Old Customers

Today Linda and I made a service call on a clock that I have worked on many times.
The first call on this clock was in 1982 when I was 32 years old.
It was brand new then,and it was an easy job.
My customers were the Elliot's,a super nice and friendly couple.
Over the years they would call for service on the clock and as time went by I got to know them.
They save every receipt I had given them down in the bottom of the clock.

I often thought they were a favorite customer.
Today their son has the clock,mom and dad Elliot passed away a few months ago,both were well in their eighties.
I honor them with this post.
I will miss you a great deal.Thank you for being a special part of my life.

Pain or lack of it.Neuropathy Post

Today June 15 201o.
It is one week since I had a pain pill.
I was taking 11 or more a day and now I am down to zero.
I am slightly nervous about it but I want my life back.
To hell with neuropathy.I don't need it I don't want it.
Enough zombieland.
Good bye Neuropathy. You suck.

So now we are 120

Thats 120 years between us,that seems like a lot to me.
Has it gone fast? Yes

Are you happy? Yes,very.

Has God let you down? No.I have wondered where He is though at times.

Do you still love her? More than ever.

Do you have the fortitude to go on till death? Yes.

Do you worry about things? Yes.Business mostly.

Whats makes you happy? God,her,kids,grandkids.Friends are scarce but good.

Do you like the new church? I like sitting in the back. Yes I like it.

What are your faults? I have to many to mention at this time.

When did you want to go Home? Not yet please.

Will the Cubs call you to play left field? Yes,soon.

Are you sleeping? It's better.

What about pain pills? From 11 a day to zero.And holding.

Are you enjoying your hobbies? Fot the most part yes.But I miss painting a lot.

Ever angry? Seldom.

Goals? I want to travel a lot.

Is this the end of this post? Yes.

Easter 2010

Today we had our family over to celebrate Easter.
I think this day will stand out as a highlight in my life.

It is amazing to me how very much they all love each other.
Not a cross word,not a sarcastic comment,just peace.
Thank You God.

Happy Birthday Whitney!

My Dear Whitney,
Today you are 10 years old.
Happy Birthday !
I am so happy to have you in my life,you always make this ol' papa smile.
I write to you today having so much hope and love in my heart for you.
I wanted to say some things about your future.
Your first 10 years have been good.I see you have made many friends and that is so important!
Keep these childhood friends Whit,you won't ever forget them.They are a gift.
Your next ten years will be life changing.
Growing into womanhood will be a truly amazing experience.
Schools,learning,trusting God daily,these are things to remember as you go.
There may come times when you don't understand God.There may come times when you don't understand your dad or mom.There may come times when life is to confusing.
These times will come and go quickly.
The experiences God puts us through shapes us,teaches us and matures us into the kind of person God wants us to be.
Always be on guard because there are many things in life that want us to fail.There will be temptation's to face and many choices to make.

I wonder about your life,will you be a teacher? Will you be a mom? Will you be a doctor or nurse? A lawyer? Somehow no matter what it is I know I will be so proud of you.
I see in you a spirit of kindness.
I see in you a sense of humor.(probably from your dad) and this is a good thing.
Most of all I see in you a spirit of loving others and I love you for that.
So,life will be a mystery for the next ten years.When you are twenty you will be an amazing person Whit.
Happy Birthday Whitney,
Your Papa loves you Verrrrry Much.

They Scourged Him

The men who did it.
The men who scourged him.Beat him.Whipped him with more then just whips.
They spat on him.
They laughed at him.
I think about these men.
I wonder about these men.
Heartless,cruel.
Men in a crowd of like minded men.I am sure that gave them courage.
A crown of thorns was placed upon his head.
They put him up on a wooden cross.
They nailed him to it.
They put a sign over his head for all to see.
For hours they mocked him.
They cast lots for his garment.
Then he forgave them all.
Even me and you.

How Long Will Blogs Last?

I write for my kids and my grand kids.

I wonder if the things I write will be here in 30 or 40 years.
Will there be some new technology that makes blogs unreadable?
I hope the technology that we have now in 201o won't become like a VHS tape.
I write because I think my past is important to me.
There are not many great words of wisdom here,it is just me trying to share a life.
Sharing this past of mine is a way for the future generations to know who I am,or was.
My own grandfathers have been gone many years and although I have memories of both of them,I don't know the details of the lives they led.I have a few faded photographs and that's it.
I never had any grandmothers,they both died before I was born.I am told I missed out on a lot of things. What I don't know about them both makes me wonder who they were.How and why did they do the things they did.
So,my children if you read this many years from now,know this;there was a father and grandfather who loved you with all his heart.I think about all of you everyday.
More important I have prayed everyday for you all.
It would be so interesting for me to see how you all turned out.
What do you do? Have you married? How many kids do you have?
Did you go to college? Are you in love? Are you serving God?
One more thing to say for now-I am so happy to know you and to have you in my life.When I was a younger and had Kevin,Mark,Michelle and Joel as children,I never thought about grand kids.It never occurred to me that I would have so many!
You bless me,all 13 of you.
Your papa loves you verrrrry much.

Family Weekend

Friday night we went to dinner at Joel and Lisa's house in Dyer,Indiana.
Caleb and Alistair were so happy to see me they did a little dance.
These are such happy times for this old papa.

Saturday we went out to Michigan City,Indiana to have lunch with Michelle,Maddie,Whit and Belle.
I got many hugs from my girls during the lunch.We laughed a lot and took silly pictures.God gave me some amazing grand daughters.

Sunday Mark,Abbey,Alistair and Jared came over for dinner.
We waited for the ball game to start,it never did because of rain.
Alistair wanted to watch Andre again,so we did.It is a great DVD and I think I have seen it a hundred times.Alistair loves it so I did not mind at all.
Alistair always helps me feed my fish,and the dogs.
We went back to get the food and Alistair asks me "Where is Robin Papa?"
I didn't know exactly what to say.I said Robin has gone away.
He asked me again ''Where is Robin?" I said shes gone to heaven.
I know he didn't understand but he let it go.
I think if God loves us enough to let us have pets,he will make sure we see them again.
There is no Bible verse to back me up,I just have a feeling.

OSCARS!!

I don't care!
That is all.

Good Heavens

People say strange things.

I hear these a lot

Good Heavens !

Goodness Gracious!

Good God!

Jesus Christ!

omg!

Good Lord Almighty!

For Christs sake!

For Gods sake!

For the Love of God!

For Craps Sake!

Mother of God!

Mary,Mother of God!

Holy Shit! (sorry)

We all have heard these phrases.

I have used some of them in moments of anger.Maybe you have too.

Now we know God is in Heaven,we know God is Holy.
It is time to stop and think,please.

There May Come a Day For This

Perhaps the day is coming when God calls us home

Maybe it will be soon

Maybe it will be years from now

The day will be a good day

There shall be no great sorrow

A tear or two would be fine

This time here has gone very fast

How did it all happen?

I know you were there,Lord

I knew all the time

I seemed to ignore you

Sometimes

But I did know

So when the time comes

Please don't remember the bad stuff

The alone times

The prideful times

The anger

The questions,the million questions

Just bring me home.

Random Stuff

I am not a surfer.
I have the most amazing,loving,sweetest,daughter in the world.I love you Michelle.
Times may be hard financially for some of us but how did my parents and grandparents make it through the Great Depression?
There has to be a cure for Alzheimer's in my lifetime.
Friends online can be pretty good friends.
Friends online can be weird.
I could never run fast.I always lost races.Maybe because I broke my leg at a young age.I don't know.
I lost 84 pounds and gained 25 back.That's ok with me.
I hate checking my blood sugar level.Waiting for that stupid meter to to me how I am bugs me.
I was married at 19,had 4 kids by the time I was 24.Now I have 13 grandchildren and am amazed.
I once broke 27 bones.
TV bores the life out of me. I like Who's Line is it Anyway? I will sit through it.
My customers are awesome people.
I like my job a lot.
I enjoy listening more than talking on my ham radios.
I can't make small talk very well.I find it excruciating.
Ron Santo is a hero of mine.
People who swear annoy me.
I really like the doxology hymn at the end of a church service.
I love getting lost in a book.
Nueropathy is hard to live with most days.
I have been ok money wise.
I have not been ok money wise.
I have friends who would go to court with me.
When I go to church,I sit in the back.Far back.
I passed a test recently for ham radio.I got 2 wrong out of 35.I found it was easy to pass .I studied pretty hard for it.
Why does Google look at every blog I make? Huh? Yes Google in Mountain View, California.
A picture I posted a long time ago about Jesus playing football gets a lot of hits.I may have missed a major point about blogging here,but I don't care.
Sometimes I write stuff that's pretty good.Sometimes I don't.But I left it all here.
I want my grand kids to know about me long after I am gone.
I miss Three Musketeer Candy Bars a lot.
Sugar free is not always really sugar free.
I can be very stubborn.
I can not sing.I am terrible at it.But I love all kinds of music.
Bye for now.

Looking Back

I have reconnected with some old friends from Facebook in the last few weeks.
They posted pictures of my family I have never seen,it has been really wonderful to see them.
My mind goes back to those early days of my life and now I see how we are connected.For this I thank my long lost friends.
My neighborhood in Roseland was really the best,I can see all the houses,the cars parked in the street,the people who I knew so well.
We had little crime,none that I remember.
I felt like there were many moms looking out for us.
We played baseball in the street until the streetlights came on.That meant it was time to stretch out any game we were playing as long as possible.
Every spring and summer night it was baseball,fall and winter were times for football and hockey.I loved these games.

There certainly were some ecccentrics who lived on my street.
The crossing guard Bertha who told me to get my friends together and do something about all the blacks moving in.
The 2 old men who I think were brothers who lived next to the pumping station who we never saw.
The ex Chicago bear who lived in an upstairs flat with his family.
The beagles across the street who never stopped howling for 5 years.
The TV repair guy next door who charged my dad $3.oo for travel time.He probably walked 30 feet.
The good and kind people,Mr Riley who taught me how to ride a bike.
Mr.Ooms from next door who was always kind.
The guy who drove his big truck at 5 every afternoon that always waved as he went by.
Mrs. Stein who was kinder than anyone I ever met.
The Walkers whos son became a police chief in the suburbs.
Mr. Slager who told me not to whip my arms around or they would fall off.
The guy with the 1955 Thunderbird who lived at the end of the street.It just rusted away.
My dad hand feeding the squirrels Oreos.
All the big front porches that we hung out on with no complaints,the people never minded.
The yards we would walk through as long as we shut the gates.

These were good times.It was a place to grow up that we all remember so well.

Welcome Lillian Grace

Today you came into the world at 2:35 PM January 25,2010.

I have not met you yet but someday if you read this I wanted you to know that I prayed for you every day since I learned your mom was going to have you.
Already new prayers have begun for you my dear Lillian. You now face a world that is far from perfect.
You face a world in need,a world that is sad and lonely for many.May you never be in need or lonely.
You have already made my life richer.You are just a few hours old and my thoughts have been with you since your dad called me to tell me that you were born.
Your big sister Brooke is a wonderful girl Lillian,she is going to love you your whole life!
You know you have girl cousins too who can't wait to meet you.There is Maddie,Whitney,Belle and Sarah.They can't wait to meet you too.
Your big brothers are Joel and Caleb.Watch them during your life.they will protect you and love you forever.
Did you know Lillian that God knew of you before you were born? He has a wonderful life planned for you.Stay close and rely on Him when there is no other.
Your boy cousins are very special kids,Andrew,Aaron,Joshua,Alistair and Jared are all just amazing to me.They are going to be very fun cousins!
If I can claim God's love and protection for you I do so now Lillian.
I write this to you my dear one 60 years after the day I was born.I wanted you to know how much I love you.
Your Papa Loves You Verrry Much!

What is Life?

Living the straight life in the Chicago suburbs when the only friend around is your best friend.
Our tv has been out for a few days and we don't mind.It is late and she has Pandora on.We are listening to Emmy Lou and Alison Krause.

Thinking and praying about your next grand child being born tomorrow.

Thinking and praying about family far away.Computers make them seem not so far away but still...

Spent most of today with a son.That's a good thing to do.

Wondering.

Reading.

Studying for a test I want to take for advancement in ham radio.My brain is getting sore.

Dreaming about vacations I want to take.Many places to go yet isn't there?

Taking a blood sugar test and seeing the results are still to high.But not horrible.

Finishing the day with a prayer that does not make a lot of sense,then starting the prayer all over.I guess God speaks when we don't know the right questions to ask.I like that.

So today that has been my life.I liked it.

I got older.

Januray 13,2010.
Yes one more year.So now I am 60.
I wonder what is like to be 60.
I don't think like I am 60.
I feel 60.
I take a lot of drugs to stay alive.
I don't like taking any drugs.
I have one of those containers labeled with every day of the week.My wife fills it for me.
I still like rock and roll and Andre Rieu. I may be a bit odd in my taste in music.
I am rediscovering Hoyt Axton. And many others.
I don't hardly sleep at night.I found out my daughter and my daughter in laws don't sleep much either.
I can sleep for 2 hours in the afternoon.
I have found a new church.It's very quiet.I think we may join it.But there are sure a lot of old people there.(I mean older than 60).The pastor is 26.This is very cool.
I miss those who have gone home a great deal.Mom,dad and so many friends.
I seem to think a lot about them.
I am happy for the most part.
I need to be working more.
I have pick up truck with 210,000 miles on it.
I am in love with my wife,my kids and my grand kids.
I have over a thousand friends on facebook.I like a great deal of these people.Many are like minded.
I deleted some.I have some on ignore.

I have not updated this blog for a long time.So I did.