... in the near future

I am tired today. Yesterday was spent driving to and from Joplin with a three and a half hour marathon work detail squeezed into the middle.
Dianna got a call from the Realtor that Dad had a bid on his house in Joplin. That was good news in and of itself, but what we didn't want to hear was "the rest of the story", as Paul Harvey says.
It seems that here were a few 'details' that needed attention. The outside deck needed a coat of paint, the Kitchen faucet had to be replaced and we needed to add a drain to the pop off valve on the hot water heater. No biggy, right?
And so, we piled into the Suburban and made a mad dash to Joplin. We completed the work in just over three hours including a trip to Home Depot for supplies and headed for home.
The hardest part about the whole thing was finding a place to eat. We hadn't taken into consideration that it was Valentines Day when we got hungry, we just wanted a good meal. After stopping at about three or four restaurants and discovering the wait times ranged from one hour to over two hours, we decided to go on to Tulsa and try our luck there. We would be past the dinner hour by that time and the crowds should be subsiding by then .... right? We even tried calling ahead but that didn't pan out so we decided to hit Restaurant Row on 71st Street and just see what happens. Bingo! On the third try we ended up at El Chico's Mexican Restaurant enjoying a great meal and great service.
We pulled into the driveway just before midnight. The end of the trip brought us to two separate detours, which cost us about a half hour to navigate, but we made it.
I hope we don't have to do this again soon. It was okay, but, very tiring. I'm just not up for another road trip like this in the near future anyway.

...but then again ...maybe not

The cold weather has been quite bitter here. People all over the country are effected.

When I heard the forecast late last year that we were in for a colder Winter than usual, I had no idea it would be so severe.

I had an outside paint job that ordinarily takes about four days last almost three weeks. I had to wait several times for temperatures to get over 40 degrees to be able to apply paint. Thankfully I had a good client that let me off the hook for the touch up until better weather or I would still be waiting to get paid.

I know that things can be difficult to say the least. Life has become unpredictable and sometimes even dangerous.

I don't know how others make it in today's world, especially those that don't have the Lord in their lives to oivercome the bad things that occur. 

We have a neighbor that typifies my last statement. They have several children and they both work. But for whatever reason they are always in the 'hole'. Their rent is always late. They have breakdowns and  "accidents" and chaos more or less rules. They are nice people. They work hard and they love their children dearly, but nothing seems to go right for them. 

I sold the husband a van. He was supposed to pay me every two weeks and did for the first few payments until the Ball-joint went out on the interstate and someone stole the van before he could get it off of the highway and to a shop. The old saying comes to mind about being "snakebit". Now they are separated because of a drinking issue and I'll probably never see the rest of the money for the van.

That's alright. God knows best. I'll leave it up to him and see what happens. I tried to be a good neighbor and help them out. And I won't hold it against him for getting into a fix he had no control over. Life just does things to some people that I don't understand. It probably won't matter in the long run anyway, but it sure would be nice to at least know a little more than I do about all of this. But then again.... maybe not

... I would much rather go home

It has been days since my last post. I have been on the run and for good reason.
I met a pastor from Nigeria not too long ago and since then we have been working on getting his video department up and running. This will take full advantage of all the sermons he has done in the past and the ones he will do in the future.
I am hoping to get all of his editing. Toward that point I have upgraded my editing software and upon its arrival we will be in the Pro category! My old software is good, no doubt, but upgrading to the professional version allows me a much better format for the HD footage we are shooting.
There will be a learning curve, but that's good to. I need to be better equipped for what is to come. Having better tools means better results.
Another good event has been the addition of One Lord Media Group to the One Lord arsenal. We are now ready to publish books for ourselves and others. We have even secured our first book to edit, format and print. The author is in Hamilton, New Zealand, halfway around the world. I am excited to get her book because she has a good sense of what is going on in her writing and is also open to help with the edit points that have issues . Pray that we get a good manuscript as we work together and that it resonates with the readers once we go to print.

On a sadder note, I have to report that Dianna's Dad is not doing well. He had to go to the hospital a few days ago and is now in a health care facility. He can't get up on his own anymore and for a man that has been self sufficient all of his life, that is a real problem. I visited for a few minutes yesterday. Seeing all of the elderly walking up and down the halls is, for the most, depressing. The looks on their faces and the slow shuffle from place to place is difficult to watch. I can image their lives only a few short years ago. The vitality and energy is gone and now they seem a mere shell of what used to be.
I certainly do not look forward to that . I would much rather go home.

.....heaven forbid

I got an email from a friend. She got the news that her Blog has gone from 75 hits a day to 800.
Her entry into the new Steampunk rage has ignited the interest of thousands to her wonderful art.
If you haven't heard, Steampunk is a combination of fashion, machinery and art and history. I am totally impressed.
Not that it's for me, mind you, or ever would be, but it's the fact that I see the great attention to detail in all of it and marvel at the minds of the men and women involved. I just can't see myself in 1920's garb wearing a set of aviator goggles and knee boots while riding a bicycle with a huge front wheel.
I can totally relate to the tools and machines I see. They are ever so cleverly designed and made with great craftsmanship and highly functional to boot.
The clothes revert back to a day gone by that embellished everything. Nothing has been left idle. Everything lends itself to the polished and well designed. I find myself intently looking at the attention to detail and how different ones used modern things to look old but not worn out. Quite the opposite. Almost everything looks freshly made and expensive. When I see some of the designs I instantly think, "I want one!", but that in and of itself would make me a "Punker", wouldn't it?
Let me think about this a bit more. Have I been bitten by the "Steampunk Bug"? Heaven forbid.

...how many are crying....

The water was accumulating on my windshield as I waited for the engine to warm. I watched it trickle down the glass as though it had somewhere important to go.
I had watched the news while sipping my morning coffee and was glad to 'click it' off and head for the studio.
People are so strange. I don't know why the news channels pick what they do to air. With all the real news being stifled or just plain ignored, one would think that the moguls would want to entertain the public in much better ways.
I'm no analyst, but wouldn't it be much better to have uplifting, energy producing segments? The horrible gets front page and the good, peaceful, restorative gets back page or no page at all.
I look back on the times I watched the news with my grandparents. They faithfully watched the news every night; mostly for the weather. That's not to say that they weren't cognizant of the happenings around the town and state and nation. They were. It's just that they took a greater interest in what was going on around them; the things that mattered to them specifically.
Comments were made about hair styles and trends and who was 'in the news' at the time.
You could easily understand their opinion and point of view on any subject. If it was good, clean news it was alright. If it had even an ounce of the tawdry, decedent, or "Communist view" in it we immediately turned it off and got busy doing other things like homework or dishes. Needless to say, they were died in the wool Baptists with strict opinions based on their upbringing.
My how we have changed. If it looks back to another day most young people discard it immediately. We are too archaic and 'old fashioned' to hear them tell it. Sound familiar?
Yes, that seems to be the way of things today. If your parents are for it, it must be wrong or outdated.
Have we really gained anything over the years by not following our parents' example? I think not. I think we have suffered because we didn't follow some of those tried and true methods of succeeding.
I'll go even farther. We are going to suffer even more unless we get back to those 'core values' we were taught in the 50's and 60's by the stalwart, life educated people that were brave enough to speak out, even against tremendous odds.
More and more I see the beginning fall of our country.
We have elected a heathen to lead us and given him the front door keys to all the power. Everyday he sits in office means one more day he can subvert and con volute the truth. I may not be a very good citizen but I am informed. They haven't taken that away.... yet. We can all still 'see' and 'hear' and 'feel'. Well, maybe not all. Someone had to elect him.
I don't have to be in Washington to read what I see on the screen. You can't hide evil for very long. It will rear it's ugly head sooner or later and it's much later than most people think.
It may not be very much longer before people like me will be silenced for speaking their mind openly like this. I have to say it while I still can.
Read your Word. It's there. "Men's hearts will wax worse and worse...." and have.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That is where our salvation lies. That is where our peace comes from. That is the way the truth and the life.... no man comes to the Father but by "Him".... Jesus, the Light of the world.
Yes, I watched the rain run down my windshield. It made me think of how many are crying...

...if that's even a word.

I waited all day for a certain person to arrive at the studio. Didn't happen. I'm still waiting. It's 7:51 PM. They are almost 8 hours late.
The communication throughout the day was more or less one sided.
"I'm hung up here.... give me a few more minutes and I'll be there."
The stop was supposedly only for a few minutes and then 'straight to the studio'.

I am  disappointed but not angry. That's a first for me. I usually get mad and raise my blood pressure several degrees past safe. However, I am looking at the person in a much different light. I won't be so easily taken in by their word next time and I will make a "plan B" for sure.
I did get a lot of work done today but not at all what I would have liked. I fully intended to do other things; things that would have changed a lot of what I do here each day.
My general workflow has me working on two or three computers at the same time, getting two or more jobs done in half the time it would normally take. So in the end I really did get a days work in instead of two.
For the past few years I have worked with over 30 ministries doing various projects with and for them; often doing two or more at a time. I started doing it that way when In got behind on a CD project while I was doing a recording project and rendering some video files on a third computer.
I literally wore out the 1/2 inch plywood decking I put under my chair in a month and rep;laced two of the wheels on my chair.
Oddly enough, I like the pace. It keeps my mind busy and I don't get distracted unless the phone rings too much and I have to stop what I'm doing to deal with the calls. The day zooms by and I see a lot of results in a short period of time.
But not today.
I had to deal with the new computer's idiosyncrasies so I stayed with one computer and rode out the storm. I look forward to getting the bugs out of it. It's built to run very fast but not lately. For some odd reason it is acting up and causing a huge slow down in progress.
And so here I sit, reasoning with my thoughts in an effort to keep my nerves calm and "unagitated"; if that's even a word.

From awhile back, reflecting

We as trees.
As a writer I consider myself much like a tree among many other trees in the forest. When you pare away the leaves you come to the branches. When you take away the branches you find the trunk or the body. Inside the body is the sap, the blood if you will, that brings life to the tree, creating the leaves, or the pages, for the rest of the world to see or read.
When ‘the blood is up’ the creative juices are flowing. The blood rises and generates the warmth of the thoughts that surge and push the life source outward to the edges, into the capillaries of the branches, the fingers and brain cells, feeding them, enhancing them, pulsing through them producing the leaves, the pages for all the rest of the forest to see, to read.
What makes my leaves better than the other leaves? What makes my pages more appealing? What is that entity in the sap that energizes the sap, the blood, that makes the leaf the way it is? There is no other leaf like that leaf. There is no other page like that page. What makes that page standout from the rest of the tree? What makes that leaf special?
I realize am not the creator. I never was; where once I considered myself the source, I now know that I am the creation, skillfully wrought. There is that spirit, that force within me that stirs and emboldens the life blood within my trunk. Cut me open and read my rings, my history if you will. What have I had to say all this time that is noteworthy? Am I just some woeful, plain elm with small veins in my leaves, that all look the same? Or am I a mighty Mulberry that grows tall and strong and bears sweet fruit in the end?
And will I stand as the winds of time blow strong and stiff against me, trying to uproot me from my place in the forest? Or will I bow low, bending to the course and sultry tormentor yet not breaking even though limbs are torn away and I am bloodied and beaten? How will I fare? Will I be sawn asunder by the public lumberjacks and cut up into some commercial cabinet to be put on display in some kitchen or used as firewood that cooks the meal?
How has the leaf grown? Has the fresh pollen, the experiences of the other leaves left anything of value for me to use? Am I not dependent on that pollen to grow and survive, unfurling in the breeze of life and riding on the winds of change with the rest of my contemporaries?
What place have I been given in the forest? Am I a prominent tree set upon the hilltop with long flowing limbs and portly trunk? Do the children play amongst my branches and seek safety within them when danger approaches and they are in need of refuge? Or have I been planted in the hedgerow amidst the thorns and thistle to be used as a climbing pole, covered over by the creeping vines of degradation and deceit; surely not.
 Nay, I want to stand tall and rise above my fellow ‘woodsmen’, reaching great heights. Not to be above the others mind you; just able to see what goes on around me without the encumbrances that so many other trees experience, being too close together to have their own opinion; looking the same and never progressing.
Oh yes, I feel the drama of the forest and would never make light of the fact that we are what we are, made in his likeness and skillfully, wondrously crafted and individually so. Just as there are no two fingerprints alike I see that there are no two leaves alike and I enjoy that reality ever so much.