It’s now October 2009 and I am officially retired, or un-employed, I haven’t figured out the difference yet. Anyway, it feels weird but good, scary but exciting. You get the idea, two sides to this and every coin.

While I was doing some of my new honey do jobs, I mean new duties, the particular task for the day was grocery shopping. Having my list in hand I took the challenge. I was not prepared for all the obstacles though. First, why do they have to spread out all the things all across the store? Why can’t they be grouped together in a more user friendly way. For instance why isn’t the pet food in the grocery section? That’s where all the other food is located. Why discriminate against the pets. Or rather the pet owners, making them walk all the way to the other side of the store. And why can’t all the foods be arranged by meals. They could have a breakfast section, lunch section, dinner section, or around here supper section. This would make it easier to find what you want. If you need breakfast food, just go the breakfast section. Supper would be found in the supper aisle. This would be so much better. After all, the tater chips are all on one aisle, if you don’t count all the other displays that are posted in various places around the grocery section.  And if all the wandering around don’t get to you, then you get to move to the checkout line.

It should be against the law to use your cell phone while simultaneously placing your groceries on the food belt at checkout. And worse is to be chatting about nothing while trying to use your check card. To be fair, if you can multi-task this may not be a problem, but most of the time I seem to get behind the single taskers. The ones who can talk but everything, and everyone else, has to be suspended in time and space while they chatter. This same problem is seen at red lights. People get so caught up in their conversation that they don’t even notice the light has changed. Just sitting there in their car talking up a storm, even using hand gestures and completely forgetting where they are.

And how about this. What if the grocery stores had a policy that if you had to wait more than five minutes in the check out line, your groceries would be free? All the carts could have bar codes on them that a scanner could read as you roll your buggy into line. This would record the time and start a timer. Five minutes later, if you are still standing there, your groceries would be free! That would be cool and I bet they would have more cashiers handy. There must have been a huge sale on cash registers for them to have 20 checkout lanes and only three cashiers. Every store I go into seems to have this same problem. Lots of places for customers to line up but not very many cashiers. 

All in all though, the shopping trip went really well and I even learned a few things. The only other thing that didn’t make sense in all this is that after suffering through the shopping, the very next thing my wife and I did…………….go out to eat. This kind of made all the shopping stuff useless. But Theresa said that we needed all that stuff.

Have a good day and know that Jesus loves you. He proved His indescribable love when He died on the cross. See ya later.

Hope you are having a good week. I have been busy working on some of the wedding photos we shot last week. And just trying to define my space in the world now that I am not working a regular job. It seems strange not to have to think about getting up and going into work. Then I remember that I won’t be getting a paycheck and strange becomes scary. Then I remember that God is in control and I have acted in faith as best as I could, so the scary becomes peaceful when I focus on God.

One thing that is going to take some getting used to is that for the last few years, I have been trying to do better about saving money. This was to help me to be able to retire. Now that I have retired, I have to start spending some of that money that I worked so hard to save. Granted that is according to plan, but it still is a 180 degree turn and those are always awkward. Still life goes on. It does seem that you would reach a stage where you didn’t have to adjust and learn new things. Come to think of it, that would be dead, wouldn’t it?

I was proud of the UT Vols last week when they played that other team down south. I didn’t expect them to win, but like most people I thought the score would be pretty embarrassing. They held their own though and came away with out too much damage. I know that the talk now is that the Vols played to not lose rather than playing to win. Seems to me that they had to go with what they had. I can’t believe that any coach on that level would not play to win if they had the means to win. Kiffen has the same problem that Fulmer had and he coached the same way. But they should come roaring back this week. GO VOLS!

The question on my mind today is “Do our prayers change the mind of God, or do they change us?” I was in a discussion on this a few days ago and I felt then as I do now that God does not change his mind. In the scriptures, several times they say that God repented that He had made man, and so forth. Most of these words in their original meaning give the idea that God was sorry. But to say that He changed His mind is another thing for me. One of the points used was when Moses interceded for the children of Israel. God was ready to destroy them but Moses prayed and most people think that God changed His mind. The way that hit me is that God did not lead His people out of Egypt to destroy them. Rather His plan was to deliver them. When they became disobedient again, (like us, over an over and over) God was left with no choice. Until Moses interceded. Then God could show mercy and grace and continue on with His plan to deliver the children of Israel. All of this was in accordance with His plan to deliver them and to teach them about His holiness. So in my mind, the prayer did not change God’s mind, but it did bring the people back into God’s will. Good question though. And I don’t claim complete 100% right about the answer. I have learned though that when I pray about something I need or want, the longer I pray the more I find myself asking for God’s will instead of what I started out wanting. So the prayers seem to change me more than they change God.

Have a good week and may God bless you.

Well, it’s official. Yesterday was my birthday and now I meet or exceed all the requirements for early retirement. Except of course, MONEY! I have realized that no matter how much savings you have, it will never be enough.

A friend of mine has started a new business adventure. His name is David Richards and we call him “Big Time” as most everybody around here has nicknames. If not, just wait a few minutes and someone will tag them with a new name. Anyway, Big Time has got a side car frame that has been outfitted with the same hardware that you find in the back of a hearse for the caskets. He can set a casket on this frame and then the unfortunate person in the casket can get a true last ride to the cemetery. Unlike the ones that pull a hearse trailer behind the motorcycle, this one puts the casket out in the wind, just like a motorcycle rider is used to.  He plans to offer this service through area funeral homes when the need arises. We certainly hope no one in the near future needs this but I am just trying to help Big Time get the word out about his new service. You can view some more photos of Big Time’s rig here and also find his contact information.

I have a wedding to shoot today at 5:00. Tennessee plays that other team today at 3:30. Guess I will miss the game but that is not entirely bad. My heart says GO VOLS and I really think they can win. My head says be careful Vols and I ain’t to sure about winning. I will still be a true, died in the orange, Tennessee Vol fan no matter what. Right now I have to get my camera and everything else ready for this wedding. So I guess this is all for now.

Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ and look up, for our redemption is getting closer. He is coming back…..SOON!

Well, it’s getting closer. The last few weeks have really took a toll on me. I am approaching early retirement age much quicker than anticipated. Remember the guy who said that he would have taken better care of himself if he had known he would live this long? That’s how I feel except I would have saved more money. (Yeah Right) And I would have been more careful with debt (suuuure) and I would have done any other thing that you can think of that should have been done.

When we were kids we would play hide and seek. All the kids but one would go hide. The one who didn’t hide, would close his eyes and count to 100, if they could, or as close to 100 as possible. Then when they reached the last number, they would open their eyes and yell “READY OR NOT HERE I COME!”  As soon as you heard this, you knew that time had run out for you to hide. That’s sort of how I feel about this early retirement thing. Because of the circumstances of the retirement plan at work, my age, the economy and seems like everything else, I have come to realize that this is the smart thing for me to do. BUT, it is not the easiest. Seems that I have become addicted to something that is called “cash flow”. But I’ve been assured that this addiction can be overcome. It just takes time and planning.

God has blessed me with a plan that is as good as any. If nothing major rocks my world then I should be able to enjoy the next few years. I am not really going to retire, just simply going to quit doing what I have been doing and do something else. Just what that something else is going to be hasn’t been answered yet, but it will. We have prayed and now we are trusting. I will confess that I have been asking God for direction while what I really wanted was a road map. That just makes me normal. God gives me a direction and I immediately want to know the details.

I admit that the possibility of being un-employed is a little un-nerving. On one hand, I have the plan. It seems to be solid. On the other hand, I have the unknown. The only thing about this that we know is that it is unknown. We can’t predict what the future holds. No one can know what is going to happen next year, or even the next minute. Short range, I am planning to finish writing this but who knows. Something may prevent me from finishing. Life is like that. We don’t have the promise of tomorrow. BUT, we can have GOD!

The Bible teaches me that I am to live by faith. My earthly wisdom tells me that I need to plan for the worst and hope for the best. God tells me that he will provide. Earthly wisdom tells me that I need to be prepared. God knows the future. My earthly wisdom does not. Which one should I follow? First, I have prepared the best I can but even that may not be enough. (remember the un-known thing) So I am left to worry and deal with anxiety, or I can trust God! He never fails us. Even now as I am going through all this life changing stuff, God has sent me little reminders along the way to help keep me focused on Him. Just today, I got a devotional from Dr. David Jeremiah about the opposite of faith. He pointed out that the opposite of faith was not un-belief, but fear. Jesus pointed this out to his disciples in Mark chapter 4. The disciples were on a ship in a storm in the middle of the sea and they didn’t think they were going to make it to the other side. Jesus was asleep on the ship. They went to Jesus and asked him why he didn’t care that they were about to die. They had anxiety to the highest level. Their future looked dark and they were sure that it was over. Jesus first calmed the storm and then asked them why they were so fearful. Did they have no faith? So there it is. Jesus pointed out that the opposite of faith is fear. I needed that lesson today. At the end of the devotion was a quote that hit home for me. Starting now I am going to try to look at my future with faith and not fear. How about you?

The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of faith is the end of anxiety. George Muller

“and he said unto them, why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” Mark 4:40

I don’t have to work today. At this stage of my life that is a good thing. Having worked where I do for the last 36.5 years, I am almost ready for a change. Problem is that I am not sure what to change into.

Last month we went camping and took Jasmine and Alexus along for the ride. They had blast and it was fun for Theresa and myself. Here they are blowing some bubbles and just generally having a good summer day.

I remember those summer days and watching them made me think back to when I was about their age. (Many years ago) They had fun with nothing more than soapy water and a bicycle. It made me wonder just when did life get so complicated. I love riding motorcycles today and we ride whenever we get time. But when I was about this age, we would use a clothes pin and a piece of cardboard to make our bikes sound like a motorcycle. Just tear the cardboard into a square and then clip the clothes pin over the cardboard and the frame of the bike so that the spokes would flip the cardboard and make a motor sound. At least with some imagination that’s what it sounded like. The faster you rode the bike the louder it would sound off. Until the cardboard got so tattered that it no longer made noise. The motorcycle sound and thrill of riding would slowly fade away. Not to worry though, a complete engine overhaul only involved another piece of cardboard and about two minutes. Then you were back on the road tearing down the highway. Life was so simple then. Funny how we think that being grown up is better.

Just dropping by to make a short post. Not much going on for me lately. Still trying to decide if I want to try the “retirement” thing out. I can’t and don’t want to quit working but, the way my retirement plan is now structured, this is beginning to look like it may be the smartest, but certainly not the easiest thing to do. Still have a little  time to decide though.

Lots of talk in the news about health care reform and all the changes that they say we need. I agree that something needs to be done but I am troubled by some of the language that I hear. Especially about deciding who gets coverage and when they can get it. I am against my tax money being used to fund abortions and in the future it may even be used to fund suicide. This is very troubling to me. I know that saving money is important but to save money at the expense of lives is not the way to go. Most of the politicians will say “Don’t worry, we’ve got it covered” but somehow that doesn’t make me feel any better. Most of them have either forgotten or never knew the problems that the average person faces, so how could they possibly have them covered.

All that leads us to this. Only one place to put your trust and that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. As long as we are alive, we will continue to grow older and more feeble and eventually die. After I die, then Jesus will tell me “Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered” and I will have the best deal of my life. All of the best will be furnished at no cost. No cost too us anyway, but Jesus paid a huge price for this. See ya later.

Rev Big Boy

This is a short video of the choir from Higher Ground Baptist Church.

This is a video of the choir at Higher Ground Baptist Church in Kingsport and Pastor Phil singing “Because He Lives”. This is where I go to church and part of my service there is to work on the television ministry as camera operator. Hope you enjoy this.

This is getting scary. I’m back posting again and it’s not been a couple of months since my last post. Maybe I am going to do better for a while. We will just have to wait and see.

This morning I went to breakfast at a local restaurant (Cherokee) with my wife Theresa before she left for her day at school. When we started to leave I looked at the check and it was a little over 14 dollars. I suddenly realized that we had just spent our entire stimulus package for the week. ($13.00 more per pay check) Then I got to thinking about other ways to spend this windfall. If we saved it instead of spending it, in only two weeks I could have a tank of gas for the car, providing the tank is not empty when I go to fill it. Or I could have a new pair of jeans, if they are on sale. If I saved my stimulus for a whole month, Theresa and I could maybe do dinner and a movie, (rental and watch it at home). If I saved $13.00 a week for 16 weeks, I could pay the electric bill for last month. Of course getting the electric company to wait until I have the stimulus money is going to be tricky. I know that I am not supposed to save this because the intent of the people in Washington is for us to spend this and get the economy moving again. And if you notice we spent it all on breakfast this morning. What I have trouble with is pretty simple.  I am joking around with $13.00 and when I read the paper or watch the news, all they talk about is millions, billions, and trillions. I have trouble wrapping my mind around such a high number as those and trying to understand that kind of money. I wonder if our leaders in Washington have lost the ability to wrap their minds around such a small amount as $13.00 dollars and the small impact it will have on our economy. To be sure it will have an impact but in the case of self employed people like my wife who don’t have payroll deductions, but instead send in quarterly payments, things haven’t changed. And in the long run, at the end of the year we will owe just as much in taxes, but will have less money paid in through my payroll deductions. This means that I have to save more money to help pay the taxes, which kind of defeats the purpose of letting me keep more of my money weekly. Maybe I missed something here, but it seems that simply lowering my taxes would have done more. Now that I have a headache from thinking about taxes, (just kidding my head is thicker than that) I am not sure if all the government loans and bailout money is the way to go. If it helps keep the companies in business and people working, I guess that is a good thing. So far it looks like it is only helping a few at the top, but only time will tell. I just hope that we like the story that time has to tell about all this in the future.

We had a little excitement in this neck of the woods a few days ago. Someone reported a person walking near the Rogersville City School carrying a gun. The police came, the school was on lock-down, security tapes were viewed, an investigation was started and the supiscious person was located. He was carrying an umbrella. Now that we know it wasn’t a gun, this sounds funny. But at the time, folks were a little excited. I have made my fair share of jokes about this incident, such as wondering what caliber of umbrella it was, and if it was fully automatic. But the sad part of all this is that this is just another reminder of the times that we live in now. I can remember a time when we didn’t lock our doors at night and if you seen someone carrying a gun, they were either going to trade it or going hunting. It makes me sad to think that those days are forever gone. But it makes me look forward to the future when Christ returns. One of my favorite preachers, Dr. Adrian Rogers used to say that it’s not what this world has come to, but it’s WHO is coming TO this world. When these times get dark, we need to look up, for our redemption draws near. I thank God that we have a promise that this world is not all that we have to look forward to. Jesus has promised us that He has gone to prepare us a place so that where HE is, we will be also. Moral of this story? Don’t look around, look up! Don’t look backward, look forward! May God bless each who reads this.

Here is a completely new post. Something I haven’t done for a while. I don’t know for sure if I have been too busy or just too lazy, but whatever it is, I need to do better.

Not much has been going on lately. So far this year I have only missed one week of work and that was the first week in January. Since then we have worked 40 hours except for one week when we only got in 32 hours. The good side to all this is that I have had time to slow down a little and take a good look at where I am in this journey called life. For the most part I am satisfied with things and I do realize that I have been very blessed to live where I do and have what I have. My family is doing pretty good and we are making ends meet with a few days left at the end of the month.

When I was younger, I always used to question and find amusing the comments made when someone would remember the “good old days”. It would seem to me that with all the new inventions we had, there was no way that life could have been better way back then. But now I find myself longing for the “good old days” again. The days I am talking about don’t involve inventions, but rather intentions. I am really missing the times when someone would tell you something and you could, as the old saying goes, “take it to the bank” because it was worth something and you could count on it being reliable. Now it seems as if there are less and less people who understand what it means to stand by their word. And what about just doing the right thing simply because it’s the “right thing to do.” It seems like most people today do whatever will benefit them the most and sometimes, right or wrong don’t matter. It seems like most folks these days are asking the question, “What’s in it for me?” and never thinking about anyone else. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a few people who you can trust, people who will help when needed and not seek attention, but it does seem that they are a dying breed. Maybe we just don’t hear about them as much as we do all the bad things that are going on. I don’t know if that is the case or not. To be sure, we had some of the most unreliable, rapscallion type people around as I was growing up. But they were the unusual ones, the exception to the rules folks. The normal people were the ones you could count on, the ones who were honest in their business dealings as well as their home life. Now days, it seems like the unusual ones are what used to be normal. How did we crossover like this and move the average down? I’m not one to point fingers but have you ever noticed that most television programs get their laughs from people who cheat, lie, steal or miss-use drugs and or alcohol along with friendly, unmarried sex? And if it’s not a comedy, the show is full of sex and violence. Sometimes I wonder if that is the reason. Have we just became accustomed to so much wrong stuff that is it slowly becoming normal to us?

I guess I am just missing the days of the Lone Ranger, Leave it to Beaver, and the Andy Griffith Show. (Still watch Andy a lot though) More likely, I am missing a time in my own life when I did’nt have to worry about my job, taxes, health, retirement, mortage and all the other adult things. I want to go back to when I could put on the warm fuzzy pj’s and lay in the floor and watch Red Skelton. If I do get down in the floor now, my neck hurts trying to look up at the television, my back hurts and it’s a lot harder to get up from the floor. Not only that, but I look really weird in the fuzzy pj’s with the feet in them.

As for inventions, I have most of the latest electronic things as do most folks and I love using them. They help me organize my days, weeks and months. I can keep track of my friends and call them from almost anywhere I go using my trusty cell phone. You would think that with all these things helping us to live better, we would have more time for each other. But it seems that the opposite is happening. The more time we have, the less time we spend being friendly. When was the last time you set on a front or back porch and just talked with a neighbor? Or you took time to spend time with someone hurting and not just drop by to make an appearance? Maybe all the free time we have is what has changed us. Seems like I do remember the old preachers saying that “Idle hands are the devils workshop.” AND we do use our hands to turn on the TV. Just something to think about. See ya later.