life – Page 3 – Random Thoughts

Well, Here We Go Again

A couple of years ago, maybe a little longer, a tree root grew under the water line that runs from our water well to the pressure tank under my workshop: 80-some-odd feet distant. As the root grew, it pushed upward on the water line. This would not have been an issue had it happened most anywhere along that 80-some-odd foot span (in fact it probably has happened several times) but because it happened right next to the well head, which does not flex at all, the PVC water pipe fractured.

We didn’t know that at first. The water line (and the well head for that matter) are underground. It had been raining a lot, and the ground gets wet when it rains a lot. But when the rains stopped and the ground refused to dry, I began to suspect something.

I hired a plumber who specialized in well work to come see what was what. The biggest problem was that I wasn’t even sure where our well head WAS. The fella who installed it (long ago) cut off the head pipe below ground and buried it. I had a rough idea, but that was all. The plumber watched the way the water moved and found some burbling that indicated pay dirt — or pay mud.

He cut out a piece of the PVC and installed a flexible metal line between the PVC run and the well head so the line could “give” as tree roots bullied it.

The Saddest Realization

The saddest words any parent can hear is their child saying, “I don’t need you.”

The saddest realization any parent can experience is that the child is right.

Where were you when they wanted a lap to sit in and be read to? Where were you when he wanted you to attend his softball games, when she had a recital, when they had some personal crises and needed your guidance? At work? Or saying, “We’ll talk tomorrow, I’m too tired tonight.”

And now that you have come to the point where you want to be adviser, mentor, confidant… they have no need of you. For so long they have fended for themselves they do not need, or want, your input.

You are, after all, just the breadwinner.

Are We There Yet?

We often make light of youngsters’ exasperated query from the back seat of a car that’s been on the road longer than they’d like. And we can sometimes empathize with them when we wait longer than we anticipated for some event or milestone in life. But we need to recognize that these markers are just that, markers – perhaps rest stops – along the highway of life. The real question we need to be asking is, “Where are we going?”

If we have no destination in mind when we set out on our journey, how can we ever arrive? Would we then not be simply driving endlessly from one rest stop to the next – never really accomplishing anything except using up the resources of our life?

But how do we choose a destination? Continue reading “Are We There Yet?”

National Mutt Day

Celebrate National Mutt Day in the USA on July 31 and December 2. This is a fun celebration of mixed breed dogs. Created in 2005 by celebrity pet and family life expert, Colleen Paige, National Mutt Day brings awareness to the plight of mixed breed dogs in shelters around the country and encourages people to adopt shelter dogs rather than buy “designer dogs” from puppy mills.

Did you know that mixed breed dogs: Continue reading “National Mutt Day”

Creepy Coincidence

When I came inside after all the yard work was done yesterday, I took off my hat and laid it next to the computer to post the results of our labors to Facebook. Normally I don’t do that. That is I don’t lay the hat by the computer, I post to Facebook quite a lot: it has become the defacto “keep-connected” avenue with almost all of my friends and relatives. Normally I leave the hat near the door so I remember to put it back on when I go out. It keeps my scalp from getting sunburnt and helps protect from flying insects and ticks. Most of our property is wooded, ticks like to drop on warm blooded things from the trees. A wide-brimmed hat also helps keep me dry in a light rain.

A Fedora is my hat of preference. I wear a brown oiled cotton Fedora most of the time, and a straw version for yard work in the hottest part of the summer. Not many people wear Fedora’s anymore, but I like this style best.

I opened up Facebook to post the final episode of our project and what popped up in the ad bar amazed me:

Now, understand that I have NOT been searching for or looking at hats, much less a new Fedora. If I had been, this would not be a coincidence but a programmed advertising ploy.

And I cannot say I’ve ever seen a hat come up in the ad bar before. Shoes and Tee shirts all the time, but not hats. Is it a wild coincidence that the one time I lay my hat next to the computer a hat very much like it comes up in the advertising results?

That’s just too spooky!

My Dogography

As a kid I was small and skinny. Too studious and too serious to be popular. So I devoted myself to learning all I could, to getting through school and getting on with life as soon as I could.

As a young man, I decided to get into business. I worked hard and applied myself so I’d move up the corporate ladder and be able to have all the things I wanted… Continue reading “My Dogography”

BEING ALIVE

It is a wonderful thing: being alive. To be able to breathe, to see, to smell, and to touch. These things which we take for granted are vital to our health and well being. God in His creative grace has chosen to share a bit of His existence with us and we call it life. He has given the energy of existence to all living things and we are blessed by it. The sights and sounds of life explode before us and we are often unaware of their presence. The laughter of children, the buzz of bees, chirping birds, trees, flowers, friendship and worship are just some of the things that give us a sense of awe and celebration to being alive. Sometimes the crises of life pungently bring to our attention those simple aspects of our daily routine which have a marvelous capacity for our nurture.

Often in our search for the profound we miss the profundity of the simple. In our haste to show up at the important events of life we miss a thousand opportunities to allow little things to prepare us for big things. In our search for the significant we miss some of life’s most pertinent pictures. Life has its own candid camera as well as its serious productions. It is a video victory when we have eyes to see and can really see. It is an audio miracle to have ears to hear and really hear.

Being alive is an event worth celebrating. The more we call attention to our aliveness the more grateful we are for being a part of God’s existence. Every day we receive multiple blessings for being alive. Let us count them.

Independence Day

I was chatting with a friend this morning and he mentioned that he has been trying to convince his co-workers this week that we are not celebrating the 4^th of July: we are celebrating INDEPENDENCE DAY. He makes an excellent point.

This holiday is not about BBQs and boat rides. It’s not about fireworks displays. It’s not about getting a day off work and a long weekend. It is about a time when our nation stood up on its hind legs and said, “We’ve had enough, England. We’re tired of over taxation. We’re tired of big government telling us what we can and cannot do, think and believe. We’re tired of Aristocrats looking down their noses at us and treating us as mindless rabble. We’re tired of being exploited and lied to.”

And we did something about it. A nation of farmers and shopkeepers took up arms and went toe-to-toe with the British military … and beat them. But not without significant loss of life and damage to property. In so doing, we earned the right to think for ourselves, to govern ourselves.

THAT is what the celebration held on July 4^th is all about, and we would do well to remember Independence Day so we do not once again become dependent, which leads to subjugation.

By all means: fire up the grill, invite friends and family, and touch off some fireworks. But as you celebrate, remember that the celebration is not about burgers on the grill or booming starfires in the sky – it’s about freedom.

A Right Fine Settn Porch

There are few things I find more enjoyable than the simple pleasure of sitting on a proper porch with my beloved and a glass of cold lemonade on a warm summer evening. This evening is one such.

Temperatures during the day had gotten up into the mid 80s, but as the sun slides down behind English Mountain across the valley from us the temperature eases. The sky splashed with pink, rose, mauve and vermilion slowly deepens into amethyst, violet and plum. A few bright stars burn through the gauzy haze of high, thin clouds which provide a canvass for the setting sun to paint upon.

To the south the multiple ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains slowly disappear into the dusk. A Chuck Wills Widow sits in the top of a tree across the hard-road, a hundred feet or so downhill from us, and serenades us with his gentle melody. Crickets chirp, cicadas thrum, tree frogs trill.

A flying beetle thumps determinedly against the glass of the porch light. It looks like a June bug, but it’s the wrong time for June bugs, unless he’s a confused June bug. I switch the light off to save him from endangering his well being (and annoying us) and so we can get a clearer view now that the sky is dark. Continue reading “A Right Fine Settn Porch”

Concerto of Pain

A single, high, prolonged trumpet blast shatters my blissful bubble of sleep. Was that Gabriel? Is it time?

Alas, no. As consciousness replaces confusion I find that the blast was not sound but pain – which can be similar – and the trumpeting is emanating from my right shoulder. Now that I am more aware, my neck and upper back begin playing harmony to the lead trumpet in a horn concerto of pain.

I attempt to mute the performance by shifting position. But that only boosts the volume.

I am cold. It was hot when I fell asleep and I covered only with the sheet. Now it’s cooler and the muscles in my back and neck are tense from the chill. I pull up the quilt and wrap it around me. In a few moments the harmonies diminish, but the lead horn continues blasting its lilting tone.

I reach for my watch: 3:30 a.m. A groan offers bass counterpoint to the tenor lead horn, which continues to strip away the grogginess of slumber. Twenty minutes pass and other instruments are joining the melody of madness. Hips, lower back, an elbow chime in. A tooth throbs in low accompaniment.

Sleep is defeated, sent scurrying away by this reveille. I roll out of bed, test my balance and head for the Tylenol bottle and coffee maker.

It’s Monday morning. I pulled a stump Saturday afternoon. As is generally the case, (Read more: )