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7 & 1/2 Acres |
2004-07-18 - 1:19 p.m. Hey there! This e-mail address still good? Reckon I'll find out. How you doing? This is a letter by the way. My long standing prefered way to stay in touch with folks has got to be the written word. My problem with this, though, is I never can seem to put these things in the mail. And so, these waiting correspondences wait around the house waiting to be mailed until they eventually end up disappeared. So, thankfully, there is e-mail. The written word immediately sent. Anyway, preface aside, how you doing? How's married life going for you two? How's Ms. Dana? I got word about your wreck on duty. Man, that sounds pretty lousey. I also got word that you're doing pretty well and are back on your feet? All that true? What happened? Well, July is here and we've had some hot as hell days. I came down with heat exhaustion a couple of weeks ago. Knocked my ass out for four days. I mean, I couldn't do nothing! But, got a Camelbak now and that helps me keep hydrated. Keeps me from having to constantly stop my work to hollar down out of the tree tops for water (and half the time going unheard if the chipper is running--and so I end up saying, fuck it and then get heat exhaustion). I actually pissed several times yesterday so the Camelbak works. I love a good invention. Like the Bigshot which is basically a huge slingshot that fits on an eight foot pole and which we use to launch a shot bag with a small line on it into the tops of trees. We've landed limbs seventy five feet up before. You then tie your climbing line to it and you're ready to go. I imagine you'd get a kick out of it. You can really do some thrilling stuff. One job recently, I hopped out of the bucket (the company has got a bucket truck now, and a chipper, and a grapple truck) into one tree and then was able to swing to and prune five additional trees without ever setting foot on the ground. Each time you make it to a new tree, you just reset your line and keep going. It can be pretty fun. Anyway, it's good stuff. Lately here, I've been talking a bunch about it. I mean, some days really suck--yesterday we worked 16 hours to get this bank job done while they were closed on Saturday but to not work on Sunday. But, even yesterday, while in it, we were thinking, how the hell we going to get through this, but then you find some physical reserve you didn't know you had and then as it's getting dark, you realize you're in the last stages of the clean up and you've done it. Our days here find us posed against whopping tasks that we somehow manage to get through and get through with awesome results. I'm not trying to sound arrogant and like a braggard, but it's a little surreal what we're accomplishing and so I've got to share it and in the sharing of it, ground myself with some, hopefully, solid perspective. Or, in otherwords, and this is something that has occurred in my personal life, I find myself working and living with an openness to the grace of God. I've not been blessed in particular nor as an individual, but rather am allowing myself to be open and accepting of the blessings that exisit. I'm with a most wonderful person. When we got together, shortly after the seperation and during very tumultuous times, in a reflection about our relationship, I said that it is not as if we have been touched by the grace of God but rather we have become open to recieve the grace that is already there. It's a perspective that shapes the way things occur. The very same event can be viewed an infinite amount of ways. It is the interpretation of the event that defines our lives. This is, of course, my present take here as an educated American from a fair to do middle class family. Who knows what I'd say if I happened to be born Iraqi. For me, it is not a terrible stretch to accept God's grace as I have been given the tools and resources with which to do so. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's meant a mountain of work getting to where I'm getting but, I can. I have no idea how this'd transfer to a place more impoverished and invaded. What kind of grace would exisit there? Well alright old friend. You'd get a kick out of my partner. Man, he makes me laugh. From urgent and untimely pressings on the bowels to exhausted stupidness on both of our parts at the crescendo of some particularily grueling job. If you come East, we'll get you up in some trees. Hope all is well with you and everybody. Give all my howdys and love. Tell that sweetheart of mine Ms. Erin I said hello. Jeff
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