Funkyjimmer's Blog

Thursday, June 28, 2007

SERVICE TIMES FOR KARON

For those who would like to know arrangements for Karon's Memorial Service:
Viewing Monday, July 2nd, 4 p. m. to 8 p. m. at Traders Point Christian Church, 6590 South Indianapolis Road; Whitestown, Indiana. (I-65 and SR 334. Zionsville Exit off I-65).

Memorial Service Tuesday, July 3rd, 10:00 a. m. Traders Point Christian Church.

This seemed to be the quickest and easiest way to let some people know the schedule. And I am so overwhelmed with things to do by deadlines! It's like there's no time to grieve. Guess that will have to be postponed until later.

Thanks for your prayers--please continue--at least for awhile!

Jim

posted by jim 10:51 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

KARON'S HEALING

My dear wife of nearly 38 years was healed of her cancer last night (Tuesday) at 9 p. m. when the Lord called her home to be with Him.

It occurred just the way she wanted it and in a way that only God could have overseen. I'm sure I'll have more posts about this in the future. But for now this is all I'm able to write.

Jim

posted by jim 12:32 AM 1 comments

Friday, June 22, 2007

THE REPORT ISN’T A GOOD ONE

We went to the Oncologist doctor Wednesday and received the report we expected. Karon had a bone scan and CT scan done May 31st. She said she didn't need scans to tell her that things are a lot worse. She was right. The tumor marker (or cancer count) had elevated sharply in a comparatively short period of time – from 80 to 127 in three weeks. The tumors in the liver have increased in number and size. There doesn't seem to be much change with the tumors in the lungs although Karon says she's been experiencing some shortness of breath. The cancer is aggressively active again in the bones also.

The doctor had one more suggestion of treatment to try. It is a low dosage of a combination of a couple of different drugs taken by mouth. He says there is about a 5% chance of them having any positive effect. We've decided to give that a try. Karon and I both understood him to say he doesn't have any other treatment suggestions after this.

So the journey continues but for how long we don’t know. As the doctor said, “I don’t know how long. I don’t have a crystal ball.” As Karon puts it, “I don’t have an expiration date stamped on the bottom of my foot.”

We are trying to complete our pre-need funeral arrangements. (See Post June 6th.) We thought we would have it all completed by now. Hopefully we can get that completed in the next week or two. The Dr. discussed the various types of Hospice arrangements that are available and how they work. I haven't checked into how all that works with our particular insurance.

Jim

posted by jim 7:47 AM 0 comments

Thursday, June 21, 2007

TWO DOWN—ONE TO GO

Of course I’m referring to our recent epidemic of Garage Sales. We have had two at our house. The third (and I hope last) one is in our daughter’s neighborhood in the western part of our town this Saturday morning.

We had rain at our first garage sale and sunny, hot weather for our second one. At least we didn’t have to constantly move things in and out of the garage the second time. We had more people at the second sale but not many more were in a “buying mode” but we did get rid of some things.

The best part was that at the end of the day of the second garage sale Am Vets came and hauled away everything we didn’t want. All we had to do was set it out at the end of our driveways.

That worked well but there were a lot of things we saved to take to our daughter’s neighborhood garage sale this Saturday morning. We also have a number of things which we are donating to “CITY LIGHT MISSION". Their work is with Prison Ministry. Besides ministering to folk in the prisons, they assist people who have been released from prison get re-established in society. We have things they can use and they also will come pick them up.

We figured out that between all of us, we had well in excess of 40 hours invested in the two garage sales. If you figured out what we actually made, it figures out to pennies per hour. It is even worse that we didn’t get rid of everything, The item of which we still have the largest quantity is BOOKS! We have BOOKS, BOOKS AND MORE BOOKS! I’m not sure how to get rid of them. Half Priced Book Store, maybe.

I told Karon that there are a lot of “4-letter words” that I don’t use and I don’t want to hear others use either. But there are two words I don’t want to hear used in my presence: GARAGE SALE!

Jim

posted by jim 2:37 PM 0 comments

Monday, June 18, 2007

A GREAT FATHERS’ DAY GIFT

In preparation for our two garage sales (the second one was Saturday) we uncovered all our old vinyl phonograph records. There are 78, 33 and 45 rpm records. Those 45 rpm records are the ones with the huge hole in the center. We put all the records in the garage sale. Only a few sold. Between the first and second garage sale Karon pulled out several records.

Dumb Me! I told her, “There’s no use to save those. They don’t even make turntables any more to be able to play them.”

It seemed like I had no more than spoken the words until Karon was showing me an advertisement from Big Lots. (Boy! I do like that store!) There it was -- a sale on “retro phonograph players, complete with turntable to play 78, 33 and 45 rpm records!

You don’t get three guesses as to what I got for Fathers’ Day! Yep -- a retro phonograph player with an adapter for 45 rpm records. This one is really neat, though. It is a convenient table model size and can play records or CDs and has an AM/FM radio. Plus there is a place to plug in earphones and an MP3 player.

For a table model with dual built in speakers, it has a decent sound. And best of all, it is simple enough I can run the machine. I’m about the only one that can run the record player because I’m about the only one in my family old enough to have owned a phonograph player growing up.

I’m happy with it and very appreciative. And Karon will enjoy it also.
Come over and we’ll “spin a few platters!”_

Jim

posted by jim 1:41 PM 0 comments

Monday, June 11, 2007

THE GOOD AND THE BAD

“Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton!” I’m so tired of hearing, “Paris Hilton this, Paris Hilton that….” And before Paris Hilton it was “Anna Nicole Smith”. And before her it was….who remembers.

My point is, I’m not just tired of hearing about these individuals in the newspapers, radio and television. I’m tired of hearing about all the “bad and the ugly”. Sure there’s “bad”. But it seems so easy to focus on that and to ignore the “good”—especially the good people in the world. I guess it’s true that the “good” doesn’t sell newspapers or increase Nielson ratings for television and radio. But there sure are a lot of “good” people out there. And when I say, “good”, I am using it in the Scriptural context of “godly”.

I’m just one person but in my little world I know a “ton” of good/godly people. And a lot of those people are what are “teen-agers” or “young adults”. If I chose to do so, I could fill this Blog with names of terrific, outstanding young adults who are a credit to their parents, their colleges, to society and most important—a credit to their God and His church.

These many young people I know have integrity, high standards of morality and consistently strive to attain and maintain moral purity. They have high standards of excellence in service to Christ and His church and to their fellow human beings.

These individuals worship regularly, both privately and in corporate worship. They read and study God’s Word and many of them regularly lead others in a study of the Scriptures.

In short, these are people I am proud to know and to be able to count many of them among my very best friends. I thank God for them. I just wish the world could know them and come to realize what an asset they are to society as well as to the Kingdom of God.

Jim

posted by jim 3:30 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

PRE-ARRANGEMENTS

Last night Karon and I began—and nearly completed—something we have talked about doing for a long time. We pre-arranged our funeral details and pre-paid the expenses.

Death, and the arrangements regarding it, is a subject most people avoid. (Although the gentleman from the funeral home said more and more people are making pre-need arrangements. I think he said something like 5 million a year in the United States.)

We didn’t pre-arrange the details of the memorial services. But we did arrange for about everything else and covered the expenses by an irrevocable trust. A lot of the costs are guaranteed at today’s prices. Some things couldn’t be guaranteed. But for those things we hopefully included enough money in the Trust so that about all either one of us (or our children) has to do is to arrange the memorial service, pay the preacher and write the obituary. We’ll leave obituary details with the funeral director and we’ll write memorial service ideas, too. Oh yes, the grave marker will be extra also.

In a couple of weeks we’ll finish the process by going with our representative from the funeral home to select a grave site at the cemetery of our choice.

It will be good to have this whole process completed. It gives us peace of mind knowing we have made rational, logical decisions rather than emotional ones in the stress of the grieving process. It also gives us peace of mind knowing our wishes will be carried out and that our children and estate will not be burdened with unexpected or unplanned expenses.

We are grateful that we had a Believer in Christ guiding us in this process. We were all on the “same page” and we didn’t have to convince him that we knew what we were doing. He wasn’t “pushy” and was very helpful.

Yes, this is a good thing.

posted by jim 11:17 PM 0 comments