Thursday, December 17, 2009

O.k., so my laptop is busted so I can't update at night like I like to. Anyway, I'll have to carve out waking hours to update the blog if I'm going to do it. This post will cover several things seen across several days. Also, I think this may be the last day that I use the date as the title for the post, that way it's not as obvious how much time goes in between posts.

Last week I drove with a co-worker through Madison and out into the county. I always like making drives like this because of the diversity of houses that I pass. There's always the obligatory trailers - single-wides, double-wides, well maintained and shoddy. I always look at these and ask myself this question: "Are these people happy?" With everyone's pursuit of their own American dream, is this theirs'? Did they want to live in the country and are they happy living where they're living and working where they're working? I have to think that for some they truly are. I knew people growing up who lived in trailers and they were usually happy. It makes me look at my life and I wonder if I'd be o.k. if that's where I ended up. I'd like to think that I'm deep enough that I don't need material possessions to be happy but I don't know that I am. It just makes me think...

Something else that I've taken notice of lately is the resurgence of the station wagon. Pay attention while you're driving and look at the number of new station wagons you see. Granted they call them other things today but they are all essentially station wagons. I guess there's nothing new under the sun. One thing that really excited me a couple of days ago though was a Ford Flex with faux wood grain paneling on the sides! THE WOODY IS BACK! I gotta tell you, if loving wood-grained accent on the outsides of station wagons is wrong, I don't wanna be right!

Two other items of note:

I saw a doctors office with a sign out front that said "Urgent Care: No Appointment Necessary". I would hope that you wouldn't need to make an appointment for an urgent medical condition. "Yeah, I'm planning on being in a pretty serious car accident tomorrow afternoon, could I get an appointment at say 3:30?"

I also saw what is possible the greatest promotion offered by a bank ever: open a checking account and receive a free Snuggie! I am so getting one!!!

Have a great day!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Today was funny. I'm driving to lunch and I pulled up behind a fairly old car with the following bumper sticker: " Drive Closer: I brake fast for tailgaters". The I saw that license plate. It was a disabled veteran plate with a frame around it. The frame had a scroll LED display that had this message scrolling across: "Get off my ass or you'll have to buy me". I'm not sure who was talking in the message- the car or the driver. Two things struck me:

First, this guy really does not want to be followed closely. It made me want to tail him a little closer than I normally would just to mess with him. I don't know what it is but there is something inherent in me that really wants to screw with people. I suppose that's not good...

Secondly I thought that it is interesting that he has a scrolling display on the bottom of his car which he obviously expects people to read and he's concerned that they are going to hit him. Luckily I ran into him at a light but I'm pretty sure if I was behind him while driving I would definitely scoot up enough to read his scrolling display.And while I'm reading the scrolling display it would be much harder for me to notice if traffic were stopped up ahead or even if he hit his brakes. The whole ordeal just seemed to run counter to what he was trying to accomplish.

So, if you've been reading this blog at all you know I'm going to stretch to try to make this apply to something deep so I can feel justified about spending time writing this blog. How often do we take actions that are supposed to lead us in a different direction only to find out that the very actions we took will cause more people to come and stare? It makes me think about some of the fashions and the people wearing them. Everyone starts fashion trends to be original and unique but in the end, the very thing that was meant to isolate and make them stand out is what draws people in closer; the very people for whom the fashion trend was started to get away from.

On another note entirely the Parkway is back open down where I live. The affect of this today on my commute home was a 1/3 reduction in the overall time it takes to get home... that's pretty significant. Granted it normally takes only thirty minutes to get home after work but if I can get home in twenty... SCORE!

Alright, have a great night!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

I noticed an interesting phenomenon today on my way to work. I drive through a neighborhood with homes that were built in the 1960's that all have an interesting and obsolete feature - a one-car garage. There have been several houses in the neighborhood that have since closed in the garages to make additional rooms but you can still tell that all the houses built in this time frame had single-car garages.

Contrast this to today's homes. Every new house has at least a two car garage if not a three or four car setup. It just shows how life has changed in the last 40-50 years. I think it also shows us how spoiled we are, especially during this downturn in the economy. The fact is, as time goes on and the overall level of wealth increases, what we expect increases with it. Whereas a one-car garage used to be sufficient as evidenced by the number of houses sold with a single bay, nowadays a two-car is the bare minimum. This is because we cannot conceive of a world (at least in Huntsville) where a family would only own one car.

Think about the other items that you own that are ubiquitous but astounding: computers, cell phones, credit/debit cards, iPods... the list could go on. All of these we see as rights, not privileges and we get angry when something or someone limits our access to these "rights".

Speaking of common technology - I saw a woman dial and/or texting on her phone today in her car. This normally would not have been worth noticing except that she had her blinker on and was trying to merge and a car was stopped to let her in but could get her to look up to see the opening. It was actually kind of funny to see someone trying to be nice while the other driver could stop was she was doing long enough to see that.

I also noticed that they have put the stripes down on the overpass on the Parkway which may mean that they are nearing completion on the construction which means that my commute time will be reduced by 10 minutes or so which will be really nice although I'm sure I'll see less stuff to blog about.

Let me know what you saw today...

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Again, I'm being sporadic with my posts. The holiday last week threw me off a little and to be honest, since the time change it's been more difficult to spot stuff because it's dark on the way home. Tomorrow I'll start looking again in earnest while I'm driving and try to update every day but at least several times a week.

This post is about last Tuesday. I met a couple of guys for breakfast at Chik-Fil-A. We were walking in about 6:30 and were stopped by a guy standing outside the restaurant with a simple request: "Spare a quarter for the homeless". I gave my normal response which was "I don't have any cash on me" which is normally true but that morning was false. I didn't really think anything of it at the time as I walked inside and placed my order.

The next person through the door was a lady in her mid thirties. She brought the homeless guy in and took him to the counter to place his order on her tab. He ordered a chicken biscuit and she asked him if he wanted coffee too. If that wasn't humbling enough, the homeless guy then asked her if he could get some cinnamon clusters too to which she replied "sure". He ate his meal with a smile on his face and went on his way.

I screwed up - even if I didn't have cash my agenda was more important that the person standing outside looking for something to eat. It would have been so simple to give him a hot meal but I gave my short pat answer and walked on. Why did I do that? One of the cashiers asked the woman if she knew the guy and she said she didn't, she's just seen him around town a lot and figured he could use a meal. Would I have even noticed him around town?

It really reminded me of the lyrics to the song "This World" by Caedmon's Call:
And the least of these look like criminals to me
So I leave Christ on the streets

The whole asking for cinnamon clusters really got to me too because the woman didn't even bat an eye or huff or sigh. She was willing to give to this guy unconditionally even when he asked for something he wanted not just something he needed. This reminds me of us with Christ - the guy asked for 25 cents and got a full meal plus cinnamon clusters! We come to Christ with nothing looking for only forgiveness and get salvation plus so much more which is given to us willingly and without hesitation.

After that experience I hope that I never look at someone as worth less than a quarter like I did that morning. I need to remember the generosity that has been given me through Jesus and pour that out into others. It's messy and time consuming but well worth it!

Thanks for reading... see you tomorrow...