This past 10 days have been life changing again. Thinking about Dale and Connie Bolger and their death in a fire two Fridays ago brought a lot of us from FBC back to the reality of death coming quickly. I know my grandsons will miss Dale, the candy man. I know I will miss them. We had lots of fun with them on the Canadian couples retreat. That is where Patti and I really got to know both of them.
Saturday, Steve and I were working at the property on Schady when I heard a muffled boom over the noise of the chipper. I looked up to see black smoke pouring from across the street in the Calaway Bay community. I yelled to Steve to look and he just yelled back for me to watch the boys and off he ran. Josh started crying and said "I don't want my daddy dying like the candyman." I assured him that daddy would be OK and we headed over towards the fire, me, Tyler and Josh. When we got there Steve was just coming around the side of the condo that wasn't on fire. Him and a neighbor had banged on the units that were on fire and the ones on either side. The neighbor, who is a fireman kicked in the door of the unit and then went in and they made sure no one was inside. Four fire departments showed up as three housing units were involved. Luckily no on was hurt. The fire department was on site for more than three hours.
Well we went back to work. All the chipping and cutting of branches cost me physically in the long run. My hands and right arm swelled up from the vibration from the chipper and using the ax. I paid for it all night and all day Sunday. Ron, Caleb and Micah joined us later in the day. We ended up getting pizza and finished out the day there at the property. The boys want to have a campout over there so we will do that in the next few weeks. We have the travel trailer over there so it makes is a lot more comfortable than just sleeping in tents on the ground. Don't know if I could do that anymore.
With the events of the past ten plus days, it has made me even for thankful every morning for the new day that God has given me.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
It's really been awhile since I last wrote
And I have no excuse other than I have been extremely busy at home, work and everything else. Patti and I have traveled for business to quite a few places. Thankfully she goes with me as I really have a rough time driving like I use to. She has done a lot of the driving as my arm gets pretty tired and sore after a few hours. This week we drove over 500 miles on Monday to visit a site. Last week we visited other sites and put over 1200 miles just going to jobs. I am really just glad that I can keep up my end of the work. Patti pretty much spends her day taking care of me with food, clothing and traveling.
I have had a few job pre-bids for housing authorities and it has really made me appreciate my grandparents and parents paying the price to move our families to the suburbs and putting a sense of responsibility and self worth into us. Some may be offended by this, but these visits truly showed me some of the lowest common denominator's of the human race. Calling some of them lazy would be giving it justice. They get government subsidized housing and they destroy it. I visited sites where they are having us put in new closet doors while leaving the holes in the walls alone because those repairs are not in the stimulus. One unit you could see from the living room, thru the kitchen and into the bathroom. All thru punched out or kicked out walls. It was disgusting. I saw pizza boxes and fast food wrappers, beer and pop bottles stacked up in the kitchens and dining room tables with large flat screen TVs in living rooms and bedrooms. Some there need the housing, others don't. It made me thankful for the generations before me and the opportunities and morals they gave me.
Physically I am doing OK. I notice that I am still having the pain in my arm and right side as it was over a year ago. I guess that is what I have to live with. It is just not going away. It has been rough not being able to jump in and do a lot of things that I would have done before. I have a hard time with that around the church. I sometimes hope that people know the reason when I step back from carrying tables or lifting chairs. The meal for Pastor Quick was really bothersome to me when I could not lift the pans of food. Then it was just as bad when we have the sunrise service with breakfast. I did what I could. Just being a supervisor has never been my style, but I guess it is what I have been destined to do.
On a family note to close this out, I have had my youngest grandson, Joshua (Steve and Stacy's) see me last Saturday morning without my shirt on as all the boys stayed over Friday night. He looked at my back and said, "grandpa, where did you get all those boo boo's. They must hurt." I said look at this one, and showed him under my arm. His eyes got real wide and said "grandpa, that must have really hurt bad." I told him that they did hurt, but grandpa was alive because they cut the cancer out of me. That made me remember what he had said about 3 weeks before while I was bringing him over to my house. He told me "grandpa, I am really going to be sad when you die and I will cry for a long time." I told him grandpa was not going to die for a long time but that all of us are going to die. The difference is when people die knowing Jesus that they go to heaven and are happy. He smiled and said OK. It made me tear up, but it was a blessing. (They reason he talked about me dying was because his great grandpa in Michigan was sick and his mom was going to see him)
Well that is it for now. I need to go to bed. I will write more sooner than later, I promise. Oh yeah, pray for my mom, she now has the shingles. Hopefully I was not the one who brought it on for her. Love you mom, but we do not have to share everything you know.
I have had a few job pre-bids for housing authorities and it has really made me appreciate my grandparents and parents paying the price to move our families to the suburbs and putting a sense of responsibility and self worth into us. Some may be offended by this, but these visits truly showed me some of the lowest common denominator's of the human race. Calling some of them lazy would be giving it justice. They get government subsidized housing and they destroy it. I visited sites where they are having us put in new closet doors while leaving the holes in the walls alone because those repairs are not in the stimulus. One unit you could see from the living room, thru the kitchen and into the bathroom. All thru punched out or kicked out walls. It was disgusting. I saw pizza boxes and fast food wrappers, beer and pop bottles stacked up in the kitchens and dining room tables with large flat screen TVs in living rooms and bedrooms. Some there need the housing, others don't. It made me thankful for the generations before me and the opportunities and morals they gave me.
Physically I am doing OK. I notice that I am still having the pain in my arm and right side as it was over a year ago. I guess that is what I have to live with. It is just not going away. It has been rough not being able to jump in and do a lot of things that I would have done before. I have a hard time with that around the church. I sometimes hope that people know the reason when I step back from carrying tables or lifting chairs. The meal for Pastor Quick was really bothersome to me when I could not lift the pans of food. Then it was just as bad when we have the sunrise service with breakfast. I did what I could. Just being a supervisor has never been my style, but I guess it is what I have been destined to do.
On a family note to close this out, I have had my youngest grandson, Joshua (Steve and Stacy's) see me last Saturday morning without my shirt on as all the boys stayed over Friday night. He looked at my back and said, "grandpa, where did you get all those boo boo's. They must hurt." I said look at this one, and showed him under my arm. His eyes got real wide and said "grandpa, that must have really hurt bad." I told him that they did hurt, but grandpa was alive because they cut the cancer out of me. That made me remember what he had said about 3 weeks before while I was bringing him over to my house. He told me "grandpa, I am really going to be sad when you die and I will cry for a long time." I told him grandpa was not going to die for a long time but that all of us are going to die. The difference is when people die knowing Jesus that they go to heaven and are happy. He smiled and said OK. It made me tear up, but it was a blessing. (They reason he talked about me dying was because his great grandpa in Michigan was sick and his mom was going to see him)
Well that is it for now. I need to go to bed. I will write more sooner than later, I promise. Oh yeah, pray for my mom, she now has the shingles. Hopefully I was not the one who brought it on for her. Love you mom, but we do not have to share everything you know.
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