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October 2005 |
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October 3, 2005 |
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October 13, 2005 |
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| October 3, 2005 |
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I've worn myself out. I finally finished painting the fence over on the side yard where I helped build the retaining wall last November. The wooden fence part is a light green stain. The stucco coating on the two foot retaining wall under the fence is orange. The boards hiding the fence poles on the cross fence are now dark green. Do I have your attention? Those are rather odd colors, aren't they? Well, I'm doing it on purpose. I'm going to be mean now and not tell you my purpose. I have more to do over there before it is done. Then, I will take some pictures and show you why it is so color-crazy. |
I have
two old clocks that my uncle bought home during World War II.
Neither of them works properly. One of the clocks is a 400-day clock.
It's similar to this one: It runs for about a day and then stops. I took it to a clock shop a long time ago to have it fixed. The shop was one of those that has been in their family since 1800-something, supposedly reputable, etc. He had my clock for two years. When I finally got it back it seemed fine. However, about a year later it quit running again. I had moved to the house we live in now so I just let it sit until I could locate another clock shop. I found one that was run by an older German man and, again, has been in the family for a "gazillion" years. The shop was full of restored Grandfather Clocks, Cuckoo Clocks, and more. He kept my clock for almost two years. When I called to find out the status of the repairs he couldn't find my clock. He finally found it and told me that he hadn't worked on it but that he would "hang it from the end of his nose" to make sure it got done. Six months later I called again. He, again, was going to "hang it on his nose". Six months later I walked into the shop and asked him whether it was fixed yet. He, again, looked and looked for my clock. While he was searching for it he got a call from a woman who had dropped off her clock the week before. He told her that her clock was ready to be picked up! Oh ho! I had to wait years and other people could get their clocks fixed right away. What?? He found my clock, brought it out, and told me he had cleaned it but didn't know what was wrong with it. I doubt if he cleaned it. It had been under the glass dome for years after the first guy cleaned it. It couldn't have been dirty. He said he could work on it to try to find out the problem. That's when I lit into him. I told him that he had over two years to fix it and he didn't. I told him that I was taking the clock with me. He told me he wouldn't charge me for cleaning it. I told him I wasn't going to pay him for cleaning it anyway because I doubted if he did. He got mad and told me that it wasn't every day he gave someone an $85 cleaning for free. I told him that he better not keep people's clocks for over two years then while fixing other people's clocks. As I walked out the door I told him I hoped my clock didn't hurt his nose as it had supposedly been hanging from it for over a year. That is the kind of thing that happens to me when I try to get something fixed. I'm not kidding. I have weird things like that happen over and over again. It isn't at the same place either. I have some horror stories about getting my cameras fixed (4 separate stories about different places), I couldn't get my stereo fixed after three tries for the same problem, I've been treated extremely rudely by optometrists and have had multiple problems getting my frames fixed or glasses replaced, and much more. I have a friend who laughs at me when I tell her I'm taking something in to be repaired. She has heard lots of my horror stories. She keeps suggesting I should try taking my vacuum to a body shop, my clocks to the vacuum place, etc. and see if I get better results. In the meantime my 400-day clock just sits under it's glass dome, looking pretty but not keeping time. My cuckoo clock has been hanging on the wall, collecting dust. It has some gear problems and the hands sometimes won't go around. The leather bellows that make the cuckoo sound are torn. The other day I was dusting and bumped the pendulum. It kept going and the clock was keeping time. The little cuckoo came out and even cuckoo'd when it was supposed to. However, instead of a strong hearty "CUCKOO" it sounds more like "hooooo" with a metallic spring sound added. Every once in a while one of the weights slips a few notches, too. So, for now, I have my cuckoo clock running. However, I am contemplating looking for another clock shop. This time I'm going to get something in writing telling me that they will keep me updated on the progress and will not stop working on it once they start unless they are waiting for parts to arrive. Seems rather silly, but I've been burned twice by "reputable" clock shops. What's that I hear? Oh, it's 9:00.... hooooo" hooooo" hooooo" hooooo" hooooo" hooooo" hooooo" hooooo" hooooo" Poor little birdie. I think it has asthma. |
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I really should write a book about my adventures. The only thing is that people would probably not believe me. The things that happen to me are so bizarre that they would think I was making them up. Well, just my animal stories, alone, give you an idea of how odd things can be for me. When I start thinking about all the goofy things I just shake my head and wonder, "Why me?" Good question. Why me? Maybe because I'm strong and can handle it. Maybe because I often fix it so the same things doesn't ever happen to anyone else. Only God knows the reasons. There is one thing for sure, I am rarely taken by surprise any more. I expect the unexpected. |
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I
took my son to the County Fair last week and it was HOT.
It was the last day we could go because I had some get-in-free tickets that
were about to expire. For a little while, until the sun started going
down, we felt like a couple of
fried eggs: I had planned on buying myself some new Nothinz. Nothinz are the most comfortable sandal/shoe I have ever worn. I have some foot problems that are painful if I walk barefoot so I always like to have some shoes or slippers handy. These things are amazing. I bought some about six months ago and they are wonderful. They can be washed easily, they don't retain bacteria so they never smell bad, they slip on easily, and so much more. I was going to buy more at the fair but I found a site online that sells them for the same price with no shipping charges so I bought two more pair and they are shipping them to me. I have put a link on my "Reading Recommendations" page to that site. Well, you can wear them while you are reading! Go check them out: Nothinz I highly highly recommend them. I LOVE mine. I literally wear them every day. They look cute. People ask me about them all the time.
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| October 13, 2005 |
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I have a friend who lives in Islamabad, Pakistan with his family. If they survived the earthquake I am sure they would appreciate your prayers because things have to be very rough. All the survivors need prayer for their physical and their spiritual needs. My friend's name is Iftikhar Rahman. Thank you! |
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As the years go by there are more and more
huge disasters taking place. This may mean that time is getting very short
and Jesus' return is approaching. No matter how close His return is, the
fact remains that He is returning sooner or later. In the meantime, it isn't
our job to find out when His return is. It is our job to be about God's
business. There is much work to be done and you and I are responsible for portions of it. We must be focused on knowing what He wants us to be doing and saying. We are to be making a difference in this world. We are to be planting seeds, watering seeds, speaking truth, showing love, and much much more. Our area of influence may be our homes, our place of work, the grocery store, a combination of those, or anywhere else that He chooses. It is very important that we find out from Him what we are to do every moment of every day. We must not make assumptions about what He wants (as was discussed in last week's Bible study) but must be seeking His will constantly. There are times when He doesn't want us to speak to someone, but just to demonstrate His love. We don't know what is needful, but He does. We must not let a day go by without seeking His will and doing His work. Like I said, time is short, maybe shorter than we realize. |
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Praise the
Lord, my son finally bought a car to replace the one that was rear-ended
over a year ago! All throughout the time he was negotiating with the
insurance company there were vehicles advertised in the newspaper. Then,
when they finally gave him his settlement, there were none! We figured it must have been because they got very good gas mileage and, with the high gasoline prices, people were choosing to keep those economical cars instead of sell them. My son expanded his search from old VW Bugs to Jeep Wranglers which did my heart good. I know how vulnerable those Bugs are in accidents. He finally found one and bought it. He drove it straight home. The next day, as he was backing it out of the driveway the clutch gave way and fluid began spewing out of the transmission. To make a long story short, even though my son bought it "As Is" the dealer he bought it from split the cost of the repairs, praise God! The damage wasn't as much as what my son thought it was so he ended up only having to spend another $160 on his car. Yay! |
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I did something I've never done before. I
archived last week's welcome message and Bible study and, when I uploaded
them I also uploaded this. The funny part was this wasn't done. I had
started working on this week's welcome message and had stopped mid-sentence.
When I went to go check something online there it was... half done! Yikes! I've been doing some serious multi-tasking this week. Since I spent so much time last week painting (I caulked and painted the repaired portions of our patio that were still bare wood as well as painted the retaining wall I mentioned last week) other things got behind. Plus, I took on another web page project for a friend of mine. Then, my husband came home the other night and asked me to type up fourteen tests, each having 25 multiple choice answers, for his class. Yikes yikes! He "only" needed one of them the next day. As I was typing my little fingers to the bone I started to wonder just how much I loved my husband. So, I had Word count the characters in one of those tests: I love my husband almost 5,000 keystrokes per test!! That's a hunk, a hunk, of burnin' love! Hey! I hear Elvis! |
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