08-17-09

Two Sunday's ago we had a guest minister
(Rev. Wayne Olson). The subject of his
sermon was "How to Get Out of a Rut". I
think we all, at times, feel like our life
has gotten into a rut and we are at a loss on
how to change it. I wrote down the things he
suggested and I would like to pass them on to
you with the hope they will guide you if you
need help.
" Assume responsibility for your life
" Believe you can change
" Make friends with your regrets (what a
novel concept!)
" Clarify what you really need
" Stop worrying about what others say
" Stop waiting for ideal circumstances
" Do something bold and dramatic, refuse
to procrastinate
" Do it now
I have promised myself that I will store
these points somewhere in the dusty bins of
my brain and use them whenever I get that
"rut" feeling. As our minister pointed out,
you are in a rut when you can take your hands
off the wheel of your life and it travels,
unassisted, down life's highway.

When my boat capsized last month I lost my
cellphone (it doesn't like water) and my
wallet (same reason). My wallet needed
replacing anyway. It's pretty bad when you
pull your wallet out to extract a credit
card, or money, and it has staples placed in
strategic places to hold something together.
For some reason I am reluctant to replace my
wallet. Maybe, it's because over the years
it has shaped itself to fit snugly to my hip,
or, it has become soft and pliant. For
whatever reason, I normally keep the thing
until I am ashamed to pull it out of my
pocket.

One of the very nice attributes Jerilyn has
is whenever you tell her you need to do
something she helps wholeheartedly. I told
her I needed to replace my wallet and it
immediately went to the top of her ToDo list,
so off we went searching for wallets (at the
best price of course). I must have looked
at a two dozen wallets. After awhile I
became confused and had no idea what I had
looked at previously and which ones I
preferred. Unwilling to let Jerilyn see my
confusion, I decided to pick one at the very
next rack we encountered. I am now the proud
owner of a new black wallet that is a mite
too big for me to extract easily from my
pocket. I have to become part contortionist
to get that darn thing out of my pants. I
keep thinking that it will get smaller as
time goes by, but I'm quite sure that is not
true.

My cellphone (the Krave that got wet when I
went for a swim) had to be replaced since it
failed to respond to my efforts to get it up
and running. I called Verizon to see how
much it would cost to replace it
($240-normally $300). I looked on Craig's
List and found several in the area, with
prices ranging from $125 - $200. I finally
bought one from a local resident for $80. It
works fine and I am very pleased with it. I
guess the point here is, if you want to buy
something for 1/3 retail and are determined,
you can do so. I have had a few
disappointments using this technique, but a
good buy will easily wipe out any previous
loss (or doubt). This is not for the faint
of heart.

I recently decided that my old 1996 Dodge Ram
needed a new paint job. Paint had started to
flake off in various places and it had begun
to look a little tattered and worn (sorta
like me). Being two-toned (white/gray), I
knew, would cost more. Freddy's (a local
paint shop about a mile from the house)
wanted $2500 (ouch!). I could not bring
myself to put $2500 into a paint job for a
$4000 truck. What to do? I called our local
Earl Schieb franchise and took our truck in
for an estimate. Earl says, "I can paint
your truck for………$725!). I really tried to
keep that big smile off my face (you know,
like they do in poker). That sparkling,
beautiful, truck is setting in our driveway
and I smile every time I walk by it. Hey,
pretty things make me happy.

As I looked back over this missive, trying to
detect misspelled words and grammatical
errors (which I am not very good at doing), I
noticed that several of my musings were about
the price of something. That got me to
wondering if, maybe, what I paid for
something was being given to much importance.
I know that when I was young that was very
important to dad. He always got delight from
buying something at a ridiculously low price.
It could be that each time I buy something on
the cheap I'm saying "Hey Dad, whatta you
think of that price?". Of course, I'm
probably not saying anything to him when the
purchase turns out to be a dud.

I ran across this in an article and wanted to
pass it on to you: "Large-scale studies have
shown that changing lifestyle could prevent
at least 90-95% of all heart disease. Thus,
the disease that accounts for more premature
deaths and costs Americans more than any
other illness is almost completely
preventable, and even reversible, simply by
changing lifestyle. What we eat, how we
respond to stress, whether or not we smoke
cigarettes, how much exercise we get, and the
quality of our relationships and social
support may be as powerful as drugs and
surgery in treating (not just preventing)
many chronic diseases.". I certainly was
unaware of this fact. Guess I need to push
harder to lose more weight. Jerilyn says I'm
losing brain cells because I'm not getting
enough sleep (at least 7 hours per night she
says). If I lose more weight, I guess I'll
just be an old fool