Growing up, you could say I had two dads. One was my "real" Dad. He's responsible for impregnating my mother and also credit to him for introducing me to the Father in Heaven.

The other, was Clyde. I have a lot to tell about him and this is the beginning of that. 

One thing about Clyde, he was NOT a reactive person. He was a hard ass. He was a lot of things. He would whip my ass if he thought it was the right thing and he whipped it good. 

I worked for Clyde rebuilding wrecked cars from about the age of 8 or 9 until I was 16. The first thing I ever did was to flush a radiator. He told me to do it, pointed at it once and left. I was either 8 or 9 years old.

I learned to build everything on a car from the engine to body work, interior, about everything. We lived in a house on Cadron Ridge between Greenbrier and Conway. The house they (Clyde and my Mother) purchased the Summer between my 3rd and 4th grade years, 1985 I think it was.

When we moved in there, Clyde started doing more car work. He had previously worked in the oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil turned down and there were layoffs. Clyde also would work at a local factory in Conway or Maumelle building air conditioners. I think he had some injuries in his arms that prevented him from continuing that work.

So, eventually he would grow his car building business and I and my brother worked for him. We would go to auctions in Conway and buy cars in various states of being wrecked. Clyde would evaluate if he thought he could repair and sell it. We would buy a car, get it home and start working on it.

Usually the cars were wrecked a little or a lot. One time we bought TWO cars, one severly wrecked in the rear and the other in the front. Both were Fiero's. We would strip both cars down to the frame removing everything. Engine, interior, literally everything. Cut the two cars exactly in half at the same point. To this day I don't know how he had the confidence to do that. I remember it clearly. He would use white rectangle chalk to mark the points. We cut the metal with a cutting saw - a blow torch would have melted the metal at the join points so we used a saw.

The two halves came apart fine. We moved around the halves and aligned them to prepare to weld and reconnect the two good halves. After welding, I don't know how but that new car was the exact specification like it came from the factory. Clyde was MATICULOUS about measuring before cutting. He knew EXACTLY what he wanted to do before he did it.

I got that from him. I do the same thing to this day when I perform Data Architecture. Measure twice, or three times, and cut once.

Measure twice from different perspectives. Measure twice from different points to other points. You can only cut once - but measure many times.

Clyde had quite a history when we met and how my mother chose to marry him is as great a mystery as anything - but they produced two children one of whom now follows Christ and so I suppose as with everything, God made it a part of His purpose.

The purpose of marriage is to produce Godly children.

"Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring."

The thing about Clyde that everyone labeled him with, is that he WAS a drug addict.

I should say, No One "is" a drug addict. 

The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it is connection (with people).

Everyone is created in the image of God. Imago Dei.