A Better Life

Saturday started out extremely distressed. Woke up with a headache and sinus problems which resulted in an overwhelming feeling of dread over the lack of results given my recent delving into the world of article writing. I hesitate to refer to it as article marketing at this point. As the day progressed, I was able to get on a better footing after allergy medicine and a couple of maximum strength pain relievers. So, to kick things off I put on the Metallica - Some Kind of Monster DVD and went to work on a list of article ideas to see if I could come up with some feasible ideas. Not bad but they will need to be reworked before I can even think about submitting them as an original work of mine. I did get a couple of texts from my brother James so I worked on getting the apartment in some kind of order. I have concluded that I shouldn't even attempt to try anything creative until after noon. Before noon, nothing is happening. Early afternoon and I am good to go. I came up w...

Way back in 1979, when I first started going to Bible College (Baptist Bible College to be specific in Springfield, Missouri) I was introduced to the idea of Contemporary Christian Music through Amy Grant. Not a bad start given her phenomenal success that would come along later. The issue was that I really enjoyed my rock music and it was causing some consternation with my fellow students and the administration. My good room mate, Marty was kind enough to turn me on to the sweet sounds of Amy Grant and others in this burgeoning genre of music. I also picked up on Contemporary Jazz through Chuck Mangione (I did have a tendency to stumble on to the greats in the genres of choice) but that is for another day. I also started listening to Keith Green, Tim Shephard, the Cruse Family, Petra, etc. which gave me music I could actually relate to not like the rock music of the day. Never did drugs, slept around or crashed cars (Detroit Rock City for you Kiss fans never really applied to me). So, ...

As happens from time to time, my wife inadvertently broke the screen on her new iPhone XS. Innocently enough, she just dropped her phone in her purse, then Bam! Pow! Wham! the screen was broke.  The iPhone XS, not as resilient as her iPhone 7, just wasn’t up to the task of handling the impact on the corner of the phone. See, this is why a wrap around screen is just not a good idea. Being the indecisive lot, she hadn’t settled on a case to our dismay. So, I filed the claim and eventually (3 weeks for the entire process) we did receive the new phone. Well, not exactly new, refurbished actually and not in the color I had listed on the claim form. Instead of gold, they sent one in black. No recourse really, so on we go with this replacement phone. Another issue was, although it is a good idea to provide a case (clear, good for drops up to 10 feet), it would have been better if they had sent a case that would fit the phone. A case for an iPhone XS Max will not fit an iPhone XS. Jus...

So a few years ago, a weekend was planned with some trepidation. It seemed simple enough. I was going to visit my parents at their home in my home town. I would be taking my mother grocery shopping and then I was to plow up a good bit of their yard (their house sits on about an acre of land). So no problem right? Not so much. First of all, I took off work Friday so I would plenty of time to do what I needed to do and make it back home Saturday night to see my girlfriend who is amazingly understanding about me having to visit my parents. So, just to get things going I leave early on Thursday because it is always hectic getting everything around for a longer stay with my parents. Should I take just the laptop, laptop and 24" monitor or ditch the laptop and take my Mac Pro which is heavy, bulky but so much more fun than my PC laptop (Windows 7 is not my favorite by any means). So, being tired from the craziness of work and after work activities, I just grabbed the laptop, some clot...

This is a cautionary tale of taking steps but not following through and seeing someone else reap the benefits. So, a little history is in order. While separated from my wife on a slow boat to divorce (2-year separation) I started setting up blogs to document the lessons I was learning going through the divorce process. I bought several domain names over several months. One of those domains was to indulge my interest in herb gardening and cooking with herbs. I had even written an article about taking an interest and turning it into a website. As time went on, my writing increased and I kept thinking I was going to do something about this herb website but alas that day never came. I agreed to go to counseling which resulted in a massive loss in confidence and so all writing ceased for months. Today I was going through the domains and websites I had had and realized that one of my domains had been lost, sold and the person who bought had made the dream I had a reality. They had artic...

Just as a house has rooms for specific purposes, your life should have these same "rooms" for very specific purposes. Ever wonder why all houses have the same basic rooms? Our shelter reflects elements we need in each of our lives. You need a kitchen/dining room, a living room, a family room (or den as some would call it), a bedroom and a bathroom. Kitchen/Dining Room - Every house must have a place to prepare and consume nourishment, whether it be a cookie or a 6-course meal. The need for nourishment is the key to survival. Without nourishment, we would perish. We need a regular intake of food to provide energy for the necessary and sometimes unnecessary activities in our life. Ever feel sluggish? Time to visit the kitchen/dining room of our life to take in more energy. If your car runs out of fuel what happens? It stops, won't go, becomes pretty much useless. We are the same, without nourishment we stop and become all but useless. Living room - Just as we need physi...

A few years ago I had this very difficult week which turned out to be one of the most difficult weeks I had since my step-father passed away. This includes the 2 years of anguish I suffered that culminated in my divorce.  First I had lost a cousin I grew up with.  We would go over to his house to play, he would come over to our house.  We went through Junior High and High School together.  I knew his wife, sister and his mother is one of my favorite aunts.  As losses go, this was a hard one.  He was was also one of my step-father's favorite nephews.  My cousin worked for the railroad, the same one my step-father worked for and enjoyed very much.  The other thing is my cousin's father died when he was a baby and was someone my step-father admired.  My cousins' father had been fighting in Korea and contracted a disease which presented itself as cancer which also killed my cousin and is now affecting his sister. So, going to a funeral which wa...