Timing is everything on stage, but it's way too variable in real life.
After moving from Hawaii, my husband and I arrived at my mom's house in Missouri on a Wednesday and the following Saturday she ended up the hospital. She came home on Thursday, then the following Monday at breakfast she pitched face forward into the table. Because she's lived alone since my stepfather died almost nine years ago, if we hadn't been there, she would have fallen from her tall dining chair and been hurt, not just sick. The doctors have finally figured out at least part of what's wrong with her, but it'll be awhile before she's feeling well enough to live by herself again, so it's a good thing we just moved here and don't yet have a place of our own.
Also related to our move, this past Monday we drove 150 miles to get to my daughter's apartment, arriving as the mailman was climbing out of his truck with one of the 11 packages that had been mailed from Hawaii for us exactly three weeks before. If we hadn't arrived at that time, he would have had to tote all those boxes up to Cari's third floor apartment, then we would have had to bring them back down again.
On the other hand, Thursday morning, my husband's birthday, we woke up to discover that the furnace wasn't working. It was 61 degrees in the house, way too cold for the comfort of two people who moved from Hawaii just over a month ago. Turns out it was the igniter which goes out about every five years. Mom moved into this house five years ago.
Timing. Does it show God's favor or his disfavor? It would be very tempting to think that the positive timing events were God smiling on us, but then what are the negative timing events? Are they God's frown?
I'm not going to deny that it was a huge blessing to be able to take our packages out of the mail truck and put them right in our trunk, but I am going to deny that the furnace going out on Paul's birthday was a sign of God's disfavor. I'm pretty sure that it was a character building event, especially since I was rather ticked off at God when we had to wait until 2:30 in the afternoon for the repairman to show up. It didn't throw off our plans too much, and we still got to do the most important part of those plans - go out for dinner in honor of Paul's birthday. So I have to say that the blessing was that I got to practice living peacefully in spite of a negative situation. Unfortunately the practice was more like a middle schooler practicing layups than a pro basketball player practicing.
I guess that means I need more practice. Yikes!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The Journey Ends
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But that's just the start!
I'm not sure how many miles we've traveled but I know it's over two thousand - well over if you count the flight from Hawaii. We flew from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California then drove to Reedley, California then down to Bermuda Dunes (the Palm Springs area) then to Tucson, Arizona. All three of those stops were visiting with family and friends. We ate too much and talked story a lot. We also got to meet some very interesting people, especially in Arizona with Paul's nephew.
After visiting, we struck off across the desert. Our first stop was Socorro, New Mexico, then Vega, Texas a tiny whole-in-the-wall with about three places to eat. The lady at the Dairy Queen there was very nice, and the food was hot, fresh and delicious. Next we went on to El Reno, Oklahoma, a half hour outside of Oklahoma City. That was way bigger than Vega (pop. 880) with a population in excess of 15k. Paul had his first experience at Braum's, a little ice cream shop/general store that I've seen only in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Yesterday we arrived in Springfield, Missouri where daughter Cari and her excitable Golden Retriever, Lego, were happy to see us. The weather was warm but overcast. This morning it's sunny but cold. Go figure!
We'll arrive at Mom's house early this afternoon. We're almost done with our journey, but the adventure is only beginning. The extent of the adventure is up to us. As we drove the two thousand miles to get here, we saw how vast and diverse this country is. There's a lifetime of exploring, millions of people to meet and more stories to tell than I'll be able to write, even if I still had a hundred years left.
What we see and do is limited only to God's leading and our willingness to follow. We expect to have some wonderful adventures, made even more fun by the long drives between!
I'm not sure how many miles we've traveled but I know it's over two thousand - well over if you count the flight from Hawaii. We flew from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California then drove to Reedley, California then down to Bermuda Dunes (the Palm Springs area) then to Tucson, Arizona. All three of those stops were visiting with family and friends. We ate too much and talked story a lot. We also got to meet some very interesting people, especially in Arizona with Paul's nephew.
After visiting, we struck off across the desert. Our first stop was Socorro, New Mexico, then Vega, Texas a tiny whole-in-the-wall with about three places to eat. The lady at the Dairy Queen there was very nice, and the food was hot, fresh and delicious. Next we went on to El Reno, Oklahoma, a half hour outside of Oklahoma City. That was way bigger than Vega (pop. 880) with a population in excess of 15k. Paul had his first experience at Braum's, a little ice cream shop/general store that I've seen only in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Yesterday we arrived in Springfield, Missouri where daughter Cari and her excitable Golden Retriever, Lego, were happy to see us. The weather was warm but overcast. This morning it's sunny but cold. Go figure!
We'll arrive at Mom's house early this afternoon. We're almost done with our journey, but the adventure is only beginning. The extent of the adventure is up to us. As we drove the two thousand miles to get here, we saw how vast and diverse this country is. There's a lifetime of exploring, millions of people to meet and more stories to tell than I'll be able to write, even if I still had a hundred years left.
What we see and do is limited only to God's leading and our willingness to follow. We expect to have some wonderful adventures, made even more fun by the long drives between!
Friday, November 4, 2011
Day 2 in California
Yesterday morning as we were getting ready to leave our hotel in Oakland, we found out that during the night, protesters down at the Port had rioted. Thankfully it didn't have an effect on Matson's car pick-up location. We were able to get our car with no problem, other than waiting for fifteen minutes since the union guys had to go on break at the precise moment we arrived.
Since we were in Oakland, with a car and plenty time, I wanted to go see the Golden Gate Bridge. Other than changing planes at the airport, I'd never been to that area before. Paul grumbled some, but we headed northwest, and immediately got stuck in a traffic jam at the toll booth for the Bay Bridge. It took us a good 45 minutes to drive a little more than a mile. Why we gotta wait in line so they can take our money?
Our GPS took us right through San Francisco, so we got to see some of the cool architecture up close and personal. We also climbed a few hills. Though it was rainy and cold, and the total tolls for both bridges was $10, it was still worth the time, effort and money, especially since Paul now has confidence in the GPS, and in his ability to use it.
It warmed up on our drive south toward Reedley. The scenery also changed a lot as the hills became more barren, then we finally dropped down into the valley, but we couldn't see the mountains because the air quality was pretty bad.
This morning it was even colder than yesterday morning, but we can see the mountains now. It's pretty, but I still miss Hawaii.
Since we were in Oakland, with a car and plenty time, I wanted to go see the Golden Gate Bridge. Other than changing planes at the airport, I'd never been to that area before. Paul grumbled some, but we headed northwest, and immediately got stuck in a traffic jam at the toll booth for the Bay Bridge. It took us a good 45 minutes to drive a little more than a mile. Why we gotta wait in line so they can take our money?
Our GPS took us right through San Francisco, so we got to see some of the cool architecture up close and personal. We also climbed a few hills. Though it was rainy and cold, and the total tolls for both bridges was $10, it was still worth the time, effort and money, especially since Paul now has confidence in the GPS, and in his ability to use it.
It warmed up on our drive south toward Reedley. The scenery also changed a lot as the hills became more barren, then we finally dropped down into the valley, but we couldn't see the mountains because the air quality was pretty bad.
This morning it was even colder than yesterday morning, but we can see the mountains now. It's pretty, but I still miss Hawaii.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The Adventure Begins
I guess you could say that Paul and I are homeless now! Yesterday afternoon we closed the door on Twin View Drive, dropped off our keys, went to the airport and hopped a plane for Oakland where our car is waiting for us to pick it up this morning. The last few weeks have been very hectic, right now I've only got the time to look at one small part.
On Tuesday, they came and picked up our three pallets to ship to Missouri. We were up until midnight on Monday, trying to finish up but still had boxes to add to the pallets that were in our carport. It was pouring down rain from sometime early in the morning, so by the time I went out at about six-thirty, it was starting to leak into the carport. I was irritated and ready to sit down and cry. I didn't. Instead I grumbled and growled at God about 'How am I supposed to get this done? If this is what you want, how about a little help?' Suddenly it dawned on me that I had some plastic sheeting and boxes that I could put over the top of the clotheslines in the carport, so I made a tent of sorts and was able to get the last pallet finished up without anything getting more than a drop or two of water.
Our driveway was on a small hill and rather narrow so most trucks don't bother trying to come down. The guys who came to get our pallets didn't hesitate. They also weren't too concerned about the little dip at the front of the driveway especially since Paul and Brother-in-law Milt had rigged up a little bridge of sorts with some one-by-twos and a large sheet of pressed board. Though we had some light rain, whenever they pulled one of our pallets out of the carport, it was dry, at least until after the guys had shrink wrapped the pallet!
There's been a hundred little wrong-made-right things like that in our journey thus far, but I don't have time to share them all. Right now I'm going to have to start getting ready to go. We have to pack our bags again, get them down to the hotel storage area and go get our car from Matson. Then the adventure really begins. We're planning to see the Golden Gate Bridge before we leave the area!
Tune in later for more of our adventures.
God bless you all!!
On Tuesday, they came and picked up our three pallets to ship to Missouri. We were up until midnight on Monday, trying to finish up but still had boxes to add to the pallets that were in our carport. It was pouring down rain from sometime early in the morning, so by the time I went out at about six-thirty, it was starting to leak into the carport. I was irritated and ready to sit down and cry. I didn't. Instead I grumbled and growled at God about 'How am I supposed to get this done? If this is what you want, how about a little help?' Suddenly it dawned on me that I had some plastic sheeting and boxes that I could put over the top of the clotheslines in the carport, so I made a tent of sorts and was able to get the last pallet finished up without anything getting more than a drop or two of water.
Our driveway was on a small hill and rather narrow so most trucks don't bother trying to come down. The guys who came to get our pallets didn't hesitate. They also weren't too concerned about the little dip at the front of the driveway especially since Paul and Brother-in-law Milt had rigged up a little bridge of sorts with some one-by-twos and a large sheet of pressed board. Though we had some light rain, whenever they pulled one of our pallets out of the carport, it was dry, at least until after the guys had shrink wrapped the pallet!
There's been a hundred little wrong-made-right things like that in our journey thus far, but I don't have time to share them all. Right now I'm going to have to start getting ready to go. We have to pack our bags again, get them down to the hotel storage area and go get our car from Matson. Then the adventure really begins. We're planning to see the Golden Gate Bridge before we leave the area!
Tune in later for more of our adventures.
God bless you all!!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Time to Move
Moving is one of those things that's bittersweet. There's so much to do before you go. Not only do you have to sort and pack, but you have to resort and repack when you have to ship across the ocean. It's way easier to move when you can back a moving van up to your door and start throwing stuff in it.
The worst thing about moving is the people you leave behind, and the things that you don't get finished. There's too much to do and not enough time.
Since I'm getting ready to move to the Mainland, I guess my blog is one of the things that's going to suffer for a while. But while I'm on the road trip from CA to MO, I'll have a lot more time to blog, and more things to blog about.
Right now, I've got to get back to work. I'll check back in a time or two this month, but if I don't want the baggage of stress going with me when I get on that plane, I really should be pretty deliberate about what I do with my time!
The worst thing about moving is the people you leave behind, and the things that you don't get finished. There's too much to do and not enough time.
Since I'm getting ready to move to the Mainland, I guess my blog is one of the things that's going to suffer for a while. But while I'm on the road trip from CA to MO, I'll have a lot more time to blog, and more things to blog about.
Right now, I've got to get back to work. I'll check back in a time or two this month, but if I don't want the baggage of stress going with me when I get on that plane, I really should be pretty deliberate about what I do with my time!
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Junk Food and Dirty Floors
Wow! That week flew by like an express train! October's already 1/4 over and I'm still mentally in September. Not a good sign!
Sometimes I wish I could stop time. That'd be so cool to be able to freeze the rest of the world for an hour or two (or three or four days) while I catch up on everything. Of course, there'd be a downside. I'd be more tired than I should be, and older too!
I guess it's a good thing I can't freeze time. I'd abuse the privilege. I'm sure of it since I abuse many of my privileges anyway.
I'm an adult who works at home most of the time, so I have a lot more freedom over my own schedule than most people do.
I can eat whatever I want and I usually eat junk food, fried foods or sweets because they taste so good.
I can go for a walk to get some exercise, but I pretty much always find an excuse not to.
I can vacuum the floors or scrub the toilets almost anytime, but I eye them and decide they're not so bad.
It's funny how often I judge my week based on the things I didn't do or could've done better rather than the things I did accomplish. Sure I didn't get everything done I could have, but I did accomplish a lot of important things. When it comes right down to it, is the cleanliness of your floor as important as the cleanliness of your heart, is the health of your body as critical as the health of your spirit?
Now, I'm not trying to say that my spirit is perfect, but I do 'vacuum' it regularly when I go to the Lord in prayer. I exercise it through my relationships and feed it with the Word of God.
In 1 Timothy 4:8, Paul said that while physical training has some value, spiritual training has greater value. So when I look back on a week and know that I got in some good spiritual training, I can count it a win-week. Someday I'll get back to a season when I can get better physical exercise in my week as well.
Until then, I'll keep at the spiritual training. It'll help get the physical under control.
But I really should stop eating so much junk food!
Sometimes I wish I could stop time. That'd be so cool to be able to freeze the rest of the world for an hour or two (or three or four days) while I catch up on everything. Of course, there'd be a downside. I'd be more tired than I should be, and older too!
I guess it's a good thing I can't freeze time. I'd abuse the privilege. I'm sure of it since I abuse many of my privileges anyway.
I'm an adult who works at home most of the time, so I have a lot more freedom over my own schedule than most people do.
I can eat whatever I want and I usually eat junk food, fried foods or sweets because they taste so good.
I can go for a walk to get some exercise, but I pretty much always find an excuse not to.
I can vacuum the floors or scrub the toilets almost anytime, but I eye them and decide they're not so bad.
It's funny how often I judge my week based on the things I didn't do or could've done better rather than the things I did accomplish. Sure I didn't get everything done I could have, but I did accomplish a lot of important things. When it comes right down to it, is the cleanliness of your floor as important as the cleanliness of your heart, is the health of your body as critical as the health of your spirit?
Now, I'm not trying to say that my spirit is perfect, but I do 'vacuum' it regularly when I go to the Lord in prayer. I exercise it through my relationships and feed it with the Word of God.
In 1 Timothy 4:8, Paul said that while physical training has some value, spiritual training has greater value. So when I look back on a week and know that I got in some good spiritual training, I can count it a win-week. Someday I'll get back to a season when I can get better physical exercise in my week as well.
Until then, I'll keep at the spiritual training. It'll help get the physical under control.
But I really should stop eating so much junk food!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
New & 'Improved'
We're surrounded by people who think 'new and improved' is always the way to go. A change, here a tuck there, a small move of just this one thing, but it always leads to something else.
Now let me say upfront that I'm not an anti-change person! I don't mind change at all. In fact sometimes I incite change. What I object to is change for change's sake, rather than for a good and logical purpose.
One of the changes that still chafes years later is Best Food/Hellman's 'improvement' of their tartar sauce. For many years it was absolutely the best tasting tartar sauce. They improved it and now it's one of the nastiest.
Windows is another area of questionable change. Not so long ago I had a version (probably something like 6.723P) where I could easily copy or move files. I simply went to Windows Explorer, clicked on the file I wanted to move or copy, then clicked on the quick link to the left. A window popped up and I selected the folder I needed to move it to. It was done! Now I have to open two windows in Windows Explorer, size them so I can see both, in one window find the files I want, in the other find my destination folder. I can drag and drop, but I have to watch carefully to see whether the system is moving or copying. Invariably it's not going to do the one I want, so I have to copy back or cut.
Or I can save myself some 'trouble' by only opening one window, copying or cutting the file, then navigating to the folder I want. However, half the time I can't seem to figure out how to navigate simply. For some reason that drop menu that used to allow me to pick one of the folders above the one I'm in doesn't work, and half the time the back button doesn't either (I have no idea how to make them work when I want them to), so I have to go all the way up to Documents and navigate my way down to the folder I want. Now, since I'm trying to organize my files better, I have to navigate back to another folder, copy or cut again and then navigate back to that destination folder.
Yes, they sure improved Windows Explorer!
And don't even get me started on Facebook!!!!
So, the purpose to this rant? Everything can be changed, but not everything needs to be changed.
Change should not be made simply to make things different. It's a guarantee that when you do that, there's a good portion of the population for whom you will actually make things harder! Some changes actually devalue loyal fans/users/followers.
Don't be afraid of change, but before you implement that change, make sure it's really going to be a good change, and make sure you have a 'restrore' point in case you guessed wrong on the value of that change.
Now let me say upfront that I'm not an anti-change person! I don't mind change at all. In fact sometimes I incite change. What I object to is change for change's sake, rather than for a good and logical purpose.
One of the changes that still chafes years later is Best Food/Hellman's 'improvement' of their tartar sauce. For many years it was absolutely the best tasting tartar sauce. They improved it and now it's one of the nastiest.
Windows is another area of questionable change. Not so long ago I had a version (probably something like 6.723P) where I could easily copy or move files. I simply went to Windows Explorer, clicked on the file I wanted to move or copy, then clicked on the quick link to the left. A window popped up and I selected the folder I needed to move it to. It was done! Now I have to open two windows in Windows Explorer, size them so I can see both, in one window find the files I want, in the other find my destination folder. I can drag and drop, but I have to watch carefully to see whether the system is moving or copying. Invariably it's not going to do the one I want, so I have to copy back or cut.
Or I can save myself some 'trouble' by only opening one window, copying or cutting the file, then navigating to the folder I want. However, half the time I can't seem to figure out how to navigate simply. For some reason that drop menu that used to allow me to pick one of the folders above the one I'm in doesn't work, and half the time the back button doesn't either (I have no idea how to make them work when I want them to), so I have to go all the way up to Documents and navigate my way down to the folder I want. Now, since I'm trying to organize my files better, I have to navigate back to another folder, copy or cut again and then navigate back to that destination folder.
Yes, they sure improved Windows Explorer!
And don't even get me started on Facebook!!!!
So, the purpose to this rant? Everything can be changed, but not everything needs to be changed.
Change should not be made simply to make things different. It's a guarantee that when you do that, there's a good portion of the population for whom you will actually make things harder! Some changes actually devalue loyal fans/users/followers.
Don't be afraid of change, but before you implement that change, make sure it's really going to be a good change, and make sure you have a 'restrore' point in case you guessed wrong on the value of that change.
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