Official Luthiers Forum!

_________________
Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Since I am (supposedly) retired and not married, most folks think I am the guy sitting at home by the phone bored out of my mind. This means I get calls for help.... One week it could one of old ladies in my Studebaker club needing their car worked on, or a call from a local church charity needing an old couch hauled, or a tree trimmed. I really wish I could say NO, but I was raised right and say YES unless absolutely prevented by other circumstances. I volunteer to deliver donuts to the local Golden Agers club in Evergreen Park on alternate Mondays. I could go on, but it will sound like I'm bragging. The truth is, I believe in serving - but when my butt is in the sling, I can't get anyone to help me. Now I sound like a grouch. That's more like the real me.

So, Lance - give your stuff to someone else. I just needed to vent.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

My wife is a school teacher for a Pre-K through 1st grade (I think! ) Montessori school. We always try to help out the school buying supplies and donating time to clean, etc... Last weekend I thought it would be great to go and clean out the fish tank. It's a 30 gallon tank and no-one has time to really take care of it.

I proceeded to change over the water, scrub the walls, take out all the rocks, the ship, etc... and scrub off the algae. I get this great idea - "Why don't I buy them some new aquarium stuff like a new rock for the fish to hide under, maybe the spongebob pineapple feature, etc...". I head over to the pet store. While there it dawns on me that what this tank needs is a plecto to do the housekeeping. The pet store has this huge plecto that looked cool. The kids called it "the sucker fish". I bring this all back to the school, finish cleaning the tank, add the plecto. It looked great. I was so proud of myself for doing it. It was only 50 bucks out of my pocket, but I knew the kids would love it on Monday morning.

Three days later all the fish and the plecto had ick and died.

That's what I get. Merry Christmas!!

_________________
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

Cool Lance...

Can't think of any acts of kindness gone bad to compete with the others, but I might be able to spin a yarn...

My typical teenage son, who is sure dad knows nothing, has been taking the online portion of his scuba certification for the entire summer. The prompting I gave him (fairly regularly) about getting the course done in summer fell on deaf ears and last week the dive instructor called with a date for the open water certification, this past Sunday.

Dawn broke with a clear sky, and that only means one thing in winter... cold. When he came home from church, he was not too enthused about the upcoming dive later that morning, "Dad, it's cold out there.". Of course i gave him my best fatherly sympathetic advise to "suck it up". Climbing into the car for the trip to the shore I made the effort to point out the temperature outside was a crisp 16F. I tried to help him look on the bright side and told him that the ocean had not yet given up it's summer heat and the water temp was sure to be at least 40F. That did seem to help his attitude a little, so I made sure to explain how the day was sure to warm up as we drove. "Why look!", I exclaimed... it's already 19F. "Why, it may even hit 25 by the time we arrive. I never noticed before but my son has an odd way of smiling.

By the time we reached the shore it actually did warm up to a near tropical 31F and i was almost sweating in my parka. My son didn't appear to appreciate ol' Sol as he stripped down to to his skivvies. What teen doesn't love an opportunity to catch some rays on the beach? I think he may have been watching the instructors don their dry suits, with their insulated underwear while he considered the sanity of wearing a wetsuit. Just don't move your arms too much, I advised, and don't drop your head down, Those movements tend to suck water into the suit and there's nothing like a shot of cold water down the spine to help one to appreciate a winter dive.

My act of kindness? Before he entered the water, I pulled out a cooler with 4 gallons of hot water that he could pour down the suit before and after the dive. After the dive, it was particularly appreciated, and if he had a tail it would have been wagging. I swear his color actually went from purple to a slightly bluish-red and I am sure that if he could have talked through his numbed lips he would have thanked me.

I don't post much any more, but saw this thread and figured it would be a good place to share this story.

This spring I was coming home from the doctors office (which unfortunately I have been a frequent visitor). I was driving down one of the busy 4 lane streets when I spotted something laying in the middle lane. As I passed it it appeared to be a leather bag or something so I decided to turn around to see exactly what it was. When I got out of my car and walked over to it I saw it was a very nice leather purse so I picked it up and went back to my car. I could tell it has stuff in it but didn't look in it since I was stopped in the center lane. When I got home I opened it up and it had the normal stuff a woman would carry with them but also had about 12 bank envelopes in one pocket in the purse. As it turned out it ended up having over $15,000.00 in it and also had a woman's wallet with a drivers licence and a medical card. I tried looking her up in the phone book but couldn't find her. I did have a Dr. office number so I called it and explained to them what happened but they would not even call her and let her know that someone found her purse. I ended up taking it to the police department and told them I couldn't find the owner and figured they would be able to. The officer took my name and said they would handle it. Later that evening I got a call from the officer and he said he found the owner and she wanted my name and number. About 20 minutes later I get a call from her son and explained what happened. His mom's house caught on fire and burned all her stuff so they were out shopping for all new furnishings for her new apartment. They were at a complete loss as to what happened to her purse but when I told them where I found it they figured out that she had put the purse on the roof of the car and it fell off in the road.

They offered me a $1,000 reward for finding it but I told them I was just happy to have returned it. They wanted to meet me and thank me in person so I met with them and they bought me lunch then next day. It turned out to be her life’s savings and this went from being one of her lowest points to one of her highest.

I was just happy to have helped her out.

RUSROB! Leader in the clubhouse!


Wow what a story!

_________________
Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I say just end the whole 12 day thing and give the whole lot of goodies to Bob Russel. Things like that restore my faith in humanity. God Bless You Bob.

Its all good stuff for sure!

_________________
jw ( o)===:::

FYI I am waiting to hear from Emily, she is picking the winner today.

_________________
Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

The winner of today's gift is

BRAD COMBS!

Brad I will catch up with you after new years and get this shipped out

Congrats!

_________________
Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Cool! I will shoot you a PM of my address. The fish did not die in vain!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

_________________
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

I know this was for yesterday but I just saw it today and had to share what happened to me tonight.

Today was the third consecutive day that I didn't have a chance to eat lunch (actually just forgetting to stop and eat because there were other things I could be doing to help our patients and/or team members through an exceptionally busy spell). Skipping lunch isn't that big of a deal accept for the fact that I get nauseous if I eat within a few hours of waking up; for the last 20 years or so, I have gotten accustomed to a two meal a day schedule. I have a couple of very serious medical issues with close loved ones right now and have been sucombing to the stresses of life more than I normally would. Tonight I picked up the kids and headed home absolutely dreading the notion of having to cook dinner when all I wanted to do was eat and sit down in the quiet for a few mins. After all, other than a few random Christmas cookies, I had eaten two meals since Sunday night's dinner. As I got out of the van, I saw two of the kids from down the street come running up the driveway. They had to have been watching for my van out the window. They were carrying the dinner their mother had made for my family. I suppose I had been looking frazzeled at the bus stop the last few mornings so she took it upon herself to cook for us. It could not have been a more perfectly fit or timed gesture.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.