My Turkish Bath Experience

Let’s go visit a haman! That was the plan for one of the evening’s activities during my recent trip to Morocco. A hamam, otherwise known as a Turkish Bath, is basically a sauna, a bath, and a massage. Our host wanted us to “experience” it all while we were in the country. We worked very hard at our work site during the days – lifting and toting rocks, moving piles of dirt, making cement and mortar, and playing ball with the school kids. The thought of a good massage and a sauna sounded great so I was all for it. At the time it didn’t seem to matter to me that I’d be in a hot steamy room with other men in our underwear getting a full body massage from another man I didn’t know well. At any rate I was all for it, sign me up!

As the experience played out, for me the uncomfortable part of the evening wasn’t being massaged (man-handled would be a more accurate description) by a stranger. No, for me, the hard part was laying face down on the sauna floor in a pool of hot water, steam, and the sweat from who knows how many other guys. I didn’t know (or want to know) what germs lived on that floor. All I knew was that I was contributing a huge amount of sweat myself and it was mixing with the sweat of the other guys. The only possible saving grace may have been the oil soap we were using surely must of had some amazingly effective bacterial cleansing agent and it was hard at work killing all germs in the area (we can only hope). Needless to say, I was a little concerned about catching some incurable disease from that floor that evening.

Overall it was a very invigorating (and cleansing) experience. The guy who worked me over did an amazing job on my body. I came away feeling very clean and tingly. Those sore muscles that I went in with disappeared and for the next day or two I felt absolutely great. Sitting and laying around in a pool of hot and sweaty water seemed very much worth the risks for the good clean feeling that I came away with.

Would I go again to the hamam if given the chance? Absolutely I would. Being able to give and receive a massage in a hot and steamy room with other men – why not?

A little discomfort goes a long way

For years I struggled with, and even avoided any talk of my going on a Global Go trip with my church. I routinely used the excuse of not being able to stand the potential discomfort and inconvenience of sitting in an airline coach seat for long periods of time. For many many years I had the privilege of traveling for my company on their dime, and when international travel was involved I traveled in style – in business class with plenty of room. I was spoiled for sure. So for a global go trip, where I had to foot the bill, I would also use the excuse that I couln’t afford a business class seat on any airline and unless it was on the one airline I have plenty of upgrade miles I probably wouldn’t get an upgrade or an exit row seat. I was too worried about the discomfort of flying long distances in a coach class seat. It was an easy excuse and I milked it pretty good. Well, finally God convicted me. I had run out of excuses. So I said yes and I went to Morocco. And just as I expected, for the most part I was very uncomfortable sitting in coach on the 8 and 1/2 hour long flight from Atlanta to Madrid Spain.

 

But the difference for me was in my attitude. I had worked hard to secure an exit row seat prior to going on the trip. I thought everything was buttoned up and I was good to go. Well, not so fast. Since I’m just a “normal” frequent flier member on that airline I didn’t have any “hand” (as in upper hand, or clout) and I quickly got bumped out of my exit row seat by the time the flight time rolled around. When I checked on-line the night before I was to leave my seat assignment had been changed to an aisle seat in coach. I was crushed. I was worried that I would be miserable for that long flight.

 

And you know what…I was miserable!!  The flight from Atlanta to Madrid was crowded, not a seat to spare on the Boeing 767. I was on an aisle (thankfully) but I had a person in the seat next to me. I could barely get my feet under the seat in front of me and worse, when the person in front of me reclined their chair (and they did as soon as we got airborne) I had to pull my right leg out and stick it in the aisle!! It was an overnight flight and the expectation of the airline is that one would want to “sleep”. They even pass out sleep masks to cover your eyes and ear plugs so you can “sleep” even better. Well, it was kind of like the soup Nazi on Seinfeld – there was “no sleep for me” (and many others from my team evidently had similar sleep issues). We arrived in Madrid the next morning grumpy and sleep deprived.

 

The airlines, especially our domestic airlines, should be ashamed of themselves. Their stingy seat allowances only work for a person with the stature of an elf. OK, maybe a man who is 5′5″ and weighs no more than 160 pounds would be a happy camper and would have all the space he could ever need in most of our domestic airlines coach seats. I stand 6′4″ and weigh…, well let’s just say I weigh far more than 160 and I believe that I’m probably closer to the size of the average American. All I ask for is a couple of extra inches of leg room. I don’t care if the seat width stays the same, just give me a couple of inches so I can get my size 14 feet under the seat in front of me and my knees remotely comfortable.

 

At any rate, yes I was uncomfortable, miserable, and got no sleep. But on this trip I just rolled with it…I couldn’t change it, I wasn’t the only one uncomfortable, and I was fine with it (a major milestone in the transformation of one Jeff Chandler). I got up several times to stretch my legs and to walk around (thank God for the two aisles of the B767). And thanks to the airlines in-seat entertainment system I watched a movie or two, watched some of my favorite television shows (CSI, and King of Queens), played trivia, and I even played video games (I must have truly been bored). It’s all about the attitude baby! I wanted to go on this trip, be the best person I could be, and I wanted to enjoy my new open heart and spirit. And I did, it was incredible the freedom I felt – I didn’t need to get mad, frustrated, or worse. I was free.

 

God is so good – on the return flight I was able to get an exit row seat for the long trip back to Atlanta. In fact, the plane wasn’t packed so I eventually had no one next to me – what an awesome and comfortable 9 hour return trip home. The entire trip to Morocco was a good attitude experience for me. God knew exactly what He was doing. I think He rewarded my patience and endurance from that miserable and uncomfortable first flight with an exit row seat on the return home. I found out that with the right attitude I could handle the discomfort. Thank you Lord for your grace and goodness.

September 30.2008

On September 30 I sat in my office at my former job for the last time enjoying the awesome view of IH410 & Jones-Maltsberger that I’ve had for the past 13 years. On that day my emotions were running high even tho I tried to hold them back. It was to no avail – there were too many thoughts and feelings bouncing around in my head on that special day. It was time for the next adventure of my life to begin – it was time to early retire after 23 1/2 years of service.

I can still recall vividly the day my boss told me about our impending closure 18 months ago. The hardest part was keeping it a secret for 4 months as that closure couldn’t become public at the time. At that time, in June 2007, I was truly happy that we were closing. Things had been maddeningly crazy at work for a long time. We were feeling tremendous pressure from our Latin America clients, and our Switzerland based headquarters had all of us on edge with their unreasonable demands. At first the announcement took so much pressure away it felt like a huge burden had been lifted.

Our work would ultimately be cut up into three pieces and transferred to Argentina, Poland, and Richmond VA. Against our predictions to the contrary, Argentina and Poland took their portions right on time with very little effort or problems. Richmond, on the other hand, turned out to be a nightmare. In short, too many people from various departments were involved in their portion’s transition process and they brought so much “red tape” and confusion we could hardly stand it. Our job was to assist in the transition with advice,  clean up, training, and whatever else they needed. Their “full court press” on the transition was such a sharp contrast to the successful transitions my company and I have been part of for the past 13 years. For us, it was usually just me and a colleague leading the transitions work with assistance as needed from other teammates. What a hilarious arrangement our Richmond partners brought – an army of people who couldn’t seem to all get on the same page (ever) versus our simplified method of just two people running the show. We amazingly brought in over 80 US plants, 4 headquarters locations (including Canada and Puerto Rico), and 8 Latin American countries. That hard work will be fodder for a future blog of course. What an amazing story to tell my grandkids.

September 30, 2008 will always be remembered as an amazing day. I gathered my troops (12 of us) at 9:00 a.m. to say the final goodbyes. It was going to be a sad time sure, but I was hoping to convey that we should approach this as the start of another adventure. The message I brought was a sincere thank you for a job well done, and encouragement to walk away proud of what we accomplished as a team. I was able to get thru my little speech without breaking down thankfully. But there were tears in the room to say the least.

What really threw me though was the phone calls and emails I received that morning, full of compliments and encouragement, from people in New York and Richmond who I had worked with for years. I didn’t expect that at all. One call in particular was extremely touching. I had mentioned to the gentleman on the call that I was going to Morocco in late October on a church mission. He said that he had known that there was something about how I carried myself in meetings we had been a part of. He said that he thought that I was a Christ-follower, now he knew for sure. He said that he too was a Christ-follower. That touched me deeply. He complimented me on my integrity, and humility during the long transition. It felt so strange to hear those words, I was so blessed by it all. One other neat thing was an email from a friend here in San Antonio who used to work for me. She said that she had enjoyed working with a Christian man. She said that it had meant so much to know that I was lead by God. I felt good to know that my efforts to carry myself in a Christian manner had been noticed. What a blessing.

All in all what a wonderful end to a long adventure – a ride that I’ll always treasure for sure. My 23 1/2 years with my company had started in Battle Creek Michigan, and continued on to Kankakee Illinois, and San Antonio Texas. I had been blessed to travel for the company to so awesome places including Switzerland, Argentina, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. And thru my job I got to work in places like New York City, Washington DC, and all over California. God obviously had a plan for my life and I’m thankful that I joined him on the plan. I could have easily tried to fight the plan and try to do things my way. Now in “early” retirement, I’m so glad to be a Christ-follower.

Thankful for Mall-walking

Yeah, you read that correctly – I’m one of those people. You know the ones, mostly senior citizens I suppose, that are power-walking the corridors of enclosed shopping malls. I’m one of them and I’m both proud to be one, and thankful to God for the blessing. Over the past couple of years I’ve made it a habit of going to North Star Mall on my lunch hour to “get my walk on”. I love it and I miss it when I don’t get to go. The exercise I get is great but the time alone with my thoughts is great as well. When I retire soon, and North Star Mall is 15 miles away, I’ll miss having it so close by for my exercise. My plan is to replace it with the Shops of La Cantera. On those inclement weather days I’ll substitute with either Ingram Mall or go back to North Star. It would be a nice reunion. I’m so thankful for the mall being there for me. During the unbearably hot mid-summer days here in San Antonio there has been nothing better for me than to escape to the coolness of North Star Mall for some good walking, and people watching (now there’s a subject for a future blog post).

God has blessed me with a second chance to take better care of my surgically repaired knees. You may have noticed that I walk with a slight limp (I often hear people commenting about it). The left knee was initially injured way back in high school when I played baseball. Later, in the late 70’s I tore meniscus cartilege in that same knee while playing basketball. In the early 90’s I further tore what little cartilege was left at the time (again playing basketball). So in 1997 I had arthoscopic surgery on the right knee. Being hard-headed and foolish I really didn’t take good care of my knee post surgery (basically I blew off physical therapy) and I resumed playing basketball very heavily. Ultimately arthritis set up shop in the knee joint, and that combined with the lack of cartilege in that poor knee has left me limping. The story of the right knee begins and ends on an early October evening in 2004 at Home Court America when I tore the patella tendon in that knee (and at the same time dislocated my right shoulder). That injury could have spelled the end of my ability to walk upright but God, in his awesome grace and mercy, spared me. The message was sent, and the lesson learned – no more basketball, no more softball, no more high impact sports! When I was able to, I was at physical therapy nearly everyday working hard to get upright again.

The value, meaning, and importance of being able to walk again, in a fairly normal fashion, was revealed to me very quickly when I was going thru the recuperation from the injury and surgery on my right knee. I had to endure and persevere thru nearly two months of living on the couch in our family room, and rolling around in a wheel chair. As you can imagine I wanted to rejoin the ranks of walking people real quick. Thank you God for slowing me down at that time and showing me just how important it is to take care of my body.

Now, as I’m enjoying not only the mall-walking but the pleasures of any walks with my bride, my kids, friends, or plain and simple any and all walks I can really appreciate what I almost lost. All of that could have been lost in a heartbeat that evening in 2004. I actually thought about how tragic it could have been when I was laying there in my sweat on the floor of Home Court America waiting for the ambulance to arrive and take me to the emergency room. I didn’t know exactly what was wrong but I knew my leg was bent at a very odd angle and I couldn’t make my right arm work very well – something bad had happened that was for sure. I thought about what if my knee couldn’t be repaired properly or worse, what if I’d landed on my head and lost the ability to walk again. Goodness, I still cringe at the thought of that, even now nearly four years removed from the incident. That’s why I have so much joy about just being able to walk now – it’s amazing! May I never take it for granted Lord.

So when you see the mall-walkers at your local mall getting their “walk-on” just think about how grateful they might be about being able to keep moving. I know I’m thankful and each step I take (from the upright position) is a true blessing from God.

Thank you Lord.

My Old House

 

Going to see the current state of my childhood home, in Indianapolis’ Haughville neighborhood, recently with my mom, my sister, and Barbara should have beena a joyous, nostalgia-filled moment that would be forever frozen into my memory banks. Unfortunately the only thing frozen in my memory was how I recoiled at the sight of it. The house, as far as we could tell, was empty with no one currently living there. The house has deteriorated into disrepair. There was great gaps in the aluminum siding, weeds and trees were grossly overgrown, and lastly, the front porch was missing!

 

I moved out of my parents home for the last time in mid 1977 right before getting married. My parents then moved out of the house and out of Haughville in the early 1990’s. It had been my mom’s childhood home as well as the home she shared with my late father. Thank goodness my mom has been gone from there many years now. All I can say after seeing my childhood home is that I guess there’s no urban renewal project going on in that part of Haughville. And there doesn’t appear to be any “yuppies” coming to rejuvenate my old house, at least not at this time. Sad.

In regards to that missing front porch, at one time it was a wonderful front porch. It was a place where lots of time was spent during the summer evenings sitting around enjoying the people who passed by on the sidewalk. It was also a place where my sister and I entertained friends (when my parents didn’t want us in the house causing trouble). Now the porch is gone for some unknown reason. As for the missing aluminum siding, I can only guess that vandals ripped the siding off to exchange it for cash. When my parents had the siding put on the house it was a huge deal and provided a major improvement to the house in guarding its exterior from the elements and improving its appearance. When we lived at that house we kept the yard, and its trees and shrubbery in good shape. My dad and I spent a lot of time trying to ensure that it looked its best – now that neat appearance has disappeared and the weeds and small trees have run rampant. There’s hardly any visibility to the front of the house because of the overgrowth. Sad.

Fortunately, on this visit, we didn’t venture up close to the house or go into the backyard to see more. I can only imagine that the yard I played in, learned basketball and baseball in, and the yard that was my childhood fortress is now just a place full of weeds, trash, and who knows what else. We had an unattached garage that my dad affectionately called, “the coal shed”. I would think that it’s probably gone by now – it was barely standing when my folks moved out years ago. The only way to have seen if it was still there would have been to travel down the alley behind my house. We chose not to go there since we were in a rental car and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to it (or to us). No doubt it was the best move not to go there – seeing the state of the house and yard from the back may have been too much for us.

On a more positive note, visiting the old neighborhood did allow us to see a few good things. There’s a brand new public school #63. That was my elementary school when I was a kid. The old school had stood empty for probably 20 years or more and now all of a sudden a new one is built. And it looked like a very nice school. The new one stands much closer now to Belmont Park, one of my hang-outs from the old days. I had to walk thru Belmont Park, up 12th street, and over to my street (Pershing Avenue) to get to my house. Back then it seemed like such a long walk, now it seems like nothing. No wonder my friends and I could walk home for lunch and back to school within an hour or less everyday. Lastly, I was very pleased to see that Municipal Gardens (a Police Athletic League community center) is still doing well and thriving. That place, along with the Boys & Girls Club, helped me steer clear of major troubles as a youth, thank God. Those places were my home away from home.

I guess the only emotion I can muster regarding my old house is sadness. I have no anger for the families who had the house after my folks and let it fall into disrepair. And I have no ill feelings towards the city of Indianapolis for their part in allowing the house to become an eyesore. I have great memories of my childhood in that house, and in my old neighborhood and hopefully I will cherish them forever. That’s enough for me. My old house is just that, an old house from another time and place in my life. It’s just a little sad to see it looking like that.

 

 

Hawaii was…

Honolulu from the water

Shark Encounter Boat

In a word, our Hawaii vacation was…AWESOME!! I suppose that’s no surprise as God has plenty to work with in that lovely place to wow you. Probably the most meaningful aspect of our trip was the fact that my mother (Rosemary) went with us. Mom had never ven

Honolulu from the water

Shark Encounter Boat

tured over any great body of water before and the thought of spending five to six hours flying above the mighty Pacific had her quite nervous prior to the trip. We are proud to tell you that she not only overcame her fears, she had a blast in Hawaii.

On our trips to Hawaii (this was our sixth) we are blessed to stay with our dear friends Al & Kathy in the Honolulu suburb of Hawaii Kai. Their townhouse sits at the literal foot of a mountain. The second floor bedrooms where we stay face the mountain. To our surprise, another of my mom’s fears turned out to be a fear of mountains. We thought it was hilarious to hear her say each night that she didn’t want to look into “the face of the mountain”. She was afraid that someone might be looking at her. But there’s nothing on that mountain but a few “critters” (feral cats, geckoes) and some vegetation.

Speaking of “critters” mom and Brie both got quite alarmed one night when a couple of cockroaches decided to show up in their bedroom. Cockroaches in Hawaii grow large (bigger than ours in Texas) and they can fly short distances (disturbing). As much as people in Hawaii try to eliminate or control them (Al & Kathy included, they keep an immaculately clean house) they continue to thrive and are just a part of the essence of the island. Actually we were very fortunate, we didn’t really see any until near the end of the trip but when mom and Brie encountered theirs they nearly freaked out (and called on me to come to the rescue of course). Oh well.

Our goal on this vacation was to squeeze in every conceivable tourist activity that we could while keeping in mind to pace ourselves for mom’s sake. We were exhausted at the end of our twelve day run. Some of the things we did there include the following:

Beaches, beaches, beaches – we love water activities and we immersed mom into that thinking as well (oh, did I mention mom has a fear of water as well?). Waimanalo Beach; Ala Moana Beach; Kailua Beach; Waikiki Beach; Queens Beach; Hanauma Bay; and Sharks Cove. Those were the places that we went to during our stay to get some time in the surf. One of our favorite places to snorkel on Oahu is the North Shore’s Sharks Cove. We had a great time there and we even were able to have mom climb down the rocky incline to a safe place where she could sit under our umbrella and watch us snorkel the cove.

Another adventure took place at Hanauma Bay (another great snorkeling place). This was our first visit there since 1994. Mom didn’t go with us but we had a great great time. Barbara, Kathy, and I were feeling quite adventurous so we ventured past the barrier reef (past the bouys that say, “Danger: Strong Currents Past this Point”). We spent about 10 minutes out there in the deep deep waters with a few other snorkelers and soon we realized that the signs were there for a reason – we needed to head back as the waves and currents were indeed strong. It was abit of a struggle against the strong current, the waves, and the barrier reef itself so when we made it back into the calmer waters we were relieved. God is merciful and He delivered us safely.

Barbar and Brie took us to the pinnacle of excitement though. They went on a North Shore Shark Encounter!! They went on a boat with others 3 miles out into the open ocean and then climbed into a cage to watch sharks up close. They had the adventure of a lifetime and loved it. They said that there were over 30 to 40 Galappagos Sharks in the water, some as big as 8-10 feet!! The boat captain made sure to tell everyone that if any Tiger Sharks showed up the show was over (evidently Tiger Sharks are super aggressive and may attack the Galappagos Sharks…enough said!). While Barbara and Brie were on their adventure I had lunch with mom in nearby Haliewa town at appropriately named, Rosie’s Cantina.

Mom overcame her fear of water, somewhat, by letting us get her into the surf up to her chest at a couple of the calmer beaches. We also got her on a boogie-board as well (she had a death grip on that board for sure). Again, she had the time of her life.

Shopping at the many cool places that Oahu has was on the bill as well. Waikiki’s International Marketplace; Chinatown; Ala Moana Mall; Aloha Tower Marketplace; and Hilo Hattie’s. All of those places now have some of our money! With the multi-cultural melting pot that Hawaii is, people-watching is fascinating at the malls.

As for tours, we did Queen Emma’s Summer House, the Dole Pineapple Plantation; and the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Even though we had done all of these things before it was so neat doing them with mom.

On our last night on Oahu we did a sunset dinner cruise on the Star of Honolulu – what a great time we had. The food was good, the entertainment was super, the sunset spectacular, and the dancing we did was hilarious (picture me doing the Swim, the Monkey, and more). I had forgotten that my mom can dance – and she did. Brie says she dances better than me. 

As you can tell, we did an awful lot of things during our stay on Oahu, and as always it was hard to leave. It’s so easy to get used to the beauty of the flowers, the trees, the mountains, the big water, and the overall Aloha spirit. Hawaii was a wonderful experience for my mother. She called it, “the trip of a lifetime”. Can’t wait to do it again with her. Al and Kathy’s love and hospitality is unequaled, and we sincerely thank them for helping to make our vacation great.

Hawaii was…an AWESOME blessing from God. Thank you God.

Indy’s City Market

Ahhhhh! City Market in Indianapolis. For some reason today, God pushed me to visit the website for Indy’s venerable old City Market. Lo and behold, the grand old place, located in downtown Indy, is making a comeback. Barbara and I have so many wonderful memories of our Indianapolis days (1977-1981) when City Market was a place we visited quite often to buy the freshest produce, cheeses, breads, meats, stroll the aisles, and dine at its eating establishments. During our last visit to City Market, in 2005, we found the place to be just a shell of its former self. It seemed at the time that its glory days were behind her. There weren’t many, if any, fruit and veggie stands, cheese vendors, or meat counters, and the variety and quality of its eating places had waned. We were kind of sad to see the market in such bad shape at the time.

 

According to their cool and fresh website Indy’s City Market has been reborn! And it looks fantastic. Downtown Indianapolis, over the years, has gone from a quiet, roll-up-the-sidewalks place (back in my day) to being quite vibrant. The rebirth of City Market will certainly contribute to that vibrancy. The old City Market has a long way to go to reach the level of those old glory days but it’s so good to know it’s making a come back. City Market was next door to another great place, Market Square Arena (past home of the Indiana Pacers NBA team). It too is gone now, taking fond memories as well, giving way to the awesome Conseco Fieldhouse. While I’m on the subject of Indy’s downtown, we have equally great memories of Indy’s Union Station Shops but that venue seems to have fallen off of the map as a mall. During its run as a festival place from 1986-1997 we had left Indy but we always enjoyed coming home to visit Union Station. The place is now more of a hotel and office. Kind of sad I suppose, but when Circle City Mall opened it took away the allure of Union Station. But that’s all food for another story.

 

Back to City Market, for Barbara and I, it will always hold a romantic and magical appeal (does it seem odd to hold romantic thoughts and memories about a city market?). As newlyweds in 1977 we began to visit City Market for no reason other than we wanted fresher fruits, veggies, meats, and cheeses. And at the time we were quite willing to leave our Wyckford Commons apartment on Indy’s far westside and drive all the way into downtown to get that freshness. Both of us were raised as “city kids”, me growing up in the “Haughville” neighborhood of Indianapolis, and Barbara growing up in the “South Wedge” of Rochester New York. I’ve always loved downtowns, and still do. There’s just something about the hustle and bustle of a downtown that excites me. Even today, in San Antonio, it’s not unusual for us to go downtown to walk the Riverwalk and Hemisfair Park. We love it and I’m glad that we do.

 

In those days we usually traveled to City Market on Saturdays, and the best goods were offered early in the day. We especially enjoyed buying cheese from this one particular vendor, an older couple (can’t remember the name). They were super friendly, and they were always quick to offer us free samples which we gobbled up willingly. How else would this old Haughville dude ever have found out about such cheeses as Danish Havarti, or Hot Pepper Cheese? Even after we moved from the far westside and into our first house on the northeast side we still made traveling to City Market a priority. Back in those days it was not uncommon for me to come home on a Saturday morning, all sweaty and tired, from either a softball or basketball league game only to jump back in the car with Barbara to get to City Market before the afternoon (things started wrapping up back then by mid-afternoon). City Market held that kind of priority for us.

 

And I must admit, I had some of the best barbeque pork sandwiches ever at City Market. I don’t recall the name of the restaurant, but it was on the second floor and it was awesome.  Barbara and I now eat very little red meat in our diets (especially Barbara, she’s a vegetarian now) but if I go back to City Market today and find that BBQ pork sandwich still around it would be difficult to pass it up! Some of the market’s Asian food outlets were great as well, especially the Chinese food. I fondly recall the rice and egg roll specials – yummy! There were times during the nice weather months when I’d drive all the way from my job at GM’s Allison plant on the westside to downtown to meet Barbara at City Market for lunch (she worked at Big Sisters downtown at the time). The lunch crowds and finding a parking space at City Market were huge challenges, but the fun of it all made it worth the drive and worth risking my job with the long lunch. Those were the days my friends, those were the days.

 

As I mentioned earlier, City Market holds a romantic and magical appeal for us. I guess I feel that way because our City Market days covered a time when it was just Barbara and I (pre-kids) and we had no one to focus on but ourselves. And spending time downtown together was just a really cool,  great, and natural thing to do. I’m so glad to see City Market making a comeback.

 

Way to go Indianapolis, way to go!!

 

What a blessed time of the year!

What an awesome time of the year it is. One can almost always tell it’s spring in south Texas by any of the following signs:

• The Spurs are in the NBA playoffs, and Spurs flags, banners, tee shirts, and hats are everywhere.
• Fiesta was going strong around town (April 18-27), and there’s a festive atmosphere nearly everywhere that one goes. Watch out for cascarones!
• The temperatures are beginning to creep a tad upwards towards hot, hot, and hotter.
• The days are getting progressively longer, and therefore more time is available for yardwork, exercising outdoors, and enjoying lovely sunsets.
• School kids are nearly beside themselves with excitement over the coming end of the school year (and so are teachers & administrators).
• Spring flowers have popped up everywhere adding a nice touch to the scenery.
• And high school proms are in full bloom (and my darling daughter is looking hard for that special dress to wear).

Ahhhh….spring! 

I’ve been accused of flipping back and forth on just what is my favorite time of year. I have to admit that all the seasons here in south Texas are great in their own ways and I love them all. Since we’ve been in San Antonio going on thirteen years I’d have to finally say though that it’s spring time that I love the best. It used to be that I’d say that fall was my favorite time of the year because the summer heat was dying down, kids were back in school, football was in full swing, and the fall weather is generally awesome (warm days, cool nights). All that is very much true, but I guess when I really look hard at it, spring will have to go down on paper as my favorite time of the year, for many of the reasons listed above.

 

Even though the fall’s warm days and cool nights scenario is sooooo very attractive to my family and I, the fact that the days are shorter at that time kind of takes away from the full enjoyment. We’ve grown quite accustomed to warm and sunny Thanksgivings, and that’s not bad at all.

 

Winter too is awesome in that most of the time the weather is cool to sometimes cold but there’s plenty of sunny days to enjoy. If I were a golfer I could probably golf (and scare scores of people to death with my wild attacks on the golf ball) nearly year round. It’s fantastic enough to be able to exercise outside all year long, including winter, with usually no more than a light jacket or sweatshirt required. It’s those short days, and early darkness that keep winter from being the favorite.

 

Summer sizzles here in south Texas, but that’s why God blessed us with an abundance of cool, spring-fed rivers and streams to enjoy through tubing, swimming, kayaking, and so forth. It’s also why we have such an abundance of super water parks, including the best in the land at Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels to also cool off in. And of course the Gulf Coast is only 150 miles away. During the height of summer you don’t usually see a lot of people walking outside, and if you do you’ll notice that they usually are not going very far. Most everyone goes from the safety of one air conditioned station to the next, as quick as possible. On those days when it’s extremely hot with high humidity summer can be down right unbearable. Thankfully there’s not that many of those types of days. It can be in the 90’s for weeks on end for sure, but it’s not always that humid here in San Antonio, thank God for that.

 

So, in summing all of that up – spring is my favorite, and I’m loving it. Thanks God.

Depending on God

As many of you know, I’m heading quickly towards retirement. This is such a blessing to be able to walk away from my job, a “relatively young man of 55”, after 23 years with great benefits, some friends, and loads of experiences. God is soooo good to me. I feel fairly confident that I will be able to avoid full-time employment and maybe only have to seek some kind of part-time vocation. Right now the end of September 2008 is my official end date with my company…and I can hardly wait for this new chapter of life to begin. 

It’s pretty amazing to see how God has orchestrated this retirement. At the same time, in some respects, it’s kind of scary too. How in the world will my wife and I pay for our daughter’s college education, maintain a comfortable lifestyle, and so forth? What I’ve come to realize, thankfully, is that God is truly in charge of all things. There have been many moments when I’ve doubted myself and allowed the fear of the unknown to overwhelm me. Sometimes that doubt created an immense fear that nearly paralyzed me. My allowing those doubts and fears to creep in was unnecessary. What I’m learning to do is to depend on God. When the fears show up I simply begin to pray, sometimes out loud, for whatever is needed, be it comfort, peace, deliverance, or joy.  

The Book of James, which we’re studying in my life group currently, talks about finding comfort and joy in the midst of storms or troubles. James also encourages us to persevere. That is awesome advice. Jesus persevered through some of the most demanding and painful trials that anyone has ever faced. My little trials, storms, and problems are nothing compared to that. When the pressures at work hit me hard and I’m feeling down or troubled I pray to God for peace. And God knows exactly when to answer prayer. He always delivers. All he asks is for my faith and trust in him to be unending. 

I have approximately six months of work left at my company. It probably seems that closing a facility would be an easy, no problem walk in the park. Fact of the matter is that it has been an extremely tough and trying situation for me and my teams, probably more psychologically stressful than anything. I have no doubt that the remaining six months will be full of challenges, hurdles, hurts, and pains. My prayer continues to be a prayer for deliverance, peace, and comfort, not only for me but for my teams as well. Deliverance to get through this trial with my dignity and integrity intact; peace about all the problems swirling around concerning the transition of the business to the new companies; and comfort through it all – staying in a healthy state, avoiding and eliminating feelings of low self-esteem, and depression. God always answers prayer, always.  

And another thing I know about God – he’s continuing to build character and wisdom, even in an old dog like me. What a great God we serve! After I retire, with all of these experiences behind me, and the wisdom from those experiences I’ll be able to add value to some new company or organization. Who knows what God has in store for me? Only God knows and I trust him totally and I have faith that he will deliver. I will continue to depend on God.

Distraction, he’s not your friend

One of my all-time favorite CD’s is Andre Crouch’s “Pray”, a very cool 1997 hit in the Christian music realm. There are many reasons that I love this CD. I love the nice melodies, great beats, the awesome worship and praise to God, and the thought provoking lyrics. Quite often when life is nipping at my heels and trying to bring me down and reduce my joy I pop that CD into the player and I’m into it almost immediately. My favorite cut on the CD is called, “Distraction”. In this one Andre urges us to ignore the slick talking “man” whose name is distraction. I love the lyrics and I think they are so very appropriate in today’s fast paced, me-centered society. Here’s a snippet of what Andre says,

“I met a man the other day on the road to good intentions, He said he’d show me a better way to reach my destination With a skip in his step And a sparkle in his eye  He beckoned me to follow.  And when I asked him what’s your name He said it was “Distraction” 

And the chorus tells us,

“Distraction, All that glitters is not gold,  Distraction   He’s trying to steal your very soul  Distraction You know he’s really not your friend  You’ll be sorry  If you hang with him…Distraction” 

To get the real essence of this great song you’ll obviously have to listen to it, but trust me, it contains an awesome message that’s very relative for our day and age. I know that I’ve been distracted quite often over the course of my Christian walk. I’ve been distracted from being the Christian I could and should have been. Those distractions could have been the pursuit of sports, or the long hours at work – whatever they were, they kept me from focusing on the real reason I’m here – to follow God, to worship, honor, and praise Him at all times, and to lead others to Him. It’s so easy to allow distractions to creep in, steal your attention, and rob you blind.

Stay on guard!!