The Headache of Spam

Is anybody else done with the lucrative industry of Spam? They hit us by email, text and phone and I for one am done. To anyone who reads this and is a pusher of spam, shame on you.

I am retired but work part-time at my church answering the phone. For three weeks now, we have been bombarded with the same company with the same message and I think the same woman. Example:

“Hello. This is ___ Church. This is Anita, how may I help you?”

“Yes, I need to speak to your owner.”

“What? Ma’am this is a church.”

“Yes, I need to speak to your owner.”

“Ma’am, we have no owner. This is a church.”

“Okay, I will just wait for the confirming email.”

“What??” And she hangs up.

The next time she called, we were in a meeting so the answering machine got it. The answering machine even flagged it as spam.

The next time she called and asked to speak with the owner I told her that God was our owner and he was not available by phone. She said she would email him. Good luck with that.

So this weekend I sat down and came up with the silly poem as I know many of us deal with spam, have blockers against them so here I vent my frustration. Thank you for listening.

SPAM

My slamming the phone did me no good

An aggravation that many have understood

They hit us by email, text, and by phone

A vicious intrusion that makes us all moan.

So many are fake, not real companies at all

Their purposeful result pushes us to the wall

Their greed to make money regardless of cost

It matters not to them how many souls get lost

The enemy we refer to is the enemy of Spam

Not to be confused by the can of fake ham

It’s the onslaught of deception to get you confused

Where you spend your money to make them amused

There must be a way to make them STOP – GO AWAY

They prey on those who think they are a good way

For now, just be aware of their lucrative scams

Before they drown us all in the trickery of spam

It is obvious to me that these people do not know the meaning of kindness or else they would not be in this industry. Nevertheless, we are encouraged to be better than them and to always be kind.

FOTD, June 3, Darn Squirrels

Ever year as you start your work in your garden, there is usually a small deterring factor that can make it difficult. It could be a late spring, a freak storm right as the garden starts growing or local pests, insects or other critters.

Mine this year is squirrels. I have not been bothered by them in years past but this year they are a profound pest. Seeds were dug up and eaten, young plants were dug up while looking for seeds and for some reason they had a taste for seed potatoes.

While on one hand, they seem cute…on the other hand ENOUGH ALREADY!!

This year I planted (or trying to plant) a sunflower circle. The center (14′ dia) is mulched where we may put places sit. The outer was planted with various sizes of sunflowers creating a cascade effect in flowers…if the dang squirrels would quit digging up the seeds.

When I went to water this morning, again the young tender plants that were trying to come up were now gone along with evidence of multiple holes where other seeds were planted. FINE! I give up…sort of. I went back to the nursery and bought plants to at least have something to surround the cool circle. Maybe there will be enough seed that make it past these digging brats to at least show the purpose of the circle. Below are pictures of what I will plant tomorrow after church. Various types of yellow daisies, coreopsis, and something with a tiny yellow bloom that had no name tag. They all have the sunny smiles like the sunflower so at least we will have these.

Even when you are faced with digging brats or other situations that test your patience, smile on the inside and be kind. Kindness has a way to make all sour things taste just a little sweeter.

From Frustration to Kindness

God reminded me today to “Sit – Breathe – Relax – Love – Be Kind”. We all have those days when someone just pushes all the wrong buttons. I don’t have those days often but they usually come about when someone…rather when I feel someone is being …no I am not going to say that word… so I will say when someone does not use the intelligence you know they have. And when that someone is someone in your family…well family is different and can be more frustrating because you know exactly how they operate. But then I think about how I frustrate God and He definitely knows exactly how I operate. I am sure He does a lot of Sit – Breathe…well, you get the idea.

He teaches us how to treat others in any capacity that we encounter them, then He reminds us through the lessons of the Fruit of the Spirit how people need to be treated. If we are given a choice of being intellectually right versus allowing our heart to show kindness in how we behave…then being kind should always win out over being right. And like my Pastor said in the bible study on Wednesday, it’s the trials and situations that we face that strengthens us so we can survive and hopefully bring others along with us who are watching us and how we behave and then they want to survive as well because with all the frustration we were still kind.

It is through His grace that we are saved and while we ourselves can not save anyone…we can show the benefits of God’s love and salvation by being kind, loving and supportive. As we are currently going through odd and difficult times, allow His strength to cover any weakness you feel as you breathe in His love. Then you can breathe out His grace for you and others around you. And together, you and God, will have all the strength you need for any situation.

I leave you with a little humor…that says a lot. Have a great evening and new day tomorrow.

Back on the Air, Monday Windows, Snow

Hi, Hello, Howdy and How in the world are you? It’s been crazy since my last post . Friday of last week…5 days ago…all due to careless incompetence. If you remember I got a new roof, yea for that. But since I have satellite TV and internet the dishes needed to be carefully removed for later re-installation once new roof was on. So what did they do…cut the wires, let them fall to the ground and throw them in the roof trash trailer. Not what they were supposed to do. The company was very apologetic and paid for the replacements and said “good help is hard to find”, really…train your people correctly and then they become good help.

crazy

It is amazing to me the different work ethics across the country as I have now lived in 6 different states but where I am now I believe has the worse. They do great work but fall short of that last 5% to complete the job. Its amazing.

All that being said, lets do a little catching up. Technically I am still in the allowed timeline for Monday Windows as I believe it’s a weekly prompt…so I want to show another beauty from our sanctuary. It shows Jesus’ Baptism.

Jesus Baptism — Again my camera is crooked, sorry.

Monday was also the first snow for the season. It was the best kind of snow – snowed during the night, beautiful to look at, streets were still clear and it was gone by lunch. If it snowed like that all the time, I would never mind the snow.

Plus it was Daisy’s first snow. It was a difficult time of keeping all 4 legs on the ground. Then we nosed a bush and the snow falls off scaring us because it moved…scary stuff. LOL.

IMG_20191029_083108

Today’s snow is a bit different setting records of earliest snow, coldest temps…and flooding. You know its bad when you get a flood warning and a snow warning on the same day. Yes, we are still flooded – not the major flood stage of 22′ like this spring but still the Mississippi is out of its banks and has been most of the year. That is crazy to think about. Special government programs are being setup for these people whose homes have been in water in some form for 8 out of the 10 months this year thus far. I would ask that those of you who are prayers to please remember the people along the Mississippi. I learned from my youth while living in Florida that you don’t want to be too close to the water. It can be a monster of unfounded proportions.

And finally a couple of pictures of today’s snow. It will still be snowing for a couple more hours; current temp at 28 but feels like 17.

The Trunk or Treat at the church has been cancelled more for temp concerns than snow as the snow can be cleared by then but the wind coming this evening will make the temps dangerous for small ones to be out in. The malls had their trick or treat last weekend so the kids got to do some there, as well as other indoor places that celebrated. And some communities just moved it to the weekend.

I feel the “white” season is among us. With higher than normal moisture in the air, we may see more of that stuff than normal. It does warm back up into the 40’s this week so it wont last but still…

So, I leave you with warm thoughts of kindness and love. May you feel the warmth of Christ’s love as it wraps around you and remember to always share the warmth and be Kind.

kindness warmth