Dave Gifford

Time for lawn care

It's spring time, time to get in the yard and get it ready for summer. 

Yeahhh!  (Not really)   

I am not one who is very motivated when it comes to making my lawn look like the best in the neighborhood.  When my wife asked me a couple of weeks ago if we should hire one of those companies that does the lawn treatments I balked.  What was running through my mind when she said that was that I could play 10 rounds of golf on beautifully manicured fairways and greens for the same price.  I would enjoy the golf much more.  Keeping up with the Joneses, or in my case the Ackers (next door neighbors) in lawn care is not my favorite sport.  The Ackers aren't even that much competition anyway, they did all rock in their front yard a couple of years ago, so I win every year without even trying.

Just to appease my wife though, I went ahead and got to work 2 Saturdays ago.  I first put on some fetilizer, then I threw on some grass seed and covered it all with Steer Manure and Soil (They were having a big sale at Ace Hardware).  Feeling pretty good about myself, I then watered it up really good.  (Of course that probably washed off all the fertilizer, but my intent was good) 

Just today, it looks as if it is a bit more green than it has been the last few weeks.  Hopefully my wife will think so too, and I can go play some golf.

"Just Dave", the Pastor

I performed a Memorial Service the other day.  Most of those in attendance were people I didn’t know.  Of course, my main purpose for being there was to perform my Pastoral duties.  Hello “Pastor” Dave.  Nice message “Pastor”.  Good service “Pastor”.  Thanks for being here “Pastor”.  I am always taken off guard by the formality in how others treat me, the “Pastor”, when that’s all they know about me.  I guess it throws me off a little because I know that I’m just Dave.  In these settings the fact that I am a “Pastor” almost becomes a barrier to connecting with others.

Another place where I feel this barrier is when people ask me to pray for them, thinking that because I am a “Pastor”, I have an exclusive line to God.  (Send one up for me “Pastor”)  Don’t misunderstand me, I love praying for people, I just hope they know that they have free access to God too.

If you really want to throw me off call me Reverend.  I am pretty certain you wouldn’t get my attention if you did that.  I would be looking over my shoulder to see who you were talking to.  Or try “Priest” (It’s happened).  I wouldn’t know the first thing about being a good Priest.  I blew that when I got married.  Also I never wear black shirts, and I don’t really care if I ever go to the

Vatican

.

Don’t take any of this the wrong way,  I love being a Pastor and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  But even though I am a “Pastor” I am just another guy who eats fatty foods, has a bad back, and gets frustrated when I can’t find my TV remote.  An ordinary guy.  Just ask my wife how ordinary I am.

I love being a “Pastor”, but I’m still “Just Dave”.

I think I'll wear blue

Are you wearing green today?  I'm not.  It's not that I don't like green clothes, in fact, green is my predominant color of choice.  I have:

9 pairs of pants, 13 shirts, 6 sweater vests, 3 Mock turtleneck sweaters, 1 cardigan sweater,1 sweatshirt,1 jacket, and 1 baseball cap, all in varying shades of the color green.  For me wearing green doesn't require much effort.  For me wearing green is pretty much a way of life.   

So, on this one day of the year when everyone else is obsessed with the wearing O' the green, I think I'll wear blue. 

My Bunny Rope

I have a bunny rope.  What's a bunny rope you ask?  Let me tell you.  It's just a regular jump rope made of white cord with a wooden bunny figure at each end for handles.  (Their ears are broken off now)  The bunny rope isn't even mine, it's one of my daughter's, I just can't remember which one.  But whoever the real owner is, she doesn't miss it.  For all practical purposes the bunny rope has been mine over the last few months.  Last fall I lost 25 pounds by watching my snack intake, lifting weights, doing sit ups, and jumping rope for 1000 revolutions (roughly 10-12 minutes) every other day.  I couldn't have done it without my bunny rope.

    

I have never been one who was much for going to a health club to workout.  I figure if I can't discipline myself enough to exercise at home why would I be disciplined enough to actually drive all the way to a gym? (I'm also too cheap)  With my bunny rope, I can workout anytime, anywhere.  It's very convenient.  Mostly I do my "jumps" right in my family room, first thing in the morning.  (Sometimes I jump in my bedroom, but I have to be a bit tighter with my swings so I don't hit the ceiling fan)  I am now up to 1100 revolutions and I am happy to report that I have maintained my lower weight level.

In the next few weeks I am going to be doing more running, but my joints can't endure the pounding I used to be able to when I was younger.  So, I won't be putting away my bunny rope anytime soon.    

My life as a computer wiz

When I finished high school, my destiny was to be a computer wiz, making lots of money and creating technology.  I knew that was the life for me.  I went to college to learn how to pursue this destiny.  

When I got to college I was told I had to learn Pascal?!  I didn't understand why I needed to learn Pascal, afterall, English was working out pretty well for me at the time.  But computer programs don't speak English.  For some reason, writing a computer program requires that you know languages the average person has no idea about.  When was the last time you ever met someone who spoke Pascal? I think they do this to keep the number of computer wizzes down.  You can't have just anybody out there creating technology.  Anyway, I spent most of that semester using up my professors office hours figuring out how to read and write in Pascal.  I don't remember much of it.  I can't even say "hi" or "bathroom" in Pascal anymore.  Somehow I managed to pass the class, but the writing was on the wall.  I was done being a computer wiz. 

Although being a computer wiz was my destiny, I decided another destiny would suit me better. 

"Certified Public Accountant"

Hmmmmmm that sounds like a good one!

Just Dave

My friend Rob told me I should start a Weblog.  A weblog?  I wasn't too sure about the idea when he first suggested it, afterall, why would anybody care about what I have to say?  I'm "Just Dave".  In some ways having a weblog seems a bit self-promoting to me.  What can others learn from my thoughts and experiences?  (There has to be some higher purpose for my weblog doesn't there?)

My hope is that whoever reads the randomness that ends up on these cyber pages, will learn not only a little bit about me, but also about another guy.  I'm "Just Dave", but the one who really deserves attention?  His name is Jesus.  He is the one I try to focus on.  (Rather poorly more often than I'd like to admit)  "Doing Life With Jesus" gives me something that I can't get on my own.  I hope an understanding of what that is becomes more clear as you get to know me.   I think you'll find that the daily adventures (I wish) and ruts (More likely) that I find myself in are ones not unlike your own.  So maybe, in some small way, my life can be an encouragement to yours.

So there you have it.  I look forward to connecting with you in the weeks and months to come and I hope I have a chance to learn about you as well. 

Remember, I'm "Just Dave", a fellow traveler in this journey through life. 

Welcome to my weblog.