt and some wood chips to use when grilling up some steaks the roommate bought for dinner last night.  It was a thoughtful gesture and boy, they turned out great.  There is plenty of leftover wood chips and seasoning for another day, too. Today I spent almost $11 for a new dryer belt.  I used glue I had left in the house to try and fix the furnace instead of going to buy some more JB weld putty.  I had JB weld steel epoxy in the cabinet in the garage and that's what's holding the...

I had an opportunity to share the story I told you last with my friend from work.  We had a good laugh about it but it so impressed him that he actually took pictures to show people. I think he thought it cool to be a part of that story.  The whole thing kind of reminds me of the opening sequence of It's a Wonderful Life.   Remember, the movie opens with a heavenly discussion of George Bailey's crisis day? Things written long ago were placed in front of me to send the most powerful message of all.  God loves you!  It's a message worth sharing.  If I thought that was all for me, that would be arrogant thinking, of course.  I am saying God used those things to help me see something I needed right at that moment in my life! Today's post, though, is about how sharing that story also furthers God's kingdom. Caring is not an option.  As I told my friends at church, I was concerned about not caring about the things that were happening around me. ...

I'm a firm believer that prayer works and it's nice to have people pray for you when you're having a hard time. I know we all face challenges and lately the flee instinct has been pretty strong.  So has the hand of correction from the Almighty.  I'm serious about this whole accounting for every penny thing and it's a tough task.  It sure keeps me from spending money, though.  It makes me think of the priorities in my life and if you can tell where a man's priorities are by his checkbook, right now mine would be paying what I owe. It's not easy. Yesterday, my good friend shared a post on Facebook that showed a horse stuck in a fence, half on one side and half on another and in the picture, a cow who appeared to be laughing at the horse.  I don't know about the cow laughing, but I surely feel like the horse.  The house would be one side, my job would be another, and there's me... stuck. But stuck is where I'm at and where I'm supposed t...

I wonder sometimes.  I really do. Someplace in this house my roommate is trying to console her son who just broke up with his girlfriend.  I wonder with what she's saying to him isn't partly aimed at me or if I'm just collateral damage.  It's just the nuts on the whipped cream on the ice cream sundae that is my day today. The whipped cream was added by my former spouse #2.  I hate that I have to refer to people like that but out of a modicum of respect, I try not to use names when it's not going to be good, but most all y'all know who I'm speaking about.  She called me to tell me that my little(?!) boy has been politely invited not to attend school for a couple of weeks.  I have to see the irony that he got suspended from school for missing so much school. Priceless. And damn worrying.  He may not graduate.  Wow.  Just wow. It's so frustrating. The ice cream was provided by Miss June.  Sadly, chickens do come home to roost an...

Some people call it "their gut".  Others their instinct.  Christians listen for the still small voice, a prompting from God in their lives.  I'm sure there are those of you who are thinkin' that if you're hearing voices, it's time for the guys in the white coats with the big butterfly net to come a callin'. "Just go with them Coop.  They're your friends!" I'm not talking about crazy.  You know what I"m talking about though.  That feeling that you shouldn't do that or go this way or that, only to find out that something bad happened the way you were gonna go.  It's that kind of still, small voice I'm talking about. Sometimes it's nothing more than a feeling.  That's instinct, or is it?  Where does that come from?  Is it just something that happens or is it God's Providential interference in your life? I'm of the school of thought that the latter explains it. When I was sitting in church this morni...

I don't know why, but that little ditty popped into my head about a minute ago.  It's gonna be there for a while, I'll bet. Today's post is all about accountability.  That really got driven home the other day in the one area where I have a HUGE accountability problem.  No, it's not sex.  It's worse.  It's money, and secondary to that, it's office politics.  There are going to be two stories today, methinks. Anyway, I was home on Thursday and in my typical snit about my lack of funds when that still, small voice says "I'm going to make you accountable to Me for every penny you spend."  I was tired, but I heard it.  Accountable not to Miss June, who told me to write down everything I spend in a tablet a few months ago (and I promptly ignored her), or anybody else, but to God Himself. For every penny. That drove accountability home.  For the last three days, I've been doing that.  Here's my accountability list.  Thursday, I spe...

Sometimes, helping is the worst thing you can do. I'm really wondering if it's just time to keep my mouth shut. It's hard enough being a parent and I was trying to help my ex with an issue with your youngest.  All I did was make it worse.  I'm not so sure I didn't accomplish the same thing at church on Sunday.  My intent was anything but.  I hope I didn't. It carried over to today.  I was trying to help my roomie with her truck by changing the PCV valve.  This normally takes all of two minutes but hers was stuck and the plastic housing was brittle.  I got it changed but it certainly took longer than two minutes.  She didn't ask me to do it.  I was trying to help. Things like this happen and it's discouraging sometimes.  I'm discouraged today.  It seems to me that no matter what I try to do to effect something positive in life, it rarely turns out that way. I'm just a little beat down.  Sometimes life gets to me. My ...

The papers say: DALE L COOPER IS NOT THE..... I had to laugh because it was my Maury moment.  I'm not making this up; they say it just like that in bold type and all capital letters, like they're shouting it from the rooftops! I wonder if all caps and bold type in legal documents have the same significance as capitalizing things in an e-mail. There's a story here about why God is always good and His timing is impeccable. I mentioned earlier I had to get a copy of my divorce decree for my employer so they can verify some information I provided to them.  That is gonna have to wait because I got some papers in the mail from the State of Utah who is stepping in to set aside a portion of my divorce decree so that it meets their needs.  They need to undo something that got done through no fault of my own. When I quit fighting the former(?) Mrs., it was this issue that I gave in on. So today, I get to send my employer the information I got in the mail and hopefully...

If every October 9 is gonna be like this one, I'm seriously taking the day off and checking myself into the nuthouse on that day! In case you missed it, I had my regular weekly meeting with my pastor, who performed the marriage ceremony that took place 7 years ago on this date.  On the way there, I got to hear about the high cost of low living.  Seems to me I'd heard that someplace before....  oh yeah, I wrote about it a few days ago while I was enjoying some finely aged and legally prescribed oxycodone. Anyway, back at the ranch, the phone rings and it's the AF benefits people.  We used to have human beings that processed this stuff locally.  Now they have to call you and to complete my request for my health insurance, I had to share some rather personal information that I'm sure the guy didn't want to hear and I didn't want to share, but had to so the matter could get resolved.  Today, of all days, they called and asked me for a copy of my divorce ...

First off I need to start this with a simple acknowledgement:  I did not forget that had I not done the things in my life I did, today would be my 7th wedding anniversary.  I spent the morning of this lovely day with the man who performed that ceremony as we venture forward with our study into becoming maximized men. This week's lesson is all about marriage.  The lesson on the radio on the way to the church this morning was centered around the high cost of low living and the story of David's sin with Bathsheba was the scripture verse. Follow that up with a call from the Air Force benefits people.  There is an issue with removing some folks from my healthcare coverage.  They want a copy of my divorce decree and then they have to have a meeting to figure it out from there.  Color me surprised/shocked.  But today?  Really?! Yup.  Really.  Because that's the way God wants it today.  It's my lesson to remember the cost of getting o...

Are zero tolerance policies a good idea? Your thoughts are welcome.

I had to laugh.  When I opened the page to commence writing this post, I saw that my favorite pastor had written a blog entitled "When life sucks."  It's pretty bad when your life makes other people cry as was the case at church yesterday.  That was only the tip of the iceberg. I want to start out by saying that God is good all the time.  Even when life sucks, He's still on the throne.  I felt that last night as I knelt by my bed for my evening prayers.  I felt like I was literally at the foot of the throne of Jesus, praying.  I had a lot to pray about. I don't have a GF anymore.  The rest of it is private.  I still do have a roommate because extending grace sometimes comes at a cost to oneself.  I'm not putting anybody out on the street unless it's absolutely necessary and in this case it wasn't.  I think this would have been harder had we been intimate.  Maybe there is something to be said for following God's word on the ...

Pardon me if this goes in a few different directions.  If it does, it's the oxycodone... Me on painkillers and the blog software is akin to a guy being drunk and calling up his old girlfriend; most likely it's something I'll regret in the morning and a bad idea to begin with.  The painkillers are left over from my ankle surgery.  I skipped the leftovers from the knee surgery; those are 12 years old.  I wonder if hydrocodone ages like good scotch? The six year old ones still work.  I only took one.  Yes, my knee hurts that bad!  It's time to go see the doctors about it.  I'm just getting to the point where I can't sit for long periods of time and I can't stand for long periods of time, either.  Unfortunately I do both.  And the pain is starting to really suck. I've been sick all this week too, with my annual fall cold.  I have to get a tetanus immunization soon too so I might as well go in and have the knee looked at again. ...

The Oregon thing is getting loud, gang.  Real loud. On Sunday, when I was searching for Bubba, the GF's pup who ran away from home, I walked past two cars on the Weber State campus with Oregon plates and drove past a truck with Oregon plates two blocks from my house. On Monday, I took the GF to the drugstore and the girl working there was wearing a Portland, Oregon hoodie.  I asked the Lord yesterday on the way to work, where do we go from here, and looked up to see a truck with Oregon plates cross the intersection.  And last night, I took a few hours off work because I'm feeling worse than I did on Friday, I was watching the Daily Show where they were talking about the Affordable Care Act and they showed a clip from a commercial in Oregon to help their citizens sign up for insurance. It's everywhere. OK, I'm ready. I guess. I don't know.  I'm just telling you what I see. Add to that, one of the speakers at the conference I was at on Saturday runs ...