My first relaxing summer might not happen. My A/C is done and all new furnace is needed, and with that large setback it seems the little things are kicking my butt also. Risk online is fun, but also an interesting study in human behavior. We had a good game going between 4 of us, when one person got angry and decided to wreck his game by destroying me. It did not work, I was set to finish 2nd because the other guy was way ahead with my many casualties, but I decided just to keep trying and soon I had pulled off a miracle win. I love playing Risk, I hope all of you have something you do that has no value, it just wastes time, but it brings you enjoyment.
I have known John Gilliam for 43 years with him being a good friend for a better part of those years, but it is a friendship that has had its ebbs and flows. We both showed up for breakfast this morning knowing many of each other's low points. John each year triumphs a little more and gets further away from the mistakes he made. He is a model of perseverance. We have been great friends, kind of friends, friends, and everything in between. Now we are older and our friendship goes stronger every year. When I was on the bottom, it was John and Ed Poth and Dave Difani who made sure they were looking for work for me as much as I was looking. I had some tough years, but I will always remember those 3 that helped and the Broun and the Hartenbachs also. I really did like the job had me do and may pursue that in several years if I ever make it to retirement.
John is a father, a husband, a grandfather and has talents and treasures in each of those. His long term friends all agree, he is just a great guy to hang around with to share a beer with, golf with, or watch a ball game with. He is a little like John Kuehner in that people just want to hang with him and go out on the town with him. And if it was not for John Gilliam, Terri and Tim Gaffney would not be in my life or the lives of all the students on the Biloxi student service trip.
Maybe it was grace, maybe it was coincidence that I had breakfast with John Gilliam this morning. Maybe God was trying to tell me--persevere. Live the next day with purpose, move forward, do the best you can do today. And like John has shown us their is an "ordinary resurrection" in many of our lives. You just have to do your best and not let the world and a few setbacks get in your way.
The Post Office still has no idea where my week's worth of mail is, my house is 88 degrees, I am at a lifetime high in weight and need exercise, and the Cardinals are the Cardinals. I should have left breakfast today and gone and done something positive, but I napped and played Risk. So tomorrow it is. I will follow the footprints of my friends.
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