Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Stocking Up on Christmas Fruit Cake.


















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No, I'm not necessarily talking about your lower intestinal tract. What a glorious day here in the pending kingdom; with a little help from a big piece of home-made fruitcake. There's almost nothing better. The fruit and spices and the tangy rinds and things, wow. I got a reprieve from riding along with an installer today because he's not working. It's a Tuesday and the guy's not working, and I heard a very small child in the background. These are good signs. This guy may have a life going on beyond marriage to his job. Maybe I too can have one. I have to admit, I panicked when I saw "mandatory 6 days a week" on the satellite dish installer job description. That's what you would call a family eliminator.

Making Christmas Fruitcake is one of my traditions. Listening to much contemporary and traditional celtic Christmas music is another.












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Holiday Tip:Don't leave your camera in the car overnight in freezing weather because the lithium batteries will freeze and be ruined.
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Not just one batch but two!
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This is good medication for the hurry and stress of the busy holiday season! It's the recipe from Betty Crocker's Encyclodepia of Cooking. Didn't your mom give you one of those? There is no bad recipe from there.
Gals: Look for a man to marry who has his own chef's table in the kitchen.

Those who have been to my house, if they look closely will see that the piano is no longer in the kitchen.
Let's pray the holiday season quickly passes after leaving a few fond rememberances of celebrating the Lord's birth together.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Times Up.

My winter is now going to look completely different than it did a week ago.

I'm going to add 'satellite dish' installer to my resume. Directv. I have to. For the past year or so I've been racking my mind trying to figure out what else I would do if I weren't doing farrier/horse dentistry work. On top of that I've spent too much money in the last seveal years on upgrading broken down large appliances, washer, dryer, refrigerator, and buying digital musical and recording equipment to take my passion for hymns and playing music a step or two further. But for the two reasons stated above, I need to temporarily take steps now to get caught up financially.

There is great money in satellite intalling. For this company anyway. They want you to work 6 days a week, which is a family killer, but they agreed with me on five. So I'll go into work mode, knock out this debt I have accumulated, and then get back to these long luxurious off-season winter days of studying the bible and crafting around with the piano playing. Actually trying to work my way into doing it full-time one day. I think it would be neat to work into a full-time preaching/teaching stage gig. Earnest study and inspirational song writing. There are five tunes of mine I am hoping to run past the general public a.s.a.p. The digital age has made these things much more possible. When all is said and done, just to grow in the Lord will suffice.

I love shoeing horses, and will continue indefinately, but this is the wrong time of year to add customers and so I need a back-up. Both farriering and satellite installing are very well-paying specialties and that's how a guy, a single father with full custody of the daughter, homemaker, etc. finds 2-6 hours a day to study the bible and improve on the piano(ohhhh...what I could do with 8 hours everyday). You go out and hustle your butt off and come home and get very efficient.

I was a little bit leary, in my compromised financial condition, what I was going to do in the case of a medical emergency or other surprise. I didn't like the idea of waiting to find out. So this supplementary means of employment is a gift from God. One of many continuously.

So one week from today I drive down 2 1/2 hours to Chippewa Falls WI and do two five-day weeks of training. I applied three weeks ago and they just called back last Friday and said my background check cleared and were wondering if I was still interested.

So that leaves me 6 days to wrap up all my commitments, and reschedule everything I can't wrap up. Everything I reschedule is going to have to be scheduled into my precious weekend time that I owe my daughter and so everything now becomes completely scheduled in.

I can continue to study taped scripture as I do the considerable driving I'll be doing between satellite installations. And thankfully, I'll be able to work on and continue to train my voice while driving. I just sort of obscure my mouth with my hand to passing motorists and train the voice. Very rural up here too, with fewer cars to worry about than most places.

So on the one hand I'm fortunate to be blessed with gainful employment, and on the other, I'm faced with having to organize more than ever in my growth and progress toward spiritual goals.

Hey, I'm only 48 years old---phfffllahhhhh*%+#!!%# yiye yiye. Other than that, I'm really not that phased.

So farewell for now to those long luxurious 2-3 winter days a week of study and practice when the daughter's in school; only rest assured, I will return to them. Stronger-let's just never mind older.

So I took a few spare moments today and added some effects and some other ideas to the hymn The Love of God. Just to generate and begin to develope some more ideas toward a final recording of it. I would liked to have given it a few more hours today but can't. Still very rough. Plus I ramped it up to the highest possible stereo setting (320 kbps stereo, 148 MB) just to see how accessible it is at that level. So it will be a for an extra high speed connection but probably not sound much better than the low-speed connection. It would truly be gratifying to have the time to learn how to use this recording equipment to it's fuller potential, but that too, is still to happen sometime in the future. One of these days, there will be a Christian music producer, and he/she and I, are going to have some fun. At least soon I will be better able to afford one.

Tomorrow I start my ten required ride-alongs, even before I start the training next week, to qualify to do the job solo, a.s.a.p. So my time is awegone.

Love in the faith!