Three Gallons

So this morning I headed off to the local soccer field to ref a couple of games.

Didn't go too bad. Worked fairly hard and no one got hurt.

And now for something completely different...

Now imagine three gallons of milk. Weighs about twenty one pounds. pretty heavy and bulky.

After I finished my games I headed up to the blood center. I had an appointment to donate blood. Took a little while since there were a lot of people there.

Turns out this was my 24th donation. Or three gallons. I got my pin. don't know when I will wear it since i don't wear too many suits.
There are plenty of people around that have donated much, much more than that.

But it is kind of mind boggling to think of having donated three gallons of blood. And that could have saved up to 72 peoples lives. It is really an honor to be able to donate.

Just another eight donations and a year and twelve weeks and it will be four gallons...

Joy Vampires

Great start to the day!

Up at 440 and headed downstairs with a cup of coffee.
Did my Bible reading: 1 Kings 18, Job 3 and Matthew 17.
Lot of time in prayer.

Fried egg sandwich for breakfast.

Light rain and into work.

Feeling good.

And then they struck. The Joy Vampires. One at time they can be relatively easily handled but when they gang up and all hit at once they are hard to take.

It started with the voice mail and a stupid request from someone who should know better. And then I turned on my e-mail and read a sarcastic e-mail from someone who seemed to think that I should be able to read her mind. I may be psychotic but I am definitely not psychic.

And just like that the joy was sucked out of me. And I was angry and ready to ...

I realized the Joy Vampires had struck and I had let them get the better of me. So I put things in perspective. These requests were important to the people making them even if they seemed idiotic to me. So I handled the requests and moved on to getting the work day organized.

And my joy returned.

And when other Joy Vampires stalked me throughout the day, I was able to fend them off.

You see, the people were not the Joy Vampires (although some people are). The requests were not the Joy Vampires. It was my response to the situation that caused my joy to flee.

And that is all my fault...

Pile O'Problems

Today I dealt with my Pile O'Problems at work.

The Pile O'Problems is where the guys put the problems when we get really busy. Some of these get resolved as people call in and we can figure out what they are looking for. Others just sit and kind of compost until I can deal with them.

Today was the day to deal with them. And I was able to get rid of the pile in about two hours. Surprised that it went so well. One of the guys did a lot of the grunt work and that really made it go quicker.

The psychic benefit was great. Nice to have the pile gone. And it will cut down on the amount of irate calls I get in the next couple of months.

I probably could have dealt with the Pile sooner. I could have found some time to deal with these problems and enjoyed the psychic benefit a lot earlier.

And the work problems are still around, just not the physical ones that stare at me from the Pile O'Problems. About ten minutes after I eliminated the Pile, one of my drivers called to say that he had torn open the box of one of my trucks wide open by running into a low hanging tree branch during a rain storm.

So the enjoyment didn't last long.

But I am reminded that I often have a Pile O'Problems in my personal life. They may come from others or they may be my own fault. I need to tackle them as soon as I can and not let them compost. They will just eat away at me until they are dealt with.

I can't deal with most of them alone though. I need help from above.

Time to go deal with a couple of things...

Silence

Today was a day of quiet.

It actually started last night when we turned on the air conditioner and closed the windows. It was really quiet and I slept hard and well.

And when I went to work today I kept the radio off. All day. No sports radio, no Christian radio, no music from the computer. Just quiet.

And it was nice. I really enjoyed it.

All too often my days get filled with noise and things are missed. Especially if God is trying to talk to me.

I need more days like this.

I'll have to try and remember that...

Four Days

Been an interesting four days.

Besides refereeing three soccer games and working on the foundation to the greenhouse and mowing the lawn and taking nap, we've had numerous talks and discussions with a variety of people on a wide range of subjects.

We've met with two different pastors from two different denominations. Both churches are places where we see God working. We've had brunch with some old friends who are frustrated with the direction of the music at their church. And we've spoken with some people who are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which just voted to allow gays and lesbians to be clergy members.

It is amazing because in some way, shape or form God is at work in all these places. One pastor told us that their building is big enough and he sees the church going to multi-venue worship. They need to go out into the community to reach out to others and not bring people to their fancy building. The other pastor laid out their plan for growth but it is all in God's hands and they won't grow until God tells them to. And there are really neat things happening in the church. Lives being changed. For eternity.

The conversation with our old friends was equally enlightening. The music in the church seems to be that anything written after Martin Luther wrote "Amazing Grace" is bad. The pastors seem to believe that if they keep doing what they've been doing they can't get fired. How sad! Where is the innovation, the excitement of trying something different, of failing spectacularly? I can't find anything about church being safe. We worship the creator of the universe who is so big we can't wrap our puny little minds around it. That is exciting and scary.

And then there is the ELCA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America a denomination to which we used to belong. We left over 15 years ago. At their annual convention in Minneapolis over the weekend they voted to allow gays and lesbians into church leadership positions. In the name of reaching out and being welcoming, they put the teachings of the Bible up to a vote. Majority rule.

And when we vote on the Bible, the Bible will always lose because we tend to vote in our own self interest. How sad.

One estimate was upwards of a third of the members will leave over this and go elsewhere to worship. Or just quit worshipping altogether.

Such a contrast: the pastors talking of reaching out and of equipping their congregations and sending them out to their neighbors and reaching the lost, the sick, the widows and orphans, the AIDS sufferers, the hungry and the homosexuals. And the pastors who want it safe and secure and comfortable and conservative. And the denomination that is prepared to tear itself apart instead of trying to come together to work out a solution that fits the Bible.

lots of time spent in prayer this weekend. And lots more to come.

And by the way, I do know that John Newton wrote Amazing Grace...

Disappointment?

So the stove hasn't been working right lately. Actually it is the oven.

It's about 20 years old and came with the house. We couldn't get the temperature up at all. Loralie's cookies and muffins just weren't getting done. Loralie thought that the burner was out.

But everyone told us from the symptoms that it had to be the thermostat. The parts place told us that it would be a special order and be over $250 plus to replace. the appliance company guy said that it would cost $475. And they were pretty sure that it was the thermostat.

And the books I have said that it was not real easy to replace on my own.

On Sunday we stopped by Sears and found a really nice gas oven for $799. Convection, warming tray, five burners everything we wanted. And I could do the gas hook up since the gas line runs right beneath the stove location.

I really like gas stoves and was warming up to the idea as was Loralie. We have the emergency fund for things like this.

But Loralie still wasn't sure it was the thermostat. So she got out the book and I dug out the multimeter and we checked and it looked like the lower burner wasn't working. So she took it down to the parts store and they checked it and it was bad.

Total cost to replace: $30.

So now we still don't have a gas stove. Which I want but I sure don't need since the electric stove works just fine now. But I do have an extra $769. Which is really nice.

And the money will be ready for when the stove does go for good...

That Smell

This Monday Loralie called me about mid morning. She said that our dog had cornered a skunk under the back deck. The dog got out but not before the skunk sprayed a bit. Missed the dog. Hit the deck. Hit the foundation of the house.

So began a process of pulling up decks boards and putting a light under the deck for 24 hours a day. I did see the beady little eyes reflecting back at me once but there has been no sign of it now for several days. So time to button everything back up and get things back to normal.

As is normal in situations like this the skunk came at a bad time. It was an hour before Loralie was having people over for the day. She ran out for more candles and air freshener. And it was the start of my busiest and roughest week of the year (week before school starts). But her friends were good about it and I managed to survive the week(barely).

I did learn from one of the guys who works for me that a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda mixed with a little liquid soap cuts the skunk smell when his dog gets sprayed. And his dog gets sprayed all the time (I think I would get a new, smarter dog). Anyway, I tried spraying that (minus the liquid soap) under the deck. And it really cut the smell. Details of the specific solution for those interested can be found on the Internet.

But every once in a while I will still get a whiff of that distinctive odor. And I have been struck by how much that is like life.

You see I have these faults and issues. And I am sure that you have your own set so don't get too smug on me now. But as I work to clean up those faults and issues sometimes I am just covering up the smell with candles and air spray. And the odor keeps coming back.

But if I work to the root of the problem (which is almost always me) and with outside help, those issues and faults can be washed away. Sometimes that faint whiff comes back to remind me of where I have been and where I don't want to go again.

And sometimes I just flat fall down in the stink and have to get cleaned up all over again...

Foundation

Yesterday we went to church and heard an excellent sermon about the two builders. One built the house on the rock and was able to stand the storms that came while the other built his house on an unstable foundation and lost it when the storms came.

After church we worked outside most of the day. Loralie was hauling rocks and pulling weeds while I started to work on the green house.

Yes a green house. We purchased a small kit green house that will lean up against the south side of the house. This is a small project and we don't need a permit it qualifies as a shed according to the city and since it is attached to the house we don't need home association approval. Loop hole to take advantage of.

We also got a base kit to help keep the green house off the ground. I had several options to put the base on. One was pour a concrete pad, another was to use bricks or pavers and another was to put in concrete corner posts.

But I want the thing to stand up to the wind that we get here in Kansas. So most of my day was spent doing calculations, digging footers and framing in the concrete foundation. And running to the local orange box store for concrete and lumber.

I'm a slow learner sometimes. It wasn't until I was talking with my neighbor about the project and I said: "I decided to go ahead and put in a footer so the green house won't shift" that I realized this was exactly what the sermon in the morning was about.

And I also realized that all too often I take shortcuts in building my foundation, shortcuts that weaken it and weaken my walk with God. I have to do it right so that when the storms come, I won't be blown off course.

Now I have to hope that the rain holds off tomorrow so that I can pour the foundation...