Bad Day Addendum

Before reading furthure please be sure to read the post "A Really Really Really Bad Day or One Good Thing is...." first, as this is an addendum to that.  

This afternoon things were going better.  I started to get hungry and we didn't have anything to eat so I went to Quiznos and got a sandwich with soup to go.  As I pulled out of the parking lot it sounded like my back passenger tire was flat.  So I pulled over as soon as I could and parked in front of this nail salon.  Sure enough it was completely blown out.  No problem though I have a spare and everything I need to change it.  I tried calling Jenny and noticed that my cell phone was was almost out of batteries, strange I just charged it.  She didn't answer.  Oh well I figured I would have it changed in 10 minutes and be home in 15 anyway.  

I took everything I needed out of the trunk, yes it was all there.  I opened the side door so I could listen to NPR news while I took care of business.  After placing the jack I removed all of the lug nuts, then I jacked up the car.   A news story was on about ball jointed dolls.  Aparrently they are all the craze now in Japan and gaining interest in the US.  So I gave the wheel a good yank to pull it off and it didn't budge, no matter what I tried I could not get the wheel to move at all.  I wiggled it, I kicked it, I spun it, I cursed at it.  Nothing worked.  I tried calling Jenny again, still no answer.  I double checked the wheel to make sure I wasn't missing anything, no everything looked right, it should slip right off.  These women spend thousands of dollars on these silly dolls that I guess look like real people, sounds like the setup for a B horror movie to me.

Oh I forgot to mention that this entire time I am working on this, two women where sitting 10 feet away from me in front of the nail salon talking about me in Vietnamese and laughing.  I am sure it was a great time for them.

I still hadn't eaten my food, so I sat on the parking lot curb and ate my sandwich with my fingers black with grease and dirt.  With what I am sure is the last bit of juice in my phone battery I eek one more call to Jenny, still nothing.  So I called my Dad and it went something like this:

Dad: Hello.

Me: Dad, real fast I am almost out of phone batteries.  I have a flat tire and I am parked next to Hollywood Video, try to get a hold of Jenny and let her know.  I haven't been able to get a hold of her.  I am trying to change the tire but I can't get it off.  I have taken off all the lug nuts and it won't move, I think it is rusted on.  Any ideas?

Dad: Well you haven't jacked the car up yet have you?  You have to do that before it will come off.

Me: Yes Dad (In my mind that was a given, but apparently he has little faith in my automotive knowledge), I of course I jacked the car up...

We then discussed how I should walk to a nearby automotive place and see if they can help.  Which is what I did.  A nice man at the Jiffy-Lube gave me a can of "ZAP", basically WD-40, with the nozzle broken off so I had to push the spray stem up against what I wanted to spray.  At this point it has been at least an hour since I left the house to get a quick sandwich and come straight home.  On my way back to the car Jenny called, I told her what was going on.  She felt adequatly sorry for not having heard my prior calls.  I asked her to bring my hammer and a good can of WD-40.  She said she was on her way.

Back at the car, one of the nail salonists (posibbly a made up word) started asking why I wasn't able to get it changed yet and I explained about it being rusted on, but not to worry because my wife was bringing me a hammer.  She went in and brought out a big heavy hammer, perfect for what I needed.  Did you know that a really nice pair of eyes for one of those dolls could set you back several hundred dollars.

I sprayed down the lug nuts as best I could with the broken spray can and started hamering away.  It still took a surprising amount of whacking, but it eventually came out and I was putting the spare on when Jenny arrived.  I finished everything up, we returned the can of "Zap" to the friendly people at Jiffy-Lube and went home.  I stopped at QT to get a Coke on the way back.  Jenny had asked me to get a pack of stamps while I was there.  They were out, but gave me my drink for free.... maybe the day was turning around.

Some people go as far to treat the dolls like their children.  One woman interviewed explained how she had a 17 year old girl with dark hair and an 8 year old boy with blonde hair...  What a stupid news story, I don't think I really like ball jointed dolls.

The Fastest Decade of My Life, or Time Flies When You Are Having Fun, or Spending 10 Years With Your Best Friend

Today Jenny's and my marriage to each other turns 10 years old.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARRIAGE!!

If you have some spare time you can read about those 10 exciting years in Jenny's newest post here.

The Waiting Place...

Waiting for a train to go
or bus to come or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a YES or NO
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting."

The Good News: I didn't cut my arm off

Welp, I survived another tree trimming season. Every spring I have to get out my chainsaw and take care of the jungle in our backyard and every year I am afraid of cutting off one of my own limbs. Last year while I was working in the backyard a neighbor two houses down was in his backyard using his chainsaw. I just happened to look over and see him cut off a branch and his later fall out from underneath him. I jumped up on one of the kids toys and yelled over to see if he was ok. I didn't hear an answer right away so I ran over to climb the fence when I saw his wife come out of the house and another guy who must have been with him frantically yell up to her to go get some towels. Now, any time someone is using a chain saw and there is an accident where someone yells "Go get a bunch of towels", that is not a good sign. Soon the paramedics arrived and he was taken to the emergency room. I never did find out what happened but the incident did nothing but confirm my fear for my chainsaw.

This year I just took care of some minor trimming myself and we hired a professional service to "lift the skirt", or whatever dirty metaphor it is called, on our 2 big maple trees. My goal is to be able to grow grass in our backyard. Right now all we have is dirt. you know the growing conditions are bad when even the weeds can't take root. If you remember, last year I planted grass and it came up nice until we got about 8 inches of rain in a month. It flooded the yard for too long and the grass died. Apparently swamp like conditions are not ideal for grass. This year I decided I would give it another try. I have a 2 fold approach. First, I realized that a raised garden bed along the back fence was working as a dam, so I removed the railroad ties and leveled the ground. Second, we trimmed the trees quit a bit yesterday morning and hopefully that will give the ground the sunlight that it needs.

It is amazing how hard it can be to recover just a small piece of land from years of neglect. It has taken us 3 Spring/Summers to finally have the backyard in what I would call respectable shape. Mostly it just needed A LOT of pruning and trimming. Even though I had already done a lot over the last 2 years, the entire ground was covered with branches when the trimmers were done. It took 2 of them at least 30 minutes just to load what they cut and the brush pile I already had onto their flatbed.

I hope to plant the grass in the next few days. I will keep you updated on the progress or lack thereof, but the weather doesn't look like it is going to make it easy for me.

The Big Three-Oh!

Well I completed my 30th year of breathing today. Of course such a monumental occasion makes one contemplative of their life. Hmmm... so let's see, professional things are good (maybe more on that later), family life is great. I have 3 perfect little boys, and I am in love with Jenny more than ever! Spiritually... that one is a bit tougher. Either I am closer to God than I have ever been or further than ever. To say that I have gone through a sort of spiritual paradigm shift over the last year and a half would be an understatement. While the essentials of my faith have stayed the same, I have taken a critical look at nearly all of the beliefs that I have embraced for the last 20 some years, and changed many of them to one degree or another. Some of these new beliefs have left me at odds with the majority of mainline Christianity.

At times this growth has been fun and exciting and other times it has been remarkably painful. Last night was one of the painful times. I meet with a group of Eastern Orthodox guys on Monday nights. As the only "Protestant" (I don't really like that term b/c I am not protesting anything) in the group they normally know what to expect from me. Of course I am not going to agree with praying to saints, venerating Mary, or submitting to the Eastern Orthodox hierarchy (limited though it may be), but last night I surprised them. Last night against my will, and better judgment, I espoused an idea that not only went against the Orthodox Church but most of evangelicalism today. And although all of these friends were earnest and polite in their discussion of this issue I still couldn't help but feeling beat up, defeated and heretical when I got home. It was bad enough that two of them had to call me directly afterward to make sure, first that I was okay and second, to further express their concern.

Even if I am very wrong, this could be a good experience, right? I once heard someone say that everyone should be involved in a heresy at one point or another in their life that is so great that they will forever be more forgiving and gracious to others (or something like that). Still it is hard to be in the minority. It is hard to have everyone around you think you are crazy. It is hard to not have the majority of Christian thought or Christian history to fall back on. There is great safety in numbers. On this point I envy my Orthodox friends. It seems very comforting to say "this is the way things have always been and greater men than I have already made a decision on this issue so who am I to question it."

I suppose in some small microscopic way this is how Peter and the Apostles felt when they declared that Christ had risen, or how Paul felt when he completely reversed course and started preaching the Gospel that he had persecuted, or Martin Luther when he nailed his points to the Church door. On the other hand this is probably how all of the "great" heretics of history felt too. Is the only thing that separated them from the great champions of the faith that they were wrong?

Anyway, I am going to try to forget about this for now and start enjoying my birthday, I have taken the day off work and we are going to go eat lunch now.

Have a happy tax day :-)

My One Pet Peeve

I am normally a pretty laid back kind of guy.  Not easily offended.  In fact, you would typically have to go out of your way and put special effort into it in order to offend me.  There is one thing that gets me every time though.  Our email at work displays our names as "Last name,First name" so everyone glances at that and, without thinking, assumes that my last name is my first name so they call me that.  I am cursed to be the man with 2 first names.  When someone calls me by my last name, thinking it is my first name, it drives me crazy! I don't know why it bothers me so much.  Of course I don't say anything to the offender, I just bottle it up inside and let them call me that over and over and over.

Its all about the mustache...

This is the true reason for growing my beard!

I had fun with this at work today. I like how it makes me look continually mad. I am actually smiling in this picture.
RELEVANT Gentleman's Society


Bonus video of Jacob on his bike!

Bonus video of Ethan on his trike.

A little less wise...

I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed this morning (Friday). I have been putting it off for a good ten years now and I was a little nervous going into it. I would have to say it has been worse than I imagined it would be. The first 4 hours afterword were extremely painful and miserable. The first Percocet didn't do any good, finally I took a second one about 2 hours later and it helped. The worst part now is that I can't read without getting nauseous! Even now I am looking off to the side as I type this to avoid looking at the screen as much as possible. So I am extremely bored. Also I have been having problems getting them to stop bleeding. Right now I am sitting here with a tea bag crammed into the back of my mouth because the acid in it is supposed to help stop the bleeding. Well that is all I can handle for now or I am going to go puke.

Relevant

I have been listening to the Relevant Podcast for about 6 months now. It "features the editors of RELEVANT magazine discussing the news, issues and entertainment that matters to your life—with in-studio music performances and interviews thrown in for kicks."

The show is usually about an hour long with no commercials, just fun. It consists of 3 guys and a girl sitting around and chatting just like any of us might do with 3 of our friends. The only difference is their discussions are recorded and include having a band showing up and playing a few songs. Sometimes they will also interview a Christian author, like Don Miller.

The podcast is released late Friday nights, but it leaves me with something to look forward to listening to at work on Monday. I highly recommend at least giving it a try for a few weeks. The magazine, which I just subscribed to, is also great and the website has a plethora of interesting articles as well.

My Nerd Score

Thats about what I expected.

Today at lunch Jacob and I were telling Jenny about a Super Massive Blackhole show we watched on the Science channel. When we were finished Jenny just looked at me and said, "You realize after saying all of that your Nerd Score just went up a few points."

Waiting for her to pop!

Well I am home for a while now. Jenny's blood pressure is high enough and she is feeling bad enough, at least at times, that I am going to work from home until after the baby is born. Jenny went in for some tests this morning and she will see the doctor this afternoon. The doctor will either put her on bed rest, induce labor or say "we will just have to keep a close eye on things". I think Jenny will cry if the later happens.

Right now I can't do much work b/c I am waiting to hear back from one of our network administrators about my VPN password. It has been about a year and a half since I used it last so I can't remember what it is. Until then I can't get the files off of my computer at work to do anything.

I have a friend that I met from work getting married this weekend. He has been living in our basement for the last 2 months, which hasn't been a problem at all but it will be nice to not have to worry about wearing pants all the time... or a shirt for that matter. He has asked me to do the pictures for his wedding, but I will be at a disadvantage because it is an Orthodox wedding which I have never seen before. I guess I will get to see how a wedding is "supposed" to be done. Of course all is dependent on when this baby decides to come out.

Garden City House Officially on the market again

http://homes.realtor.com/prop/1081301954

My love-hate relationship with Subway

Subway is always a great fast food alternative.  It is fresh and healthy and in general makes me feel good after eating it rather than the sloppy (but amazing) beef brisket sandwich at Hog Wild, Mmmmm...

However Subway has one fatal flaw!  They can't seem to get a handle on the amount of sauce to put on their sandwiches.  Usually I get the chicken teriyaki sandwich on either the honey oat bread or the parmesan bread with provolone cheese, toasted, with cucumbers, green peppers, lettuce, banana peppers, salt & pepper and of course the teriyaki sauce.  But they always drench the sandwich in the sauce and it doesn't matter which Subway I go to (there are now 3 very close to my house) or who makes it, they ALL do it.  It must be a mandate handed down from the big guys at corporate to program the saucy bath into their brains as part of their training or something.  I pretty much always go through the drive through so by the time I get home to eat the bread is soggy.  I hate soggy bread!  Not to mention all you can taste then is the sauce.  Why bother with the rest of the food if you a aren't going to be able to taste it?

So, I always ask them to go easy on the sauce.  They still seem to go wild with it and drench my sandwich.  So then I started really emphasizing that I barely wanted any sauce on it.  Still they usually put way too much.  I was left thinking "if this is 'easy on the sauce' what do they normally do, dunk the sandwich in a tub of it?"

Finally I figured out the perfect solution.  I decided to ask for the sauce on the side.  That way I could put on the exact amount that I wanted and it wouldn't be soaking into the bread on the way home.  Brilliant!

Now Monday I came home from work and Jenny was exhausted, apparently growing a baby wares you out, and the kids and I are starving.  So I throw the kids in the car and run by McD's for them and go across the street to the brand new Subway, with my scheme in mind that will fix all of my problems.

First I had to wait a few minutes before they would even take my order.  Obviously this guy was new because he kept telling me "one moment" as I ordered so I would pause for him to catch up.  I asked for the sauce on the side and he said "No problem".  Then I pulled up and waited, paid, waited more.  The manager came to the window and said it would probably be about four minutes and asked if I would like a cookie while I wait.  No problem I would love a chocolate chip cookie to share with the boys.  Then Jacob told me that Ethan was a asleep.  This is an inconvenience because it is too close to bed time and now he will have trouble falling asleep after he eats.  That's not good. 

After waiting about four minutes like she said, the new kid brought me out my sandwich in a bag, but there was no side of teriyaki sauce.  I pointed that out to him and he hesitated for a second and said "oh right... ummm yeah let me get that."  That's not good.  While he got the sauce I opened my sandwich and sure enough... it had been baptized!  He brought me the sauce and I said, very nice but firm "you already put the sauce on the sandwich didn't you?"  He looked at me sheepishly, "yeah".  I handed back the sandwich to him and told him that I was going to need a new sandwich, again very nicely.  (I don't usually do that sort of thing but as you have read above this has been an ongoing battle with them for months and I am determined to break them of this over-saucing habit.)

At this time there is a girl in a car behind me who has started honking her horn in order to get someone to take her order because she has been waiting so long.  They aren't short handed, I could see at least 3 employees and the manager through the window and there didn't appear to be any customers inside either.  After waiting another 5 minutes I am began to wonder what was going on so I peeked through the window.  It looked like the manager was making my sandwich I could see her putting on the veggies, then she reached for the teriyaki sauce... NO... WAIT... STOP!!!  

A different girl brought me the sandwich and the manager was standing behind her.  She handed the bag to me and I said "You put the sauce on the sandwich didn't you?"  Her eyes got wide and her mouth opened but with nothing to say.  The manager behind her heard what I said and she closed her eyes and hung her shoulders in disbelief of her own carelessness.

"Would you like any chips or cookies?", she asked as I put the car into drive.  "No I don't want to wait any longer, that's fine" I said in frustration as I pulled away.

How was the sandwich?  Really not that bad.  Will I go back?  Yes, and someday Subway I will break you of this terrible sandwich drenching habit of yours!  Every sandwich should have the right to live free from the threat of being soaked and hopefully someday soon no bread will have to go soggy again.  You may have won this battle... but I will win this war!!

Viruses

This stinking little "spybot" worm put me out of commission at work for almost 3 days this week.  Ironically at the same time my computer was sick I also came down with a nasty cold.  I am beginning to wonder if maybe I caught the virus from my computer...

Garde City Telegram: Computer virus disables city, county temporarily

Pictures of my guts!

I spent this morning at the surgery center having my insides looked out. They took a scope and crammed it down my throat to look at my stomach and part of my intestines. The good news is they didn't see any tumors or signs of cancer but if you look at the picture below in the lower right you can supposedly see some "irritation". Sorry for the poor quality, these are pictures that Jenny took with my cell phone of the pictures the doctor had, I was too out of it to do it myself. I was just disappointed that I didn't get a video of it to take home. Anyway they took some biopsy's that I should find out about by Friday. Hopefully they will find evidence of H-Pylori that can just be treated with antibiotics, otherwise it is back to the drawing board as to why despite taking prescription antacid (like Prevacid, Aciphex and Nexium), I still get heartburn every day.

For clarification these are pictures of the inside of my stomach.

Esther Mae Moore: June 23, 1924 - Jan. 15, 2007

Jenny's Grandma -- Update

Sorry I haven't been on the computer much (at home) to do any blogging or update everyone as to Jenny and her Grandma.

Once they got Jenny's Grandma on an IV at the hospital with some antibiotics she stabilized and has been pretty much the same ever since. She can't talk or really even move, but she does open her eyes and look at you. Jenny thought that once when she was combing her hair that she may have even smiled a bit. Jenny came back to Wichita last Sunday afternoon so she spent Friday and Saturday night in Medicine Lodge with her Mom and Grandma.

Jenny, her Grandma and Mom could still use your prayers. Jenny is already emotional from the pregnancy so that just magnifies this situation.

Thank you, to everyone for your concern. Again I am sorry it took me so long to give an update.

Any ideas?

I came home at lunch in my car. The kids and I went to get something to eat in the Explorer b/c Jenny was sick. Came home and then went outside to leave in my car... but no keys. Not in my pockets, not in my coat, not on the table or the kitchen cabinet, not on the dresser or anywhere on the floor in the living room and not in the car.

Finally I went back to work in the Explorer. Then I came home around 3 b/c Jenny was too sick. Searched for about an hour and I still haven't found them!! It is the ONLY key I have to that car!!

I did take out the trash, which I went back and looked through a little. I guess the next step is to take all of the trash back out of the dumpster and lay it out in the Garage.

Does anyone have any other ideas!!?

In light of all of my recent grumbling I have decided to post a list of things I am thankful for.

So here it is. I am thankful for...

1. A God that loves me enough to die for me.
2. My amazing wife Jenny and my 2 wonderful little boys.
3. My Parents and family that are too many to mention but you know who you are.
4. My friends that I have had since High School and Junior High who haven't gotten tired of me yet.
5. My job. Despite the new arrangement I do love my job and I am thankful for it everyday and I recognize that it is a gift from above.
6. Living in a country where I have the freedom to worship without fear.
7. The Church we have been attending, Wheatland Mission.
8. Our home.
9. The big sky and the open plains.
   
10. Coca~Cola, Mmmmmmm...

"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thes 5:18

What are you thankful for?

Blog Outing

I have another blog that I have been working on for a few months that is more of a spiritual/faith discussion, but up until now I have just been talking to myself. Nattyman Blog includes those elements sometimes but as more of a personal nature. The newer blog is a place for me to say what I have been thinking about spiritually. It isn't separate to compartmentalize my faith but rather to focus it. You may have already noticed it in my profile but now I am officially "outing" it. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am ;-)

myUndoing