God Is In Control No Matter What I Think..

I have to sometimes remind myself that God is still in control of things.

Despite the setbacks in business and our housing quest, I know that ultimately God is still
looking out for us. I know that He knows what is best.

I just have to keep reminding myself of this.

Tomorrow's post will be encouraging!

For those of you who read the blog, sorry if it's been a bit down lately. October has not been a good month for us.

Let's go eat some Halloween candy.

MUSIC OF NEW LIFE..in jeopardy?

I received word today from Arbor Education that they will no longer pay for preschool services for Benjamin and Daniel after tomorrow, October 31. Talk about short notice!

Not that the boys are in any danger of not having care. I just won't be paid my whopping $400-ish a month from Arbor.

Because donations to Christian station MUSIC OF NEW LIFE have not been coming in for several months now, there is a real possibility that I may sign the station off for good by the end of the year. I would put a bit more effort into WJJD, which is by far our stronger station. A lot depends on response rates to some mailings that I'm working on now.

Effective Nov. 1 I plan to begin as an independent contractor for a marketing company in California. My pay with them is based on response rates, but the initial test has been encouraging. I'll reveal the name of the company at a later date after I've gotten into a
regular schedule of sorts with them. I plan to work on their projects three or four nights per week for the next 90 days. If it's bringing us an income by then, I'll keep going. If it's not, I'll
seriously look at some major changes career-wise.

In the meantime, keep in mind that MUSIC OF NEW LIFE Radio requires $480 per year
to exist. That's the basic streaming and music license charges. It doesn't include the DSL,
equipment purchases and such. If the station is a blessing to you, please let me know via email at alanmccal@hotmail.com or consider sending a donation to help. If nothing comes in to help the station in the next few weeks, I may have no alternative but to close her down.

Folks, we need your prayers. Life is a real struggle right now.

Thanks!

One of the Busiest Nights of the Year..LOL!

I have an ongoing joke about this evening being one of the busiest nights of the year..by which
I'm referring to the time change and the changing of the clocks.

I've collected clocks ever since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. One of the kids counted 8 clocks last night, and that was just in the dining room area.

My sister Carrie, stepdaughter Rose and others in the family have given me clocks as presents
from time to time and I just always like them. I've gotten them at garage sales, the old Gulf-Mart store, from school bus drivers in high school..one of the first ones came from the elevator operator named Belle at the PSC where Mom was working when I was little.

I've never lost that love of clocks. I'd write more, but...

It's time to go start setting the clocks back to EST!!

Yep, I'm Still Writing..

A while back on this very blog I mentioned that I do some copywriting as one of my means of
making a living. I just haven't written much about writing lately.

So much of what is involved with my writing is reading and researching, that the writing part isn't always out in the open. For much of the rest of 2006 I'm concentrating on completing some training that I started earlier this year. I'm just having to do much more at the same time.

I expect to have my first freelance digital photo appear shortly in one of the radio industry trade publications. I'll post the details about it here once things are finalized. The editor has mentioned that they plan to use it as a part of a regular feature. Their feature is regular..my photo won't be. I'm happy to get a picture published, in any case!

I'll be promoting my pro-results-advertising more heavily this winter. Now that I've got a temporary office over in GG's mobile home, I will at least have a flat space to spread out my work. Every flat space in our house gets covered immediately.

In any case, I'm available for some small projects. Be sure to vist my website if I can be of service to you.

http://www.pro-results-advertising.com

When Nothing Goes Right...

Okay, I'll admit, my frustration level has been tested repeatedly lately. Not just by
one thing, but life in general has just been hard lately.

Primarily, the situation with our house, which I wrote about in August, has not improved.
We are looking at facing a winter with some kind of portable heat, as the furnace is rusting out
to the point where the gas company has told me, "Replace it."

We are unable to use the laundry equipment as the floor is falling through. Likewise, the master bath is also basically unusable, lest someone fall through the floor, as I almost did in September.

Marianne and I went to a mobile home show but came away discouraged because of the cost of a new home. We'll need either a co-signer on the loan or land deeded over to us.

I have not been encouraged by the lack of response to my plea for help with the housing situation. My full-time gig adds only about $400 a month to our income and Marianne is
still searching for a job in her field. We're both fighting with feelings of failure.

I'm plugging through my writing course and writing a real letter here and there but still have a good deal of work to do.

Frankly, I feel more lost than I did at age 15 when everyone asks, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" My answer then was radio, which is what I still love. The difference is, there's nothing in this market left for me and other places don't look better.

I'd love to find something that pays a decent wage that:

a.) I can be passionate about
b.) I can do it from home
c.) I can get a reliable income from
d.) I can do in a few hours a week, while the boys are taking their nap
e.) It's not MLM. Like the concept but don't want to go through that again..lost big time..

Sure would like to get some more options in our lives, as we don't have many now and things are not getting better for us.

Radio Anniversary Coming Up This Week!

I'm sentimental about the date October 12.

It was on this day in 1979 that I experienced the thrill (and fright) to be truthful,
of being solo on the air for the very first time. It was on Tallahassee's WTAL AM 1450,
then a light AC station with the Larry King Show on the Mutual Broadcvasting System overnights.

On October 12, 1980 (exactly one year to the day!) the station was sold to a new owner and
I, along with several others, lost our jobs.

I'm not anticipating any radio excitement on October 12 this year, but..who knows?

Holiday Shopping

I realize it might seem a little early, but for those of you looking to start your holiday shopping, please consider this site:

http://www.expage.com/radiomall

Every purchase you make will help pay some of our radio expenses.

Our sponsors include:

The Mall of the World
Magic Kids
Amazon.com
DISH Network
Parker Indian River Groves - fruit and gift baskets

We would truly appreciate your support!

Thank you and have a wonderful holiday season!

New Month, New Ideas..

It's been a whirlwind few weeks as I'm settling into a new routine of taking care of grandsons Benjamin, 3, and Daniel, 2, as a full time (40 hour a week) caretaker. I'm paid by Arbor Education and Training to do preschool teaching activities with them. Fpr one thing, they arrive around 7:00 AM so days start a bit earlier than they did before.

WJJD may become a "pro" station within a few months, as this would allow me to sell air time directly in my stream. I can't do that at the moment. There is some interest, and I'll be exploring options regarding this over the next month or so. I've targeted about 40 ad agencies to approach regarding this.

I'm a bit discouraged in the quest for a replacement house. The bottom line is, we are too poor ro have much leverage of any kind. I really do not know what to do, or where to turn, for help with this. Guess nobody really cares if we fall through the floor or not.

Marianne is job hunting. We are hoping that her new degree has some value in the workplace. God knows my degree didn't help me much in Tallahassee. She's continuing her work at Chaires Elementary in the meantime.

I'm seeking a couple of long-term clients for the copywriting business. I'll be putting in some night hours throughout the fall to build the writing business and the radio station's ability to go "pro."

For those readers that are Christian, we need your prayers. We are really struggling at the moment and the 70-plus hours a week is wearing me out!