Another day, who knows what's around the corner

12/6/06 Wednesday
Ok, let’s try to recount the day. Right now all I can remember is our visit with Paula at the Farm Bureau. She is a sweetheart who truly seems to have our best interest in mind. That is rare, at least where we came from. Usually up in Toledo folks try to sell you as much as they can even if it’s not good for you. We are now members of the Farm Bureau which carries many benefits. I don’t remember many of them except the 20% off on Sherwin Williams products. The reason I remember that is I used their cross linked polyurethanes on the furniture I made and also restored. All these little bits of memory from my past.

Anyway, we talked for quite a bit about this and that. Covered things like churches, religious TV, visiting people unannounced, and my creed. That is “Say what you mean and do what you say”. It is a simple thing that I live by, much to the chagrin of some who don’t like my honesty. For me I prefer people who don’t beat around the bush and say what they think. It is an honesty that gets problems out in the open so they can be dealt with instead of festering like some infected wound. Two faced people I can’t trust and without trust there can be no real relationship.

There are other things that happened this week that come to mind. We saw Darryl at church this Sunday. He came into the Sunday school class and shook hands and said hi to everybody. We were the last he came to. He then left, I presume for class he is in. After Sunday school we hoped to see him as I wished to ask that we spend some time getting to know each other. We saw him coming down the isle but, well I don’t really know but it seemed like he didn’t want to talk with us. When he saw us waiting he turned back and talked with others. I know this could well be my imagination and a bit of paranoia stemming from my lifetime of rejection. When he had to come down the hall because we were still waiting he averted his eyes and tried to slip by us at the other side of the hall. I called his name a couple of times before he acknowledged we were there and came over.

Once he did I was able to convey my desire to get to know my family. I mentioned that there have been some stories going around about me. “I haven’t talked with anyone down here in twenty five years but they seem to think they know who I am. I’ve heard some fascinating stories about me”. I don’t know if this made him pause a bit but he seemed to open up a little. I am really unsure of myself here. Feel like a fish out of water. I want to be liked and not judged by whatever rumors or gossip has been circulated. It only takes a few seeds dropped by someone to grow and shade others opinions. I’ve had a life with many unpleasant events so earned a bad reputation but most of that was back in the seventies. Hard to make up for it when I’ve been gone so long. It will take time for people to see who I really am.

Lets see, what else. I am almost done with the clothing hanger. Took me longer than planned but most things do with me. Ran to Midland to buy a finish to put on it. Should be able to put it up tomorrow. Oh here’s something. We stopped by the Habitat for Humanity’s store to see if they have any hot water heaters. He said they usually are sold the same day they come in. We talked a little and I asked about the oven microwave combo we had looked at last week. It had been marked down to $95.00 from $125. I had told him we were living on my Veterans disability pension. He said we could have the unit for fifty bucks. I looked at Cherie cause she is the money manager in this family. We told him we would have to think about it because it would stretch our money out pretty thin. He said he would hold it for us till we decided.

We went to Home Depot, where I wanted to get a soil test kit to test the PH as Cathy had suggested. Just for reference we went to the appliance section to compare the unit at Habitat for Humanity. A similar unit was priced at $1600.00. Wow! That helped us make up our mind. I can’t install it for a while as I must run 220 volt wiring as well as build the cabinetry we need to hold it but we couldn’t pass it up. It would be nice to have a table saw but I can get by with the circular saw. A router would greatly enhance my ability to make much of what we need. In fact it would do wonders. That’ll have to wait a while.

We went back and bought the oven and also picked out a stove top that is made to be installed in a counter. It’ll be sweet to get that set up.

I am getting tired now so must call it a day and post this. It is good to be able to go online as so many such as Cherie’s family rely on the blog to see how things are going. My sister, Robin, responded to the E mails I sent out telling of our arrival in Texas and said she had been keeping up on us through the blog. It has turned into a powerful means of communicating with others.