My First Job/ Thank You Jesus!

My first real job was working as an assistant to a golf pro at Rock River Country Club. I really was not looking for a job as I was only 16. My dad did not want me to take the job. However I somehow got his permission after reasoning with him that since I was going to be spending most of the summer there anyway I might just as well make some money while there. Money that I would save for college. Knowing that he wanted me to go to college from the day I was born I was pretty sure that would win his approval which it did but not until I agreed to buy savings bonds with 90% of the money I made. To say my dad was a hard person to bargain with was an understatement. So I got to keep 10% of what I made. Also all of my 5 dollar a week allowance now had to go towards my college fund. My dad thought he had really outfoxed me and I would not agree to those terms. He was really surprised when I agreed to his terms. Once again he had underestimated me. He did not realize that I had learned a thing or two in my dealings with him. I did not tell him that besides getting 5dollars a day salary I also got some other benefits. By listening to him talk about the union he belonged to and their contract bargainings with the company [northwestern steel and wire] I had learned that money was not the only thing to think about when getting a job. When he found out I also got freemeals,all the candyand soda I could eat and drink. plus commissions on pro shop sales ect he had to admit I had "maybe" outsmarted him. In fact I would have worked for nothing but the chance to play more golf.

I Loved my job as an assistant to the golf pro. I can honestly say those years working {playing really ]at Rock River Country Club I will remember always as some of the best times of my youth. I could actually say my first real job was not a job at least not to me. Wish I could say the same about all the jobs I have had since. To think I have actually been tested as a workaholic is mindboggling to me but then I have always had to fight to be able to keep working.

God is telling me it is time I should stop fighting for a job and instead be his humble servant. I should have opened my heart to him long ago. For God is the Father that we should all be obedient to. His word shall be done. All glory and honor is his. Thank you Jesus.

Keep the faith,but not just to yourself.

Have you ever felt that no matter what you do you just can not win. you do the right thing and others get rewarded while you get kicked in the face. Well take heart because your rewards will come. Not necessarily the rewards you want but you will get your rewards. The best reward of all will be when Jesus says to you "well done my faithful servant".

EXPO FLEA MARKET

This morning I took my wife and daughter with me to the expo flea market. It was a good one for all of us. It would have been even better if I had had a lot more cash. My daughter found some more cameos, my wife added to her wizard of oz collection and I added three more metal matchbook holders to my personal collection. However I was forced to leave behind several items I would like to add to my collections. It is a good thing most sellers at expo do not take credit cards. Although my wife managed to find a seller that took credit cards and also had wizard of oz items I was not so fortunate. The sellers who had the pink flamingo,star wars toys, and old bottles took no credit cards. Just as well, will give me a reason to come back next month in hopes they will be there then.

35 YEAR RING/CATERPILLAR

Yes I am about to add another milestone to my years at Caterpillar. 35 years of service time . I am presently on longterm disability so it is doubtful that I will beat my dad's 44years of service at Northwestern Steel and Wire Company. Not that that would make him proud of me if he was still alive.
The reason being he sent me to college so I would not end up like him. Neither of us planned for me to spend my life working in a factory.
Funny how life changes even the most thought out plans. Hopefully one day I will be able to laugh at my plans being changed but today is not the day.

TWO THANKSGIVINGS

Today is Thanksgiving 2007 . It has been a great one for me and my family. One Phone call of many today was one we had hoped to get before now. I had prayed it would come today and it did. It made my wife really happy as it was from one of her sisters who had not called or contacted her for a long time. If it makes my wife happy it makes all of us happy. It even inspired me to call my two sisters. I know for others calling someone on the phone is no big deal. Well for me it is a big deal. The only person I ever call is my mother but most of the time she calls me. My mother calls me every Sunday at 9;45 a.m. So I know it is her and will be sure to pick up the phone. I avoid talking on the phone whenever possible. Why? Whenever I answer the phone it always seemed it was really bad news. Even when my mother calls I like for my daughter or wife to answer first. Howevr they have been disappearing of late about 9:30 am every sunday morning. Just coincidence Right. Well even I can put 2and 2 together most of the time. [lol] I have to know a little about women. No brothers two sisters and a dad who was not around much and most times he was you did not want to be around him. Poor mom if I had not been the {baby] youngest things would have been better or so I like to think. Actually it probably would have made things worse. Back to Thanksgiving like I said today was one of our best.

Thanksgiving 2005- About all I can remember of it was feeling miserable and in a lot more pain than usual. I did not eat as much turkey or macaroni salad as usual or so my wife tells me and she claims she knew then something was wrong. She probably did because she can read me like an open book most of the time. She also knows that it only upsets me more when she asks If I am feeling okay. I toughed it out as long as I could as not to spoil Thanksgiving for the rest of the family. about 10:00 p.m I headed for bed thinking maybe some how I could get to sleep. Never happened finally about 2:30 I woke my wife up and told her I was going to emergency room. I was going to drive myself .No way was I going to pay for another ambulance ride. I knew what was the matter. The last time I had driven myself I could do it again. So what that I had had to pull over 3 times to puke. Of course my wife said no way you have a son that can drive you if you insist on no ambulance. He did and I made it all the way to St. Frances Hospital in Peoria before puking on the floor while trying to fill out the blasted admittance forms. For some reason they then decided they had all the information they needed.[lol] It turned out to be just what I knew it was kidney stones. But did they pay any attention to me no they decided I did not know what I was talking about. They treated me for a heart attack . Me protesting all the time. Finally I persuaded a nurse to check my records I had been in that very same er room two other times for guess what. Yes kidney stones! Of course by that time it was about 4 hours later and they had yet to give me anything to relieve the pain. It may have been longer cause I had actually blacked out from pain at least twice between pukings. I remember very little after that until they gave me a second dose of morphine. They did show me the two kidney stones I had passed and said as soon as we get your pain under control we will send you home to pass the rest of them. Yup that was [I hope] my worse thanksgiving ever.

THE FIRST TIME I SAW HER FACE

It was another saturday night and it had started out like countless others. There I was at another dance standing by myself knowing I had only a half hour.Thirty minutes more and another completely wasted night would have passed. I had not as yet summoned up the courage to ask any girl to dance. I had actually decided to leave and spare myself the agony of watching most of the guys on my dorm floor file past me with their steady girlfriends or worse yet with some girl they had met for the first time that night. Suddenly some very faint spark of hope began to build . I had spotted a nice enough looking girl standing alone by herself could it be this was the chance I had been waiting for. I started across the dance floor toward her halfway across a guy friend cut me off. It was the floor geek. He wanted me to come to his room to have a pizza with him and talk about military history. I had forgotten I had promised him that I would do something with him after the dance was over. I tried to think of some reason not to. Aha! Itold him quickly that if the girl I was headed toward said no when I asked her to dance I would but if she said yes I would probably ask her to go out instead for pizza . I do not know if his feeling of rejection was more painful or mine when she said no to my offer of a chance to dance.[to be continued]

A LURKER, A MEMBER, A USER, A POSTER ,A BLOGGER

It all started when relatives made the mistake of mentioning Peoria.Com when I was in the room. Yup! Little did they know then they had lured a different fish than they were fishing for into their new boat. It even took them a while to realize this fish by the user name of Mr. Collector was on the boat .

[ 1 ]Joining up as a member and [2]picking a user name was easy. The hard part after [3]Lurking about was trying to do something I had been warned by others not to do. Actually make a post. ] The reason a certain member had already scared away 3 family members after they dared to make posts. It was only a matter of time before he would notice a newbie's presence. Not just a newbie to Peoria.com but a virgin to messages boards or forums . [getting late time to stop.]