Geek Post #1

Two things happened today, I set up my wireless network in my house so I am now typing this post wirelessly! Huzzah! Also, the new wireless Vonage router makes my phone calls sound much clearer on my end. Double Huzzah!

Second thing:

I am now downloading a patch for a little game I play called World of Warcraft. It was not announced that there would be a patch tonight and I found out from someone that this patch took an hour to download...yes, that is with broadband. The reason that this aggravates me so much is that if I had known that there would be an hour long patch download I could have started the download BEFORE I mowed my lawn and got the car filled up with fuel....let's see...yes indeed, that took about an HOUR!!!

Instead, I come home, tired from grass maiming and car refueling after working all day and now have to sit and wait for a patch to download. Furthermore, the patch is to patch the mistakes the created when they released their LAST patch.

The really dumb part about this is that suckers like me pay a monthly fee to play the game...gripe about the game...and then, like a moth to a lamp (don't look at the light!!), get sucked back in.

Well, at least I get to fume while downloading the patch WIRELESSLY!!! Yay!!

*I'm pretty sure that this is far from being your first geek post...you so outed yourself long ago...to being a geek that is.*


Update: I reached 70% completion before it stopped downloading, I let it run for another 15 minutes. Nothing. I searched around and found that Blizzard had pulled the patch and apologized for pushing it out during peak time. But you still wasted an hour of my life!!!

The TP Problem

I had some friends over to my house on Friday to play some games and whatnot, it was a good time but more importantly, I got the house all clean again. I vacuumed, picked up, hid junk in closets, the works.

But I ran into a problem, a toilet paper problem. The roll that was out was mostly used up. I didn't want someone to use the restroom and run out of paper at an inopportune moment. I also didn't want to have a spare roll of toilet paper sitting out in the open.... how tacky.

*And the curtains just were not going with the carpet...*

So what do. The simple solution would of course be to throw out the mostly used roll and put a new one out, but that is where my Jewish heritage rose up and would not allow me to throw out something useful. But having a mostly empty roll of toilet paper sitting in the open is infinitely more tacky than a new one.

Solution: I hid the almost empty roll in the bedroom until the guests had left.


*Let me apologize for having wasted 5 minutes of your life. Sorry, no refunds though.*

More proof that people are morons

I go to the gym two or three times a week now. Get a good workout, play racquetball, etc. Anyway, in the parking lot for the gym, (you know the gym right? The place you go to get a workout, burn calories, get your heart pumping faster.), people will drive around the parking lot......looking for a parking spot closer to the entrance!!!


Idiots. They should be honored that they get to bask in my presence from time to time.

Fritz

Jarhead - Welcome to the Whine

Jarhead supposedly is based on a true story. I say supposedly since I can't actually see a real Marine whining as much as this putz does in the movie. It starts off with the guy talking about how he is scarred from his experience of "holding a rifle. " And that you never foget it even when changing your child's diaper. Does this mean that every hunter or target range shooter is scarred for life as well?

My grandfather took me shooting when I was 10 or so. Does this explain how my life got so messed up? It wasn't my fault! I was scarred from holding a rifle!! Seriously, shut up already! The closest the author got to actual combat was being shot at with friendly fire. I don't recall the Band of Brothers survivors complaining about how they were "scarred" after Bastogne.

"How come I wasn't told that being in the Marines was hard?"

He is not a sypathetic figure. He shows no respect for his superiors unless it is forced from him, he gets drunk rather than stand guard duty, and just wants out.

I can't recommend this drek to anyone. The next time I want to listen to 2 straight hours of whining, I'll go hang out with a 4 year-old.

Fritz

High Gas Prices

I am so sick and tired of paying these outrageous gas prices. The other day I saw that the price of gas near where I live had dropped, (DROPPED!!) to $2.85 per gallon. $2.85 per gallon! Those fat, rich oil companies keep getting greedier and greedier! It seems to me that making us hard-working Americans pay $2.85 per gallon of gas is virtually a crime against humanity!

A child in the Darfur region had his face bashed in, presumably with a rifle butt during a massacre in Hamada.

Let’s do some math here. If and average car gets 20 miles per gallon and drives 15,000 miles per year, you will use 750 gallons of fuel per year. Now, we were ok when gas was $2.00 per gallon, but let’s see what that .85 per gallon hike costs us!

Darfur Child Starving

$562.50! That is right, it costs us $562.50 per year! That is $46.88 per month! How do these bigwigs expect us to pay that! There are bleeding us dry! They are killing our retirement funds!

How are we supposed to go on living like this?

Another Darfur Child

It is time we stand up for ourselves! It is time we demand that the government protect us from the evils of high gas prices! This is the greatest crisis we have ever faced. And the politicians do nothing about it.

Time for action!

This man was castrated before he was shot in the head

If we send our politicians an email a day, maybe we will get through. Maybe we will move them to action to protect us from disaster. Please everyone, I beg of you, email your congressman, send letters to your senator…hurry, before it is too late.

My goodness we whine a lot.

Fritz

Saying Yes

I wrote in a previous post regarding a co-worker whose brother was seriously injured in a car accident. I prayed for his recovery, yet I didn’t really feel like I believed that a miracle would happen. Deep inside I was pretty certain that he would not be healed.

It isn’t that I don’t believe that God can heal; I just seem to have problems believing that he will. I prayed for my mother to be healed, with a no answer, I prayed for a 2 year-old girl and she was taken. I begged for healing for a 16 year-old in my church and was denied. I started to believe that God would not act.

But one day, this young man suddenly woke up. He is home now and recovering. He still has tons of therapy to go through, but he is alive, able to talk, tie his shoes, walk, etc. A miracle did indeed happen. From the fireman at the scene of the accident stating, “the fact that these boys are alive is proof that there is a God.” To the doctors who didn’t seem to give much hope for survival, there is plenty of evidence that a miracle did indeed occur.

So the next time I am praying for healing for someone, there will indeed be just a little more pep in me because I know now that while sometimes, maybe even most times, God says no, there are those wonderful times when He says “yes.”

To My Family

This is a letter I wrote to my family, please take time to hug your own family members and tell them that you love them, you never know when it will be your last time.



Over the past 6 months I have been to a funeral for a 3-year old, watched a 16 year-old young man waste away and had to attend his funeral as well, and now, spent much of the past week in prayer for a brother of someone who works here. The car he was in was struck by a drunk driver driving approximately 25 mph over the speed limit.

Today is very crucial for him, and things do not look all that good, but please pray for a miracle.


This made me think and realize more that each day is not to be taken for granted. That we get tomorrow only because God has deemed it best, and at any moment one of us could be taken home. I was talking to someone at work who had lost her mother at a young age as well and I was remarking how I had no regrets since she always knew that I loved her, and I knew that she loved me. There are not unsaid things I wish I would have said, because we, as a family, always told each other though our words and actions that we genuinely love each other.

Let me just take this moment to say to you all that I love you all, and no one has been more blessed than I to have such a great family. I wouldn't trade any of our moments together for anything. Quick walk down memory lane:

Brother #1: Sword fighting with yellow wiffle bats.

Sister #1: Cutting the hair off of your Rainbow Brite fuzzy creature

Sister #2: umm....Any memories that don't end with us getting in trouble? How about using the sofa cushion to sled down the stairs!

Sister #3: You grabbing a broomstick, me lifting you up and smacking you into the refrigerator while you laughed gleefully the whole time.

Dad: While I enjoy our golf outings, what I will always cherish are the times when you would play football with us...except for the time Brother #1 broke his collarbone I guess. You always made time for us, thanks.

I do not believe that any family could be better than the one I'm in.

I love you all and look forward to our gathering 4th of July weekend.

Fritz

Mother's Day - Part 2

There are quite a few holidays that I don’t feel sad about my Mother not being there. Last Mother’s Day even I don’t think I was too distraught. This year though, for some reason, I really miss her. It isn’t a debilitating sadness that makes you unable to do much of anything, it is more just the constant reminder and pain that she isn’t here anymore.

I recently re-read a series that she used to read to us when we were younger, I could hear her doing the various voices for the characters in my head.

July 19^th, 2003 was such a long day. I don’t remember all of it even, but there are things engraved into my mind.

My grandmother saying, “I don’t want to lose another daughter!”

“Well, that’s it then,” my father said before he collapsed in tears.

I remember squeezing my mother’s cold hand, hoping that if I could warm it up she would somehow wake up again.

“It is never a good time to lose a parent,” stated the note my mother had written my uncle, but hadn’t had a chance to mail yet.

My second youngest sister and her family coming back into the hospital tears streaming down her face asking, “What happened?”

At that moment I realized that none of us had wanted to believe that she was actually leaving us.

One of the strange things was that the last time I saw her alive was actually in New Jersey of all places. We were celebrating my aunt’s wedding so the whole family was out there. We were swimming in my grandfather’s pool and Mom joined us, just like she had for all those years when we were growing up.

My parents were always involved in our lives, that is what made them such great parents.

I remember being in the pool, my mother had gotten out and she and Dad came back out to say good night. We were all heading back to Pennsylvania the next day so we all wanted to make sure to say our “Love Yous” and “Have a safe trips.”

How is that for your last memory of your mother, in a swimming pool in New Jersey. Proof that there is a God and He has a sense of humor.

I miss you, Mom.

Mother's Day - Part 1

Cure My Tragedy

Cold

Every little thing that I ever did,

You would stand by me.

Every time you cried it would take my wind,

My heart would break.

If I could be strong like you were for me,

You are my faith.

Won’t you cure my tragedy,

Won’t you cure my tragedy.

Don’t take her smile away from me,

She’s broken and I’m far away.

If you made the world a stage for me,

Then I hope that you can hear me scream.

Can you hear me scream?

Can you hear me scream?

The Baby

(Harley Allen/Michael White)



My brother said that I

was rotten to the core.

I was the youngest child,

so I got by with more.



I guess she was tired by

the time I came along.

She'd laugh until she cried,

I could do no wrong.

She would always save me,

because I was her baby.



I worked a factory in Ohio,

a shrimp boat in the Bayou,

I drove a truck in Birmingham.

Turned 21 in Cincinnati,

I called home to mom and daddy,

I said "Your boy is now a man."

She said "I don't care if you're 80,

you'll always be my baby."



She loved that photograph,

of our whole family.

She'd always point us out,

for all her friends to see.



That's Greg he's doing great,

he really loves his job.

And Ronnie with his 2 kids,

how 'bout that wife he's got.

And that one's kinda crazy,

but that one is my baby.



I got a call in Alabama,

said come on home to Louisianna

and come as fast as you can fly.

Cause your momma really needs you,

and says she's got to see you,

she might not make it through the night.

The whole way I drove 80

so she could see her baby.



She looked like she was sleepin'

and my family had been weepin'

by the time that I got to her side.

And I knew that she'd been taken,

and my heart it was breakin',

I never got to say goodbye.



I softly kissed that lady

and cried just like a baby.

Full Color

P.O.D.

I guess, you always knew what was best

Believed in your God, til the very last breath

You showed me how strong you can be

If Jesus saved your life, could he do it for me?

I'll lay down my life for you and for Him

Believe God's promise, I'm gonna see you again

Dear me, dear me.....what have I done?

Hail Mary, full of words, blessed above other bloggers art thou.

It has been nearly a month since my last blog post....I know I should have been here sooner, but not all that much exciting happened.....

No really, nothing did...well, if you insist.

I did manage to hit my first chip-in on a golf course. Hmm? Any details? It's a little foggy, but let's see.

11th hole at Parkview, Par 5, and I chipped it in from the rough to the right of the green....oh and it was for birdie.

Well, I guess that was exciting...anything else?

Want to hear why I hate Lowe's?

Good.

In the basement of my house there are 3 rooms. The main big room that the computer is in along with a cubby that I have the TV and three chairs resting at. There is also the utility room that the garage door leads into and holds my washer, dryer, hot water tank, etc.

And there is the storm room. This room has no windows and is in the basement, perfect for hiding from those nasty tornados that enjoy hopping over my house. Although I do prefer them hopping me than running through the little town I call home.

Anyway, the storm room had no door, even though I have lived in the house for several months and had put a door up for the utility room, and even bought one for the storm room, it had no door.

"Why is that?" you might ask.

Well, a huge, steel support beam cuts through the center of the house making the doorway 77" tall, which is 3" shorter than standard doorways. This makes getting a door a real pain. My choices were to remove the support beam, or get a shorter door.

Lowe's does custom doors, so I headed there. My father-in-law and myself measured the doorway four times to ensure the proper measurements.

I read the measurements to the meth head behind the desk at Lowe's and he punched them into the computer.

"We will have your door in 17 days," he told me.

17 days! I wanted this thing made out of wood, not stone. But that was the best he could do, and since I could tell he was needing a crack break I agreed.

(At this point, go listen to a song that you like)

- - - - - Musical Interlude - - - - - -


19 Days Later......

I look at the clock on my phone.....20 minutes have passed since I first was put on hold by the Wal-Mart reject at the front desk.

Finally someone picks up the phone and informs me that my door should be in on next week's truck. The person sounded a little math deficient so I refrained from informing him that 24 days is longer than 17 days.....

My father came out to visit us, rather exciting! We played golf, and on Friday took Brother #1's van to pick up my door.

I marched to the front desk and informed the lady that I was there to pick up my door, I filled out the necessary papers and was told to pull my vehicle up to the front of the store and someone would bring my door out shortly.

14 minutes later.....

I marched to the front desk and informed the lady that I was there waiting for one of the stock clerks to bring my door to me. Just then an 80-year old gentleman wearing a Lowe's flotation device hobbled to the front desk and asked what door he was supposed to bring forward.

Reassured that the old-geezer would soon have my door to me I went back outside to wait....

11 minutes later.....

I marched to the front desk and informed the gentleman that I had been waiting for 25 minutes for my door to be brought to me outside the store. He asked the lady what was going and she replied (and I quote) "I sent Ron back for it..." she then tried to turn away and go back to whatever solitaire game she was playing.

Burn in the fire of Home Depot lady!!!!

The guy was much more professional than the Wal-MArt reject lady and he promised to go get Ron and have my door brought out immediately.

Which is was. Would have been nice if that had been done 30 MINUTES EARLIER!

I take the door home and the next day, since it was raining and we couldn't go golfing anyway, my father and I put the door in....

It fit very easily since it was 3" narrower than we needed it....

Lowe's wasted 20 minutes of my time on the phone, made me wait 24 days for the door to get in, wasted 30 minutes of my life standing outside the store, all for a door that didn't fit the doorway.

I hate Lowe's....

Miscellaneous Drivel

Quote of the Moment:

Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.
- Jeff Valdez

Pirates Update:

They stink.

Pie Rats Update:

I managed to pull off a tie somehow...

Golf Update:

I went golfing on Saturday. It was fun. Since it was the first time I touched many of the clubs this year, I gave myself a few mulligans on particularly wretched shots. I ended with a 53 on the front 9. I was pretty happy. I'm hoping by the end of the year to consistently shoot in the 40s. I putted ok, averaged 2.1 putts per hole, and almost drained a long one from the fringe.

Good for the Soul?

The most important thing to remember about the game of golf is this: Golf hates you. It hates you with a passion. Once you come to that understanding you can actually enjoy yourself a little more.

I say this because I went out and hit some golf balls yesterday…..in shorts…..and was mildly warm still. I know the people in Erie donÂ’t want to hear this due to them having SNOW on the ground still, but the story must be told!

Most times after I hit the ball I would mutter to myself, most often "“heel!"” No, I was not cursing with a Southern accent, I was merely expressing my disdain towards myself for constantly swinging out too far and hitting the ball with the heel of the club, this causes the ball to fly to the left, since I am a left - handed golfer, it also spins to the left, causing more leftward movement. Not good.

But, as I retrained myself on how to hit the ball properly, and how to not sway back as I pulled the club back, I began hitting the ball straight again. I was pretty happy.

Over this past tax season I did some people'’s taxes, I made enough to be able to purchase a membership to the Pekin Park District. No more paying each time, I pay up front and save some cash. And if I want to just do 5 holes, that is fine! Or just play the back 9, I can do it! I canÂ’t wait to get out there…..I sure hope it is nice this Saturday.

SaturdayÂ's Forecast: Sunny…high of 50. Wear a jacket and you will be fine.

I am so there.

Saddam's Secrets (A Review)

Saddam's Secrets

by General Georges Sada


General Sada is a general in the Iraqi air force. He served loyally from 1968 through the mid-80s when he was forced to retire since he refused to join the Baath party.

He was called back to active duty for the first Gulf War and he was put in charge of many of the POWs. He single handedly saved all the POWs in his jurisdiction by refusing the demand of Qusay to have them all executed, even though he was thrown in prison and was going to be killed himself for it.

One of his accomplishments that he is proudest of is that of the 606 Kuwaiti POWs held in Iraq, the only one to survive Iraqi imprisonment and torture was the one under Sada's authority.

When we talk about great men we forget what greatness is at times, but how many lives did General Sada save by standing up to Saddam as he did, even though he risked his own life to do it.

It is not the best written book, Sada is a military man and English is not his first language, but it is easy to read and very interesting.

4 out of 5

You may notice that this was a different score yesterday, I didn't mean to type 5 out of 5, I just did for some reason, at least it is fixed now.

Also, with baseball season starting I know many of you are wondering how the Pirates will be doing and how my fantasy team (the Pie Rats) are. I will be having weekly reports on both of them so have no fear!

I so can not believe that you just outed yourself like that...a fantasy sports team? How big a geek are you?

Matress from Purgatory

So.....the new mattress arrived a few days ago. DHL delivered it, when it arrived it appeared that DHL had used it to test out knives and other sharp pointy things. In short, it looked like Bruce Willis at the end of Die Hard.

Well, not that bad, in fact it appears to be fine, the company is sending a new cover and giving us a discount.

They have also promised that the DHL driver who delivered the mattress and put it in such a way that the gaping wounds would be hidden, would be shot. Repeatedly.


I hate people, was he going to lose his job if he admitted that the mattress was not in the shape that it started its journey in? What a lack of caring, in stead of pointing out the damage, he hid it!

DHL.....

Scum of the earth. Do not ever use DHL if you can help it.

Anyway, the mattress is a foam mattress and it arrives vacuum sealed and rolled up. The company said that after opening it would take 2 hours for it to fluff up. I didn't believe that it would be that short of a time, neither did Wife #1. We decided to open it in the basement, let it fluff out over night, then move it upstairs.

Great plan!

It is now stuck in the basement since I can't fold it in half while moving it up the stairs at the same time. Brother #1 and Sister #3 are coming over this weekend to help me. I wonder if Brother #1 told her yet?

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! This mattress appears to be perfect for us, firm enough for me while comfy enough for Wife #1's back. She slept on it last night, had a little slumber party with Merlin and Morgan while Arthur and I slept near the alarm clock. Poor Percy is still stuck in the sick room.

All I need to do now is actually get it to the bedroom....one step at a time...one slow step at a time...

A Sick Cat

Percy is sick.

Percy is on the right, Merlin on the left

I hate it when one of the cats gets sick. They aren’t able to tell us how bad off they are, or if it is just a slight upset stomach. After the Merlin situation I am always more paranoid about the health of the cats.

I was not a cat person, I didn’t care if we had a cat or not in the beginning. I am an animal person though, I acknowledge the fact that our dominion over Creation means that we are not to cause unnecessary pain or injury to an animal.

A few days after we had adopted Merlin, we were upstairs and we heard a tremendous thrashing downstairs. Being the brave man-

Umm…sure…

-that I am I went downstairs to see what the ruckus was.

Merlin had gotten a bag caught around his neck, and the bag was stuck in between the legs of one of the barstools we had at the breakfast bar.

The more he struggled to get free, the worst it became for him. I raced over to him and held him to keep him calm as I called for Wife #1 to brings scissors. We gently, and oh so carefully, cut the bag away from his neck.

At that moment I realized that Merlin couldn’t take care of himself. He needed us to keep him safe, sure he could attempt to live on his own outside, but that would be a miserable existence.

Kind of a picture of how we need God, eh?

When Merlin got really sick due to him missing his brother immensely, I realized that these are not mere dumb animals. They have their own behaviors, their own way of doing things, and they really care about each other.

His Highness, His Chubbiness, King Arthur

Arthur is the protector of the other cats, he has heard one of the other cats calling out, either in pain or just out of loneliness, and he races over to them to make certain they are ok.

The Little Princess

Morgan gets treated specially by the other cats, they will clean her, but she only cleans Wife #1 while she is trying to sleep…..not exactly the way that she would like Morgan to show her affection. Let me just add that she is not in a laundry basket in the above picture. We have a small basket that she and Percy love to sleep in, she is not a 50lb cat yet.

So Percy is sick, locked off from the rest of his family, he is the most affectionate cat of the four, he loves physical contact, he rarely will be by himself and, unless asleep, he will usually be near to another cat or one of his slaves (Wife #1 and myself).

He is getting better, I have prayed that he would get healthy. Since he is the runt I always fear that he is more sickly somehow and that an illness that other cats can recover from he won’t be able too.

Sometimes I try to recall what it was like out our happy home without the cats, and I can’t really remember what it was like. When the cats are all at the vet for a check-up or the breeder to get shaved, the house seems empty and quiet. I don’t really want to go back to the time before pets.

I’m still not really a cat person, I just like these cats.

Sure you aren’t, sure you aren’t

Sister #2 Enters the Fray

I have added a new link, Sister #2 has started a blog so I have added her to my links. Yes!! Another blog to forget about and feel guilty for not reading often enough!

And it looks so pretty in pink.!

Mattress from Hell

As many of you know Wife #1 has bad back problems. We have gone to many different doctors to little or no avail. One option we thought of was to buy a better mattress. The best mattress even! A Sleepnumber Bed! Well, at least a knock-off.

We received the mattress on the 13^th of February and I immediately put it together. Yes, you read that correctly, you have to put the mattress together. It took me an hour or so, plus I had to move the old king sized mattress off the bed and to another room by myself. It was all rather tiring.

Of course, as we could all foresee, the pump to inflate the air chambers was broken. I then had to move partially put together mattress to another room and muscle the old mattress back on the bed.

The new pump arrived on Thursday, so again I muscled the old mattress off the bed and got the new one put together. The pump worked! Our bed was ready to be slept on! What a wonderful day!

Friday Morning

I awaken with a stiff back. Dumb me, I had the mattress too soft, I just need to inflate it more.

Saturday Morning

Again, an aching back, I will have to remember to inflate it more so I get some support for my back.

Sunday Morning

I must have slept for too long since my back is really hurting; maybe I still have it too soft?

Monday Morning

I can barely get out of bed. I am in so much pain, of course I can’t really complain about it to Wife #1, I think the bed is helping her back feel better. I just need to figure out how to come up with an excuse to sleep on something else other than this, a bed of nails would feel better.

Monday Evening

Wife #1 finds out I hate the bed. I find out that she isn’t all that fond of it either. I take it apart and pack it up. This is awful. The boxes are too small for this thing to fit into, unless I really compress the parts, so I end up kneeling on a roll of foam tying a phone cord around it so that it won’t burst the box open anymore than it already has.

Final cost for this wonderbed? $150 to have it shipped to us, $150 to have it shipped back to them. The lady at the company was very nice and told us that we shouldn’t have to pay any restocking fee, which would have been around $200. And my back is still recovering from sleeping on it for four nights.

I was talking to a chum at work who had recently purchased a new driver (a golf club). As any married golfer knows when you want to get a golf club, you need to have an ace up your sleeve. He had agreed that his wife could purchase a new piano with most of their tax refund…..

CHA-CHING!!

New golf club baby!!

I can now hold this over Wife #1 so next time I want a golf club all I have to do is refer to the mattress from hell, the money spent on it, the pain it caused me, and the amount of time I spent putting it together TWICE, and taking it apart TWICE. In others words….

CH-CHING!

New R-7 baby!!

My Deepest and Most Insincere Apologies

Looks like I had something to say again! Rejoice people! Rejoice! I have returned!

This will make four posts today, I would promise to try and write more, but I'm sure that not only would I break that promise, you wouldn't care if I did.

I know I wouldn't care.

So Long, Reverend Red Hed!

In my life I have had to endure leaving (or being left by) many people. The amount of people I have left due to changing jobs is enormous. So I’m used to saying goodbye to co-workers.

Last Friday was the last day for a guy here at work, the Red Hed Rev, so we had a going away party for him, as we have done before, then we said goodbye and he left….although I will see him Wednesday to give him a final check. One difference though:

I actually liked him.

He had that slightly caustic sense of humor that I enjoy so much in myself and others. It is much easier to say good-bye to that schmuck who irritates you on a daily basis than to see someone leave who had restored your love of basketball by organizing a get together to play ball. We would have had more I’m sure except for his wife’s pesky pregnancy thing. Those seem to ruin everything.

The Red Hed Rev was actually the first person I met here at my job. Other than Brother #1 of course, but as all older brothers should know by know, to us younger brothers, you really don’t count.

I had a job interview here and even though I knew there was a casual atmosphere I was still showing up in my suit and tie.

His cubicle was the first one inside the door. He looked a little surprised to see someone in a suit there and I realize now that he probably thought I was a salesman of some sort.

Anyway, we will miss you, and I’m positive that God will only do good things for you and your family because of your long awaited church.

When the Best Words are Nothing

There is a guy I work with here, his three-year-old daughter died last night. She was very ill, but this was unexpected.

I don’t know the details, but they don’t really matter. What I do know is that he will hear ten thousand times that God is good, and this is all according to His plan, and words like that. The big question is though, why will he hear the same thing from so many different people?

It is because we want to help, we want to help ease his sorrow and suffering, so we remind him of God’s promises, which is good, but he won’t be hearing that from me. Dealing with all the effects from Wife #1’s back problems has made me grow weary of hearing constantly that everything is going according to God’s plan. But why say the same thing over and over and over? I don’t need to hear this from person after person in a half hour span.

It is because we want to say the right thing to help, yet what we really need to do is shut up and listen. In most cases we don’t have the right words, if they sound trite to your ears I guarantee you they are sounding trite to his. What someone who is suffering needs sometimes is just to be listened to. That is becoming a rare thing these days; someone who can listen and not throw his two cents in, it is something that I try to work on myself.

So when he gets back, I will ask him how he is, how his wife is and if there is anything I can do to help. I know many others will say the same things, but I am going to try really hard to actually listen to his answers, that is what is needed most more often than not.

Side thought:

One of the things I love about working where I do is that we all stopped working and gathered to pray for a while for our Brother. Work was put on hold while we all prayed, silently and aloud. It was a moving experience.