912 Guam, Wake Village, Tx

On to house number two.

This house is located in a suburb of Texarkana, Texas. Wake Village is a small suburb that has all of the streets named for places, people, ships, airplanes, or battles from World War II. The street that I lived on was Guam Street. This was my parents first house to buy. I guess it was a good place to start.

It was a converted three bedroom one bath home. The third bedroom used to be the garage. I guess you would think that was cool if you don't mind the water heater being in the room that you sleep in. I don't know what my parents paid for that house. I do remember that the guy who sold us the house was someone that we went to church with. We used to play in the pews after services so that mom and dad could talk with the realtor.

I don't remember the move, but I remember getting the house ready.

My room (and Phillip's as we shared a room up until just before I left for the Navy) was decorated with antique cars. The walls had wall paper that came halfway up the wall, there was a wallpaper border, and then there were cut-outs from the wallpaper that were sporatically stuck to the upper half of the wall.

I don't remember what Bek's room was decorated in, but I remember her having a whole lot of stuffed animals and dolls that were put up in the corners of the rooms in corner hammacks.

We didn't have a dining room table for a while. I can remember having pizza on a large cardboard box in the dining room many times.

At this house we had our dog, Fortunatis McGruder (Nat) and aquired a few more dogs that came and went. We had Buckeye, who was my uncle Joe's dog. We had a black cocker spaniel. I don't remember her name. Lastly we had a small black dog, a pomeranian I think.

We lived at this house until I was in the sixth grade. I had been attending school in Texarkana because my mother decided to get her teaching degree and the school I attended in New Boston would not let her student teach there. The closest school that would allow it was Liberty Eyleau. This was ok as the schools that we attended we could walk to.

Back to the house. This house did not have any air conditioning. We had window units in every room and the heating came from a gas furnace that was in the floor. For years after we moved out of the house it was an inside joke that you got little boys Legos for Christmas so they could be fed to the furnace.

This furnace was in the middle of the floor in a small hallway that everyone had to walk over. You could not go from one room to the other without stepping on or jumping over the floor furnace. It had a cover that was probably three feet by four feet with a waffle like grid. I wonder if my cousin still has a waffle scar on the bottom of his foot. I remember one winter he came to visit and didn't know about it, or didn't listen, and walked across it, burning his foot pretty bad. Anyways, the furnace was in a pit that was about three feet deep. Anything smaller than about one inch by one half inch would find its way into the furnace. Pencils, pens, crayons, and legos were often found melting and/or burning in the funace. During the summer when we didn't need it, there was a rug that covered it up.

My siblings and I spent a lot of time alone in this house. No, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Mom and dad both worked multiple jobs and we tended to be a home alone while they were at work. I remember seeing mom a few minutes a day so that she could give us a check for pizza.

We got a VCR while living in that house. It was this huge silver thing. The special thing about the VCR was that it had remote capabilities. Unfortunately for us kids, the remote was corded and didn't reach the couch. One of us had to sit on the floor near the television so that we could fast forward the commercials when watching things we had recorded.

I remeber breaking our first window while living in Texarkana. My brother and I were out in the back yard playing catch when I missed the ball and it went right through the window.

I am sure if I sit here long enough, I can think of another three pages of stories to talk about when thinking of the house on Guam Street.

The next house we lived in was in Atlanta, Texas.

Memories

Last year my wife's grandfather Truett Worley passed away. I only got to visit with him a few times as we lived several states away. His wife Betty has been sending out these emails where she is going through old memories, sharing them with her family. She says she is doing this so that everyone can know the Truett that she knew. She shares pictures, stores, lists of things they owned or did, and sometimes she sends out quizzes to see what everyone knows.

I thought that just for fun, I would start writing down some of my memories and I wanted to start with houses.

I guess that it is kinda spawned by the thought that as of today, I could be the owner (well, with a mortgage) of a new home within three weeks.

Well, without further ado and maybe no one to read, I start talking about all of the houses that I have lived in that I remember living in.

The first house I lived in is affectionately called the grey house. It is located in New Boston, Texas on what is left of my great-grandfather's dairy farm.

This house is a small two bedroom one bath that my grandfather built. This house is still standing, although it is currently not located where it was when I lived in it. The name of this house comes from the color of the outside. My grandfather used what he had and what he had was ammunition crates. The interior of the home had pieces of these ammunition crates nailed up as walls. When I lived there, there was sheet rock nailed over the wood. I learned about the ammo crates many years later when the home was turned into a storage shed.

There was nothing fancy about this house. The floor was always cold as it was just one layer of tongue and groove wood with linoleum or carpet. The house is pier and beam set on cinder blocks. The exterior of the home had shingles covering as much as possible. If you can imagine a quaint little home in the woods with the wood shingle siding look, that was our home except it didn't look cool. Grey shingle sides, grey shingle roof and to try and stay a little warmer, there was clear plastic stapled to the windows.

I don't regret or resent living in this home. It is my beginning. As I look at the home that my parents purchased last year and the home I will be purchasing soon, I like the view of where I started.

My brother and I shared a room as most brothers do. The first bed I remember in that house was a single twin with my head on one end and Phillip's head on the other. Later, we upgraded to a set of bunk beds that I believe my parents still have stored somewhere. Our room had the bunk beds, one dresser, a long toy box called a "barnabus box" two old wooden school desks and scores of toys.

At this time my sister was not born, though she would be born and spend the first few years of her life in this house as well. I remember my parents telling me and my brother that we could talk to our little sister by talking into my mom's mouth. She used to sit on the couch and lean her head back and open her mouth and we would tell Bek (my sister) stories about what we had done that day.

We lived in that house until I was in the second or third grade. I remember being in the fourth grade and introducing myself to a new student as living in Texarkana which is where we moved next.

About 15 years ago, one of my aunts decided to build a home near where the grey house was located. I guess there was to much history in this house to just tear it down, so the decision was made to move it. This was actually quite a large task. Several telephone poles were brought out and laid underneath the home. This was possible as it was pier and beam so you could crawl underneath it completely. The house was lifted, blocks removed and lowered down onto the poles. The rest looked like a country version of what the Egyptians did to move heavy blocks. Chains were tied around it and a dozer and two tractors were hooked up to pull it. We quickly learned that the house was too heavy and the walls were not strong enough to take the stress of the pull. So, we set out to lighten the load. All of the sheet rock was pulled out. This exposed the walls containing the stencilled ammo crates. Some complete walls, all appliances, and all plumbing fixtures were removed in the hopes of creating a lighter load. Eventually we were able to get it done. As the house began to roll across the yard on the poles, we would take one pole from the back and take it to the front. It was crude but it eventually worked. The house used to be about a hundred yards from my grandparents home. It now sits just about directly behind and is used to store various items including old appliances, hand tools and attic style keepsakes.

I will have to take a picture of it the next time I am out there as well as see if mom has any pictures of the house the way it used to look when it was in its original location.

Death Scare

Yesterday, I go a little of a death scare. I found out that my Aunt Doreen, one of my mother's sisters, passed out while working at Wal-Mart.

Upon arrival at the hospital, they diagnosed her with a possible anurism, but said they could not confirm it because their facility was not capable of performing the test.

The hospital found blood pockets in her skull and a mild amount of swelling.

She was then airlifted to a larger hospital about two hours away. There the neurosurgeon said they hoped it was an anurism because they are easy to fix.

He performed a "dye" test, found the anurism, and put a "coil" in it. To insert the coil, they sent a line up her leg into her brain. She was in a drug induced paralitic state during the procedure.

The blood on her brain, the dr. thinks was due to another anurism bursting. He could not tell for sure. She is not in the clear yet. My aunt is looking better, however she is required to stay in the hospital for 14 days to be watched. The dr. said that brain injuries take the longest to heal and there is a two week critical window where more problems can occur.

I have not hear anything today, but I know that in a case like this, no news is good news.

Rule #1: God is in control.
Rule #2: Act like it.

Love-Hate-Love-Z

This thought is about my car.

I own a 1985 Nissan 300zx Turbo GLL. It is black over gold. Now I will go into all of the masculine details. It has a turbo charge V6, all leather, all digital/electronic. It has an upgraded stereo system that someone stole the faceplate off of and automatic climate control. It sports 4-wheel disc brakes and Kumo tires.

Now the not so fun stuff. This car which I have name The Scorpion was born and raised in New England. This means there is some rust. There are some scratches and dings on the body, but nothing major. The engine is currently suffering from a knocking noise that I believe creates a condition that prevents the engine from running sometimes. As just mentioned, there are times where the scorpion just decides to not run. This usually happens when I need to drive it. It came with a retractible antenna that doesn't raise due to the motor not working. No antenna, no radio. CD's only, oh, wait, no faceplate, no music, period. There is a vacuum leak that I haven't been able to chase down. I think the fuel sending unit is going bad. The turn signal doesn't reset after you turn, the windshield wipers don't do intermitten, the side mirrors (which are electric) don't operate from the switches. There is a leak in the power steering system that requires the system to be topped off every so often. There is a grounded wire somewhere that cause the battery to drain if the car is not driven at least every three to four days.

I love this car. I have had so much fun driving this car. I fell in love with this type of car when I was 15.

My family has always been interested in its history. My family is one of those families that has a family tree program so we know who all we are related to. I think that maybe some 10 or 15 generations back, my wife's family might meet up with mine. Anyways, during this research process, dad met this guy, Marcus Davis. We hung out with Marcus on a fairly regular basis, thinking that we might be related somehow. During that process, Marcus wanted to sell his jet black 1988 300zx. It sat in our yard and driveway for several months. I used to get in it and play with stuff and think of how cool it would be for me to drive this car. Dad didn't see it that way. Marcus ended up selling it to someone who one month later totalled the car and only paid him $100. Marcus told us he wished he had've sold it to us. I have wanted to drive one of those cars ever since then.

Fast forward many years. We moved to Connecticut with the navy with only one vehicle. The second having been sold to pay for the move. I went 10 months with only one vehicle when I finally go tired of being stranded at work or at home. I started searching and I came across my Z on an auto sales website. It was rekindled love at first sight. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten it, maybe I did the right thing by getting it. I guess only God will be able to tell me when we meet up in heaven. I have driven this car for just over two years now. I am hooked. I know that if I had've gotten that 1988 as my first car, I would still own it now and probably would own another.

Right now the Z is parked in front of the house because it decided that it didn't want to drive on a regular basis. I started taking the minivan to work and making a schedule with my wife so that we can share the same vehicle. I hate it. I wish that my Z would work. I did a little shopping for another vehicle as the wife periodically tries to convince me to sell off the car and get something else. We always seem to come back to the Z and just get it fixed. We have come around again and I am going to take it to get looked at so that I can know how much I have to save up to get it fixed. I don't ever want to sell the scorpion. I will be a very happy man if I am sixty years old and I can go out to the garage that is specifically built for one car and drive out the scorpion with the T-Tops off on that beautiful day.

Time will only tell how close to that I get. We currently live with my in-laws because we cannot afford any kind of rent/house payment. God will take care of us. He has so far and I know that he will continue in the future.

Thanks for reading.

The Closer

Last night was my first night to close at Papa John's. I have been working at Papa John's as a delivery driver for about a month now. Hours have been crappy and the tips don't make it any better, but its a job. I am still "the new guy" but as one co-worker put it, "You are a part of us now. No one called you 'the new guy' after the first week. We call you Tim. That should say a lot. Most new people we don't bother to learn their names until they have worked here a few month. People just don't last long."

So, first night to close. Got home after midnight. Wow, it has been a long time since I worked that late at any job. Papa John's is just my part-time job. I have a real job. Not that delivering is any less of a real job, but I also have a "day job."

It wasn't stressful. It wasn't really difficult. It was just long. I didn't think that closing the store would take that long. I did work at Wendy's when I was in high school. I guess that it does take a while to close down a place like that. There were only two of us. Me and the shift supervisor who is 8 years younger than me.

I guess I have to say I like working there. I am learning the neighborhood better, and I get to drive all night long. Well, that is I get to when it is my turn to make deliveries. I still haven't hit that jackpot night where I make over a hundred bucks in tips. They tell me that it will come. Right now I am hoping to move up in the food chain and get better hours. The better hours would be doing two or three nights as the closer vise five nights as the extra. More hours and more tips as the closer.

Well, I guess that is all for now. I am kinda tired from getting home that late, but I am sure I will be ok. The day job provides all of the coffee I can consume whether it is healthy to or not.

Our upcoming President

So, I like most of the Republicans in this country have been thinking about the election we just had. I feel like so much is going to change for the worst. I know that the new guy is going to have new ideas and should change things that are supposed to make our country better. I just don't feel comfortable about it.

Well, God hears us even when we don't talk to him and he knows what goes on inside of us. Keeping that in mind, God had a sermon prepared this past Sunday that I feel was written just for me.

I will start with Romans 13:1

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

Wow. Really. Even horrible one's?

We all know how liberal the new guy is and what he talks about doing. God tells me that I am supposed to submit myself to that authority anyways.

I will have to take this up and finish it later. I have more and I want to do more, but work just came by.

Test Drive

Ok, so my wife has been doing this blogging thing for a while and I thought that maybe I would take if for a test drive. I originally created a screen name so that I could go and view and comment on the blogs that she writes. This actually feels weird. I don't know who is going to be reading this. I don't really mind, but it is a wierd thought to think that an unknown number of people could take a look at what you have written. Maybe that is why we do this. I am sure that as I get in the groove, I will be able to write more.

Right now my oldest son is in my office working on his homework. Ahh the joys and pains of scripture memorization and simple addition.

His scripture is Romans 12: 1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I like that.