December 4, 2013

Too Tired to Type

December 4, 2013

This is actually being typed Dec. 5, but it is yesterday's posting, so it carries yesterday's date.  Last night I was just too tired to type.  I am not sure why I was so tired, but I fell asleep in my recliner before 9:00 and woke up about 10:30 and moved to the bed.  Of course, then I was awake a little after 5:00 this morning.

Yesterday started with some sewing.  I worked on the binding for a quilt in progress.  I was clipping threads on the quilt last night when I fell asleep.  Ron had a job promised yesterday morning so I got to the office in time for him to keep his appointment. 

Most of our friends are delighted that I can hear better now than I could even before the Sudden Hearing Loss last January.  Our yardman came in to collect yesterday for the previous month and stayed to visit with me for a while.  He had a lot of questions about my Cochlear Implant.  He is deaf in one ear and felt that some day he might need to have the surgery some day.  He asked about the cost and things like that.  I did have to explain to him that at this time, he probably would not qualify for one because he can hear out of one ear.  To qualify for an implant, (at least under Medicare), your hearing in your "good" ear must be under 40% with a strong hearing aid.  I think his in his good ear is fairly good.  He is a very nice, Christian man, and we had a wonderful visit talking about God's timing and God's provision in my situation.  He is a blessing to us in his regular care of our front yard, but also a blessing when he comes in to collect.  Normally he has a long visit with Ron when he comes.

Sometimes, people wish you had not heard what they said.  Many of us have had the experience of having someone overhear something we said and we wish we hadn't said it or at least that they hadn't heard it.  I had a customer yesterday who probably wishes I had not heard what he said.  Normally when a customer leaves an item to be worked on, he is given a bright orange receipt to bring when he comes to get the item.  The number on his receipt matches the number on the tag we put on his item.  This particular customer arrived without his receipt yesterday.  I did have his name on the tag so I asked for his driver's license ID so I could match it up with the name on the tag.

The customer said he didn't have his license.  I took a guess and asked, "So you drove here, but you don't have your license?"  He said that was correct.  I took the item and put it back on the pickup counter and suggested he find some ID.  He said, "Well, I don't have a license."  This was different than what I had assumed - that he just forgot it.  So I asked, "You are driving without a license?"  He said, "Yes, for 8 years."  He said this softly, and in the past I would either not have heard it at all or thought I didn't hear correctly.  Now he had my full attention.  I said, "That is against the law.  Doesn't it bother you that you are breaking the law?"  He explained that they took his license away for DUI.   

At this point my blood pressure was rising.  And I again questioned him on the situation, asking why he has not gotten it back in 8 years and if I understood (at this point I didn't hear a couple of things), he had been stopped again by DPS and so he couldn't get it back.  He asked me to wait a minute and he went outside.  While he was gone, I asked God to help me.  I was so irritated, but I found it interesting he was telling me all of this - he could have lied in the first place and said he lost it.  He came back in with his father's wallet and license (his father was waiting in the car).  At his point, I smelled beer.  I started my lecture.  I told him that it was time to get legal.  I told him I suspected that he had not stopped drinking, (and he did not deny it).  In fact the whole time he never seemed upset at the things I was saying or defensive about his actions, only a little ashamed. 

For the next few minutes I told him that it was time to get right with the law and to get right with God.  I told him in this Christmas season every church was having special services where he could hear about God's plan for his life and could figure out how to change.  I said, "You and God need to get together and have a long talk.  He can help you."  He  told me he sometimes goes to "that church in San Juan" (a large Catholic church).  I told him he needed to do more than that, he needed to talk to someone and let God help him turn his life around.  My guess is this man was between 45 and 50 years of age.  As he edged toward the door, I called him back and gave him a calendar (our Christmas give away) and told him Merry Christmas and that I hoped in this Christmas time he would look for God to help him change.

I know all the things I should have said - a gospel presentation, etc.  I had felt time was very limited since his Dad was waiting in the car,  but he stayed far longer than I expected (3 - 5 minutes).  There are so many things I could have said or should have said.  We all have perfect "rear vision".  My prayer is that something I said, will wake him up and that God will send someone into his life to show him how to receive Christ as his personal Savior and that with God's help, he will be able to turn his life around.  He seemed amazingly responsive to what I said in that he didn't cuss me out and run out the door.  He seemed ashamed of his actions, but powerless to change.  May God use it as his wake up call, before he kills himself or others as he continues on the road he has been on - literally and figuratively.

The whole experience left me drained.  Mainly I kept thinking, what more could I and should I have said?  How could I have helped him more and condemned him less?  It is easier to condemn than to help.  I can only pray that he will search; that God will bring to his mind every time he passes a church, that he should go inside and seek help.  I also thought of all of us who drive every day, sharing the road with those who have been drinking and are not alert enough to be behind the wheel of a car.  I pray for revival to sweep our nation.  Only God can bring the major changes in the lives of individuals that must be brought in order to change destructive habits.  Maybe all that was a part of why I was so tired last night.  I was just completely drained. 

Ron had a young man who came in yesterday for some lock help and stayed for a long time to talk.  The young man said he had been in four years ago and that he had never forgotten the conversation he had with Ron at that time.  Ron has no recollection of him or the conversation.  We know that God has brought people in who need to talk and I just pray that the man I talked to, listened as well as this young man did. 

I got a few things done at the office, but nothing spectacular.  Oh, I guess I did.  I designed our Christmas card, so I think today I am ready to start running them off and I need to address envelopes.  Designing the card always takes a lot of time as I include family photos from throughout the year.  So much of my year has been focused on me and my medical needs, that it was good for me to go through the photos and see my grandchildren growing rapidly.  Last night Jeff sent me a photo of our youngest grand daughter standing in front of her second oldest brother.  He is going to be the tallest of the bunch.  In the photo, she is looking up at him from knee height and the contrast is breath taking.  What a treasure that family is not only to us, but also to others.  That sweet little grand daughter will spend her life looking up to her big brothers (all four of them) both literally and figuratively!  May God protect them all!

I did accomplish something else yesterday.  I placed a phone call.  Normally I have Ron make all my phone calls, but I decided to try.  I struggled and misunderstood a couple of things that were said, but I got it done.  I needed to call the doctor's office where I have an appointment today to see if they had received the blood work results and the sonogram (thyroid).  They had called a day or two ago to say they didn't have them.  Now they have them, so I will do that this afternoon.

After work I fixed supper and Ron and I sat down together and ate and talked.  We don't often sit down together, just the two of us.  I know that seems strange when it is just the two of us at home, but various activities keep it from happening often enough.  I spent a long time cleaning the kitchen after that and then as I said, I fell asleep in the recliner.