Moving to Modesto

Wow, moving is such a pain. I wasn't planning on moving until.... I got a letter from the Eureka SDA Church board. As you may (or may not) know, Helen died awhile back. Seems the former pastor of the Eureka SDA Church knew that she was getting old, and helped her by getting her to make out a will. Of course during this process, he convinced her to give much of her estate to the church. It might seem to be a conflict of interest, but he also appointed himself as the executor. Then after that was accomplished, the Northern California conference asked him to move away from Eureka to help pastor another church down near Sacramento. So we haven't seen this guy except for one visit for over two years.

Any way, somehow the Eureka SDA church found out about this will, and being in need of funds (and what church today isn't) decided that they should sell Helen's house so they could acquire "their" money. Subsequently I received a letter stating I had 60 days in which to move.

Rather than question the validity of their request, I acquiesced and began to look for a place to relocate to. I thought... in two months I should be able to find lots of places. Well I did. There are hundreds of rentals all over Eureka. Some of them are pretty nice.

I had four cats. Somehow nobody who was in charge of rentals wanted anybody to rent who had four cats. There seems to be a real negative feeling towards cats. Now our cats are super clean, they always use a potty box, and never make any kind of a mess. But, it was all an uphill battle trying to convince people of that. Yeah. I got ZERO calls from all the different rental agencies I went to.

Suddenly I realized I had a big problem. I had to move and had nowhere to go. I was going to be homeless because some church decided they needed money. This was not looking good.

I will tell about the search for a home in my next posting.

Have a wonderful life,
David A. Youngs

Does Blogging Kill You?

There appeared a recent story in the New York Times by Matt Ritchel telling about how the stress of blogging killed three people. Perhaps you read his article about how The stress of blogging can kill you. Apparently a couple of guys Russell and Marc Orchant who were bloggers died and another guy who also blogged had a heart attack.

And so because of these three people who happened coincidentally to be bloggers are not faring so well physically, then .... blogging kills. I can't think of anything more far fetched, and ... well... dumb.

I'll just bet I could find three airline pilots that had some health issues recently due to "the stress of flying." There are plenty of doctors who drop dead of a heart attack. Does that mean that we should be aware of "the stress of practicing medicine?"

Writing a blog can be stressful. Well at least for some bloggers I guess. But I can easily think of a lot of jobs that are much more stressful. How about policemen? They joke to each other about how working as a policeman sure beats having a job. But believe me, it is nothing but stress out there. Yes, they get paid quite a bit of money, but... is constantly worrying about being shot not a great stress? I should think so. Ditto with the people who work in the armed forces. Isn't seeing your buddies whom you love and work with get blown to smithereens by a bomb pretty stressful?

I used to work. Work IS stress. There are certain jobs I just don't think I would like to do. Cleaning out sewer systems. Shoveling horse and cow manure. Being a stunt double and falling down stairs or jumping out of tall buildings.

Having a dumb boss is very stressful. Not only do you and he both know that he doesn't have a clue (well, maybe he really doesn't know) but if you don't do what he tells you to do no matter how ridiculous or stupid, he can fire you. And even if you do exactly what he tells you to, and it turns out to be the wrong thing to do... you get fired. Now that is stress.

How about getting up in front of large crowds and speaking? Isn't that stressful? Some people seem to think so.

Rush hour traffic can be a stressor. That idiot ahead of you who is cutting traffic and almost hits you. That sure stresses me out.

Listen folks, I do not think you can avoid stress. My little old crazy lady I was taking care of was stressed out because the neighbors were "Bothering" her. I told her, "Eve (not her real name) how could the neighbors possibly be bothering you? You have not been outside of this house in weeks. Why the neighbors don't even know you are here. They are ignoring you completely!!"

"THAT is how they are getting to me. By ignoring me."

People who work in all types of jobs are dying everyday. But that does not mean that their jobs kill them. Unless of course they are Marines, or Army or Highway Patrol or something. But I really cannot blame blogging for killing anybody. Come on folks... blogging???

Hey, I suppose there are some people addicted to computers who stay up so long online that they eventually wither away and die. I suppose it happens. But... can you blame computing for their death? I don't think so.

Folks, I guess if you do anything long enough... (maybe 80 or 90 years) it can kill you. But if you do NOTHING for 80 or 90 years, you are going to die anyway. So let us get real here. Blogging is not going to kill you. And reading blogs won't either. Or at least I hope it doesn't.

If reading this blog kills you, please write and tell me about it.

Let us get real,

David A. Youngs