I Think

I think this is absolutely the best time of year. With the Spring Season finally here, the flowers are really starting to bloom, the sunsets are clearly more spectacular, and the air itself seems to just smell a whole lot fresher. While I no longer have an ocean view, I do have a gorgeous view of the Coto de Caza Golf Course framed by Saddleback Mountain, the highest peak in all of Orange County. Rabbits and squirrels scurry by (along with squirrely golfers as well), and at the moment nature is dressed in its finest apparel, making me grateful to be alive to witness it.

In fact, a mother dove created a nest on our front porch this week, on top of a pillar protected by the roof. For the past few days she is always there, never leaving, so her eggs must be ready to hatch. She doesn’t seem to be bothered by us as we go in and out of our house, and we are certainly not bothered by her presence either. To me, she is a symbol of spring and a precious reminder of Easter and the promise of new beginnings.

Right now, I think the world needs the promise of new beginnings and a hopeful future more than ever. I thought this pandemic would only last two weeks. Instead it has lasted more than two years, and is still going on. There are bombs being dropped on Ukraine, never thought that would happen. And lately there have been so many of my friends and family members who have lost loved ones due to Covid, cancer and car crashes, that it blows my mind. So my thoughts and prayers are stronger, and my prayer list is longer, than it’s ever been!

With all that has gone wrong lately, it could make us sad. But as I arrive home after a long day of work and pass by that dove huddled quietly over her babies, and then gaze out at the gorgeous view from my patio, I feel encouraged. Life will always have its ups and downs, but for me, Springtime and the upcoming Easter Season combine to create the promise of a better life ahead. At Easter we don’t just celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we celebrate His promise of a new beginning and a life everlasting. I think...I will think about that… instead!

Sunset  view from the top of Saddleback Mountain

Spring shows us what God can do 

with a drab and dirty world. 

~ Virgil A. Kraft

Making the World a Better Place

I lost a friend in a plane crash recently. It was a shock as you can imagine, and so heartbreaking for his family and everyone else that knew and loved him.

It reminded me that sometimes there are certain people that touch your life in a special way. Robert was one of those people. I can’t really describe it. He just had this special way of making you feel better about yourself. What a unique and awesome quality and what a unique and awesome man. The world is a better place because of him and with his passing, his family shared Robert’s personal statement of faith. But instead of describing it to you in my own words, I will share with you Robert Ming’s exact words. Why? Because there is no way that I could have expressed my faith any better or as eloquently as Robert has. And it is so very, very  much worth sharing with the world.

Robert’s Faith Statement

Life can be hard. There are job losses, global pandemics, earthquakes, and deaths. Nevertheless, I have a deep sense of peace even when circumstances might indicate otherwise. Why? Because I believe there is a God, and He loves me. Why do I have  a sense of direction even when I really don’t know where I am going? (No wise cracks here about asking for directions!) Because Jesus Christ has provided clear principles for living life that provide the basis for making decisions. Those principles are found in the Bible and things simply work better when we follow the guidance we find there.

Today I tried to make the world a better place. 

    I’ll do it again tomorrow… if you’ll let me.      

~ Robert Ming,  1970-2022

 

Tool Time

If you call somebody a “tool” it’s supposed to be a derogatory remark. But that doesn’t make sense to me because one of the secrets to doing a job well and doing it right has always been having the right tool. So that makes the right tool a really good thing, right? I wonder… is it that way with friends as well?

I was a working electrician for many years because I have always enjoyed working with my hands and still do. In fact, I still have my original electrician’s leather tool belt, which has been riding around with me in my truck every day for many, many years. I don’t give it much thought and I don’t take very good care of it anymore, but I always know it’s there when I need it.

The thing is, I don’t actually wear that old toolbelt anymore, but I do keep a few spare tools in it. The pockets also have a bunch of old nuts, bolts, and screws collected along the way from places I worked, like the very first In-N-Out Burger ever built, the original Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Fashion Island Shopping Center, the Bren Center at UCI, San Diego City Hall, and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.

Three times last week that old toolbelt came in super handy for me. One example, my Father-in-Law asked me to help him install a new handheld shower head. The parts that came with it didn’t fit his type of shower stall and we both struggled with it for quite a while. That is until I went out to my truck and searched through my old toolbelt. I found the perfect pair of needle nose pliers and the exact size of plastic wall anchors needed to complete the installation. Five minutes later, the job was done.

And that got me thinking… I have been blessed with some really good friends over the years, people who have been there for me when I needed them most, and greatly enriched my life. I don’t always give them enough thought like I should, so shame on me. But I bet you they will be there for me if I need them. That makes the right friend a really good thing, right!

A true friend never gets in the way unless you happen to be going down.

~ Arnold H. Glasgow

Sh!t Doesn't Always Happen

I enjoy my job, but sometimes I'm really surprised by things that happen to me. On a typical day I will drive to a Shopping Center, Business Complex, or Industrial Park and perform Ultrasonic Testing on parking lot light poles, checking for rust and corrosion. It’s hard work at times, physically draining, and very lonely because I keep to myself, speak to no one, and stay totally focused on the job because it’s super important to be accurate.

However, with the pandemic going on, people are a bit more testy than usual. I can’t say I blame them because life is stressful enough without all the extra problems and struggles created by Covid. I’ve seen a lot of heated arguments going on in parking lots, a young girl screaming into her phone, presumably at her boyfriend, a homeless person sleeping on hot asphalt, and two drivers arguing over which one got to the parking spot first. I notice that most people ignore me and just want me to get out of their way.

That’s why I was surprised last week at the kindness shown me by two strangers. The first incident was at a shopping center in north Orange County. A very large man in a very small golf cart came rushing up to where I was working on a light pole. I could see he had a security uniform on and at first I thought he going to arrest me. Instead he got out smiling and asked me if I was the “Metals Inspector”. When I answered, “Yes”, his eyes lit up and he said, “Cool, Brother! I just want to welcome you to our property! He then explained how he really appreciates vendors taking good care of his site, and that if I needed help with anything to let him know. He handed me his card, wished me well, and drove off waving. He was just about the nicest security guard I’ve ever met.

The second incident was so minor, you wouldn’t probably think twice about it. I was working at crowded Retail Center in Cypress late in the day. The parking lot was full of cars, so it was difficult to access the light poles. At one point, a lady in a Tesla nearly ran me over. I never heard her coming and I definitely didn’t hear her apologize. She just got out and rushed into the store. That’s typical, but 10 minutes later, a rough looking Hispanic man with a heavy beard and a ton of tattoos got out of his car and started staring at me. I thought I was dead meat! But all he wanted was to ask me a question, “Sir. Would you like me to move my car out of your way?” He smiled as he said it… and I smiled back. Just a simple courtesy, and maybe not a big deal normally, but when people go out of their way during a pandemic to be nice to others, it’s surprising!

And that got me thinking… You know that old saying, “Sh!t  Happens”… well sometimes, even during the worst of times, Surprise Happens!

In a world full of people who couldn’t care less, 

be someone who couldn’t care more.   

 ~ Anonymous 

Like Sand Through an Hourglass

I took off early this morning to go start a large Pole Inspection project in Laguna Niguel. As I was driving down the freeway my truck is heading straight, but the people around me are all speeding and weaving and driving like maniacs. They are all over the place, and so are my thoughts.

I keep thinking about how I always have way too much to do! Besides having a solid load of work to do this month, our landlord doubled our rent, so we have to move, which is never easy. We need to find a moving company, set up the new utilities, arrange for new internet and cable, put in a change of mailing address, etc. etc. At the same time, my truck needs a wash and an oil change, the ice maker on the fridge is broken, and I can’t see well because I need a new pair of glasses, but don’t have time to go see an eye doctor.

Sorry…I don’t want to sound like some weak whiner or complainer, so I start to focus on all the things that are right in my life. That helps, but it doesn’t lighten the busyness of my life when there is always so much to do. Every day is filled with so many responsibilities and concerns, and honestly it can be overwhelming at times. I have a feeling you have plenty of days like that too.

And that got me thinking… What if we were to picture life like an hourglass? Imagine that there is an hourglass in front of you. At the top is a bowl connected to a bowl at the bottom by a tube so thin that only one grain of sand can pass through it at a time. That is a true picture of life, even on a super-busy day. The crowded hours can only come to you one moment at a time, one grain of sand at a time. That is the only way they can come. The day may bring many tasks, many problems, many stresses, but always… they come in single file. So handle them one at a time by remembering the hourglass, the grains of sand dropping one by one.

Like sand through an hourglass, 

so are the days of our lives.

~ from the daytime TV drama "Days of Our Lives"

In a Good Way

I have been working in the same industry for more than 48 years. You would think I’d be tired of it by now, but I’m not. Granted, I am only working 3 days a week instead of 5 or 6, so that helps. But the thing is, I love what I do… and I always have!

Why is that? I asked myself that complex question this past Saturday because I had five Light Pole Inspection projects to complete in one day, and two of them were large projects with over 50 parking lot light poles each. The work is physically demanding so there’s no way I could do that much work by myself. So I hired my son David, and my son-in-law Zac, two men who aren’t afraid to work hard, and we spread the work out between all three of us. But I knew even with three men, it wouldn’t be easy.

I arrived early at the largest project before anyone else got there. I like to scope out the site and figure out the logistics before we get started. This was a huge modern office complex that took up a whole city block. The parking lot alone had to be a quarter mile long, but since it was Saturday morning at 6:30am, the sun wasn’t even up yet… and nobody was around… except for this one guy.

At first I could only make out the silhouette of someone because he was so far away.  But as I traipsed through the never-ending parking lot, mapping out the light poles, I finally got close enough to see it was a worker wearing a yellow safety vest, same as me. Except I was carrying a clipboard, while he was carrying a leaf blower. It was 42 degrees out, so he was bundled up with a heavy coat and he had a large bandana worn tight across his face to block out the dust and debris. He appeared to be a small Hispanic man, mid-forties, who kept his head down, obviously intent on completing his work. But as I looked out across that vast expanse of asphalt, and then observed how much time it took him to do even a small section, his job seemed absolutely overwhelming.

We finished our inspection work at the first project around 10:30am. After packing up our tools and equipment in my truck, I made one last lap around the parking lot to make sure we didn’t miss any poles. That’s when I saw him again, head down, intently focused on his work, with only about a third of the parking lot completed. I stopped and watched him for a moment and admired his determination. The cool thing was that the area that he had completed, looked so much better than the rest of the lot. The daunting thing was that there was still another two-thirds to go.

 And that got me thinking… There are people in this world who aren’t afraid to tackle the tough jobs, the behind-the-scenes dirty work that nobody else is willing to do. You don’t notice what they do, but you would damn sure notice it if they didn’t do their job. We need those people, and we need to appreciate them. And we need to respect the work ethic they exhibit when they show up every single day and give it their best… even when nobody is watching!

I like it when I get to work hard and 

then go home tired… in a good way!

~ Pablo Rojo-Delgado

Migrant Farm Worker

Fallbrook, CA circa 1969

Train Your Brain

One of the nice things about where we live on Beach Road is that the ocean is only 60 feet away. Unfortunately, on the other side of our house there are train tracks that are only about 100 feet away. The sound of the ocean is soothing as the waves constantly roll in. The noise from the freight trains zooming by however, is incredibly frightening and annoying.

For the first month we lived at the beach, my wife and I would wake up in the middle of the night, terrified, because it sounded like a 747 was landing in the living room. Fortunately, the human brain is incredibly adaptable. In fact, scientists at MIT discovered that there are special neurons in the brainstem called “novelty detector neurons” that help us ignore ongoing noise if a sound or sound pattern is repeated. 

These days we never even notice if a train is going by, whether it’s in broad daylight or late at night. That is a definite blessing, but it makes me wonder about all the other “noise” going on in my head every day.

If I can tune out a roaring freight train 100 feet away, why can’t I tune out other things? Like the bad thoughts that pop up in my head when a speeding driver cuts me off. Like the disappointment that builds up when a friend lets me down. Like the frustration that happens at tax time every April. Like the anger I feel when someone tells me I am stupid for wearing a mask during a pandemic. Or like the pain and fear I’ve been feeling lately because so many of my family members have Covid.

I know that bad things are going to happen in life. And after 66 years I also know that I can’t tune them all out. But I can retrain my brain and strive every day to focus on what is good and right and best for myself and those around me. Maybe if I train my brain properly, to focus on love, humility, patience, and gentleness… I can decrease the annoying noise and increase the soothing sounds!

Do not conform yourself to this age, but be transformed by the renewal 

of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, 

what is good and pleasing and perfect.     

~ Romans 12:1-2