April Fool's Day

 Yes, it is April Fool's 2021. It should easily be much better than 2020's. I don't recall any jokes from last year, maybe this year will be better.

I have read about some great gags. I think laughter is a valuable part of life and try to pass along things that make me laugh aloud. During stress, laughter is especially valuable. I have spoken several times herein about my Dad's jokes and constant laughter. He saw the value of laugher. I have noted often that my wife's great sense of humor has made our marriage so much more enjoyable.

Reader's Digest magazine used to, and maybe still does, have a section titled, "Laughter the Best Medicine.". There is truth there.

So, feel free to pull a gag on a friend today. Even if they don't laugh, maybe you will--which can be dangerous. If you have a moment to post a comment, I would love to read about some of the gags that you have done or have heard about.

End of Fire Season

 It is 14 March, and the fire season has seemingly ended. We had a fire a couple of mornings in early March for particularly cool mornings, but not in a while. The forecast is that the end of the week will also be in the lower 40's at daylight, so i have a fire ready to light.

Yesterday someone gave me a bit more than a truckload of seasoned cut firewood. I had to cut some of it, and refill my sheds, and was reminded of the work required to heat with wood. But, for some strange reason, it is immensely enjoyable to heat with wood. The exercise required in working with wood is good for me. By the time I pay for gasoline for the saw and truck, for the wood stove, and for the chimney sweeping, I am not sure I save much money, but maybe some.

This year I had a better handle on my usage. Over the cold weather I burned about 8 sheds worth. I am guessing I have close to 0.5 cords per shed, so somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 cords of wood. I am guessing I have about 16 half-cord sheds of wood so that is 8 cords or about 2 years worth already cut.

Here is what is required if you want to burn wood:

Find a source of wood,

Cut to truck length,

Haul home and cut to length (20 inches or less in length),

Split what needs splitting,

Transport and stack in a shed.

Now it must be hauled from the shed to the woodstove, 

And then loaded in the stove, 

Then the ash is removed and hauled out.

Pretty simple eh? I'm sure glad I enjoy it.

Response to a sibling in need

 When our daughter Kelly was a sophomore in college she was going to work at the dermatology office. She was "t-boned" by a lady who ran the red-light less than a mile from our home. One of our church friends, Andy saw the accident and called to tell us. We both hurried to the site of the accident and to our joy found that she wasn't injured.

When Brenda left to go to see Kelly she left her sibs, David and Andrew at home. When I discovered all was ok, I called to let them know.

Andrew answered the phone. In pretend mode, I said, "Andrew, Kelly is ok but she is going to need one of your kidneys."

Without missing a beat, Andrew responded, "I'll put David on the phone."

A Fishing Trip Education

As kids, our dad infected us with a love for fishing. We fished the mighty Etowah, and frequently trekked into the mountains to fish for trout. The only day in my life that I deliberately ditched school was opening day of trout season 1968, my senior year at Cherokee High.

One of our favorite fishing places was the Canton Golf Course, which has a lovely mid-size creek flowing through its center. My next younger brother and I worked at Canton Swimming Pool right by the Golf Course, so we saw that creek almost every day of the summer.

We enjoyed fishing for catfish at night, and knew that the Golf Course creek would be a safe and productive place to fish. One Saturday night we decided to go fish the upper bridge of the Golf Course. It was 11 PM and since the Golf Course and Swimming Pool lots were cordoned off at night, we parked in the end of a long driveway of one of the homes on the west side of the road that led to the creek from Cumming Highway. After all, we reasoned, no one would be out after 11 PM in Canton, GA!

We parked, got our gear, and headed for the creek. We caught several fish and had a great time. A bit after midnight we headed back to the car. When we got to that driveway, our car was gone! The home owners had gotten home shortly after we parked, and unable to get into their own driveway had called Canton Police who impounded our vehicle.

The next day, we learned that it would cost us $25 to retrieve our car from the police impound. And, because of our Dad's love for fishing, our mistake was fully understood. He didn't even make us pay the impound fee.

Obviously we learned a lot from that fishing trip, and none of it involved fish.

A Good-Deed Visit to the Bootlegger—No really!

It was a classic case of poor teenager planning. My younger brother, our friend Pat, and I were headed home up the Cumming Highway and it was almost midnight. There was but one gas station between downtown Canton and home, and our car sputtered as it ran out of gas. Fortunately, we coasted into that one service station. In those days, people in Canton didn't often stay awake past 10PM, so we were not expecting to get service at this late hour.

Our momentum carried us to the lone set of gas pumps. We got out and peered inside the station, since there was a light on inside. We could see the old proprietor sitting inside who appeared wide awake. We had nothing to lose, so we tapped on the door. To our great surprise, he got up, and without hesitation opened the door. We sheepishly explained our dilemma, and he offered, “You can have all the gas you want if you'll run me across town.”

The old man appeared drunk, even to our naive eyes. We could see a solution to our quandary at low personal cost—which looked like God's provision to us. We quickly pumped a few gallons into our tank and the old man shakily climbed into the back seat with Pat. The man gave us directions as to where to head out, and tried to open a fresh bottle of liquor. He was a bit too inebriated to open the flask, and dug out a pair of pliers to help him break into it. Fortunately, he was so unsteady he couldn't effectively pry it open. He asked Pat to open it, but with remarkable presence of mind, Pat pretended he couldn't.

Cherokee county in 1967 was “dry” and so there was no legal source to buy alcoholic beverages. But, there was a well-known bootlegger and that's where the old man was directing us. Sheepishly we drove over, the old fellow stumbled to the door, made his purchase, and returned with a big smile on his face.

We prayed that no one would notice us at the bootlegger's, and we were greatly relieved to drive back towards home. We dropped our guest off at his service station and made sure his staggering got him safely inside.

Our unique gasoline “purchase” had averted a teen disaster and gave us a great story which we have told and retold with glee. And honestly—no, really--that was our only trip to the bootlegger.

Our unique gasoline “purchase” had averted a disaster and gave us a great story which we told and retold with glee. And honestly, no really, that was our only trip to the bootlegger.

Life Review: Return to the Flood Site

 Some of you may recall the blog posts about the flood at the local motel, owned by a friend and supervised by another friend. I spent several days helping salvage what we could. It was hot, dirty, tiring work. I was happy to see my part of the job end.

A couple of weeks back I was asked to come back to the flood cleanup. Now we are trying to clean up and restore 56 rooms there. It is February, and the first few days were bitterly cold. The good news is that we are trying to put the finishing steps to make some of these rooms rentable.

I find myself on my hands and knees setting toilets. I find myself covered in sheetrock dust as I try to clean up the debris from the floors so that the carpet layers can do their work. I clean up mini-fridges and place them in the now-restored rooms. I paint shelves to be replaced in their slot. The plumbing work is often done by flashlight. I am as tired as I can recall ever being after work.

I have plumbed, swept, and cleaned more in the last couple of weeks than ever in my life. It is admittedly rewarding, because you can instantly see results. It is rewarding to volunteer and to be with friends.

When we volunteer, we "lay down our life for a friend", and I don't say that to trumpet myself. I want to encourage all of us to do what we can to help others.

Thank you L^rd for this opportunity.

End of a Poor (Maybe not) Deer Season

 It is 13 Feb as I write this. Deer season in Alabama ended just 3 days back. It was one of the poorest deer seasons we have had since 2017. Andrew and I killed a total of 6 deer, only one of which was a buck. The buck was big in body, but small in antlers, with one side broken off totally. I didn't know that when I shot, or might have let him walk. Our freezer was totally full with 3 new deer, and we gave away 3. We love venison, and I have mentioned before it is: organic, free-range, non-hormonal, non-GMO, extremely lean meat.  What's not to love? It is the only meat I know that is good cold as it is hot--due to its leaness.

Lots of hunters would think 3 deer each is a great season, but we have been spoiled over the last couple of years. Plus there is much more to hunting than killing. This was our first time since childhood to hunt land that we owned. We saw far fewer deer than usual, but still enjoyed some great days alone in the outdoors. Plus Andrew killed his first feral hog. I hunted 21 times at Baker Swamp, 20 times at Deerfield, and maybe a dozen times at Echola. That's about 53 hunts. Ah, the joys of being retired from the 9-5 job!

Andrew and I had the pleasure of hunting together most of these. You hunt totally alone, but the trip to and from, plus the discussions of all sorts of things, makes having a hunting buddy a greater pleasure than doing it alone--as I did a few seasons back.

Enjoying the sunrises, the sunsets, the deer sightings, the snacks, the thrill of a harvest, the disappointment of a miss, is a pleasure that many folks miss.

Thanks be to G^d for making such a wonderful complex world. Thanks be to G^d for giving us the opportunity to enjoy nature in ways that most people miss. And...thank you L^rd for delicious venison.

The Passing of a Great One

 Yesterday, 30 Jan, Brenda and I "attended" the virtual funeral of a friend of ours, Sam R. Sam was a month shy of 73 when he died. He had come to know the Christ at age 53. The "Going Home Celebration" was neat in that it was attended "live" by over 100 people, and more interesting, these attendees were scattered around the world--literally. 

What makes Sam's life noteworthy? Sam was not famous in the usual sense of that word. He was a quiet man, small in stature, who was never a brilliant theologian, singer, song-writer, poet, or preacher. He and his wonderful wife Kathy, simply opened their home to host dinner one evening every week of Fall and Spring Semester to International students. The local Navigators International group would invite students to gather at Sam and Kathy's, and many would attend. Sadly COVID brought that to a close in March of 2020, but by that time they had hosted thousands of students in their home for the breaking of bread together.

Person after person testified that Sam was always greeting everyone with a warm smile and warm welcome. Foreigners felt comfortable around him, and appreciated his warm manner. They understood, without words being said, that Sam loved them and was happy to host them and spend time with them.

Who can't do that?

Then why don't we?

Sam's simple example should inspire us. Let us all endeavor to smile, to welcome the stranger, to quietly communicate our love and G^d's love to them.

Let's all try to be more like Sam.

Am I a Consumer of Christianity?

 Capitalism is the foremost economic system in the world because it assumes the fallen nature of mankind. Yes, we are largely self-interested and this defeats socialism, which in a truly Christian world would be the central economic system. But, whether you agree with that argument or not, we Americans are trained to be consumers.

"Have it Your way!"

"Go for the gusto!"

"Only pay for what you need."

Sadly, this also transfers into American Christianity. We give little thought to "picking a Church that meets our needs", to practicing those aspects of Christianity that appeal, or that we "need".

What's wrong with that?

Yes indeed, we are so deeply immersed in consumerism, we don't even think about it.

Jesus calls us to follow Him, and warns us that he doesn't even have a place to lay His head. Jesus calls us to put Him above our job, our distractions, even our families.

We have been "bought with a price", the blood of Jesus. We are called to serve others, whereas as a consumer, we are seeking others to serve us.  That's what we pay for, service, right?

Jesus lays things out pretty clearly:

Love G^d with all our being.

Love our neighbor as our self.

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

And the big one, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matt 16:25

Or we can just continue to lay up treasure on earth.