January 30, 2018. Colmesneil, TX. Poof

Now you see it; now you don't. I know I had a reason for coming back here,
but.......... Do you remember the name of the guy we met yesterday, or where he's from or what he does for a living? Ever have one of those moments, or several; one right after the other? Chalk it up to age, lack of concentration, or maybe even disinterest. But more of us are having these "senior moments" more often than we care to admit
Today, I knew I would be blogging, so I began the mental process of a title, setting aside time for "research" and then the quiet time on the iPad. I woke up several times with the topic "fixed", the title "fixed", but it was too early to get it "fixed" on the page.. But, was it ever a good topic, and relevant, too. When I woke up my mind was not on the blog, but on raking leaves and pine straw. Unfortunately as I was into the raking, enjoying the pleasant weather and getting toward the end of my physical strength, I wasn't thinking about the blog so, of course, when I decided it was time to write.........the topic, title, and all that middle of the night preparation was gone.......completely gone. I tried to bring it back, but nothing struck a chord, not an inkling....nothing.......not a clue. So, I guess there won't be a blog today. Sorry.


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January 27, 2018. Colmesneil, TX. Fix It

While Phil and I grew up, our family owned one house, and that was for a very brief period. We always lived in apartments or flats, had a landlord, paid rent, and when something went wrong we had someone come in to fix it. My father even came to the point where he leased or rented cars, so repairs were not something he had to hassle with. The lease or rental agency would repair the vehicle. As a result, my experience with fixing things was pretty much nil.
Being raised in the pre-Internet era, there was really no access to how to fix things which stopped running or outright broke, so a handyman, fix-it guy or mechanic was an essential person to know. I had the knowledge to know something was wrong, but not the slightest idea of what to do, except call someone else.
Karen and I have owned three houses in our soon-to-be 44 years of marriage, and while I did gain some repair skills, I was generally at the mercy and generosity of others. But now we are in a different season of our life, the Motor Home era, and if there is one thing we have learned, and quickly, is that things break, forward progress can come to a screeching halt, and one better be able to find a remedy, and find it quickly. I have heard the horror stories from fellow-RV and camper owners and I have always wondered why, with the frequency of problems, and the high cost of fixing those problems, people loved this life style so much. After four years on the road I know why people love this way of living, and I also know more about how to use the Internet, some basic tools and the generosity and willingness of fellow RV'ers and campers to lend a hand and foresee some of the pitfalls still to come. I've accumulated some notches on my belt.
I never envisioned myself as a dirt-under-the nails kind of guy, but after our experiences in rural Arkansas and Georgia and the back woods of Deep East Texas, I've accumulated a decent list of accomplishments and handyman skills. I might just have to add a Bubba hat to my current dashboard collection. Yee Haw.

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January 24, 2018. Colmesneil, TX. Calm in the Calm

Mike and Linda arrived here Monday, about four hours after their initial ETA. They took a little more scenic route from the Dallas area to Colmesneil. It has been very relaxing and restful and we have only been away from the motor home once in the past two days. Sometimes it's just good to sit, talk, share our experiences (and photos), and not feel the urge to go somewhere or do something. It has been a welcome calm in the calm of our past two months in Texas.
I'm the first to get up each morning and in the calm of the morning, which I have always relished, I can have my time to be with God before I have my time with the world. This morning I slept nearly to 8am, which is a departure from my normal rising time around 6. Unfortunately, I was troubled with a gripey digestive system overnight, so today will be a day to try to clean the pipes and start over again later today or tomorrow. My VA doc may have to be consulted and visited soon after we return to Arkansas.
But for now we will proceed with our visiting, play some games and relax before they leave for Florida tomorrow, and we get back to our "clearing the land" chores on the property. Karen spoke with her coworkers at TGPP a few days ago and they are eager for us to get back there, so she can jump back in to the fray of inventorying, merchandising, displaying, etc. I know there will be plenty for me to do, as well, and it will be good to speed up my work pace and possibly speed up the pace of the food through my system. For now......stay calm and trust The Lord.

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January 21, 2018. Colmesneil, TX. Write On

From November, 2013 until now, I have posted over 580 entries on our Ministry of Miles website. I settled on an every-three-day posting schedule and have generally found something "interesting" to write about. We do text, talk with friends and family, but avoid all the usual social media platforms. Our website has not been updated since Noah, our then 16 year old "webmaster" and his dad, Alan, set up the website for us before we left Fort Collins. But it has served us well. We have some loyal followers, and at last count we have had over 12,000 hits.
Tomorrow our F.C. Friends, Mike and Linda, who began their road ministry at the same time we started out, will be stopping here for a few days on their way from Ennis, TX back to Homosassa, FL It will be good to compare notes on our experiences of the past four years. We spent time with them in Florida in 2013/14 and they visited us twice in Madison, GA, then traveling together to Chattanooga, TN, spending some relaxing time with them there. Both couples were new to the on the road life style, so it will be fun to see how far we have come, mile-wise, ministry-wise, and other-wise.
And I keep writing about our journey with The Lord. How faithful He has been. Write On: Right On. Thank You, Lord.

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January 19, 2018. Colmesneil, TX. Half Full-Half Empty

I'm on the fence. Partly Sunny, partly cloudy. In or out? I've been better, but I've certainly been worse. Hanging in there. I'm tired, I'll do it tomorrow. Just not with it....... Whatever.......
Sometimes, it's hard to get started and as we delay starting, we find any number of reasons to procrastinate. I don't know which of the excuses for not working outdoors today I will finally use as my rationalization for not accomplishing anything worthwhile today, but more than likely I can just chalk it up to being unmotivated........or.......just plain lazy.
Karen and I came to Texas with no real intention other than visiting Loren and Diane, and kicking back from our past four years of ministry in Arkansas and Georgia. Now that Loren and Diane have gone off to Florida to help with a Campers on Mission project, we are still set up on their property, tending to their animals and enduring some cold weather and that laziness I alluded to. There are some things to do, and we are doing them, just not at a pace that will see the things completed in the immediate future, though we do plan to get them done before Loren and Diane return in early March. At least, I hope we will get them done, if.....................
Ho hum. I think I'll close now. This has been a tough blog. It wasn't hard to write, just not very flattering to admit how inactive I have become. Karen's dad used an expression once which applies to my current work/not work dilemma: he said " It's not that I'm indecisive......I just can't make up my mind"........ zzzzzzzZZZZZ......





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January 16, 2018. Colmesneil, TX. Global Warming

I know you're not supposed to take an isolated incident and generalize about it, but right now I would have to say that Global Warming stuff is a crock. Here in Colmesneil it is 25 degrees with 14 expected tonight. At our house in Colorado it is 19 with 13 expected. In Eureka Springs it is now 10 with a low of 1 tonight, and if we were in Madison it would be a balmy 54 now with 23 in store tonight. That, in my mind, equates to COLD.
Looking at the current temperatures around the country the only state which has any temperature above 70 is Florida. Tonight part of every state except California will have temperatures below freezing, and of course Hawaii is basking in the 80's with expected lows in the 60's tonight. Even the top of Mauna Loa and Haleakala won't dip below freezing. But for those of us on the mainland, it's COLD.
We had snow flurries earlier today and some actually has stayed on the ground. Snow in Deep East Texas for the second time since we arrived in November. Bring out the plows TDOT!
And as for all that Global Warming stuff, at the moment........hunkered down.......sweaters on.......space heaters and gas heat running........hooey........IT'S COLD.

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January 13, 2018. Colmesneil, TX. TV or Not TV

Since November 16, when we arrived here in DET (Deep East Texas), Karen and I have been TVless. Our motor home is under a metal roof which prevents us from raising our antenna, and even if we could raise it, there is little chance we would pick up any signal since we are a long way from anywhere. Without a dish or satellite system, we must rely on our smartphones for contact with the outside world and they work fine for phone and Internet, but downloading or streaming or any other means of getting TV programming is not an option with our limited data plan. So we do without Ninja Warrior, Blue Bloods, Perry Mason and our other "favorites".
TV reception has been spotty for us in Eureka Springs or Madison, so we have gotten used to not having the full range of viewing options the past four years. We will miss the Super Bowl and Olympics and the evening news, but like so many of our friends who don't have home television, we will entertain ourselves with our own word and number puzzles, reading, Googling, Cross-sewing and movie watching. Karen has accumulated quite a few movies from the discount bins and thrift stores and Loren and Diane have a major movie collection, so we have watched a lot of movies in the past two months, which has been educational, entertaining and relaxing after our daily chores.
Life without TV is definitely "doable" and not much of an inconvenience out here in DET.

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January 10, 2018. Colmesneil, TX. Animals

In nearly 44 years of marriage, Karen and I have never owned an animal. Most of our friends and family, neighbors and acquaintances in Colorado, those we work with in Arkansas and Georgia, and fellow full-time RV'ers, have an animal of one kind or another. Of course, the Passion Play has a wide variety of animals for the Play, petting zoo and household pets. So, we have no lack of animals to befriend and every one seems to like us, and we enjoy being around them as well.
I have blogged about a lot of the animals we have known on our wanderings, and I often wish they could speak to us, like Balaam's donkey did in Numbers 22, where the donkey had some pretty profound words for his "master". We can interpret a wagging tail, a lick, a sniff, purr, begging for a table scrap, a growl, bark or whine, or other "body language" from an animal, but without words we can only imagine what they are thinking about us. We're probably better off not knowing because we might get more information than we bargain for.
A dog or cat doesn't fit in with our current life style, a horse, cow, camel, lamb or donkey isn't practical unless we settle down in a non-wheeled residence, and even then, it would change our regimen quite a bit. I guess we'll settle for the relationship we have with other people's animals, continue to be Aunt Karen and Uncle Hal to an ark-full of four-leggers and a few winged types. In this part of Texas, I'm not sure there are leash laws, so when I take my walks on CR 3255, I have to be aware that some of the dogs "talking" to me and charging across the fields, may have more than a howdy on their mind. Where's The Numbers 22 angel when you need him? But, then again.........

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January 7, 2018. Colmesneil, TX. Hair Today, Moses Tomorrow

When the 2017 Passion Play season came to a close, I was eager to have shorter hair again. With longer hair and a fuller beard than I had ever had before, it was a welcome change to wake up with just a #8 goatee and mustache and just over-the-ear hair. The goatee soon became a #4 and my cheeks needed to be shaved every few days. The shorter hair was also more manageable than before.
But, a few weeks ago, the razor was given its pink slip and my 4 year old can of Barbasol began gathering dust on the top shelf of the bathroom cabinet. The cheeks are in a race to catch up with the #4 and when they do get to that point, the goatee/mustache will be trimmed down to #4 again and the two shall be as one. My hair, which appears to be thinner than before is getting longer on the sides and over-the-collar again. Someone I just met even said that i looked like Moses, when they had never seen me in that role before.
I have started reading the Complete Jewish Study Bible as of January 1, with the intention of doing a more in-depth study of the Old and New Testament from a Messianic Jewish perspective to have more insight into my Jewish background, my Christian present and my ultimate eternal future. I want to be true to my heritage, but also true to Jesus and what He gave to us by His life, death and resurrection and his dwelling in us who call Him Lord and Savior. I want to truly be a Completed Jew.
In a few months we will be back at The Great Passion Play, God willing; and I will resume my role as "Moses", God willing; and we will continue serving as God wills us to. For now, the hair grows a little each day, we rest here in the woods and trust God for what lies ahead. And in all things......Thank You, Lord.


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January 4, 2018. Colmesneil, TX. Who Are Those People?

For those of you who have known us over the years, you might have trouble recognizing us in our present "condition". As I have been blogging for the past six weeks, we left Arkansas, returned to Colorado for about a week, and then headed off to Texas to relax with friends and try to rest from our hectic pace of the past ministry years. We thought we would be here for a month or so, but it has been extended and looks like it will be extended even further to the beginning of March.
Our frantic pace at the Passion Play and Source of Light has been replaced with a far slower and less hectic pace, which can be described as either "slow or stop". The other day I was wondering if we are resting to the point of rusting. We do get out of Colmesneil a few times a week, driving to Woodville, Lufkin or Beaumont, but we mostly go there to shop, eat, return home, watch a movie with Loren and Diane, talk for a while, play with Cream (the cat), walk Gus(the dog), check the national news headlines, do some word or number puzzles, sleep, get up and rest some more. We are exhausted from this new life style, wondering if we will be "in shape" for the Passion Play pace when we return to Arkansas in March.
We have gone through a cold snap the past week, with above freezing weather expected the next week or so. Maybe we will get a little more active, have a chance to do some outdoor projects and break out of this state of hibernation we find ourselves in. Yes, rest is important; God did rest from His hectic six days of Creation and He does command us to rest from our labors, too. But, I think we've taken this rest thing too far.
We need a rest from our rest.

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January 1, 2018. Colmesneil, TX. Just Another Day

Happy New Year and another new day. Karen and I didn't do anything very different last night to ring in the new year, not much different from any of the past umpteen year changes. Our neighbors in the back woods did celebrate with some fireworks at about 1:15am, but other than that it was a night like any other night.
The years come and go, and I can only remember two New Year's which stand out as different. One was an attempt by Karen and I to actually watch the "ball drop" in Colorado, but we were "gone" by 10pm when the margaritas got the better of us, and it was off to sleep before the ball had even dropped in Times Square, New York. Needless to say, we haven't done much drinking, other than water, since. The other occasion was Y2K (2000), when I worked for Hewlett Packard (HP), and we were waiting for something to happen to our Clean Room Equipment when the year changed from 1999 to 2000. All the computer wizards, geeks and engineers were't sure if the computers would advance into 2000 or drop us back to 1901. When nothing happened, there was a sigh of relief and a general feeling that a lot of people had been duped into buying generators, bottled water, extra food and other survivalist-type goodies to survive the predicted doom and gloom.
But, by and large, December 31, 2017- January 1, 2018 was just another day, with nothing really monumental to write about, even though I am writing about it. I'm sure some new laws went into effect, some old laws came off the books and a lot of people will have difficulty writing 2018 instead of 2017 for a few weeks or months. Another day. One day older and one day closer to the end of this life and the start of the one we have been promised and in which we have our hope. Thank You, Lord.
For now.......Happy New Year, y'all, from Deep East Texas.

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