Stories and other stuff

I had an opportunity to spend some time with someone from my church.  We have a connection in that we both joined the church on the same day.  She was baptized first.  I'd already had that happen. We've never really spoken much.  I'd said hello a few times but I always kinda got the impression that either she knew Wendi or plain just didn't like me.  Times change, though.  People start to see you in a different light, and we had a little visit today. And that's when I found out I live on snob hill. She meant it. My comeback was that I think my neighbors are quite nice.  And they are.  And I don't live on snob hill.  I'm blessed to live where I do, but snob hill, it ain't.  I got to wondering why she thought that.  She also told me that I had money, which was a news flash to me.  My response to that one:  "Somebody told you a lie." It's funny the impressions people have of others.  People make assumptions a...

If you look for it, you can see tangible evidence of God's grace. It's been a very rough week at my job.  I can't talk about what I do online in specifics, but I can say it involves airplanes, and airplanes are things that are notorious for setting their own schedules.  Over the three decades I've been involved with airplanes, I've noticed that the harder you push, the further behind you get. It's just the nature of the business.  The funniest thing I've ever seen happen happened last night and had nothing to do with events in Utah.  But last night, an airliner inadvertently had an escape slide deploy while the airplane was being serviced on the ground.  Airplanes are fickle things. And being a mechanic means you need to have your head in the game.  I did, a little too much, today, and got so task focused I forgot where I set a tool.  It took four of us to find it, and we did.  Right up high.  Right where I set it.   ...

I never really shared too much about my Katie.  The wondermutt always seems to be the one in trouble, or doing something dumb, or going to jail, or, well, just being Bucket. Katie maybe wasn't as dynamic as Bucket, but Katie was and always will be my dog. Wendi hated her.  Katie jumped up on the bed and got between us.  Wendi would chase her off the bed, and Katie would sleep under the bed until Wendi went to sleep.  Katie was always on the bed in her spot in the morning, though. When Wendi left, Katie was in her spot.  She never left me alone.  She got me through.  When Bucket went to Indiana Katie was there.  On the bed.  Next to me. Katie ate stuff.  Katie would go on trips around the neighborhood and find stuff to eat.  One day, she found a pizza.  She came back with a slice.  I took it away from her.  An hour later, she came back with another slice.  Katie, unlike Bucket, could find her way home. ...

I've joked about this in the past, but I think for the last year, the only thing keeping my poor old beagle alive was the promise of a milk bone dog biscuit every day. Today, that promise ran out.  Last night, I snapped a photo of my poor old dog laying on the living room floor.  She went outside as usual last night and followed me into the bedroom.  She can't jump up on the bed anymore.  She's just too old and weak. This morning, something happened.  Katie couldn't hardly stand up.  She was disoriented.  She fell down a couple of times and it took all her energy to go outside.  When she came back in, she barely had the strength to break her cookie and she couldn't eat all of it. If you've owned a beagle for a minute, you know that when they quit eating, the end is near.  A beagle will eat even if it just ate. They're fun dogs, but they're troublemakers, and they're gluttons. And they don't live to be 15. My 14 year anniversary of...

I'm so not in love with today.  I'm kinda having a Jonah moment today, so instead of brooding about it or even talking about it, I decided that "I got to" is the appropriate way to look at what's upsetting me. I decided I needed to write something, but sometimes I don't feel like talking about what's in my head or on my heart.   So today you get a story about Tommy.  Tommy is one of the pussycats Miss June left me stuck with.  I like Tom.   But sometimes, Tommy gets himself into trouble.  Last night was one of those nights.  I opened up the hall closet to get the leash to take Bucket out for a walk,  We do walks now that the street isn't hotter than the sun.  And when I got home, I put the leash away and shut the closet door. This morning, I woke up and noticed that Tom was nowhere to be found.  Sometimes he sneaks outside, but I didn't remember him going out with the dogs.  I looked all over for him before ...

Apparently, some stuff I needed to get through needed to be got through. Now. And how God seems to do lately in how He and I relate, He found a way to provide me what I needed, which was a book that really helped me. I'd like to share with you some of the things God has been doing lately around here: First off, He's helping me to not isolate myself from people.  He used a guy from church to call me out on this one.  I got reminded that I needed to hang out AFTER church and socialize with my church family.  I'd been kind of convicted earlier than when that happened, but it's a change I really needed to make. I can't isolate myself.  It was never my intention to do so.  Sometimes, though, I think there are times when even a Christian has to have some alone time to sort through stuff.  I've been in that season for a minute, but we're not staying there and I haven't been for about a month.  On Saturday, I got to meet some of my neighbors before g...

I had a hard time being at church this morning.  I mean that.  I had to fight the urge the whole time not to just get up and leave.  I don't know why that was; just that it was at the time.  It was actually a special day at church.  A young man was baptized today, which is always a blessing.  But something was odd today, and about half-way through the sermon, I was able to put my finger on it. A couple walked in late, and the woman half of said couple looked an awful lot like the Who. I didn't leave and I'm glad I didn't.  Another family came in late, and wound up using the balcony.  We haven't had folks in the balcony in, well....ever.  They had kids so they sat upstairs so they wouldn't disturb people.  Our church has amazing acoustics though, but who cares?  If the little children were for Jesus, then I'm all about hearing a baby cry during the worship service. Kids is the future of my church, not the few who get annoyed....

This is a story of a little bit of worship and praise, because God has been so good to me today! I have been very blessed today!  I mean that.  And in that, I got to be a little bit of a blessing to someone else. On Thursday, I got a thingie in the mailbox announcing that my neighborhood was having a pot luck get together on Saturday.  I thought it might be nice to smoke some meat.  By Friday morning, I decided to do that; smoke a brisket and at least take it and drop it off.  I'm most likely going to the football game at Weber State tonight. My smoker won't hold a large brisket, though.  I have to cut it in half, which is what I did this morning.  BTW, America is a great country.  Some little people were playing with my gas grill knobs again, and my propane cylinder got empty.  I needed one and at eight in the morning, I was able to exchange it at Lowe's.  I almost made a comment on Facebook today about this being reason 892 why A...

So, I write this big post about how there's no pity party here, and wherever we're headed, it's not staying in the state of mind I've been in for about a week, and after I write it, I'm feeling pretty good.  I was dead-dog tired when I got home from work.  My back hurting I think takes a toll on me physically some days, and today was one of those some days.  But, after I wrote my little post, I felt refreshed. I cooked enchiladas for dinner.  I remembered to come back and add the part about the fridge.  I packed myself a lunch to take to work.  I haven't done that in almost eight years.  I started the dishes and the sink kinda backed up.  No big deal, sometimes the disposal gets plugged.  I just gave it a little twist with my hand.  In hindsight, I'm petty sure that's where the finger full of metal slivers came from. It started draining, all right. On the floor. Somehow or other, the seals inside the old Badger 5 gave up.  ...

I'm tired.  I've been through a lot, and still things aren't where I'd like them to be, but God has a way of showing up and helping me to remember that He's still driving the bus. I speak to God frequently.  I pray a ton but it's unconventional prayer.  Sometimes they're SOS prayers, like HELP!.  Sometimes they're just conversations about life and whatnot.  Today, I kind of noticed that I've been getting a bit complacent.  I'm not lazy by any stretch of the imagination, but what I have noticed is that I haven't been giving things as much effort as they probably need.  And not just chores.  I've been slipping in writing in my prayer journal.  There are some chores that fit into that category too.  They're done but not to the level that I tend to pay attention to them. I mentioned to God today that I kind of needed to get back in the game.  He agreed. There's a woman that I see videos of on the interwebs.  Her name is Autum...

I heard a story on K-LOVE this morning that absolutely shocked me.  They reported that someone did a survey and only half of professing Christians know what the "Great Commission" is. Half. And I wonder how it can be that a believer in Christ that has been a believer for longer than a month has no idea what these words mean.  So, if you're a believer and don't know, then let me help you understand what this is:   Matthew 28:16-20   New International Version (NIV) The Great Commission 16  Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.   17  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.   18  Then Jesus came to them and said,  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.   19  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,  baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,   20  and teaching  t...

I didn't plan on making salsa today.  Salsa planned on me making it today.  It's like most of life...you don't make it when you want to, you make it when the tomatoes are ripe. I got said tomatoes yesterday from Pettingill's.  I saw a thing on Facebook they had Roma tomatoes.  The post was four minutes old.  They had quite a few when I first got there.  By the time I picked out my peppers and paid, most of the Romas had already been boxed up for purchase. I need to run up again Saturday to see if they have Johnathan apples this year.  If they do, and they have ripe Romas, I might make another batch of salsa. I've already been asked for three bottles.  That's before my mom gets her cut.  I make it.  She eats it.  Sometimes she chips in for the ingredients.  I like getting stuff fresh from the farm when I can't get it fresh from the garden, and the fruit stands on Highway 89 in Box Elder County are as close as farm fresh ...

On May 19, I found out what the problem I had was: Bed bugs.  The little buggers hijacked their way into my home when I went to pick Wendi up in Washington.  If I thought that went bad, nothing prepared me for how bad bed bugs was.  I wound up at the doctor's office twice because of the awful critters.  I'm a bit allergic to them.  They're the only thing on the planet I know I'm allergic to.  The bites I sustained from these things made my feet hurt so badly I couldn't walk for two days. It was horrible.  I had to literally throw away furniture, blankets, bedding, etc...I had to wash every stitch of clothing I had.  My clothes had to be transported to the laundromat in plastic bags and my clothes had to stay in clean plastic bags when I got home.  My own washer gave up sometime before I realized what happened. The odd thing is that even though Wendi stayed in the same hotel rooms and her and the kids were living upstairs until two days ...

I was blessed to bring the message to my church family this morning.  As I was taking a shower, I got the thought that it was a message based mostly on the Old Testament, so I thought it would be wonderful if my church family joined me in proclaiming the Name above all names, so we started the sermon with the congregation on their feet, and at the count of three we shouted in praise, "JESUS! They indulge me a lot, but it was a great moment to hear those in attendance invoking the name of our Lord to start off the sermon! The title of the message is:  "Everything You Need to Get Through This".  If you know someone who would benefit from reading it, please feel free to share a link to the blog. Thanks for reading.  I hope it blesses you. I wonder sometimes if we aren’t our own worst enemies.  That thought came to me as I started writing this message.  It was the lead thought of paragraph two. Paragraph one kind of became unimportant after I saw ...

I have a little story about my bedroom saga. If you're up to speed about my remodeling saga, you know that it's been a struggle just to get furniture.  I finally decided to pull the trigger and buy a bedroom set.  I was waiting, hoping for something that is delayed, but decided that there wasn't a better time than now, with some Divine intervention I might add, to buy said bedroom set. I purchased it on Wednesday.  The salesman I met with on Tuesday wasn't there.  His name is Jake like my son, and we shared a laugh at the frustration they feel when most people assume their name is a shortened version of Jacob.  Fortunately, someone from the store called him and he got the credit and commission for the sale.  I would have waited otherwise.  But for two days after that, I was trying to get with said Jake to schedule the delivery.  I stopped at the store on Thursday and Friday both.  He wasn't there, but he called me Friday afternoon to let ...