Sometimes I Wonder...

I'm just now getting around to responding to a letter I received in June of this year. That letter came from an insurance / investment group in Fort Payne, Alabama, and was hand addressed with my father-in-law's name. Inside the envelope was a business card, a company flier, a response card, and a personally signed letter with the following initial information:

RE: "STOP PAYING LIFE INSURANCE PREMIUMS FOREVER"

Recently I received your reply card requesting information on the above topic. Enclosed please find the information as promised to you.

My letter of response:

To the "person" in charge:

You sent this material for <Father-in-law's name> to my address earlier this year. You stated (LIED) that you "had received your reply card..."

<Father-in-law's name> died in November 2005. His name is only associated with my address because of that death.

I suggest you find a better mass mailing database. The one you used for this mailing only confirms one of two things:

You're cheap.

or

You're stupid.

Your choice.

Sincerely,

Byron Todd

I mailed the original contents and my response back to the "person". I was seriously tempted to use the word moron or idiot instead of "person".

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Bad Dining Experience

I sent the following letter today. I've edited out some of the personal information in what is displayed below. Just writing up that letter brought up bad memories, and I, for one, am glad to put this behind me. Though I still won't visit the local Chick-fil-A's.

Byron Todd

Chick-fil-A
1008 South 4th Street
Gadsden, AL 35901


To Whom It May Concern:

I'm writing to tell you about a horrible experience thrust upon my family and me a while back. <name removed>, I believe, was the person solely responsible for this incident. It may not be remembered by her, but it will be remembered my family and me for a while. As far as I know, our patronage to the local Chick-fil-A restaurants has ceased and will not continue for the foreseeable future.

The date was September 25 of this year. I remember it well because it was my son's fourth birthday, and he wanted to eat at Chick-Fil-A. We had a party planned in Birmingham for the following Saturday, so the only people to come to this dinner, the only people invited to this dinner were my parents and my wife's mother. Let me reiterate that: a dinner with one child, one baby, and five adults. No other guests, no other invitees. We showed up at Chick-fil-A for that dinner, and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was "Family Night". We - and I'm speaking authoritatively for everyone invited - had no idea that Chick-fil-A had anything planned for that night. Nor did we have any plans to disrupt anything or anyone else.

However, my son had been carrying around a few balloons with him that day (which he had taken with him to pre-school), and <name removed> assumed the worse. I can only guess that she believed that we had a large party with lots of children on the way because the way we were treated - accosted or assaulted is a more appropriate word - showed that she assumed the worst. I believe she made the bad assumption and compounded it by not wanting and not caring to listen to anything my wife or I had to say. A simple question or questions would have cleared up the matter. Her confrontation with my wife and me showed that she did not want us there. When I told her that I could tell someone who knew Truett Cathy about this incident, she said "Fine, tell him!" and stormed off. I was wrong about that person's relationship with Truett Cathy, but not about their closeness to the Cathy family. My cousin is <name removed> and she said that the whole incident sounded too surreal and out of character for <name removed>. I don't know nor do I really care at this point.

What everyone in my family - including family which did not attend - got from that incident is that she absolutely hated our presence and our possible patronage at that time, that she did not want us there. Although we did eat a very bitter meal there, I can state that she will be rewarded with that wish - neither my wife or I will visit the local Chick-fil-A's. As far as I know, neither my parents nor my mother-in-law are planning to come by there again as well. If we wish to have Chick-fil-A, we will simply visit another one in another city.

Sincerely,



Byron Todd

PS. I should mention that the assistant manager witnessed the whole incident - including the storming off of <name removed> - and I believe he realized that <name removed> had made a mistake. He went out of his way to smooth over the incident and tried to make us as welcome as possible. He brought ice cream by the table later for my son, he tried to give ice cream to the adults at our table, and he gave a coupon for future ice cream. However, <name removed> was more memorable. We don't need this coupon as it says it is valid at "Chick-fil-A of Gadsden".

In my 37 years of life - including the 20 some-odd years that my memory serves - I can't remember another single restaurant which did not want someone to celebrate a birthday there. Not a solitary one. It seems to me that every other restaurant - from McDonald's to Ruth's Chris - go out of their way to make birthday celebrations fun and memorable. But good memorable...

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What Does *It* Look Like?

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted. Lots of things going on, and no time to discuss them. I can't and shouldn't complain - though I want to and feel like I need to (sin!).

However, I do feel compelled to blog about something else: something that is important (maybe even more so regarding the current things/environment/circumstances that I am going through...) - the "It" referenced in the title...

I know that my purpose (and indeed, everyone's purpose) while here on planet Earth is to do just one thing. To do "It": to glorify God. Simple statement, eh? I've summed up what I feel to be the most important thing that I (or anyone) can ever do, and yet, I know that "It" isn't so simple.

So I've been struggling to better define "It". I sometimes think "Wow, 'It' would be so much easier if only I were on the mission field..." Or "if only I were a pastor..." Or "if only I were a doctor..." etc... Where does that kind of thinking get me? Besides, I'm not so sure that some, if not most, missionaries / pastors / doctors don't struggle with "It" too...

I've come to the conclusion that God has me here (time, place, and *circumstances*) for His reasons, for my ultimate good, and for His glory. "It": To glorify God in all that I say, do and act. As a visual person, I want to know what that looks like. I've been asking myself the above question... What does it look like - while working at RainGard, while at home, while working in the yard, while talking to my neighbors, or while _____________ [fill in the blank]? Over and over again, I ask. I wonder if I'm coming close to "It".

I'm addressing this question in two ways: Bible reading and prayer.

From my Bible reading, I see examples of those who struggled, who failed, and who succeeded and sometimes did all three! (I know I struggle and fail, not completely sure about my success...) I also see guidelines for success. I know I need to be more diligent and disciplined in my reading.

I also pray (and need prayer!) that I do "It". I'm praying that as I try to do "It", I fulfill the most important and greatest commandment of all [Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 10:25-28].

I needed to write this. I need this as a reminder and as encouragement. With the end result that those around me don't hear me, don't focus on me or my actions, but rather they see God and He be glorified over all.

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Think Like A Redneck...

Sometimes I see something and I can't help but think it's funny. Today, Jason decided that we needed a new mailbox at work. I guess he's become tired of having to answer the door to receive mail-order stuff. In fact, he calls the new mailbox the "Jim Todd Mail Order Special Mailbox". I'm not sure if they even make a larger mailbox! Anyways, in the time from the removal of the old mailbox until the placement of the new mailbox, I saw the post sticking up and couldn't help thinking "Hey, that's a Redneck Mailbox..."

Enjoy the pictures and I hope you find them funny too...

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Not Enough Caffeine Yet...

You know you haven't had enough caffeine intake when....

You're working on a spreadsheet: When entering data into a cell, you then need to append to that data and hit "F2" to edit it. When the cell data disappears, you attempt to do the same thing three or four times before you finally realize that the somehow the keyboard function lock has been cut off and instead of editing, "F2" is doing exactly what it's supposed to - that is "Undo"...

Bleh. I guess four cups of coffee don't suffice for me.

That's probably just a side effect of not getting enough sleep. Christian has been fighting something since last Saturday. He went to the doctor on Monday, but still seems to have a fever each day. The side effect of his sickness is that he's not sleeping through the night - which means that Mommy and Daddy don't sleep through the night. Let's see, last night I finally got to bed around midnight, but was up at 1:30, 3:00, and sometime around 6:00, Christy went and got Christian and placed him in our bed. All the waking led me to finally drift into a deep sleep around 7:00AM - just in time for Christian's normal wake up time of 7:30. (His internal "wake up" clock is deadly precise!) I could barely move and somehow dragged myself into the bathroom around 8:45AM. Late to work again! I hate that.

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