"Greetings from California"

*note: Photo taken from the car while driving through California

Thanks to all who donated to help us get the car in shape and make the trip! We arrived safely yesterday at about 4:00pm Cali-time. I learned something while driving my family 2000 miles from home... Dring 120MPH is AWESOME! It wasn't on purpose, at least not the first few times. See, the car used to shake pretty bad once it got up to 60MPH. Last week, we had a new set of nitrogen-filled tires installed and had the alignment correct, again, thanks to donations. Now, the steering is solid, no shaking at all. So, I am just driving and watching the road, not paying any attention at all to the speed because I am just used to that shaking meaning that I am around 60MPH. Cathy tells me I need to slow down, so I look at the odometern and realize how fast we were going. The kids enjoyed it while it lasted, but I have to be very mindful of my speed, it is so easy to hit over 100 without even knowing it!

The family is glad to see us. We're staying with them for the week and leaving out Friday afternoon.
Its good to be here, but I can't wait to get back home. Man, that was a long drive...

Later, and God bless,
-myk

"Help Send Cathy to Cali for Christmas"

Need a little help sending the Mrs. to California to visit her family this Christmas.
Details HERE

Thanks, and God bless,
-myk

"We're number one!"

I received a call today from a man in Greeley, Colorado. He was looking for someone to help a family member of his here in Jackson, TN with some computer problems. This was interesting because of a few things. First, Greelel, Colorado is leterally halfway across the country from here. Second, I have a friend who recently moved from Jackson, TN to.... you guess it.. Greeley, Colorado. I thought maybe had had given me a referral or something. I asked the gentleman if he had heard about us from this friend of mine. The gentleman confessed he had never heard the name before, and advised he had simply googled for computer repair in Jackson, TN.
I did a little search of my own to find that my little computer repair "company" is number one on Google and Yahoo when searching for "computer repair jackson tn" or many various combinations of that.
Awesome.... Must be God, because I haven't paid anybody anything to earn that rating. I simply insert my website into my profile on many of the forums I frequent. Perhaps the spiders work in your favor the more places your name appears. A similar concept would be that of a store front. If you own a store with your name on a sign out front, that is one place in the world where your name can be viewed and it limits the amount of people who see you to those who drive past your store. However, if you begin to "tag" places all over town with your name, all of a sudden it increases your visibility exponentially... Weird how the internet works..

-myk

"Cows and computers shouldn't breed together..."

Just rant..

I own a 3 month old Gateway M-6881 laptop. Nice machine, actually. Those of you who know me know I use Linux. On this laptop, I have a dual boot setup, with about 60GB allocated to Vista and the remaining 190GB allocated to Ubuntu 8.10. I use Windows pretty much only for my Line 6 software that helps with editing patches on my guitar equipment. I also have a separate 250GB hard drive that is Vista only, and I have that just in case I have to ship the thing for warranty work or something..

On to my problem. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been burning a LOT of coasters. This past weekend, I did some testing by attempting to burn some data in Windows and try to burn from Linux as well... The results showed that the drive is in fact faulty. I get the occasional successful burn, but about 75% of my burn attempts were coasters, no matter what. In Windows, I got burn problems with WMP11, Roxio 10.1, Nero, or the built in Windows burning utility... In Linux, i get errors with Brasero, Nautilus, or K3B, with approximately the same 75% failure rate. This proves that the problem exists regardless of operating system or application. So I started a chat with a Gateway tech named Dalton. Told him the same story I told above and said that I would like to request a replacement drive, since the drive replacement is one screw and does not require an invasive repair. I do not wish to send my laptop in and have it down for 6-8 weeks when I can replace the drive myself in about 3 minutes.. He tells me they do not support Linux. I explain that I am not looking for OS support, I have a failing drive.. He insists that he cannot help me unless I am using Vista.. I told him i would be back in one minute.. Rebooted the system and booted into Vista, got the same clown, had to explain the same story again.. He has me to install a remote support tool to allow him to admin my computer from wherever he was. I humored him and told him I would do whatever I needed to do to get my drive, the system is under warranty and all.. He pokes around in the registry looking for God know what, checks some running services, looks at the device manager, then asks me to put in a blank CD, which I did.. Immediately an error pops up that some other application is using the device when he clicks on "Burn Data using WIndows". I explained to him that WMP11 is the device in question and he needs to close that if he wants to burn a data cd.. He asks me to eject the disk.. We go through this 3 times before I just closed WMP for him and asked HIM to try again So the Windows burning dialog finally opens up, he copies some data over, about 300MB, and proceeds to burn.. And it completes.. He says the drive is fine and terminates the session..

This irritates me because the problem is not resolved. I told him in the beginning that it is INTERMITTENT, and that I had just burned 2 coasters right before starting the session. So I called Gateway to speak with customer service. I got a nice lady on the phone who actually listened to me. I was sure to report the name and badge number of the jerk i had spoken with earlier, and briefly explained my problem, being sure to give details, etc... She apologizes for the trouble, gives me an incident number, and tells me my replacement drive is on the way... I ask her, "Why didn't the other guy do that? This is all i asked for in the first place, and it is not an outlandish request, as it is saving your company money and labor to not have a service center install this drive for me." She says " I guess he just doesn't know how to do his job properly, I apologize for the inconvenience, Mr. Robinson."

Why cant all customer service reps be like this woman???

-myk

"Vaults..."

Some things arent meant to be shared... I guess a few things just need to stay locked up...


anyway, not much to say today...

-me

"So you think you can dance...."

No words of wisdom today, just a funny as heck video clip of Obama and McCain in a dance of with a special guest challenger at the end.

Enjoy

"Yes, We Do Windows"

Started off the morning like any other morning, getting up and getting myself ready, as well as waking up my son so he can get ready for school. We did our usual, read our daily devotional, took out the trash, and went to get in the truck. We usually pray together in the truck. However ,we were surprised this morning to find the driver's side window smashed on my truck and my GPS was missing...

Oh, well... Guess someone needed it more than I do. I'm just happy to say that I handled myself well and didn't get upset... Hope that was the only test I'll face today, cause replacing this window is gonna cost me a bit :(
Don't need anymore negative surprises.

Later, and God bless
-myk

Tomorrow's the big day...

Election day.. Gonna be a big one. They're closing down the local schools here in Madison County, presumably due to heightened security issues, since they're using several of the schools for polling places. I missed out on the early voting, and hope to the good Lord that tomorrow I wont be waiting in line for six hours or something. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate and value my right to vote. Just seems that technology-wise, they should have come up with something better than early voting to help alleviate the line problem. Early voting in and of itself seems kind of odd.. I guess my thought is if I had voted for a certain candidate three weeks ago only to find out today that he has announced that he will force all citizens to bow down and worship him every hour on the hour,all of a sudden I would be feeling real silly about not waiting for all the facts to come out before casting my ballot.
That being said, I am still very uneasy about this one. Its tough for me to make a decision. Both of the primary candidates have made some good points and some bad points. Maybe they should just fight it out, Final Fantasy style. I found the picture to the right this morning, looks like the old-school Final Fantasy game on Game Boy Color. Good stuff indeed..
I guess I'll close by saying, whomever you choose to vote for, be sure to exercise your right to do so. A lot of people gave their lives to give us the ability to choose who we would prefer to run our country. This is your chance to use your voice. And no matter who wins the election, keep in mind that we serve a much higher Power who will keep us and guide us regardless of the man who is elected to office.

Later, and God bless
--myk

"The Good Doctor...."

Well, well, well.... I had a letter in the mail from yesterday that I had been avoiding.. It was from the local hospital. I have been getting them for several months ever since the "Little Black Man versus the Stones" incident where I had kidney stones on an early Sunday morning... That little trip cost me almost $4000, of which I have paid the $50 they asked for at the emergency room that day...

I filled out some papers when I received the first bill. There was a notice that if you did not have health insurance or were not able to afford the bill to call the number and talk with them. So I called and they mailed me the aforementioned papers to provide them details about my financial status. They required proof of income for the year to date, bank statements, and income tax forms from 2007, all of which I happened to have, so I gladly copied them and sent them in.

I thought they had gotten lost or something, because I had still been receiving these bills for the past two months..
I just ignored the letter yesterday, because I didn't want to get depressed looking at that bill.. Plus I was thinking, I haven't paid them anything since June, this is probably a threatening letter where they offer to put the kidney stones back in if I don't pay up..

Not sure why I decided to grab it this morning, but I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it, versus just throwing it away like I usually do :) .

The letter said "We have received your paperwork for the indigent care program. We have reviewed your paperwork, and the application has been approved. We have forgiven the balance, and you are no longer responsible for paying any amount on this account. Thank you for your cooperation."

Is that awesome or what? God is definitely good. You know, its good that this headache has been removed, but I'm not sure I like the word "indigent." I had to look it up. because I really wasn't sure what it meant... I mean, I had an idea, but I didn't think it was such a derogatory word.
dictionary.com shows the word to mean:

in·di·gent /ˈɪndɪdʒənt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[in-di-juhnt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –adjective

1.	lacking food, clothing, and other necessities of life because of poverty; needy; poor; impoverished.

I'm so glad that God says otherwise.... We're not poor by any stretch of the imagination, I just don't have a spare $4000 right now! But, thank God that I no longer need a spare $4000.

Later,
and God bless,
-myk

Kingdom Economics 101...

A bit of deviation from my usual type of posting.. A little more on a serious note, although there'll probably be at least one funny in there somewhere..

A quick look at the headlines today shows that supposedly the world is in a panic because of financial situations on Wall Street which are effecting the rest of the world. Admittedly, I don't know much about finance. Never had a lot of money, so I historically have never paid attention when the news turns to stories of fast approaching regression and the like. This time its different. Not because I have a lot of money now and am worried about what's going to happen with my stocks.. Actually, I don't have any stocks and still don't have a lot of money.. The biggest difference this time around is my perspective...

I would be lying if I said I'm not concerned. I am human, I have a family to feed and bills to pay. However, being a servant of the Most High, we need to understand that we are not subject to the financial principles of this world, as we belong to a higher Kingdom with an Economy that is all together different. By no means is this a prosperity message, so toss that out now before we get any further... Better yet, let's touch on that for a second.. Since when did prosperity become synonymous with abundant wealth? Granted, prosperity can mean great wealth, but I have met so many people with little monetary gain, but were most definitely prosperous. Anyway, more to the point, I think what I really want to say is this...

As God's people, now is most definitely a time for us to shine. In a time where the world is on the verge of committing suicide because their stock value has bottomed out, we can boldly stand strong, knowing that our God will supply all our needs. Philippians 4:19 says in the Message translation:
You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes.

This is a perfect time for us to show the power of God at work. Not that we wont face difficult times ahead as well, but we can face them with a certain amount of surety, knowing full well that God is still on the throne regardless of what is in our pockets. This type of stability in shaky times will cause the world to stop for a moment to see why we are not shaken. This is an opportune time to share the basis of our faith. This is a time, I believe, when God will use an unfortunate situation to show His good fortune, His faithfulness, His love, His mercy... We can use this time to help turn people's attention away from the gold and silver gods who have deserted them and focus them on the Living God who will never leave you or forsake you.

In lieu of all this, it is time for me to try to get some work done. I haven't done much income producing work this week, but we're still doing fine. This message is for me just as well as anyone else. Be sure to keep our communities up in prayer in the weeks and months ahead. Let's focus our prayers on seeing people come to know Jesus in the midst of this "turmoil." Also, let us be sure that those who come in this time are not "jailhouse conversions," but be sure to follow up and disciple them so that they stay in the faith, even when and especially when the good times come. Too many turn to God during trouble, but once they think they can make it on their own because the have a few dollars in their pockets, they quickly forget about the God who brought them there.....

Anyway, that's my rant for today.
Later, and God bless,
-myk

"Roofing - The Saga Continues"

You know, I almost forgot to provide an update for the roof!
To the right is a picture of my roof right now....

My friend came over last week to take a look. Kinda funny, actually.. The leak is coming from an area approximately 3-4 inches away from where we stopped working! So, on the bright side, our work is solid and holding up well. The downside is, we probably inadvertently caused this new leak while walking around up there.

To give you a better understanding, our house used to be a two story house quite some time ago. It is over a hundred years old. Apparently at some time, there was a fire on the top level that was put out quick enough that no damaged occurred on the lower level. So, that did what anyone with no construction knowledge would have done.. They turned it into a single level home with a roof that has virtually no pitch.

Now, I know nothing about construction. When we bought the home, my wife and I were just happy to get out of the ghetto apartment complex we were living in so we can move into a low cost home in our price range right on the buttcrack of the ghetto. I mean, the next street over is where if you park your car and go inside for ten minutes, expect the car to be on blocks when you come back out...
Really, its not bad here. You hear stories and such, but in our ten years of living here, we have not personally been bothered by anything more than noisy neighbors.

Back to the roof... The damaged area is where there is a vertical stud of some sort that is only about a foot tall is sitting on top of the joists (i think that is what they are called) that support the plywood of the roof. Problem is, this stud is lifting up one of the sheets of wood. The stud appear to be serving no purpose whatsoever. The friend looked all over in the attic as well as from the top and cannot find any sound reason for that piece of stud to be there except for to make me pull my hair out when it rains.. Looks like it'll be a relatively easy fix. Knock out that block so the plywood can rest back on the supports and snug up with the rest of the wood. Of course 2 sheets will need to be replaced. I still have several bundles of shingles left...
I think we'll be fine... We always are... Its amazing how we look at current circumstances like things are as bad as they'll ever get.. But when we look back at all the things we've been through, then realize that we came THROUGH them and are not still sitting in them, its good to know that this really is all temporary and that something much greater awaits us in the near future. Both for the now and the "hereafter", as the older folk may say..

I guess that's enough for one morning.
Later, and God bless,
-myk

"More than meets the eye"

Mouth that drips with honey
Throat an open grave
With tongues like vipers
Spitting deadly poison apples
Looks good, tastes good
Bringing death, hell, and the grave.

This "Golden Visionary" sees only visions of gold
Looking through golden glasses prescribed by a lowercase optician
You leave nothing but broken glass
Smoke and mirrors, smoking guns....
Can't see the real Doctor?
Buy into the vision,
"Bye bye" to the Vision
Welcoming division, the incision is made
Did you receive your cut? Was the portion correct?
Was it 30 pieces? What did you spend it on?
We most definitely got our "cut"
The cut is deep, the bleeding will soon stop.
Only to have another rip away the scab
And rub salt into the rotting mess beneath.

This too shall pass.
The Truth of the Word will prevail, as it always has and always will
Temporary setback, momentary loss of focus takes us off track
God will have none of this.
Deceiver, you have deceived your last.
You know who you are, and cannot hide from God's piercing gaze
His eyes fixed heavy on you
Not to pour out his wrath, as some would like to see
Would even "pay" to see...
But instead, He sees the gift he placed in you
To see the tongue restored and used for His purposes..

Deceiver, you know who you are...
You know who He is....
You know His Word...

There's more to you than meets the eye.
I, too, must beg for God's forgiveness for the internal war I have raged against you.
We both are wrong, and while our actions may be different in the eyes of men, we are on a level playing field before the Most High. While our actions may stand up when compared to the standards of those we surround ourselves with, our righteousness is as filthy rags compared to His standard.

Let this be the last I speak of this "incident". You know who you are, and rest assured, WE have been warned....

Later, and God bless

...diary of an occasional blogger

Guess what I've been doing?

If you guessed steroids, then you're totally wrong, but that guy on the side sure is creepy looking. Its been just over two months since my last blog. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with blogging. Sometimes I go at it with the passion of... something passionate... Other times, I just let it sit because life happens and you just forget about blogging in lieu of more important things...

In other news, my wife is now employed by one of my clients. We're both happy about that. Its the first time she has had a job in five years. She has been a stay at home mom, which is really a job in and of itself. Our youngest is now in kindergarten, and she seems to be very advanced compared to others. Not knocking any of the other kids, they're all great, but I really think that her staying with her mother during the most critical years of her development has molded her into quite the amazing kid! It makes a huge difference to be taught by your mom or dad before kindergarten versus being carted off to a day care and forced to watch hours upon hours of so-called educational television. Have you actually seen some of the crap on PBS lately? Some of it is good, i have to admit I enjoy Wordgirl and Sid the Science Kid. But Teletubbies and Boobah? Are they even speaking English, or any earthly language, for that matter?

Really don't have a lot to say this time, I just wanted to try to keep it fresh for my dedicated fan. I think I have at least one... Work is going okay. It has been a slow week for me. Its hump day and I have not done any income producing work this week. This kind of thing gets me down. I know I am supposed to trust God to provide. An really, He has. All our bills are current. My family is not hungry. Both vehicles are working. Got money in the bank. We're all healthy. I really have nothing to complain about. Perhaps God is trying to give me some rest before something bigger hits? All things considered, I think I should just be grateful for where I am, keep doing what I am doing, stop being afraid to step out even further, and just let "it" happen..

Always an opportunity to learning something, huh..

Later, and God bless,
-myk

"Dy-no-MITE!"

Its been a wild week. In contrast to my last post, seems like God is dropping little hints here and there now.. The sermon at church this past Sunday, the things we spoke about Wednesday night at church, things I have read in my devotionals, stuff in the news, in nature, things my wife, kids, and friends have said... Just about everything imaginable has pointed to the fact that God is still watching and listening. He is still speaking, too, just not quite so loud. One friend put it like this. He's being like a parent, He wants His child to learn how to do something.. He know's He can do it faster and more accurately Himself, but He also knows that the child needs to learn to fend for himself. Not that He's throwing any of us out to the wolves, but He wants to allow us to learn to trust that no matter what, He's got our back.. I guess kind of like how when you're teaching a kid to ride a bike. You hold on to the seat for a while, and the kid is VERY comfortable while he knows your hand is on the bike. But at some point, you're going to have to let go if the kid is ever going to be able to ride the bike himself. When he first realizes that your hand is no longer on the bike, most kids will immediately go into panic mode, much like I did last week. But, after a brief moment of terror, you see that you're actually riding.. You see that you're not gonna die, like you thought... You see that even though your Father's hand was no longer on the bike, He knew what He was doing when He let go, and was never far enough away to allow anything to happen to you anyway.
I guess God is teaching me to ride the bike....

So, what does Jimmy Walker have to do with anything? No idea, I just needed a picture for today's post.

Later, and God bless,
-myk

"When It Rains, It Pours...."

Dang it.... Its raining here today. Its raining hard...Not too long ago, some friends and I reroofed part of my house. We replaced 6 sheets of 4x8 plywood and put up new tar paper and shingles... Now I have a leak in the room we roofed over.. I don't understand... What sucks about this is I don't have the money to have it checked out again. I know we did a good job up there, but apparently something was missed.. What to do now?

The saying goes, 'When It Rains, It Pours..' And it is definitely holding true for the Robinson clan right now. Seems that it is one thing after another, and none of it good. Just really hope God has something up His sleeves that will manifest VERY soon...

I just want to go to sleep for a while...

-myk

"Moving at the speed of smell....."

Moving kinda slow... Its funny how things work out... I am (was) a technical manager for Chuck E. Cheese. I'm responsible for making sure that Chuck's head never falls off during a birthday party again. Apparently it happened on more than one occaision before I was hired... But that's neither here nor there. Anyway, I also run a business called Kingdom Computer Solutions. Pretty much a small mobile computer repair company. We perform onsite computer consulting, maintenance, repair, networking, etc. Do a lot of virus removal and the like.. And when I say "we", i mean me. My wife helps out some too, though. I have been in business for a little over two years now, and we have existed on word of mouth. Things are going okay, but not as okay as I would like. In other words, we're far from where I feel we need to be, but we're not dead either.. Like I said in my last post, I feel that this is the way God is leading me..
...Things were moving and shaking pretty good for the last quarter. This is the most sales tax I have EVER had to turn in, which is exciting. However, now things have all of a sudden slowed to a crawl. Two weeks from now, my employment with the Cheese will be a distant memory, and now I am faced with the reality of the possibility of no work...Trying my best not to fret and just trust God.. sometimes its hard, though.. No real point to this post whatsoever, just thinking out loud, really. I know that God talks to us. I know that He always shows up on time.. Just wish He would set His watch to match mine...

later, and God bless,
-myk robinson

"Nothing to see here...."

Not really much going on to report lately. Just been doing what I can to promote my business, that's about it. I put in my notice at my old job a few weeks ago. They are still training my replacement, he'll be ready around the end of this month. I'm scared, to tell you the truth. I don't feel ready, but at the same time, I know that this step is necessary. Feel like it is the direction God is leading me. Can't explain it any other way. I understand that if I wait until i feel ready, until I "know" enough and have enough, then I will never do anything. We as people have a way of talking ourselves out of anything that is even the slightest bit shaky by our standards (like faith). Its amazing how we will hold on so dear to something that is REALLY unsure, though. I bet all those people with secure positions at Enron never saw the day coming that they would be placing a gun in their own mouths because what they believed was so secure, what they held on to, what they thought would always be there for them came crashing down before them. We as Americans never thought that we would be attacked on our own soil. I mean, this is AMERICA! Strange how the things we've come to depend on are slowing crumbling around us. When the smoke clears and the shaking stops, all that will remain is faith and hope. So why do I continue to be afraid of the future? To be honest, financial insecurity is one of my biggest fears, worries, whatever. Not from the standpoint of not being able to have nice stuff... But I don't ever want to be in a position to where I cannot provide for my family. We don't have the nicest things in the world, but I am blessed with a very loving and understanding family. Most of my family understands full well that true happiness does not come from things. They have seen too many of their own friends and family have everything they could imagine, and they have also seen the corruption that can come too easily when everything is handed to you. They have also seen the futile efforts people take to hang on to their "stuff" and the pain of losing that stuff.. I'm glad that my kids can appreciate stuff in a healthy way and not be tied to it. So, why do I worry? When God talks about having faith like a child, my girls help me to understand that.. They have full faith that when they turn on a switch that the lights will come on. They have full faith that when they are hungry, there will be food. They have full faith that I will always come home to them each evening and spend at least a little time playing and doing girl stuff with them. They never worry about where anything is coming from because they have faith that come hell or high water (always loved that phrase), that their father will take care of them and do what is best..
...Man, to be a child again. Help me, Lord, to trust in You like my girls trust in me...

-myk

...bored and lonely

So bored.... so lonely... My wife and son have been gone to Dallas since Sunday, and my girls are staying at a friend's for the week so that I can still work. I thought at first that this would be AWESOME! I had images from Home Alone movies going through my head, just overjoyed at all the fun I would have. I know that this wouldn't technically be a vacation, but I had high hopes..
..Until Monday night.. So I'm sitting at home... alone... in the dark... with nothing to do. I browsed through my cell phone contacts to find someone to do something with. That's when I found out that most of the contacts in my phone are either clients or friends with a wife and kids. When you're married, most people you hang with are also married and have children. They're fun to hang with as a family thing, but when its just you, quite frankly, you don't want to be bothered with other people's kids!
...So, I did what any self respecting temporary bachelor would do. I started cleaning house like a madman!! It was awesome! The first night, I tackled the living room, my bedroom and the kid's bathroom. What was really cool about it was when I woke up the next morning, everything was still clean! The next day, I jumped on the dishes, which haven't been washed since Saturday (dont ask). I cleaned the counter top and the oven too. Wednesday was yard work day. I cut the grass in front and back, and even picked up a little trash too. Today, I hope to get some mopping done and borrow my mothers weed eater to finish the yard. Doing all this in addition to working my regular job makes for a very tiring but fulfilling day.
So yeah, I've got a lot done.. But i really miss my family. I have no one to talk to most of the time except for God. Been talking to Him a lot this week. It helps. Really gotta work more on the hearing part, though. I know that He talks back, just sometimes my mind gets a little too clouded with distractions to hear. Kinda like going to a baseball game and getting stuck behind a pole or something. You see everyone around you getting excited about something going on, but all you can see is a pole... That was a really crappy seat...
Anyway, I have seen my girls for a little bit each day, since they are just a few blocks away, and I get to speak to my wife by phone about 30 minutes each night. Can't wait for them all to come home, though.
All things considered, even though family members can get on your last nerve sometimes and make you want to do things that would put you in jail, you never realize how much you really love them until they're gone... And they're just gone for 6 days! Be sure to tell your loved ones how much you really do love them before they're gone permanently. This 6 days have given me a new found appreciation for the little things that normally bug me.. I think I'll be a little more tolerant of those little things when they get back.. At least for a while.

Later, and God bless.
-myk

Roofing - the journey continues

AJ is an idiot....

So, we're up on the roof this afternoon, putting on the new shingles. According to the weather, we should have AM showers, and overcast the rest of the day. I called Toyin, Tayo, Terry, and AJ to help with cleanup, installation of new shingles, and all around good fun.. Toyin and AJ have never been on a ladder before, so getting them up on the roof was an excercise in patience in itself. They managed to carry nine bundles of shingles up on the roof, and Terry had alreaded carried 18 of them up himself. I just supervised, then dragged them to an appropriate place on the roof and away from the ladder.

Anyway, so we were on the roof for about an hour when it starts raining out of nowhere! It got to raining pretty hard before we got down from the roof. Funny thing happened though. AJ is terribly afraid of heights, but he helped anyway, just because that's the kind of guy he is. I thought that since he climbed up, he had overcome his fears and would be fine. But he walks over to the ladder, looks down, and then walks to the edge of the roof talking about jumping off. It is approximately an 18-20 foot drop. He seemed to think that was safer than the ladder, he was really uncomfortable going backwards down a ladder..

Well, without further delay, Occasional Ramblings and YouTube proudly present, "AJ is an Idiot", as filmed by Cathy and her lovely new camera phone... And just so no one is worried, AJ is fine.. All he received was a scrape on his arm... and that was from a shingle earlier...

I'm sure there'll be more antics after the rain stops..

Later, and God bless,
-myk

The New Roof, Part I

We started tearing off the roof today... As expected, some pretty funny stuff happened up there.. It was much worse than we figured, we had seven sheets of 4'x8' plywood that was rotten. Mind you, this is only one quarter of our house that we are repairing.. Had to get a few 2x4's too to repair the joists. We had a good time, working from 6:00am to about 8:00pm. We tore off two layers of shingles, played demolition and ripped out the rotten wood, installed the new decking, and put down the tar paper. We start installing the new shingles in the morning. Thanks to Terry, Nicole, Justin, Tayo, Eddie, and Damon for helping out. The part that's really gonna suck is the cleanup. Waste Management wants WAY too much to drop off one of those construction garbage bins, so we just chucked the crap into the front and side yard, with anticipation of cleaning it up tomorrow. We're just going to shovel the stuff onto a trailer and take it to the dump, then run magnet sweepers to get the nails up.
Got a good picture of Terry after we went through the roof and into the attic.. Will have to try to get it out of my phone and up here. It was just like a scene out "The Money Pit". That's one of my favorite films. Did you know that it was apparently filmed in the house I live in?? Not really, but it sometimes seems like it.. I really like the scene posted above, because that's the way we are now when something goofy happens to the house... Just laugh about it and go on. Kinda relates to my previous post, just be thankful we have a house to have problems with, because its much better than having no house at all and living on the streets..

Well, I don't have too much funny stuff to report just yet, but I will try not to disappoint tomorrow.

Good night and God bless,
-myk

Tomorrow's gonna be WILD!!!

I just have to get ready for tomorrow...
We have complained about the condition of our house for a bit. Today, God impressed on me to begin to be thankful for everything we have, even the things that don't seem to be that great.. Come to find out that a lot of things we complain about, we only complain about them because we're doing exactly what the Bible warns us against doing, which is comparing ourselves amongst ourselves... On the other hand, sometimes a little bit of comparison helps us to realize what our blessings really are...

For example, we can complain all day about the high price of gasoline... Or, we can be thankful for the opportunity to drive is our private air conditioned vehicle, as opposed to walking everywhere, as many people do in third world countries. Matter of fact, you really see how blessed you are when you consider third world countries. We complain so much about the food we have to eat, without understanding that so many would love to be in our position to have a couple cans of whatever in the pantry (or to even HAVE a pantry, for that matter), some left over pizza, something besides digging through maggot infested garbage to find something edible, with no concern whatsoever of the taste, they just need to put something in their belly which hasn't received a deposit in days.... Or, we complain about the people we live with, our spouse or kids, whoever... When there's people whose families have been killed because they live in a country with a corrupt government, their cities ravaged by civil war...

We got a lot to be thankful about... Anyway, about tomorrow... Some friends and I are going up top to repair that leaky roof I been complaining about.. You know, you get 6 guys with two cases of water, 38 bundles of shingles, various roofing supplies, a couple of nail guns, and 100 degree weather, something funny is bound to happen.. I'm just bursting with excitement to get up at 4:00am to get started.. This way, we at least get to work for half an hour before the sun gets about 6 degrees hotter than the worst part of HELL on top of that roof...

Gonna be a wild day tomorrow.....

later, and God bless
-myk

Triumphant return of the little black man..

Its been almost a year since my last confession. Getting close to time for the wife and son to go to Dallas for a week of youth church camp. So you know what this means.... Maybe I'll try to refinish the bathtub again. Whatever happens, I'm sure hilarity will ensue...

Little Black Man versus the Stones....
Me and Mr. Jagger go back a long way... Well, not really, but if you're gonna talk about the Stones, you gotta mention Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Never understood why women love these guys.. It has GOT to be the money, because... well, have you seen these two?

Well, you have now... This is not what I wanted to talk about... Last Sunday, I woke up at about 4:00am with a pain in my left side that I can only describe as what I would assume being shot feels like. So, I did what any man would do... Go potty...
That didn't help a bit with the pain, but it did make my bladder feel a little lighter. I proceeded to walk around the house for a minute or two, hoping that it was just gas or something, that I'd be able to just pass it off (pun intended)... About five minutes passed before the pain got even more intense. At this point, it has spread around to my back and the middle of my spine, quite possibly the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. So I wake up my wife so we can pray and get something done about this, because at this point, it's getting unbearable. I'm just thanking God that we just got really good life insurance, because I was pretty convinced I just woke up to bleed to death internally or something crazy like that...
now mind you, we don't have health insurance, so going to the hospital was not an option I had considered, especially considering how well off my family would be if I just dropped dead..

So a little bit later, I'm pacing back and forth in the driveway while my wife tries her best to convince me to go to the hospital. At this time of morning, the only thing open is the emergency room at the local hospital, conveniently located about a half mile down the street. It made my decision much easier once the crying started.... It was REALLY hurting now, making it very difficult to continue my pacing. So my wife wakes up our son to tell him what's going on. His job is to let his sisters down easy in case they wake up and I'm dead...

Long story short, after a lot of slapstick comedy and a CT scan, turns out I had four kidney stones, which I really don't understand since I am the national spokesperson for water drinking... They doped me up pretty good with percocet (spelling?) at the ER and said I'd just have to pass them... A few hours after the ER visit, its time to go to church... Needless to say, I didn't drive... So friends of mine prayed over me at church that day. Today I feel like normal. I have no recollection of passing any stones, although (GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD) my *filtered* felt like something much larger had passed through it and stretched out the inside for about four days. So, either I passed them while the pain killer was still working, or God just had mercy on me and dissolved them, leaving me with a little aftertaste as a reminder...
Whichever the case may be, after all that, I think I'm gonna drink as much Coke as I can just to have a reason for the discomfort..

Until next time, good night and God bless...

-myk