Good End

What a long day. That is pretty much all I have to say. Just kidding.

It was such a long day. I don't really know why. It would just not pass for anything.

I could not wait to get home to spend some time with Rebecca.

Later on tonight, Glen came over and we just sat outside and talked about stuff. We talked about his new girlfriend. We talked about buying a house. All kinds of things were brought up. I was just really reminded how much I enjoy talking to him. We always seem to bring out the best in each other. He was telling me about how he is really serving in so many areas at Pinelake, and how it has impacted his life. I was telling him about my own experience with trying to get plugged in.

Just last night, I attended a meeting to possible spawn some volunteer work in photography around the church. Pinelake is very top notch when it comes to graphic design and video work. I hope I am able to contribute something meaningful.

We shall see.

The Daily Grind

The title above is referring to the daily list of things to do around that house that seems to stack ever higher throughout the day, and as time progresses, the week. By the end of the week, you are just ready for a respite from the work you "must" do, just to remain sane in your home.

Some of the things to which I refer are as follows:

1. cook dinner
2. clean up dinner
3. sweep floors
4. check mail/throw away junk mail (This one can sneak up on you...before you realize it, you have a counter full of junk mail that could go in the trash recepticle about two steps over.)
5. charge your phone
6. take the garbage out
7. put away clothes
8. do laundry (obviously, not in this particular order)

Anyway, you get the gist of what I am trying to say. It is frustrating. You don't really get anything big done, but you piddle away all of your time trying to stay on top of all of these. In addition, if you are working on any projects around the house that don't pertain to those normal items, there goes your evening for sure.

I have been moonlighting with a paint brush for the better part of a month now. Pretty much every week, I am painting something, often into the wee hours of the morn. It is kind of relaxing for me, in a way. I can put on some music or a podcast (Rebecca can sleep through anything, if I don't want to use headphones), and just lose myself in it. Enough of even something that can help you just zone out grows old though. That is the point I hit last week. I don't think it was that bad until all of the contents of the kitchen had been in the floor of about 2 other rooms for over a week. That is when it hit me! I cannot stand this to be torn apart a minute longer than it must.

Tonight, for instance, we just did little stuff around here. Rebecca and I cooked some ginger chicken over rice. We ate it while watching some Heroes that I had downloaded last night. If you don't watch that show, I highly recommend you begin. Then, we just started doing some of those odd things around the house. Both of us seemed to be busy for the next hour and a half, but doing what exactly? One thing was putting the guest bedroom back together. I had done about 5 loads of laundry and had washed the guest sheets. We had just not put that bed back together yet. It was starting to get to me. There were also some photographs I had bought that needed to be put in frames. We got it all put back together, and almost killed each other in the process.

For some reason, a tension just developed. I know, I tend to have a way that I want things to go, and if they don't happen like that, I get frustrated. Nevermind the fact that I don't normally vocalize my thoughts about how said projects are supposed to go. Thus, that explains Rebecca's frustration. Poor girl. We ended up shouting at each other, and when it came right down to it...we cannot even remember why. We just had a tension in this house that built to an uncontrolable level. Anyway, we apologized to each other, and still love one another. ha ha

That is just a little peek into the Daily Grind around my house. What about yours?

Practice

I am awaiting the rapidly approaching weekend, although not rapidly enough. Why would I be doing that? Well, I will be headed, with my lovely wife, to Grenada for the weekend. This is not just a typical family visit, but we are going for a particular reason. Rebecca's grandparents, the Clarks, are celebrating 50 years together this upcoming weekend. That's right, 50 years!

That is just a long time, any way you look at it. I have barely been alive more than half of that time. They have shared every part of their lives with each other for 50 years now. I really cannot even comprehend that.

If you see them together, Fuzzy and Margaret, you see how they made it to the 50th year. They are wonderful together. They share in the responsibilities. They respect each other. The love each other, unconditionally. These are all things I strive for in my own marriage. I don't know that I am the best at them yet, but I am working toward something though.

Maybe one day, I will also celebrate a 50th anniversary with Rebecca. That would be a great day!

Misguided Jurisdiction

I was rushing to work the other morning, as is my wont, and I got pulled over. The intersection of the incident was at the 3-way stop at Henderson Rd. and Burnham Rd. I was almost all of the way to Luckney Rd. before the cop caught up with me. I was not going particularly fast; he was just going quite slow. It was like he was acting funny. Come to find out, I think he was acting funny.

One thing I cannot stand is when police use their "power" excessively or unnecessarily. This practice happens all of the time. One day, take notice on the way home from work. You might see a cop turning without a blinker. You might see them speeding, without their lights on, mind you. They are just heading home or to the restaurand, just like the rest of us. You might even see one of them use their lights on you, just because they can. They may have no reason to pull you over, but they are going to flash their lights at you, just because they "can."

A while back, this actually happened to me with a "City of Brandon" employee. This particular car was not police, but rather a black Crown Vic that had "City of Brandon" on the back and sides. I was passing by Brandon Middle School, and it was time for school to let out. There were cars trying to get out onto the road. This guy was one of them. He tried to pull out in front of me, edging his way out. I honked at him because I was already going 45 (the speed limit), and I would not have been able to slow down enough not to hit him. Well, he pulled out behind me quickly (which he should have done anyway, because that is where the open space was) and turned on some blue lights. What in the world? First of all, why does a "City of Brandon" employee even have a car that is equipped with blue lights in the grille and up by the top of the windshield? Also, why is he using these on me? Because I honked at him? I could see his little middle-school-aged daughter sitting in the passenger seat, so I knew he was not on his way to a "call." It was clearly an abuse of his power (this word is used here to mean that he had a blue-light-equipped car).

I got on the phone immediately. I called the Brandon police department. I asked to speak to the chief or whomever would be responsible for a person like this. Come to find out, it fell under the jurisdiction of the Fire Chief. Apparantly, this guy worked for the Fire Chief. I was not able to speak to the chief immediately, but they asked if I would like to leave a message. I did, even though I had little faith that anyone would call me back. When he called me back, I explained what had happened. The chief apologized and stated that the "City of Brandon" employees have already been warned about doing just such a thing. He agreed with me that it is a clear abuse of power, or of the blue lights.

Now, back to the more recent issue. As the cop was pulling up to me on Henderson Rd., I was able to finally read what his motorcycle read…Flowood Police. I have lived in the Greater Metro Jackson Area for over twenty years now, and am pretty familiar with all of the county and city lines, and this guy was out of his jurisdiction. He was in Pearl, mind you, when the "incident" supposedly occurred. (On a side note, I did stop at the sign….it was just a very abrupt stop. I drive a manual shift car, and I am able to stop and start very quickly. Plus, remember, I was hurrying to work that morning.) I know the place he was questioning was in Pearl, because Rebecca and I looked at a house just a block from there, and it had a Pearl address.

Anyway, he comes up to the car, asks me if I know what he pulled me over for. I hate this. Even if I did, am I just going to admit it. I mean, what logic is this? I think it is all part of their breaking down your psyche. I am sure they have a "Police School of Acting" and they practice this out on people. They must pass an evaluation, not on how to shoot and nab actual criminals, but how to harass innocent, law-abiding citizens…whom pay taxes, and the police's salaries. Ironic, isn't it? I mean, the very people that are paying to be "Served and Protected" are being "Harassed and Haranged." That should be the new motto, "To Harrass and Harrang."

After he calls in everything about my license and tag, it comes back that I am clean. He tells me, "I need to stop when I see a stop sign. Come to a complete stop…not just a rolling stop." I really don't think he could have done anything, even if I would have "broken the law." The incident happened in Pearl, and he was employed by Flowood Police. He was not even allowed to cite me for anything. It was out of his jurisdiction.

This type of abuse of power just really gets me. I cannot stand it. They are just flexing their law-enforcement muscles, when they should be finding people that are "actually" doing something dangerous.