Faith and Other Assorted Spiritual Thoughts

I tend to keep my spiritual beliefs to myself being a private person; but, here lately, I've been rethinking that position. I don't intend to proselytize here for any specific brand of faith as it is my firm belief that everyone (even athiests whether they realize it or not) are on their own spiritual journey and need to grow in the direction that the Diety of their choosing sees fit to lead them. Having said that, I no longer intend to shy away from sharing my thoughts about my own spiritual walk and how it shapes my outlook on life. 

For those that care, we are non-denominational, Sabbath keeping, "apostolic" Christians. We are part of a church that teaches several things that fall outside of "traditional, mainstream" Christianity; however, we still believe in the Divinity of Christ, His death and resurrection, and His soon coming return which puts us on the same page with most people walking that general direction. What throws most people for a loop is we do not keep Easter, Halloween or Christmas but we do keep the Old Testament holy days.

I found this meme recently which struck a chord with me, and I wanted to share it outside the usual Friday Funnies chuckle fest. 

This concept, in my humble opinion, is where many well meaning believers go wrong (and it applies equally to other faiths...I'm looking at you radical Islam). New converts to a particular flavor of faith tend to be the worst about this (I've guilty of it myself in times past). It's also had a terribly polarizing influence on American politics on both the Republican and Democratic Parties. Prohibition laws (of all flavors) are a perfect example of this. Don't like (insert social ill here)? Don't drink it, smoke it, do it. As long as no one else is harmed in the process...you do you. Just don't ask me to approve of it. 

But Daddy Hawk, what about (something you think is utterly evil that has direct/indirect impact on others beyond the person using/doing said evil)? Shouldn't we protect (fill in your favorite helpless, defense less entity or object here)? I would agree that "we" collectively as a species should do a better job on a variety of issues. Here's the rub though: human nature makes us a stubborn, hypocritical lot that just wants to do what we want to do regardless of consequences. Murder has been outlawed since practically the beginning of time in every society that has existed (more or less...I'm sure there exceptions to the rule). Guess what? It still happens everyday. 

You want to solve the murder problem (or alcoholism or drug abuse or...)? It starts with you. Live the life your faith says you are supposed to live everyday and not just on the day you go worship. Live by example, and teach your kids to do the same. Volunteer somewhere and help others see you living your faith. You might just learn a thing or two in the process and reach a deeper understanding of your own faith.

This next one tickled me especially after the last 3 or so years of dealing with multiple issues and crises. It feels sometimes like God is sitting on a sofa somewhere drinking a beer looking at me and saying "Hit him again."

God (or Ever God in Heaven as M&M says), I do not wish that someone else go through trials but could I have a break? 

Spam Email Folder

Is it just me, or is the spam email getting more vile? I keep my spam folder cleaned out pretty regularly; but, here lately, I don't think I'm old enough to read even just the subject lines of some of the garbage that goes in there. 

Shiny Go Fast Mobile

 Spotted a week ago when out at the gun range with my best friend. Ford GT in purple. 

Even if I could afford it, I'd never fit inside. It is pretty though. Sounded more like a motorcycle than an American sports car should in my opinion. 

More Adventures in Automotive Repair

6 groove belt decided it really identified as a 4 groove belt

Back in September, I was getting the family SUV ready for a road trip when I discovered that the drive belt (what we used to call a fan belt back in the day) when I discovered, for the second year in a row, that the drive belt was getting eaten. It was a little further along the path to destruction this time, and I'm reasonably sure that it would have come apart at the most inconvenient of times in the middle of nowhere late at night. Fortunately, I had a spare in the back (which I now need to replace come to think of it). 

The next set of photos come from an OOPS moment brought on by one to the stupidest trends: lowered and "stanced" cars. Late August/Early September, we went to our favorite breakfast place (Seven Mile Cafe in Highland Village...freaking amazing pancakes especially the cinnamon swirl pancake). Anyidiot, as we are pulling into the parking lot, I see the Black Scion pictured below limping into a parking spot dragging the rear bumper cover and grinding the frame on the pavement. 

Since I didn't see the precipitating event, I can only speculate. However, based on the damage and the drag marks in the pavement, it appears to me that the car was equipped with an aftermarket air bag suspension to get over bumps in the road like acorns and pieces of paper. It appeared to me that the air pump in the suspension failed as they were exiting the car wash next door resulting in the bumper cover getting yanked off and forcing them to grind their way to a parking spot. 

Now, I have nothing against people modifying their cars as long as it does not present a safety hazard to the general public. You do you. The modifications here, in my opinion, represent a safety hazard that should be confined to a show car or a track car as opposed to a street car. First, the suspension modifications make it difficult to go up and down even slight grades, speed bumps, etc. as evidenced by the rear bumper cover being torn off in a parking lot that normal cars have no problems with. The air bags are great....when they work. Unfortunately, they add in additional failure points that do not exist with the stock set up. 

Second, the wheels and tires. Using wider tires for more grip is an age old racing trick. Using tires that are a size or two too small for the rims...not so much. Lowering the suspension to the point that you have the wheel hubs have to be at canted to max camber angles eliminates the benefit of wider tires (specifically more contact patch on the road). There's the uneven tire wear to consider. And, most importantly, you can float that sucker in heavy rains no matter how much tread you have on the tires. Let's also not forget the damage to the frame. After grinding off whatever frame coating Toyota uses, the frame is now exposed to the elements and will rust if you spit in it's general direction. I wouldn't be surprised if that frame were to buckle in 3 to 5 years. 

Bottom line, don't do this kind of stuff and then use it as a daily driver. If you've got that much extra cash burning a hole in your pocket, invest in a truck and trailer to haul it to events if you need that much attention in your life. 

Blogger Went Wonky

Dont' ask me what happened to the formatting on the last post. I have no idea. It looked great in Word. A copy & paste later, and it's gone all stream of consciousness on me. 

Weird.

Edit: might have just figured it out. 

Edit 2: Yep. Somehow Blogger got switched from "compose view" to "HTML view". I have no idea how that happened. It's fixed now. 

Is This Thing Still On?

There are lots of euphemisms I could use to explain my relative absence from this space for the last five months. Suffice it to say, much has transpired since we last saw our hero relocating to the supposed peace and tranquility of east Texas. I’m still looking for the proverbial country record that I can play backwards to get stuff back not the least of which is my sanity. 

So, let’s set the Wayback Machine for early May when we closed on the “new” old house. 

That was supposed to be a happy day. I was really looking forward to moving in and getting settled after all the chaos from the preceding year. 

Sigh….such was not to be. 

Once we took possession of the house and were able to get in a look around at what needed doing, The Queen immediately noticed the overwhelming odor of cat urine. It took a few minutes, but it finally penetrated my nasal passages which are not the greatest sniffers on a good day. A trip to Lowe’s for a UV Flashlight revealed that, yes, indeed, the prior owners cats' had sprayed everywhere all over the house. The worst of it was the living room. A quick inspection of the walls in the living room revealed that what we thought was painted sheetrock was, in fact, painted wallpaper over sheetrock. 

Well, thinks I, that’s a simple matter of removing the wallpaper (in a room roughly 15’ wide 19’ long with 12’ ceilings….I am such an optimist) and painting the walls underneath. 

 Let’s just say that Murphy is a dirty rotten scoundrel who hates me personally. 

 If you were not aware, East Texas is, in addition to being as hot as the rest of Satan’s outhouse in the summer, humid as steam bath. Why is this important? Well, we discovered through careful research that exterior walls that have wallpaper in a humid environment with HVAC will trap moisture and make for the perfect conditions to grow mold and mildew. 

Guess what we found behind the wallpaper in the living room? If you guessed mold and mildew, give yourself a gold star. Guess who has a major allergy to mold and mildew? If you guessed The Queen and M&M, give yourself another gold star. 

 Not happy making for Daddy Hawk. 

In addition to trying to get settled and keep work going, now I have to figure out how to get rid of mold and mildew off of sheetrock and find a place for The Queen and M&M to hide while doing so. 

 To add insult to injury, my boss called 17 days later and let me know my services were no longer required for the company. 

Well, POOP and other assorted four letter words. They claimed performance issues were the reason. I’ve never missed a deadline or failed to respond to matters timely. Yes, the preceding year or two were a challenge with caring for The Queen mum and dealing with the aftermath of her death, but who wouldn’t have challenges under those circumstances. So much for care and compassion and “work / life balance”. 

So, there I sit. Haven’t made the first payment on the mortgage, no job, a major project to deal with and a house that is unlivable for 2 out of the 3 members of the household. I did the only thing a rationale person could do. I called my realtor and asked what it would take to get the house back on the market. 

Over the next month and a half, I (with some help from The Queen), removed all the wallpaper from the living and study, discovered a water leak in the skylights (which were later determined to have been improperly installed in the distant past), hired a contractor to fix the skylights, painted the living room, hired another contractor to texture the study walls and master bath ceiling and did my best to keep up with the lawn care, car maintenance and job searching. 

We finally got the house on the market, and it sold for full price within a couple of weeks. Fortunately, I was able to land a temporary gig starting right before the closing on the sale of the house which allowed us to rent an apartment back in the Dallas area while we get our feet back under us. There were some other trials in the interim which are not terribly critical to our current story. The temp gig lasted a little over a month before I landed a better temp to hire gig with another company that is much more to my liking and pays better to boot. A big bonus with this job is that it is 100% remote meaning I can pretty much work from anywhere. 

Things are looking up overall. The Queen and M&M are doing much better now that they are in an apartment with no mold. My boss is happy with my work so far. So, hopefully the job will convert to permanent before the end of the year. 

So, the saga continues. Just not in the direction we thought.

Friday Funnies