1:13

Right at 3:58 AM this morning I heard a distant banging sort of sound as if from a fairly large object. This was followed by an immediate creaking sound for about a second or so then another bang followed and the power went out. Various thoughts began to go through my head. I hadn't heard any thunder, had something been struck by lightning? This happened last Saturday night, I was planning to visit a friend's church in Tampa but overslept when the power had gone out the night before. It seemed to be trying to come back on but couldn't quite get there, how long would it take? You know, I really ought to invest in one of those little 9 volt batteries to back up my alarm clock. I don't want to miss church again, but I can't go back to sleep until I'm able to set my alarm. Besides, I'm not really tired.

After about 2 mins of thinking I decided to venture outside for a walk. It seemed like such an adventurous idea and I need to clear my head anyway. As some may be aware I sometimes struggle with sleeping at normal hours or even sleeping at all, particularly when I've got certain issues on my mind.

Something about this walk seemed so very exciting. For some reason I found myself not wanting to be seen & was disappointed to find 3 or 4 cars driving past me as I started down Bayshore ave. As I looked to the sky I scarcely saw anything resembling a storm cloud, how had the power been knocked out? I headed north with my iPod and looked out across the bay. For some reason I found myself beginning to think about life and what would happen if it all ended for me on that walk? I thought about the last text message I had sent a friend of mine, what would it mean to her if I were gone the next morning? I thought of my latest blog entry, they'd probably read it at my funeral. Any number of thoughts began to fill my head, but behind them all I thought of what it would be like to pass into the afterlife to see my Saviour.

I had walked for about 6 minutes or so before I began to see a power company truck coming down the road with a search light inspecting the power lines looking for a problem. Behind the truck I could see what appeared to be a collection of vehicles. As I began getting closer I could see at least two of them were also power company trucks there were also at least 4 police cars and one fire truck. Just as I was able to make them out something caught my attention out of the corner of my left eye, something that seemed a bit out of place. It was a speed limit sign. Everything was normal about the sign except the fact that it was bent nearly level with the ground. It had obviously been run over and evidently at a fairly high speed. I began looking at the grass for tire marks of some sort. It seemed as if there were tracks, but whatever had run it over did so without swerving or breaking. Then of course the whole puzzle began to come together and the solution was a dark one. It was now about 4:30 or so as I stood on the side of the road. I walked up to where the emergency vehicles were parked virtually unnoticed. I was expecting to be greeted by an officer informing me that I needed to be on my way or something. All the activity seemed to be on the other side of the street and I planned to walk past trying to get a glimpse of the situation on my way. As I was doing that focused on the crews working on the power lines across the street I realized that about 30 feet in front of me lay the cause of it all. It was a mid to late '90s model white Ford Mustang. All that I could see of it was the front end, which was facing the road with a slight angle towards me. On top of the car lay the downed telephone pole, crushing the roof of the car in a 'V' formation.

It stopped me in my tracks. Why was it that all the crews working seemed focused completely on the power lines across the street? Certainly this was the real cause for attention. As I pieced together the path that this vehicle must have taken the and result seemed grim. I saw no blood yet I saw no sign that there had been an effort to rescue anyone from the vehicle. Had they been ejected upon impact? Had they survived possibly? It was now 4:37 AM.

Evidently I would be walking no further down that sidewalk as the downed pole and wires were covering it. I began to turn back and to think about the life of the individual driving that vehicle. As a kid growing up I always had this image in my mind of the "Drunken Driver". He was this evil man who went out to drink himself silly possessing this sadistic lust for endangering the innocent. As I've grown older I now realize that the sweet girl who's always smiling when I see her at work, the one who's a junior at the local college and working towards her career, she's the one with 2 DUIs. It's people much like myself. In fact, I had been out with a few friends from work the night before when the topic had come up. One even mentioned that she thought I would be over the limit & I had only had 3 drinks and felt completely sober.

I walked a little further, going past my street and back through my neighborhood. Walking past the downed sign got me thinking, what if I had gone for a walk about 30 mins earlier? I could have been hit. What is it that really stands between me and the driver of that Mustang? It is certainly no righteousness of my own, only sovereign grace. Not 2 mins after I slipped back into the back door of my house I saw my clock blinking 12:00, the power was back. Looking at my cell phone it was 5:11AM and I was suddenly struck by the thought of just how much had happened in the last 1:13 since the power had gone out. It seemed kind of eerie listening to the beeping of surge protectors marking that fateful moment when what seemed like a minor inconvenience for me was so very much more for the driver. What is it that really stands between that driver and myself? Only sovereign grace.

Guess that means I'm "It"

So apparently I've been tagged courtesy of Denise. And to demonstrate my intelligence, or lack thereof, I first off had to copy and paste 'joie de vivre' into the my Yahoo search since I wasn't sure what it meant. I'm no poet nor do I read as much of it as I should, so I'll take the picture option of the assignment. The picture I've provided
is a bit outdated (about 2 years old), but I think it captures what I love about summer. The girl pictured is my niece Ashlynne, who's now 7 years old.

It's a given that any picture I would provide is going to be taken at the beach. I've blessed with the opportunity to spend a bit of time with Ashlynne this last week. We've gone for walks to the park to visit our alligator "buddies" who live there. We've gone for walks in the dark and shared our fears, she's afraid of baby dinosaurs 'they may be small but they're still tough' and we share a fear of suspended heights such as cliffs or tall building ledges, or tall bridges. I've also been selling her on the TV show 'Knight Rider', she loves KITT but don't we all. We've also had a run-in with a black racer while we were playing in the backyard, a black racer which I shot in the face with a rubber band 'that's what you get for biting my uncle in the face when he was in 7th grade' she yelled. (I was bitten in the face by a snake in my 7th grade science class).

The point of this all is of course that what I find to be my source of Joie De Vivre as I understand it (by way of Yahoo) is essentially family in the sun.

Is This Good For the Company?

About 5:00 yesterday afternoon I was taking a brief break at work before my 6:00 shift that night. I didn't have enough time to justify a drive home so I went out and sat in my car and put in one of my favorite albums looking to make the most of my time off. Just about that time I received a phone call. It was from a lady with whom I had had a few phone conversations over the course of the past week or so. She informed me that she had good news and bad news then asked which I wanted to hear first. I of course said give me the bad news.

Her name is Tammy and she works in the H.R. dept at Raymond James a financial firm based in St. Pete. I had first heard from her last week as she called to set me up to interview for a position in their customer service dept. The job consists of serving as a go-between for the corporate office and their branches throughout the country. I would be answering phones and adjusting accounts as need be as well as working to resolve any questions the branches may have regarding said accounts.

Well the bad news, as it turns out, is that I wasn't offered that position. There is of course still the good news to address.

When I interviewed for the position the previous week the process began by taking a general aptitude test, basically an IQ test. Now as some may know I kind of like taking those types of tests and have tended to score fairly well on them in the past. I typically look forward to placement tests, unless they involve Hebrew of course. I took the ACT for college having been out of school for a couple years and having only studied for a maximum of 45 minutes and I promptly earned a scholarship for my first semester of college. So apparently when I took this test before my interview I tested quite well, I even heard that the phrase "off the charts" was used, for another position in the company. Tammy called me the day after my interview and asked of I would be interested in interviewing for this other position, and of course I was. So I came in and interviewed for it on Monday. As it turns out the good news she brought me yesterday was that I had been offered the position. I of course accepted.

This position deals with portfolios Sr. Portfolio Manager is the title. It pays a little better than the one I had previously applied for and sounds a whole lot more interesting to me.

For those who may be wondering why I titled this post as I did. Well, just watch Office Space again. I don't feel like I took a job at Inetech, but I can't help but reference the film at a time like this. I'm thankful that the Lord has given me favor in my pursuit of a job and I'm thankful to have had a credible friend working for me on the inside, Jeremy. Besides I needed to put some kind of a post on my blog or else Denise might consider removing the link from her blog.