...and after the holiday?

I had a holiday scheduled but I'm working anyway.

The rigors of the job keep me going a lot more than I had anticipated when I decided to go in this direction but I'm not complaining per se, I'm just 'reflecting ' on what 'was' the case.

Before Jack's Answer I didn't usually get up until around 11 AM to start my day. I would get coffee, go to the computer and check emails, and then decide on what I thought was a priority for the day.

Now I wake at 7:45 AM and call Jack. He gets me started with whatever is on his mind that needs to happen or he has already informed me from the night before of what we will be doing. I still call at 8 AM either way. It has been good for me in that I have to get up at a certain time each day and I start much earlier. Instead of working until 11 or 12 or 1 Am, I am done and on my way home by about 7 or 8 PM. I put in about the same amount of time, just in a slightly different time frame.

Working fo the other guy has it's ups and downs as you all already know. I didn't consider some of these differences when I signed on, but I realize what they are just the same. I can't just pick and choose what I do now; there's a pattern to it and there are also deadlines that I haven't had to accomplish in someone else's time frame. It's much more difficult. But in hindsight, that's been good for me. I know I can do it now, I had just never put myself in that 'place' before.

Aren't we all supposed to be servants anyway? Doesn't it point that out in the Word? We are told to make ourselves available for whatever has to be done and be thankful that we have something to do and then go do it.

My office is in a church for now. I see so many people come and go. Most don't have a clue as to what they will be doing in the next thirty minutes much less what they will be doing for the rest of their lives. Do they consider these things? I don't know for sure but I don't think so. If they do they certainly don't show it on the surface.

I really enjoy motivated people. They have an 'aire' about them. They can talk in real, complete sentences and make real sense. But for the most, I usually hear disjointed dialogue with relatively no point to it other than a mostly confusing circumstancial occurance that they are experiencing at the time. It's all based on a crisis of some sort and their hands are always extended in an effort to relieve the 'pain'; as if it's a bad migraine and you8 have some 'magic pill' to give them. The sad part is that it really doesn't matter what level of society I am observing as this unfolds before me. They all exhibit the same inate traits. Confusion is a well established and seemingly incurable disease these days. Or is it just the ignorance that seems incurable?

I marvel. I'm not that smart but I do know that there are real answers out there; but without a higher power that can come in and rectify the situations we're all lost and without hope. We rely on our own wisdom to get us out of trouble and fall deeper into it. Ignorance, pure and simple ignorance. All we have to do is read the Word and do it. "Just do it", isn't that what the Nike guy says? Why is that so hard to understand? It should be easy but I find that I have a tough time following those same, simple directions on a daily basis and sometimes have to go back to the source and ask for more and more help ...a lot of the time. Remember I said I'm not that smart? I'm not, but I do know where to get help in time of need and I've stopped doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We all know what that equates to, don't we? Yep, it means you're nuts if you keep doing it!

Okay, I've ranted long enough. Back to the original topic.

I had a holiday planned but I'm working anyway.....

...and the sun came round again.

I looked out over the horizon and wondered just how bad it might become. The incoming, bad weather had been forecast as early as two days before and I knew that meant it was important to be watching what was going on a little closer than usual. Normally I just make sure I'm not parked too far out on the parking lot at a store so I don't get drenched by the rain, but yesterday's occurrences were not normal by any standard.

As we sat watching the television screen I realized that we are certainly blessed to have the world's finest weather people keeping us up to the minute on what was happening.

The local stations continually vie for first place ratings and spare no cost in equipping themselves with the latest and the greatest hardware, but the also seem genuinely interested in our welfare, often commenting on some one's plight. After all, losing your home to a tornado is devastating, often leaving traumatic repercussions that last entire lifetimes.

I quietly said, "How blessed we are", almost inaudibly and looked around the room. My two grandsons were intently watching the total destruction of an 18 wheeler and it's cargo, caught on tape by a local television station's helicopter crew that was covering the storms. They are used to seeing bad weather and think nothing of seeing the after effects of a twister. But what would it be like if they were the ones that lost everything to one of these unmerciful occurrences?

I went to bed a couple of hours later and lay there watching the trees blowing in the wind through my bedroom window. Would God allow us to go through the storm unharmed? How did he choose the ones that would lose everything, leaving the rest alone, safe and secure in their beds?

I know his ways are not my ways. His ways are far above what this small mind can conceive. I am just thankful today. My family is safe, healthy and progressing on to better and better times. What more could one ask in this day and time?

... wasss up?

I looked for my post from yesterday and discovered that I only have Blogs upto May 9th. I know that I have written at least three blogs since May 9th, but for some reason they just aren't there. How quaint.

...waiting

I really wish there was something we could do about hackers and their destruction of the Internet.

It seems like every time I turn around there is another issue to deal with, another virus, another Trojan, another vicious attack for no apparent reason other than the 'fun' of tearing up something that doesn't belong to them.

For instance, today, I came to work expecting to get a lot done on an important project we have going on a brochure. I clicked on the screen to what I thought would be a quick response to my command only to wait several seconds before the program opened. Not good. Anytime you have to wait that long for something to open you know that there has to be a problem somewhere. Usually I blow it off to the slow connection where I am right now, but this was much longer than usual and I wasn't even online. Like I said, 'not good'.

My wife has a virus of some sort that has even invaded 'Safe Mode'. I tried to run the clean up tools I have been successfully using for months without a hitch and they did virtually nothing. This must be a whopper of a virus. My programs usually always pick up everything that it encounters.

Not this time.

But back to my original thought. There just ought to be a way to find out who these perpetrators of evil are and put a stop to this nonsense.

Now I sound like my grandmother did when I was a kid. She used to rail about the tyranny and the taxes.... I suppose I have gravitated over to the cyber arrea to set up my soapbox.

Anybody else out there see a solution?

"just...getting along"

"Can't we all just get along?"

When I heard that I marveled at the unique wisdom coming from smeone that hadn't really ever shown any wisdom to speak of in his personal life. Our concepts and precepts get mixed up in the everyday back and forth movemenets we so often catagorize as "takin' care of business". I wonder just how funny we look to the Lord when he sees us posturing and 'giving our opinion'. I have watched my mannerisms and language of late. How do I really come across to the ones around me? Am I revered or revolting? I pray it is the former. No one wants to be thought of as revolting, do they?

The sad news of my two freinds losing thier baby put a rather negative spin on what I have been doing here at the office. They have tried so hard to make everything work out and yet....
"Of All The Tears" comes to mind for some odd reason. It speaks about the lost that Jesus will cry over in the end but I thought of it because I know that Jesus weeps over our despair and my friends are truly despairing just now.

The weather is perfect and the mood of those around me seems bright and upbeat. How can they know that just across town there are two people deep in thought about the loss they have just experienced.

"One side's up and the other side is down".... that's from some poem I read centuries ago or it's going to be a lyric someday.

Anyway, here I am just watching again. Looking for the beauty that is surely there, looking for the meaning that is surely there, looking to the One that is surely there... 'just ...getting along'.

...yes, I can still hear it.

The words and the music haven't left me since I first heard the song.
I won't name the title so you can put your own song in it's place and feel the same feelings right along with me, but I'm sure you know what I'm talkming about. A great song is just that. It keeps reminding the listener of it's story and keeps it's meaning in your mind long after the last note has died out on the wind.
I have been waking at night with this song on my lips. I have been walking around humming this song, finding myself doing it over and over again. How funny. It's not even one of my own songs. I just can't seem to get it out of my mind or out of my ears. I think one thing about it is the arrangement. I haven't found 'mine' yet and that always bothers me until I really make it mine and 'own it', so to speak. There are those of us that live to write such a song.
'If only...'

...and so on and so on

I don't know how many of you out there read other blogs. It takes a bit of time to really keep up with all there is to read these days and so I know that my blog may well be on the bottom of just about everyone's reading list. That in and of itself doesn't keep me from posting. I like to write and I like to form the words and see how they 'dance' on the page ...or sometimes just lie there. All to often I think that I may wander in the writing a bit but I want the meanings to come from inside and not from some 'point of view' I'm trying to convince others with.
What brings up this topic of the day is the blog I just finished reading. It talks about the waste of time some people make in reading all the drivel that's out there. I agree to a certain extent but I also think that we should keep abrerast of what's going on any where we can go to find reliable sources that actually tell it like it is. We all know there isn't much of that on the evening news these days.
I suppose if it were to be made plain, I don't really have a lot to say that may change the world, but I do have an open mind and I do think that communication is key to actually seeing changes come about that are positive and encouraging.
And so, having said all that, I just want to encourage all of you out there to keep on talking, keep on writing, and keep in touch with those you love.
They need you as much as you need them and vice versa!

...and then came the sun.

I stepped out onto the porch to see what the day looked like and almost went back inside. I could have slept all day in weather like this. The cool, morning breeze brushed my cheek and I was glad that I had out on an extra shirt. I turned the knob to 'warm' om the heater in the car and waited for the engine to warm up a bit before backing out.

As I arrived at the hotel where Jack lives I saw the differences in the construction signs. The streets around the hotel have been torn up f0or months and will be for even longer but I could see progress none the less and was happy that there had been at least a couple of minor completions.

Why does the construction of roads seem to take so much time? There must be a better way to get things done, but I'm not going to change jobs. That would mean even more time to get something done. I wouldn't make a very good 'road worker'. They have to put up with a lot and I don't think that I'm cut out for that type of torture; at least not at this stage of the game.

I got an email from my friend in Colorado. They got snow. Here it is May and they still get snow.

How wonderful it must be to wake up every morning and look out on the majesty of the Spanish Peaks. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. I can hardly wait to get there when we go and I hate to leave when it's time to come home. The mere thought of moving there is such a real temptation I don't think that I could stop myself if I got the chance. Of course there are many things to consider about making that choice, but I would truly love it.

I'm looking ahead to next weekend. I'll be in church watching all the mothers line up across the front and wonder just what my little "grannie" is doing right about then. She's not getting any younger and I seem to miss her more each week as time goes on. We never have been close in regards to distance but we have been close in the spirit for many years. Her life has been quite unusual in many ways and simple in others, but I know how she loves her mountains and ha finally gotten to go back to them once again. I'll make every effort to go see her this summer. There may not be many more of them for her so I certainly want to make sure I am included in what goes on around her from now on.

Isn't it funny how we see things 'speed up' as we get older?