25 things

Kelly got on facebook and everyone was writing 25 things about themselves. I'm not on facebook, so I thought I'd try it here. So, here it goes:

1. I once fell asleep while walking on a tread mill at a fitness center. Thus my fear of exercise.


2. I've been on one blind date in my life. Her dog and I didn't get along. (actually, she didn't have a dog, and I wound up marrying her).


3. I often worry that someday her vision is going to come back and she'll see what she really got stuck with.


4. One of my childhood ambitions was to be an astronaut. The fear of heights thing got in the way.


5. I once rolled down a hill in a dump truck and landed with the wheels pointed toward the sky. I have no idea how I got that scratch on my shoulder.


6. Someday, I'd like to write a book.


7. Being a stand up comedian would be a great gig, though I would probably sit on a bar stool while on stage.


8. It's nice to know that there are people out there that think I'm funny and I make them laugh.


9. All three of them are relatives.


10. I could easily spend half a day looking for an item at Lowe's or Home Depot.


11. There was a time when I ate at McDonald's at least 4 or 5 times a week.


12. There was a time I weighed 40 or 50 pounds more than I do now.


13. Whenever it snows and the roads get really bad, I have a strong urge to get in the car and go somewhere. Anywhere.


14. Something I have wondered for a long time: If brain transplants were possible, what would happen if you took a mans brain and placed it in a woman's body (or a woman's brain in a mans body)?


15. I enjoy doing coffee at church.


16. For the most part, I enjoy work. I'm just as comfortable doing carpentry, computer programing, customer service or chopping logs.


17. I firmly believe that when all's said and done, there's more said than done.


18. There were about 450 in my high school graduating class. I never went out with any of them.


19. The usual first response when people find out that I am "color blind" is to ask me what color this thing or that thing is. When I usually give the right answer, people either don't believe I'm actually "color blind" or they don't understand how I can guess correctly so often. The one thing that nobody understands is that being asked " If you're color blind then what color is this?" gets annoying after a while. (If you want to get an idea what a whole lot of people around you see, go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/sec508/htm/colorblind.htm
20. Sorry, didn't mean to soap box.
21. My favorite bands of the 70's and 80's are Styx, Kansas, Fleetwood, Foreigner and Boston, in that order.
22. My all time, absolute favorite "comedian" was Red Skelton. I remember, as a little kid, my family sitting in front of the tv for a half hour getting a good, clean laugh. I only wish I would have had an opportunity to tell him how much I appreciated his work.
23. Bungie jumping once is crazy. More than once is insane. I am not insane.
24. If my girlfriend hadn't been standing on the ground watching me, I'd have taken the harness off and walked back down to the ground.
25. I hope somewhere between 1 and 24 was something that made someone smile.

Weekend wars

Anyone that knows us knows that Kelly and I had a bit of a difference of opinion this past weekend. One of us did something the other one is not the least bit happy about and it opened up a small can of worms and hard feelings that it's taken a few days to deal with.

However, the fascinating thing about it all is this; despite how angry, hurt, upset, alienated, etc. one of us was with the other, we both knew that the love we have was never in question.

As a matter of fact, in order to stay angry, I had to make sure not to look at Kelly. Not that we have very many disagreements, fights or arguments, because they are few and far between, but whenever Kelly and I get into one of these situations, I just have to look at her and I start to melt. Makes it nearly impossible to win an argument! Just once, I'd like to see her give in before I turn to butter.

So, while we don't see eye to eye about some things, I'm still glad I have my little lady (even with that &*&%%##%&&%$$ thing).

Miracle on the Hudson

I know that it is old news by now, but I keep thinking about the "Miracle on the Hudson" and God's role in the events. Was it by Divine intervention that the captain was not only a very experienced airline pilot but also owner of an aircraft safety consulting company, a former Navy pilot and a certified glider pilot? Was it the skill, training and calmness of the entire flight crew that prevented serious injuries or was it the guiding hands of angels that laid the plane "gently" onto the water? Did we truly witness a miracle? Should we be praising God for saving those lives?
If the answer is yes, that we should praise God for saving those 150 or so people, what about all those who did not live through similar circumstances? Should we blame God for all the people we lost on 9/11?
When we wake up to a beautiful, warm and sunny morning or sit out on the porch in the evening and bask in the glory of a beautiful sunset, it is easy to send praise to God for those things. But, what do we do when we waken to bitter cold, 3 feet of snow, dark skies, etc? If we give thanks for the glorious evenings, what should we do about the nights that include tornado warnings, bolts of lightning taking down trees and giant hail balls putting dents in our cars?

The day after the plane came down, I was listening to Glenn Beck on the radio, as I will sometimes do. He made some interesting observations that I want to repeat. The plane hit the water adjacent to the New York media centers, where the entire media could transmit the events almost immediately. It also stopped right beside the ferry terminals, meaning only a few minutes elapsed between the plane coming down and the rescue effort being well under way. The plane floated down river to right by the former home of the World Trade Center. Between these few items and some other things that had recently happened in his life, Glenn Beck realised while on the radio that God was telling all of us that he is here and watching over us (you would have to read the transcript of his program that morning to really understand what lead him to this conclusion). And, is there any significance that this event took place in New York, where the last aircraft related major event began and ended in tragedy.

Maybe the true "Miracle on the Hudson" is not the lives that were saved. Maybe it is that small glimmer of hope, those few minutes of wow, the opportunity to actually care about someone else for a moment that an averted tragedy presents.

I must admit that I have gone through most of my life believing that God doesn't make it a habit of interceding in our lives. I have recently begun to rethink this notion (the miracle on Tahoe?).

True confessions./ God is good, always

I've never really been very emotional. Today I listened closely as the news covered the airplane plane splash landing in the Hudson river in New York. At first, I was mostly interested in the events leading up to the plane going down. What was the cause, how long had it been in the air, how did the crew get the plane to perform a perfect splash landing. Then I became more and more interested in the rescue efforts.
As I was driving home from work, it was confirmed that there were no fatalities and minimal injuries. It was at that point that I started to feel this lump develop in my throat and some odd moisture attempting to attack my eyes. Of course, I fought it back. Repeatedly. The last ten minutes of the drive home, every time I thought about what could have happened and what did happen, the same feelings started to come over me. I must be getting a cold.
God is good!


Always

Questions in Genesis

As Kelly and I journey on the Bible in a year odyssey, questions come up in the readings. Some are answered rather well at the Sunday morning get together, some are not. We are currently reading Job, but I'm just now getting to the questions left from the first few chapters of Genesis. Some follow.

1:26 Then God said "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness ...."

• Who is "us ' and 'our '? Is God referring to the trinity when using the plural or is it more like when the queen of England refers to herself in the plural?

2:18-24 The Lord God said "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Now the Lord had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field..... But for Adam, no suitable helper was found.

• Does it not seem strange that God only created woman after determining that none of the other creatures of the earth were suitable helpers for Adam? I'm sure glad that God and Adam didn't give up when the existing choices dwindled down to nothing. Nuff said.

3:16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children."

• If God increased Eve's pain in childbearing after the fall, wouldn't that imply that she had given birth at least once prior to the fall? No where is it said that Cain and Able were her first children. They are the first mentioned. With this in mind, maybe some light can be shed on the question of where Cain found his wife.

3:21 The Lord made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

• What is the nature of the skin used as garments? One suggestion was that humans did not completely come into these bodies until after the fall and that the garment of skin is actually our bodies. While this may contradict 3:7 where Adam and Eve realised that they were naked, it is an interesting thing to ponder.

7:2 (God said to Noah) "Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and it's mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal ....."

• It is presumed that Moses wrote Genesis and would have known all the laws about clean and unclean animals and all the rituals that were required in his time. Nowhere, however, is there any written indication that God had told Noah which animals were clean and which were unclean. No real big deal, given that it can be assumed that many "conversations " between God and Noah and his ancestors were not recorded.
• A song we sing in church says that God doesn't make junk. Every thing God makes is good, including me. If this is the case, why are some of God's creatures considered "unclean" and some considered "clean"? If God made them, aren't they all good? Did he decide at some point that he was not happy with some of his creations and rendered them "unclean". I'm sorry, I just don't get this whole notion. (I'm sure God is just worried to death that I don't understand His logic sometimes.)

Getting ahead of myself a little, there is at least one other similar set of rules that I, again, just don't get. I do not know where exactly where it is in the Bible, but as I recall, there are passages that seem to indicate that about one week out of every four, women are essentially to be treated as pariahs. If God created women and designed all their systems, why is a part of the normal operation of those systems considered in the same realm as having leprosy? (And that's the best way I can think of to dance around the topic and still ask the question.)

Since we are actually reading Job right now, a few observations.

• Isn't it odd that when given permission to mess with Job, the dirtball kills off all of Job's possessions. Everything he has. Everything that is dear to him. Except his wife. My first thought when reading this was something to the effect that sparing the life of his wife was another form of torture for Job, or some other whimsical anti-wife comment only meant for laughs. (Yes, I love my wife and would not want to be without her). But, as I was sitting here typing it occured to me that God may have prohibited the dirtball from taking Job's wife in 1:12 (Then the Lord said to Satan "Very well then,everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself, do not lay a finger.). If it is as it says in Genesis 2:24 (For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh), then old dirtball could not harm Job's wife without harming Job himself.
• Why is it that, unless it is a biblical reference, j-o-b is someplace we go just about every morning to make money? Shouldn't it be spelled Jobe?

Other stuff

A few random thoughts:

• Everyone asks if you call the glass half full or half empty. Both are completely inaccurate. Unless the glass is in a vacuum, the half without liquid is filled with air. Therefore, the glass is always full (but I still need more Pepsi).


• I find it interesting that the majority refer to those things hanging over intersections as stop lights or red lights, even when giving directions (turn left at the 3rd stop light).


• If it's such a rare commodity (according to most people) then why is it called common sense?
• What exactly is a timely death?
• God must have a sense of humor. I'm color blind but I paint for a living (he also created the platypus).
• If I understand correctly, Christianity, Islam and Judisiam can be traced back to a common origin. If this is the case, then we all basically pray to the same God. Why all the fighting?
• Muslum men who "marter themselves" are promised 70 virgins in the next life. First, where do they find them? Second, then what? After about 12 weeks, I presume that they no longer have 70 virgins, they have 70 wives.
• If some "Native Americans" are all upset about being used as team mascots, shouldn't the jungle sue the Bengals?
• Why can't we attach small electric generators to the round roof vents that spin in the wind and create electricty?
• Why can't we attach wind driven generators to bridges and connect them to a grid in the roadway that would heat the road surface and slow the process of freezing?
• Why can't we attach "wind mills" to all the radio towers to produce more electric?
• Why can't we use abandoned coal and other mines as garbage dumps? Filling the holes back in might keep the ground above from sinking.
• Why can't we all just get along?

I was filling out a profile on Careerbuilder and one of the questions asked was: What is your dream job. I can think of a few.

1. The person who goes to the customers' place of business and teaches the employees how to use my company's product (whatever the company and product are).
2. High school football coach.
3. Head of a non-profit that is a combination of Habitat for Humanity and Extreme Home Makeovers. I'd call it "Rehab for Humanity" and we'd buy distressed properties, rehab them and then make them available for low income families who would assist in the rehab.
4. Norm Abrams.

See what happens when it's just me and a notebook?

listy thingy

Last week Tim talked about putting our dreams and goals on paper and not making them too easily obtainable. As I was passing a school in St. Bernard last week, the message on the sing out front was something like"great things can't happen until they are first dreamed". It struck me that the sign matched Tims message. I went back two days later with a camera to get a picture, but they'd already changed the sign.
So here's my list so far:

1. Find a new job. One that:

• Enables for me to better provide for my family so we can all feel a little less stressed.
• Is interesting, challenging, and gives me a chance to use and develop whatever skills I already have and to develop new ones.
• In some way provides a service to and/or blessing to the community.

(there is actually someone at church that I'd like to work for/with, but I'm not sure if the talents I think I have would be of any use and I'm not sure if it would be proper to even bring the issue up with this person).

2. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week (I'm not as interested in exercise as Kelly).

3. Start a home business (probably EBAY).

4. Flip a house (hopefully this year)

5. Ride the zip line.

6. Wind up 2009 with no debt (except real estate) and $1783.00 in the bank.

7. Finish painting the kitchen (before Kelly's birthday).

8. Get the garage/shop straightened and set up.

9. Create the laundry room Kelly wants.

10. Remember to at least say hi to God every day.

So there's my list for now. I haven't started on the "Bucket list" but I'm not really that adventurous anyway.