Exceedingly Mundane

I got this email from my buddy Leslie and thought about forwarding it on out to several people, but decided to post it here instead. 🙂

Subject: Psalm 55:22

This was written by a Hospice of Metro Denver physician …..

I just had one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and wanted to share it with my family and dearest friends: I was driving home from a meeting this evening about 5, stuck in traffic on Colorado Blvd., and the car started to choke and splutter and die – I barely managed to coast, cursing, into a gas station, glad only that I would not be blocking traffic and would have a somewhat warm spot to wait for the tow
truck. It wouldn’t even turn over.

Before I could make the call, I saw a woman walking out of the “quickie mart” building, and it looked like she slipped on some ice and fell into a gas pump, so I got out to see if she was okay. When I got there, it looked more like she had been overcome by sobs than that she had fallen; she was a young woman who looked really haggard with dark circles under her eyes. She dropped something as I helped her up, and I picked it up to give it to her. It was a nickel.

At that moment, everything came into focus for me: the crying woman, the ancient Suburban crammed full of stuff with 3 kids in the back (1 in a car seat), and the gas pump reading $4.95. I asked her if she was okay and if she needed help, and she just kept saying “I don’t want my kids to see me crying,” so we stood on the other side of the pump from her car. She said she was driving to California and that things were very hard for her right now. So I asked, “And you were praying?” That made her back away from me a little, but I assured her I was not a crazy person and said, “He heard you, and He sent me.”

I took out my card and swiped it through the card reader on the pump so she could fill up her car completely, and while it was fueling walked to the next door McDonald’s and bought 2 big bags of food, some gift certificates for more, and a big cup of coffee. She gave the food to the kids in the car, who attacked it like wolves, and we stood by the pump eating fries and talking a little. She told me her name, and that she lived in
Kansas City. Her boyfriend left 2 months ago and she had not been able to make ends meet. She knew she wouldn’t have money to pay rent Jan 1, and finally in desperation had finally called her parents, with whom she hadnot spoken in about 5 years. They lived in California and said she could come live with them and try to get on her feet there. So she packed up everything she owned in the car. She told the kids they were going to California for Christmas, but not that they were going to live there.

I gave her my gloves, a little hug and said a quick prayer with her for safety on the road. As I was walking over to my car, she said, “So, are you like an angel or something?” This definitely made me cry. I said, “Sweetie, at this time of year angels are really busy, so sometimes God uses regular people.” It was so incredible to be a part of someone else’s miracle. And of course, you guessed it, when I got in my car it started right away and got me home with no problem. I’ll put it in the shop tomorrow to check, but I suspect the mechanic won’t find anything wrong. Sometimes the angels fly close enough to you that you can hear the flutter of their wings…

Psalms 55:22 “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”

Saw this on another blog, pretty good one, so I stole it!

Name the….

1. Total amount of music files on your computer: Well, I have no idea. I have about 5 or 6 CD’s ripped to the drive, plus a few misc mp3 files I have downloaded from various places on the web.

2. The last CD you bought was: Gosh, that I bought, I have no idea. I haven’t bought music in a while. I’ve been buying a lot more DVD’s lately than CD’s.

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message? “Please Remember Me” by Tim McGraw

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you:

These are so hard for me to be decisive and pick. Let’s see…
1. Unanswered Prayers by Garth Brooks
2. Beautiful Tonight by Eric Clapton
3. American Soldier by Toby Keith
4. Faithfully by Journey
5. Any song from the album “Hysteria” by Def Leppard

OK, I couldn’t figure out how to do this one in the regular poll/survey system on Hambones. It’s very limited, in that I have to “pre-program” the choices. I need to spend some time one day and look for a new polling system, I guess. But, of course, I will have to get Tim, the webmaster, to get it downloaded and installed in the Hambones system, so I guess there’s no rush in that.

Anyway, here’s your 1 question poll for the day:

List 3 items that you always have on your bedside table, not including the lamp.

Post your responses in a comment, mine will be in the first one!

Be sure to go check out the Photo Gallery on Hambones (provided you are a registered user – you have to be logged in to view Photos, remember!). I just added a new album. I already had one for Grayson and Ava Clair, a place to put pictures that their parents sent me. Now, I just added one for Ethan and Abby, to post pictures that Amanda and Mark send us. Amanda sent me some really great pictures this morning, and I just added them to their own new album. I also re-ordered them, so they should be on the first page. Older pictures are now further back.

Anyway, Amanda said that Ethan has a new favorite thing – getting out his squirt gun and dueling with Obi-Wan and Darth Vader while Star Wars is on! They even got a picture of it, too cute! Now, I need to get one from Trent and Shanna of Grayson doing his best Spiderman impersonation. Excuse me, not an impersonation, I’ve heard that Grayson actually IS Spiderman!! 😀

I finished another book this weekend, The Mulberry Tree. Fourth one I have read this year, well, really since late January. I am so happy to be back in a reading mood. I really enjoy reading. I have all my life. I can remember getting in trouble when I was younger, for reading after my bedtime. I had a handy-dandy flashlight I would use, lift up the sheets on my bed to make a tent, and shine the flashlight on my book, to read past my bedtime. Dodie would yell at me, telling me I was going to put my eyes out and I would go blind doing that. Sorry, Dodie, I still have pretty good eyesight!

Anyway, you can click Here to read the quick review of The Mulberry Tree.

I started reading another Grisham last night – The Testament.

After that, it will either be another Grisham from our collection, or time to head to the library.

So – the question of the day is – do you have a good book to recommend to me? I don’t like reading self-help or informational kind of books. I want to read to be entertained, for escapism. So, if you have a good book to recommend, please add a comment and let me know!

Find out how much of an Internet geek you are @ star-girl.org!

Yesterday was another productive day. In addition to regular chores around here, we also got a lot of things marked off the to-do list. I also took some time and worked with this blogging software and some of the templates and things. Added some new counters to my sidebar, things like that.

We defrosted the outside freezer. Tim changed the oil in Clyde, rotated the tires, and also cleaned out the inside (washed mats and vacuumed carpet). Clyde needed a good cleaning and getting rid of the mud leftover from deer and duck hunting seasons. I did some more pruning and pulling of weeds in some of the flower beds. Did regular laundry as well as the special laundry of washing his hunting clothes and putting them up for the season (he has special “stuff” to wash all of that with). We also caught up on all of our TV shows that we had taped from the week before. Tim ended up having to work late 3 nights, so that cut into our time to watch stuff that we taped (often times, we have two shows on at the same time, different channels, so we watch one and tape one). Got all caught up on those. And, Tim was sweet and didn’t make me cook him anything to eat – he ran to Sonic and got us some junk food! 🙂

From the Sunday Brunch meme site – Sunday Brunch

Sunday, February 27

Lunch
“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.” -Orson Welles

1) Do you take your lunch hour at work? N/A anymore, but when I was working, yes, if at all humanly possible. I had to stop and eat and always needed the break.

2) What is your favorite place to eat lunch at? Anywhere! I am a human garbage disposal, I will eat anything (just about!)

3) What do you usually eat for lunch? These days, either leftovers, or else a Morningstar or Boca thingie. I keep their hamburger patties, chicken patties, chicken nuggets and corn dogs on hand for quick lunches. I make things like chicken salad and tuna salad to eat too. Sometimes I will fix myself quick Chinese – egg drop soup and either an egg roll or stir fry. Most days, we have leftovers from either the previous night’s meal or from eating out.

4) Do you have anyone that you eat lunch with on a regular basis? Yep, my friends on All My Children. Every day! 🙂

5) If not eating, what do you usually do on your lunch hour? See #4, watch All My Children. Every day! 🙂

Well, last night was a long night, as expected. I made a severe error in judgement earlier in the night, that I failed to mention on my previous blog posting. Dork. I had a cup of coffee with our dessert (almond cookies) at Golden Dragon. One small cup. That was enough to keep me awake for another 6 or 7 hours. ARGH. I know better. I made the mistake last fall of having a capuccino at Cups one night around suppertime and was still up at 2 or 3 AM. I swore I would never do that again, and what did I do last night? Did it again.

Anyway, Tim worked till about 1:30 or 2:00 AM, and I stayed up reading my book the whole time. We slept late, needless to say, and got up and had breakfast (and coffee!!). I just finished my book (The Mulberry Tree), and Tim finished his last night (The Tristan Betrayal), so it will be time for new book selections soon. YEAH!

Tim has been watching an old movie on AMC for the last hour and a half and I’ve been making more changes to my blog. I added some new counters at the bottom of the sidebar, and also changed the default template (look) to the blog. I love the pink lillies, don’t get me wrong, but was ready for something new. I am going to scour the Internet for more (free!) pre-defined templates today, or next week, so look for more choices soon. One day, I might get brave and try to write my own CSS, but not any time soon. It’s enough for me to keep the template file modified. I can just use what’s there and change (cut and paste), without having to learn CSS code. Anyway, maybe one day. For now, I’m happy to download free ones that other people have designed. They’re not unique, but heck, they are free and painless!!!

In the mean time, I better get outside. It’s a work day around here! 🙂 No rest for the weary. Tim is going to change the oil in Clyde and he’s agreed (reluctantly) to help me defrost the outside freezer. I hate doing that. When he came home with that freezer on the back of the Splash, with Fred as his co-pilot, I told them to turn around and take it back to Sears. It was the right height, the right size, but it was not frost-free. I told him I did not want one that had to be manually defrosted. Tim was like, it’s no big deal, I will help you with it. So, to this day, years later, I am still holding him to his word. I think he loathes doing it as much as I do. 😈 But, when it gets a couple of inches of ice on the shelves, we finally have to break down and defrost the darn thing. Oh, Joy.

Well, looks like tonight is going to be a long night. Tim is on-call this week and they’ve been having problems. He has had to work late the last two nights, including last night during the wee hours of the morning. Then, he gets called right after 5 PM tonight, while he was still at the office, and stayed late to work on the problems more. He didn’t get home till about 7 PM. The new place he was going to pick up food from (Jimmy’s) had already closed, so he offered to take me out to eat. Sweet thing, he even took me where I wanted to go, instead of where he wanted to go. So, we went to Golden Dragon in Madison. I got to eat all the shrimp and cabbage I wanted to my hearts content. YUM-O! We stayed a while and talked, and even had coffee with our almond cookies. They make really good almond cookies there.

Anyway, we got home a little before 9, and just finished watching my fav new show, Battlestar Galactica. We’re both going to read our books till a little before 11:30. Tim has to get on a conference call at 11:30. He said if it goes well, it will be under an hour. If not, there’s no telling how long it might last. And, he said, if it goes well, he might not get called any more this weekend. If not, he will defintely be called more. Looks like a long night and possibly a long weekend for him. Poor baby. I hate it for him. He doesn’t seem to mind a bit, says it’s all part of the job, but I hate that he has to work so much, so late, be woken up in the middle of the night, have all this stress on him, etc. He says it doesn’t bother him! 🙂

I finished this older Grisham legal thriller a few days ago, and have been meaning to write a review on the Hambones website. I just finished it, and you can read it Here.

Good book, I enjoyed it. I am so far behind on Grisham books. We own all but one or two in hardback, and this one is about 6 or 7 back in the stack. We have one whole shelf in our bookcase in the den full of Grisham books. I need to get serious and catch up on them!

I decided that, although I like Grisham and legal thrillers, since I had so many of his to read, that I better switch things around. And not read them all back to back or I would burn myself out! So, I am now reading a “woman’s fiction” book in paperback that I bought last year to take on vacation and read (but of course, I never read it!). It’s called “The Mulberry Tree” by Jude Deveraux and I’m enjoying it as well. I’ve only been reading one or two nights, and I’m already about 1/4 of the way through it. I know most of you that read this blog don’t read this kind of book, but I have always liked this genre. I don’t read for enlightenment or knowledge. I read for enjoyment and escapism. Same with movies and TV shows. We don’t watch a lot of tv news shows and documentaries and stuff. I prefer to be swept away and entertained, and not have my horizons broadened. 🙂

Check back in a few days for a review of The Mulberry Tree. It also grabbed me right away, from the first few pages, and it’s an easy read as well, so I doubt it will take me long to get through it. After that, I’ll have to decide whether to read another Grisham from our collection, or head to the Madison library and check out another book or two. I still have 8 more to go in the Stephanie Plum series (Janet Evanovich books), so I have lots on my list! I think there are several others by authors I like to read that I haven’t read their latest of, so I have a pretty long list. I just love this time of year, I get to get a lot of reading in!

Well, I tried to super-glue the plastic clip back into place on the back of my beloved pedometer. Gave it 24 hours, then went to clip it to my belt yesterday before heading out on a very long shopping trip. It snapped immediately in the same place. The Super Glue did not fix it. I was very very unhappy. I miss my pedometer. 😛

Tim tried another round of Super Glue last night and has a heavy object on it, weighting it down. I’m going to give it all day today and tonight and try again tomorrow. I don’t think we’re going to be able to save it. The clip is part of the whole unit and without a clip to attach to my pants, belts, jeans or whatever, a pedometer ain’t worth much. Darn it. I love my pedometer and wear it every day.

AND. I had just hit my all-time high the day before it broke. Logged 15, 997 steps that day. It helped that we walked twice, 4 miles, but still.

My “normal” Friday meme that I visit and normally like the questions on. There are several out there that I do not like! This one from This website

Friday, February 25, 2005

Appetizer – Name something that makes you scream. Well, lots of things! Tim will come up behind me in the house and I didn’t realize he was there and it scares the bejeebers out of me, so I scream. Snakes. Rats. Frogs. Often in the spring and fall, when I’m working in the garden, I think something is a snake or frog, and will let out a blood curdling scream. It usually turns out to be nothing, or a worm. 😳 People pulling out in front of my car, making me slam on the brakes, always elicits a scream/yell out of me, usually followed by a loud speech (not that they can hear me). 🙂

Soup – Who is a musician you enjoy listening to when you want to relax? Relaxing music to me is Kenny G, and some Harry Connick.

Salad – What was the last book you purchased? Bought Tim the latest Grisham for Valentines Day. For myself, probably either a cookbook or the Nicholas Sparks book I just read, but that would have been last year sometime. I don’t buy myself books nearly as often as I buy them for Tim. Want to, just hate to spend the money, so I try to be good and go to the library.

Main Course – If you could live one day as any historical figure, who would it be, and what would you do? These questions are hard for me. I don’t know. I like so much of history that it would be hard to pick. Maybe an early US President, maybe FDR or Churchill.

Dessert – Tell about a time when you were lost. Where did you end up? How long did it take you to get back to where you were going? Let’s see, I can’t remember being lost. Maybe driving somewhere, probably the first time I went to New Orleans when I had to live down there and I got lost trying to find places. Most of the time now, Tim does the driving, so we don’t get lost! 😀 If there was an episode in my childhood, I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything about my childhood. Tim has a good story about getting lost at the state fair. I don’t have any such entertaining stories. 😛

Found a couple of good meemes today, here’s the first one. From the website “Friday Fiver” – link Here

Strike a pose

1. Do you own a camera? Describe it: Yes, my beloved Kodak digital

2. Do you prefer digital or film? Digital, all the way, baby

3. When is the last time you posed for a picture? I was going to say Christmas, but got to thinking, and it was 1/24, when Abby was born. We got some pics with me, Amanda and Abby, as well as me, Tim, Amanda and Abby. 🙂

4. Tell us about your favorite photograph: Any picture of me and Tim by ourself is a favorite. I can never have enough pics of me and Tim.

5. Use the flash or flash the camera? HUH? I’m missing something here, maybe it will come to me later.

OK, all you blog readers out there, here’s your question of the day…. hypothetical, of course. Not that I would ever, in a million years, go on Survivor 😀

If you were to be a “Survivor” what luxury item would you bring?

I have no idea what they allow or what they ban. I would try to take toilet paper 😮 or a hairbrush or shampoo or toothbrush, but I don’t think they would allow it. I bet they are strict on this stuff. I would probably ask to take a picture of Tim (aww, ain’t that sweet). Barring that, I have no idea. I know I could never do this show, I could never try to live out there like that.

So…. how about you, what would you bring?