Stories and other stuff

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 ...