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This past week was a bit of a rollercoaster ride for me. Happy, sad, feeling discouraged, feeling content and taken care of, discouraged again, and then rich and feeling super excited about life, all in a matter of days. 

The week started out great! I had a list of things that I wanted to accomplish. I was finished painting the basement walls, which the week before looked like a dismal task.  The next project was a little roof thing over the area outside of the glass shop where I do a lot of my work. That would be a fun project because it's an outdoorsy type of construction that mostly consists of framing. My skills tend to lean more towards the rustic side of things rather than perfection, and so this was my kind of carpentry. I also wanted to work on a bear mount that I am doing for my brother-in-law, along with working on Blake's canoe when he was available to help. With all of those fun things that needed done, I put glassmaking on hold for two weeks, getting some things done with the hope that I would still be able to find a little bit of time to go shed hunting. 

To top it all off, I  was getting a new bow on Monday. I had been offered the trade of doing a deer mounted on a pack frame in exchange for a handcrafted bow from Chuck Harvey.

Monday morning Chuck stopped by and we made the trade. The bow looks awesome and shoots awesome and greenish laminated wood just screams out, “take me turkey hunting”! My goal this spring is to get a gobbler with my flintlock, and if that happens then I will chase after them with this bow.

After Chuck and Becky left, we had a viewing to go to and so we hopped into Jenelle’s Toyota Highlander and headed up the road, down Blackhawk School road and up the other side of the hollow. When we hit the steep part of the hill, the car lost power and so at the top I turned around to take it back to the house. The car shut off and as we drifted back down the road it made a rattling noise which bothered me a lot, just to say it mildly.

Now I'm a Toyota lover, but this car has given us grief ever since we got it. It was used when we got it, and possibly abused, because shortly after getting it the engine blew. It was under warranty, but only to replace the motor with similar mileage to what was in there originally, and so we took it to the shop for an engine swap. That was a couple of years back. This time there is no warranty.

I do most of the routine mechanical stuff like brakes and oil and such, but on these newer cars, I let someone else play with the motors. And this sounded like another motor issue, and so we had it towed to a repair shop.

One of the things that I like about Toyota is that most of them have timing chains instead of belts, which is a really good thing if you are hoping to get lots of mileage on a vehicle, because timing chains don't usually break and they should outlast the vehicle. Well, when I heard the rattling noise, I assumed it was a timing chain issue, even though I just finished telling you that they don't normally break. 

Anyways, we hiked back to the house to get the truck and headed to the viewing. It was one of those happy/sad things. A memorial to the end of a life of someone who put their complete trust in Jesus and lived it better than most, yet so sad for the friends and family that will miss him until their allotted time brings them back together in eternity.

The next day went well other than having the overshadowing worry that we would probably be paying for a new engine for a car that I was really starting to not like. The shop was swamped and they wouldn't be able to look at it for a few days. In the evening I went to Mom's and had supper with her and we hung out, so that was good.

On Wednesday, Jenelle took my truck to her part-time job and I stayed home and did some work. About 10:00 I loaded up my pack and went for a 5 mile hike. It's something that's really nice to be able to do to just walk out of your door and go. We are so blessed with where we live and I often take it for granted, but today I was feeling the need to get outside and let my worries go. I looked for some sheds with no luck and at lunch time I stopped by a patch of ramps and got out a can of sardines and some crackers and I had a meal fit for a king. If you've never tried it you should, unless you have friends that you like to be really close to, well then maybe not. I'm not sure which smells worse, the sardines or the ramps. Jenelle thinks it's the sardines. 

As I sat there and munched on my ramp, sardine, and cracker sandwich and collected my thoughts, I started wondering if we would be better off if I worked a regular full-time job and made a good steady income so that we could be making payments on a brand new car instead of always running older vehicles. Sometimes it looks really appealing. But we really like what we're doing with our business and what I'm doing with my writings and feel like that's where God wants us. And we're doing ok financially. Jenelle and I are spending more time together than ever before, which is great! Sometimes I bounce those thoughts around and then it's a no-brainer. “God's taking care of you. Keep at it!” Then the next moment I see another bill or something else headed our way and start freaking out.

Back to my story. Thursday I took the truck to my part-time job, and since Aiyana wasn't working, Jenelle took her car to Cumberland for an appointment. Aiyana has a Subaru, but oh well. It looks great and runs great, which is more than I can say about Jenelle's car. It's her second one. Her first one was a rough and tough beater car, the type that every kid should start out with. One where dents and dings don't matter and they learn how to check air pressure and oil.

The car she has now is a really nice little Subaru Forester. It was a refurbished wrecked car but you would never know it. We did have to have the front oil seal replaced several weeks ago because it was leaking. Anyways, when Jenelle came back from Cumberland, she said that the car was smoking. I couldn't believe our bad luck! Sure enough, it was leaking oil badly from the seal and dripping on the exhaust. Again I started to wish that I had enough money for everyone in the house to have a new car. Maybe even feeling a little guilty for not being a better provider.

I called Martins Auto where Aiyana had gotten the car from. We took it up there right away. They were stumped about the leak but said they would look at it as soon as they could. They actually got it in the very next day. It was the same seal they had just put in earlier and since they thought that they did everything right they wanted to look deeper to see what was happening. What they found was a loose bolt in the oil pump which sits up against the seal. I'm sure this doesn't make sense to most of you all, but to make a long story short they didn't charge us a penny for it and they treated us so great! I really can't say enough about how well they treated us!

I was so thankful for that and again was reminded that I shouldn't worry so much about everything.

The rest of the week was busy but pretty normal. 

And then Sunday came. We went to church Sunday morning and Sunday evening there was to be a concert by Jason David geared more for the youth. I told Jenelle I probably wouldn't go since I'm really not into the hip-hop type music of the day or confetti and sparks and all that. Jason and his wife came to church Sunday morning and I got to talk with them for a bit. They were a really neat couple and while we were talking one of the kids from our junior youth came by and asked me if I was coming to the concert. Of course I said something like “well sure”. And since I said something like “well sure”, I went. And I was so glad that I did. Jason and his wife have this incredible story! He is a cancer survivor who had 80% of his tongue removed and was told he would never talk or sing again. But with the grace of God he is singing and talking and encouraging everyone. 

He was so close to death, in so much pain, that he gave up and wanted to die. But his wife sang to him for hours and through that he changed his mind and wanted to live with her and for her and for God. He just needed to get through one more day, one more treatment, and that would be enough until the next one. He was determined to not let cancer win and he would let God write the rest of his story. He talked about my favorite verse in the Bible which is “we are God's workmanship, created in Christ to do the good works that he has prepared in advance for us to do”. 

He explained that the original word for workmanship is poema, which, you guessed it, it’s where the word poem comes from.

As a songwriter that meant so much to him, because he doesn't title his song until after it's finished being written.  

He explained that God is like an author and when he writes our story he doesn't title it until the end. And that is what we are. A story in the writing.

He talked about labels and how we can tear each other down with labels. He's been labeled the “cancer guy” or the “guy without a tongue”, and he doesn't like it. He hates cancer. He knows that those aren't the labels that God gave him because God's not finished with him yet. They are titles to make him want to quit. But he is keeping on and he knows that his best days are in front of him. The poem is still being written. And when it's finished, then God will give him a title.

And that's how my week ended. Who knows how this next one will go.

I do most of my writing on Google docs. At the top of the document, at least until you change it, it says in bold black letters, UNTITLED. 

Originally I thought that this blog would be about cars or rebuilding motors, or my first Ram truck. Maybe call it Mopar or No-Pow’r or something fun like that. But I think I'll leave it Untitled.

I think it fits. Cause my poem isn't finished yet!

As you think about your poema, here's the recipe for a great sandwich to go along with your thinking time:

2 Town House crackers 

1 wild ramp 

1 sardine (or smoked oysters)

Put it all together and enjoy!