"I Will Survive"

I have lots of profound thoughts that never make it to my blog. that's ok. most is just mental regurgitation that probably isn't that interesting anyway. Since the audience I have is so diverse (three different people) it is sometimes hard to avoid saying things that will offend. Normally, I don't mind offending people. That's not my goal, but if they get offended then I am doing my part to help them build a thicker skin, thus improving humanity. Why this odd post? Oh, they're all odd you say? Well, I had a challenging few hours last night. Nothing big to be quite honest, but they could have been very ugly. For once, family had nothing to do with it. I won't bore you with what happened at work, but suffice it to say I locked myself out of some systems. Then, after cleaning up that mess, I went home @ 7 PM only to find out there was bad news on that front too. Thankfully, Rebekah managed to prepare me for some bad news before hitting me with it. I sat down on the floor while she ejected the kids. My mind races through all sorts of horrible things before she told me. I had time to ask God that whatever it was to give me grace and not get too upset. Turns out that our pellet stove was broken. Instead of throwing a hissy fit as I am prone to do, I asked her some questions and went and looked at it. The auger wasn't turning, but you could hear the motor trying. Rebekah had removed all the pellets as well as the back of the stove so I was able to sit right down and look at it. I was able to quickly figure out that either something was wrong with the motor or the auger. I disconnected the motor and Titus helped me troubleshoot it (he turned on the power when I told him to). That was good. So, I looked at the auger. It sure seemed jammed to me. After messing with it, I finally opened up the stove door. There was a huge pile of pellets in the burn pot backed all the way up. Aha! It was Rebekah's fault. Not sure how, but she makes a cute scapegoat. So, we *think* that we didn't empty the ashes enough and that caused the pellets to stop burning which caused the backlog which eventually caused the auger to jam. We fixed that and I turned the shaft manually and it broke free. Sweet! I rule! I did a little jig like Hitler did after the successful invasion and surrender of Poland (or was it France? I think it was France) and promptly dropped all my tools and went downstairs and ate dinner (It used to be supper but my wife has corrupted me and now I use the wrong word). What's the moral of the story? I'm not sure, but I think it had something to do with Hitler and Obama.

Speaking of Obama, I'd like to take this time to thank President Bush and the Republican Congress of 2004 for passing the additional Child tax credit portion of the Working Families Tax Relief Act. Thanks to that we get a nice return due to the fact that they'll let me have some of my social security tax back before I'm old and the guvmint is bankrupt. Unfortunately, in 2011 (unless Obama decides to feel my pain) our tax refund will be less than 25% of what it was this year. Oh well, to quote some 70's singer "I will survive." Not sure about Bek and the kids, but I'll make it :)