Paul L. McCord Jr. » New Year

Happy New Year 2010

Paul — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:06:36 +0000

I just want to wish everyone a happy New Year as the clock strikes midnight.

Never Reboot While Blogging

Paul — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:51:42 +0000

I had a blog post typed up and was within a sentence or two of being ready to post when I decided to click “YES” on a request to reboot to complete a security update installation. Wow! That was not very smart because just as you probably guessed, the post was lost. This should be common sense and I must be lacking any. Well to sum up the post that was lost, it was just a year in review post. I was telling how 2009 was a year of milestones in our family. Many things happened that made it a very memorable year. For example my wife and I celebrated our 20th anniversary. I graduate the University of Oklahoma. I completed ten years of service at my current employer. My oldest son turned 18 years old. My family and I was able to visit my mom’s side of the family in New Mexico for the first time since 1989. My wife and kids had never met them and so this was a huge moment for us. I lost my mom in 2005 and as much as I miss her, I do not want to lose touch with her side of the family. Also my sister moved back to Oklahoma for the first time in 31 years. This was a rough transition but things are going very well for her as well. On a sad note, I lost my grandmother in March when she died at 90 years old. This was the last grandparent that I had.

Two of these events, namely my graduation and our trip to New Mexico was a little tainted because I was suffering from the worst case of poison ivy that I have ever had. I helped my dad clean up some vines and brush that was growing on his fence line and three days later I found myself itching out of control. Five weeks, three trips to my doctor and one visit to the emergency room later and I finally overcame this breakout. My doctor gave me some medication that I was allergic to that made it even worse eventually resulting in my going to the emergency room in Las Cruces, New Mexico. This was in May and June when this happened and to this day I still have some discoloration on my legs. For this reason my wife ordered me to never go into my dad’s backyard again . My graduation was supposed to be a glorious event though I could not enjoy it at the moment.

The National Weather Service reported that we had 14.1 inches of snow, later revised to 13.5 inches on Christmas eve. Even after the estimated snow fall was scaled back it was the most snow we have ever recorded in Oklahoma City. Here it is eight days later and we still have some snow on the ground. This year has been very eventful and happy for the most part. This year we have decided that we want to move away from my childhood neighborhood because the crime has reached a point that we want to have a restart. We will not be moving until 2011 but we are currently restoring the house to make it sellable. We are trying to go the extra mile so that we can get the most from our home when the time comes. We are hopeful for 2010 to be a wonderful year for our family. It will be difficult to match 2009 as far as impacting our family in a dramatic way. I will keep you up to date and see if it lives up to the previous year. I would like to thank all of you for your making my blog a place to stop. I really enjoy sharing our lives with the rest of you. I wish you all a very happy 2010.

Happy New Year

Paul — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 06:20:10 +0000

It just turned midnight and the neighborhood is loud with fireworks and firearms going off all around us. I hear horns honking, screaming and all sorts of noises. After waking at 4:45 AM it has been hard to stay awake throughout the day. My son is at his girlfriend’s house and we have to give him a ride home soon. The reality of a new year being here has hardly settled in with the fatigue. We managed to finish 2008 without any snow at all this season. The weather forecast tells of possible snowfall this coming Monday. I hope you have a great new year in 2009. It is time to go get my son so I better get this posted.

Happy New Year

Paul — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:02:14 +0000

I just wanted to post to say Happy New Year to everyone. It is hard to believe it is 2008 and that time is going so fast. We had a quiet New Year’s eve last night and it was peaceful. Today, Kevin and I went to the backyard and installed the new anchor rods that were damaged for the tower. Now the tower is finally secured after the ice storm. Now I need to get around and buy another stand off pole for the top of the tower so I can reinstall the Alpha Delta DX-LB Plus antenna. Thankfully it was not damaged when the neighbor’s tree fell on it. It did however, bend the standoff pole at the top. I am anxious to get it repair soon. The 40 meter dipole is broken so I will reinstalling that one.

I had the neighbor sign a permission slip giving me permission to cut the tree down so when the tree cutters arrive they will not give me a hard time about the tree not being in our yard. We only get off work for New Year’s day so we go back to work tomorrow. It should be nice to get back into the normal routine again.

I am disappointed in the Skype Pro that bought a couple weeks ago. It is giving errors when I try to call my relatives in New Mexico in area code 575. I can call any place in the United States, or Canada but for some reason that area code does not work. I have contacted Skype four or five times and they seem to not understand what I am talking about. Maybe now that New Year has arrived, maybe they will get it fixed. I will post more later.

Technorati Tags: Skype,New Year,damage,ice storm

Update December 30th, 2007

Paul — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:27:44 +0000

Hello everyone,

It has been an amazing year that is likely to get better next year. Yesterday we went to Checotah, Oklahoma near Lake Eufaula to visit with my father in-law and do our Christmas thing. We always do it the Saturday after Christmas so everyone can be there. We had a good time and got to see many people that I had not seen in a while. I spent a good portion of the day putting up a new television antenna on the house. I enjoy that sort of thing so it was fun. I took more that 100 pictures while I was there as well. Tomorrow is New Year’s eve and I have to go to work for one day before New Years Day off. I really do not want to take off anymore because I have really used a lot of vacation days this year with sicknesses and problems with kids and schools.

I looked at my pay statement this weekend and saw that I had taken off work for 42 days this year. Man, that is unbelievable. Next year must be better than that. This morning I went out to find some new shoes and could not find any that were comfortable. I have painful feet because I stand so much at work.

After that I went to a couple of places to find some anchors for my tower guy wires. As shown in the above picture, there is a very large tree branch that landed on my tower support wires. Those wires seen are 1/4″ thick and rated at 7,000 pounds. This pulled up one of the anchors on the opposite side about 10″ out of the ground. Right now the tower has no support and needs new anchors before our thunderstorm season arrives. The tower is 70 feet tall and if it falls in any direction, it will cause damage. I was not able to find any anchors so far. I am hopeful that I will have better luck later. I guess that is about it for now. I will post more as things happen.

Paul

Technorati Tags: New Years Day,Checotah,Oklahoma,tower

Don’t Happy Holidays Me!

Paul — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 04:22:06 +0000

If there is anything that really gets to me is the never ending “Happy Holidays” or Holiday this or Holiday that. It is CHRISTmas! We do not buy gifts for New Years Day, or Thanksgiving Day. This is the Christmas season period. Lets not forget that Christmas is the birth of Jesus. It has nothing to do with the fictitious Santa Claus. It amazes me that the very people on television that tell you to go buy a gift for your loved one for this “Holiday” season do not even believe in Jesus. This is one topic that really gets on my nerves. The commercials are all about getting your money and making you feel guilty than recognizing the true meaning of Jesus’ birth. There have been studies to show that most Americans would rather them say “Merry Christmas” as opposed to Happy Holidays but they will not do it because in this politically correct climate, they do not want to offend the one minority. In America the minority rules the majority. We do not want to offend the minority so we completely disregard the majority. Something is not right there.

Technorati Tags: Christmas , Jesus , God , Holiday , Thanksgiving , New Year

Peaceful New Year’s Eve

Paul — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 07:55:41 +0000

We had planned to go out to the even called Opening Night here in Oklahoma City. It is a multitude of events put on by the OKC Arts Council each New Year’s Eve. There are many venues around downtown. When I saw the weather forecast was suppose to be cold in the 20’s I decided not to go. We stayed home and talked on Skype a lot of the evening. My son wanted to kiss his girlfriend at midnight so we took him over there for a few minutes. When I got home, I could hear the thunderous rumble of the large fireworks display at Bricktown in downtown Oklahoma City. This was mixed in with all the gun fire and fireworks in the neighborhood.

Other than that it was a pretty calm evening and very relaxing. Anymore I would rather stay home with my wife than to go out socializing anyway. It has been 2007 for nearly an hour now and I am just about ready for bed. I hope you had a wonderful celebration as well.

Paul

Happy New Year Jesus!

Paul — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 23:36:46 +0000

This morning I woke up and did not want to go to church. Not because it is church but because it is a social event that I wasn’t really up to. I almost talked myself out of going but I made myself go and I am glad I did. You know, sometimes we get so involved in our hobbies and life that we forget that we only have so much time on this earth.

Have you ever wondered why you are here? I think everyone has a need to feel important and have a purpose and I am no different. I am a firm believer that God created the world and us for a reason. I believe that God had a purpose for me and everyone else. He has given me talents and abilities that I have a responsibility to use to glorify God. The same is true for you and everyone else.

This morning at church we sang a song called “Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble” that is a praise song that portrays Jesus as a King entering into His glory. We know the story of how Jesus willingly died so His blood could be the sinless sacrifice to pay for our sins. In the story Jesus is somewhat of a victim on our part. Those of us that believe in Him know that when He returns it will not be as a frail victim but as a righteous King and Judge.

That song is a somewhat gave me chills as I heard it. It sort of opened up my eyes to the King of the Universe that can destroy the earth with a blink of an eye sacrificed Himself as a man and endured unspeakable pain to pay the righteous judgement of you and I. If you ever grasp the gravity of this and believe it, you will not be able to help yourself but to be moved to tears. This morning was very powerful.

You may be able to tell by the words that I select in my vocabulary that my faith is of the charismatic origin. I am not Pentecostal but similar. I believe that if you can get excited about a football game and scream about it than it is perfectly normal to raise your hands and praise God for the King that He is.. After all, is there anything more exciting in the world than to know that the King of Kings has freely paid the debt of your sins? If you cannot get excited about that, what moves you?

You might be asking yourself why I posted this today. Well it is because I said in the beginning, God gave me certain talents and abilities and I would be irresponsible if I did not use them to glorify God with them.

There is a scripture in Revelation 12:11 that says…

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;…”

You see, I believe the word of your testimony is powerful. If it were not true the Bible would not say so. Since one of my best means of communicating is through the web, I feel that it is important to use it for God.

No I have not just become a holy roller recently and going through a phase. I accepted Jesus in 1986 and His presence has made a big impact on me. A fellow Christian once told me in an attempt to put the charismatic worship style down that “…our salvation is not all emotions.” While that may be true, why would you try to make our salvation simply a logical event without any happiness? I mean after all this is bigger than life and death.

I do not believe the Bible is a static book full of rules. I believe that God is alive and He speaks to us through the Bible. I am thankful and am blessed. On this dawn of a new year 2007 I can think of no better reason than to celebrate Jesus.

Technorati tags: Jesus, God, 2007, New Year, Testimony