I get to go to work.

It has been almost a week since I have written and I have spent thousands of dollars and spoken tens of thousands of words, but have I made a positive difference in others' lives? I am not a philosopher, but I am able to make simple observations. Like-I will not live forever, since everyone dies. I will get older and more feeble, since everyone does. What does this all mean?


I need to cherish my time and the people that I love like Jo and Noah and my family and my few friends.


The Fosters were here tonight and they were interested in looking over my portfolio of properties and the pics that I have taken along the way. I enjoyed showing them the visuals of years of work in just a few moments. The time seems to be a blur when you flip through the pics.



Earlier this week I got a call from a friend who had moved away from Jax about 1yr ago and he is trying to figure out what's next for him and his wife and whether they should move back here from ATL where they are living in a friends basement. He has been trying unsuccessfully to sell his home for about this whole year. I wish I could help him as I know the pain, but the only thing I could really say is that sometimes you have to walk away to be able to move on.

I know that this thinking (accepting premature financial failure to avoid the greater one down the road) flies in the face of others including my wife, but I know it is true. I would rather be graded by history for what I am ultimately able to accomplish for God and others rather than achieve less special thing but have people say when they saw me "he never gave up on anything before he lost everything trying to make something work out." Don't read me wrong, I want to succeed and win the fights, but I would rather quit a fight early and live to fight again rather than die trying to with a lost cause. Everyone must make their own line about what this really means. I would not slide this thinking into marraige as that IS a lifelong commitment (fight for some people-not me). I love my wife and appreciate her and her various convictions and concerns.

Sometimes the board just fits.

I bought a house today on W30th St. for $20k and I hope to be able to sell it in the mid $50's.

I worked at Dewitt on triming around the doors and windows. Joe did well today because when I showed up I saw a new table saw sitting there all ready to go. He knew I needed one and had talked about getting one and picked one up for a good price at Harbor Freight this AM and then stopped by Lowes and got some other items that we needed. He never told me he was buying the saw with my $$, but we put it to good use today and it worked well and here I am glad that used initiative to help our project.

An amazing thing happened as I came out the house one of the many times today. I looked back at the door and realized that I had missed one piece of needed trim. Right then I looked down and saw a piece of scrap wood that was already painted white like it needed to be and figured it would make a good starting piece to cut up to make fit. I got my tape measure from my handy tool belt that Jo bought me and was ready to measure to cut when--the piece fit perfectly in all 3 diminsions that mattered. It was the perfect lenght, width, and thickness--perfect. I put my tape down and said "wow" and thanked the Lord for that amazing fit. It's just nice in a project with many missed cuts and mistakes to have a 1/1000 chance work out like this one did today. That's cool!!

Point of view

I had to find another lawn guy today as my regular one didn't pay his ph bill and I can't reach him. I found a guy on Craigslist named Mark. He had just a small mower, but he said he needed the work and was willing to do this large yard at Lord Taylor. I met him there at 9:50 but he was already done. He said he trusted me to mow first and then get paid just from talking with me on the ph. Anyway we talked for a few and he mentioned he is and emt and has recently started mowing to help pay for his daughters leukemia medical bills. I can respect that and so here I start giving him ideas on how to build his business and generate more income by doing junk hauling.
I don't know why I always try to help people? I guess I want to see people become more than who they currently are as that is what I try to do. At least I didn't try to talk with him about trying to buy some re as I now know that is not for everyone and at times maybe not even me.

We worked at Dewitt replacing some rotted wood in the garage and closing it in. We also painted. I was trying to let Joe and David work on their own and solve their own pblms, but it was so hard as they kept messing up and came in to fix the mistakes. I know Joe wanted to try to figure it out on his own so I tried to leave them be--sort of. Perry said he my be interested if he can get a good loan and I told him $76k. Obviously he wanted a little better so I told him $75k if he closes in 30 days. That's sort of hard to enforce so it will prob be $75k. He wants some $$ back to redo the bathroom and maybe payoff a little debt. I will keep working to get this home done so it will be ready for either Perry or another buyer. I want to sell this as I need the $$ for Wilcox.

Savings are better than earnings.

I am selling a home (Cobblewood) that I am going to have to come to closing with some funds and pay a bunch of closing costs on. One of the items that runs about $300 is the survey. Through some phone tag and research, I was able to locate a prior one that should be reusable and got that squared up. That I know was a blessing from God.

We went shopping for a pool for Noah.

Tried to work out the sale of 10 bunnies to one buyer.

I got the $1,000 bank check for the deposit on Wilcox and filled out the contract.

I talked with a buyer from church who is interested in Dewitt and talked them through the prop.

Tried to locate a better foreclosure listing service as IRSFL is not keeping the data current.

Talked with David about other possible buyers for 15th St.

I love you Jo and you inspired me to maybe keep a record of what I do.