Getting Ready for the Deer

Thank goodness that I had a day off today. I have been in the Christian retail business for almost eight years now and it never gets easier. I started out on the lowest rung of the proverbial ladder and over the years have worked my way up to Assistant Store Manager. To say that I dislike working in Christian retail would be putting it lightly. It is always the same and it seems that you never make any progress. In fact it seems these days that our store has been moving backward not forward. Our area has been hit hard this year by the economy and road construction. We are on a main shopping street which sees thousands of cars each day. They have cut it down to one lane only going one way for the last 5 - 6 months. Many of the local business owners are not none to happy. So I say all this to say, it sure was nice to have a day off.
Shockingly this post is not about my job, but rather about preparing for the opening of firearm deer season here in Michigan. Earlier today I went out to set up my brand new tree stand ( I had to buy a new one because someone made off with my old one). I left my place around 1 pm and drove for 30 minutes or so to get to my hunting location. When I left the house the sky was overcast, but it wasn't raining it the weather has been like this for several days so I figured "oh, it isn't going to rain", but boy was I wrong. When I arrived at my desired destination I unloaded all the gear I would need to put up my new stand only I forgot one of the most important parts.
I lugged the ladder stand out to the woods and picked out a fairly nice tree to hook it to. The sky once again started to drip its sweet life giving water only this time it was dripping at more of a trickle. I thought "no big deal I can get this thing up in a few minutes". Two hours later and a return trip to the car later I realized I was not quite the skilled woodsman I thought myself to be. By this time the trickle had turned to a full on hose spray of life drowning water. I was soaked from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. I was cold and wishing I would have chosen a different day to put up my stand.
However, God has a way of making lemons out of lemonade. On my way out of the one acre wood I saw in the fare corner of the field a mighty four point buck. Now mind you it has been at least six years since I had seen a buck of any kind in this woods. God showed me that my work was not in vein and that something good would come from the soaking wet two hours I had just put into my deer season.

He also showed me that my eight years of hard work in Christian retail will not be in vein either.

My Final Goodbye to Facebook

Can't believe I found a youtube video that says everything I want to say.

So Long and Farewell

Over the past few days I have been pondering the reasons I have for removing myself from the very popular and addictive social network site known as “facebook”. There weren't many reasons why I joined the social network in the first place. I basically wanted to be apart of what everyone else was apart of, but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.


Growing up I was always living my life through others or even better not living it at all. In high school I always considered myself as having friends, but those friends were a few people who took five minutes to stop and talk to me. The truth is I was lonely. I remember times that I would sit at home and wish that I had somewhere to be or someone to hang out with, but the truth was, I knew I was alone. I was alone, depressed, and at one point suicidal. Life in my life was no life at all.

I came out of my depression and actually made some authentic and lasting relationships. Life in my life was actually starting to look like life. I was happy and fulfilled. Enter facebook. Slowly I became a recluse again. Walling myself into myself.

For me facebook creates a way for me to deceive myself into thinking that I was being relational when really I was pulling myself away from the real world. Sure I was looking at pictures of real people who would from time to time send me messages, but for the most part I was once again alone. Instead of forcing myself to get out and actually rub shoulders with others I tricked myself into thinking I was communicating with people. I have found myself sitting in front of my computer waiting for someone to talk to me. I was back in that place of thinking “why isn't anyone talking to me?” when the reality was that I wasn't talking to anyone else either. This thinking is the beginning of “social network depression.”

As I said in a recent post on facebook, “I can't stand all the changes” and its so true. I can't stand the changes that have occurred on facebook or in my personal life.

So these are the reasons I have chosen to unplug from the matrix. It is my prayer that if there is anyone else who is dealing with “social network depression” as I call it, that they would be encouraged to step out, choose the “blue pill,” unplug from the matrix, and communicate face to face with real human beings. Humans need actual human to human touch and face to face contact is the only way to do so.

Now is the time when I say... Play the video!!

Hunt Deer, Save the Planet

Just watched a t.v. episode on going green and the many things we can do to save the planet. They suggested that we purchase electric cars, unplug all appliances before leaving the house, turn off all your lights when not in use, and planet your own vegetables. I think some of the things are a little extreme such unplugging "all" the appliances in your house when not in use, but some of the things they said are just common sense. However, I think that hunting your own food can also save the planet. Think about it. If I drive to the store (in my non-electric car) and buy a pound of beef (which was packaged by a machine which is always plugged in and uses plastic which is NOT biodegradable), fry up the meat on my stove (which again is always plugged) and then freeze that meat (again, my freezer is always plugged in) for one year, I am pretty sure I will make the hole in the ozone a mile bigger.
However, if I were to go out and shoot a Deer with a shot gun using one bullet (which is reloadable) and clean the Deer myself using a knife and my muscles and chunk up the meat and use a hand grinder to make venison burger out of that meat and then wrap it in paper and freeze it, I think I just might save a whole lot of ozone. (Wow, that was one big run-on-sentence)
Hunting is not only helping us to save the planet it is also helping us to consume our lands natural resources so that we do not continue to destroy the environment, but rather help it thrive.
So the next time some talks your ear off about how hunting is wrong, just tell them the long run-on-sentence that I just told you. Even if they don't agree with you the sentence is so long that they will zone out and not even know what you just said.

Hunt Deer, Save the Planet!!

Wiggles vs. Mighty Machines

This morning our family sat down and watched the Wiggles for the first time. I barely survived. I don't know why four grown men would want to be so stupid. Marcus didn't even like it. So, we are now on to watching Mighty Machines. A much better show for a boy. He loves it. There aren't any songs being sung or idiots dancing around a stage. Just big steal machines doing mighty things. Now that is a show I want my boy to be watching.