Fence Fire

I change my own oil.  It’s a habit that I got from my father.  And when I do, I write the date, mileage, and type of oil on the discarded oil filter box lid and keep it in the garage.  After I change the filter, the old filter has a little bit of oil left in it.  I have a corner in the back yard where I leave the old filter to finish draining.  After a couple of days, I put the drained old filter in the box that the new filter came in, tape it up, and put it in the trash can.  I recycle the dirty oil at the parts store where I buy the oil.  Hey, I’ll bet you didn’t know that parts stores take old oil for free!  Anyway, back to my story, my kids started calling my oil corner our “toxic waste dump”.  So, my neighbor has a burn barrel where he burns rubbish.  His burn barrel was a little too close to my oil dump, and one afternoon, a spark from his barrel ignited the oil corner and a huge fire started on our wooden fence.  His burn barrel was too far away from his water hose, but mine was closer.  After I had put out the fire, he apologized over and over again.  He thought that his burn barrel was the culprit, but I knew that my oil corner was the real cause of the fence fire.  But I didn’t tell him that.  I just let him apologize.  He thought that he was a bad neighbor and that I was a good neighbor putting out the fire and all.  Solomon said in Proverbs 16:20, “He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he.”  I’m not sure how the second part of the verse relates to the first part, but I do know that I trust in the dear Lord, and for that, I am extremely happy!  I am not real sure that I handled the fence fire very wisely.  At least I appeared to be a good neighbor, whether I am or not.