Stories and other stuff

Last week, I started noticing unusual things again.  These were the same things that led me down the path I've been walking for almost the last four years.  Almost five years ago, I made a very bad choice.  I forced someone out of my life that God told me just to love.  I've blogged about this before.  Of course, I'm talking about the Who. Anyway, I was doubting what I saw until I got stopped behind a car when I was leaving for work on Friday that had an Oregon license plate with a Raiders plate frame.  The Who is a Raiders fan from Oregon.  It was the climax of the weird stuff I saw during the week and I no sooner spoke the words to God that I was skeptical of what I'd seen that I got caught behind said car in the parking lot at work.  No escaping it.  I saw it and I was supposed to. On Saturday, I woke up early and told God that if this was just a lesson, I'd already learned it.  I told Him that if it was just to reinforce the choi...

When I got my new toolbox at work, it came with a top that was never going to hold up to the things aircraft mechanics subject their toolboxes to.  I chose to paint mine with chalkboard paint.  It's black so it hides dirt, grease, and hydraulic fluid stains well.  It also functions as a way for me to leave notes on something I'm working on that the other shift has to finish.  I also have the words to the title of this post written on my box, and change the word every day. Today's word was:  Unusual. I had a really weird day today.  It was like I was there, but not all there.  I've been under the weather lately.  The cause of my ailment finally showed itself, and now it's just a time of recovery from it.  But today, it was like I was really tired.  I got through the day, but I was clearly not myself. As the day went on, I got better, but I missed seeing a nut I was looking for on the end of the clamp I needed to install.  Or ha...

It was very kind of Google to text me a photo I'd taken two years ago today while camping with the boys in Montana.  It was of a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, on a trip where rain ruled the day.  My kids, I'm sure, will never forget their dad cooking sourdough pancakes on a Coleman stove in a drizzling rain.  Nor will they forget the dutch oven ribs we had that night in a rainstorm.  The trip was memorable.  What they remember is the food and their dad. Something else happened that day.  The youngest of the people who live downstairs was born today.  They're pretty much downstairs now.  The physical distance between us right now, if you drew a straight line through my floor and their ceiling is about five linear feet.  That five feet away might as well be a million miles away. Been thinking a lot about my NO! lately.  I wonder why we do that.  I recall a camping trip 20+ years ago where I had a cell phone and service ...

A lot of crazy things happen to me.  And from an outside-looking-in perspective, it must look like I'm some sort of raving lunatic, or I make bad choices, or any number of things on that spectrum.  From my point-of-view, though, I see my life and circumstances as a life out of control. And it hit me the other day. My life is out of control.   And it's supposed to be.  Because I'm not the one in control. I heard from my friend who I was dating at the beginning of the year the other day.  She wanted to check in and see how things were going.  I told her, and I also told her that I was glad she didn't get caught up in it when things went crazy.  My life was pretty normal there for a minute.  Empty house, just me here, and a whole lot of stuff and pussycats that weren't mine, but for the most part, it was normal.  I was dating a nice woman who had her own place, a job, and that didn't need rescuing from anything.  I liked normal. I...