Time Flies

It has been almost a week since my last post and I am not sure where the time has gone. Heck I am not even sure I know what all has happened during that time.

The most memorable event in the past week was my little Geocaching adventure on Saturday near Monksville, Texas. It was my first long hike (nine miles) Geocaching and has to be one of my favorite trips ever. It ranks right up with my caching trip to WV a few weeks ago. You can read more on that over at my geocaching blog.

Work as been tolerable. There are always little things that irk me (like changing processes and not telling anyone) but over all things have been pretty good. My colleague is on call this week and we are both covering for a colleague in Brazil who is on vacation. I am not sure how other countries can afford to let employees take two to four weeks off at one time (we could never get by with that here in the States) but I am glad he can get some time off. He is a very busy man.

Our weather here has been warmer lately than I would have expected. We had a cool snap that kept me in long sleeves at night for a few days but that is gone now...we are back to normal later summer temps which is causing two problems for me: Allergies and the tempurature of our office.

Rag weed is heavy right now and since I am allergic to the stuff, I have been stuffed up so bad I can hardly stand it. 24 Claratin only lasts about 12 hours or so at best (one day it lasted about 6) and I hate to mix and match meds just to get some relief. Thankfully this should end soon and I will be back to "normal"

With the late summer temps comes the HVAC's system at work becoming "confused" on what to do. Right now it is blowing ice cold air into an already cool office. Not only is out office ice cold but the restroom closest to my office is bitterly cold. This happens every fall and it really is annoying. It is so bad my office mate wears a jacket in the office. It is about all I can do to tolerate it.

My wife got an e-mail from our pastor the other day. He is a young pastor, with the majority of his experience coming from pastoring youth. He also is very likable and somewhat boyish, but I digress. The reason for the e-mail was to have my wife and I pray for him as he delivers a sermon on Sunday on tithing. The subject of giving is always a touchy subject. Many who feel they do their share are offended and feel singled out. Those who do not give a tithe or give one regularly think the church is greedy. I used to feel like the latter until I decided to give tithing a try.

It was not easy but after a few years I was able to gladly write out my tithe (10% of my income) check to the church. And while things have been tight, we are still eating, have a roof over our head, and employed. Besides, if your budget is so tight that 10% will make or break you, then you need to reexamine your priorities.

A lot of people look for a way to lower their tithes like some people try to lower their taxes. They bicker over tithing on the net or the gross, on re-embursed funds, tax returns, bonues, etc. I think it is silly to do that. The rule is in my house, that unless you have already tithed on it, you will tithe on it! And sometimes we will tithe on something like a tax return as an offering to God. Yes, since we tithe on the gross, we have already tithed on that money, but what the heck, it all belongs to God anyway.