Installing a Ceiling Fan

My second project for the day was installing a ceiling fan in the bedroom.  We’ve had the fan for a month and today is the day to git ‘er done!

I carefully opened the box, found and removed the packet containing the instructions.  I’ve learned from previous installation projects that it’s good to read the instructions before ripping open the box and scattering all the parts around the house.

So I read through 6 pages of step-by-step, detailed instructions (with photos and diagrams) and it really looks doable!  I can’t quite picture all the details, but it looks like it will make sense when I get to it.

The first thing is to make sure the electrical box you’re going to install it to is UAL approved and properly fitted, then go for it.

I took the existing light fixture down and discovered that the existing electrical box is plastic and is not properly anchored to a ceiling joist or support bar and I have no idea what to do next!

Thinking it through, it seems that one might go into the attic, try to avoid falling through the ceiling, and carefully fit a support bar between two ceiling joists at just the right location to match the hole in the ceiling sheetrock, install an approved electrical box, and properly attach and anchor the electrical wires.

Thinking it through again, that’s way beyond my agility level (climbing up a ladder, through a 16-inch hole in the closet ceiling, picking my way over the wall into the space above the bedroom, crawling across 14 feet of ceiling joists – and then discovering I forgot the tape measure).  It’s also way beyond my skill level to think I could get the support bar cut and installed so it would support the weight of a ceiling fan.  And I have no doubt we’d have a sort of oblong hole in the ceiling sheetrock about a foot from where the fan should go.

So I put it all back in the box for now as I settle down to await a visit from a carpenter-electrician angelic being who will figure out what to do next.

I did, however, manage to put the existing light fixture back and it still works.  So at least we’re no worse off than when I started.  Oh, and I vacuumed up all the sheetrock, insulation, and plaster dust I scattered all over the bedroom.

Because He Chose Me

1 I love the Lord because he hears and answers my prayers. 2 Because he bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I have breath! (Psalm 116:1-2 NLT)

I’ve learned so much about the relationship between God and me from my dog Buddy. On a Friday morning in January 2003, Jean and I visited the local Humane Society and I saw a black and brown dog in a cage. I’m pretty sure I loved this dog from the moment I saw him, and Jean and I immediately made arrangements to adopt him. When we chose to adopt him, we rescued him from an unknown fate. When we chose him his life (and ours) was changed from that moment. When we chose him, we chose accept responsibility for him for as long as he lives.

I love Buddy because he’s my dog and I chose him. He loves me (affectionately, trustingly, dependently) because I feed him, provide for him, and care for him in ways he cannot even think or imagine in his little doggy brain. Buddy has no idea how much Jean and I actually do to care for him and provide for him. As long as there’s food in the dish and water in the bowl and a ride in the car and a run in the desert, he’s happy with his life! He’s happy to be my dog Buddy.

God loves me because he chose me. God chose me because of his mercy, compassion, kindness, and grace. Because he chose me, I’m his born-again, rescued, adopted child Jimmy. When he chose me, he accepted responsibility for me for as long as I live. My relationship with God is based on my dependency and his sufficiency. He cares for me and provides for me in ways I can only imagine. And I so quickly forget how much he does for me. There’s nothing like prayer to keep things in perspective. I pray because I have needs. I love him because he hears me and responds to my prayers.

God loves me because he chose me. He chose me because he loves me. He hears me because he is God. He answers because He is good. I’m happy to be his rescued, adopted son Jimmy!

Prayer:

Father, 12 What can I offer you for all you have done for me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation; I will praise Your name for saving me. 14 I will keep my promises to You in the presence of all Your people. (Psalm 116:12-14 NLT)

That Some Day We May Ride Bare-back

To shrink back from all that can be called Nature into negative spirituality is as if we ran away from horses instead of learning to ride. There is in our present pilgrim condition plenty of room (more room than most of us like) for abstinence and renunciation and mortifying our natural desires. But behind all asceticism the thought should be, “Who will trust us with the true wealth if we cannot be trusted even with the wealth that perishes?” Who will trust me with a spiritual body if I cannot control even an earthly body? These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies were given to schoolboys. We must learn to manage: not that we may some day be free of horses altogether but that some day we may ride bare-back, confident and rejoicing, those greater mounts, those winged, shining and world-shaking horses which perhaps even now expect us with impatience, pawing and snorting in the King’s stables. Not that the gallop would be of any value unless it were a gallop with the King; but how else—since he has retained his own charger—should we accompany him?

C.S. Lewis – From Miracles

Glimpses of Beauty

Here’s a line from my list of To Do’s for today: Look for glimpses of beauty in the moment. Point out beauty spots to others who may have missed them.

So when I walked Buddy the Dog four blocks around the neighborhood, I consciously looked for glimpses of beauty. Here’s some of what I saw:

  • Glittering diamond-drops of water on the grass.
  • Glowing pearls of ice-drops on branches in the shade.
  • Flowers – lavender, purple, red, yellow, pink, more yellow.
  • New leaves glowing fluorescent green as the morning sun shone through.
  • Buddy the dog, high on sniffing a hundred morning smells.
  • Buddy pulling the leash and swaggering the way he does when he sees another dog.
  • Miniature elm leaves just forming on the branch.
  • Snow peaks ahead as I turned toward home – all white with only spots of black rock showing.
  • Lawns fresh-mowed with the cut pattern still sharp.
  • Fuzzy lawn, needing mowed (mine!)
  • Cold breeze blowing on my face when I walked east and at my back on the way home.
  • Fresh red bark dust next to weathered brown bark dust in a yard, smells great.

That’s what I saw this morning.  I just wanted you to know.