This is a story that a friend of mine shared. I thought it would make for good reading as we continue our “Meat Street Saga.”

- Kevin

______
In Omaha one day, years ago, I was outside a PC computer and parts retailer — right in the middle of town. It was a Spring day, and as I got ready to get into my car a plump, Mafioso-looking guy pulled up in a white, non-full-sized pickup truck (think Chevy S-10) with a low topper on the bed. The topper had a ridge running lengthwise down the center of the bed and insulated, fiberglass doors which opened up, hinged along the ridge.

Guido (or Vinny — had to be one of the two) got out and made his introduction. He was clearly from New Yahwk or thereabouts. No one could have stood out more smack dab in the heart of the midwestern plains. Like your experience, it was about the strangest thing I had ever seen. He had slicked black hair, a prosperous belly, gold chain, wide collars, and was about 50. He caught me and another customer (who was on the way in) and started his pitch.

(Guido) “So, ya got a computah dare, huh? Yeh evuh hafta get dose tings cleaned out? Huh? About how awftun do yuh hafta get dose tings cleaned?”

(Me) “???????????????????????????”

(Other guy) “????????????????????????”

(Guido) “Hey I wanna show you guys dis. You interested in some really nice steak and lobstuh? [opens a lid on the pickup revealing a pit filled with small ice cubes, vacuum-sealed steak pieces, and lobster tails.

Guido lifts out a convenient lobster tail Dees are really nice pieces hee-uh (“here”)”

(Me) [Strangely smiling, because that's what you do when you're nervous/curious “Umm, no thanks.”

As I got into my car and left, Guido was still pitching the ingoing patron.

Picture this: It’s 6:07pm the other night, and I’m chasing Kyler around
the room, like I do most every night (sans meatcleaver, thank you).
Suddenly the doorbell rings. Calling a “time-out” from our race, I rush
over to the door (always hoping it’s something from UPS that I forgot I
won on eBay). Throwing it open with glee, I quickly frown, as it’s not
the UPS guy. This guy had greasy hair and was wearing jeans and a black
leather jacket. With a chain or two hanging off of it.

Nope. Definitely not UPS.

Stepping outside, the conversation goes something like this:

“Hi! What’s up?” I ask.

“Oh, hey man,” Greasy begins, “I’m going around the neighborhood here
and I’m selling top-notch, high-quality cut meats.”

“Okay…”

He points a finger to a white, windowless van idling over at the curb.
“I have that van stocked full of the choices meats, all guaranteed for a
year from now…”

I stare at him blankly.

“And…” he continues, unfazed, “Just to show you that we’re the real
deal and not just some fly-by-night company, you can see here” (whips
out a laminated flyer) “where our contact information is and how to get
in touch with us in the future. Seriously,” he continues, shoving the
flyer back in whatever pocket it appeared from, “These are the best
meat you’ve had in a long time, and they’re guaranteed for an entire
year!!”

I nodded. “Ah.. thanks, but I think I’ll have to pass for now. Good
luck, though!”

“Okay, man. Thanks!” And off he goes, tromping back to the van… or to
a neighbor’s house… I didn’t really know or care…

Sounds strange? Imagine being in my shoes, on the porch, having a total
stranger offer to sell me meat from his van.

I’ve never, EVER heard of such a thing, and I’m racking my brain to
figure out what the catch is. Where the con is. Is he scoping houses to
see who’s home and when? I have no idea. I’m clueless as to the true
purpose of the Mystery Meat Street Vendor, so if anyone out there has
any insights, be sure to share them…

Who knows? Maybe he was just too high on crack to know what he was
doing… baffles the brain, it does…

Kevin

Before I begin, I want to apologize for the last post. I don’t know why
it turned out to ugly, but it might have been because I sent it as an
HTML e-mail instead of plain text. Either way, I’m sendin’ it as text
this time, just to see if it’ll play nicer…

So, I’m still working at Love’s, but this will be my last week. They’re
working on the program I’m using, so they’ll need to doctor it up next
week. There’s a chance I could be back after that, but none of us are
holding our breath. (It’s up to the accounting department… or…
another area of the accounting department… whatever…)

It’s been a great ride, though. Today I was able to sift through a ton
of Cds I had bought last summer but never listened to. Within hours I
was able to determine whether they were worth further scrutiny or if
they should go in the eBay stack. Sorry to say, but out of some 10 CDs,
not a one is worthy of keeping at this point. But, c’est la vie, right?
At least I had the chance to explore ‘em…

In the meantime, I should mention that I’m continually astounded by
eMusic’s selection a breadth of new music. For a mere $10 a month, I’m
getting 40 mp3′s for me to listen to and use as I’d like. (If you’ve
ever considered joining eMusic, drop me an e-mail and I’ll get ‘em to
send you a special offer… where I’ll get a hefty 50 freebies just for
pointing them your way. Yowza…)

Lastly, I should also mention that I’ve been called back to LifeChurch
for my second interview tomorrow (Thursday). I went last week and took
the pre-screening tests so they could verify that I’m not an idiot and
I’m basically who I claim to be. (They also had a test on spiritual
gifts, which was pretty cool…) So I meet with them again tomorrow and
we’ll see what happens from there. (Fingers crossed, clenching my legs
to keep from wetting myself….)

Just kidding. I’m not crossing my fingers…

Kevin

For the first time since the Summer of 2002, I, Kevin Mills, have a full-time job.

I’m currently working as a temp for Love’s Country Stores, in the accounting department, Technically I work for AccounTemps (or OfficeTeam, depending on who you ask). I’m pretty impressed with this temp agency, I should say. After signing up with Express Personnel back in December with nary a job lined up, I went over to OfficeTeam and had a job lined up the very next day. Plus, I took a lot of fancy tests which said I’m a whiz at Microsoft Word, Excel and Adobe Photoshop. And hey – who doesn’t want that kind of immediate feedback, huh? So not only did I get a job lined up, but I snagged some Gee-Whiz Atta-Boys in the process.

At any rate, I’ve been working here for the past week, and it’s not too bad. Granted, punching in numbers and dates on invoices all hour – for eight hours straight – can be a bit mind-numbing. Heck, it’s probably the dullest job I’ve ever had as a temp, and I’ve had my share. But the people I work with are nice, and they appreciate my sense of e-mail humor, so I’m, not complaining at all. (I’ve always believed that 90% of one’s job satisfaction is garnered from your co-workers. Might be overstating it a bit, but it’s a hefty percentage, I’m sure…)

In the meantime, I’m also in the application process for a job at LifeChurch.tv, as the “Internet Campus Administrator.” The title is kinda corn-cobbish to me, but the description was right up my alley. “Excellent communication skills. Chatting ability. Self-starter & a people person.” It sounds mighty nice, and I’m pleased to say that after last Thursday’s interview I’ve been called back to undergo the “pre-employment testing” THIS Thursday. Yee and haw. (I fully expect to pee in a cup. In fact, I’ll be disappointed if I don’t…)

So I’m thanking God for the opportunity to work at LifeChurch, and I hope He’ll continue to open the doors according to His will, whether there or elsewhere.

And now… back to number crunching…

Kevin

A sad thing happened this week. I turned off my iMac so I could take a nap in silence (without the hard drive spinning ambiently in the background). After a restful hour or so, I return to my chair, press the power button, and – then it happened.

There was an ugly BZZZT! sound, followed by nothing. No startup screen, no power whatsoever. But that wasn’t the worst part. The WORST part was seeing the thin wisps of smoke slowly waft out of the top of it.

Oh, yes. THAT was the worst part. By far.

So, there you go. In .5 seconds my iMac up and died on me. :\ It lived a good 5.5 years, and I loved it dearly. I’ll say I was pretty sad to see it go, but not devastated. Why not? Because I had the foresight to BACK UP on a regular basis. (Much thanks to Greg DeWilde in St. Louis for the extra FireWire drive he had on hand a year ago…) Thus, I only lost a few days’ worth of files, and to my recollection, there wasn’t anything irreplacable. (Just a few freshly acquired MP3s, etc…)

Still, I was faced with a dilemma. While I had planned to snatch my dream machine – an iMac 20″ Flat Panel that came out a few years ago, I just didn’t have the extra cash to plunk down for it these days. In the end, I decided on this baby on ebay.

Basically, it’s a clone of my indigo iMac. I needed the 40gb drive (because that’s how large my backup files were), and I know that everything I plugged into my previous iMac would work (not to mention most of the software, if not all). PLUS, I get the added bonus of having Tiger (10.4.2) preinstalled, so it’ll be running the latest system software. (Assuming the processor can actually handle it well…)

In addition to these perks, I’ll also be able to use the RAM I had in my previous iMac – a whopping 1gb. I should note that I just bought some RAM two weeks ago – a 512mb stick – and installed it. There might be a link between the new RAM and the ZAP, but I just don’t know. (And who wants to go about proving such an allegation? Talk about headaches…)

So what am I running on now, you ask? Why, one of the extra PCs I snatched up at a garage sale last year for $20. The esteemed Century City 100. So far I’ve used it over the year for installing MP3 ringtones on my Motorola v400, as well as letting Kyler play PC games on it (Richard Scary’s Busytown). But now it’s really earning it’s keep. Thankfully it has the USB slots to let me connect to the Internet over broadband, otherwise, bargain no. (That’s a reference to some sci-fi TV show I saw in the 80′s, but I forget which one… Star Wars? Trek? I dunno….)

So that’s the harrowing tale of the life and death of my iMac. And the moral of the story?

Back Up Your Data. Or take your chances when the spectre of death takes a smoke break in YOUR computer.

Kevin

Okay, this is going to throw some of you for a loop, but bear with me as I try to summarize last week’s events in a coherent yet accurate method. (With a little bit of funny thrown in, just for yuks…)

The past few entries have been about my depression and the various ways I’ve dealt with it. Well, last week things took a turn for the better as a total stranger ministered to me in a way I never saw coming.

The backstory…

A few months ago my Dad, Dr. Richard Mills, operated on a woman’s eyes. She didn’t have the money to pay for her operation, but the very same day that she came in for surgery, ANOTHER woman had called and told my father that she was so impressed with her own surgery, she wanted to pay for another patient’s operation. You read that correctly. One woman offered to pay the exact same day another couldn’t. (Can we say “providence”?)

Now, the second woman, named Kelli McCabe, is 82 and has a prayer / healing ministry in Tulsa. She has a prayer team of about 15 people who pray constantly. Well, she was so grateful for her own surgery, that she asked my father if there was anything he needed prayer for. And my father, being the humble, gracious man he is, immediately thought of… me.

He let her know that I’ve been struggling with depression for the past few weeks, and asked if she would pray for me. So from that day until last Thursday, her ministry team was praying for me. I say until Thursday, because that’s when I met Kelli at her home.

Backpedal to Tuesday. I’m in Tulsa visiting my folks, having dinner with Dad and he tells me about Kelli and asking her to pray for me. A spiritual DING! goes off in my head, and suddenly I Just Know: I’m supposed to meet with Kelli McCabe. So I mention this to Dad, and he gets ahold of her on Wednesday, and I set up a time to meet with her on Thursday.

Now, I thought I was going to meet with her for a reason other that to get prayer for my depression. I was mainly wanting to ask her questions about how a healing ministry works, how to pray for people, and that sort of thing. (There have been numerous times God has led me to pray for people’s healing, so I wanted to get a better handle of how I should approach such a gift…)

So I show up, we sit down on the couch (her niece was there to pray with us as well) and I’m about to ask her questions when she smiles sweetly and holds up her hand. “Before you say anything,” she says quietly, “Let me just tell you what God has told me about you.” Dumbfounded, I sit back and nod my head. (What else is a guy to do when you’re in that kind of a situation, right?)

Then she proceeds. She proceeds to tell me, specifically, why I’m depressed, the thoughts that have gone through my head during the depression and so on, as if she were reading a piece of paper in front of her. I kind of stare at her and swallow silently. How does this lady know this stuff? Who is she, exactly?

A few minutes later, we agree to pray and she lays her hands on my head and chest and prays for my depression, my mind, my heart, my soul and my future. I didn’t feel anything spiritual at the time, no tingles or hair-raising or hair growth or anything. But I was thankful for her prayer, nonetheless.

After this she asked me to kneel on the floor, and asked her niece to bring her some towels. She said that she would like to annoint me with oil, in preparation for ministry in God’s kingdom. Again, what’s a guy to say to that? No? I’d rather not be annointed at this time? I don’t think so.

So I kneel, towels around me, and she smooths some oil on my right hand and fingers, then pours it over my head. I was glad I had shaved that day already, because then the oil wasn’t going to get any hair sticky. Granted, that’s probably not the right thoughts to think when you’re being annointed, but I gotta be honest, here.

So she prays for me as the oil slowly spread across my head, drizzling down my eyebrow and into my eye. I try to retain my composure through all this, as my eye begins to sting and I try to receive God’s blessing. Finally, I raised a portion of the towel and wiped as much of the oil out of my eye as possible. “Got a little bit in my eye,” I smiled. “Well, now,” she says with a smile, “I guess that eye’s annointed now, isn’t it?”

Nice to know 82 year old ministers have a sense of humor.

Before I left, she gave me this assignment: to read the book of John three times in the next 30 days.

So… what’s changed? What difference did it make in my life, being annointed by this stranger I had never met? There are three:

1) My depression is almost entirely lifted. I’m no longer overwhelmed with the feelings and thoughts that used to trigger me into a funk. They still come, but it’s like someone sprayed my head and my heart with spiritual teflon. Nothing sticks. I might get hit left and right, but nothing sticks to me anymore. The thoughts and feelings just slide away. Just like that.

2) I have a greater sense of peace, a peace that literally is passing my understanding. Regardless of how my day goes now, I don’t have a desire to mope, run away or smack myself around. I’m… okay. I’m at peace.

3) Lastly, I pray in tongues now. Fluently, that is. I’ve been praying in tongues close to the beginning of this whole mess, back in August, but it’s always been kind of stuttering… unsure of myself. After last Thursday’s events, my prayers come out like butter now… smooth and fluid. Do I know what I’m praying? Not usually, but sometimes God has shown me what or who I’m praying for. What does it sound like? Well… kind of like a mix between a poor man’s beat box and some African or Malaysian click-cluck dialect. It’s strange, but it feels natural.

So. There you have it. What God has in store for me, I have no idea, but I’m slowly getting back to a place where I’m yielding myself to His grace and leading once again. I’m functional again. Productive. Hopeful. He has lifted me out of the muck and mire, and I’m standing up again.

It’s good to be back.

Kevin