Stories and other stuff

One of the things I really enjoy about living here is that there's a small town vibe here.  It's like country living, but coastal country living.  So there's this mish-mash of things going on here in Coos Bay. For all the country charm, though, there are big-city problems here as well. There are a lot of transient people here.  I don't use the word homeless, because these folks genuinely seem to be in transit.  It's not been uncommon to see one or two on foot as I drive down the 101.  (The 101 is the Pacific Coast Highway, for those that don't know).  There is also a methamphetamine problem here in the area.  I found out about that first hand last night, when visiting a friend's house. It seems, some young woman who would be commonly referred to as a tweaker, tried to liberate and steal my friend's horse.  She let it out of the pen and somehow managed to get the lead rope wrapped around her neck but not attached to the horse before she interrupted...

If you're of a certain age, you should get the cultural reference for the title of today's post.  The wind here blows, but it did not blow today and for that, I'm grateful.  A calm day was appreciated by all up here in Oregon's Bay Area. I went back to the church I attended last Sunday.  I figure that if I keep showing up, sooner or later, someone's gonna talk to me.  I get how people are standoffish these days, and I've always thought that a church was one of the toughest groups of people to find your way into.  At this point, I'm that quiet guy who shows up and sits in the back.  They're worshiping outside on the lawn, so it's bring your own chair and Bible.  After the service, it's easier to just leave than it is to sit there and feel stupid waiting for someone to come over and talk to you.   I try not to do things I would find weird if I saw other people doing. I kinda went through this with my church in Ogden.  It took a few months ...

I'm very much trying these days to put my money where my mouth is as a believer.  And, like all things, when your life gets all messed up, it's sometimes easy to default to the "factory settings".  I've found that out over the last couple of weeks and it's something I'm working on fixing.  The message to me the last couple of days has kind of been about thinking.  Our thoughts matter and when you're alone your thought can run to any number of places. Mine, not so much any number, but a couple of places I don't want to be.  That stuff got left in the past, but the past sometime has a way of trying to suck you back down the black hole.  I think Jesus knew that when He said in Luke 9:62:  Jesus replied, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."   In my case, that means that going back to old behaviors, old ways of doing things, or reverting to said "factory settings" can't hap...

Most of the boxes are unpacked.  The garage is somewhat organized.  One blessing is that there is an overhead shelf in the garage I can use to store stuff that my kids will have to throw away when I die.  I'm sure they'll ask themselves why dad had all these 5 gallon buckets.  Nonetheless, they're put away and the trailer and car both fit securely in the garage  There were a couple of boxes that were hastily packed before I left the house.  Mostly, they contained things I forgot in cupboards and fortunately, I marked them with what was inside them.  I had forgotten to pack two pillowcases that matched my bedding and I couldn't find them for more than a week.  They wound up with Christmas dishes that were forgotten in a cupboard until the last minute.  I found them today. My bed is now properly made and I feel better knowing I don't have to wonder where I'd put them.   I had to go find Tom today. Tom decided to visit the neighbors to...

My home in Lark Circle offered a lot of privacy.  Maybe, in hind sight, too much privacy and things I could take for granted there, I have to be careful of here. I'm not used to living so close to my neighbors.  We had quite the buffer zones between us and our yards and homes were situated so that if we were in the back yard, we really didn't pay that much attention to each other.  Here is a little different though.  The cats don't have the space they once had.  Jerry had a bit of an ordeal which I wrote about the other night.  He was used to wide open spaces.  He doesn't have that here. My old house was built backwards, too, so most of the time, I was in rooms that didn't face the street.  Not so much here...with the blinds open,, everything pretty well is on display.  They're little things that I have to learn to adjust to. Trash is another adjustment.  They gave me this wee-dinky little trash can.  A private company picks up the ...

Good morning, from a foggy Coos Bay/North Bend, Oregon.  I found out that the city boundary literally is the property line of my back fence, which is kinda funny to me for some reason.   When I had talked for all those years of retiring to the coast, I was thinking more of the Newport area, which is about two hours north of where I live.  As things would work out, though, circumstances and the Holy Spirit's lead brought me here.  A friend asked me about that a couple of days ago; how I knew it was God leading me here and that's how I explained it to him.  Not only did God lead me here, He picked the house!  I looked at this home several times online and wasn't interested.  I bought it on the sole recommendation of my realtor who told me how fantastic it was. I'm thrilled to be here. I'm not so sure my neighbors to the south share that feeling. I met the lady last night.  You see, Jerry ran off.  He got stuck in their back yard, and he go...