"Brings out of the storehouse treasures old and new"

I stopped by a garage sale on the way home from work today. I don't usually stop, but I had a few dollars in my pocket and sometimes there are things that are just too good to pass up.

What I found was a great number of old books. Most were from the early teens, as in 1910-1919. There were many classics in a small sized series, although the set was incomplete: Homer, Ben Franklin, George Washington's Farewell Address, Edgar Allan Poe, several Shakespeares. There were many others as well, probably two or three dozen. I picked out Poe, Franklin, a book called "Before Adam" by Jack London, an anthology of writers from the South, and one more.

I took them to the lady, and she looked them over carefully. The books were "mistakenly" set out by her son, and she wanted to save some of them, as well as make sure that they weren't too valuable. They belonged to her mother's friend who had emigrated from England around 1900. Her mother would have been 102 this year. We talked a bit about Jack London and classics in general. Her son has two master's degrees as well. In the end, she kept the Poe, Franklin, and the one I forgot, and I took the London and the anthology for $1.25 apiece.

The London is a fourth printing, from August of 1912. The anthology contains works by Audubon, Albert Pike, O. Henry, and a whole bunch of other people I'd never heard of. It was compiled by Leonidas Payne, a professor of English at the University of Texas, published in 1913.

This week I also re-read Louis L'Amour's Last of the Breed for about the eighth time.

I've been working in the apparel department for two weeks with one week to go, then two weeks in footwear, and then the big interview. So far the "training" is going well.

And the boys are both well.
Jason

Jonathan's Trip to the Hospital

Some of you might have come here looking for an update on Jonathan, so I'll give one. Jonathan had been coughing and losing his voice for a few days. Sunday morning at 3ish he woke up and wasn't breathing well. We couldn't settle him down and his throat was hurting, so Shana took him to Hendrick ER. By 7 a.m. they had admitted him, and by 9 a.m. had told us that they wanted to keep him overnight on Sunday. He has croup, and it was causing him to have trouble breathing. We stayed at the hospital yesterday, enduring breathing treatments every three hours. This morning they were satisfied that his respiratory distress was OK, so he got to come home. He's still sick, but seems to be feeling a little better.

That's the story. I think it got around at Southern Hills that it was Jared, but it was Jonathan. Thanks for those who called or prayed for my little guys.
Jason

Un Pish Warr

The title is Jonathan for "I want to fish in the water." I've taken him out perch fishing a couple of times lately. His Tigger pole wasn't working very well, so we upgraded to Scooby Doo, which works much better. So far he can't really cast, but he can reel them in very well. Every one is a big one, just ask him and he'll tell you.

In big people fishing news, I went last Saturday and also this morning. Saturday we went to Lake Coleman with some friends. The fishing stank (4 fish in 4 hours), but the company and the water skiing were nice. One of the fish was a 3 pound yellow cat that I caught on a red brush hog. Here's a picture of the fish and Jonathan. That's Luke in the background, and he caught his two fish on the pink pole in the bottom left corner.

I also went to Phantom this morning. I had heard about the whites and hybrids schooling early in the mornings from several customers at Academy. Today it was windy, somewhere between crazy waves and pure insanity, far too rough to fish in open water or see fish schooling if they were there. I found a bank where the waves weren't bad and the wind blew parallel, and I fished down it about four times. I caught probably 10 bass, one for sure keeper and two that were pretty close, and also three white bass. Most of them were on a buzzbait, which is always fun. I was at the lake by 6:05, and left about 8:45 because the wind was so bad.

In Academy news, I'm in apparel for the next three weeks, then footwear after that for two weeks, then I go to the round robin interview on the 26th (not 24th as previously reported) of July.

And in fantasy land, I'm currently in the 98.2 percentile at 314 out of about 20,000 contestants. Too bad no one I know is into both bass fishing and fantasy sports.

Chill Out, Whatcha Yellin For?

Slow down. Sit a spell. Rest. Veg. Chill.

Done any of that lately?

Last night we focused on intentionally relaxing, resting, and listening at Jesus’ feet, following Luke 10 and the story of Mary and Martha.

It was nice to come to church and settle down, not get wound up or get to work.

Good job, Dave, Dave, Collin, and Nick.

Finally a date

I finally got my manager to commit. Next week I start my rotation through footwear and apparel, and I go to the MIT interview on July 24th. I wish it were sooner, as I can't be on salary until after that, but at least I have a date.

Believe it or not, I'm not that used to self promoting. I was raised to do good work and let your work speak for itself. I'm finding that good work doesn't always speak loud enough. Sometimes you just have to bug people to do right by you, instead of expecting them to do so because you do good work. Maybe self promotion is a good skill, or maybe it's a dangerous enterprise. What do you think? Should a person have to promote their own skills and abilities to keep a job or get a promotion, or should one's work speak for itself?

I put another post on my religious blog as well, so email me if you want the link.
Jason