Who has time? I hardly have time to turn around! I have a school writing assignment due by tomorrow midnight again and today I am leading a bunch of 4H’ers on a 6 hour hike. The living room needs some finishing up attention after sanding the floors of heavy paint and refinishing them and performing a complete repaint job. Now I am on to the hallway and foyer area. I started painting that area after I got home and ate supper last evening which means I got done rolling just after 10pm. Now I need to finish the brush work along the edges and then the trim. All of the trim! We are not talking about a little trim here, we are talking a lot of trim to include 9 doorways, 3 windows and what looks to be about 100 railing spindles. I have to remind myself that this is one of the great features of the house, all the detailed woodwork.

Did I mention I also need to repair the garage overhead door? Maybe finding a replacement is a better statement. The youngest son was closing the overhead door from the outside just after I had just walked out of the opposite door. As he put the door down, it sounded like something flew apart in there and it did. One of the door springs broke and shot through the garage tearing off pieces of 2x4 supporting structure. Glad we were outside. Now that is added to my “to-do list” along with installing the downstairs central AC, a new TV antenna, solar panels, painting the kitchen, replacing 27 windows, replacing the carpet in the playroom which has begun to shred after 16 years and unknown years before we moved in use, and the list goes on.

The completed list includes painting the porch and most of the outside window trim, adding two new raised flower/vegetable beds, taking out an old bush, that job of refinishing most of the 1st floor floors, painting the living room, two trips to MS for work and wow! It doesn’t look like a got much accomplished! I need to get busy, later!

I hope not, because it is great having brothers and sisters. For those of you who know me well I am sure you would ask me, “How do you know? You don’t have either.” That would be correct as I am an only child. But, through Christ I have innumerable brothers and sisters. As, I write this I am especially thankful for three of them and feel sad for those Christians who do not spend the time getting to know their brothers and sisters. For without getting to know them, they will most likely never be comfortable asking their relations for help and vise-versa. Sadly, one or the other might have a skill, talent, wisdom, understanding, tools or be in the right location to help the other. Many times I have seen Christians struggle with a problem or issue and they will not ask or accept help from their brothers and sisters. Sometimes it is because of this simple thing of not knowing them that prevents the arrival at what might be an easy solution. Because, who feels comfortable asking a stranger for help? Now if they do know their brothers and sisters, but still will not ask for help, well, that is a different issue entirely.

Along this line I want to tell you about the brothers and sisters I am referring to. I could give you many other examples of the great brothers and sisters I have, but these standout in my mind for help they provided just recently.

First: I have been taking a college math course and have been doing okay with it except for the last two weeks. I have spent hours trying to deal with probabilities and statistics. I was able to understand a lot of the material, but there were parts that were just giving me fits. This sister took time out of her busy schedule to come to my house, sit down with me and help me understand these two topics better. Without getting to know her I would not have known she is a whiz-bang in math. Thanks sis! By the way sis, I got a 95% on that quiz I had to take only because you took the time to help me.

Second: When she along with other of my brother’s and sister’s children were on their way back to college they experienced catastrophic car problems. This brother and sister took these three children in, housed them, fed them, helped them find a garage for repairs (taking a day off work to do so) and drove them to the airport when repairs were not possible. After doing all of that, they helped dispose of the car which ended up sitting in their driveway for almost two months. You can only ask such great things from brothers and sister you know really well, but wait, I have never met them. That is right, we have never met and have only talked on the phone as they tried to help figure out solutions as to what to do with the car. The only way I know them is really through having their daughter at my house for spring break the other year. To them I owe a very big THANKS! The whole situation would have really been a nightmare if they would not have been there.

So, this leaves me with some questions:
What do people do when they do not have brothers and sisters all around the world to help them?
Am I a brother that would help another brother or sister? I can answer with a definite “yes.”
Can you answer likewise?
Have you gotten to know your brothers and sisters?

Well the Honda is gone. I traded it for a 12 piece set of deep-well impact wrench sockets. They retailed for over $300 and the best cash offer I received was $75.

For those of you who never have seen the Honda nor had the opportunity to ride in it, it had become a one-of-a-kind car. I had it almost four years and while it was not pretty, it had character and for the most part, was very reliable. Its death sentence came in the fall when I tried to have an alignment completed on it. It was then determined that both upper ball joints on the front needed to be replaced. The repair cost; a little over $500 for the parts and then plus the labor. I only bought it for $700. The loss of its joints was not its only problem. The AC blew up over a year ago while I was in a Metro parking garage. It was something to hear and then see. The lady walking about 50 feet in front of where I was parked most likely did not appreciate it since she walked faster after jumping about a foot in the air. Then there was this great fog that rolled out around the car. It looked like it was possessed or at the very least, had a fog machine attachment. To change the heat vent direction I used a wire that stuck out of the dash. I should be thankful as this allowed me to exercise hand/feel coordination. To assist me with strength training, the Honda made it almost impossible to change gears when very cold. Over the past year I have come to the conclusion that the Honda’s favorite Bible person was Elijah. It tried to imitate him by showing the gas tank as full even though it might only have fumes in the tank. It never seemed to understand that just showing the tank was full was not the same as having it full. It also liked to change its smell like some women change perfumes. Along this same line it sometimes over whelmed you with its new scent. The Honda’s most favorite recurring scent, especially when raining was: L’Air Wet Dog. Its age was starting to recently show as it started not wanting to start when it was raining and cold. Rheumatism possibly?

I was hoping to find someone who would lovingly take care of it. Maybe use it as a donor vehicle so other cars could live on, but alas it will go to be crushed, melted down and made into cans. So next time you are about to throw that can away, just think, that could have been Kevin’s old car and have compassion on the can. Lay it gently into the trash instead of tossing like it was just some other old can.

While I do not trust polls as a whole, this article is interesting to read.

Sorry, you will have to cut and paste since I do not know how to do the link thing. Help with how to do this would be appriciated.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1105/darwin-debate-religion-evolution

Late this afternoon we had our first real dusting of snow. More like a good solid ¼” of snow after a very cold day. It was 17 degrees when I got up this morning and if it got above freezing it was only for a little while which leads me to wonder how soon spring will arrive.

Thinking of spring, someone asked me today if I was ready for Christmas. My response was, “I am not ready for summer let alone winter and Christmas. It seems I am missing 6 months somewhere."