Ever done something stupid? I mean day after day risk your life for a little money stupid?
I was trying to make some money for my wife and I to live off of while I was going to be doing my student teaching. We had a 1 year old at the time. I got a call to give a bid to paint a house in north Tacoma by Stadium HS. It was a big house but as I walked around from the front to the side I realized I was in serious trouble. The ground dropped off quickly as you went from the front of the house to the back and the big two story house quickly became a monstrously huge 4 story house. As I looked up, I just gulped and thought to myself, "How am I going to get up there?" Then I just decided that I could do anything in a day and every time I didn't know how I was going to reach an area of the side of the house, I would simply call that section a 'day' as I walked around the house figuring out my bid. I figured out my bid and even adding on some money for combat pay and I still got the job because I was an idiot who had no business painting this house and I totally underbid the job.
I saved the dangerous days for Saturday. Every morning I would give my wife a hug and a kiss before I left, but on these Saturdays, I would hold her longer and say, "Good bye." I would really mean it because I didn't know if I was going to be coming back that night. On these Saturdays, I would go there with one helper. We would each lean a ladder against the house some 14 ft apart. Then we would climb up and hang ladder jacks horizontally parallel to each other on rungs of each ladder. Then we would climb up with an aluminum plank and rest it on the ladder jacks making a one foot wide walkway some 20 ft up in the air. This wasn't even close to being high enough. So then we each would carry up another 28 ft extension ladder on to the plank and lean them against the house. Then repeat the ladder jacks and aluminum plank process. In essence, we piggy backed the ladders. SCARY. Do not dare try this at your house. Once the last plank was in place, we would climb down and I would tell my helper to stay on the other side of the house no matter what.
The first time we did this, we had to place the ladders in the neighbors yard, as the fence was close to the house, and also because we had to kick the ladders out to prevent them from being too vertical. The ground sloped steeply, so we had to block up the lower foot pad on each ladder with pieces of wood so each ladder would stay vertical. It took us about an hour to get it all set up. My HS worker was so scared just helping set it up. I was scared on the inside, but I believed I needed to simply get it done. So I climbed with my scraper and a bucket of primer up the first ladder. Then I reached up and placed them above me onto the first plank. Then I climbed up onto the plank, grabbed up my scraper and primer and headed up the second ladder. When I reach the second plank, I reached up and placed my scraper and primer on it. Now I was freaking out. Everything in me was telling me to abort this mission. I put my head down and prayed and asked God to protect me from my on stupidity. Then I climbed up onto the second plank. I was so stinking HIGH. I just froze. There was nothing for me to hang onto for safety or comfort. I looked down at the maze of ladders and planks below me and believed with all my heart that I was going to die that day. Then I decided I should test out the set up... so I gave a quick downward thrust with my weight and everything just swayed in and out and back and forth below me... but that was it... I was still alive. At my height, I didn't need to worry about getting hurt from falling. I was at certain death height. Also, BONUS, the earlier mentioned fence was right below me, so I figured it would aid to my certain death when I fell. I just couldn't hardly move for quiet a while. Finally, I realized that if I wanted to get off this plank I needed to get the work done up there, so I started scraping... very slowly and cautiously at first but after a while I really started working hard. I was feeling better. I was starting to believe that I WAS GOING TO BE OK.
Then I heard a thud and a groan.
Then I heard more thuds and more groans. I looked around and couldn't see anything even though I had quite a view. Then I looked down and to my horror I saw the root cause of the thuds and groans. There in the neighbors yard where the bottoms of the lower ladders were, was a man around 30 years old. His hair was a mess and his plaid shirt just hung on him. He was meandering around the yard with a hoe(garden tool variety... not the other kind) and every once in a while he would stop and take a violent whack at the ground with his hoe and let out a groan. He just didn't stop doing this. There I stood frozen, waiting for the inevitable. He would occasionally circle by close to my ladders at which point I would gasp in fear, but then he would wander off and whack the ground somewhere else. I was certain he would go after my ladders or the blocks of wood that supported them and me but it just never happened. After about 15 minutes of watching him in helpless horror, I decided that the only way to get off this plank was to get the job done so I turned my attention to my work and tried my best to ignore what I thought was the inevitable.
At lunch time I climbed down to eat. The man's mother came out to call her son in for lunch. We talked briefly. I asked if her son could stay inside, but she told me that he like to walk around the yard with his hoe. He got to come home once a month from Western State Hospital and this was my lucky day. I should have dismantled the set up for another day but it took so long to set up and I had it in my mind to get that high section done that day, so after lunch I climbed back up there and worked until I finished. The entire time that psycho man wandered around below me whacking at the ground and groaning every 5 to 10 seconds. It took me until about 7pm to finish the high section.
It was and still is the longest day of my life. I worked for about 10 hours expecting to die at any moment.
I had to make more of the piggy back set ups on two of the other sides of the house... but I didn't have to worry about my ladders being knocked out from underneath me by an out-patient from a psycho ward. God has been so good to me... especially when I've been stubborn and stupid. GRACE. Amazing Grace.
Monday, March 21, 2016
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
$1.29
Have you ever over-reacted and later regretted your actions? This story gives a glimpse into my gene pool!!
It was a wonderful summer day. My brother, our friends and I were going to spend the day water skiing out at our beach place. In fact we had skied the night before. Our friends had already left to walk down the beach to 'The Point' where we always skied from. My brother asked our dad for the keys to the boat and told him he was going to take the canvas top off and leave it in the pram. Our dad told him to unhook it from the gunnel and roll it up and stow it on the dash like we always did. My brother insisted that we needed to remove it completely and leave it in the pram. This went back on forth for a few minutes and finally, to my surprise, our father angrily gave in to my brother's wish... but he warned, "You better not lose any pieces to the top." We carried the pram down the beach to the waters edge and rowed out to the bouy where the boat was anchored. Our dad followed to watch. Because the tide was out, we didn't have to row very far to get to the boat and more importantly, our dad was close so as to have an intimidatingly watchful eye on our doings. I wanted nothing to do with the top being removed from the boat. I smelled nothing but trouble that morning and really didn't want a front row seat to whatever was going to happen, but I had no other choice than to be front and center to watch a volcano erupt... and boy did it ever!
I stayed in the pram. My brother got in the boat and started taking off the canvas. Our dad stood at the waters edge with arms folded, scowling, watching and waiting for what seemed to be the inevitable... and my brother didn't disappoint! My brother finished disconnecting the canvas hardware from the boat and started to hand it to me in the pram. I noticed one of the end pieces was missing from the hardware for the canvas. I quietly told my brother that one end piece was missing and it was at that moment that my brother made the mistake of looking quickly around the inside of the boat for the missing piece... and... then... came... the... eruption! Our dad FREAKED. He started swearing and raging, "Son of a rassel frassel! I knew you would lose it!" Oh don't worry, our dad was a yeller sometimes but he never hit us... anyways... He walked away from us scanning the beach for something to take his frustration out on and he soon found it. It looked like a water logged branch that he was going to be able to give a mighty toss into the water to vent his fury, but tragically it wasn't. The 'branch' was heavier than he thought it was going to be. It was slipperier than he thought it was going to be and it was sharper than he thought it was going to be. Somehow our dad had just found an old rusty lawn mover blade to toss. As it flew from his hand he let out a yelp of pain because the blade sliced through his palm. So round 1 of swearing was quickly followed by round 2 of swearing. But now his swearing took on a much more personally level of pain and high pitch. We simply froze in silence and watch the train wreck continue.
Now our dad picked up his pace walking up the beach and as he walked he dragged his feet along so as to spray the gravel with each anger filled step. His cursing soon subsided to a low grumble. Then he climbing the steps up onto the bulkhead and saw what he thought was an empty 5 gal. bucket. We could see him squaring up for a field goal kicker effort on that bucket. We both knew that the bucket was about half full of rocks. We simply watched the train wreck happen. He kicked that bucket expecting it to fly through the air... but to his disappointment and horror, it only moved about 6 inches. Round 3 of swearing had an extremely high pitch to it. We watched our dad hobble up the stairs from the bulkhead onto the front deck. The door was one of those doors where the top and bottom are separate and the top has lots of triangular windows. He opened the door and enter the house and slam the door behind him so hard that all the windows in the door blew out. Suddenly there was silence. My brother and I had just watched a record breaking demonstration of Freak Out from our dad and we thought it was hilarious but we also knew we couldn't let our dad know that we thought it was funny. We quietly put the motor down untied the boat and tied up the pram, started up the motor and took off. All the while refusing to look at each other or say anything other than "quiet."
We rounded the point and deftly pulled into the beach. Then we recalled the events to our friends but they(probably like you) didn't think it was very funny. We skied all day. We didn't got back for lunch. We didn't go back for dinner. We skied until it was dark. Finally we went back to the beach, tied up the boat on the buoy and paddled into shore. We all gathered on the bulkhead in the dark. We were starving. We sent the oldest friend (Eric) up to get food, pop and matches to make a fire. When he entered the cabin, my dad told him to have everyone come up. Eric walked out onto the deck and called down to all us to come up. "Dad wants us all up." All our friends called our mom and dad simply mom and dad. I wasn't scared at all. I entered the cabin first because I wasn't afraid because I hadn't done anything wrong... this time. My brother and our friends were like the penguins from the Antarctic, they were all trying to get to the center of the group and not be on the edge. Soon everyone stopped moving and dad prepared to speak. He was sitting in his EZ Boy lounge chair. He had a few empty bottles of beer on the end table next to him. Both his left hand and left foot were heavily wrapped in bandages. He leaned forward, slammed down the bottle that was in his hand on the end table and loudly stated,"$1.29!" We all gave him a look of confusion. Then he said again, "$1.29!" Then he sat back in his chair and recounted the events of his day after the windows in the front door had blown out. First, he drove into town to the doctor, where he got a tetanus shot, 27 stitches in his palm, and all of the shards of his big toe nail that had been jammed up into his broken big extracted. Then he went to the hardware store and bought all the pieces of glass he needed to fix the front door. Finally, he went to the marina to buy the lost part to the hardware for the canvas that my brother had lost. "And do you know how much it cost?" my dad questions. "$1.29! I guess I over reacted." There was a long awkward pause in the room. My dad sat there stern faced. Then suddenly the room erupted into laughter as we all laughed about his story.
So whenever I feel like getting mad, I know I need God's help to not over-react to something that might only costs a $1.29.
It was a wonderful summer day. My brother, our friends and I were going to spend the day water skiing out at our beach place. In fact we had skied the night before. Our friends had already left to walk down the beach to 'The Point' where we always skied from. My brother asked our dad for the keys to the boat and told him he was going to take the canvas top off and leave it in the pram. Our dad told him to unhook it from the gunnel and roll it up and stow it on the dash like we always did. My brother insisted that we needed to remove it completely and leave it in the pram. This went back on forth for a few minutes and finally, to my surprise, our father angrily gave in to my brother's wish... but he warned, "You better not lose any pieces to the top." We carried the pram down the beach to the waters edge and rowed out to the bouy where the boat was anchored. Our dad followed to watch. Because the tide was out, we didn't have to row very far to get to the boat and more importantly, our dad was close so as to have an intimidatingly watchful eye on our doings. I wanted nothing to do with the top being removed from the boat. I smelled nothing but trouble that morning and really didn't want a front row seat to whatever was going to happen, but I had no other choice than to be front and center to watch a volcano erupt... and boy did it ever!
I stayed in the pram. My brother got in the boat and started taking off the canvas. Our dad stood at the waters edge with arms folded, scowling, watching and waiting for what seemed to be the inevitable... and my brother didn't disappoint! My brother finished disconnecting the canvas hardware from the boat and started to hand it to me in the pram. I noticed one of the end pieces was missing from the hardware for the canvas. I quietly told my brother that one end piece was missing and it was at that moment that my brother made the mistake of looking quickly around the inside of the boat for the missing piece... and... then... came... the... eruption! Our dad FREAKED. He started swearing and raging, "Son of a rassel frassel! I knew you would lose it!" Oh don't worry, our dad was a yeller sometimes but he never hit us... anyways... He walked away from us scanning the beach for something to take his frustration out on and he soon found it. It looked like a water logged branch that he was going to be able to give a mighty toss into the water to vent his fury, but tragically it wasn't. The 'branch' was heavier than he thought it was going to be. It was slipperier than he thought it was going to be and it was sharper than he thought it was going to be. Somehow our dad had just found an old rusty lawn mover blade to toss. As it flew from his hand he let out a yelp of pain because the blade sliced through his palm. So round 1 of swearing was quickly followed by round 2 of swearing. But now his swearing took on a much more personally level of pain and high pitch. We simply froze in silence and watch the train wreck continue.
Now our dad picked up his pace walking up the beach and as he walked he dragged his feet along so as to spray the gravel with each anger filled step. His cursing soon subsided to a low grumble. Then he climbing the steps up onto the bulkhead and saw what he thought was an empty 5 gal. bucket. We could see him squaring up for a field goal kicker effort on that bucket. We both knew that the bucket was about half full of rocks. We simply watched the train wreck happen. He kicked that bucket expecting it to fly through the air... but to his disappointment and horror, it only moved about 6 inches. Round 3 of swearing had an extremely high pitch to it. We watched our dad hobble up the stairs from the bulkhead onto the front deck. The door was one of those doors where the top and bottom are separate and the top has lots of triangular windows. He opened the door and enter the house and slam the door behind him so hard that all the windows in the door blew out. Suddenly there was silence. My brother and I had just watched a record breaking demonstration of Freak Out from our dad and we thought it was hilarious but we also knew we couldn't let our dad know that we thought it was funny. We quietly put the motor down untied the boat and tied up the pram, started up the motor and took off. All the while refusing to look at each other or say anything other than "quiet."
We rounded the point and deftly pulled into the beach. Then we recalled the events to our friends but they(probably like you) didn't think it was very funny. We skied all day. We didn't got back for lunch. We didn't go back for dinner. We skied until it was dark. Finally we went back to the beach, tied up the boat on the buoy and paddled into shore. We all gathered on the bulkhead in the dark. We were starving. We sent the oldest friend (Eric) up to get food, pop and matches to make a fire. When he entered the cabin, my dad told him to have everyone come up. Eric walked out onto the deck and called down to all us to come up. "Dad wants us all up." All our friends called our mom and dad simply mom and dad. I wasn't scared at all. I entered the cabin first because I wasn't afraid because I hadn't done anything wrong... this time. My brother and our friends were like the penguins from the Antarctic, they were all trying to get to the center of the group and not be on the edge. Soon everyone stopped moving and dad prepared to speak. He was sitting in his EZ Boy lounge chair. He had a few empty bottles of beer on the end table next to him. Both his left hand and left foot were heavily wrapped in bandages. He leaned forward, slammed down the bottle that was in his hand on the end table and loudly stated,"$1.29!" We all gave him a look of confusion. Then he said again, "$1.29!" Then he sat back in his chair and recounted the events of his day after the windows in the front door had blown out. First, he drove into town to the doctor, where he got a tetanus shot, 27 stitches in his palm, and all of the shards of his big toe nail that had been jammed up into his broken big extracted. Then he went to the hardware store and bought all the pieces of glass he needed to fix the front door. Finally, he went to the marina to buy the lost part to the hardware for the canvas that my brother had lost. "And do you know how much it cost?" my dad questions. "$1.29! I guess I over reacted." There was a long awkward pause in the room. My dad sat there stern faced. Then suddenly the room erupted into laughter as we all laughed about his story.
So whenever I feel like getting mad, I know I need God's help to not over-react to something that might only costs a $1.29.
Friday, March 11, 2016
Fire
What if God wants me to get fired? What if He wants me to share Jesus so clearly to my classes that I get fired. I've wrestled with this for some 28 years and have tried to get close to getting fired and have said enough to get myself fired many times. I've even shared Jesus plainly with my classes before, but that was years ago. This past many years I've tried to keep my comments brief to avoid conflict... but what if God wants me to get fired? What if He wants me to lay down my job for my students as a demonstration of just how much God loves them and me. Shouldn't I be willing to lay down my job when Jesus was willing to lay down His life. Have I been kidding myself all these years? Around this world Christians are dying for Jesus, shouldn't I be simply willing to lay down my job for Him. Then I think if I'm not there, how can that be a good thing for my students. I simply need to obey Jesus and let Him direct my path. "The mind of man plans his ways, but the LORD directs his paths." I am struggling with this and praying about this. My wife and I are talking and praying about this.
Monday, March 7, 2016
Twenty
I haven't written for a long time. I have had the worst first half of a year teaching that I've ever had. I'm not going to explain why other than the fact that I had 20 students that were in my pre-Algebra classes that were getting well below 40% on tests. They had no chance and it was so extremely hard to watch them fail every day in a class they had no chance to pass in. The problem was this was the lowest class for them to take.
After many meetings and discussions and frustrations clear up to the Superintendent and the School Board about these students, there finally came a change and I was allowed to have them all in one class twice a day. I have been given the chance to work with these students for 1/2 of a year and get the ready for Algebra next year. This is an impossibility! I am scared but I am also excited. I am praying that these students will all improve so much that the only explanation will be is that it was a MIRACLE. I want their improvement to be beyond my capabilities as a teacher. I want God to be glorified. I want my students to change their beliefs first so that their desires and behaviors will change. I want my students to know that I am praying for them about this. They need to believe that they can learn, that they a capable, fearfully made and loved. I tell them this all the time. It has been about 5 weeks since I started with them and I am seeing improvement in almost all of them. But I am praying for all of them to blow my socks off in their improvement.
I miss writing and I'm glad to do this again. I need to do this again. Lord, help my students to know they are loved. Help them to know that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. Help them to forgive those who have hurt them. Help them to respect themselves so they can respect others. Help them to believe they can learn so they can learn how to act like someone who believes they can learn. Perfect love casts out all fear. Lord they need your love. We all need your love.
After many meetings and discussions and frustrations clear up to the Superintendent and the School Board about these students, there finally came a change and I was allowed to have them all in one class twice a day. I have been given the chance to work with these students for 1/2 of a year and get the ready for Algebra next year. This is an impossibility! I am scared but I am also excited. I am praying that these students will all improve so much that the only explanation will be is that it was a MIRACLE. I want their improvement to be beyond my capabilities as a teacher. I want God to be glorified. I want my students to change their beliefs first so that their desires and behaviors will change. I want my students to know that I am praying for them about this. They need to believe that they can learn, that they a capable, fearfully made and loved. I tell them this all the time. It has been about 5 weeks since I started with them and I am seeing improvement in almost all of them. But I am praying for all of them to blow my socks off in their improvement.
I miss writing and I'm glad to do this again. I need to do this again. Lord, help my students to know they are loved. Help them to know that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. Help them to forgive those who have hurt them. Help them to respect themselves so they can respect others. Help them to believe they can learn so they can learn how to act like someone who believes they can learn. Perfect love casts out all fear. Lord they need your love. We all need your love.
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