"I was so naive as a kid I used to sneak behind the barn and do nothing." - Johnny Carson

It's hard to write a sermon on joy when you're feeling grumpy. And of course the worse the writing process goes the grumpier you get.

When the cab was sitting on the dolly I couldn't paint the underside, but that needed to be done because post-media blasting it was bare metal. Rust would eat into that very quickly, even here in the desert. So this afternoon I climbed under there and sprayed it with the stuff sold as a bed liner for trucks. Home Depot, $8 a can, aerosol.
Because I didn't want overspray getting on my nice paint job I taped masking paper all around the bottom like a skirt. Then I rolled under there on my mechanic's creeper and used almost two can's worth of the stuff.
It didn't occur to me until I started just how powerful the fumes would be under there with that skirt holding everything in. Whew!

Friend Sue said I should try the chestnut praline latte at Starbucks, so at the risk of losing my man card for the rest of the month I ordered one this morning. Told the 50-something lady I'd been told to try it so she didn't think it was my idea. I got the small size (they call it a tall, for reasons I can't imagine) in case it was gag inducing. Not that bad, but not anything I would order again.
A few minutes later the lady came over to ask how I liked it. When I told her it was OK but not something I'd come back for she held out the drink in her hand. "This is a no-caff skinny peppermint mocha if you'd like this." Hey, that's what I normally order, just not decaff, so I readily accepted it.
I figure either they screwed up somebody's order or she was drawn to the guy with the intriguing scar on his face.

I'm working hard at the gym to get back to the level of fitness I had before my six-week layoff because of the melanoma. This is not fun.

I go there to work, not socialize, but I exchange greetings with a handful of guys I see there regularly. A couple of them, Gary and Bud, asked me several months ago what I was doing, I told them about Crossfit, and now we chat from time to time. Mostly they talk while I'm panting.

Today Bud came over to where I was doing my pull ups and squats and said, "You're a pastor." I always worry about conversations that start that way. He went on to tell me what happened three weeks ago tonight. He kissed his wife of three years on the cheek as he left for his bowling league, came home a couple of hours later, and the furniture was the only thing left in the house. By the next morning half the money in his bank account was gone. Apparently Bud has (had) some money and had showered her with jewelry, trips to Europe, fancy clothes...
He got played.
And he's #3. She's got a history.
He just needed to vent. By the time he was finished telling me the story he was in tears. He loved her.
Sad.
He now wishes he'd been satisfied with the memories of the 41 years he had with his first wife.
"I will be now!"
Yeah, sad.