Folks,
I have a lot to share with you this week, so please, take a few minutes to read this one.
NOW HEAR THIS!
THIS WEEK’S BIG NEWS: I WILL BE TAKING OFF A WEEK EARLIER THAN USUAL THIS YEAR!
As many of you may already know, I usually like to take off from normal business operations during the last two weeks of the year. Well, this year, I think I am going to take off a week earlier than usual. So, you have one more week to order before I go on break.
I will be in the shop this week, December 3-7, and I will be shipping orders normally. However, after I post the update on Dec 7, I will officially be on holiday break. You can still order after Dec 7, and I might even ship your order over my break, but — most likely — I will not get to you until January 2-3, after I come back off my break.
HOUSE REPAIRS
If all goes well, the roofer should be on our house by Tuesday, Dec 2. That should see him finished by Dec 5, and the general contractor is ready to start that same day (if not before). I am a very blessed man as, for most people in my area, they are still weeks away from getting their roofs done, let alone a contractor to repair the rest of their home.
The shop is pretty much set up as it will stay. If I can clean up some of the stuff still looking for a home in the shop, I’ll post pictures of the new layout on Face Book.
ON THE BENCH
Dave and I tabled this — for now. I’ll call Karl this weekend. Once the ‘head-shed’ has our round of phone calls and emails, I’ll let you know what we’ll be doing next — or not. I honestly have no idea when I’ll be back to making new masters or what I want to make. All I know is I’ll share it with you when I do.
OUTSTANDING ORDERS
As I write this update, I have no — 0 — outstanding orders in house and only 1 customer service issue.
RETURNED ORDERS
OK, I finally figured out how to find old emails. I will start emailing the following people to figure out why these orders came back to me and how I can get them to their owners. I have not and will never give up, folks. Like I always tell you: no one looses their money with TMD.
Peter Seril
Jerome Branca
Ian Smith
Victor Raul Volturno
Owen Nelson
MY PERSONAL WORLD
OK, fair warning: If religious talk bothers you, then you may want to skip this section.
I have always been open and honest with you guys, so, for those who may be wondering, recovering from this storm has been causing me a lot more stress than I ever imagined it would. I have actually been having anxiety attacks for the first time in my life. Last weekend, we had some very bad thunder storms and the roof sprung some bad leaks. I was up on the roof, at night, in a thunder storm, trying to stop one of the leaks. I failed. I stayed up most that night worrying. It has been affecting my health as well as my mental attitude and that has caused me to start attacking myself for being weak. So, in short, I am hating life.
However, there is an up-side, and — to me — it is the Hand of God. The storm and the leaks convinced me to cancel our annual Disney trip. The next day, the good news started to roll in on us. Our general contractor contacted us and asked for our roofers info so they could coordinate. The general contractor is pushing my roofer so the general guy can get his crew working. This got the roofer to move us up on his list. Our general contractor also hooked us up with a crew to remove all our trees. They did a great job at a great price. After that, we actually found a storage container and had it delivered so we could move our house-hold belongings out to get ready for construction. Then we got moved up on the travel trailer list. The trailer was delivered just as the tree removal crew was getting done with our back yard, where the trailer is now sitting. And for the bonus, I haven’t had another anxiety attack since Monday, after the storms. To me, the storms and the leaks were a blessing. They got me to cancel our trip because God knew He had people lined up to help us. Now, I know others might see it all differently, but this sort of thing happens to me w-a-y too often for it to be a series of coincidences. So, for me, it was the Hand of God guiding me in the direction I am supposed to go, and since I surrendered to that, I’ve been doing better — physically and mentally. I just thought I would share this with you guys so you’d know I had a rough patch, but I am OK now, and I suspect I will be for as long as I listen and obey. 🙂
THAT IS ALL
Well, that’s all I have for now. So, until next week, stay safe and try to build something (preferably something using TMD resin).
— Joe
Joe,
I thank God for all that He has been doing to minister to you and comfort you through the big physical storm as well as the other storms that you’ve been facing since then. Thank you for sharing your faith with us at the end and I pray that God will use what you’ve shared to impact others for His name’s sake.
I pray for you and your family in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead. I trust that He will continue to guide you and comfort you, giving you relief from the anxiety and that He will demonstrate His ongoing love and presence to you and your family as you rebuild.
If you ever need someone to talk to, please feel free to reach out to me. I’m a chaplain in my final year of Seminary up here in “Saaath C
Sent from my iPhone
Thanks, Ben. That means a lot to me 🙂
BTW: I withheld your second comment so as NOT to broadcast your number to the world 😉
You have done well, Brother! Sometimes the Lord give you a gift from someone, and then you find out almost immediately that you need a new big appliance because the other goes out after you got the gift. Then you find out the gift ($) fully pays for the replacement. In this case the gift was freedom from Disney that you gave to Bebe and yourself only to find out that this was when the Lord had the workers all in a row!
And I know what you mean about hating life, sometimes it seems that in this imperfect life, bearing with it is too much! The isn’t hating life, it is hating the troubles to the point where you want to go to our real home, where our true citizenship is, but the Lord is either not finished with your training (sanctification) or else he has something more for you to do before you come to him, but I don’t want to be like Job’s friends and in trying to help him, they show that they miss the entire reason that God has put you where you are… have you thought that maybe he wants to show you more about himself and the only way he can do it is to stop you in your tracks so you will pay attention to his loving kindness? It does look a lot like that is what he is doing. Suzette is there now, fearing what I see as a good thing, that is being on treatments for the rest of her life. I see it is being reliant on the cancer drugs as good food, which we are reliant upon as well. She is seeing it as a loss of freedom. But she has to eat, right? So where is true freedom from that?
I look forward to hearing more as it comes to pass.
Thanks, Cliff,
I understand what you are saying. It is all meant to teach us to turn to and rely on Him: not on govt. or on ourselves or even other people, but Him and Him alone. I just hope I am learning the lessons I am meant to be learning and that I will then live them properly 🙂