I hired a contractor and he managed to alienate my wife and irritate me. I have never been a fan of the man but he seems to be trusted and liked by some people I respect so I put aside my feelings and gave the man a chance. After enduring his behavior for the better part of a week I felt justified in my feelings toward him. He told me and my wife that the job would only take three days but it took 5 and even with that I have to finish up the loose ends myself. He insisted that he told us it was a five day job, even after my pastor told him he heard him promise us it would only take three days.
The church I attend contracted this man to do some work at the church today. Notwithstanding the fact he was an hour and a half late to start the job, the people that he had scheduled to pour the concrete at 10 am was still a no show at 2:30 and had no idea when they would be able to show up. He chewed out one of his employees in front of everyone for what was a very minor offense that was as much his fault as the employees. To me that showed a real lack of class. But there was something that occurred a few minutes earlier that was the final nail in the coffin as far as having a warm relationship with this man.
Now keep in mind that I am a senior citizen even though people think I am much younger than I really am. In fact the older worker, the one with little hair and that, including his beard, were gray, made a comment to me "well when you get to be my age....". Well it turned out we were born in the same year. Be that as it may, I have never suffered from allergies before but it has been so bad I actually took a breathing test. Fortunately everything was normal and after taking some allergy medication I did much better. I also take medication that cautions that using it can cause breathing problems and another medication that tells me to avoid sunlight.
During the course of this day I picked up and carried off all the scrap lumber from a weeks worth of work from building two porches and a handicap ramp, stacked a pallet of wood about 30 feet away from where it was stored, weed eated a half acre of property (every inch of it), and mowed another half acre of land with a walk behind mower. I realized at the time this man made his comment to me I was engaged in some light work but it was nearing 2:00 or maybe a little after and I had walked over eleven miles (I wear a pedometer) and took over 25,000 steps. For some reason the man felt compelled to taunt me with the following comment; "Why are you breathing hard Dale?". He had a smirk on his face while uttering those words.
Maybe he thought he knew me well enough that he could be a smart mouth and get away with it but he doesn't. If he had spoken the words with the slighted hint of caring or concern then the comment would have been appreciated but he didn't.
I have had a few encounters with the man over the last few years and my impression of him is the person he cares most about is himself and the thing he cares about most is making money and the thing he wants most for others to know about him is that he is more important than you are. In my opinion the man needs a couple of courses in sensitivity training. Until then maybe he should stay indoors away from the public.
He didn't even say thank you for the tools I lent to him so he could do the job he was hired to do.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Should USA raise the gas tax?
After the economy tanked legislation was passed that placed an extra tax on gasoline so workers could be given jobs rebuilding this nations infrastructure but now we have a problem. Due to the increase in gasoline prices and government regulations requiring more fuel efficient automobiles, Americans purchase way less gasoline than was purchased six years ago and this special gasoline tax no longer can pay for these infrastructure projections. The question is: do we raise the tax on gasoline 10 to 15 cents per gallon to be able to continue to fund these projects or do we scale them back?
If we scale the projects back then many workers will be out of jobs and then we will have to pay the workers unemployment and that of course takes money that was raised from some other tax source. If we raise the gasoline tax then we all will have to find ways to use less gasoline because few us can really afford the extra cost. It really doesn't make sense to give up the security and luxury of a big SUV in order to save money at the pump if the government is just going to place a higher tax on you because you purchased less gasoline.
None of us has the luxury of raising our wages just because we are faced with a higher payment on a particular bill. I doubt seriously your employer will grant you a nickel raise because your cable bill went up $8.00 a month. You will just have to buy the store brand of an item you use, eat out at Taco Bell instead of your favorite Mexican restaurant, skip an evening at the movies, or find an alternative way to view your favorite TV programs without cable
I am so tired of government, federal, state, and local, thinking the solution to every problem is to throw more money at it. The government forced manufacturers to make smaller fuel efficient cars and then forced companies to raise prices on gasoline and added taxes on fuel in order to force us to purchase those fuel efficient cars and now Obama wants to raise our gasoline taxes even more because he was successful in reducing gasoline usage. We were good citizens but we are getting punished anyway.
I really hate it for the fellow that has to get laid off but this is the decade of the baby boomer and they are about to be faced with the problem of living from a fixed income with little retirement money due to the economic crisis that led to this whole make work infrastructure projects scheme in the first place. It's like a cat chasing its tail. Even if the cat caught his tail there isn't anything it can do with the tail anyway. Our taxes went up in order to pay for the bail out of the auto industry and in order to repay the government loans dealerships were closed which cost people their jobs so in order for them to go back to work the government raised taxes on gasoline which people couldn't afford so they purchased the more fuel efficient cars which lowered the use of gasoline when negated the benefit of the gas tax so now workers are faced with losing their jobs which is where we started from to begin with. All the American people got out of this is less safe cars and a couple of tax hikes.
Don't you just love how government works for you?
If we scale the projects back then many workers will be out of jobs and then we will have to pay the workers unemployment and that of course takes money that was raised from some other tax source. If we raise the gasoline tax then we all will have to find ways to use less gasoline because few us can really afford the extra cost. It really doesn't make sense to give up the security and luxury of a big SUV in order to save money at the pump if the government is just going to place a higher tax on you because you purchased less gasoline.
None of us has the luxury of raising our wages just because we are faced with a higher payment on a particular bill. I doubt seriously your employer will grant you a nickel raise because your cable bill went up $8.00 a month. You will just have to buy the store brand of an item you use, eat out at Taco Bell instead of your favorite Mexican restaurant, skip an evening at the movies, or find an alternative way to view your favorite TV programs without cable
I am so tired of government, federal, state, and local, thinking the solution to every problem is to throw more money at it. The government forced manufacturers to make smaller fuel efficient cars and then forced companies to raise prices on gasoline and added taxes on fuel in order to force us to purchase those fuel efficient cars and now Obama wants to raise our gasoline taxes even more because he was successful in reducing gasoline usage. We were good citizens but we are getting punished anyway.
I really hate it for the fellow that has to get laid off but this is the decade of the baby boomer and they are about to be faced with the problem of living from a fixed income with little retirement money due to the economic crisis that led to this whole make work infrastructure projects scheme in the first place. It's like a cat chasing its tail. Even if the cat caught his tail there isn't anything it can do with the tail anyway. Our taxes went up in order to pay for the bail out of the auto industry and in order to repay the government loans dealerships were closed which cost people their jobs so in order for them to go back to work the government raised taxes on gasoline which people couldn't afford so they purchased the more fuel efficient cars which lowered the use of gasoline when negated the benefit of the gas tax so now workers are faced with losing their jobs which is where we started from to begin with. All the American people got out of this is less safe cars and a couple of tax hikes.
Don't you just love how government works for you?
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Aggressive Drivers
Driving doesn't have to be as dangerous as it is but some people just get too aggressive on the roadways. Aggressive drivers on the interstates are not the young people with fancy sports cars or souped up vehicles. Aggressive drivers tend to be better educated and wealthier than the average citizen and tend to drive luxury cars particularly Mercedes. BMW drivers are quite as bad but probably rank second as far as number of aggressive drivers. Just what is it about people who drive Mercedes that makes them believe they have the right to be in front.
Just for the fun of it I've driven eighty in a fifty five and still had a Mercedes tailgating me trying to get me to move out of his way. Actually that's not true but I'm sure if I did someone in a Mercedes would think he has to go faster
I just wonder if people think a sign that says "speed limit 70" is telling them 70 is the minimum speed they can drive? I encounter enough drivers who do not know they are supposed to keep their vehicles between the lines except to pass.
I really don't mind cars that are traveling faster than I am as long as they are driving reasonably. It's the ones going 15 miles an hour above the posted speed limit or the ones that want to ride my bumper trying to intimidate me into moving over that make me uncomfortable on the roadways.
The other two kinds of maneuvers that irritate me involve turning and entering a highway. The first is when I am approaching an intersection in which the roadway is marked for a left turn lane and the driver behind me tries to slip by me on the left after I turn my signals on. The other maneuver that bothers me is when I am leaving town and enter the entrance ramp to the interstate and the car behind me will always pass me as soon as we both get into lanes of traffic.
Drivers in Randleman, NC seem to be more prone to do this than anywhere else I have lived.
I'm sure we all have our pet peeves. But of all the things people do on our streets and highways non of the maneuvers involve any particular kind of car except the aggressive highway driver.
Of course not all Mercedes drivers are aggressive drivers and not all aggressive drivers drive Mercedes. But it does seem that drivers of Mercedes act like they are entitled to special privileges on the highways.
Truth or loyalty
In "The Great Controversy" E. G. White writes ( page 85) As men rejoice in the freedom which the truth brings them they are inclined to extol those whom God has employed to break the chains of error and superstition. Satan seeks to divert men's thoughts and affections from God, and to fix them upon human agencies; he leads them to honor the mere instrument and to ignore the Hand that directs all the events of providence. Too often religious leaders who are thus praised and reverenced lose sight of their dependence upon God and are led to trust in themselves. As a result they seek to control the minds and conscience of the people who are disposed to look to them for guidance instead of looking to the word of God.
One man worked tirelessly for his church whether it be manual labor or teaching or advising or serving others. To his pastor he was ever faithful but careful to serve the office and not the man. As the church grew and families were added there can a time when a man came with whom the pastor felt a close bond and the two became fast friends. A third man, a friend, relative, and neighbor of the pastors new best friend became party to the pastors friendship and as a result was given an office in the church. The third man has taken his office seriously but has chosen to serve the pastor as a person rather than the pastor as an office.
As a result the first and faithful servant has been excluded more and more from the affairs of the church. As a result of the focus on each other rather than the things of God a crack has been seen in the fabric that has held the church together and has caused it to grow. I'm not sure if the fabric can be repaired before it becomes so large that the cloth is no longer useable.
One man worked tirelessly for his church whether it be manual labor or teaching or advising or serving others. To his pastor he was ever faithful but careful to serve the office and not the man. As the church grew and families were added there can a time when a man came with whom the pastor felt a close bond and the two became fast friends. A third man, a friend, relative, and neighbor of the pastors new best friend became party to the pastors friendship and as a result was given an office in the church. The third man has taken his office seriously but has chosen to serve the pastor as a person rather than the pastor as an office.
As a result the first and faithful servant has been excluded more and more from the affairs of the church. As a result of the focus on each other rather than the things of God a crack has been seen in the fabric that has held the church together and has caused it to grow. I'm not sure if the fabric can be repaired before it becomes so large that the cloth is no longer useable.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Black koi
Of my offspring from two years ago I kept 6 koi, two solid orange and the other four were three colors, orange, black, and white. The tri-colored ones did not have the deep colors of the original parents and were mostly white but I was hoping that over time I could breed back some beautiful colors.
To my surprise one of the fish spawned and I had hundreds of babies, most of which lived over the winter. What was a bigger surprise is that most of the Koi are solid black, a few are blue and some are black with a bronze/orange belly.
To my surprise one of the fish spawned and I had hundreds of babies, most of which lived over the winter. What was a bigger surprise is that most of the Koi are solid black, a few are blue and some are black with a bronze/orange belly.
Friday, May 09, 2014
Even if you don't believe
I'm amazed at the number of people who get hostile when one mentions anything about Jesus or God. There was an article on the web yesterday about money and how the bible was wrong. One quote it the article was " money is the root of all evil" and to prove the scriptures wrong the author quoted good rich people do with their money.
I'm glad they do but that isn't the quote. The correct quote is "the love of money is the root of all evil" Actually, money isn't even the focus of this quote. What is at stake is where or what we place our highest priorities on. Some people want to become great athletes so they use drugs to improve their chances or train so much they don't have time for family or friends. Some people want to be rich so badly they have committed murder. How about the person who so desires another person that they commit infidelity or worse. Wanting to have money or to be athletic, or to be with the person you love is not wrong. What is wrong is being so fixated on something or someone at the expense of life itself.
The second quote used in the article says that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven" This quote has nothing to do with being rich as the author believes but everything to do with what we place or priorities on.
You may have noticed I did not mention Jesus or God or religion once in my answer but the person who responded to my comments said, and I quote "jesus, jesus, jesus, why can't you religions types just shut up about jesus" Small "j's" were his, not mine".
I admit there is a possibility that there is no Jesus or no God. Maybe the day I finally admitted I could not dislodge the huge limb stuck in a tree and said "God, this is your problem" and the limb fell out of the tree was just a coincidence. Maybe the day I admitted I would never be able to get rid of the huge stump and said "God, this is your problem" and a man with a big chainsaw just drove up looking for wood and cut the stump up for me.
Maybe hen the doctors told me my wife just suffered a brain aneurysm and air lifted her to a larger hospital. That hospital also said she had suffered an aneurysm. Thirty two churches were praying for her. Even though two hospitals and four medical tests proved she had suffered an aneurysm the doctors could not find it. When my wife was suffering from double vision due to damage to her fourth cranial nerve and was told she would always have double vision, maybe it was just fate that caused her eyes to suddenly go back into focus.
I live from social security and when my wife was hospitalized we lost her income plus incurred all the medical bills. She had no income for over a year. I said I would put my faith in God to take care of us just as He promised he would. We paid all the medical bills, met all our monthly obligations,
and even paid in full our car payment, all our credit card bills, and all other bills except for one without assistance from anyone and without touching my savings account.
Time after time I have had my needs met at the exact tine they had to be taken care of when it was impossible for me to do so. You may believe it is just coincidence and you may be correct. Let me ask those of you who do not believe in God or Christ something. If you are correct and this life is all there is how will you ever know? If I am wrong and there is no afterlife then we are even. neither of us will know. But if you are wrong and I am right, then I get to spend eternity in heaven with my savior. You will get to spend eternity knowing that I was right and you were wrong.
When I was a young man I had my doubts too. I studied all the major religions and philosophies. I had to decide if God was real or not and if He was, whose God was He? Then when I decided He did exist and the God of Christians was the only one that was alive I had to decide witch church to belong too. I studied the bible and attended services from the Catholic church, the Lutherans, the Methodists, The Southern Baptists, the American Baptist, the Free Will Baptists, the Church of England, the Episcopalians, and a few I can't remember. The churches I did not get to attend I studied their doctrines and I made my decision based on which church came closest to teaching and practicing what I believe the bible was teaching.
No I will not condemn you or criticize you for being a non believer. I will tell you that Jesus is real and that he loves you and he died on the cross as payment of the penalty for your transgressions and if you accept His free gift you too can have eternal life. What you do with that knowledge is up to you. No, I will not tell you how to live, even if you become a Christian. That is God's job to clean you up, not mine.
I do know that what many people, even those who claim to be Christian, believe the bible says and what it really teaches is vastly different. For sure, many people can quote a few scriptures and many have a basic understanding of what the general concept of Christianity but few really study their bibles and pray asking for understanding. Asking for and receiving a different translation is not the key to understanding the bible. Study and pray are.
A good example would be the robe Jesus wore at His trial. Matthew says the robe was scarlet, Luke said it was purple, and John said it was purple. Mark said only that it was gorgeous . You can translated that all you want and you still come up with purple, scarlet, and gorgeous. You can't go my so-called biblical scholars who try to convince you that the purple was so faded that some thought it looked red and make all kinds of color charts to prove their point. The robe was dyed with Tyrian purple and Tyrian purple only gets brighter when exposed to sunlight and weather. God didn't forget what color the robe was nor did the men writing down the scripture make a judgment call as to what they saw.
We do sometimes when one of us thinks something is blue and another person swears it is green. No, each man saw what God wanted him to see. If you are a Christian contact me and I will explain the answer. If you are a non-believer then the answer is not what you need to be focusing on at the moment. Once you fully understand God's plan of salvation and accept that then you can move on in growing in truth.
If you continue to reject God then I wish you a long life.
I'm glad they do but that isn't the quote. The correct quote is "the love of money is the root of all evil" Actually, money isn't even the focus of this quote. What is at stake is where or what we place our highest priorities on. Some people want to become great athletes so they use drugs to improve their chances or train so much they don't have time for family or friends. Some people want to be rich so badly they have committed murder. How about the person who so desires another person that they commit infidelity or worse. Wanting to have money or to be athletic, or to be with the person you love is not wrong. What is wrong is being so fixated on something or someone at the expense of life itself.
The second quote used in the article says that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven" This quote has nothing to do with being rich as the author believes but everything to do with what we place or priorities on.
You may have noticed I did not mention Jesus or God or religion once in my answer but the person who responded to my comments said, and I quote "jesus, jesus, jesus, why can't you religions types just shut up about jesus" Small "j's" were his, not mine".
I admit there is a possibility that there is no Jesus or no God. Maybe the day I finally admitted I could not dislodge the huge limb stuck in a tree and said "God, this is your problem" and the limb fell out of the tree was just a coincidence. Maybe the day I admitted I would never be able to get rid of the huge stump and said "God, this is your problem" and a man with a big chainsaw just drove up looking for wood and cut the stump up for me.
Maybe hen the doctors told me my wife just suffered a brain aneurysm and air lifted her to a larger hospital. That hospital also said she had suffered an aneurysm. Thirty two churches were praying for her. Even though two hospitals and four medical tests proved she had suffered an aneurysm the doctors could not find it. When my wife was suffering from double vision due to damage to her fourth cranial nerve and was told she would always have double vision, maybe it was just fate that caused her eyes to suddenly go back into focus.
I live from social security and when my wife was hospitalized we lost her income plus incurred all the medical bills. She had no income for over a year. I said I would put my faith in God to take care of us just as He promised he would. We paid all the medical bills, met all our monthly obligations,
and even paid in full our car payment, all our credit card bills, and all other bills except for one without assistance from anyone and without touching my savings account.
Time after time I have had my needs met at the exact tine they had to be taken care of when it was impossible for me to do so. You may believe it is just coincidence and you may be correct. Let me ask those of you who do not believe in God or Christ something. If you are correct and this life is all there is how will you ever know? If I am wrong and there is no afterlife then we are even. neither of us will know. But if you are wrong and I am right, then I get to spend eternity in heaven with my savior. You will get to spend eternity knowing that I was right and you were wrong.
When I was a young man I had my doubts too. I studied all the major religions and philosophies. I had to decide if God was real or not and if He was, whose God was He? Then when I decided He did exist and the God of Christians was the only one that was alive I had to decide witch church to belong too. I studied the bible and attended services from the Catholic church, the Lutherans, the Methodists, The Southern Baptists, the American Baptist, the Free Will Baptists, the Church of England, the Episcopalians, and a few I can't remember. The churches I did not get to attend I studied their doctrines and I made my decision based on which church came closest to teaching and practicing what I believe the bible was teaching.
No I will not condemn you or criticize you for being a non believer. I will tell you that Jesus is real and that he loves you and he died on the cross as payment of the penalty for your transgressions and if you accept His free gift you too can have eternal life. What you do with that knowledge is up to you. No, I will not tell you how to live, even if you become a Christian. That is God's job to clean you up, not mine.
I do know that what many people, even those who claim to be Christian, believe the bible says and what it really teaches is vastly different. For sure, many people can quote a few scriptures and many have a basic understanding of what the general concept of Christianity but few really study their bibles and pray asking for understanding. Asking for and receiving a different translation is not the key to understanding the bible. Study and pray are.
A good example would be the robe Jesus wore at His trial. Matthew says the robe was scarlet, Luke said it was purple, and John said it was purple. Mark said only that it was gorgeous . You can translated that all you want and you still come up with purple, scarlet, and gorgeous. You can't go my so-called biblical scholars who try to convince you that the purple was so faded that some thought it looked red and make all kinds of color charts to prove their point. The robe was dyed with Tyrian purple and Tyrian purple only gets brighter when exposed to sunlight and weather. God didn't forget what color the robe was nor did the men writing down the scripture make a judgment call as to what they saw.
We do sometimes when one of us thinks something is blue and another person swears it is green. No, each man saw what God wanted him to see. If you are a Christian contact me and I will explain the answer. If you are a non-believer then the answer is not what you need to be focusing on at the moment. Once you fully understand God's plan of salvation and accept that then you can move on in growing in truth.
If you continue to reject God then I wish you a long life.
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