Monday, April 30, 2007

You Turn Your Back For One Minute...

I am going to try to recap a bit...if any of this has been journaled before, my apologies...they say memory is the first thing to go and I cannot remember what the second is.

Friday. Quiet day overall, so I leave work at 4 PM and go home (One of my BiC's) called me twice but did not leave me a message so I did not call back. More on this later). My wife calls me on the way home and asks me to pick up a few things so I do. I grab her a steak, some milk, and some yogurt. She has my brats ready to go on the grill so I have to get her steak home so it can marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Once home, I log in my work PC (I am supposed to be available until 6 PM, but my boss likes me at work early, so to make up for leaving "early" I go home and log in and keep the mobile phone close by) and keep and eye on things while trying to get the grill ready and cook my brats. The rest of dinner is done and my wife is just waiting on me. Figures.

In the process of me trying to keep up with things at work, I burn the brats (a crime punishable by death in Wisconsin) but at least my wife's steak is done perfectly...too bad it was not the cut she wanted! She was a trooper and ate it anyway (she said the flavor was great, just too much gristle)...thank you dear!

After 6 pM rolled around, I logged off and we cleaned up the kitchen. A long walk was decided upon with the dogs and then we just hung out at the house.

Saturday I got up and walked Little Man and made coffee as usual. I got ready to participate in the church work day by putting on the oldest of my old clothes and getting some tools together. I arrived at the church and waited on the rest of the trustees and the crane to arrive so we could begin.

Once the crane arrived and was set up we began removing the old steeple from the church. I had to climb a rather long ladder (did I ever mention I am not real big on ladders) to get on top of the roof to begin the removal process. Once the boom was up over the roof, the property manager attached the straps to it and the old broken steeple was removed and put on two pickup trucks (in two parts). It really needed to be on a semi, but we did not have one, so two pickup trucks had to do.

With the old one off, it was time to put the new on one. It was in two parts, so the base was hoisted up first. It was harder than expected and a lot more dangerous than I thought so my nervousness was not completely unwarranted. We finally got it in place (I have a nice scar on my finger from a sliver of fiberglass that became embedded there) and we anchored it in place. The next piece was put it place and I climbed inside to bolt down the top. Once that was done, the property manager and the crane crew moved to the second part of the big project...moving two sea containers around to make them easier to access. I was not part of that project (except for moving several HUGE 4 x 8 pallets out of the way).

I spent the rest of the work day trimming hedges, hauling away the debris and cleaning up. I left the church at about 1 PM.

At home it was lunch, a nap, laundry duty, dog duty (no pun intended) and then...the lawn (both mine and my neighbors). Once that was done a shower and some TV and bed.

Sunday was a good day. No calls on the hot line all day (THANK YOU JESUS!). . For Sunday school the teacher asked if I would show a video from Doctor David Reagan on Psalm 2 (since she would be out of town) so I did. Our service at church was very good as well. It was a spin on "The ends justify the means" and how biblically incorrect that is. I enjoyed it. After service we had a "Salad Lunch" hosted by the women's ministry. Many different types of salad were provided for the congregation to enjoy. It was a light turn out due to the fact we had a large number of families out of town for mission trips, reunions, or health/family issues. That just meant more food to enjoy!

After leaving there, my wife went shopping for some summer clothes and I went home and let out the dogs and washed some dishes. I popped in Kutless' "Live From Portland" to jam to then I finalized some bills and receipts to get caught up. Tired, I turned off the stereo and watched a little discovery, but I was unable to fall asleep with the idea that I was going to get a phone call from work at any time so I just kinda laid there.

I got up and browsed some web sites but became bored. Then my wife came home and we chatted for a while. Once my "shift" was over (manning the phone at work, forwarded to my mobile), I called mom and then went on a long walk with my wife and the dogs. It was a good walk but we can tell Little Man is (finally) showing his 13 years. He had trouble keeping up. I think it is the first time he has ever been so far behind us. I think from now on he will only get short walks. I do not want to cause him to collapse.

It was a quite night and I slept very well, but I woke up still sore from Saturday's work, so after breakfast I took two Aleve to help the pain and swelling. I need to do this all this week to help me for our upcoming vacation. I want to be ready to enjoy the sunshine!

On my way to work, the BiC who called me Friday (twice, without messages) called me to tell me he lost his job. Surprisingly he is not upset and is actually looking forward to finding another job. We chatted about his situation until I needed to start work and he let me go.

His situation troubles me some. First, he and his wife were having money issues before he took the job. He was on a 6 month probation and before that was over with, he told his wife to quit her job, which she did. Now he is stuck without a job or any real severance (only one week plus his 4 days vacation) and his wife is not bringing any money in. I warned him about this before he told her to quit, but he said that he had it all under control. No, GOD has it under control if you trust in him. Unfortunately I am not sure my BiC can trust in God 100%. He struggles with little things that many Christians take for granted. He wants to analyze instead of trusting and having faith.

I will continually pray for him and his wife. I hope their problems do not resurface because of this setback. I pray that God will use this to show him and the church how he can take anything bad and use it for good.

No comments: