From the weekend (again)

A couple of things:

1. Talladega is among my favorite tracks in NASCAR. But yesterday's race had a really bad ending. On my list of villain drivers, numbers one and two are Juan Pablo Montoya and Kyle Busch - in no particular order. Much to my chagrin they ran 1st & 2nd yesterday after a couple of late fender benders sent Dale Jr. and Tony Stewart to the back - Jr. did somehow rally to finish 10th according to ESPN this morning (after being 29th with 5 to go). I actually found myself rooting for Jeff Gordon after Jimmy Johnson committed restrictor plate suicide and followed Michael Waltrip to the high side trying to block Busch and Montoya (Haven't you seen Days of Thunder? He's just setting you up, look high, go low. But alas Michael and Jimmy backed up like no other.) But I will say, the COT was much more competitive than previous plate track races in it, which gives me hope that the new car won't be the death of competitive racing on the big tracks.

2. There is a reason people who run home improvement businesses can charge healthy prices. Specifically they have knowledge that most of us don't, they have tools we don't have (and ordinarily don't need), and what they do is hard work (especially when you don't know what you're doing - yes, it is possible to bend metal with 2 pairs of pliers). Replacing pulls and hinges in our bathrooms proved a much larger task than you'd think (and of course there are 4 hinges in each bathroom unlike the other 22 (which couldn't be seen without removing other items, thus the ones I ordered won't work on those 4, guess that'll have to wait until next week when I can get some new ones in here - because you can fairly assume no one in Joplin carries the hinges I need!).

3. Robin's sermon yesterday morning was right on the money. He managed to step on lots of toes, well mine anyway. The text was Daniel 5 and he brought out the fact that a big part of Belshazzar's problem was that he was irreverent and he didn't care that he was dishonoring God. The question is, even for those of us who are in church every Sunday, are in a small group, etc., how often do we honor God with our lips, but refuse to surrender our lives to Him? Even worse, how often do we know we're dishonoring Him and just not care? Robin drew a connection between this story and Jesus talking about the people who on judgment day will say to Him that they did all these things in His name - to which He will reply that He never knew them. Ouch! So you mean the ones getting that response were "good" people? Wasn't exactly what I was hoping to hear. Even those of us who are in and around church a lot aren't immune to the temptation to do things our own way, thus removing Jesus from His rightful seat as Lord of our lives.

A Really Long Day

As you may have already heard me recount, last Thursday/Friday/Saturday was kind of like one really long (but good) day.

I got up early Thursday morning at MOVE in Florida, spent a lot of that day hanging out in airports (4 to be exact) and eventually crawled into bed at 12:30am (Friday morning). I managed to sleep almost 6 hours, got up, showered, had breakfast and started packing the last of our stuff. At 9am on Friday, Brittany and I went to close on the house we were selling and the one we now own (kind of tipping my hand there).

All went according to plan, both houses closed without incident and by 11am we were on our way back to McCoy to load the truck. The moving truck (picked up by my dad), Brittany and I, my mom, and Brittany's dad all converged on the McCoy house at the same time. From there it was just short of a race to move everything we own over to Chandler.

By about 5:30pm we had moved virtually everything (a very few items remained at McCoy for different reasons) and a lot of it was in place. My wife has this rare quality where she wants everything done right now (she says it comes from her dad, thanks David). So by the time I got back with the second truck full of stuff, the furniture was all in place, beds were made, decor was hung (mostly on existing nails), and thanks to 6 hours of work by Grandma Judy, my mom, and Britt's mom the kitchen and bathrooms were cleaned.

Sometime around 7:30 I finally convinced Brittany that she had to stop long enough to let me eat or I was going on strike (did I mention none of us got lunch?). She relented and we headed for Del Rio (conveniently located 3 minutes from our new house!) with my parents, and her mom and step dad in tow. After waiting an eternity (who eats dinner that late? How could there be a waiting list at 8pm?) we ate dinner and got back to the house around 9:30 or 10:00 (I had pretty much lost track by then).

Britt had agreed that we could stop for the night, but her step dad talked me into setting up the new entertainment center - this meant taking it out of the crates (there were 4 pieces to this sucker by the way), putting the feet and door pulls on, etc. What he was really after was a glimpse of the new TV. I finally figured this out around 11:30 or midnight and started working toward getting the plasma set up and turned on - realizing this was the only thing that was going to bring this night to a conclusion.

Finally around 1:30am (Saturday morning) we crawled into bed just in time for the phone to ring - for the love of everything good and holy leave me alone (thought it, didn't say it). I let the first round of rings go, but the voice on the machine made me know that something was going on, so when it immediately started to ring again I picked up to hear the operator from CIY's security system telling me that the alarm had gone off and wanting to know if I want to go check it out. About half coherent (as I usually am anytime after 11pm) I responded, "Not really, it's 1:30am." She replied, "I'll send the police out to check on it." I thought, "Good, that's their job."

Only after I crawled back into bed did I realize that it must have been someone involved with MOVE returning from Florida that had set it off. So far I haven't heard who it was or if the police showed up.

After that I was able to finally get some sleep.

It was a great couple of days and it all went as well as it could have in our opinion. We are very blessed to have families that care about us and are determined to help us. And the Believe team even rolled out to help along with Andy Hansen - they were about the only people in town that day, so we were honored and very appreciative of them coming to our aid.

One other side note. Before we started moving anything on Friday morning I sent the Firehawk to an undisclosed location for safe-keeping during the process. Brittany had arranged this for me and I knew it would not be bothered. What I wasn't expecting was to get it back clean (it was really dusty from not having been washed in a long time). At some point in the process someone told me that Grandpa Bob had washed my car while he had it. What was funny was that I didn't even realize he was gone long enough to have done that. There are only a couple of people I could be told had washed that car and not worry about the outcome - he's one of them. Now I just have to get Brittany's cleaned up - the good news is it might stay clean for more than 1 day now that it is parked inside at night.

My Least Favorite Commercial

I probably should have made that title plural, because there are a couple of these that really irk me.

Have you seen the really badly done commercials urging people to invest in gold? The production, costuming, acting, and scripts are horrible and that's before I pick apart the whole premise of what they're proposing.

The one I see most often has this middle-aged woman in an 80's looking outfit doing her best to come across as really wealthy (and I guess thereby qualified to tell you how to invest). Her voice (let's hope she's only acting) is about as pompous sounding as any I've ever encountered as she tells you that in "these uncertain times" you should be investing in something with real value, something more substantial than mere paper (such as stocks).

Now, there's no denying the fact that the value of gold has gone up almost exponentially over the last few years and it could continue to go up...or not. She throws in there that it has never been worth zero - such as your stock would be if the company went bankrupt. Thank you, Lady for that brilliant news flash! But that doesn't make it a great investment idea.

Here's the deal, gold is traded on the open market just like everything else. So on any given day it's value may go up or down just like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or any other investment vehicle that isn't guaranteed. Over the long term it is unlikely that gold will continue the run-up it has had recently and I would contend that right now isn't the best time to get in if you're looking for a growth opportunity (because I think it's already gone up about as far as it's going to for a while, but that's just my opinion). If you're nearing retirement and want a stable asset, gold might not be a bad move.

Gold's value only goes up because mining (supply) currently isn't keeping up with demand. At some point it is likely that mining capacity will increase and bring the price back down as supply begins to more closely resemble demand. That's how market economies work. I guess if it is determined that no more gold exists in the world and suddenly we're dealing with a truly fixed quantity the value might continue to rise, but that doesn't appear to be a short-term reality.

I think the part of this commercial (and the others like it) that bug me the most is that they play on people's worst financial fears (the collapse of the economy). Now, that could happen, but to suggest that gold is the cure for and absolute protection from economic shifts is a little far fetched for my taste.

My point: it's a bad commercial.

Closing Time

Almost 11 months ago Brittany and I decided to put our house on the market in an attempt to buy another home across town. After months of frustration and waiting, we are less than 24-hours away from closing on the sale of our home on McCoy and the purchase of our new home on Chandler (still in Joplin).

It has been quite a ride. Lots of ups and downs. Lots of disappointments and frustrations along the way. But sitting here the day before we plan to move I believe that the opportunity that God has afforded us is far better than others He closed the doors to.

At one point we were looking at buying a house we could afford, but that would have stretched our budget to its limits. At others we considered building a house, which we hope to do someday, but probably weren't ready for. We looked at dozens and dozens of houses, none was quite what we were looking for until we rang the bell of the house on Chandler.

Our prayer all along has been that God would shut doors and re-direct us if we are headed in the wrong direction. He has been faithful to do that. We trust that He is guiding us and providing for us. As we've watched this deal come together we feel confident that it is a door God has opened for us.

As important as we know it is to be headed in the direction God has for us, this is also a business deal. For me, the fact that the business deal portion of it is favorable is only an additional indication that this is an opportunity God is providing.

And The Traffic Parted

As I sit in the Okaloosa airport (Destin/Ft. Walton) waiting on a flight I hope gets me to Memphis around the storms they're calling for, I started thinking about something that happened Monday night at the Move event in Florida I'm on the way home from.

At the venue we used, the hotel was on the opposite side of the street from where the sessions took place. As a result, all 400 people had to cross Front Beach Road 4 times each day (over and back, morning and evening). In order to help with this, we hired off-duty members of the sheriff's department - who proved to be really helpful and very willing to help however we needed them to.

On Monday night as the group came out of what once was the the Fives Family Arcade, the sheriff's deputy pulled into the street, got out of his car and began to signal for the busy street to come to a standstill. Prior to him moving into place the street was noisy and bustling with partying adolescents and adults. But as soon as the students started making their way across it got eerily silent. Not only did the traffic stop, but people stopped honking and yelling at one another. The only real sounds were a breeze blowing through the trees and the murmur of students discussing what they'd just experienced in the session they were leaving.

When the last student cleared the street, the sheriff signaled traffic to resume and everything went back to the way it had been.

It was an amazing thing to watch. I had no idea that it could get so quiet on Front Beach Road in Panama City Beach on spring break. Perhaps this was a coincidence. Perhaps God was working in the lives of the students and didn't want them distracted. I'm not sure, but I know it was a moment I'll remember for a long time.

Dealing with Dish

The story of moving goes on. We are at 8 days and counting from closing both houses and moving. We've been packing and planning and praying (that something won't go wrong - and that if it does that it's God protecting us in some way).

One of the things I was responsible for in this process was getting utilities and services switched over. After talking to Dish Network and DirectTV I was planning to switch us from Dish to Direct. We were going to save $300 over the next 12 months - well worth it to me - particularly with the same programming and an upgrade in equipment.

So I called Dish on Wednesday evening to schedule our service to be shut off on the 11th - then I was going to call Direct to have them install on the 11th. When I finally got to the guy that could actually cancel my service - after asking at least 3 other CSRs if they could match what Direct was offering and repeatedly being told no - he asked me why I was dropping them. I told him that Direct was offering more for less. Suddenly this guy had the power to give me everything I wanted for $15/month less than I'm currently paying. And he could give me free equipment (part of the $300 cost listed above). It was amazing. I wasn't pushy, didn't demand anything and he just starting hooking us up.

Now there I am a little bit of a skeptic when it comes to things like this, the proof will most certainly be in the envelope. But my advice would be to look and see what the competing service is offering and then talk to people at your provider until one of them has the ability to do something for you.