motorcycles

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A Community Schedule Is A Great Idea

We should collectively schedule things as a community. … That might sound a little controlling, but I think it would give us more peace in the long run.

a community schedule is a great idea

I’m certainly not advocating having to do everything at the same time as everyone else in the community. I just have one thing in mind. 

We are already sort of scheduled in our city as to when we can use our washing machines at home. The city charges us more money for using electricity and water at certain times of the day. They basically want everyone to do their washing in the evening or early mornings.  

It’s not a forced thing, but you pay more if you don’t bend to the community’s wishes.

At times the city has also issued a watering ban for households. We can only water our grass on even or odd numbered days, depending on our house numbers.

Therefore, we basically have a precedent for getting everybody on the same schedule. 

I’m thinking it would be nice to get everyone on the same grass mowing schedule.

It wouldn’t be necessary if everyone had an electric lawnmower, but with so many gas grass cutters, it would really help. 

At my cottage we are in a community and, though the properties are small, there are a lot of them. There is no mistaking the sound when someone pulls out their Briggs and Stratton and pulls the chord. 

The guy that designed the mufflers for lawnmowers must have once worked for Harley Davidson. Every gas lawnmower sounds like a 750 cc roadster! If you close your eyes you can picture the guys from the movie, “Easy Rider”, cruising down the highway.

A lawn doesn’t take that much time to cut. But what’s bad about it is that somehow the noise gives other people the idea that it’s time to cut their lawn too. 

They don’t get out there together at the same time. Instead, it’s more like a chain reaction. When one lawnmower stops, another one starts right up. 

You can hear the sound of lawnmowers for an hour or more. 

Especially when I’m at the cottage, I want peace and quiet. 

I want to hear the sounds of birds chirping, crickets cricketing, and paint drying. – Yes, I want that sound over the sound of some four stroke engine, winding up to top speed. 

And then there’s the guy who made the mistake of putting his weed eater gas into his lawnmower tank. That oil and gas mixture makes a lawnmower sound like a sixteen year old with an old car, trying to impress the girls by continually revving his engine. 

So if we could schedule everyone to get out there and cut their grass on Saturdays at, say, 11 am, well, that would be just great. 

We could all wear ear plugs or put in head phones and listen to music. 

… And I would have some peace the rest of the day.

Here’s the thing: There is a lot of sound in our world. All that noise will drown out hearing what God might want to say to you. Take time in the peaceful part of the day to read and listen to God for His guidance, encouragement and even His correction. God likes it when the sounds of other things are quieted in us. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: When is the peaceful time of your day? Leave your comments and questions below.

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When They Grow Up, They Get Smart and Everything

A few months ago I wrote a blog I called my replacement blog. I had written a blog that my editor (wife) didn’t want me to post. She felt that it was not fare to the person I wrote it about.  So instead I wrote the blog that appeared on July 13th called “My Replacement Blog”.  Since that time my daughter Karlie as given me permission to post the original blog I wrote back in July.

 On that special day when your first child is born, you really don’t have any idea what will transpire over the years. Sure, you may look right into her scrunched up closed eyes and dream about things to come. You might even take that little wrinkly, slippery body in your arms and begin to make plans.

2013-star-motorcycle-bolt-1_600x0w

But you really don’t have a clue what the next few days will bring, let alone the next several decades.

My daughter, Karlie, is coming home after living on the other side of the country for the last six years. No, she won’t be living in our home, but Richmond Hill is under 3 hours away, and not the 36 hours of straight driving distance that she’s living now.

She should arrive next week … that’s if she doesn’t do anything foolish. Ha, like that would happen! My daughter is responsible, sensible and very determined.

But … she’s also adventurous. So, when she goes for a motorcycle ride with a friend and after the ride the friend says, “Hey Karlie, you want to try riding this bike? She says . . .

The responsible and sensible Karlie says, “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”  But the adventurous and determined Karlie says, “Ya, sure I’ll try.”

Now if you were going to try to ride a motorcycle for the first time, you would probably pick some really open area with no obstacles around. When I taught Karlie and Mike to drive, we went to a big parking lot, and to streets that had no cars on them.

That’s the sensible thing to do. Karlie and her friend, well, they chose a parking garage. There weren’t many cars around, but there were cement posts in the vicinity. But with some careful instruction on what to do, Karlie got on the bike with no helmet.

Did I really say she didn’t have a helmet? That must have been a typo. After all, she’s sensible, and in a parking garage. It wasn’t a long ride; short, in fact. Her friend described it as “I’ve never been more scared in my life watching that.”

Somehow she found one of those cements posts in the parking garage. She ran right into it. She wrecked the bike, got a ride in an ambulance, and got a $300 fine. Not bad.

The amazing thing is she’s alive! … and received only a few stitches on her cheek, a black eye and swollen face. No broken bones, concussion or death. We’re praising the Lord right now for His protection.

I love this girl; she’s my daughter. I’ll take her adventurous side as well as her sensible, responsible side. But I wouldn’t have dreamed 24 years ago – on the day Calgary won the Stanley Cup – that my little squirmy, wrinkly baby (who looked very similar to the babies on either side of her in the nursery) would be sporting the same beat up face as one of the guys contending for the Cup!

Here’s the thing: It would be nice to be able to protect those around you, to keep them from harm, or at least weigh in on the decisions they make. That may be a reality when a child is small, but is impossible as they get older. We can become relegated to worry about them and for them. However, God can care for them better than we can, no matter how far away they are. Our job is not to worry, but to trust. Trust God with those you love. It’s really all you can do, and the best you can do.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s the scariest story your child or loved one has told you? Leave your comment below.