Super glue, duct tape and bailing wire...

I am a fix it person. Show me a problem and I will fix it for you, many times not having to buy a part to do it.
I have fixed a screen door with a little bailing wire instead of having to buy new door hardware.
I fixed a faulty muffler hanger on my old truck with some bailing wire.
I fixed my water bed one time with some super glue and duct tape.
I have used duct tape and a black plastic trash bag to fix a broken window (it is still there by the way).
I have duct taped hoses together, poles together and even used duct tape one time to fix some ducts... who'd thunk it?
I have used super glue to glue back together broken glasses, a piece of fine china my boys broke (sorry mom) and numerous fingers in the process (by accident of course, you have SEW fingers back on).
But many times when it comes to fixing someone's problem, it takes more than duct tape, super glue and bailing wire.
Many times I want to just take people and fix their problems for them.
Have a drinking problem? Well quit going to bars, the liquor store and don't hang out with people who drink, there you go, problem solved.
Have a drug problem? Well just stop. Just say No. Its easy.
Have a weight problem? Well quit overeating and exercise, its that simple.

But many times fixing our problems is more complicated than what I just mentioned. I have never struggled with an alcohol or drug problem but I have struggled with a weight problem. I know what my problem is (duh, I am fat) but I still mess us sometimes.
Like the other night I was returning from a trip so I stopped on my way home to get some fast food. I pulled into BK and took one look at the menu and felt a sensation going through my body like a crack addict must feel about to get a fix. I gazed on the menu board and decided I did not want to spend too much so I ordered off the dollar menu. I ordered two double cheeseburgers, since they were just a dollar each. But I really wanted a spicy chicken sandwich too, and since it was just a dollar as well I ordered one up. I did not order any fries because they are not too good for you... yeah I know small victories. But then, to wash it all down, well I think it would be stupid to order that much food and then get a diet Coke and feel good about yourself so I got a chocolate shake. It came to a little over $5 and I was pretty happy about that fact. At least until the food came out.
I dumped the contents of the bag into the passenger seat and placed the shake in the cup holder. I unwrapped one of the burgers and the first taste sent my whole body buzzing like an alcoholic getting another round. I quickly finished that one off and decided it was so good I had to have another.
Set em up barkeep, I think I am going to stay awhile.
As I devoured the first and then the second doublecheesessliceofheavenburger I washed it down with that somewhat runny chocolate shake. It wasn't the best shake I have ever had but it washed down the remains of the cheeseburger just fine. It was after I had eaten both cheeseburgers and drank most of that shake that I looked down at that spicy chicken sandwich. It was still appealing but I was pretty full at this point.I really did not need to eat it but I wanted a taste. So I reached over, unwrapped it and took a bite. Oh mama, this was even better than the slice of heaven cheeseburger. It was crispy with a hint of fire to it that made your nose start to water and your tastebuds sizzle. As I chewed that bite I looked over at the two empty wrappers and the quicky diminishing shake and thought to myself, "I really don't need this, I just want it". So I wrapped it back up, sans the one bite, and put it back into the bag with the other now empty wrappers and the almost empty chocolate shake. Quickly before my willpower was lost I put it in the floorboard in the backseat where I could not reach it.
As I drove home I pondered my actions. I did not need that much food, I really could not eat that much food, but I want ahead and bought that much food because, well it was cheap and I really wanted it. It was then and there that I decided I had a problem and it is one that duct tape, super glue and bailing wire will not fix.
I read about Lindsay Lohan today and I thought to myself, what a waste, she has no self control. Two weeks out of rehab and she is back doing drugs. I sure am glad I am not like her... but in some areas I think I am...
Something to think about...

Just take the ___ out!

Take out the _____.
You fill it in. Most time I am told to take our the "trash" because no one in my family can see that it is overflow other than my wife who happens to notice those types of things. So then I yell at the boy closest to me and request that they take the trash out.
But that is not the thing that I see most people trying to take out in their lives. Most of the time they are trying to remove God or at least replace him with something else. I guess it is easier that way, it gives us a glimmer that we are in control , because no one controls God. God just won't seem to come around and appease us with our fantasies that we know what is best for our lives. It is like that overbearing mother who thinks she can choose the people that you associate with, what carreer field you will go into and that you always wear clean undies in case you are in an accident. How many times do we actually listen to those choices that others made for us?
Well if you are having a God complex like this I have good news for you. You can scientifically eliminate God from your lives! Yes it is true, God really does not have any interation in our lives that can not be explained away in science!!
See the attached link for a great example of replacing God with science.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddIg3tzTggA

Yes you see, science once again proves that God really does not exist. Moses actually just so happened to be at the right place at the exact point in time when a 60+ mile per hour wind just so happened to be blowing in the right direction at exactly the time when they were pushed up against the edge of the sea. And when the water fell and covered Pharoh's army just so happened to be the time when the last Hebrew finished crossing and Pharoh's army happened to be in the middle and wind just stopped, and everyone got wet.
Wow, and people say I am nuts for believing in a God I can't see.
I really have a better feeling about God supernaturally intervening on that day than believing some gale force winds just so happened to blow hard enough to part the Red Sea. What are they going to throw at us next? That some explosion cast particles throughout the universe millions of years ago and some of that matter took up a place not too far from the sun to create a big ice cube but not too close to create a big oven but just far enough to create a life sustaining planet? Then I guess someone will come along and tell us that life on earth somehow evolved from some single cells of protiens into all the animals that cover the face of the earth today? And that we as humans really are descendants of that same single cell that made the girrafe, rhino and the blue whale and we became who we are as we went from single cell, to tad pole to frog to fish to lizard to monkey to ape to man. Yeah, that sounds believable... about as much as Moses just happening to be at the right place at the right time to cross the Red Sea when a big wind blew...

Twinkies...

We are finishing our "Snack" series at our church this weekend. I know, I know... a "snack" series? Yeah, we preached as a staff the first week on Zingers... and the second week on
"Ding Dongs" and this week on "Twinkies".
So the first week my wife preached that Zingers come out of our mouth more often than going in our mouth. A word spoken harshly comes out of nowhere, can hurt and can't be recalled once they left. She really nailed it when she flung (sorry honey, if I said "threw" that would not really tell the story) Zingers around the auditorium. People are still talking about it.
Pastor John preached on Ding Dongs, don't be double minded. Double minded people are unstable, kind of like a Ding Dong once you bite into it, it starts to break apart once the chocolate coating has been compromised. Double mindedness creates people who are wishy washy and tossed to and fro by every fad and new thing to come along becuase they have no foundation.
So this week we finish on Twinkies... you will have to come Sunday to hear it. But I will tell you this... Twinkies... cream filling, Yum!! And only 150 calories.

Satire vs Mockery

Was at a conference (Inluence) where a young man presented this thought to us.
Do you know what the difference between the two, satire and mockery are?
Well mockery aims to wound, where satire is a humorous way to look at something.
How many times do you aim at satire and end up in mockery? I know for me many times something starts off innocent enough in a humorous way and ends up going way to far until someone gets hurt.
I believe as the speaker said that many times that fear alone keeps us from using humor as an effective communication tool. But if our motives are good, and we don't push things too far, humor can have a great effectiveness in presenting a point.
Think of this...
I find myself many times breaking into my "business" voice when I pray. I lower the timbre a few steps, and my wife says I start speaking in King James. I thought it was absolutely false until we were sitting at Olive Garden and I started to pray. I felt my vocal cords loosen, and a "dear GOD" came croaking out of my mouth that would have made James Earl Jones proud.
I continued, "LORD, bless our fellowship (we were just having dinner, but fellowship sounds so much more scriptual and old testament sounding), bless the meal we are about to receive (wow I say to myself, as I don't know if I have ever "caught" a meal before) and bless it to our bodies and our bodies into your service. Ahmen."
I sat there after I prayed that prayer and thought to myself, it is all true! I do use my business voice and I speak King Jamesesnees when I pray. I just hope when the prayer gets to GOD he can figure out who it is on the other line...

How much for that human in the window?

I got to thinking about this the other day and I can't seem to shake it. How much is one human really worth?
See what happened is this kid was walking through my front yard, not on the sidewalk mind you but through the middle of my yard. My wife looked up from the couch and said, "there is a kid walking through our front yard". Well I was on my way out anyway so I kept walking to the door and headed to the car never seeing the kid until I remembered that our trash can was being blown down the street. So I decided to retrieve it and it was then that I saw the kid. He was bent down behind my pickup truck and when he popped up he looked very suspicious. Well I just nodded at him and headed that way to get the trash can that was behind him. He quickly started walking away putting distance between himself and I. I retrieve the trash can and dragged it back to the house but I can't help but notice that the kid keeps looking back at me over his shoulder. After depositing the trash can back at the house I get into my car and just happen to hvae to drive up the same street the kid was walking on. When I turned that way I saw him break into a trot and soon disappear around the corner of a building. Now I am starting to get suspicious when I saw him start running as it was as I just pointed my car his direction when he started to jog. As I started up the street I saw it; rolling down the street in my direction was a blue and yellow nerf football. This was the same football that had somehow found its way into my trash can that morning. One of the boys must have gotten tired of it or Mom had enough of it not being put away but I did remember it that morning sitting on top of the trash. Well our thoughtful trash guys knew not to throw it away and so they had tossed it into the yard where it came to rest, you guessed it, on the back side of my truck. So as I pulled over to retrieve said football my mind started racing on what I should do to this little punk that stole my football. That is what I really thought and said was, "you little punk kid". Well I went on down the street and the kid apparently thought I was gone as he poked his head back around the corner and after seeing me then took off across another person's yard. At this point I turned the car toward my destination and drove off in a fever as I thought about how brazen this punk kid was.
After a few minutes of stewing I realized that I had pretty much condemned this kid over a $1.99 Nerf football. I know stealing is not right and I am pretty sure that with the way the kid acted he knew it was not right as well, but over a football that could have very easily been thrown in the trash that very morning, I was willing to condemn him?
It was then that I thought about how someone gave his life for all of mankind, wether we were a murderer or a thief, an adulterer or a punk kid. He paid the ultimate cost, way more than $1.99 for the cost of our transgressions. As that sobering thought coursed through my mind I started to see a young boy without a football more than a punk kid. Who knows his story, I know I don't. Maybe he had never seen one before, maybe he had never gotten to play with one before. Maybe he has never ever owned a football, maybe he saw it in the trash earlier and realized we had discarded it. I don't know but what I do know is that young boy is worth much more than a $1.99.

Welcome to Heaven, can I take your order?

Our small group got to discussing this last night and a thought came to me. Do we live to serve our GOD, or does our GOD live to serve us?
Think about it.
Many times I have heard it preached that GOD is there waiting to fulfill our every need, if we will just ask he will provide. He is as close as the very mention of his name. If we ask him and believe with mustard seed faith, he will come through.
I know that these statements have originated from my own mouth at one point in time or another, and last night I was challenged to rethink my relationship with GOD.
We need to get this through our thick skulls, GOD is not a butler, standing ready to serve us as a moment's notice. He is not standing just behind us in a black suit and bow tie picking up our little messes as we travel through our lives. And yet most of the time we treat him like a butler.

Our prayers go like this, "Oh GOD, I need your help today. I have messed up really bad. I know your word tells me that I should control my attitudes and actions but sometimes you just blow it, ya know? So I really need your help GOD. This has escalated beyond my control and I need you to provide a way of escape for me. I know this is all my fault but remember you chose to love me first, just as I am. Oh and I know you have been working on me about my temper, but I am a work in process reemmber. I have done so good for the last five days, no problems and then all of the sudden this comes up and I lose it. But GOD I know that you are for me and not against me, that you will be my strong tower and place of refuge. Your word says that you have plans for me, plans to prosper me and bless me. So GOD, you have to do what your word says and take care of this. I really do appreciate it so much. Thanks, check ya later. Out.

So do we exist to serve GOD, or does GOD exist to serve us? That is the question I am posing to you today. Paul said that we were lay our lives down and live as Christ, meaning we are not worried about our personal preferences, our comfort, or our very lives. Nothing being more important that fulfilling GOD'S purpose. So as you think about this figure out which catagory you are in. When you are praying, is it like you are at McDonald's ordering from GOD or are you at the HQ receiving orders for duty.

Mistakes...

We all make them, mistakes that is. Some are small ones, like putting on a black sock and a dark blue sock when you are getting dressed in the dark so you don't wake up your wife (guilty).

Others are significantly larger like running a red light and getting in an accident (guilty and in my defense the light was in a funky location).

But the worse of mistakes is the ones that are life changing. Yeah I heard a lot of grief that day at the office about my one blue sock and my one black sock. And the humiliation and hassle of dealing with a fender bender is no fun whatsoever. But the mistakes that change lives forever are the ones that really bother me.

And I am not talking about those accidents that all of the sudden happen, I am talking about the self inflicted mistakes. You know the ones where you shoot yourself in the foot type of mistakes.

I have found that many of these types of mistakes boil down to one thing, greed.

Now we normally don't associate greed with mistakes, normally it is about materialism or money but greed can be a driving force in our lives and when it is out of control it can lead to many mistakes. The "want" for things, wether it is that item on the shelf, that boyfriend's love or a position of influence, the things that we really want can drive us to not think things through and make monumental mistakes in our lives.

One of the Ten Commandments that does not get talked about enough is the "thou shalt not covet". What GOD is saying is that we should not look at something and want it so badly that we will do anything to get it. The society we live in today is all about instant gratification, we have a certain time limit set in our minds on how fast thing should be. We think we should be able to get whatever we want whenever we want. I remember asking my Mom for a toy when I was a child and she told me that we did not have the money for it. I asked her, "don't you have any checks?" If I knew I would not get the spanking of my life I would have thought of stealing that toy just because I wanted it. That is a mistake I am glad I did not make, but many have.

I remember a girl I knew in high school who made the mistake of going too far with her boyfriend because he threatened to leave her. She wound up pregnant, the boyfriend broke up with her and she got an abortion all in the span of a few months. I know that she must live with that mistake the rest of her life.

I have lived my entire adult life in the business world and have seen people use one another to make their way to the top. One gentlemen I know told a lie about a fellow employee that secured a big promotion for himself. It was all good till the lie came to the forefront and the truth was exposed. The man who got the promotion was demoted and the one who whas lied about quit the company because they believed a lie. In the end the company was worse off than it started all because of one mistake made by someone trying to get ahead.

So next time you are tempted by greed to make a decision, remember it might be the biggest mistake you ever make...

Batten Down the Hatches...

There is a hurricane a coming to Oklahoma? It surely must be a sign of the end of the world as we rarely (like never) have hurricanes in Oklahoma.
Now we get our fare share of rough weather in Oklahoma.
Thunderstorms - Not the sit on your stoop and watch the lightening show kind of storms. Our thunderstorms are the kind that rattle your windows, blow water sideways and knock trees down in your yard. And they usually last a few hours followed closely by you guessed it, another storm.
Hail Storms - Now we do get the usuall pea sized hail on occasion. But we also get the softball size, knock a hole in your windshield hail. I remember one hail storm where the yard looked like someone took a sledgehammer and went around hitting the ground.
Ice Storms - I am not talking sleet here, I am talking everything getting an inch of ice covering it. It covers everything, from power lines to trees.
Straight Line Winds - Now this is a weird thing that happens here, we get like 80 MPH winds that just come out of nowhere. They are really strong and blow shingles off, knock trees down, and will clean your yard of an laying around items.
Tornados - I saved this for last. We have our fare share of twisters here, this area is called Tornado Alley for a reason. They come out of nowhere, tear things up and then leave the way they came.
So now we have Hurricanes coming to Oklahoma... big deal, NOT!

What was that???

How many times are we scared by things that go bump in the night? I know I have been. I remember waking up one time and there was a hooded man standing at the foot of my bed holding an axe. I laid there as still as I possibly could as every muscle in my body stood ready to jump up and throw my little brother at the serial killer. I must have laid there at least five minutes in sheer terror as the axe murderer just stood there staring at me. At about the five minute mark I realized that I had forgotten to breathe which was just as well as I realized my soon to be assailant had not taken a breath either. Finally the fog of fear in my brain lifted just long enough for me to make out that his axe head was not all shiny and sharp looking but had little tufts of something on it. Focussing as hard as I could I then realized that it appeared he was wearing two shirts as one was a slightly different color than the other. So I moved, slightly, like I was turning over in bed to see if he would react and nothing happened. It was then that I got a slightly different angle to look at my soon to be killer. He was not near as frightening from this angle. He actually was really skinny, bean pole thin. And his face although shrouded from the hoody was not really looking at me but looking at a blank wall. It was then that I realized that someone had moved the coat rack from the living room and put it at the end of my bed.

I had been working late nights and rolled into the house somewhere around midnight. Apparently Mom or Dad was cleaning the living room and relocated temporarily the coat rack to my bedroom, at the end of my bed to be exact. I was so tired that when I came home I walked right past it on my way to bed. It was only later that night when I woke up that I saw it for the first time. You see, there was a hat, actually two that was at the very top of the rack. We would just stack them up on it and someone had thrown their hoody over the top of the pair of hats making it look like a hatted and hoddied killer. Then the coats were on the lower sections and made up the body where a pair of them were sitting side by side with one side of the hoodie covering them. Violla! There you go, ready made axe murderer.

Oh the axe. Yes the axe was actually a glove someone had placed on one of the arms to let it dry. So I laid there in utter terror for over five minutes scared of a pair of hats, a hoodie, two coats and a winter glove.

So many times in life we are afraid of things we should not really be worried about. So next time you are sitting scared to death, think it through. You might be surprised that

Football is almost upon us...

Tonight and this weekend is the last of the preseason games for the NFL. Yeah I know for most of us it is a big as the big named stars will not be playing saving their energies for when it really counts; next week.
But I want you to consider something, each NFL team right now has 75 players on it. By Saturday night they have to be down to 53. That is 22 players per team that will find themselves unemployed come Sunday morning. So for roughly 600 plus players this last preseason game is a make it or break it weekend; literally playing for their NFL lives. Those guys who have a starting position all lined up aren't worried about their performance tonight, most won't even be in uniform. They will be on the sidelines wearing their team issued sweat suits and their 2 Carat diamond earings laughing and cutting up the entire game. But for those guys on the proverbial bubble it is life and death of their NFL carreers. One mistake is all it will take for them to find themselves out of a job and most likely out of football. One missed block, one missed assignment, one missed pass route, one missed throw and their dreams are over of being a NFL player. Talk about pressure. You make the team and even as the 53rd man you get the leauge minimum which is way more than you can make down at the 7-11. You make the team and for this year at least you know what your future holds and you get a chance to improve and make an impression on the coach. You make the team and you are a part of something that a bunch of other guys would give anything for. But if you are one of the unlucky ones, your future is left clouded, what are you going to do? Do you try again next year? Do you hang up the dreams? Do you try to catch on with some inferior leauge and hope someone notices you?
So as you Yawn your way through this last preseason game this weekend. Remember these are real people with real hopes and dreams. Root them on with all your might for next week 22 of them will be just like you, out of the NFL.

Happy Birthday!!

Today is the 17th birthday of my #2 daughter. So much has transpired in 17 years.

She had heart surgury to correct a heart defect at 8 days old. I remember getting the call while at work that I needed to come to the hospital as there was something wrong. I drove over as fast as I could and arrived to see an abulance sitting at the hospital. As I was going to the baby ward I passed a couple of EMTs who were taking my baby girl the other way unknown to me. Looked like they were taking some equipment, but under all that techo stuff was my newborn daughter. Then I get to the room and the doctor is waiting with my wife to tell me my daughter has a problem and is being transfered to Tulsa. I head directly there as my wife would not be discharged till the next day and find my little girl in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She was there with all the preemies and babies with health issues and I could not believe that this was happening to me.

They eventually transfered her to Oklahoma City where a team of doctors did open heart surgury to repair her defects. She was not given a very good prognosis, the man who did her heart ultrasound said that not only did she have an artery and a vein in the wrong locations she was also suffering from numerous holes in the chambers of her heart. At 8 days old they did surgury, at one point she flat lined as they took her off the heart lung machine and they had to restart her heart. She spend the next 12 days with tubes going in and out of her, a few of those days on a ventilator in a small glass room with lots of beeping and nurses and doctors checking in on her.

On day 20 they said we could take her home. We loaded her up and brought her back to our home which seemed like we had not seen in ages. She acted like a normal baby other than all the medicines we had to give her and the check ups she had to endure. She grew up like all the other kids, and I have to admit I would forget she had open heart surgury till I saw the scar running the length of her breastbone.

She had another procedure when she was younger to check on her arteries and later received a pacemaker to make her heart stay in rythem. She just a couple of weeks ago received her new and improved pacemaker as her original was starting to wear out.
It amazes me that she pretty much has not allowed this liability from keeping her out of the game of life. From gymnastics, to basketball and softball to cheerleading, to acting and modeling she has continued to live life to the fullest. She inspires me every time I think of what she has accomplished in the short time she has been in my life.
She is smart, funny, and articulate. Beautiful and gracefull and is always a ray of sunshine on cloudy days. I can't wait to see what achievements she has in front of her as she lives her life to the fullest.
It seems like only yesterday we celebrated her first birthday and her mom and I both felt so blessed to have her in our lives. We have celebrated many birthdays since then and she is still as much of a blessing now as she was then.
Happy Birthday Cam, we love you and are so proud of you!
Dad

What does wiring a guitar have to do with a relationship with GOD?

As you know I am a guitar enthusiast. Let me clarify, I am a cheap guitar enthusiast. I just love the old Telecaster that Bruce Springsteen plays, buy one just like it and it will cost you something around, well lets just say my first house did not cost that much. And to buy a replica, well you are looking at somewhere around 5 large bills. I also loved the white Stratocaster that Jimmi Hendrix played at Woodstock, the reverse headstock just rocks! But to buy one to match, house costing again! And a replica, well you are looking at 8 large bills.
So what is a cheap guitar enthusiast to do? Well you build one yourself silly.
So I built the Tele first, shaped the wood, bought a neck (I am not that talented yet...) got all the hardware and electronics and put it together. Did the same with the Stratocaster. But to really get an electric guitar to work you have to do some work on the eclectic components... duh!
So I soldered and soldered (I hope I am spelling that correctly) all those little wires together, from the pickups to the switches, to the tone pots to the volume pots to the output jack to the ground points. Hey, there is a lot a soldering to be done on a guitar.
So anyway I am playing one of my guitars the other day when it starts making this horrible shriek during worship practice. Nothing I can do will fix it so I change guitars. Now my other guitar is making an annoying buzz, not something that really stands out but is annoying none the less. So last week I tear into the guitars to fix them problems with the wiring which brings me to my title of this writing.
If you do not have a good ground on your electronics, your guitar will have an annoying buzz that makes everything just sound bad.
If you do not have a good grounding on your relationship with GOD, well you will become annoying also. Grounding our relationship with GOD is so important, it keeps us humble not only in his sight but in the sight of others. It keeps us from getting so full of our self that we force all of HIM out. It keeps us insulated from the things of this world that will light you up as quick as a lightning strike if you do not keep yourself grounded in GOD.
And if you have a loose wire that connect with something that it is not supposed to connect to it will cause a huge SHRIEK!!! in your life. We are designed to connect directly with GOD, nothing else. But when we try to plug ourselves into something other than GOD, well that is when the shrieking occurs. It is loud and obnoxious, painful to hear and even more painful to watch as you try to make sweet sounding music and all that comes out is pain and agony. Loose wires in the relationship with GOD have a tendency to connect to things that they should not causing all sorts of problems. It might be a relationship, or a habit or some other innocuous thing that causes a short circuit in your life causing the unbearable shriek.
So get to work making sure your life is grounded in HIM and all lines are plugged into HIM solidly so you can make sweet music from your soul.

Letting go...

We took our oldest child to college this weekend. It was a mad rush of getting her car ready (it had an overheating problem and we were going to TEXAS!), getting her car packed and leaving on time. So we thought once we arrived on campus it would be all laid back and easy, NOT!
Who knew that a college kid would need so many things. Irons and ironing boards, trash cans and vacumn cleaners, hair dryers and laundry soap. Seemed like it was never finished, thank GOD for Wal Mart!
So as we spent the weekend with her there was an unspoken tension that filled the air knowing that on Sunday we would say our goodbyes and leave her on campus six hours from home.
We had a lot of fun, she made some new friends and in the end the letting go part was really all in our minds. We hugged, cried and said "love you, see you later" as we gathered our belongings to come home.
It is a weird feeling, letting go. She has been brought up well, is independent, a thinker, smart and hard working. She has determination, grit and guts. She is very rational, not critical, and not one to jump without first thinking it through. She is all of those things and yet it is scary to think she is going to make her own choices now. She is going to be making her own rules to live by. She is going to decide when she goes to bed, what she is going to eat and what she is going to do.
I guess as parents we are all working for that day when we are to let them go into their own life. But it sure is hard to let go when you have held on for so long...

Patience Grasshopper...

I am like an out of work Doctor, I have no patience...
I think it must be an reflection of the day and age we live in that I am not the only one without patience in this world.
Thinking back a few years you can see where I am coming from.
When I was a kid we had a party line phone. That was when there was just one line from your house to the switchboard. Sometimes you would pick up the phone and someone was already on it talking away. Well you would just have to wait... and wait... and wait till they got done.
I remember when we first got computers hooked to the internet, remember the bzzzzzz, beep, bzzzzz gurgle gurgle as it connected... yeah good times.
I remember when the phones all had rotary dialers, the 1's weren't too bad but when you had to dial a 9 or something, well that is why for an emergency you dialed 9-1-1. After that rotary had to be twisted around to 9 and then had to slowly make its way back to the stop so you could dial again, many of those people in need of an emergeny either died or got better.
I remember when the only fast food was the kind they delivered on roller skates...
Remember when their was no such thing as remote controls? You had to get up and walk to the TV to change the channels. We watched a lot of really boring TV when I was a kid because no one wanted to get off the couch and loose their seat.
I remember Mom making dinner and actually cooking stuff in the oven and on the stove where we had to wait for it...
I remember saving my money to buy that new bike, dollars, pennies whatever I could find till I had enough to actually pay for it in full.

The more I think about it the better the old life was.
On that party line, you actually knew what your neighbor was doing, if you lifted the phone really quiet like.
I remember where the internet was slower than getting the encyclopedia, forget downloading any damaging files, it wasn't worth the effort.
Rotary dialers? Well you really really really needed to call someone to use one of those.
Fast Food, I saw a restaurant the other day that had on their marquee "we knew you were coming, and your food is ready".
Remote controls, well I don't have patience for commercials anymore, I just flip to another channel.
Cooking on a stove top? Doesn't everyone had a nuclear reactor to warm up their chicken pot pies?
And actually saving money up to buy something? Why shoudl we do that when we can buy it now and pay later at a low monthly interest rate?
Some days I really do think the old days were better...

Cattle call?

When I was a youngun (that is southern for a small child) we operated a ranch in Arkansas. Nothing too big, we ran under a hundred head of cattle, grandpa had the big ranch, he ran about 300 head so we worked over there also. So I was around cattle most of my young life. And we had something that was a "cattle call". It usually consisted of a "whoop" with something after it. My grandfather could place his hand up along the side of his face, point his face in the direction where he thought the cattle were and give a loud "whoop!" and a few minutes the cattle would come over the hill heading for the corrall.
So the other day my wife says I need to take my daughter to a casting call, so I agreed. She later told me it was a cattle call as we did not have an appointment with the casting director so it would not be a big deal. Well I kind of got excited, I haven't called cows in a long time. So I started to practice in my mind all of my cattle calls. (I did this in my mind as you don't want to stand in the front yard yelling "whoop whoop whoop", it drives down your property values) for this opportunity I just knew I was cut out for. Why they were inviting my daughter to a cattle call was beyond me, but I just knew I would blow them away with my cow calling.
So we get to the hotel and there is a pretty good line already formed. We arrived early and I was sure glad we did as when we finally made it to the room where I assumed the "calls" would be made we were numbers 341 and 342. (for the record there were over a thousand people in line when we left!!) So we get there and stand in line with all these other people. There was this one guy who kept walking through the line and he would pull people out at random and take them away to another room. I just knew that they were doing special calls in that room, although I could not hear them. "Just wait till I get back there" I thought to myself, the people on the top floor will hear my "Whoop" when my turn came.
But alas the guy never did pull me out of the line. So we made our way through the line to a point where they gave us a piece of paper to fill out which had all sorts of things on it. They wanted to know my suit size, shoe size and even my dress size and my measurements. Well I have never wore a dress so I guessed a XXL would do it and my measurements were somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-40-45. The even asked my hair color, which I promptly wrote in as "bald".
So anyway after we finished our paperwork, we got our numbers and nice lady took our mug shots, face and profile just like at the police station. She pointed us to a door and I started warming up my vocal cords for the yodel of a lifetime only to pass through the door and find myself at an exit.
My daughter later told me that they just "called" it a cattle call as you feel like cattle walking through their little lanes they set up.
I am guessing whoever came up with that phrase never worked on a ranch, for when you walked through those little lanes there was usually a butcher awaiting you at the end.
So at least there wasn't a meat cutter waiting behind door number one...
I never did get to use my call...

Not Me!!!

It was not me!! I am telling you, I did not do it. I had nothing to do with it, I wasn't even around it when it happend! I am innocent, not guilty, or whatever else you want to call it. It wasn't me!! I swear!!

Have you ever heard that before? I have, coming out of my own mouth when I was a kid. See I had three younger brothers which meant there was a lot of things that happened that I really had nothing to do with. But this one day I messed up. I broke one of my Mom's things. It was really an accident, the ball should have missed the vase and bounced off the wall back into my glove like it had the forty times before. But this one time it took a funny hop off the end table and seny my Mom's vase crashing to the floor. I made a heroic diving attempt at a catch but alas came up short and the vase broke. It was at this point I had a decision to make, do I take the path of George Washington who never lied but I am sure was spanked by his Daddy for cutting down that cherry tree with his little hatchet. Or do I take the Al Capone defense and blame it on someone else and join the mob?
Well I ran out of the room and prayed that my Mom would not notice the vase that I left in pieces on the floor when she came home. So later that night my misdeed was discovered and all of us boys were lined up and asked who broke the vase. My youngest brother just looked at my Mom and then smiled at us when she said, "I know you did not do it as you were with me." One down, three to go. Well my next to the youngest brother pointed out that he was over at his friends house from before Mom left till after Mom got home. Two down, two left...
So it is down to my brother and me. Mom is displaying the evidence right before us. Telling us how she can't keep any nice things in the house because us boys don't respect her stuff and on and on. So then she asked the question, "who broke my vase?" Well my brother replied "not me", and then I went on the rant I wrote out above.
My Mom was flummoxed so she did the only logical thing, she said we will talk to your father about it. Well that really got me scared because who knew if my Dad might pull out some kind of fingerprinting machine or had the house wired for sound, he was kind of like that. Mom went into the kitchen to dispose of her now broken and useless vase. So my brother then accuses me of breaking the vase and he is not going to get a whoopin' because of it. It was as this point I decided to go all in with Al Capone. Yes, I blackmailed my brother. I told him all the things that he had done that Mom did not know about and if he squealed not only would I roll over on him I would make his life miserable. I may have even threatened to break his legs, but I can't remember if I went that far, I probably did.
So my Dad comes home and asked the simple question. "Who broke the vase?" Again we both denied it, wallowing in the sea of guilt and shame for our misdeeds. So my dad turns to my Mom and says, well there you have it, neither of them broke it and I am sure they would never lie to me". More guilt falls upon my shoulders as my Dad turns to console my poor Mother over the loss of her heirloom.
It was then that I realized I had gotten away with it, I had succeeded in my rouse, I had become Al Capone.
I lived with that guilt and shame every time I saw that end table where my Mother's vase had set.
It was many years later that I finally came clean with my mother. I told her that I was the one that broke her vase. It was as if a hundred pound weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I appologized and told her how it had happened and she said she knew. A week later she found my ball, with my name on it behind the end table where my Mother's vase set right along side the scuff marks on the wall where I was bouncing it.

So the next time you have the choice to be a George Washington or an Al Capone, take it from me. George might have gotten a whoopin, but at least he lived his life without a guilty conscience.
We need more George Washingtons in this life that take responsibility for their actions...

Enough is Enough

Been traveling the last week and haven't had time to update the old blog, so here goes...

I think I found out this week that enough is enough. I had to catch and early flight on Monday which meant leaving before the sun was up. I actually banged the door and woke up the rooster, who I am sure he was not too happy with me but hey he wakes me up all the time too!!
So work, work, work and finally about 9:30 that night I finally settle into a hotel room. Thats a 15 hour day boys and girls...
So then on Tuesday we have to start early, 7AM to look at restaurants, which means I have to be there early (don't want to be late) so the day starts around 6AM and ends that night again just after 9PM when I checked into a hotel. Another 15 hour day...
So on Wednesday I just have to fly home, but try as I may I can't sleep in, out of the hotel by 9AM because I had to get my phone fixed. try as I may to catch earlier flights doesn't work out and again I find myself not getting into bed till after 11 PM that night. That was the easy day, only 14 hours going non stop.
So I found myself last night driving home feeling really distant from GOD. I mean for the last three days I have ignored him. Not on purpose but when you are working every waking minute there is really not any time for anything else. I realized this as I was driving alone in the dark heading toward home when I saw a bright and shining star on the horizon and I started to think that GOD placed that star right where it is. So I started talking to GOD, just telling him my day, how busy I was and such which is kind of silly since he already knows all of that stuff. So as I was talking I got this distinct impression that GOD was asking me how I was. I mean it was like, "how are you?" in my spirit. And I had to admit I was not too good. I had turned off everything in my life for the last 72 hours that did not associate with work, including GOD. Now I am sure that GOD was watching everything that I did, he is like that but it made me realize that as a friend I pretty much had ignored him for three days... It was then that I realized that enough was enough and that I needed to reconnect. Thank GOD that he gives us a nudge when we start to get off balance to put us back into proper balance in him...
So when you find yourself going nonstop, take a moment to get back into balance with HIM, it will make all the difference!

Are you in control?

In thinking about the male airline attendant who recently went AWOL at JFK airport this week and it got me to thinking about being in control of the circumstances around us. And then last night in small groups what was the topic all about? Control.
So I got to thinking, how much control do we really have in our lives?
Not much I have come to realize. I mean yes we can plan for the future but can we control the future? I don't think so.
Can we plan our lives out with our marriage, our carreers and our retirement? Yes but how many times does that work out like we planned? Yes, I have to agree with our teacher from last night, control is just an illusion.
Which brings me back to the airline attendant. He lost control, but he also gained control at the same time. He lost it over a rude customer (as a frequent flier, to all my other frequent fliers out there, be nice to people and follow the rules, thanks) who felt they were above everyone else and more important than some insignificant flight attendant. Well I can tell you that person did not make their connecting flight or their meeting or their appoinment that they were flying to after the attendant made his emergency landing. He gained control over the whole situation, took control more like it. But sometimes there are things out of our control, like when the cops showed up at his house and arrested him. There we go again, control really is an illusion...

Women are from Venus and Men are from Mars?

Who came up with this crazy thought? Men and Women are not that alike.

Mars is an always hot desolate red planet, filled with gas pockets. Well OK maybe men are from Mars.

Venus is a large hot planet with an impenetrable layer of clouds covering its atmosphere. Once you get through the clouds 90% of its surface is covered by vocanoes, active most of the time. Venus does not spin as fast as the Earth, it takes roughly 115 earth days to turn a full revolution driving the temperature up to 464 degrees during the day and to -45 degrees during the night. The wind on Venus blows most times at around 217 miles per hour and it rotates in a completely opposite direction than all the other planets other than Uranus. Well maybe Women are from Venus.

Redneck Much?

We are doing a series on Sunday called the Redneck Christian series. It plays off the Jeff Foxworthy "you might be a redneck if..." where we are using it as "you might be a christian if..."


So anyway I went through google images looking for "redneck" pictures and I found some doozies. But what I have come to realize is that rednecks come from all aspects of society. Now hear me out. I centered my search on cars and houses. Those are the two most valuable investments most Americans have so it sums up most of our financial wealth in regards to the car we drive and the house we live in. Well looking at houses is kind of hard to tell if the owner is a redneck or not. Sometimes the outside looks all right but the inside might be a different story.


But in looking at the cars on that site, I have realized that there are a lot of rednecks out there.


I know rednecks get a lot of harassing but they are really ingenious people. Here are few examples.


Say your car locks all of the sudden stop working. You can't lock your car with all the valuables inside of it, what are you going to do. Well the dealership tells you it is going to cost $300 to fix it. Well a quick run to Ace Hardware and for about $10 you can get a length of chain, a drill bit and a master lock. Drill through the face of the door and then through the frame of the car. Slip chain through the two holes and put a padlock to tie the ends together on the outside. There you go, done. Try to get into that car with a coat hanger...

http://www.failfunnies.com/32/images/totally-secure-fail.jpg


Say your Air Conditioner goes out and you live in the south. You don't want to be sweating to the oldies on the radio like Richard Simmons driving down the road do you? So the dealership tells you it need a complete AC makeover, cost is $800, what do you do. Well if you aren't a redneck, you pony up the 8 bills. If you are a redneck you think, I have that old window unit that we pulled out of the old trailer, and I have that new generator I bought for the deer stand in winter, I wonder... viola Air Conditioning...
http://www.inquisitr.com/38418/redneck-car-airconditioning/

So there you go... if the world suddenly has a major crisis, all electrical, communication and technoligies goes in an instant, suddenly the American Redneck with all his ingenious skills will be in high demand!! YeeHaw!!

Fear of....fear?

I had an experience lately that brought to my attention the number one thing people are afraid of, and it is fear.
People are afraid of being afraid. Fear is a God given instinct that gives us pause when we put ourselves in a dangerous position. Like standing on the edge of a cliff looking down causes your knees to get weak and the need to move away from the edge. Like standing on the BIG diving board at the pool and deciding that it is way too high to be jumping from.
But we can't allow our lives to be ruled by fear, so much that we are afraid of anything that we decide to do nothing.
My daughter told me the other day after making a mistake in a ballgame that she was afraid of making another mistake. That type of attitude many times can put us into captivity. We shut ourselves out and decide the only way to not make another mistake is to quit playing all together. But once we get over the fear of making a mistake, we are free to make the plays that result in winning the game instead of losing the game.
I once read where the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, missed more game winning shots than he ever made. Yep, he did not make them all. I know every time I think of his Airness he was drilling a jumper over Byron Russel of the Utah Jazz or Craig Ehlo of the Cleveland Cavaliers to win a championship. Let me ask a question, what if Michael had missed his first shot to win a game and decided to never try again? Well we would have missed some memorable moments that is for sure. But Michael got over his fear of missing, how? Because he embraced making the shot more than missing the shot. He got over his fear in doing what should in the natural made him the most afraid. He did not allow missing the game winner to define him although he missed more than he made, instead his willingness to take that game winner made him into the greatest basketball player ever.
So next time you are afraid to try something over the fear of failing, remember to shoot, and if you miss shoot it again, sooner or later you are bound to make one!

Summer is almost over...

Wow, where has the time gone? Summer is almost over. Kids start school next week and it is official, summer is over.
There were many things that I wanted to do this summer that did not get done.
I wanted to landscape the yard. Nothing major but I wanted to trim some trees, cut back some bushes, plant some stuff, build some stuff, but I got absolutely nothing done on the yard this year. I think part of it was the heat, it was so hot the other day I saw a cat swimming in a kiddie pool. But part of it was the yard was not a passionate thing for me so it fell on my priority list.
I also wanted to clean out my shed. It has gotten so full of stuff over the years it needs a good going through. But then again I was not passionate about it so it fell to the inactive list.
I also wanted to go on a long motorcycle ride this year. Nothing crazy but at least an overnighter where I could pack my stuff, ride a few hundred miles a day or two and camp out. But then again, priorities took the center stage.
I also wanted to work out more this summer. You know get active, walk, run, burn some energy but then again, priorities, priorities, priorities.
So I can sit here this morning lamenting on what I did not accomplish this summer, beating myself up for my failure and shortcomings. That is what most of us do right? But I am going to focus on what I did get done this summer.
I finished a bathroom remodel that has been on the books for five years.
I repaired a broken and unplayable guitar for my daughter.
I worked on my daughters car with her.
I played catch with my kids.
I took my kids and my wife swimming, twice.
I took my wife out on a few dates, not near enough dates but I am still trying.
I took my oldest son golfing.
I took my youngest son minature golfing.
I have played video games one night with all of my kids all evening a couple of times.
So all in all, I think I did OK this summer, I mean will the yard remember that I did not spend quality time with it this summer? I don't think so... but those others will.

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?

Football season is upon us once again. All is right in the world once more. Now don't get me wrong, I love all sports. I even watch curling during the Olympics but Football reigns supreme!
I am not really sure why I get all jacked up for football. I played when I was younger but I really loved baseball and later basketball much more than football. But when it comes to watching sports, football is my preferred viewing.
So the top headlines for this football season will be as I prognosticate...
1) Will Brett Come back... are you kidding me? YES he will come back. For one more season to win it all, he has a team that came within an interception and one that he threw to add insult to injury from going to the SuperBowl. He just doesn't want to do the 2 a day practices in the heat. Look for old number 4 to show up about the second or third preseason game.
2) Will the New Orleans Saints repeat? Well they have a good team, another disaster in the Gulf but the Saints will fall short this year. Sorry all you WhoDat fans.
3) Will the Patriots find their way back to the promise land? Well they still have Tom Brady, Randy Moss and, and, and, Wes Welker. I don't know if I can name a guy on D. So I would say no.
4) Is Rex Ryan all hot air or is he onto something? Have you seen this guy? I love him! He is a little rotund, a little thick around the middle but he strikes me as a guy who would jump on a grenade if you were in a fox hole, let it explode and then jump up and say, "IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?" They are primed for a run at a ring, although I think their QB play may doom them.
5) First coach to get canned in the season? Well the Raiders coach, whoever that is currently is always a favorite pick but I also think the Panthers and the Bears better play well the first part of the season or their could be some changes.
6) Is this the year Payton Manning gets hurt? Of all the teams the Colts are the one that can loose one player and go from a SuperBowl team to the cellar of thier division. But Payton never gets hit so he is going to have to trip over a dog (ala Brian Griese), wreck his motorcycle (ala Ben Rothlisburger), or get in trouble with the commish for his "gangsta" birthday party (no charges filed yet Michael Vick) to miss a game. So to answer my question, no.
7) Will the Messiah get to play? You know Tim Tebow, the one who walks on water? As a Broncos fan, I am not enamored with our new head coach or the decision to take Timmy. He is a great college player, empahasis on college. As a pro QB? I am not so sure. But if the coach wants to win me and Bronco nation over there is an easy decision to make. Both of the Bronco starting Running Backs went down in training camp within minutes of each other. A position where we do not have a top ranked guy anyway. It is time to take one for the team, put Timmy in that halfback roll. He outruns everyone on the team already, is as big as some of the largest running backs in the league and can deliver a hit. Picking a running back in the first round with the number 25 pick and having him rush for a thousand yards his first year is a good pick!!
8) Will Big D who gets to host the SuperBowl this year have the "home" team playing? I don't think so, my condolences to those who worship the single star and gather in the church that Jerry built. Their team is good, but they never can seem to get over the top. This year is no exception.
9) Will the TO and OCHO or the OCHO and TO show work out in Cincy? I just have to think there are too many O's for that be successful. But these two guys love the spotlight so much that I think they might just push themselves beyond what they normally would to just outshine the other. I am sure the Commish is going to be watching their games very closely... get your popcorn ready.
10) So here it is, time to make my picks for the upcoming year. Representing the NFC in the Super Bowl this year, yes it is the old grey beard, the immortal one, number 4 and his Minnesota Vikings. And in the AFC, is the brash and bold, the young and the old, the New York J E T S JETS JETS JETS.
Have a good one!!

Trust...

Trust is an important thing in life. Sadly too many times our trust has been smashed to smithereens by friends, family and others who let us down. But without trust what kind of world would we live in.
I think it is important for kids to trust their parents, but sadly even that trust in many cases is fractured forever. I remember playing this game with my daughter when she was still really young. She would climb up on this couch we had, right up on the top of the back on the end and she would jump right into my arms as I sat on the chair next to it. Well one day we were playing this game and she kept jumping and jumping and finally she got tired of it and went and found something else to do. So I got involved with a discussion with a guest and unknown to me my daughter decided to revisit the jumping off the couch game. Luckily for me the saucer shaped eyes of my guest gave away what was happening behind me as I turned and luckily caught her before she hit the ground. As I lifted her up to chastise her that she can't jump when Daddy is not looking, the angelic look on her face that told me she knew I would catch her caused the words in my throat to disolve. She trusted that no matter how close to the ground she might have fallen I was going to catch. And catch her I did, at the very last moment. She had complete trust in me.
I think it is important for husbands to trust their wives. I know, I know, I have counciled numerous people whose trust in those relationships has been betrayed. Many are unwilling to trust ever again for fear of being hurt once again. But I still believe that when a marriage is made if there is not any trust between spouses that marriage is doomed for failure. Sometimes my wife and I have to tell each other things that we really do not want to reveal. Fears, mistakes and common everyday issues are brought up but because we are willing to share them with each other we do trust one another with everything in our lives.
So I have said all of this to make this point. If as a child we need to put complete trust in our parents, and as a spouse we need to completely trust our mate, why do we have such a hard time completely trusting GOD with every aspect of our lives? Come on, I know people well enough that there are parts of their lives that they refuse to turn over to GOD for one reason or another. Most times that reason is rooted in the big T word, trust. Do we trust GOD to handle our problems or do we not. You see GOD is our heavenly Father and we are his children. And as children we need to trust our father to have a healthy relationship. I have never put my children in harms way and they trust me to never put them there. I have never purposely caused my children pain, and they trust me even with their most painful injuries to treat them with care and respect. And although I believe if you asked my children they would say that they trust me whole heartedly, I believe there are many of GOD'S children who do not trust him in the same manner. That is a sad statement of a relationship a GOD who loves us.
Also as a husband to my wife there needs to be trust in that relationship to be healthy as well. The New Testament calls the church the bride of Christ. Now as a large man, I always have a hard time envisioning myself dressed in a wedding dress about to marry Jesus. I can imagine him lifting the veil and going, "ohhhh" as he sees my bald head and my gotee. But as the Son of GOD, and as the bridegroom of the church, he is the one that will bring wholeness to the body of Christ. And as the bridegroom of the church, we need to trust him as well. My wife knows that every decision I make is based on how it will impact both of us. She knows that every fork in the road that is presented to us will be a fork that both of us take no matter what. She trust that I will never knowingly do anything to hinder our relationship. Jesus is the same way to his bride, the church. We just need to realize that he means for our best, even though sometimes the road is hard, our best interest he has in mind.
So what are you failing to trust in? Are you willing to trust GOD in EVERY aspect of your life, as a child trust a parent or as a wife trust her husband?
Think about it.

One is the loneliest number...

That old Three Dog Night song has a lot of truth in it. One is indeed the loneliest that you have ever knew.
I am by nature a loner. My father was that way. Even though he had four sons and a wife he was never really happy being around people. He was an intelligent man, could crack a good a joke and was a wiz in the kitchen making up party snacks. But my Dad hated being around people. We usually saw each other in passing during my teenage days. Dad was off to work usually between 6 and 7 AM, came home around 6 PM and watched a little TV before he turned in at 8. I know my Mom struggled with his actions, being "available" for an hour or so each night was not enough for her or her four sons. And soon you could see it in our lives that we all took on the character of our Father, we all did our own thing and very rarely did something together.
My Father and Mother divorced after I had left the house, I am not really sure what happened in the last couple of years of their marriage but I am sure not much changed. I really thought my Father would never remarry, being alone suited him. But apparently the loneliest number is truely one. He remarried within two years of his divorce and was the same with his second wife as he was with his first. Always aloof, seperated, never really engaged.

I learned a lot from my Father. First I learned that even though I sometimes like to be by myself, I am not happy when I am alone. I can be in a room full of people and still feel alone, but that is not reality. The reality is although I may feel alone I can never be alone in a room full of people unless I decide to be alone.

I also learned that you can be all alone in a house full of kids and a wife, if you want to be. You have to decide to be alone with all those people around you, but if you decide to be alone, you can be. I have decided to not be a recluse in my own home, to have an effect on my kids, and be a husband to my wife, not just a provider.

Yes one is the loneliest number, if you allow it to be.

Preventative Maintenance

I envy those people who are all over preventative maintenance. I have great aspirations of doing preventative maintenance but never seem to get there.
There are two hard parts to swallow being like I am.
Number one is things will break down without preventative maintenance. I hate it when that happens. Nothing ever breaks down when it is convienent. It always breaks when it is the most inconvienent time and is most desperately needed.
Secondly, I have the guilt issue to deal with. Because I am always second guessing myself IF I had done the preventative maintenance it may not have broken in the first place.
So what can I do to get into that preventative maintenance frame of mind?
I need help!

Second Chances...

Sorry it has been so long since I blogged, got tied up in life.
We had a situation this week that I thought was very interesting.
Our daughter was born with congenital heart disease and a major heart defect that required surgury at 8 days old. She has had numerous heart treatments over the years including a pacemaker at 11 years old. She just this week received a new pacemaker and is looking forward to the upgrade for the next six years or so.
So during this week it got me to thinking, if she had been born in the 1940's, she would have died before we left the hospital. There was no surgical option back then for her condition. If you are interested google "transposition of the great vessels" as it is a long narative to describe it.
Born in the 1950's? No, same result.
But back in 1963 a new procedure was perfected that gave hope to those born with this condition. The "Mustard" procedure enabled a patient to have a somewhat normal life, but the resulting problems created in the heart usually contributed to a heart attack and death by the time the patient reached their 20's. So if my daughter had been born when I was, circa 1968, she might graduate high school but college was a reach. Sports activities, no way. Basic life, barely.
But she was born in the early 1990's when a new procedure allowed her deformity to be corrected. The Jatene procedure was now being used which gave a better opportunity for life long turn. Because of some of the defects in her heart, a pacemaker was needed to regulate her heartbeat. Without that pacer she would not be able to lead an active and healthy life. She will turn 17 in a few days, plays sports, cheerleads and does everything a normal 17 year old does other than being able to go through a metal detector without setting it off.
She was given a second chance at life through medical procedures and break throughs before she was even born. She was released from the hospital on Thursday after receiving her new pacer and we came home for a time...
The call came at 1:30AM, one of our Pastor's children had ran his car head on into a tree. He was being taken to the hospital via ambulance when his father called me. We made it to the hospital about the time the patient was returning from a CT scan which showed no issues to his brain or neck. After looking at the pictures of his totalled car (they were pretty bad) and hearing the nurse say he was a "lucky boy" I told him it was not luck but that GOD was looking out for him. To confirm my statement, a EMT came in who had seen the car and said, he was indeed lucky as they had seen cars with less damage and the driver had not been so lucky. Again I made my statement about he was watched over. I do believe he received a second chance. He could have very well died in that accident. They were wearing seatbelts, an invention that many years ago has saved many a life but without them I am not sure he would be here today. He received a second chance. Cars today are made with crumple zones that protect the occupants, without those he might not be here today. He received a second chance on technological break throughs that came many years prior today. That is why he also has received a second chance at life.
The startling difference is my daughter understands the gift of life she has. She tells us when we go to the hospital that every time she is thankful for the second chance on life she received through break throughs that happened even before she was born. She even mentioned it yesterday at the hospital telling her nurse that she lives a normal and healthy life and how blessed and thankful she is for a second chance in life.
So what brings me to my point. The young man last night, I do not think he understands the blessing he has received. He still feels he is lucky, but luck does not change one's outlook on life; Being granted a second chance does. I hope that one day and one day soon he realizes just how blessed he is over being lucky and is thankful for a second chance.

The hard parts...

Being a good leader is not all fun and games, there are a lot of hard times that do come with it. As a leader you have to not only deal with your problems but deal with the problems that those you lead have as well.
As a leader you have to be able to be both an encourager and a motivator, a pusher and a holder, a helper and a hard nose, a discipleler and a disciplinarian, and a teacher and a taskmaster.
It is a fine line to walk sometimes as you lead people into areas of their lives that they have never gone to. There is the constant fear of the unknown, the uncomfortableness of new surroundings and the smell of failure lingers all around. But as the leader we have to instill confidence in our followers. We have to hold their hands until they get acclimated to their new surroundings and we have to kick them in the pants sometimes to get them to jump out of the airplane and trust that their chute will work so they can enjoy the ride down.
So if you are a follower, pray for you leader, that he or she will be able to become the person you might need at that very moment to get you to the new level in life you need to be.
And if you are a leader, pray that the great leader will help you as you endeavor on this quest.

Airport meanderings...

In my secular job there is a lot of travel involved. Some of it to nice locals like Orlando, Hawaii and the mountains of Denver. Other times the locals are like Dallas in August, or Buffalo in December. Sometimes I am looking forward to meeting clients and getting out of the office a few days, other times I dread having to leave the family and travel.
So I was in a couple airports the other day and I got to thinking about the expressions on our faces. I saw a wide range of expressions on people's faces as I waited for a flight. I saw the harried look of a Mom with three young children trying to get everything through the security checkpoint. I am not sure if she would have looked so harried had the business traveler (not me) that was behind her had a different look on his face than the one he wore. He looked severerly upset, not sure if it was because he was behind her or he was going to miss his flight or if he had just had a bad meeting, but his body language and his face told everyone to back off or I might bite your head off! Thankfully they made it through security without a tussle.
As I was watching others I saw a cute old couple walking down the aisle looking for their gate. They had to be in their 80s and they were walking arm in arm down the middle of this bustling airport, in no big hurry with big smiles on their faces seemingly without a care in the world. I watched them walk past and actually turned to watch them turn the corner because it was just too cute.
I saw people with smiles, people with frowns, people with the "don't bother me" looks, people with the "I'm disinterested" looks and people who kept their heads down and did not look at anyone.
So I got to thinking, as a Christian we should be the most smilingest, happiest and upbeat people in the world. That doesn't mean everything is rosey everyday, we have our ups and downs, but we have someone to lean on. So next time you feel that frown coming on, anger rising up, relax and smile a bit, you never know who is watching...

Outdated...

Do you ever feel outdated?
I am shopping for computers, my associate needs a new one as he is working on the Frankenstein right now that I pieced together out of old deceased carcasses. My daughter is also shopping for a laptop for college so I have been doing my research. And to my dismay, I am finding that doing research on computers is a huge waste of time, because by the time that unit gets to me it will already be outdated. They are improving computers at warp speed it seems.
I was told one time that you should measure computers in ten year cycles. That means if your computer is 2 years old, it is in real life almost 20 years old. Some of our computers would be centurians as I keep them around a long time...
So my thought for today is this, how long has it been since you upgraded yourself? What do I mean. Well you can take a computer, put new RAM in it and it runs better. Put in a new hardrive and it will contain much more. Put in a new processor and it runs faster. So what have you done to upgrade your life?
What I have found is if you do not maintain your computer it will slowly fill with junk and not be as effective as it once was. It will also start to break down without maintanance and routine upgrades. But just as we should be looking to upgrade our computers, we fail to look to upgrade our lives.
How do you upgrade? Well you pick something that you would like to add and you do it. It might be dropping ten pounds, it might be running a marathon, or a triathlon. It might be playing catch wtih the kids, or going swimming or buying some new clothes from this decade.
It might be taking a cooking class, or some other kind of education that you can apply to your life. Whatever it might be, spend some time looking to upgrade your life, you might be amazed at the results...

Swimming with the sharks...

I have never understood why people would want to swim with something that is big enough to eat you?
I swim with the sharks and aligators everyday trying to stay ahead of the projects I am working on. Here are a couple of good ideas to keep you from getting bit.
1) Keep all apendages INSIDE the vehicle at all times...
When you are swimming with the sharks and aligators trying to fight off deadlines and timelines, keep everything close to hand. You spend way too much time going too and fro trying to do too much you will find all of your time wasted in transit.
2) Watch your back...
Always look behind you so you can see what you finished and what you have not finished. For it is that one item that you left undone that will sneak up and bite you in the backside.
3) Use your head...
To many times when we are just merely tying to survive we loose our head and panic. Use the brain the good Lord blessed you with to get yourself out of the situation you find yourself in. Panic leads to chaos and chaos to death. But most times those that think their way through a situation will live to fight another day.
4) Just keep swimming...
If you try hard enough, you CAN out swim a shark or an alligator. But you have to be extremely motivated...
5) Don't worry about the sharks or aligators without teeth...
Too many times I find myself fighting off an aligator or a shark to find out later they did not have any teeth. I wasted all that effort on an advesary that looked big and bad but really had no bite. Mark the dangerous ones and fight them first, they have the worse bite...
6) And have fun...
My grandfather used to say, show me a man who loves what he does and I will show you a man who has never worked a day in his life...
Be Blessed!

Planning...

I am really struggling with something in my life right now. It is the art of planning.
Yes planning is indeed an artform. Just as someone might stare in awe at a Rembrandt or a Van Gogh I stare in awe of people who are good at planning. You know those people, the ones with every day and every minute planned out for their whole lives. I in many ways admire them, they know what they will be doing three weeks, four hours and fifteen minutes from now. But I also feel sorry for them as their lives have been enslaved by their planner.
I am somewhere stuck in the middle. Have a certain amount of grasp on my planner, but too many times do not access it to check what I have going on when I make new plans.
But just as in awe as I am with those who have the art of planning down, I also stand dumbfounded at those who don't seem to have any idea what planning is all about. Some people just expect things to fall into place at the last minute without any preperation or planning. Are they nuts? I have been known to get into something and at the last minute realize something was amiss, but to not plan at all and hope it works out? That is nuts!!
One of my board members once said, "fail to plan, plan to fail" and it has become a mantra for me. So for those of you out there with planning issues, start small and plan out just today, you might be amazed at all that you get done...

Hey, watch this...

Those three words have cost so many people so much pain over the years. So in thinking back I have listed my Top Ten "Hey, watch this" moments in my life.
10) Was with my brother riding bikes on day when I said, "Hey, watch this" and tried to stand up on the seat. I still can't figure out why the boys bikes have that straight bar and the girls bikes have that angled bar, it seems backwards. It REALLY seemed backwards then.
9) Was again with my brothers when we found some bottles and gasoline. A few minutes and a ripped up T shirt later I held a lighter in my hand and said, "Hey, watch this" right before I set the entire backyard on fire.
8) Was with a couple of buddies doing donuts in our cars one time when I decided to engage the emergency brake on my Mercury Bobcat (AKA Ford Pinto), I screamed out, "Hey, watch this" as I revved the motor, got a good run and yanked on the hand brake. After the fifth revolution and a bar ditch quickly approaching I was spared any further injury or car damage when I hit a dry patch of asphalt and came to quick stop. It was almost a disaster.
7) I was showing off to some opposing cheerleaders who were checking me and my fellow teamates out when I told one of teamates, "Hey watch this" as I received the ball in the layup line and attempted a one handed dunk. Unfortunately the ball hit the side of the rim effectively blocking my dunk attempt. Unwilling to give up I persisted trying to get the ball THROUGH the rim now instead of over it and found myself almost perpendicular to the floor as gravity took hold. I bounced up pretty fast after the crash; nothing hurt but my pride and my backside.
6) "Hey watch this" was the last words I said while trying to water ski on one ski. Oh and I forgot to let go of the rope till I was ten feet underwater. They never did figure out if my "watch this" was for the skiing or the diving.
5) "Hey watch this" was what I said before I took a bow and a target arrow and shot them straight up into the air one time. Silly me; I forgot that what goes up must eventually come back down. While scrambing for cover the thought occured to me that I might just have accomplished something no one else had ever done, shot themselves with a bow and arrow. It was a narrow miss.
4) I was riding a BMX bike through a make shift trail one time when I decided to jump a small ravine. Pumping my legs furiously I called to my friends, "hey watch this" as I approached the crest of the ridge. As I hit the bank of the ramp, my left foot came off the pedal in mid pump causing me to pull not only to the left but to decrease in speed as well. Instead of soaring majesticly over the ravine, I hit a tree to the left side of the ramp and landed IN the ravine, not on my bike.
3)I remember saying "Hey watch this" once while playing with an electric fence (yeah I know, country kids). So I was touching right next to one of the conductors on a fence post and apparently there was just enough charge leaking into the conductor that it made the hair on my head stand on end. With my 1970's bowl cut it was a really funny looking thing. I did it about three times when I saw some of my family come around the barn, and you guessed it, I ran to the connector, said "Hey watch this" and wham! Next thing I remember is someone shaking me like a rag doll and throwing me to the ground. It was the wrong connector...
2) I was playing with some friends one day when we decided to play stuntman. Stuntman is a game where you make up and do your own stunts. There were a lot of "hey watch this" that day with most ending rather badly. But I had this great idea to run along the top of a concrete wall and jump off the end into a tree and climb down. It was going really well till my left foot slipped off the wall and I fell into a rose bush in the neighbors backyard where their mean dog lived. I don't remember saying "Hey watch this" but I am sure I must have at least thought it.
1) And my greatest "Hey watch this" moment? Swinging on a wild vine in the woods. We had swung on that vine the year earlier after we cut it off with a machete and had a great time swinging out over the 20 foot drop off of the ravine. I remember seeing it the next year and remembering all the fun we had on it. Running to it first I cried out to my friends, "hey watch this" as I pulled it back, took a run and swung. It went well for the first five feet but I started to hear this cracking above me and I felt myself falling a bit but I continued out to the apex of my swing when I heard the snap that spelled doom for my return trip. I had cuts and bruises but no broken bones when they finally fished me out of the ravine. My grandfather asked me if I had thought that after cutting that vine off at the ground if it would still be somewhat alive a year later. I told him no, all I could think about was how impressed my friends would be after I said, "Hey watch this!"

The Power of the tongue, and the ears...

The Bible warns us about the power of the tongue, it says it works all kind of evil, is untameable and on and on. We have heard it a hundred times. But what about the power of what we hear?
We recently had a situation where someone said something and it was taken in the wrong context. It got a lot of people worked up and questioning the person's character. I just hate it when that happens.
I had a situation not long ago where someone accused me of saying something that was not good. They went around town telling people what I had said, using it out of context of course. I was not shocked or even surprised that this person had done that, their character is well known and they love to stir it up. What really got me was the people who know me coming up to me and telling me what they had heard what I had said and that THEY HAD BELIEVED IT!
We need to not just guard our tongues that we not allow them to run rampant, but we need to guard our ears and not just hear what is being said but take in all the context around it.
If you hear that someone has said something, first evaluate what was relayed to you. Does it meet the character test of the person who said it? If not it is probably not truth. Does it sound like something that person would say? If not it is probably again not truth. And then thirdly if it is something that is causing a problem with you, go to the person who is bing accused and find out for yourself what was said. You might find yourself in an awkward situation but it sure beats finding out that you misinterpreted something and caused harm to a relationship.

The POWER of PRAYER...

Many believe that prayer is ineffective today. Many believe that GOD has turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to this world and that we are on our own. Many believe that GOD has ceased to exist. And yet many believe the exact opposites than what is listed above. Let me share in the power of prayer.
My nephew was diagnosed ten days ago with Leukemia. He has been a healthy and happy ten year old and then all of the sudden he is sick with cancer. So our church goes into prayer mode. So he gets diagnosed and goes in for chemotherapy, one of the side effects of chemo is it dirties the blood up so bad that dialysis becomes necessary for most patients. His parents called and said his blood levels were within a point of having to go on dialysis. This was early evening, and the call went out to pray. They kept testing it until the next morning when it had dropped nearly three points and the doctors decided dialysis would not be needed. Then after his chemo treatments started he did not want to eat. So we prayed again that he would regain his appetite. The next morning he woke up and told his mom and dad that he was hungry. He wanted pancakes, custard and beef jerky!! His appetite soon started to return and he became more active. Then the other day they reported that he was still pretty tired and to pray that he would regain his strength so he could go home. So we prayed again. And yesterday I am happy to report that he got to go home. Although he still has a long process to go yet, we are praying for a complete recovery. And I believe that those prayers will be answered as well.

Fireworks are over...

Each year our church does a fundraiser in which we sell fireworks to our community. For the last four years we have operated a tent on our church grounds. It is a great time for all of our people to mingle with the community we are here to serve. The great part is it allows us to connect with our neighbors of the community and provide an answer to a need in our small community. The bad part is it is seven non stop days of fireworks. So this year we were approached with the opportunity to man a different tent in another town as a fundraiser. We opperate the tent in our community as an outreach and we get paid a little for that service, but this other tent, well that is another story. This one was a HIGH traffic tent and we were doing it mainly for the money. We had problem after problem thrown at us but my staff of volunteers did a great job making both tents a success. After the final packs were loaded back up on the trailer to go to the warehouse for storage every one seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that it was over. Physically I am glad it is over as my body is still lagging from lack of sleep. But spiritually, I am somewhat saddened that those quality hours we got to sit around and visit are over. That the people who loved to serve won't be bringing by lunches and dinners and snacks for those that were working. All in all through all the hard work, when we look back we get to see the blessings that were there for us.

Addicted much?

Addictions are something that most Americans associate with drugs, alcohol or something really bad in life. But I have found that addictions rule most of our lives. No I am not saying that everyone is a crack head or an alcoholic or something like that. But I would say that we all have addictions in our lives.
I know I do.
"hi, my name is Pat and I am an addict"... "Hi Pat..."
I am addicted to many things, so in full diclosure I am naming them off in order of need.
1) Coffee - I am a coffee addict. I found myself the other day ordering coffee at 7PM. That is a like a drug user mainlining heroin or something. Only old people drink coffee that late, or addicted coffeeaholics. Of course I was eating breakfast (its just not for mornings anymore you know) and it seemed resonable, but I felt the prying eyes of my boothmates staring at me and I could feel their inperceptable head shaking as they thought, "that is so sad".
2) Technology - I am a technology addict. The other night I could not get connected to the internet to find out what was happening. Wireless was down, I did not have a cord to plug into a wall outlet and my Crackberry wasn't working as a modem. I finally in a fit of rage turned all of it off, and then tried again to get it to connect. Yep I am addicted to technology. If the solar flare everyone keeps hinting about really does happen and we loose all of our technological marvels, I will probably just curl up and cry for a day or two...as I try again and again to log onto the web.
3) Radio - When I am in the car I have to have the radio on. Driving without sounds is like, well not like driving. Without the radio you hear the thump thumps of the stereo next to you and you get jeleous. Why does he have a stereo and I don't? You only hear the sounds of the engine, the road noise, the wind noise. You mind starts to wander and you think things you never thought before. Like do those people know they look rediculous playing air guitar and drums behind the wheel as they lip sync to their favorite songs coming out of their radio. Reality suddenly settled in when I realized that I was once one of them. Banging on my stearing wheel with my hands in a desperate attempt to play the drums. Bobbing my head to the sounds of the beat, singing at the top of my lungs.
Well maybe one of my additions I will try to adress this week. First I will get my coffee and boot up the computer before I switch off the Ipod, one thing at a time...

How to lead when you are scared to death...

How do successful leaders lead when the place they are leading their followers scares them to death?


1) They keep their eye on the finish line.


I think one of the greatest leaders of all time was George Washington our first president. But before he was president he was an officer in the army. At this point the United States of America was just a vision, a dream of our founding fathers. George Washington did not have an experienced group of soldiers, he did not have an intelligence network, he did not have anything at his disposal but a group of rag tag frontiersman who were used to going it alone, and a bunch of soft city dwellers who probably couldn't tell you which end of a long gun to put the powder in. But even though the odds were against him, George Washington kept his eyes on the prize. The crossing of the Potomac is my favorite George Washington picture. In it George is in the front of the boat, foot on the gunwhale ready to be the first to jump to shore. He was not steering the boat, there was better men to do that. He was not rowing the boat, there were better men to do that. He was standing lookout, ready to spring into action when the unseen became known. He was staring at the finish line, independence.


2) They think of themselves as less than others.


It has been told many time about a leader giving himself up for his men. Great leaders think of others first before themselves. Recently one of the ships sailing around the horn of Africa fell prey to pirates as they boarded the ship and took it over. The Captain requested that the pirates take him captive and let all of his other men go. That takes guts!! You have no guarantee that you are going to make it through, no guarantee that your captives won't mistreat you or even worse take you life. There is only one guarantee in that situation, your men will be freed. A great leader thinks about other first than his or herself.



3) Great leaders lend a helping hand.

I think Nehemiah in the Bible was a great leader. He was able to not only lead those that followed him from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem's walls but he was also able to rally the ragged, miserable outcasts who lived within Jerusalem's broken down walls. These people were not living in houses but under the stones that had fallen when the city was sacked by the Babylon army. Nehemiah was able to form a cohesive group out of people who had been living in captivity in Babylon and the remnants of Israel who still lived among the burned out walls of Jerusalem. Even when those around him rose up to oppose his objective of building the wall he was able to hold together every faction at his disposal. How could he accomplish that? I believe that Nehemiah did not just organize the wall building, but that he got his hands dirty actually building the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah jumped right in to lend a helping hand to rebuild the walls of Jersusalem. Great leaders don't just organize and delegate, they get down and dirty in the trenches with those that follow them.

Scared Spitless...

We got a call from my in laws last Friday that our nephew is being diagnosed with Luekemia. Yeah it was a shock to us as well. He is the same age (well 6 months older) than my youngest son. He and his family are part of my church body and his mother is a staff Pastor. And this just frankly stinks that he is going through this.
The Bible tells us that it rains on both the godly and the ungodly and that means both good and bad. But many people tell us that as Christians we are exempt from trials. Oh not so fast... we are not exempt but we do have a power to lean on.
Jesus said that we can cast our troubles on him, that he will supply all of our needs, and that no weapon formed against us shall prosper.
Well my church has decided to stand on those promises, to pray and intercede for a miracle in this young ones life. There is a passage of scripture that talks how JESUS did not do any miraculous things while he was in his hometown. Was he weak from doing miracles, did his miracleometer run out? No, he did not do any miracle because the people of his hometown did not believe. Well we are believing for a miracle, no matter what report we might receive.

Father's Day

Well yesterday was "officially" Father's Day, but really today is my 18th anniversary of Father's Day. 18 Years ago I was blessed with a baby girl on Father's Day in 1992. She was my first child and with her being born on Father's Day it made it that much more special. But today I am sitting here realizing that I have a young woman's birthday to celebrate today. She graduated high school earlier this year, has her first car, and is off to college in a few months. She is legally an adult today. Wow, I am getting really old.
My associate pastor just celebrated his first Father's Day yesterday, although his daughter was not born on Father's Day, she was just a few weeks early, I thought to myself as I saw him walk into church with that baby in his arms that just a short time ago I was in his shoes.
It seems like only yesterday we were learning how to bathe, feed, burp and change diapers on this small little helpless infant that joined our family. She was so fragile, so defenseless, so tiny. Now she is not so fragile, not so defenseless and not so tiny. It probably won't be too long when she will find someone to spend the rest of her life with, and they too will begin the process of begining a family. Then there will come a day when I will get to celebrate Grandfather's Day...
OK now I officially feel old...
So Dads, as we remember Father's Day, remember, it will be gone before you know it, and that bundle you once carried home will be placing a new bundle in your arms...

My first accident...

Well I have been driving now for 25 years. In that time my wife has had a few accidents.
Before we were married she actually hit a motor home. I was like, wow that's pretty bad and it got worse when I found out the motor home wasn't moving!! Then she hit a cow in the head with the mirror of my car and later in the same car got backed into by a 4x4 pickup that knocked the grill almost off. So here was this car with a missing mirror, a damaged grill but still driveable. Well she was sitting at a stop sign when a semi ran over her back end. Yep went right over the backside of the car. So for the last many years neither of us had an accident. So I got to tell the horrifying stories of HER accidents and laugh at her. Well all of that changed on Tuesday.
I was in a rental car in Birmingham Alabama and was hit in the driver's side door by a Toyota Yaris. I saw her coming, braking hard and all I could do was BRACE FOR IMPACT!!
Damage was minimal, the door was smushed in and the front of her car wore a piece of my door in her bumper but all in all both drivers were fine. Air bags did not deploy so it was not that big of a crash. But it ruined my record.
Now I have been involved in an accident. Yep my spotless record is now tainted, no longer can I point my judgemental finger at my wife and imply she is a bad driver. Now when I feel the need to laugh at her expense I can't point the finger because I will have three others pointing back at me.
Many have asked if anyone was hurt, and thankfully no one was. Really nothing was damaged that could not be repaired, other than my perfect driving record. Oh well it was a good 25 years.

Whew, who knew?

When I think of hard things to do, work out wise, I think of iron man type things. Like bench pressing a truck, doing deep squats with 500 pounds, running five miles. Of course that is because I am a couch potato. Sometimes I don't even get up off the couch to run to the fridge because it is too far. Anyway I digress.
This weekend we had somewhat of an adventure including riding ATVs over hazardous terrain, rope swings and canoeing. Who would have thought those activities would put my body on life support today.
First my fingers don't work properly. I am pretty sure it was the rope swing as I went to grab a spoon this morning and my finger joints almost locked up. It was a pretty easy thing, just climb this tree (that was the hard part) and grab this rope above a knot and swing out holding onto the rope and then drop in the water. Well when gravity takes over, well watch out, first swing the adrenaline was pumping, I was sure I would end up in a coma or at the bottom of the lake so I hung on with dear life, some on the bank began to point and yell like those people on the Godzilla movies. "HE'S COMING BACK!!!" The second time the fingers just did not have the adrenaline to hold on, so the rope whip up between my legs, (yes painful) and burned through my fingers as I plumetted off the platform into the water, not near as graceful or as far out as the first time.
Secondly, I went to close the sliding door of the van and the muscles behind my arms and my shoulders cried out in such agony I actually looked behind me to see where the sound was coming from. From there I gathered that the canoe trip we took on the river had itself taken a toll on my upper body. My shoulders and back seem to want to stay in the hunched over position, although swing the paddle back and forth they are not so cool with. It was not like we took a forty mile trip, we were gone less than two hours, and did not travel that far. Actually I think my wife paddled more than I did. Something about splashing her while I paddled made her tell me to stop paddling.
Thirdly, I leaned to the left to pick up a book that had fallen and found that the muscles on the sise of my body and the back of my thighs have recently engaged in some activity that made their presence known. I think it was the ATVing, we were riding some pretty rugged areas so your were always leaning this way and that ducking tree limbs or just trying to keep your seat in the saddle. Apparently my thighs were gripping that gas tank like Suzzanne Summers and the thighmaster. Well at least I did not fall off of course the dents in the tanks made by my knees was a little embarassing.
So here I lay on the couch in utter agony from a little weekend adventure, I wonder if my wife would get me something from the kitchen...