Rainey Blogs on Some Days

Today, I am feeling “off” in an “everything is fine but I still don’t feel right kind of way.” It went on for a few days until I finally became so desperate that I needed to go and sit on a boulder next to the constant roar of the swooshing brook at Flat Rock Brook Nature Center. I'm trying to let the sounds of the water drown out all of the oppressive thoughts in my head. Sometimes it takes a while. This is the view of where I station myself, and I think the video captures the sound. (I know some people use this kind of soundscape for sleeping, but I use it today to combat oppressive thoughts.) However, one unoppressive thought is conflicting with the rest in my head, a quote I used in the class I'm teaching this semester: “A man whose hands are full of parcels cannot receive a gift. " C. S. Lewis Lewis said this about spiritual dryness, and I guess this is a good description of where I am right now: spiritually dry. And my hands are full of parcels, which resonates wi...

We were given a choice whether or not those of us who were having a milestone service year wanted to speak on Founders Day in our department meeting. Since the one consistent feedback I have gotten during my entire 25-year career at UPS was that I don’t speak up enough in meetings, I thought I would make up for the whole thing here today. No one intends to have a long career at UPS. You come to work at UPS as a temporary thing while you are planning your life. Those plans do not include UPS. We come for the benefits, the tuition assistance, the non-standard hours that don’t interfere with classes or our other real jobs. Parents don’t envision their kids growing up and working for UPS. I think these are just the basic realities of life. I worked the majority of my career in Information Services Learning & Development or Corp HR Learning & Development. I would have never lasted 25 years had I been in Operations. I know exactly how long I would have lasted in Operations had I wo...

This is my story of how I was locked out of my Google account for nearly two months because of a two-factor authentication (2FA) password reset attempt that I could not successfully complete. If you have a Google Voice number as your 2FA number, change it immediately! You will also be in the same basic situation if you lose your cellphone and access to your text messages.  It took 57 days to resolve this issue.  FIFTY-SEVEN DAYS! Here's what happened. The Beginning: A Mindless Password Reset Attempt February 2. I am a remote worker using my laptop and receive a Windows update that prevents me from using the Edge browser I normally use on my work laptop. I decided to log in to my Gmail account using the Chrome browser (the first time on this particular device) after several months of using the Microsoft Edge browser, where my password was stored. I wanted to use the time during the update to check my personal email, but I couldn’t remember my password, so I thought I would just...

 I’ve been a practicing Christian my entire adult life, and one would think that would result in a certain level of proficiency in certain practices such as what often occurs when one plays golf, tennis, or does various other activities on a regular basis. Prayer is not like this for me though. Prayer is like whack-a-mole. As soon as I knock down a mole that pops up--some sort of obstacle to my praying--another mole rises in its place. "Whack-a-mole" is exactly how I would describe my prayer life, a daily whacking away at things that prevent prayer.

I took some time to think about the many things that I am thankful for. Here are a few that came to mind. 1. We attended an Army football game at West Point in October. Marcia lost her driver’s license while there. A few days later, we received an express envelope with the license. A woman who is an attorney in Houston, TX, found the license at the game, took it back to Houston, and sent it to us. 2. The four seasons of the year--Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall--teach me so much about the changes of life as I watch them unfold throughout a calendar year. 3. The opportunity to visit Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Malta on a cruise with my family. 4. Free public restrooms, which is not the norm in Europe. 5. The Saturday morning  Wall Street Journal , which I can read at a leisurely pace on the weekend. 6. The two cups of coffee I enjoy drinking every morning to start the day, and for Jerry’s Gourmet Market that sells my favorite (Lavazza) coffee at $2.99 along with a perpetual ...

And do you feel scared, I do But I won't stop and falter And if we threw it all away Things can only get better --Howard Jones, "Things Can Only Get Better," 1985. My youngest daughter recently got her driver's license. Since this is the third child to get a license, besides the parents' experiences at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), you'd think I would be an expert by now on how to navigate the DMV. But the place of which I once said, “All of the ineptitude of the entire world converges at the DMV” is always a challenge, and my trips there are just far enough apart in time that I can never exactly remember what is supposed to happen or what the process is. The first decision is always to figure out which parent will take time off of work to go to the DMV with the child. Since a school principal trumps every other job in the world, I am always the one selected to go to the DMV, even though I am the so-called head of the house. I was also s...