Saturday, June 20, 2009

Humbly Recycling and this week's doings

The office where I work put out bins to collect plastic bottles, and a dumpster in the parking lot. It's shocking how quickly they fill up! And to think, before that this stuff was going to the landfill.

So, I started bringing my bottles from home, putting them in the dumpster outside... any plastic container with the "1" or "2" inside the triangle of arrows. I get a kitchen trash bag full in a couple of weeks!

Our office also has a bin for recycling cans, but I don't use many of those.

I drove to Tupelo yesterday to pick up our daughter from a mission trip. She and a group of teens helped repair a mobile home for an elderly lady. A budding young servant!

Round-trip, that was a 10 hour drive. I picked her up from the trip a little early because we wanted to go as a family to visit some relatives. Our nephew (9 yrs old) has just been cleared of cancer, they're having a party for him. Bad timing on the party for us, but NO WAY were we going to turn down the invitation. The party location is 2 hours from here... plenty of windshield time for H.S. this weekend.

I added a little gadget to dress up this site a bit. More to come as I get time and see other sites with cool stuff on it.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Air Evac bill of another Humble Servant

A fellow I know had a serious accident. They air-lifted him to the hospital. The bill was quite large-- $12,000. The health insurance doesn't cover such things.

So, a bunch of folks got together to all chip in to help out. This particular guy had really given his time and effort during a recent weather disaster-- helping coordinate the relief effort and doing a lot of work himself even though he's not in the best of health...

Then while working in his own yard, major injuries. He's going to be OK... I gave what I could... I hope to find out if he got all the $ needed of if he's still short.

To be on the safe side I bought a family membership to the Air Evac (I frequently find myself in accidents, and my wife thinks the AWD on her truck means any-where drive).

Meanwhile I'm saying Yes a lot. We were invited to the lake on some friend's boat (said YES of course). Lots of fun, they asked me to steer and I did (no crashes!).

Monday, June 8, 2009

A Calling Card?

I'm out and about Saturday morning... as I am heading into the market a girl asks, "Would you like to buy some baked items to help send me to summer camp?" and directs me toward a table with a variety of cakes, cookies, etc. Matronly ladies sit behind the table smiling, seeing that their fundraising is going to be successful.

Of course I am the Ozark Yes Man so I buy about $10 worth...

What to do with it? I can't (well I mean I shouldn't) eat all of this. So, I drop it by a local church to have with coffee for Sunday services.

As I'm dropping it off, it occurs to me-- I should leave a note so they'll know what it's for. Should I sign the note? With a smile, I sign it from "The Humble Servant".

But, now I ponder this: Can one proclaim himself to be humble? Isn't it a little prideful to make such a claim? Should I get business cards made up? I wouldn't put my real name on it, maybe just this website address and " you've been served... now go serve somebody" or a catchy phrase like that?

I'll stew on that one.

Meanwhile, I'm still leaving my change in vending machines. I took the family to dinner and gave the waitress a 30% tip.

Monday, June 1, 2009

The Motorcycle at Walgreen's

Pulling into the Walgreen's parking lot Saturday afternoon, an older fellow was starting to pull out of the lot on his motorcycle. It must have died, because he and his wife? girlfriend? starting falling over. The guy laid the bike down. I stopped my pick-up and ran back to them to help out.

That bike was heavy! The two of them wouldn't have been able to get it back on its wheels by themselves, but I was able to help them get it back up. He still couldn't get the bike to start, but the guy was able to roll it back into the parking lot.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

RiverFest


Little Rock has a festival every Memorial Day weekend- music mostly but lots of other things to do and see. We went this year. A great time, but rain!



While leaving the festival, I decided to give away the tickets we had purchased (needed to buy concessions)... maybe $10 worth? As quickly as I decided this, I approached the first person I came to. Holding out the tickets and said, "Would you like these?" He was a young fellow and I think my offer struck him off-guard... probably was wary of an offer from a stranger... A young lady in his group though immediately spoke up and agreed to take them... the guy quickly handed off the tickets to her.



Maybe I embarrassed him? He did not want to take charity? Not comfortable with it? Maybe I should have handled it a different way-- left the tickets somewhere they would be found.



The next day was Sunday. Still raining. We went out for breakfast. Our waitress was apparently stiffed on a tip by some people at a table nearby. We doubled our tip to help out.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

A Missed Opportunity

In the break room at work, I started "accidentally" leaving my change when I buy something from the vending machine... a nice little surprise for somebody to find later!

Also this week at work, the bloodmobile stopped by. I did not give.

My excuse is that I had a bad experience the first time I gave blood, I almost passed out. That's been about 20 years, I suppose I should give it another try, next time.