Young and Old - Life is not always fair

Pop-Pop and Grant

When I first started this blog, my Dad (aka Pop-Pop) was doing reasonably well for 78 years old but during the past several months his physical and mental health have declined substantially.  You see, my Dad has Alzheimers and things have been getting worse and worse for him.  Things finally reached a point where my mom was no longer able to take care of him at home and she had to make the decision to admit him into an Assited Living Home.

I am very sad about this for a number of reasons but mainly, I'm sad because I love my dad very much and miss being able to talk to him.  The disease has reached a stage that while he still knows who I am he is not able to speak very well or about things that are "real".  Our last conversation was about the airplane that he was getting ready to board or that I was getting ready to board.  Funny enough, the next day, he told my mom that I had landed the plane but was unsure how I had done it.

I am grateful today because he was able to meet my son and my son was able to spend time with him.  My prayer is that my son will have a warm spot in his heart when I mention Pop-Pop's name.

What made me decide to write about this today was that my wife and I started praying for advent today and today's readings focused on "waiting".  Not a passive, powerless or hopeless waiting, but an active, powerful, hopeful waiting.  A waiting for the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ and a waiting for the return of Christ.  A waiting for death and life.

This struck me very hard today because my wife and I are trying to have a second child and are waiting for God to bless us with one (waiting for life).  I am also waiting for my father to pass from this life to his next life with God (waiting for death).  This second part is a very difficult period of waiting for me because it's the first time in my life where I have actively prayed for someone to die.  I love my father so very much it pains me to see him on his worst days.  I call these his worst days because they are the days where he knows what his happening to his mind and that he is powerless to stop it.  These are the days that he says he is ready and wants to die.

Watching this has lead me to pray for my dad to die but also to pray that God's will to be done which has tested my faith as a Christian.  It has tested me because no where in my up bringing or in my adult Christian life was anything like this spoken of.  The "church" seemed to pass over the topic of death and dying.  So much so, that I feel akward and even guilty to tell people that I have been and continue to pray for my dad to die. 

As a Christian I believe that this life is transitory and that sooner or later all of us will die (even the son of God had to die).  So I sit here in this period of waiting, actively praying that God's will be done with my father and actively praying that God takes him home sooner rather than later.

Sunday's

A few weeks ago, I decided to take some of my own advice and have a day of rest, a Sabbath. For me, that not only meant not doing "work" for, well work, but also not to do work for me at my house. Now I don"t want you to think that I will be spending all day deep in prayer, fasting or trying to experience God in deeper more meaningful ways. I want to have those experiences but quite frankly, God didn't wire me that way. This may come as a surprise for some of you, but I am a "do-er". Yes, while I may have convinced many of you that I have the ability to sit still, silently contemplating deep, philosophical matters, I really was think about past episodes of Law & Order or a recent sci-fi book I had read. That brings us to my Sabbath.

When I brought this idea up to my wife Leah, she thought it was a great idea. No surprise there, since my wife is a self proclaimed "be-r" and has no problems just sitting and enjoying nature, sun sets or just dreaming. So two weeks go, I started implementing this new plan. To spend a day "resting". This meant no work on any of the household projects that I have. Here is how it's gone.

Week 1: A little twitchy, wanted to pull the TV out of storage in the garage and bask in it's warm glow. I resisted that urge and had a very nice day with my wife and Grant. I really enjoyed playing with him and connecting with my wife.

Week 2: Less twitchy than in week 1, no real urges to pull the TV out of storage and enjoyed spending time with my wife and son (and dog and two cats).

This may seem "easy" for may of you out there, but let me put that in perspective, that pile of logs, the above ground pool that I cut up and various piles of brick and concrete where piled up all over the back yard. So, whenever I sat out on the deck with Leah, Grant, Bevo or the cats, I was "forced" to look at these piles. The good news is that I able to ship off all the wood to the city of Houston, moved the cut of pool and allot of broken brick and concrete to the side of the house, which is my staging area for shipping it off to the dump (anyone got a truck I can borrow?). That brings us to Week 3.

Week 3: I didn't spend time on Saturday working on the backyard, so I decided to spend a couple of hours before my brother came over for a visit cleaning up various piles of brick and concrete that I had dug up earlier. Sadly, my inner squirrel kicked in and I picked up a shovel to dig up a "few" pieces of brick that were by the side fence. What I actually dug up was a more than a few bricks. I estimate that I dug up a cubic meter of brick. I am now convinced that the only known building materials in the 1950-60's in Houston where brick and concrete.

Maybe next week, I will resist the urge to work on my Sabbath!

Blessings & Peace to all.

Bevo & Grant

Thought I would share the latest picture of Grant and his new dog Bevo. Bevo was a gift to Grant from "Grandpaw" Pevey, who was heard to say, "every boy needs a dog!"

Grant enjoys feeding, playing, taking Bevo for long walks and explaining to complete strangers that no he did not attend the University of Texas, nor did anyone in his family but the Dog was three year sold when he got him and already answered to that name so he couldn't change it.

Oh, wait that's me! Grant just tries to ride Bevo like a pony and chew on his ears!

Housing update

Being a first time home buyer, I am learning the intricacies of dealing with things like building permits, inspectors, contractors, inspectors, permits, electricians, did I mention inspectors?

Today's post involve Centerpoint energy, the city of Houston and my above ground swimming pool. Before we moved in, I took it upon myself to have some key electrical work done to try and move the electrical service line from right over the middle of the pool to the side, which my electrician was able to. Then came the inspectors. Centerpoint electricity and City of Houston. At first all was well, then all was not well, then all was maybe well then all was definitely NOT well with the electrical service and the pool. In the end, the City of Houston and Centerpoint won 1-0 over the swimming pool, or should I say $4,000 to $250 over the swimming pool. Yes, Centerpoint Energy wanted $4000 to install a new pole to bring power to my house that was within code.

This brings us to my $250 solution for the above ground pool, above ground deck and strategically located "BBQ & bar" that the previous owners installed. I guess they were more concerned about getting a good tan while eating their BBQ and throwing back a few cold ones than to worry about such things as building codes or safety. So what is the $250 solutions? The Milwaukee Sawzall and multi blade assortment package (Amazon $250, shipping included). Milwaukee was the inventory of the Sawzall and boy howdy did they make a great product. I was slightly intimidated by it at first but found it easy to use and operate and it did a serious number on the BBQ bar, deck and pool. Something that took a third of my back yard was picked up by the city of Houston on heavy trash day this month. Thank you City of Houston!.

Good Bye to Rocky

On Monday, March 30th, the Fordham Family said good by to Rocky. After fighting for several days to get his illness under control, the good doctors at Memorial Cat Hospital said there was nothing more that could be done and it was time to let him go. He left this world at 10:30 am. He is much loved and his loss is grieved by all in our house. Peanut and Christmas have spent most of the week looking for him and have not been able to find him.

He was the first pet I chose and who chose me. I will miss him dearly.