Keys To My Heart

I have never felt this way before

I don't know where to begin

To show you how much my love for you

Has consumed me

 

There's a fire burning inside my heart

In a way that it's never been

It's out of control and it shows no signs

Of reducing

 

But I don't really care

If it leads me to my doom

As long as it's you who takes me there

 

I give you the keys to my heart

So open the door and stay forever

I give you my love from the start

And over and over again

 

I have fallen captive under your spell

You got your hooks in me

There is no way I could ever dream

Of escaping

 

You've awakened me from a fitful sleep

You opened my eyes to see

That nothing compares to the power of the love

That we're making

 

And I know that it's true

If you ever went away

My life would be nothing without you

 

I give you the keys to my heart

So open the door and stay forever

I give you my love from the start

And over and over again

 

My destiny calls to me

Pulling me constantly

Drawing me close to your side

 

I give you the keys to my heart

So open the door and stay forever

I give you my love from the start

I know that we always will be together

I give you the keys to my heart

Deep down inside there's a buried treasure

I give you my love from the start

And over and over again

We Will Remember You

You fought the good fight

With a smile on your face

And handled all adversity

With character and grace

 

You were always aiming forward

And never looked behind

So full of generosity

No one was more kind

 

And though our hearts are breaking from the pain

We rejoice to know our loss is Heaven's gain

 

This is the day that we prayed would never come

The time has come for us to say goodbye

And hold to the faith that we'll someday meet again

And in the arms of God we'll softly lie

But for now all we can do is just survive

We will remember you

All the days of our lives

 

Neither death nor life

Can ever come between

God's children and the greatest love

This world has ever seen

 

A love that can see us through

Any trial or loss

The love that our Christ Jesus

Showed upon the cross

 

And since he won two thousand years before

We know that you will live forevermore

 

Chorus

 

Repeat chorus

 

We will remember you

All the days of our lives

Blessing

I hope I have your blessing

For what I want to do

But we have to find a way to go on

Living without you

 

I wish that I could take your place

And let you live again

But I know one day my time will come

And we'll see each other then

 

But for now until that day is here

I've got a job to do

To let them know that it's okay

Feeling happiness anew

Making memories that are never going

To ever include you

And I hope I have your blessing

 

 

I hope you can forgive me

For what I'm going to say

But I've been alone a long long time

And I'm living day to day

 

I know I can't replace you

And I wouldn't care to try

But sometimes I need a hand to hold

And a shoulder where I can cry

 

The boys are growing up so fast

Soon they'll be on their way

I don't want to live my life alone

Under clouds of grey

I want to fall in love again

This is what I pray

And I hope I have your blessing

 

I hope I have your blessing

 

I hope I have your blessing

Leave It At The Altar

You've given me your offering today
You spoke the words I taught you to say
But you're carrying such baggage
Deep within your heart
Don't you know it's keeping us apart

Leave it at the altar
Leave it all behind
Cast away the doubt and fear
That's troubling your mind
Leave it at the altar
Give it all to me
I'll give you everlasting life
I will set you free
Just leave it all to me

The memories you cannot seem to shake
The habits much too hard for you to break
All you need to do is ask
I'll take away your chains
They'll fade away til only love remains

I've forgiven you your sin
It don't matter anymore
Now it's time that you forgive yourself 
Your past does not define you
I've opened up the door
So hold onto me and nothing else

There'll be no more misery
If you leave it all to me

Well, it had to happen...

I've been nursing the tires on my pickup for weeks now, but one of them finally gave up the ghost this morning.  Completely flat.  Nail.  It appears that only having a millimeter of tread or so is not conducive to puncture resistance.  Who knew?

 

So, I hook up my little mini air compressor, and listen to it shake, rattle, and roll itself silly wile ever-so-slowly inflating the tire to temporary usefulness.  First, off to a quick doctor's appointment.  By the time that's done with, the tire is half flattened already.  Crap.  Looks like I'm going to be later to work than previously planned.

 

The guy at the tire store seems to be a friendly sort - right away I'm given a free oil change with purchase of four tires.  That works.  The bad news is that the cheapest set they have in stock is going to run me $156 per tire.  With alignment, wheel balancing, taxes, blah blah blah, that's going to set me back over $800.  This, boys and girls, is why I waited so long to begin with.

 

Turns out they have a set in their warehouse (wherever that is) for $135 each.  Fine, I'll take it.  They send a driver out - should be no more than a half hour, 45 minutes tops.

 

An hour and a half later, dude still hasn't shown up.  By this time, I've sat through the end of Regis & Kelly, and half of The View.  Any more of this and I am going to have to turn in my man card.  The store manager, who's a dead ringer for Big Dane from West Coast Customs gets involved.  Calls the driver - "Where are you?"  Still at the warehouse,  a half hour away.

 

This is very not good.  I should have been to work by now.  Forget it, just give me the more expensive set that's here in the building.

 

In the amount of time it would have taken the dumbass driver to get back, I've got a better set of tires for the cheaper agreed-upon price, with free protection plan, and offer to hook up the diagnostic machine at a later time to figure out what's causing that pesky Check Engine light that's been on for the last 50,000 miles or so.

 

I haven't yet decided if I'm happy about the whole situation, but at least it gave me something to blog about.

Back to School! Yay.

Went with the teenager to register him for 11th grade today. What fun.

Step 1 - Stand in line to turn in two pieces of paper. I probably should have filled them out (along with the rest of the packet) before getting in the line, instead of trying to use my own chest as a writing surface. Oh well. Proceed to step 2.

Step 2 - Another line! (What a shocker.) Turn in more paper. Write a check. How on earth is a yearbook $80? Proceed to... you get the idea.

Step 3 - Pictures. Write another check, give to teenager who stands in line by himself, while I get shunted off to a holding area with the other parents to sit in too-small desks and stare at each other.

Step 4 - Teenager re-enters, only to stand in another line, this time for the sole purpose of getting a little sticker on his freshly minted school ID so that he can go off campus for lunch. Added bonus: line goes past formaldehyde-filled glass box with dissected cat on display. Reactions of female passers-by almost worth the wait.

Step 5 - Yet another line, this time at school library to get books, all seven of them! Once again, adults kicked to the curb as students proceed inside unaccompanied. Exactly what do they think will happen otherwise? Already getting hot at 10:30 in the morning. What happened to starting school after Labor Day?

Mercifully it eventually comes to an end, as all things must. Drop off kid at home, drive to work.

Tomorrow I get to do the whole thing over again with his little brother at the middle school. Double yay.

Adventures in Plumbing

I came home Thursday evening to a flooded bathroom.  Ah, the joys of home (such as it is) ownership.  Turns out that one of the tank bolts in the toilet had snapped, and the water drained out of the tank through the mounting hole.  Happy happy joy joy.

 

Step one: shut off the water to the toilet.  Well, the valve actually turns (not always the case) but won't close the valve entirely, and the tank keeps getting replenished with water.

 

Buckets!  Every half hour.  No fun.  This lasts until bedtime.

 

Okay, here's the deal - everyone go use the toilet in the other bathroom now, and then the main water valve in the house is getting shut off.  Thankfully enough, this one works.

 

The next morning, I stop by the mecca of all guyness (aka The Home Depot) and pick up a hardware kit.  I find one for $6.  Not bad.  I head back home with it and instruct the teenager to do what he can to get the other bolt out so that I can install the new hardware.  Okay, dad.

 

After a long, uncomfortable day at work (no shower), I finally trudge home resolved that no matter how long this takes, I am going to get this fixed.  When I get there, I find out that a) the tank's still attached, b) the teenager has used about a half can of WD-40 on the bolt/nut combination, with no luck, and c) he had the flash of brilliance to wedge the can under the tank valve so that it would stop trying to fill the tank.  Nice.  I wish I had thought of that the night before.

 

The problem is, the damn tank is still attached.  Time to get creative.  Hacksaw!  If we can't unscrew it, we'll just cut the bolt in the middle.  There's not a whole lot of room, and only about an inch of travel for the saw blade, but it's enough, and 20 minutes later I finally have something I can work with.

 

You'd be surprised at how disgusting the area between tank and bowl can get.  Gack!

 

Reassembly with new brass hardware (no rust!) is a snap, and the toilet becomes one, non-leaky piece again in about an hour's time, from start to finish.

 

Manhood confirmed.