Chapter 7: Now What?

When I started working for the sawmill again they put me on the planer side of the mill, instead of the sawmill side. I caught on quickly and had some experience already. They decided that I had potential so they decided to make me a floater. They trained me how to do every job in the planer so that I could cover for anyone that was sick. They also trained me how to drive a forklift. The forklift I learned on was terrible! And the conditions were even worse. For those of you who don’t know, a forklift has three pedals: gas, a brake, and a clutch/brake. The clutch brake disengages the wheels from the gas so that you can give it gas while you are lifting something heavy without moving forward, even though you are in gear.

It is something you use all day long as a forklift driver. The one on this particular forklift SUCKED! Every time you would release it the whole machine would jerk back and forth violently. My job was to pick up unbanded, poorly stacked units of lumber and carry them across thirty sets of tracks (like railroad tracks, very bumpy) over to the stacker machine, which would then stack it neatly. Between the clutch-brake, the thirty sets of bumpy tracks, and the poorly stacked lumber I was dropping loads all the time. Not to mention that the guy teaching me was an absolute idiot! His name was Hec, short for Hector. He had been kicked in the head more than once by horses and bulls in the rodeo. He dipped snuff (yet another very stupid habit) and was very cocky. He had that “I want to be retarded” look on his face all the time.

My first day of training was humiliating. I was ready to give up. I thought they had made a big mistake by picking me to do this job. All night I dreamed of frustrating scenarios with my forklift. I was trying to move loads of lumber through my bedroom, but they wouldn’t fit through the door. I had to keep moving them around to try to make room. The whole thing seemed impossible. It was. I was dreaming. Duh?

Finally, I woke up and thought about the situation. Then it hit me. Hec is an idiot and he can drive a forklift! If that idiot can do it, I sure can! I went in the next day and I learned to drive that forklift well. I didn’t get frustrated or give up, no matter what. Ever since then I have always used that analogy. Anything I feel is impossible, I simply look at the people who are doing it already and I say to myself “Hec can do it and he is an idiot. If he can do it I sure can!” And then I do it. Every time.

In fact the Bible says that all the prophets and the great men that we esteem were men just like us, common men. We aren’t born heroes. We decide to be one. Men like you and me have made this world what it is because we believed it could be done and we didn’t give up until it was done. We have put people on the moon because someone believed it could be done, and they didn’t give up until they were there. That is a perfect example of faith in action. In James it says that faith without works is dead. Just like the body is without the soul, so is faith dead without works. What if they just believed it could be done, but never tried? We wouldn’t be there, would we? And I want to be there. So, I will not give up until I succeed... or die trying.

I became one of the best forklift drivers the sawmill had. I learned all the jobs there and I did them well. I was always fascinated with the inner workings of the whole thing, so it was fun for me to learn more and more. If you do your job with your whole heart the day goes by quicker and you are happier, plus you get noticed and you get raises. It is a win-win situation.

There was a guy that had been working the same station for 15 years! It was so boring! All he did was watch boards go by and make sure there wasn’t a “wreck”. About twice a day there was a wreck so he hit an emergency stop button and fixed the problem and then started everything up again. He sat there drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes and looking depressed and jittery all the time. You couldn’t really talk that much because it was so loud in there. It was like he didn’t even have a personality any more. Very sad. I think there are a lot of people like that in the world. Don’t they want to do more? I do. It is your choice you know. No one is going to force you to do something cool with your life.

Lots of the guys at the sawmill were missing fingers or had bad scars from industrial accidents. Some of them were “accidents” and some of them were “on purposes”. Sometimes we would have spikes that the tree-huggers would nail in the trees mess up our saws. The saw blades, which were enormous, would shred and fly everywhere. It was very dangerous. People got hurt. Sometimes stuff just happens if people are careless. Some of the guys would cut off fingers and stuff on purpose though. Insurance has a dollar amount for each injury. If you lose your pinkie finger up to the first knuckle you get a certain amount, but if it goes to the second knuckle you get more. So, if a guy was desperate he would cut off a little of his left pinkie finger and get about $70,000 or so. The money will spend and be gone quickly, but the finger will never grow back, Brainiac! Apparently they would sike each other up for it. That was disturbing to me. If you get hurt by accident that is one thing, but why would you do it on purpose?

Once you had an accident they couldn’t fire you because you could say that it was discrimination for their handicap. So, the guys that had missing parts didn’t do anything at all. One of them slept on the job everyday and nobody would say anything to him because his arm had gotten caught in some machinery and gotten torn up pretty bad. I don’t think he did it on purpose, but why not just do your job so everyone else doesn’t have to pick up your slack?

When I wasn’t working I would study. I read all the books I was supposed to for home study to be a pastor. I took all the tests. I worked hard. I also was very involved in church. I got to be a Sunday school teacher for every different age group from infant to adult at some point or another. I got to preach, and sing, and usher, and every other function in the church. I learned a lot. I also learned about church politics, which interest me about as much as eating broken glass. I know they have their place, I guess, but I don’t have to like it. Come to think of it I don’t actually know anyone who likes church politics, not even the ones who enforce them. Weird isn’t it? Do you like them?

One of the cool things I did was take a class in church on financial planning. I couldn’t have cared less about financial planning at the time, but I pretty much went to every church function anyway. I am so glad I took that class. I learned so much. There were a few highlights. 1) Never buy anything you can’t pay cash for 2) If possible, wait at least 30 days before making a major purchase to avoid impulse buys and unnecessary items 3) Set a financial ceiling for yourself. This was the most interesting thing for me. You see no matter how much money people make they always seem to be struggling. It is because they always spend more than they make. If you can survive on $20,000 a year then you can survive on $50,000 a year, right? But the people making $50,000 a year are struggling as much as the guy making $20,000 a year. Why? Because we are never satisfied with what we have, that's why. We always spend more than we have. It is our nature.

Set a standard of living that you are comfortable with. Anything you make above that save it, invest it, or give it away and you will always be rich, content, and happy. I applied that to my life and it is so true. It has helped me in more ways then I could ever even know. Someone said to me, “but you only make $20,000 a year. How are you supposed to live on that?” I thought “if someone handed me $20,000 for my year all at one time would I spend it on the stupid things I spend it on now? Probably not. So, how is it any different if it trickles in across a year? It isn’t. It is the same amount of money either way.” I chose to use my money wisely. So I lived like I didn’t have any at all. I was a lot happier and more content then the people around me. When I did want something I had already saved for it so I just got it and didn’t have to worry.

It really is a great way to live. I highly recommend it. If you really do have money than you shouldn’t care what people think of you. It is only the wannabe that has something to prove. The people showing the most flash are the ones struggling the most. Ironic isn’t it? In fact the average millionaire lives well below their means. If you didn’t know they were rich you would never guess it. It makes sense, ask around. You’ll be surprised. Here’s more interesting trivia: Did you know that 40% of homeowners own their home outright? In other words they have completely paid for their homes. They don’t owe anything to the bank or anyone else for that matter. I didn’t think that was true until I asked around and it is true. Try it.

Back to the story, River had been living in North Carolina this whole time by himself. He came up to visit my mom, who had moved to another town in Washington so I went to visit her as well. My hair had grown a little. His hair had grown a lot! It was down to his waist. He had learned a lot about music theory. He knew his scales and modes. He was amazing! He had his bass with him and played some stuff. I was impressed for sure. Of course I had been playing guitar and writing songs as well. He had decided to clean up his life and get off drugs. He was in a Christian band.

We discussed the possibility of merging our talents into one band. It seemed like I could reach a lot of people through music. It had always been a strength of mine. I always related well to the underdog or the losers or druggies. Partly because I had been there and I want to help and partly because fake people drive me insane. The lower class is down to earth. What you see is what you get. It may not be pretty, but it is real. Poor people are transparent. I like that.

Every winter the sawmill would lay a bunch of people off because of the snow. They would go on unemployment until work picked up again and then they would come back. It started getting slow and so I took a voluntary layoff. I figured I would get some unemployment money to get me through for a while and move down to North Carolina with River and join his band. I had saved a lot of money. I guess a lot is relative, isn’t it? For a long time I had been riding a bike to work. I finally got my driver’s license when I was 18 years old. Later I bought a 1988 Hyundai Excel for about $2,000. I paid cash for it, of course. I was making $9.79 an hour at the time, which was more than I had ever made. Plus I had saved about $1,000 on top of that. I would laugh at that now, but it was a big deal at the time.

So, I packed everything I owned into my little car and I drove to North Carolina. I stopped on the way and visited my mom and then I went to NNC to say hi to everyone. The rest of the drive was insane! It took four days total, including the two stops to visit people. The last day I drove 21 hours straight! I was so tired and strung out. I was slap happy and silly and sore. I showed up at River’s apartment at 3am. I saw a lot of cool things on the way like road signs and lines on the road (some of them had dotted lines), there were also a lot of cars and stuff too. It was great, but I was glad it was over. I’m not being sarcastic.

River and I caught up on old times and the next day I went and got a job as a painter. I had to lower my rate of pay to $7 an hour, which sucked. After a week or so I realized that everyone I worked with was retarded and all they wanted to do was get high and huff paint all the time, so I quit that job. Then I got a job putting on high rise roofs. That was fun! I learned a lot, and like I said I like heights a lot. It can be a little scary and dangerous at times, but the rush is the fun of it.

My first day on the job I climbed up a three story scaffold. It really wasn’t that high and I wasn’t afraid, but as I looked at the roof it started spinning around in circles. It wasn’t like I was sick; it was like the roof really was spinning. I stopped myself. I knew that couldn’t be true, so I looked again. It wasn’t the roof or me; it was the scaffolding that was spinning. It wasn’t really spinning either it was just kind of rocking back and forth in a circular pattern. All that happened in a split second, by the way. It is weird how your mind can play tricks on you like that. They say that deja vu happens when your present experience goes straight to your memory banks and bypasses whatever else it needs to hit first. So then it seems like we remember it happening just like this before, but it is only happening once. Freaky, huh?

I learned how to work safely in high places. I learned how to work with metal and roofing material. I learned how to think like water so that we could keep the leaks out. I overcame any fear of heights I might have had left. And I got a lot of cool stories. I also saw a lot of people get hurt. The owner of the company fell 50 feet through a skylight. He hit every beam and piece of steel he could on the way down. He died. Another guy let his seventeen year old son up on a roof. He fell through a skylight 50 feet also. He landed on his feet, but he broke both his legs and his knees broke both sides of his jaw. Not fun.

Another guy fell 50 feet and used his hammer to claw enough friction in the wall on the way down that he only got a little banged up. I was on an eight story parking garage one day. They took me off that job to work on a middle school the next day. The guy that replaced me the next day fell off that 8 story parking garage and died. We heard it on the radio. Roofing can be dangerous. Fortunately, I never got hurt. In Psalms 37: 23-24 it says “If the Lord delights in a man’s way he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.”

I have always claimed that scripture as a roofer. I have stumbled many times. I have had many close calls. I have even fallen off of several roofs. But I have never been hurt more than a few scratches. I live without fear because I know whose hands I am in. I have found that no matter how hard you try if it isn’t your time to go, then it isn’t your time to go. I know a guy that put a double barrel shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. He blew half his face off, but didn’t die. So, he pulled the trigger again for the second shot. It misfired, again and again and again. He couldn’t get the stupid gun to work for the death of him. It wasn’t his time. Later he shot a man five times in the chest and went to jail. In jail he found the Lord and was born again. It wasn’t his time yet.

On the contrary, no matter how hard you try if it is your time there is nothing you can do to escape the hand of God. Try all you like. When your number is up, that’s it. That might be discouraging for some, but not for me. You see for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. I want to go home more than anything in the world. I would give everything I have to be home. I am like a fish out of water here, gasping on the beach because I am not made for this. When I do go home I will sing for joy, loud and long. You will hear it down here. The corners of my mouth will touch in the back of my head because I will be smiling so big!

So, I am not afraid to die. I can dance on the edge of life and death and danger, all the while knowing that either way I am OK. A long time ago I asked God to take me home as soon as I became useless to him here. So, every morning I wake up I realize that there must be more for me to do. I must have more usefulness left in me. God must need me for something today, so I look for that something. I look for a way to be used that would put a smile on his face and that would bless the people I live with everyday. At any time I am totally content with dropping everything and going home to heaven, but until that moment I refuse to live in fear of anyone or anything.

I am free, but I am bought with a price. I will not waste the talent I have been given. I will not cower away from my duty. There are no cowards in heaven. In Revelation 21:7-8 it says: “ He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.”

Meanwhile, back at home, our roommate Brian wasn’t all we wanted in a roommate or a band mate. One day I needed shampoo and we were out in our bathroom so I went to see if he had any I could use. As I walked through his room I saw the biggest porn collection I think I have ever seen. There were videos everywhere and a crate overflowing with magazines. It was disturbing to say the least. It was all he could talk about. Everything that came out of that guy’s mouth was sexual and pornographic and disturbing. He eventually locked himself in his room for a month and would only come out to eat while we were gone.

We had a Bible study in our apartment. One day we all showed up for the Bible study and Brian had plastered girl on girl porn up on the walls in the living room! He degenerated quickly and we saw it. He wouldn’t talk to us or answer the door when we knocked. It was weird to say the least. We got the feeling he was about to leave us with all the bills and just disappear into Pornland or something, so we talked about it. We didn’t like being there anyway. We decided that we were young and free. We could go anywhere and do anything we wanted. We could move down the road or to the other end of the world. Anything was possible for us.

We figured America was the safest place to live for now on our limited funds. I didn’t want to live anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon line because I hate cold weather. The Deep South was ignorant and racist for the most part. California was too expensive, we thought. Florida was in the running and so was Texas. We had lived in Arlington before and James had moved to Dallas. We heard there was a good “heavenly metal” scene there. So we quit our jobs, packed all our stuff into my little car, and drove to Texas. I drove the whole trip because River didn’t have a license yet. It was raining hard and I drove without stopping, except for gas.

On the way into Dallas traffic was at a standstill. I didn’t see it in time. I hit the brakes, we screeched and squealed to a stop, but not before rear-ending a little old lady in front of us! She got out of her car holding her neck and I knew it was over for me. I had just been in two other wrecks within the last month. (I had pulled out on a blind corner in North Carolina and did $2,700 worth of body damage to some lady’s car and I ran over a huge rock in the middle of the road and punctured my gas tank. No fun.) The old lady I rear-ended and I talked and, for whatever reason, she let me go. She said there was no damage to her car and she would probably be all right. I could hardly believe it! My car on the other hand had frame damage something serious! I had to turn the wheel all the way to the right just so it would go straight. It cost about $500 of the $700 I had saved to fix it. Bummer, huh?

We got to James’ house and he let us stay with him for two days while we found an apartment and some jobs. He told us to follow him into Arlington, so I did. He drove way too fast and at the last minute cut out of a lane in traffic. I couldn’t get out in time because there was a car next to me. I hit the curb and popped my tire and bent my rim. James didn’t stop because he hadn’t seen it so I had to chase him down with my broken tire. It sucked! When he finally did stop I got out to fix the tire, but my spare was under EVERYTHING WE OWNED! I was a little frustrated that night. I threw the tire down on the ground and it bounced out into the highway. I am an idiot! I finally got it all fixed and luckily nobody was hurt.

We got a one-bedroom apartment that was two apartment complexes away from the one my old dealer lived in (the one who got busted right in front of me). River did food service, as usual. I saw an ad to “Be a manager for $40,000 a year, long hairs OK.” I had long hair and I wouldn’t mind making $40,000 a year so I went and applied. It was a scam. I solicited copycat perfume to people who didn’t want it. I think I made about $27 in a week, and then I quit.

I found a job as a roofer putting on aluminum roofs. They are expensive so we only worked for rich people. Rich people are very picky. They feel like you owe them the very best. I just got used to doing work for picky, petty people. I often wanted to tell them how lucky they were to have any of this stuff at all. I wanted to invite them to our one bedroom apartment where we both slept on the floor with no air conditioning, but I held my tongue. I did what I was told and once again I learned a lot.

On December 7th, 1992 we went to East Park Church of the Nazarene for the first time. I saw a girl across the church that was beautiful. She was outgoing and fun and she was a leader in the church. Her name was Lana. She introduced herself to me and stuck out her hand. I was very impressed. After church everyone was milling around. I wanted to talk to her, but this guy wouldn’t leave me alone. Finally I turned around right in front of a group of strangers and said, “Do you want to go out tomorrow night?” She was busy. I said what about Friday? Also busy. What about Saturday? Saturday was good. Everyone looked at me like I had the biggest balls they had ever seen. Maybe I did? Or maybe I had been single for four years and didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to see this gorgeous girl again.

Back when River and I had been doing drugs we had some friends named Bobby and Justin and Bruce. Bruce was my age (19) and the other two were River’s age (17). When I had gotten saved 3 years earlier I had talked to them about Jesus. When we came back to Texas they had become Christians as well. We had Bible studies and hung out a lot. We all encouraged each other. River joined their band. I was busy. Anyway, Saturday finally came and it turns out Lana lived almost across the street from Bruce and Justin. It was weird. We talked all day and seemed to have everything in common. We got along great. I was very happy. I was in love!

Lana and I saw each other every day from then on. I think I proposed to her within about a week of going out. I just knew she was the one. The problem was that she was seventeen and still in high school and I was nineteen. I didn’t see it as a problem. I was willing to wait anyway. By the time I was her age I had lived on my own for years, lived a lot, died once, been to hell, and built my first house, and everything else you have just read. Seventeen was a ripe old age to me. I often forget that other people have normal lives.

Lana’s dad didn’t like me at all. I think a big part of it was my hair. He thought I was a loser. One day he needed some help on a job (he owned an erosion control company). We dug ditches, and wheel barrowed dirt, and hauled, and dumped heavy loads all day. I never slowed down. That night I had dinner at their house. Lana eagerly asked, “So, how did John do today?” Her dad knew he couldn’t say anything bad so instead he grumpily said, “Well, everyone has their gifts, and I guess John’s is with dirt.” That was his idea of a compliment. Oh well. I knew I did a good job, no matter what he said. He seemed to lighten up a little after that. I guess he respected me or something.

Then her mom decided to hate me. I don’t even remember why. She just did. She was a mess inside anyway. I don’t know if she was ever happy. In her mind she had had a hard life. Tough. We have all had a hard life. Suck it up. Learn to be freaking’ nice! It isn’t that hard, and it is a lot more pleasant for the rest of us.

Her parents tried to forbid her to see me. That didn’t work so they told her that she needed to finish high school, finish college, work for a few years, and if she still liked me then we could get married. That would be seven years! No way! They were just mean. After a while they pretended to like me, but it was very fake. I think they just tolerated me. That made for a hard relationship. Why does misery love company so much? Why can’t people just be happy for you? So what if I wasn’t what they had always dreamed of for their little girl. Maybe they weren’t what I had always dreamed of for in-laws? So there. Did you ever think of that?

I worked like a slave at the roofing company. I got moved up to the best roofing crew they had, with Milton Tunnell. We had the same last name, but we weren’t related. He also pronounced it wrong. It is actually Tunnell, with two L’s. So it sounds like “Ton El”, not tunnel like a hollowed out spot in a mountain. He said with his hick accent “Yeah, Daddy always said it was supposed to pronounced Tunnell, but we always just thought it was easier to say tunnel.” Another guy I worked with laughed and said “Why would you pronounce your own name wrong? ‘Yeah, daddy always said it was supposed to be Rosenbower, but we just thought it would be easier to say Smith!’ ” That was an ongoing joke for the rest of the time I worked there.

By the time I was done working there I was making $8.50 an hour. We had been working off of a hailstorm from a few years back and the work finally ran out. By this time I had been made the youth pastor at East Park Church of the Nazarene. I had gotten my Local Pastor’s License. I could marry people and bury people and I could preach. I made $85 a week as a youth pastor. It is great money if you don’t like to eat...at all! River and I had moved into the parsonage that the church owned. It was condemned.

There were holes in the roof. Some of the windows were broken. The place was FREEZING COLD, except in the summer when it was BURNING HOT! The water was undrinkable. We had to put water in jugs from Lana’s house and drink that. It was hard water… or soft, I don’t know really which is which. Either way it was slimy and smelled like sulfur. When you took a shower you never felt clean. You would rinse the soap off, but it always felt like it was still there. It was slimy and gross, Yuck! The second shower just sprayed water out of the wall and it shocked you if you touched the water, so we didn’t go in there. Would you?

Looking back it was sub-human. I would never ask anyone to live like that, but at the time I was so very grateful for it. I guess I was really pathetic... or maybe I’m just stuck-up now. I don’t know.
I tried really hard to do a good job as a youth pastor. I organized stuff all the time. We had concerts in the fellowship hall. It brought lots of people and everyone had fun. We had lock-ins and outings. We went on a mission trip to Mexico. Boy. I thought I had it bad until I went to Mexico. Those people know poverty like I never will. While we were there River and Lana went out to do ministry work and help cook while I stayed back and helped build a church for them. We did a lot on a week. I realized how impatient and ignorant I am about other cultures. I tried to learn their words and communicate, but it was just terrible. I sucked!

One night, back in Arlington, we had a concert at the church. It was a lot to organize, but I was good at it. One of the band members was cold, so naturally, I lent him my jacket. He accidentally took it home with him. It changed hands a few times and then ended up at the guitar player’s house. After a while I started to get cold without my jacket. I had gotten laid off from roofing earlier that day. I had prayed that God would provide a job that could make at least the $8.50 an hour that I was making and would work around my youth pastor schedule. Two things that I thought would be impossible. So I tracked the jacket down to Jason and asked if I could come get it. It turns out he lived right around the corner from Lana. I drove right over. I had met his dad, Doug, a few times and we started talking.

Doug was a very smart man. He was a pilot and he had owned several companies. He knew something about everything. I told him I had been laid off and jokingly asked him if he needed a new roof. He said “No, but I do need a tile floor laid. Can you do that?” I told him I was willing to do it, but that I had never done it before so I couldn’t make any promise as to the outcome.” He didn’t bat an eye. “There is a free class at Home Depot on how to lay tile. Take the class. If you think you can do it, then I will pay you $10 an hour. I will buy all the tools and the materials, but I get to keep the tools at the end.” So, without a thought, I agreed.

I took the class and it was easy. I stripped his linoleum floor in the kitchen, dining room, and laundry room. Then I laid ceramic tile. The next day I grouted it. Doug and Jason were there most of the time. We had a lot of fun. The floor looked great! I was $385 richer. Doug was happy. It was cool. Doug said to me “Maybe this will turn into a business for you? Who knows? You are pretty good at this.” I laughed and told him that after this I was going to get a real job. But, before I was done he said he had a neighbor across the street that designed helicopters for a living that needed his house painted. Would I be willing to do the same deal for him: $10 an hour, plus tools and materials?

It wasn’t like it was rocket science so I agreed. I needed the money, so I worked. When I finished that job there was another friend that wanted some siding repaired. Pretty easy, so yes, I did it. Then the jobs just kept coming. I never stopped working. Every time someone would ask me if I could do something new I would tell them I could take a look. It always seemed pretty easy even if I had never done it before, so I never said no. The jobs got more and more complex, but I just did them. It was easy. It was challenging sometimes. It was hard work physically, but brain wise it was a piece of cake for me. Every job I got I would say, “after this I’ll get a real job.” In case you are wondering, I haven’t had a real job since. I have been self-employed since I was 20 years old.

On my second job I needed some help so I paid River to help me. I just charged the same $10 an hour for him, but gave him $8 an hour and kept two for myself. He knew and he was just happy to be making $8 an hour. Eventually word got out to the local musicians that I was easy to work for. I never made any promises. I was honest with them. I would say “I know I have enough work to keep you busy for 3 or 4 weeks, beyond that I don’t know.” Musicians don’t think about the long run, so they agreed. I never ran out of work. I didn’t advertise or try to get work ever. I just did the jobs I had time for and I never said no to anyone. It didn’t matter how impossible it was I would find a way to make it work, orthodox or otherwise.

I got a huge customer base pretty quickly and I had lots of repeat business. I remembered every job by the name of the home owner and so did my crew. We knew the neighbors of our customers. We knew their kids and where they worked. We knew because I cared more about them than the actual job I was there to do. Don’t get me wrong I always did my job well, but I always made time for the customer that I was working for. The way I saw it they were spending a lot of money on me and I wanted to make sure they got what they wanted out of the whole thing.

To me it was just common decency and good business, but to everyone else it was groundbreaking to have a contractor who showed up on time, on the day he said he would be there, with no excuses. I did the job in the time I said I would do it, for the price I said I would do it for. I was a man of my word. If I took a loss then I took a loss, but I wouldn’t change a price unless they added something that wasn’t in the original agreement. We would take our shoes off if we went in their house. We worked hard and fast. We all spoke English and were intelligent. I led my crew by example. There was nothing I would ask them to do that I wasn’t willing to do myself, and they knew it. If there was something that was harder or more dangerous I would do that, so that no one else had to risk their lives. Everyone told their friends about me and the business prospered. Doug was right. It did turn into quite a business for me.

I taught myself all about gross profit as opposed to net profit. I learned how to do my taxes. I kept my own books. I was the salesman. I was the problem solver. I was the CPA. I did it all. There was nothing our crew couldn’t do. We could build a house from the ground up with no help from anyone and never skip a beat. And we were all friends. It was great! I was friends with my customers for the most part and I was friends with my crew.

In the meantime Lana and I got engaged. I got her a ring. At first she didn’t wear it because she was afraid of what her parents would say. After a little while she told them it was a promise ring so she could wear it around them. They didn’t really have anything good to say about me and it seemed like they were always trying to break us up. I ended up remodeling their entire house. It was gorgeous! My hands touched every room in that place and it looked beautiful. I put in hardwood floors and ceramic tile. I redid their cabinets and sinks and faucets. I painted the whole thing inside and out. I built a huge deck with a pool. I put up a new fence and built an office in the backyard. I put fans in everywhere and wallpaper and chair rails. I put in pavestone and a walkway in the backyard. Anything that needed to be fixed, I fixed it. Still, I got no credit.

After Lana graduated she had planned on going to Oklahoma to go to Southern Nazarene University. I had planned on going with her. One night her mother and I had a talk. She forbid me to go to Oklahoma. I tried to be polite, but it eventually came down to this “ I am a grown man and I’ll go wherever in the world I choose to go with or without your blessing. I love your daughter and we are going to get married. Live with it.” I’m pretty sure she never forgave me for that. Women never forget a wrong that was done to them...ever. Years later it was still being brought up. Get over yourself. Not everyone shares your opinion. Contrary to popular belief the world doesn’t revolve around you.

It came down to the last day. I had resigned as youth pastor. I had wrapped up all my loose ends with the business. I had given notice and packed my stuff. Then Lana said “I don’t want you to come to Oklahoma with me. I want to date around and be young and then later we can get married after I get out of college and work a few years.” Well, I knew where that had come from. Her parents. It still stung. So, she went alone to college. A few days later she called me up crying. She missed me and wanted me to be there with her. She couldn’t believe she had been so stupid as to listen to her parents. So, I moved to Oklahoma.

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