Monday, September 29, 2008

Smells like teen... er... agers?

A small incident on Sunday morning really shook me up. As we pulled into the parking lot at church, my older daughter began loudly complaining about how her brother stank. Indeed, I too noted the unsavory aroma. This was not the smell of a little kid who merely hadn't bathed for a week. This was the smell of... man... it meant only one thing: hormones. Yes, hormones have begun to work in my little boy and activating the stink-glands was their first task in announcing their presence.

He's 10 -1/2 now. This morning I remembered that by the time I was 12 my voice had already dropped and before I was 13 I had to start shaving. So by that estimation, we have just one and a half years left to enjoy our son as a little boy before the more dramatic changes really hit.

And speaking of being smelly, I now know that I can move roughly 6 yards of dirt in 3 1/2 hours. That would be nearly 14 yards in a full 8 hour day.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Ron Paul throws support to Constitution Party

http://www.constitutionparty.com/news.php?aid=778

Republican presidential contender Ron Paul, who has maintained a groundswell of popular support from within and without the Republican party, has now publicly endorsed Chuck Baldwin and the Contstitution Party by stating that they will have his vote this November!

I firmly believe that the two main parties will have lower-than-ever turnouts this year and that all third parties and write-ins (including "Mickey Mouse") will have the strongest showing ever. There are a lot of thinking people out there who have broken away from the two-party joke and are really starting to influence others. But grass-roots change takes the longest to take hold and we are fighting a battle for minds against a well financed, experienced and savvy enemy in the form of the existing system, including their media outlets.

If the ranks of Ron Pauls supporters follow the reasoning and come to the same conclusions as Ron Paul, then this will really strengthen the CP. Ron Pauls supporters have been ardent, highly active and contributed a lot of money. That same drive and energy would bring a lot of momentum to the CP and could make a big difference.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Whew!!!

Job 41:8 Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.

About six weeks ago my pastor asked if I could preach sometime in September, using Ezra 4-6 as a base text. I felt compelled to say 'yes' and subsequently spent the next six weeks with butterflys and jitters. But in the end, it was worth it to have experienced the hand of the Lord working in my life.

For about five weeks, my studies focused on spritual warfare as that is a primary topic of that passage. It is also what we have been studying as a church, so it seemed a natural fit. But I knew the whole time that I wasn't getting 'it'. This was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the right direction. I mentioned this to a few people by last Tuesday night- because I was starting to get frantic. That night at prayer the Lord finally gave me peace about the topic.

Studying was difficult. We had an enormously busy week and I had a zillion thoughts flying around my head about what to say. It wasn't until Friday night that I was able to sit down and get the rest of this pulled together. God was faithful to give me direction and show me some cool things from His Word! Once I had peace about what to say I started to get excited, and that definitely helped to calm the nerves.

It was also on Friday that I got some un-cheery news from my Dr. regarding low testosterone levels. Yikes! I spent the day wondering if that made me a lesbian (my wife assures me it does not) and finding out all the possible side effects of taking testostorone supplements. I decided the best course of action was not to regard this for a few days. There would be time to worry come Monday!

On Saturday our church had a work-day with some friends from other churches. What an amazing day! The amount of work that got done in such a short time frame was astounding to me. It couldn't all be chalked up to the number of people either. Every person who was there was busting their arse to get things done and it really added up! But also, for me, swinging a pick-axe and using a shovel all day was really exhausting as I am primarily an angry coder, and not an angry digger. After eleven hours of work, I was already sore.

On Sunday morning I was extremely sore- head to toe. My wife asked me where I hurt and I just replied "In my body", which was totally accurate. My hands were swollen and itchy, too and I really don't think I ever arrived at full consciousness. I was pretty out of it!

Thanks to all those who were praying me through this! While I'm sure this wasn't the best message people have ever heard, I am confident it was from the Lord and that's what it's about. I definitely would not have been able to sail through this without those who were praying, and that really was the biggest lesson I got from it. We need to pray for our pastor and for each other in the work of the Lord.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Atticus Sux

Atticus Sux... from the Latin "attics suck". I spent a good 6 or 7 hours last weekend running wiring for our bathroom extreme makeover. The only thing that was truly extreme was the heat in the attick. Our power vent has gone kaputz so it was a stuffy 115^ or better. Dark, no airflow and filled with piles of dust and loose fiberglass. What a way to celebrate the labor movement! But in the end, everything went perfectly on the first flick of the breaker and we have a beautifully lit bathroom.

Palin is lie! The Republicans are just trying to appease angry and betrayed conservatives! Honestly, what good is a Vice President unless the President pops off?! Don't be fooled!

For the second time this year, while biking, I made contact with a moving vehicle. This time was my fault. I was ascending the bridge on Gregory, next to the frisbee golf field. Today I decided to take it easy on my way in, so I wasn't going too fast and was enjoying some nice tunes. Over the sound of the rythmic thumping and swooshing of cars, I could hear some distant barking. It turned out to not be distant at all but just seemed that way due to the headphones. Off to my starboard side was a pack of three medium sized dogs chasing me. I didn't know if they wanted to play or just see if I taste like chicken but in any event, I stood up quickly and pulled hard on the headset to take off, lurching to the left with a hop. This brought me into contact with the rear quarter of a white sedan. Yikes!

To add to the biker-obstacle-course for the day, heading up 63rd St, I heard sirens screaming behind me. Crap! I was getting busted for speeding and didn't have my insurance with me!!! This is the first time I've ever had to pull over to the side of the road to get passed by an emergency vehicle. Turns out the cops weren't after me at all, but it was still a weird experience.