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Showing posts from January, 2018

Rights? You bloody well Right!

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I live next door to a large university.  I'm not kidding you; with the property purchases Weber State has made over the years, it's left us literally back fence neighbors.  My house is still 5 doors away from the campus, but my back property abuts property they own. And they have been great neighbors, with one exception:  They pick up the garbage early and make a bit of noise doing it.  I've learned to live with it.  If they wake me up, I just go pee and go back to sleep.  I'm old.  A trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night is part of what my normal is these days. But apparently, I live close to someone who needs to be "that guy" in relation to starting stuff with the University over their noisy trash collection procedures.  I guess he/she forgot to factor in that traffic in the morning on campus is a nightmare and parking is a huge issue that might also impact the school's need for early morning trash collection. Here's what I woke ...

?!

I had a good time ice fishing with my friends.  My middle son went down with us and he got to spend some time with his uncle KP.  That kid of mine, he's the real deal.  And so is KP.  We had a great time! I had this big story I was going to share, but it didn't feel right to share it just yet.  There's a lot of stuff going on in my life right now that I just can't make sense of.  About the only way to explain it is that everything seems to be pointing me to a path that's not what I'm on, but at the same time, I don't see a way down that path. My mom and I were talking the other night and she's been the biggest skeptic of what's been going on over the last few years because she didn't want for me what appeared to be on the horizon.  At this point though, I think she's even come to terms with the fact that when you start adding up the little providences, they're unexplainable, except that they're there, they're very real, and th...

Learning to pray

The thing about my walk with Jesus; I'm always being challenged to venture deeper into that relationship, which is wonderful. And I'm reminded this morning that while there are periods of rest along the way, the journey is ever forward.  This week, I'm learning how to pray.  That may sound dumb, because I pray.  A lot.  Annoyingly a lot, sometimes, I think.  But I do talk with God all throughout the day, just as if I had a dad to call on the phone and talk to.  And of all people, you'd think I'd have a handle on praying. I guess what I'm learning to do is to spend time during my day with the TV off, no animals, shut in a quiet room, and praying intentionally and deeply about stuff.  It's kind of a new adventure for me, and I'm trying to get into the habit of journaling those prayers. That's important to me.  I mentioned that maybe I'd be a mighty prayer warrior when the day comes I can't do some of the stuff I do now for church.  I...

Keeping a prayer journal

I have been not the best at keeping a journal of all the things that happen to me.  I used to blog about them, but then so many things started happening to the people around me that just weren't for public consumption.  I started again earlier this year.  And then I misplaced the journal I was keeping.  I'll find it, but in the mean time, blank dated papers will have to do. I think too, part of my reluctance stems from a period of disappointment that things didn't go the way I thought they would.  I want to pretend it wasn't, but if I'm honest with myself, I think that plays into the narrative a little bit. Yesterday, though, I got down on my face and asked God to show me something.  He told me later in the evening, that no, He was not gonna show me or tell me, and gave me a Scripture verse to confirm that answer.  He used Billy Graham as the messenger, who just happened to be on TV for noise for a minute.    Funny, but it was just what I...

Sunday Sermon

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Editor's note:  This will make much more sense if you read 2 Samuel 6:12-22 (or 23 if you prefer) and Romans 12:6-8 before you read the post This morning’s message is about sharing our gifts.   Steve broached the subject a little bit in last week’s message, when he spoke about the many things that happen around here and how people are serving the Lord.   I kinda want to build on that this morning, and to start, I’d like to take about three minutes and introduce you to a young lady named Loren. Isn’t she just the cutest thing?   I wanted to share that video with you this morning for a few reasons.   First off, I love the message in the song.   Second off, out of all the kids standing there, Loren gets it.   I mean, she REALLY gets it.   And lastly, there are a lot of folks involved with making Loren’s little moment a reality.   There are numerous people there at that worship service sharing their gifts. God giv...

I did my part

I spent today doing what I would have done yesterday if I hadn't been called to work.  In the end, I'm happy with the results.  My day was just a bit longer without the benefit of running hot water, but I do have large pans and a large stove to heat water, which is what happened so I could wash dishes, mop the floors, and clean the carpet I needed to. At the end of today, I'd had to run to the store three different times.  I forgot peppers.  I forgot dog food.  I forgot milk.  I ran out of boxes so a trip to Walmart was a must, but now, I have the sitting room back.  Miss June's things are fairly well packed up and ready for her when she returns.  My bedroom is clean and the bed made.  Laundry didn't get done, but boxing up the last bit of June's stuff took the better part of the day, when you include stacking it all in one room.  It's done.  All of it, save for what's in the middle bathroom because it's not hurting anything by be...

Me just being me

They handed me a cell phone at my mom's retirement ceremony today and expected me to take pictures of my mom with her crew.  Me, being me, said 1,2,3 "who's your daddy?", and for the second one, "who's your doggie?" I was trying to get people to smile.  They didn't know me and I didn't know them, and I like it when people genuinely smile in photos, and not fake smile. My sis and my cousin showed up.  My cuz' works in the same building as my mom used to.  Good for her!  She's busted her hump her whole life like my grandma did.  My mom's earned the rest.  I say that. She'll be bored and have a job in a month. Anyway, my little sis shows up and I'm always happy to see her.  She's quite unique and I quite enjoy her company.  I wound up having her laughing before I left. I got called into work, so I had to leave the retirement ceremony early, and I did something today totally NOT me.  I passed up on cake.  I'm getti...

Ka--boom!

If you're not familiar with Amos 3:7, may I invite you to take a few minutes and read Chapter 3 of Amos. I've been through the Experiencing God workbook twice, and the second time, it was one of those verses that really stuck out to me.  Especially when I start experiencing it. Prophesy is a real thing.  I've always kind of thought it was hooey, but not anymore.  And I'm having a hard time fighting with understanding it vs. dismissing it.  By no means am I saying I have that gift.  I don't think I do, or if I do, it's limited to things I need to be prepared to deal with. Case in point:  I had a class the other night.  I have been an airplane mechanic for thirty years, but for some reason, some square coverer at work decided that I needed to attend the basic (and I mean for first time newbies to aviation) corrosion control class.  In the class, the guy started talking about water heaters. Odd. But it stuck in my mind that water heaters we...

Am I flu?, and you should really read this!

Either I have it, or I'm trying to get it.  I thought I was just worn out.  Turns out I might be worn out and have the stinking flu.  Only time will tell; like in the next day.  Today I couldn't get warm.  I cranked the heat up to 75 and still needed a blanket, and that's with wearing a long sleeve shirt and fully dressed. I don't have a fever.  I took my temp.  It was 96 degrees flat.  That's someplace around normal for me when I'm sick.  A few minutes ago, I got hot.  Started sweating and it's only 73 in the bedroom.  And I'm starting to get nauseous. Go team Coop! So in the immortal words of Winnie the Pooh:  "Oh, bother." My medical condition aside, I did have something important to share with y'all today, something you may or may not have heard about, and something I have mixed feelings about. One of the ways to amend the Constitution is to have a Constitutional Convention.  Thirty states have agreed to have...

1,000 posts

Today marks the 1,000th time I've published a post. That's a bit of a milestone, I think.  And I want to give God the glory for allowing me to share stuff for 1,000 times.  I also want to thank him for the over 200 times I didn't hit the publish button. I've been through a lot over the seven + years I've been writing this thing. I've been through a failed attempt to save a broken marriage.  I've shared with you about my enemy Simba, and how I got to care for him the last six weeks of his life.  I shared with you the debacle that dating Tami Jo was.  And then there was the adventure with the Who, who is no longer my Who. There have been posts about stuff like canning, or politics.  I wrote about fixing stuff.  I talk a lot about what I see God doing in my life and how He's working in the lives of others.  I've grown so much, and I've been able to chronicle and share much of that with you.  I'm grateful for that. Thanks for read...

Things

I pay careful attention to things these days.  I look and listen more than I speak.  I think that's a wise thing to do because you can learn a lot by just observing things. I got my weekend project mostly done.  It came at the expense of the things I normally do, like laundry.  But it's almost done.  I'd be finished but I ran out of boxes.  I talked a little yesterday about the things I encountered in my foray into packing for the immigrant.  Today I thought about those things. Miss June was often rushed.  I could tell that by what I found, and where I found it.  There were bags of papers to be gone through later.  She'd just stick them in the room for when she had a minute.  And then there wasn't a minute.  And they piled up. She has a good heart.  She salvaged things for her daughter that someday her daughter will be glad to have back.  She keeps everything.  Sometimes that's a good thing.  Other tim...

Lesson numero dos

I learned a lot of lessons from Cindy that I should have learned earlier in life.  Lesson #2 is this: You can make choices.  You cannot choose the consequences of those choices. I spent most of my day today, cleaning up from the aftermath of those choices.  I've been un-bagging and re-boxing and sorting a 12' X 14' bedroom full of stuff that Miss June had here.  Eventually she's going to come back and get it.  When she does, she'll find it sorted, packed in boxes that stack, and ready to go. And in that stuff, I got reminded, vividly, of the consequences of my bad decisions. I found pictures from a weekend getaway Wendi and I had in San Francisco in 2004.  I found the Disneyland tickets she kept as keepsakes from our time there.  She had pictures of Hollywood from the day she took Steven there.  They were stuck in this bag and that. But those aren't the only pictures I came across.  There were pictures of her with the kids and their...

What if?

Sometimes I wonder. That's not necessarily a bad thing.  And sometimes the oddest thoughts come from moments of wonder. Often times, we as humans ascribe personalities to inanimate objects.  I've been an airplane mechanic for 30+ years, and can tell you airplanes each have their own unique quirks.  Some you can just fly and fly, others need a little bit of coaxing out of a warm airplane hangar.  They're only inanimate objects, but we refer to them as "he" or "she". A co-worker of mine has a photo of a 1973 Ford Mustang fastback on his computer screen.  It's his car, and apparently his first car, which he still owns.  Several others I work with are restoring vehicles.  You can drive around Ogden and find all kinds of antique shops.  We, as people, put a lot of stock into stuff. Was thinking about the thing with cars and planes, and I'm sure trains, and other kinds of machinery.  Moving things tend to have quirks, as I said, that we des...

Re-do

You know how your place looks when you're moving either in or out?  My house looks a lot less like that today, but it's been a project.  I still don't have things put back that were displaced by holiday decorations.  Mostly because this joint is gonna get cleaned up. One thing I noticed almost immediately after my bankruptcy was paid off last year was that the things that lasted up until that point started wearing out.  It started with the car and truck.  From that time to this, it seems every month brought a $600 expense and all the while, things around here were wearing out at a rapid rate. A for instance is the linoleum flooring in my laundry room.  it just got old, brittle, and started breaking apart about two months ago.  New tile is all of a sudden the #1 priority in home project land. I figure it'll take.... Yup.  $600 It's necessary, but so frustrating at the same time to have to tile the floor.  I was hoping to paint the kitc...

The quest to not tell swiss cheese stories, and other things

I love how God gets His point across to me.  I saw something that held a clue to some lingering questions from 2017.  I'm more committed than ever to letting God have control of my life, but sometimes I get busy and don't pay attention to what I ought. I started listening to something a couple of days ago but it was a whopping 28 minutes long.  Ain't nobody got no time for no 28 minutes 'round hea'.  So, God, being God and understanding that I'm a work in progress found a way to condense what I needed into a 5 minute read, with a link to the 28 minute audio, just so I'd know there was something in there for me.  I'm thinking making the 28 minutes might be a good idea so I'll probably plug the phone into the stereo and listen while I do other things.  And, as not usual, I'm not telling.  It's not that I don't want to, it's just that it's intensely private at this point. So on to other things. I'm dating somebody.  She...

Bye, Felicia!

If you know this phrase, you know it's a rude dismissive of someone, and shame on me for using it.  It's not nice, and I know better, and yet, I used it today.  That wasn't right. But it's also fitting to our departing Senator, Orrin Hatch, who just helped facilitate the looting of the American treasury to the richest of us. Strong words, but history's gonna bear them out, sadly. I don't agree with Senator Hatch on anything.  I suppose we'd have trouble agreeing on the color of the sky today, but I used to respect him.  After the tax bill fiasco, I have nothing left but disdain. We used to be America.  Nowadays, I'm unsure what we are.  But one thing I hope we'll be at the start of the next new year when our new Senator takes office is: Better off.

follow the signs

So, I'm supposed to start blogging again.  Not sure why I stopped in the first place.  I tell myself that it's because I couldn't really talk about the things going on in my life because they involved other people, and to be sure, that's part of it.  There was just a lot going on, and the endings of those chapters in my life, I explained the other day. But yesterday, I decided I needed to start blogging again.  I had help.  My new GF posted something the other day about The Four Agreements, which was the subject of my first blog post ever.  My friend Karl helped reinforce that today by telling moi' I needed to get back to writing. Who am I to argue? So today's blog is about following the signs, in a way.  I do that a lot.  Sometimes they're subtle hints.  Other times, they're pretty obvious.  I need pretty obvious these days.  Subtle will come as I become more in tune to the Spirit's leading.  But for now, Obvious is su...