2016 flies away

     2016 is quickly becoming just a spot in the rear view mirror. Every year seems to go speeding past faster and faster. It is getting to the place where I barely have time to enjoy the years. They are past before I can do something really crazy, but I do struggle not to conform too much to the rules.
     I kinda like to do things when told you should not do them. I guess that is the juvenile refusal to grow up.

    When Sharon and I were in the Mojave Desert we came across this sign.  Sure the sign says heat warning, hiking is not recommended. What a good reason to go for a little jaunt on a 109 degree day.

You don't have to worry about fighting the crowds when out for a hike in the "Valley of Fire" in July.

     Sharon and I took the family up to Northeast Iowa for a few days because this was the year we have been married for 30 years. Sharon wanted to celebrate last year already. I wonder if it seems it has been "longer" she has had to put up with me than real time can measure.

     Micah was leading our exploration of a trail when he and Matthew decided we could just cross the fence where the sign was posted DO NOT CROSS and continue walking, and sliding down the rock face, and being lost. We finally were able to scramble back up the bluff about straight up and get back on the trail. I do wonder where those boys get the idea they can just wonder off the trails. There was a certain justice here though. When they were younger there was a time or two when they were in tears asking "will we ever find our way back". Ha, now I could ask them the same question.

     When Sharon and I visited Dordt, we went to see Matthew at work. The above scene was what we saw. Ah, yes that old Spoelstra work ethic kicking in. Put your feet up and read. (by the way I just misspelled Spoelstra and spell check thought I was trying to type strapless,hmm.) 

     Tony is in his second year at Dordt. I am starting to remind myself of my father. "Tony you need a haircut". Wow! we were never going to be those old staid people that our parents were, were we? When Sharon and I are in Cedar Rapids we visit with one of Matthew and Tony's professors. We get a kick out of it that she tells people she teaches our sons (plural). I bet people would be surprised to see the lack of family resemblance one of our "sons" has to the rest of our boys.

     We spent a lot of our spare time working on houses this year. As you can see from the above picture I am best at leaning against something while supervising. I find the work is much easier if one of the boys does it, although I reserve the right to say "you did that how?" in that kind of disgusted parental voice all children know and love..

Yep, your right, neither one of those pictures is me working either. 

     They do good work though. Here is a picture of the kitchen of a house we bought that had been rented by an owner who lived out of town and was not watching his property. We had torn out the broken cabinets and broken ceiling, but that was the condition of the floor. I am pretty sure there was a little recreational medication going on by the former tenants. We met a boy about 11 years old who had been living here with his extended family. He said "my uncle isn't right in the head." Wow we figured that out even without a psychiatric evaluation.

     Same area finished and ready to rent. It's our little bit of reformation in a broken world. While the boys slave away I think of myself more as the purchaser. I find the house to purchase they do the work.

     See, here I am asking the age old question of life, "is that floor solid". I do believe some day after jumping on one of these floors I will find myself in the basement bleeding going "help I've fallen and I can't get up."

     God has blessed our family greatly in the past year. It is my prayer that God is deeply involved in each of your lives as well. May 2017 be a year of rejoicing in our Lord and Savoir.

Learn from History

‘Those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The quote is most likely due to George Santayana. i think the problem today is not that people do not remember the past but that they have no idea what actually happened in the past. There were stricter gun laws in the " wild West" than we have today. The shootout at OK corral was over the law against carrying a gun into the town of Tombstone. The Earps were deputized to stop the Clantons from carrying loaded weapons into town. 

Today everyone wants to have the "right to bear arms" I would like to have the right to live without reading about another mass shooting of innocents. If they could ban the carrying of weapons in the town of the old west, where guns had to be checked at the stable or the Sheriff's office when you came to town why can't we have the same laws today over 100 years later. it seems to me that having to hand over your weapons on entering a town in the wild west did not bring an end to freedom.
I am so tired of hearing the phrase " only a good man with a gun can stop a bad man with a gun". Ask the families of the dead police officers how well that is working out. The police officers were trained to handle and fire their weapons but the bad guys with a gun still killed them.

I am so tired of hearing the phrase "guns don't kill people, people kill people". Yes people with guns kill people. 
I am not opposed to hunting. I am not opposed to target shooting. I am not opposed to owning guns, but let's get them off our city streets where they do not belong. If we were not a nation where guns were in everyone's hands the counselor in Florida would not have been shot by the police. No one would have called 911 because they mistook the toy the autistic man was carrying to be a gun. Yes criminals will still get guns, I know that, but almost all people can not protect themselves against a criminal by owning or carrying a gun. 
Let's return to the sanity of the wild west and ban guns in our towns. Let's allow the law enforcement officers to know that most of us are not armed and let them arrest everyone they find with a loaded weapon. I am willing to give it a try because what we are doing now is not working.
I think Albert Einstein spoke eloquently about our situation with guns. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 

Waiting for Jesus

Wilma Spoelstra broke her hip on Friday. Her right hip broke January 23 and then in March she had a stroke. Life has not been the best of times for Mom in 2016. 

She survived the surgery yesterday to replace her hip. I am not sure that is what she wanted. When she broke her hip in January she had a moment of clarity just before the surgery to replace the right hip and said, "if I die on the operating table, it would not be the worst thing." Later when she was in skilled care for therapy she could not understand why she could not walk. One evening I said "mom you broke your hip, you may not ever walk again". This really sad look came over her face and she looked down for a bit, then she got a smile on her face and she looked back at me and said, "yea, but I am old so it can't be for long".

Here Mom is surrounded by some of her grandchildren at Emily's wedding. 

She has survived so much it is almost hard to image something could actually end her life. She survived brain cancer, almost bled to death from a polyp bleeding in her colon, Broke her sternum and several ribs in her 70's, Has had high blood pressure since she was 50. Her heart is a mess and has been for 20 years, suffers from A-Fib and has been shocked a couple of times to get her heart back in rhythm. She has COPD and at times has trouble breathing. I am sure I am forgetting a few maladies she has survived.

When Dad died 3 years ago I think she spent 6 months just looking at the wall and wondering why she was still here.

Mom as a teenager

This is Mom and me back in the late 70's. 

         I don't know how long God is going to leave Mom here on this earth, but I do know that she knows God has a place prepared for her forever. She is just waiting and sometimes impatiently for Jesus to come get her. It has been painful to see Mom in pain, frustration and sorrow this year, but it has also given me an opportunity to ask several people, " Mom is assured of her place in heaven, are you?" God does things His way and in His time Mom will get to go home.

She will healthy and happy when she gets there.

End of a Year

Sometimes it can be rather painful to see yourself through the eyes of others. At Pella Christian High School they have the pictures of all the graduates up on the wall by class. One day when Tony the international student who lived with us was at the school early for an activity, one of the teachers asked if he would like to see the picture of his host parent.

Sure said Tony, and he and a couple of the girls who are also from china went down the hallway to view the Senior picture of Me. Now I have never been very fond of my senior picture, but have never really cared because who is going to look at it now 30 years after the damage was done by my idea of "looking good" back in 1976. Well the sad part of this tale is when these teenage girls from China saw my senior picture one of them said, "What happened to him? He used to be handsome." 
Well, I am pretty sure that was not a compliment. Its not like I am still living in some fantasy where teen age girls would see me as looking good, but I am not sure I want their pity or maybe just a tinge of disgust either.
     Micah and Matthew put shingles on a couple of houses we bought this year. Tony even helped them shingle a couple of days.

Boys shingling. Thanks to Russ for the equipment

The first day he helped to shingle was right after school was out last May. I think he had heard a lot of roofing stories from the boys and thought he was missing out on a grand part of life. I always say it is not what happens that matters but how you tell the story. Anyway when Matthew and Tony came home after a day up on the roof in the sun I asked Tony, "so what did you think of shingling?" He looked at me and said, " that is not as much fun as you would think it would be". Ah, isn't that how much of life is. He did go back in August and help the boys again for another day. A little time must have dulled the pain.
     I also had the opportunity to shingle a roof this year. I did it almost all by myself. Do I sound like a 3 year old there? Old age sets in and you do regress you know. Micah was helping me work on a house and there was a storm rolling toward Oskaloosa. We were hurrying to get everything under cover and cleaned up before the rain. We had just picked everything up and made it undercover in the garage when the rain came down in buckets. Just as the deluge was begining to let up one of the tenants stuck his head out the door and said "Hey, there is water coming through the living room ceiling and plaster is falling." Those are not some of the words I like to hear. I like to hear things like "wow this house is in perfect shape", or "we had a leak under the sink so we just fixed it ourselves because we didn't want to bother you". ( I can dream of a utopia can't I?) Anyway Micah and I went in and looked at the water dripping from the ceiling and pieces of plaster slowly drooping down and then going splat on the carpet. Oh Yea!!

Room where the ceiling fell

     We went up on the roof to look for where the water was getting through. Now I do want to explain that before we bought the house I had climbed up and did a quick look at the shingles. I am not saying here that I actually got onto the roof and walked around but I had at least looked at the shingles. OK, did you get that? I had at least looked at the roof. Well, when we climbed up on the roof after the leak Micah walks over to a valley in the roof and points at some tar the previous owner had put there. Micah then looks at me and asks " Did you even look at this roof before you bought the house?" I said "yes I did". He points down and says "there is tar in the valley and you didn't think that was going to be a problem?" Snarky youth if there ever was one. I answered " OK, I said I looked at the roof I never said I actually got on it." Jeepers what does he want from me perfection?
     I was at the bank the other day depositing some cash and feeling rather small about it. All I had to deposit was a down payment of a rent payment in the amount of $60.00. It was one of those days when there were no other customers in the bank. Why do they call them customers? They take our money and we walk out with out any merchandise. Oh sorry I digress. All three tellers on duty were watching me and listening as I deposited the whole $60.00 in our checking account. I was sort of feeling guilty for taking their time for a small deposit when a woman came into the bank and walked up to one of the other tellers.  She carefully dug around in her pocket and laid a quarter on the counter top. "I want to deposit this quarter in our account." What did I hear that right she was putting a whole 25 cents in her account? Hey baby I got 60 bills here, do you see that Mrs. teller? 60 dollars in paper currency, you got a big depositor here, not just a coin but greenbacks baby. WOO HOO. Amazing how one's perspective can change. Mr. money bags me can strut with pride out of that bank after a huge deposit like that.
     So just remember this year hang around the people with smaller houses than yours, older vehicles than yours, and smaller incomes than yours and you will always feel like a big shot. 
     If I start looking now I might find someone who doesn't fit those qualifications for me by next December. Happy hunting for you this year. If you are looking for someone poorer than you to compare yourself to you can always use me.. 

A week down Yonder

Sharon and I went down south for a week. First night was spent in Memphis. We went to Beale Street before the serious partying started.

Ate at a restaurant called Miss Polly's.  Some of the best BBQ pork I have ever tasted. Slightly blackened and spicy. When we had our own meat company I had the opportunity to taste some winning BBQ contestant's cooking. Of course they expected the meat to be provided for free because if they won a contest with Iowa Farm Families Pork it would bring a lot of business to Iowa Farm Families. Yea right, that happened lets see, Oh yea never. Anyway, Miss Polly's knew how to cook BBQ pork.

I spent part of the week studying Framework for Christian Faith. 

A bit too fundamentalist for my taste, but one should never read just what you agree with. To read the opinions of those you disagree with makes you justify and define why you believe what you believe. 

I also reread a book called Turtle Feet. The self told story of a young Bulgarian man who goes to India to become a Buddhist Monk. He ends up disenchanted with Buddhism and all religion.

Looking through the pictures, I started to think maybe I was the only one learning and studying.

Do you see Sharon reading?

No, she's sitting on  a wharf, or in the surf

Standing on top of a Pyramid. Yes you read that correctly. Bass Pro Shoppes in Memphis is in a Pyramid. Of course it might have been that the man taking the pictures of Sharon only took pictures when she was doing nothing, but I wouldn't know anything about that.

There is a lodge inside where you can stay. Some of the rooms are only $250 a night. I don't know, $250 seems a bit steep to me to stay overnight in a store.

We took a ferry out to Ship Island which is about 50 minutes from shore

nice secluded beach

I was glad to see they counted the passengers back onto the Ferry 4 hours later to make sure no one was left behind.

We drove south of New Orleans. I wanted to see where the Mississippi finally emptied into the Gulf.

We finally turned around when the water was on the road at what I assume was high tide. We were about an hour and a half south of New Orleans at this point

We ate at a restaurant way down at the mouth of the Mississippi. It was run by a man who immigrated from Vietnam in 1990. He said the water was 20 feet deep in this spot when Katrina hit..

If you look behind me you can see the stuffed deer are decorated for Christmas. Yes this picture was taken in July.

 I had my computer with me and had planned on spending just a few minutes each day on it. After the first night I could never get connected to the internet. No e-mail, no markets, no information. I think God wanted me to just shut everything down for a week and it was a good thing.

Another project house

We have been working evenings on a house we bought back in April. Sharon had a problem with the color

I finished painting and realized the boys were pretty much missing every time the paint came out. They did paint some on the trim, but Matthew reminded me of Tom Sawyer, because if he had a paint brush it was soon in Micah's hand. 

The inside needed some cleaning up and updating.

Living room

It is amazing how much a coat of paint and new flooring will change a room.

Kitchen

Goal is to have the inside totally finished in 2 weeks. There were times in the last two months when I thought the project would never end. Matthew had a week off from work and that really sped things up.

I am glad he lays carpet for us.

Micah is very precise with measurements. Maybe has something to do with being an accountant.

Front porch then above. Now below

I was reading the other day if you are buying houses to rent figure about $5,000 in unexpected expenses beside the costs that were calculated in. Yea, that would be about right. Need to get this baby finished and the cash flow reversed.

Some one is going to lose their internet

Yesterday my world seemed to screech to a stop. I kinda knew that I relied on the internet to do what I do. E-mail constantly flows in. Markets are available at the click of the mouse. I returned home after a meeting and had no e-mail, no internet, no land line phone service. I called the local internet provider.

I asked them if the internet was down or if it was my router. I expected the usual answer of "we are working on it and should be back on-line shortly. 

Instead the answer I received was "your service has been terminated for lack of payment. We called you a week ago to inform you your bill was not paid." They had called my son's cell phone which used to be my number. 

Every month I pay the internet charge on the 19th or 20th. It is on my calendar and will not stop reminding me until I clear it. Of course at this point I could not check my credit card bill to prove that I paid because MY INTERNET WAS SHUT OFF. 

The nice lady at MCG told me if I came up to the office and paid they would reconnect my internet before the close of the business day, but there was the reconnect fee.

I do hope I was much kinder than I felt by the time I had paid the last month's bill and the reconnect fee, all the while thinking I just know this has already been paid. I did explain to the Lady that I would be back as soon as I had internet and could prove I had paid the bill.

I went home and explained to Matthew in my best calm, kind, understanding voice that if he receives a phone call from someone such as MCG he should tell me. He said he did tell me. I said well next time make sure I am listening when you tell me. I then checked out the credit card statement and found that no, no payment had been made to MCG. I remember going on-line and paying it, but it must not have processed.

While relating the story while we were eating last night, everyone started to laugh. They seem to remember Matthew telling me MCG had called that the internet bill was not paid and I said, "our bill is paid, but it sounds like some one is about to lose internet." Tony thought it was worth the $50.00 to reconnect just to hear the story. I did notice he did not get his wallet out though. I informed all those laughing, that I would be charging $1.00 an hour until I had my reconnect fee back.I don't think they believe me.