Lighting Up My Life - At Least My Kitchen

What you see to the right is called a ballast.  Not to be confused with the steadying weights found in a boat, this ballast is a power conditioner for fluorescent lighting.  We have a 4 tube fixture in the kitchen that wouldn't come on the other day.  I checked the bulbs in another fixture we had and they were fine so it had to be the ballast.  Ashleigh and I made a quick run to Home Depot to get a replacement and came away with much more - a new ballast, 4 new bulbs, and an education in "new" lighting.  It turns out that the old style of fluorescent lighting - called T-12 - has become obsolete.  So it is very hard to find a T-12 ballast.  Plenty of bulbs though.  So I had to switch the T-12 ballast with a T-8 ballast but for once, someone did an upgrade with some thought - the T-8 tube bulbs fit in the same fixtures as the T-12.  The tubes are thinner but the end connectors are the same.  So I went home and clipped the old T-12 wires like I was defusing a bomb.  Wired in the new ballast, put in the new T-8 bulbs (a T-8 ballast won't fire up T-12 bulbs) and we were back in business.  Brighter actually.  More natural lighting.  And I guess within a year we will save enough money from the more efficient ballast and bulbs to pay for them.

He's In!

As if that part above wasn't good enough, this next paragraph is like icing on the cake:

Elliott had completed the early admissions packages for a few colleges but Northeastern was the one he wanted to get into the most.  Lucie and I got our Master's degrees from there but we really didn't influence his decision.  He pretty much holed himself up in his room, researched colleges offering him what he wanted (accounting and marketing), and emerged with a Top Three list.  Over the summer he and Lucie and Ashleigh took a whirlwind trip to Boston to visit the schools and made a pit stop at the Patriots training camp on the way home.  That sealed the deal in his mind - Northeastern was the place for him!  And now he is in with some grants too!  We still have a few bucks to come up with but if that is where God wants him to be, the money will come.

He is ranked in the top 10 of his class of 350 at the high school with a 4.3 GPA so he can coast a bit.  Lacrosse is coming up soon and he will be traveling to Anaheim, CA this spring for another DECA competition (national business and marketing organization).  The other day, he scored the highest IN THE STATE on a practice test.

If things keep going as planned, Lucie and I will be able to enjoy our retirement with a son handling our finances and a daughter managing our health!

Stink Bug -> Bed Bug

Let me set the scene:  I like to read when I go to bed at night.  Our headboard has individual reading lights so when Lucie goes to sleep, she leaves my side on and turns hers off.  My bookmark is a solid, thin metal bar with an anchor at the top that slides over the spine of the book with the thin metal part in page crease.  So there I am, reading in the mostly-darkness, and out of nowhere something comes flying across the room and hits me smack in the middle of the chest.  That made me jump.  Now I have to find out not only what it was, but where it went!  In true Christmas spirit, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter...  Then my nose identified what it was - STINK BUG!  Whooey!  And it was on my arm.  They don't bother me much, but I don't like them crawling on me in the middle of the night.  I walked gingerly to the bathroom to flick it into the toilet but it took off and headed into my closet.  Which means in a few days I will pull a shirt out and it's dusty carcass will come tumbling out.  I went back to bed and flopped down - right on top of my anchor bookmark!  My spring sprang again!

Lucie's 50th

Well that picture just about sums it up - Lucie's surprise 50th birthday party was a success!  It all started when we were at our former Pastor's 80th birthday party and someone asked if Lucie would like a big party when she turned 80.  She said she would so I figured if she was OK with one at 80, she would probably be OK with one at 50.  I had two weeks to pull it together so I enlisted the BIG help of a friend and got the wheels in motion.  And it was quite an undertaking - we invited the whole church (400+ people) via Facebook, emails, hand-outs, and an announcement from the pulpit.  All secret of course!  Then we had to order food, arrange for cakes, set up, hang decorations, etc.  Our church was very generous and assisted with letting us use their Cafe, fountain soda machines, paper goods, etc.  I could only do so much without raising suspicion so our friend and her family jumped in and really did the bulk of the work.  One of the hardest parts was getting people to understand what the "R" in RSVP meant!  How do we plan for as many as 400+ people?  About 100 did reply that they were coming so we planned for a little more.  75 or so actually came.  And the secret stayed a secret!  Ashleigh told Lucie she was going to take her shopping but wanted to stop by the church to see Elliott play football and show her friend the chapel where Lucie works.  I had left the house earlier saying I too wanted to see Elliott play (it was the annual Turkey Bowl flag football game at church).  When Ashleigh got Lucie to the Cafe door, Lucie could see the decorations but wouldn't go in thinking that they were crashing someone else's party!  But she came in and she was overwhelmed.  Great time.  Lots of love from her friends.  Now to start planning for the second 50th...

Been a little slow here on the blog but I will try and pick it up.  The good news is that I have been busy with work and I don't want to post work related stuff here.  But I will try and add some other activity on here.

Couldn't Just Let Them Bee

About a month or two ago I was mowing the yard and a yellow jacket flew up my shorts and stung me on the back of my thigh.  I didn't need to do any research to confirm this but I did and found their sting ranks among the top 10 most painful insect stings.  And unlike a honey bee, they don't have a barb on their stinger so they can jab you over and over and over...  And believe me, it did.  About a week after the swelling went down (and man did it itch!), I counted about a dozen spots where it got me.  After looking around outside, I found yellow jackets were flying in and out under the shed.  So of course I did the smart thing and got out the gasoline and sparklers...  That didn't even touch them (I was being careful not to burn down the shed).  Then I tried various sprays and had a hard time finding anything that would bring them down.  Even after coating them.  Finally I found a red can of Spectracide that was designed just for yellow jackets and that did the trick.  I wiped out a bunch of them from 25 feet away but those cans are mostly propellant with very little juice.  Then WalMart brought out their Christmas stuff and the sprays all went away.  Fast forward to today and  I was mowing and hadn't seen any bees in a while so I grabbed a shovel and decided to turn over the ground where I had last seen them flying in and out.  Of course I am wearing shorts...  Well there were more bees than I could have imagined under the shed.  One of them found his way onto my left calf and started going to work.  Fortunately he only got one jab in me before I smacked him.  Ran in the house and pulled out the gallon jug of vinegar we had bought since my last encounter and swabbed down my leg.  Gave it a smear of Benedryl and I was good to go.  Hurts a little but only a fraction of the last time.  After the swarm settled down, I tossed a Gopher Gasser in their hole.  Not sure what effect that had but it couldn't hurt.  I read the best thing to do is to flood them out with water so I may take the garden hose and let it run down the hole for a while.  Another day...

It has been a while since I have posted because I have been busy!  Thank God!  Work is going great.  I got in with this company at the perfect time - they are expanding from a regional company  into a national, full service security company.  They hired on some FBI and Secret Service executives and are plugging me into a lot of the operations and financial meetings.  Hard to believe I have over 25 years experience but it is about to start paying off.  I have been doing a lot of traveling to Chicago and NYC but I don't mind.

Speaking of 25 years of experience, a couple of weeks ago, Lucie and I went back to Maine for my 30 year high school reunion.  I am happy to report that I was not the fattest, baldest, or oldest looking so I may push my luck and go back again next year.  We had a great time seeing some "old" friends and faces.  Someone brought a yearbook so I was able to show Lucie some before and afters of the people.  Only about 25% of the class showed up but hopefully word will spread and more will come next time.  My junior prom date was there and she gave me a big hug so either that night wasn't as bad as I remembered it for her or she suppressed the memory...  Although we were only up and back the same weekend, we had a good time visiting those friends, my younger brother and my mother.  (Took the Acura up and we made near record time!)

One more quick story - my mother came down to Amish country near us about a week or two ago with a church bus tour group.  So Lucie, Elliott and I drove over to see her and have dinner at the Amish restaurant they were eating at.  We had a nice visit and ran into my old youth pastor and his wife.  They hadn't changed all that much but I bet they felt ancient after seeing me.  The group only had time to eat for about an hour before they were off to the huge Sight and Sound show.  We had an issue with the restaurant - they charged us the group rate (because we ate with the group) which, oddly enough, is more than the regular rate! - but overall it was a good time.

Promises, Promises

In my March 28, 2012 blog, I put a picture of a car at the bottom of the blog with a line about it being a personal rainbow with more info to come.  Well, here we are 6 months to the day later and here is the update.

During the time I was unemployed, I would frequently get discouraged or down a little.  Never did I doubt God but many times I just did not see an answer to our problems.  So I would ask God for just a simple sign of encouragement.  The Bible says he cares about the birds in the field and He provided signs for the Israelites so I didn’t think I was out of line asking for a sign.  One day at the Costco parking lot, I saw a car that really caught my eye.  Sharp, high tech, sedan-like yet fast and different.  So I did some research and it was a 2010 Acura TL SH AWD (Super Handling All Wheel Drive).  Loved it.  That night Elliott came home raving about a car he had seen that day – same exact type!  From that day forward, it seemed that car would roll by right when I was feeling down or discouraged - and I took it to be a word from God that not only would He meet my needs, but He would grant me my wants.  Now that is getting on some theological thin ice but there are plenty of stories in the Bible where God granted in excess to His people.  I kept my prayers simple and said, “God, if it is Your will…”  Lucie and I went and test drove a couple and we enjoyed the dream.  Regardless of whether I ever actually got one or not was sort of irrelevant – God would send one by me right when I needed a lift and I would be encouraged.  Sometimes I would laugh right out loud and thank God for sending me a little rainbow to brighten my day.

Fast forward to present time and now I am working (thank you Jesus!) and I get a car allowance plus gas and toll reimbursement.  So I looked up local Acura’s for sale and found one in Philly.  It seemed the perfect car – color, options, etc.  But it was just out of reach financially.  I told God I didn’t know whether I should put the car allowance towards savings or “claim” His promise to me.  So I said I was going to go for it and God could easily close the door on me if I was not to have it.  I was fine either way and kept my prayers ending with, “…if it is Your will.”  After running numbers every which way, the dealer could not get a monthly rate to what I could afford and the whole experience with them didn't feel right.  I set a limit and refused to budge from it.  So we shook hands and I walked away (though they put a lot of pressure on me).  A little disappointed to be honest but I had to be true to my word – if the door was closed, I was not going to barge through it.  The very next day after not bowing to the sales pressure and sticking to my guns, a 2010 Acura TL SH AWD showed up online at the Delaware dealer where Lucie and I first test drove one – same color, options, everything.  It was a little cheaper than the Philly one (higher mileage) but I thought it just might get the price down to my range.  So again I laughed at God’s work and said, “If it is Your will….”  I contacted the Delaware dealer and it turns out, it was THE exact same car Lucie and I test drove months ago!  It had been sold but the new owner traded it back in within a month to buy a 2012 model.  How crazy is that?  So Lucie and I went in, signed some papers, and came out feeling good.  No - feeling great!  And so blessed.  It was actually cheaper than my budget so we extended the warranty.  And to “top” it all off, they gave me a Patriots hat!  So it was quite a day and quite a confirmation of God’s blessing.

Oh, and it was our 25th wedding anniversary too…

EMPLOYED!

On August 14, I officially became the Project Manager for Harvard Protect.  They are a security services company based in NYC with operations in many states.  They are a division of Harvard Maintenance which has about 6,000 employees.  The security side is growing rapidly and I was brought in to manage operations and projects outside of NYC.  I will be focuses on compliance issues, policies and procedures, etc.  I was originally scheduled to start at the end of the month but I met with some great and enthusiastic people and they moved my start date up.  I am really excited as I will be working with some former colleagues including the retired Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, Philadelphia.  The new Senior VP is the retired Deputy Director of the Secret Service - he has a great vision for development and growth.  I am getting in on something that will get really big.  Right now I will be based from home but going to the Philadelphia and Wilmington and NYC offices as needed - as well as traveling to wherever I am needed.

It's been a long 10 months or so of unemployment.  I have a letter going out to my State Representative next week with some thoughts and recommendations on how the state can improve that system.  The whole family was able to recognize how blessed we were and how God never forgot us.  SO many times He provided in a way we never saw coming.  Our church family was so great to us with financial support, prayers, words of encouragement, food and on and on.  Pretty humbling and we pray they are rewarded for their thoughtfulness.  I kept a personal log of events that I hope I never have to look at again...

Meanwhile, life goes on at the Hale Homestead.  Elliott is working at Walgreens and managing his money.  He saved and bought a beautiful acoustic guitar that he plays on stage at church services.  He is so good with his money we may turn over the household finances to him to manage!  Ashleigh is finishing her last week of work for the hospital system and returns to school next Sunday.  Her summer has been a whirlwind of activity, concerts, games, running, etc.  She needs to get back to school to relax!  We will miss her energy (and drama!) around here but she is only an hour away.