Wanderings – Page 50 – The Life and Times of Joe Suttle

What Now?

joe November 19, 2008 Church, General

Have not recovered from the election yet/still. Even got so upset about some of the newspaper articles that I wrote to the editor. Of course they did not print my letters, but at least they know how I feel. Part of it was more thinking "how stupid" rather than feelings, but it prompted some action.

Still trying to get to my new blog software, but that will take some time – maybe I shouldn't worry so much about perfection as getting started. Suppose that there could be daily improvements. And here everyone thinks that retirement is "lots of free time". Right now, it's more like when does that "free time" show up on my schedule. Oh well, better busy than having nothing to do and withering away.

Things have been happening, even in the midst of all the busyness. Missing T.J. (our Worship Pastor) and his family. Think that they finally made it to Myrtle Beach, SC. They were called to a church "plant" – building from the ground up. Don't know if they have had their first service yet, but it had to be a very long drive. They stopped in Ft. Worth to pick up the kids (grandma had flown that far with them), and then it was on to Atlanta.

T.J. and Beth can truly say they have served from "coast to coast."

Now What?

joe November 7, 2008 Political

With the election over, it’s time to begin putting civil things in perspective again. Obama won, and we will have to live with and work within that. As a Christian, I am instructed to work with the civil government. Only when it’s rules and regulations conflict with God’s word do I have clear choices to make.

I was both disappointed and proud of my country on Tuesday night. Disappointed that the Democrats were more in charge, and that the democrat had won the presidential race. I have my reasons for not liking them. My pride came in the way both the winners and losers handled themselves. True, there may be some kooks out there, but by and large everyone was civil.

Voting for Obama “just because he was an afro-american” did not make any sense. That was like hiring someone to run your business based not on his or her skills, but some other quality.

I’ll keep watching and reporting on what I see and how I feel. Just hope everyone keeps working to clean up the financial mess we are all in – as a country and as a world.

BTW, if all those foreign countries still need our help, why are their banks and other businesses able to come to the U.S. and buy our companies for cash. Maybe we ought to look at how much we send to other countries as “foreign aid”. It would be interesting to see the list.

Shred Away!

joe October 25, 2008 News

Sometimes, I just fly through the AARP Bulletin, but this time, the article struck a chord. They were talking about identity theft, and what you should shred. We have a shredder, and ever since our local police talked about people stealing mail just to get my credit card offers, we have been shredding more.

I actually started burning mail years ago, after an employee of one of our customers (a newspaper no less) had her purse “snatched”. Even though she was a newspaper reporter, with access to all kinds of “where to go to stop this” information, It took her over six months to get her identity protected again. She had to fight with banks to get her money back and her good credit rating.

Her article pointed out how easy it was for someone, once they had some information about you (and your credit cards), they could drain your bank accounts quickly. Even apply for change of address on existing accounts and open new accounts.

At any rate, the AARP blurb left little that you should not shred. The bad guys are everywhere, so shred anything that includes “your birth date, signature, account numbers, passwords, PINS or Social Security number.” The list goes on…deposit slips, credit card receipts (after you get your monthly statement), used airline tickets, old medical bills, those “pre-approved credit card apps and canceled checks you don’t need for tax purposes.

Quite a list, but rather safe than sorry. Seems that just throwing stuff away does not work (there are “garbage divers”). And once the bad guys have your information, it will be a while before you realize you have been had.