My family and I watch TV the old fashion way - for free. Yes, thanks to the marvel of decades old hardware known as an antenna and rotor atop an old ship's mast, we enjoy 10 or 11 channels of free TV - no cable attached. Like most people, we do have cable in our neighbourhood but my wife and I agree that the channels we get have enough garbage to watch that we don't need to pay the approximate $60.00 a month to have even more to choose from.

To be honest, I guess our TV watching is not totally free. First we use electricity to run it and a few years ago we did have to replace the rotor. Last month, a little gizmo on the antenna itself broke off in the wind and I had to climb up to fix it. To reach the antenna involved quite a setup. I had to put two legs of our stepladder on the railing of our deck and then tie a couple of its rungs to the mast next to it. Next, like Tim the Tool Man Taylor (or is that fool man) I climbed the shifting, swinging ladder and pulled myself up to the top rung of the mast. I made my eldest daughter stand and watch me do this because I figured it would be good to have at least one eyewitness should a coroner's inquiry need to be called. At the most precarious moment of my ascent, she spoke out in a very worried and somewhat anxious tone, "Dad, I don't like this. You are worth more than $60.00 a month." Though I laughed at the literal meaning of her words, my heart was touched by her tender appraisal of my worth as I . . .

The other day I decided to treat myself to something I had been saving for a long time - a new pair of socks.

Some time ago after making a large new sock purchase, I buried away in the back of a drawer a nice black pair - still embraced by their sticky band paper. My theory behind this action was that that someday, either if I was out of clean black socks or wanted a fresh, snug new pair for the day, I could just delve into my stash and voilá!

So on the day when I retrieved the above mentioned sock treasure, you can imagine the anticipation and sheer "sock glee" that was mine as I removed the factory wrapping off of my time-capsuled hosiery. I guess it had been quite a while since I purchased those socks because it soon became apparent that the only part of my feet that were going to get in them were my toes. Darn! They are now keeping my wife's feet warm.

Many times in our walks with Christ, we are blessed by having people come into our lives. Whether a new person moving into our neighbourhood, a hurting person at . . .