God Is Good All The Time

I had prayed that I could see the path that God has put us on. Well If you look back the path is quite clear. Just this week so many things have gone right for us.  That is very impressive with all the stuff that has happened to Oklahoma in the past month.

This has been a pretty good week! I have been working with John Miller Homes and we have started work on a storm damaged home.  This is the house with the new roof, but all the windows were still broken

 
 

 They all looked like this...

 
The cool thing about this project is that is the house of the parents of a friend from High school. It’s sad when tornados do so much damage, but I am very happy to be part of the crew that is putting the home back together. Part of the roof was torn off almost all the windows in the house were broken and the work shop in the back yard was leveled. All in all not bad for what happened in Moore. The house next door had plywood sticking out of the walls

and the house across the street is just gone.  The trees that were on that lot were ripped out of the ground. The house sat behind the telephone polls and the pile of rubble next to the driveway, is all that is left of this house.

That is the difference between a direct hit from a F5 tornado and missing that tornado by 200 yards.                                                                                   Working with Lonnie has been great.

He really knows what he is doing, he is another survivor of Yukon High and he always has a smile. His good friend Jonny worked with us most of the week until the band he plays for went on the road. Jonny is a drummer... Jonny Walker is a drummer... What an excellent name for a drummer. So for most of the week it was Lonnie, Jonny,... and Bob.  Wow it's like the new stooges.

 

Other great news LRDezine, the business Linda and I started last week has been active. Less than 12 hours of sending our web page live, we had booked our first consultation. Thursday night we picked up our new business cards and pamphlets,

and Friday morning we participated in the Yukon Chamber of Commerce’s Friday coffee. This week’s coffee was called Stores without Doors. Normally a store hosts the coffee and everyone goes there and checks out their business but for all the home based business in town we go to the Dale Robertson Center and put up tables and highlight our business to the rest of the chamber. It was a great time we gave out lots of cards and brochures and booked another consultation. Now let’s turn the consultations into jobs.

 

Linda has applied for a position as an office manager for a company in the city if that comes through that will be a blessing. They know she homeschools and they are ok with Josh coming to work.

 

So overall a good week and I can see the starting points to the path that God is leading us, income right away, a business, and hope. Now if you would like to check out the new web site for LRDezine then go to LRDezine.com or go like us on Facebook.

 

Change is in the air

There is a time for a change and that time is now.  First Change will be the name of this blog.  I am leaning toward “The Life of Bob” and that will be the working title, but if you have an idea I will be open.  

Now for the rest of the story.

Two weeks ago (that would be 3/18/13) the day before my 50^th birthday, Storage Management Associates, the management company my old boss hired at the first of the year sent an area manager to Yukon Oklahoma to relieve Linda and myself from our servitude to the company. In other words we got fired. Ok not really a big deal I didn’t trust SMA anyway. Now I will let you know I do not hold any real grudge with SMA I could tell from the beginning it was never going to work.  The style of business that they do and what I have been so successful with are diametrically opposed.  So in the big scheme of things it was not a big surprise. 

Now on that day they fired us they also gave us 7 days to move out, and that did give Linda and I a fairly blue night.  Remember Tuesday is my Birthday and on my birthday for the past 6 years I have baked cookies and given them away last year I did 21 dozen.  This year I really wanted to make 50 dozen so Linda jumped in and started baking. Hey job or no job my 50^th birthday only comes once. That is when we got the call from a real close friend in California that her husband had passed away.  No matter how bad your problems seem there are always people whose problems are worse.  Anyway God is the one who is ultimately in control and he will lead us where he wants.

Tuesday happens and since Linda and I no longer have Jobs we could spend the whole day handing out Bob day cookies. The actual name of my Birthday is “Unofficial International Bob Day” I have networked this day with friends of mine to reach people on six continents.  It is crazy to think on March 19^th people all over the world are making and giving away cookies just to bring a smile.

 

 

Armed with 50 dozen cookies in 100 Red solo cups Linda and I gave cookies away from the north side of Oklahoma City through Yukon and ended up in El Reno.  We spread as much joy as possible and promoted the Military Prayer Group of Yukon an organization that prays for our men and women who serve our armed forces.  Bob Day ended very well.

 

Wednesday we woke up and started packing like crazy.  With the help of our friends lead by the unstoppable Joyce Roper

 

 

 we moved our 300 Square foot storage and our 200 square foot shop to 5 Star Storage owned buy one very honest and honorable man Rick Opitz.

 

Thursday I put my wife on an airplane to California to be with her best friend at the funeral of her husband.   Joyce and Samantha Matthews continued to move wood and boxes from Guardian to Five Star and Started packing up the house.

 

Friday we had more help come in and continue packing the house up. Once again Joyce led the charge and kept me focused.  Without my wife I can get bogged down in the little things it is nice to have someone step in and help.

 

 Saturday night Danielle and her son Gavin came by and packed like crazy. It was the final touch that made me feel ready for the morning.

Saturday was the big move our son Bobby brought the Red Neck army over to help.

 

My dad stopped by and lent a hand packing cleaning and moving.  My body had taken as much abuse as it could stand and it was nice to have the help. Saturday also brought the rain. So it looked like it was going to be a soggy move but Pastor Ron Rasmussen from Christ Church of Yukon brought a line of pickup trucks and we had the house cleared in no time. At one point it felt like we had so much help that I could easily lose control. God is so good he blessed us with an overflowing cup.

Monday I did some cleanup work in storage and ran errands around town. Then spent a long night at scouts explaining what just happened to Linda and me.

Tuesday I started work with John Miller doing some work on a home he was refurbishing. I also received a call from a company to come in for an interview.  Then I spent a long night at Joshua’s Karate class explaining what happened to Linda and me.

Wednesday I came in late to work on the house because of the Job interview.  Then I received a call that afternoon offering me the job.

Thursday I never made it to the house due to the fact it took most of the day to fill out employment paperwork and take a drug test. I then had the great pleasure of picking up my wife from the airport.

Friday I spent the day working for John and the evening with my family.

All that to bring us to today, we are staying with friends, my new jobs starts Monday,  we are blessed with more friends than you can imagine, tomorrow is Easter and God is good… all the time.

The Lights 2012 night one

The first night at the Christmas Lights at the Park was last night and it went pretty well.  The night started out warm enough but by 10:00 it did get cold.  Once again I got out of the cold by donning the Rudolf costume and running around for three hours acting like an idiot, but I got a lot of smiles from kids and adults alike.

 

Now not everyone was as warm as I was. Linda and Josh had to find their own places to get out of the wind.

 

The City of Yukon goes all out to make this the best light display and every year you find new lights.

 

 

As I said before if you get the chance to come down to Yukon and see the lights make it happen, you will not regret it. If you come on the 20^th be real nice to Rudolph.

Time For Another Auction

For the last two months we have been working on another auction.  Between the two stores we had a good dozen units going into auction status.  16 days ago when we sent the ad into the paper we only had 6 left.  That is not bad. Six units that paid up, or paid and moved. Paid and Moved is when a customer Knows they are never going to pay off their bill, so they offer 51% and get their stuff off the property.  The average that I try to achieve is 33 cents on the dollar so if I can get a bad unit emptied and still make 50 cents on the dollar I call that good. 

All good things do have to come to an end .  When we reach the cut lock day if the customer has not taken care of their debt then it goes to all or nothing. We had 6 units that had reached that point. 
One week out Linda got one of her units to pay up. That’s nice 5 units a good number for an auction. Then another unit pays up and I start thinking if Linda keeps this up we may lose this auction….. Let’s think about this…..  Linda gets people to pay up at full price, which is better than a pay and move and a lot better than 33 cents on the dollar at auction.

So we ride for a while with four units, not a great number for an auction, but livable.  Then it happened, the two units that were going to auction at my property both were paid off the night before the auction.  $1000.00 in the bank and we don’t have to take the risk of going to auction.  I could really get use to this.  But… this leaves only two units left.

Tuesday morning I get up and go have breakfast with the men’s group at church. When I get back home the phone starts to ring. People want to know what is left for today.  Two units we tell them, and then the call happens.  One more unit is coming in to pay up.  With 50 minutes to go one of our tenants comes in under the wire. We are down to one. At this point I am rooting for our last tenant to magically appear and pay off… it did not happen.

10:00 comes and we have 6 bidders and one unit. Oh yes!  the whistler came back and actually behaved himself.  It looked like this from my point of view.

 

And it looked like this from their point of view.

 

The end story is that the one and only unit that went up for sale today brought in $190.00 and the whistler did not stay in the bid for very long.

 

In one way it was a very lonely bid sheet. On the other hand we made bank through this auction process and the on unit  went for 55 cents on the dollar. Not bad all the way around.

The end of the week

Our stay here in Southern California is coming to an end. This day started off wonderful pancakes and bacon, then a nap on the couch with my grandson.  Naps with babies are the best. Now it is time to start packing.

Yesterday I took Josh to the beach and we had fun in the morning. Some of the waves got bigger than Josh but not many. It was a good time for pop and son.

 

Funny thing about the beach, even on a Thursday morning during school you can find people on the beach having fun.  This morning we had to walk around a wedding on the beach.

Later we had the family over and Stef and Tommy’s living room was over taxed. This is a small showing of the family.

Lunch with the family has been known to go over 50 and holidays are just silly.

Anther look into the life of Bob

This was an interesting day for a Bob.  We have made it to California, got one good night sleep under our belts and started our adventures. When in Southern California visiting family, what is the first thing you should do?  Go get haircuts! 

Linda has been going to the same person to get her hair cut for 25 years and when we are in town she gets an appointment.   This time we have a shaggy boy named Josh and the lovely Stef whom all need trims. It was a fun morning telling stories, catching up, and making everyone look stunning

 

Me, I was the designated driver.

Auction day

Today was Auction day!!!(Actually it was two days ago, it took some time to get back to the blog).   And I did not take one photo.  My apologies to all.  This was one of the best auctions I have had since I started managing here in Yukon.  Ok that is not totally true, this was Linda’s  first auction ever, and it was her site that really rocked today.

The auction started at Guardian Storage at 10: 00 am.  We had a total of 11 bidders signed in, that is 7 more than I have had here in three years.   With that increase we got the first of the, I know what  I doing and if you don’t believe me just watch me strut around, bidder.  I will call him the whistler.  This guy is a great example of someone who watches too much Storage Wars.  At least I hope he watches too much Storage Wars…. Gee, if he is naturally that much of a self-centered person his mama needs slapped.   This guy was so obnoxious it was almost fun to watch.  He would talk and talk , and when he was not talking he was whistling.  He was the first one to look in the door of a unit and the last to leave and he would stand in front of anyone else trying to look.  As the saying goes “Karma is a Bitch”.  

The first unit that went up on the auction block was a very nice room full of house hold stuff.  The whistler jumped into the fray early.  The bidding moved quickly and he would up anyone’s bid $25 even before they could get the bid out.  Around $300 it was down to the Whistler and the Big Spender.  The Big Spender was this nice guy who ended up buying the most units. I could tell the Big Spender was starting to wear down the Whistler because the bidding was slowing down. When the Big Spender hit $400 there was a long pause by the whistler as he looked and leaned as much as he could into the space.  At this point I was done and started to call for a final bid when out of the blue our First Timer chimed in with a bid of $425 The Big Spender nodded to the First Timer  to let her have the space I called out $425 going , going , gone.  With that the Whistler turned around and looked at me with a”what just happened” look.  I think he might have thought he had said the bid, but he did not and the First Timer got a real good deal. 

This is the way the bidding went for the other spaces, if the Whistler went after a space the Big Spender would out bid him or let someone else.  At the close of the Guardian Auction the Whistler was not whistling anymore and made a hasty retreat off the property.  So hasty that Linda and I, and several bidders made sure to get out of the way so not to be run over.  The lesson to learn here is to play nice with others. If you try to be the big dog of the pen you might just get bit.

Here is a picture of our Big dog

Findding employees is not that easy

Sometimes you have to take the bull by the horns.  We have been trying to hire a few part time- employees and have not had very good luck. We put ads in the paper twice and have received very few responses and most of those did not come close to qualifying.  So now I am going to use the direct approach.  I started at my son’s Karate class. I figured who would be better to work with but people who can protect me. Actually it was my wife’s idea.  I will be hitting up the Boy Scouts next; I hope to find some good summer help.

I just don’t get it, I thought with the economy being the way it is, people would want a job.  When I was trying to be an actor in Southern California, I worked for six months on the grave yard shift at a seven-eleven.  To me a job is a job and without one it makes it hard to pay the rent.  Not to mention, acting is a hard way to make a living.  Seven-eleven gives you all the free Slurpee’s you can drink.

Sometimes I do not think very clear

There have been days when I go to bed and think can I just have a re-due.

I spent a lot of time in my car today because I could not get my brains in to anykind of order.  For example I needed to take some duct tape, a hamer, one nail, and a "aa" battery to Access Storage.  After three trips out I still had not remember a single Item on that list. So when I finlly get fed up with not remembering I stoped by Lowes and bought a hammer, some picture hangers an took them back to Access.
"Look " I said walking in the door "I have gifts"  I produced the hammr and the hangers with pride. John looks at me for a second and says " and the 'aa' batteries"?
Aw crap! I stood right next to the "aa" batteries and never thought about picking them up.

Now the kicker.

What about the duct tape?

My brain scares me sometimes.