Gallimaufry

Captured by Facebook

2008-11-06T04:15:00.000-08:00

Here's the reason that I have not posted in a long time: I started a Facebook account. There is only so much time in a day and my online social networking time is now spent there. This morning I am going in for surgery (removal of a hand bone that is causing problems), so maybe I can use some "sick" time to catch up a bit.

Possible job change

2008-08-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

I am thinking of some changes. Take a look at the video and tell me what you think.
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Graduation in Kenya

2008-08-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

One of the other representatives of Wayland Baptist University just gave me some of the photos he took while in Kenya. This is a closeup of Bella, the leopard that we saw while on safari. She has been the subject of National Geographic specials before. She was resting in a tree when this photo was taken. Click on her photo to see it larger.

One of the big events in Kenya was the graduation of eight students with a BA degree. Here is the lineup as we prepared to march to the field where the tents were set up.

These are the graduates trying their best to all smile at the same time. It was a challenge. We are standing on the grounds of the Brackenhurst International Conference Center. Yes, it stays this green all year long.

Oh, yeah, the Dr. Wayland thing. Well, I backed out, which turned out to be a smart move. The students all crowded around the plaza for the ceremonies and no one further than five or six rows back could see anything. Plus, the sound system was way inadequate; it would have been necessary for "Dr. Wayland" to hold the microphone right at his mouth. And this was all done in front of the new statue of Dr. Wayland that was just unveiled. Imagine acting the part of a character whose nearly double-life-size statue was behind you. Yeah.

Honoring Dr. Wayland

2008-08-16T06:18:00.000-07:00

This year, the university for which I work celebrates its one hundredth year of continuous existence. The school was started by a medical doctor who had moved to the South Plains area of Texas for the dry weather (he had asthma). Among the activities planned to celebrate the centennial is the portrayal of Dr. Wayland at the meetings of various civic groups in the area and at some of our remote campuses. The centennial committee has asked me to be one of the actors to play the part. My first opportunity will be next Wednesday when students gather around a newly placed statue of Dr. Wayland for the chapel service. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Kazuri bead factory

2008-08-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

One of the places that we visited with the college students was a bead and pottery factory which employs hundreds of women. It is not a sweatshop; the women are extremely grateful for the work as the company provides health benefits as well as school uniforms for the workers' children. They are all single mothers living in the Karen area near Nairobi and this factory is a place which pays living wages. Some of the women who work here walk miles to work each day; it is worth it to them. Kazuri Beads was started in 1975 as a project to develop employment opportunities for Kenyan women who had limited job skills. At first they imported clay from England and sold products locally. Today they process local clay and sell globally. A huge dry-erase board serves to chart orders indicating how many thousands of beads are needed each day.

When visitors stop by the factory, they are given a brief tour. The first stop is the machinery which mixes and prepares the clay. Bars of freshly pressed clay are stacked up to be taken to the women inside the shop. Next one enters the bead-making portion of the factory. This is a large series of rooms filled with tables where scores of women sit doing specialized tasks. Some are rolling clay into beads according to specific patterns. Others apply glaze in patterns and colors corresponding to the hand-written lists in front of them. Still others string beads into earrings, bracelets, and necklaces to create the final products listed for shipment that day. Between these three stages, the beads are fired (cooked) and cooled, sometimes several times.

The penultimate stop was the pottery production area. Fewer workers are involved in this process and many of the pots are created by men. Firing the pots takes several days and the number of patterns available are necessarily limited.

Of course, the last stop was the gift shop where one could see thousands of combinations of beads. While it is possible to buy loose beads, the greatest number of sales are of pieces already made up, either individually or in sets. The girls in our group spent many minutes considering and consulting before making their purchases.

Most of the women who work at Kazuri Beads were cheerful, at least in our presence. They chatted with one another, but kept busy. Our tour guide encouraged us to keep moving. I suppose that frequent conversations with visitors would hamper production. But the women were always glad to show us what they were doing. They produce some beautiful handwork. Cat is delighted to own some necklaces and bracelets from this community-minded enterprise. You can buy Kazuri beads online, but there is nothing like seeing the shop in person.

More animals

2008-08-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

A parade of wildebeests observes our caravan with some suspicion.

When rains come to the Masai Mara, the zebras and wildebeests migrate with gazelles, impalas, etc., northward into Kenya. Zebras travel in herds but the wildebeests tend to form long trains. Sometimes you can't see the beginning or the end of the line. Wildebeests look to me like they were put together by a committee. When they run, it is a loping gait, so you see horns and heads bobbing up and down through the line. Because these herbivores migrate, the carnivores follow them.

Gazelles are slim and swift. We didn't see many of them this time, but I think our driver was looking for the more dramatic animals for us to see.

Our driver took us to a bend in the river where hippos congregate. Here is Cat standing near our Masai guide with hippos in the background.

Unfortunately, the hippos were not particularly interested in putting on a display. They submerged for about a minute before surfacing with a blast from their nostrils. Here is one that yawned for us--facing the opposite direction, of course. Every evening the hippos clamber up the river banks to graze in the savanna. Typically each animal will tuck away 100 pounds of grass a night. So the river is where they catch up on sleep. This is the safest time of day to observe them because they can be vicious when coming out of the water. Maybe it's because they are hungry.

These zebras are carrying along some birds that remove the lice and other pests from their backs. The birds are yellow-billed oxpeckers. Yeah. Zebras when threatened will gather and mill around. The stripes help them confuse the predator by making it difficult to distinguish one individual. We saw a number of foals whose coloring tended to be reddish brown rather than black. Note that no two zebras have identical markings. You did note that, didn't you?

You might think that lions and leopards were most dangerous to humans, but it is the cape buffalo which can be most threatening. They just don't think twice about attacking.

While the others in our group looked for big animals, I was fascinated with the birds. The martial eagle is Africa's largest. This one is probably a female, exhibiting more of a brown color than the males. We saw several of these perched on treetops. I did see a couple in the air, but they were far away. This bird has a wingspan of about 6 feet and can take down an impala.

Here is an eland, the largest antelope in Africa. We only saw one of these on this trip.

It was very nice to come across this group of lionesses and their cubs. We watched them nap for a while. One of the cubs (the one in the center) played with a stick, but could not arouse the interest of any playmates. But he entertained us.

Seeing the animals

2008-08-07T02:52:00.000-07:00

If you go to Africa, you have to see the animals, no matter what the original purpose for your trip. After all, God gave us this great variety of animals on the planet; we ought to view and appreciate what God has done. Our team did this on a couple of occasions. Trips to see the animals became the bookends for our Kenya experience this year.

The first opportunity was on the Saturday after we first arrived in Kenya. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust maintains an animal orphanage which focuses on orphaned elephants. Visit at noon and you can observe the feeding of the little pachyderms plus learn tons of information from the affable, experienced handlers. The babies are not terrified of people and will come up to the crowd looking for interaction. One learns quickly that squatting before a baby elephant is an invitation to play, and they think that play involves pushing. It's good not to wear your finest clothes when you make this trip.

Next we stopped off at the twiga farm. Well, at least that's what I call it. I can't remember the official name, but it is a preserve for a certain type of giraffe. The crowds love to feed these majestic beasts with long, sticky, purple tongues. Some of the giraffes have learned to open their mouths so visitors can throw nuggets of animal feed in. The giraffes approach visitors strictly for the food. To get a good photo of a giraffe head near your face, you have to turn your back on the animal and hold food out in front of you so the giraffe's head comes over your shoulder.

We ended our experience in Kenya with a safari to the Masai Mara, a massive wildlife preserve in southwest Kenya. This savanna continues south into neighboring Tanzania where it is known as the Serengeti. Normally the herds of wildebeests and zebras migrate north (into Kenya) with the start of the rainy season in August. But the rains started early this year, so there were plenty of animals to be seen. We saw lions (very close) and a leopard (who just finished a meal), hippos (mostly submerged) and giraffes (with babies), elephants, wildebeests, zebras, hyena, gazelles, impalas, topis, and one eland. I will just display a few photos to give you an idea. Click on any of the photos in this post to see a larger version.

Oh, yeah, did I mention the birds? Here's a male ostrich.

Next post I will display some more animal photos.

Contrasts

2008-08-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

I have never met students so earnest, so willing to persevere, so intent on mastering a subject as the Kenyans who completed the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts degree offered by Wayland Baptist University through the Kenya Baptist Theological College in Limuru. The eight who graduated and were awarded diplomas on July 25 inspired praise and admiration from their fellow students, their teachers, and Baptist officials who attended the ceremonies. I have heard a number of student speakers at graduations through the years, but I never heard a speech like the one delivered by Francis Midega, graduating summa cum laude.

Francis described the changes in his life as a result of his studies, changes that impacted the congregation among whom he ministers. Then he spoke of what was missing. He rebuked KBTC administrators for limiting the educational experiences. He demanded to know why more women students were not encouraged to seek advanced education (two of the eight graduates were women). He challenged the moderator of the Baptist Convention of Kenya to address the fact that so few churches had called female ministers into leadership. This is a young man determined to see education make a difference in Kenya.

On Sunday, six of us Americans were finishing up a safari (more about that later) when we decided to accept our driver's offer to take us to a Masai village. Of all the people groups in Kenya, the Masai are most resistant to change. They have not adopted western clothing or living structures; they do not live in cities or have an overarching tribal governance structure. While some Masai have left their villages for education or for work as guards, many still live in traditional villages. Here you see the young men of the small village we visited. The one in blue (named John) is the son of the chief; he conducted a tour for us after collecting 1000 Kenya shillings (about $15 US) from each person. This money goes into a community fund to pay for teachers and health care.

The life of a Masai village revolves around cattle. The men tend them out in the savanna and bring them back into the village compound every night. The Masai drink cow's milk and cow's blood. For special events (three or four times a month), they will slaughter a cow for the meat. The women fetch water and firewood and build the houses, using dirt and cow manure to plaster the walls. They take care of the children and the cooking. More and more Masai are becoming monogamous, but one can still encounter men with several wives. In such a case, each wife will have a house and the husband will sleep in the houses on a rotation.

In the village we visited, the women displayed their beadwork as well as some items the men had carved. The income from sales of these items helps provide for community needs. The children are sent to a school where they learn Swahili and English. There were Christians in the village we visited; some of them had gone to church, a walk of about thirty minutes. John declared himself to be a Christian and we promised to pray for each other.

I have just found out that on the Thursday when our team was finishing up the Bible school in Gachie, a gang of about ten Kenyan men attacked a group of Dutch volunteers who were rebuilding a school (see this news article). Besides robbing the volunteers and the Kenyans with whom they were working, the thugs raped five of the Dutch women. As I reported in a previous post, one member of our team had been held at gunpoint on Monday.

So these days illustrate the different approaches by Kenyans to the strife, fear, and disease that menace the country. The Thursday thugs have adopted an anarchic "survival of the most violent" approach. The Friday graduates have opted for increased education and social concern. And the Sunday Masai have decided to withdraw into tradition. Which way will ultimately prevail in Kenya?

Education in Kenya

2008-08-02T04:20:00.000-07:00

When we informed the schools in Gachie West that we would be around for the next few days, they invited us to speak to the children. The primary school (elementary through junior high) planned for an hour-long assembly. We thought we would be in an auditorium with a stage and electricity for the CD player. Yeah, right. When we pulled up in the matatu (minivan), students in red school uniforms started waving and coming over to shake hands. The bell rang and from all over the campus, children scurried to gather around the flagpole in the central yard. We were introduced to the principal who accompanied us to the meeting area. As we approached, the six hundred or so kids began waving and cheering. They formed a huge ring through which we passed to be introduced by the principal as follows: "These are Americans who have come to talk with you today."

Put yourself there. Surrounded by students who may never have seen someone from your country up close. You can say anything you want. You have an hour and no props. Go.

As previously posted, we sang and taught songs to them and took turns telling Bible stories using each other (and even the principal and an accompanying pastor) as the characters. When we asked for questions, they would shyly raise their hands, then duck in a fit of giggles if called on. I wound up being the de facto leader of our group, being the mzee (old man). I explained why we had come to Kenya and what we were doing just down the street. I gave a brief summary of the gospel. Then we sang our "Love, love" song and the assembly was over. The kids mobbed us. Each of us on the team must have shaken thirty or forty hands before the crowd began to dissipate in response to the clanging bell and orders from the teachers.

The principal wanted to talk with our team. He was a friend of Vincent, our host. They are both concerned about the physical as well as educational needs of the children in this community. The school has planted some trees and a few vegetables as part of the science classes. I urged the principal to establish a children's garden for which the children themselves could be responsible and from which they might produce enough food to provide meals for the poorer children. We suggested that the schools and the local churches develop a working, cooperative plan that would involve the community in preschool health and education. I promised that if they did, I would look for funding from the US. We prayed in the principal's office.

The next stop was the secondary (high) school where we had two hours with the freshmen class. They were seated in a single classroom and we sat behind a table. The students, though shy at first, were articulate and finally started asking questions which revealed a deeper level of interest than simply American entertainment figures (Michael Jackson is still very popular here). We discussed the value of a democracy and tough issues that these children face. They listed poverty, drugs, tribalism, and government corruption as being disruptive influences in their lives. One fellow, knowing that we were Christians, asked "Why is there suffering?" Others asked about the origins of HIV and AIDS. A boy asked me, "Why do some Americans call our people 'gorillas'?" It was a good two-hour discussion and they sat patiently, manifesting remarkable attention for fourteen-year-olds. Once again, I was able to summarize the gospel and direct them towards the pastor who accompanied us. It was a memorable experience.

I did not take photos of these visits. Here is one of the typical weather while we were there.

Back from Kenya

2008-07-31T19:09:00.000-07:00

This was the shortest trip we have yet made to Kenya, only about ten days. There were three main activities that occupied our time. The first of these was running a Bible school for about 85 children aged three to eight. We did this for five days, about three hours a day, in a crime-ridden town named Gachie. It is one of three towns in Kenya renowned for producing criminals. Drugs are rampant, orphans are numerous, and AIDS is everywhere. One of our team members was held up at gunpoint just a block from the church where we were working. It rained nearly every day, so the yard and the streets were muddy. We did not have electricity in the building because every time the church has wiring and a meter installed, someone steals it to buy drugs.

But the seven of us wazungu (foreigners) had three to five Kenyans assisting us each day. They translated, restored order, led games and songs, and distributed snacks. In other words, they were vital to the operation. Vincent has been running a program for the smallest children in Gachie West so that they will be prepared to enter first grade. If the children cannot pass tests, they are removed from the (free) public schools and must pay for private school. So it is vital to the community that these children recieve some education. They were remarkable in their attentiveness and learning under the firm but loving care of Everlyne, an extremely dedicated and patient teacher.

For four of the days, we also worked with children from an academy run by Susan and Elizabeth. It caters to children whose parents can afford school uniforms and minimal fees. The academy meets in a church in Gachie East; at least, it was doing so while we were there. Because Susan and Elizabeth have decided to help out the Gachie West church, the pastor of the Gachie East church has told them to find another place to hold their academy. This is distressing news and we sincerely pray that the pastor will come to his senses.

The children taught us some games and songs; we taught them games and songs also. The song they remembered best went: "Love, love, let us love. Let us love one another, for love comes from God." They were wild about craft time, asking permission to use another crayon, anxious to apply stickers to their foreheads. At the end of the week, we asked questions about the Bible stories and they were able to answer all the questions. In this photo, you can see the two women leading a game. Across the road, a neighbor girl watched and danced along with the songs. When we handed out pencils to the children in the academy, we also gave some to the kids who were watching from the road.

Any time we went anywhere that children were around, they would say "Mzungu! Mzungu!" which amused the 17-year-old in our group to no end. Most of the places we went,, the children had never seen a white person up close. We were mobbed at the primary school where we acted out Bible stories and taught them some action songs (think about Cat and me doing the "Hokey Pokey" before 600 Kenyan children). Next post, I will tell you about the conversation with the principal.

Mousetrap, part 3

2008-07-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

Friday morning, we had full dress rehearsal at 10:00 AM. That gave time for setting props, doing hair and makeup, posing for photos, and practicing the curtain call. When you are sitting 24 inches from a mirror, it is easy to think you have put on too much makeup. That's what Jennifer thought. She played the part of an eighty-year-old woman and thought that these were too many wrinkles. But When we got on stage under lights, from the third row of the audience you couldn't even see the makeup. She had to add more and darker lines for the performance.

It dawned on me that I had to treat the face that I was seeing in the mirror as a flat, colorless surface on which it would be necessary to paint a face. Every square inch has to be colored with makeup and all wrinkles need shadows. Since my character was a policeman, I thought it good to give him a bit of red on the nose and cheeks. When Cat took this shot, I was about halfway through putting on makeup. There was a student snapping photos all through the week. She promised to send me the files, but I never got them. So I can't show you what I looked like onstage (I know you are bitterly disappointed). But here is one more photo of backstage.

You can see from the people standing there just how tall the set was at the back. The opening in the background entered the stage about two-thirds of the way up. The table there is on a platform which was the highest point at which people walked around. Tell you what, if I get those photos from the student, I will post something later.

The next posting to expect on this site will be from Kenya. Yep, we are going again.

Mousetrap, part 2

2008-07-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

We had scripts and full cast for less than two weeks. We assembled this massive set in the auditorium at our university, had two or three days of rehearsal on the set, then took it all down to move it to Ruidoso. We arrived on a Friday and parked the truck and trailer on a church parking lot. Over the next several days we rehearsed in the church gym and once in the sanctuary (where we could not disturb the setup for the next day's worship service). When the Spencer Theater finally was available for us, we spent a whole day putting up the set. The next day we rehearsed in the morning while the technical director set the light and sound cues. So sometimes he would call "black" and all the lights would go off. Made for an interruptive rehearsal, but the show must go on.

On Thursday, all the props were ready, the set was completed, and we could rehearse with light. Sounds still had to be played on a boom box since only the Spencer personnel can touch the sound board. The afternoon was a time to work with hair and makeup. After dinner was dress rehearsal. The youngest member of the cast was grumpy over the removal of all iPods and cell phones from backstage, but we were all eager to get on stage in costume under lights with sound. The director reminded us one more time of how important it was to do an outstanding job. We had all worked very hard, physically and emotionally, and there needed to be a payoff.

Here's what it looked like backstage. The set had a snow device so that when the window was open, little (plastic) flakes drifted down outside. The floor of the set was raked at 8 degrees; that meant that we entered through level doors and stepped onto a slanting stage. That floor was made of 17 full (4 X 8) sheets and at least half a dozen cut sheets of particle board on 2 X 4 frames and legs screwed and clamped together. There were 25 wall panels that were sixteen feet tall, five entrance platforms, six sets of steps, two working doors and a working window. The crown molding at the top was 12 inches wide; imagine mitering those joints!

Only one more full dress rehearsal on Friday morning and we would be ready. We were exhausted Thursday night, but exhilarated by the potential. After lunching on sandwiches for the last week, the possibility of a restaurant dinner beckoned.

Mousetrap, part 1

2008-07-11T19:55:00.001-07:00

First let's talk about the Spencer Theater outside Ruidoso, NM. This place is beautiful. The photo here is from the lobby area. That giant red Christmas tree is made of hundreds of individual glass tubes. There is glass art like this throughout the theater. So you should go sometime just to see the place.

The day after we performed, they were having an art auction and so there was even more art than usual hanging around. Wall space was at a premium as indicated by the fact that they had to squeeze this piece between two fire alarm instruments. It was kind of cool hanging around listening to an art expert telling the staff about detecting forgeries and copies of lithographs made after the death of the artist. If I had had an extra million bucks, I might have bought a painting. Just to suppoort the arts, you understand.

Here's another wall of glass art. Cat took all these photos while I was in rehearsal. She was a real trooper, running errands and cleaning up and taking photos. Next posting, I will show you the set. It was truly awesome (and profoundly heavy).

Volcanus interruptus

2008-07-06T12:58:00.000-07:00

Vacation Bible school has been over for a month now, so I decided to finally get the photos off my camera and post them. The top shot is what the volcano looked like when completed. Doesn't look too impressive there because you can't tell how tall it is and it doesn't have all the plants around the bottom.

The only other shot that I got was during VBS from the back of the chapel. But at least you can see the size compared to people. The VBS director thanked us many times for the volcano. (Yes, we got a big "thank-you" card signed by all the first-graders.)

The next posting will be about the play I was in at the Spencer Theater in Ruidoso, NM. It was the Agatha Christie mystery "Mousetrap." We only had two weeks to memorize the script and we played to a packed house. It was wild.

Now for the brown paper skin

2008-05-31T05:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a life lesson: when you make wheat flour paste, don't store it in a Tupperware bowl for two or three days. That is, unless you want sourdough. When we opened the tub yesterday, the odor and the bubbles let us know we were fermentin'. The stink stayed on my hands for about 24 hours, even with washing and taking a shower.

But we got the kraft paper skin on all three sections. The middle photo shows a view of one section lying on its back so the skin can dry. We found that the kraft paper ("kraft" is a German word meaning "strong") was much easier to work with than newspaper: it doesn't shred. Maybe we were hastened by the smell, but we got the brown skins on in record time. Now it is time to paint. (Actually, we have already started the painting process, but the rechargeable batteries in my camera have begun to fail. I bought new batteries and have charged them up. Maybe I can take pictures tomorrow.)

I did have one problem when trying to move around the dried sections. These things are fairly light-weight, but extremely clumsy for one person to move around (no wheels on the bottom). While moving one section, I accidentally dropped it on its side and the skin popped off--all in one, molded piece. OK, no problem. In fact it was easier to paint lying flat on the ground. Then we stapled it back in place.

As you can see, the volcano is tall. By the time we get the top on it, the overall height will be about twelve feet. Makes the piano look small, huh? I'm thinking that post-VBS we can just keep it in the chapel as a representation of Mt. Sinai. Glue a little plastic Moses to the side with two little tablets under his arm. The preacher could flip the switch to start an eruption when congregants start nodding off. It'd be cool.

Adding the skin

2008-05-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

Whooeeey, we have been busy. Cat and I worked on the volcano all Sunday afternoon, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights, and we plan to go again tonight. We have applied almost all the "skin" to the structures. This involves making the glue, wetting paper with it, and applying it to the chicken wire. The glue formula is five parts water to one part flour. Boil four units of water, mix the remaining unit with the flour (whisking to reduce lumps), and adding to the boiling water. Cook for three minutes and you have paste (or really tasteless gravy).

We used newspaper as the base layer; the supply was abundant and cost us nothing. We learned that the paper used by our local newspaper is superior for these purposes to the paper used by the Big Flat City newspaper south of us. Well, there's something to be proud of. You can see in the top photo how the process begins. We have to stand on a scaffold to reach the interior surfaces. The bottom photo, although blurry (no, it's not your eyes), shows a completed section. After the newspaper skin dries, it is time to apply the brown craft paper skin. This will provide a base color and is far easier to paint than newspaper. I will provide photos of that in the next posting.

Back in the saddle again

2008-05-22T20:49:00.000-07:00

Actually, it is back to monstrous projects again. Do you remember when I built a tomb for the resurrection scene for our church? The tomb has fallen and its skin lies moldering in the yard beside a church building. But I have been requested to build a volcano for Vacation Bible School. A big volcano. A big working volcano. You know what a temptation that was for me. So I have started the project, even took a vacation day to work on it. The idea is that the three triangular prisms all fit together to make a cone. Having the volcano in three sections will make it easier to cover in papier mâché.

The frame for this is 2X4 lumber and metal studs. The skin is chicken wire. Presently the structure is eleven feet tall and about sixteen feet wide at the base. There will be a top section added with all the fireworks. Patience, dear reader, all will be revealed.

Semi-permanent vacation

2008-04-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

It has been so long since I posted that I forgot how to sign in. It took a while to get to my dashboard. Anyway, here's the deal: I'm busier than ever. So just amuse yourself by reading the archives or clicking the links to other bloggers that are more committed than I am.

Rachel, Annie, Patti, Paul, Mindy, Phyllis, Jonathan, family members, and other readers, I thank you for the comments over the years (yeah, years of blogging). I will try checking in on your sites from time to time. Enjoy the blogosphere.

Not dead, just occupied

2008-02-10T18:21:00.000-08:00

"With what?" you might ask. Work, church, genealogy, and a conference.

Work. I am teaching two online classes, one of which I have never taught online before. It means writing up and posting lecture notes as well as quizzes and discussion questions. And now there are papers to grade. I am teaching one class in Big Flat City fifty miles south of here that takes me out on Tuesday nights. Papers to grade in that class, too. Then there are the two classes I am teaching here on the home campus. And our institution has been preparing for and going through an accreditation review. And through it all we have been worried about our students and faculty in Kenya. Our two faculty members from the US were able to complete their mission and return safely (praise God), but many of our students have lost family members, houses, and businesses. Our campus has been giving attention to Africa most of January and into this month.

Church. Rather than starting the year by getting all the projects scheduled, our church staff has spent the weeks praying together and listening for God's direction. They have focused on prayer in the worship services, Sunday school, and Wednesday evening services as well. This has been a good time of growing together and remembering why we are called to be the body of Christ.

Genealogy. I've been doing more research on my great-great-great-great-great-great-uncle Epaphroditus Howle who was a plantation manager for Martha Dandridge Custis. After she married George Washington, "Dite" worked for the General. That is, until he got fired by Martha's steward. I am still checking that out. But there is our family name in the Papers of George Washington (vol. 6, 7, and 8).

Conference. At the juncture of the two months, I went to a conference in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a gathering of Baptists from a variety of denominations. Those of you who are Baptist will realize that there are many stripes of Baptists and we have been chiefly visible to the 21st century world by our vociferous disagreement with each other. But this conference focused on unity. We reaffirmed the principles which have characterized us through the centuries and encouraged one another to live out the ministries God has given us. If you want to see some mighty fine preaching and some moving testimonies by such Baptist lay people as John Grisham, Bill Clinton, Marian Edelman, and Jimmy Carter, check out the New Baptist Covenant website. One of the main reasons I went was to see and hear my former pastor from San Francisco days, Julie Pennington-Russell. Be sure to check out her sermon--she did a fantastic job. I not only got to spend time with old friends, but met new ones and had an experience of great hope.

So I haven't been idle. And I may not post again for another couple of weeks, but I will be checking on your blogs from time to time.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T18:37:00.000-08:00

How was your holiday season? Cat, her sister, and I went to California to see our grandson (and his parents, of course). Here I am reading to Orion (Scout is pretending not to be interested, but he was). We spent four days with grandson, son, daughter-in-law, and her parents. Even though all the adults had agreed that Orion did not need nearly as many presents as last year, the Christmas tree had no unoccupied real estate below the branches. Orion's first hour on Christmas morning was spent playing with Thomas trains. He knows all of them by name, so he was delighted by all the trains he got.

The weather in southern CA was gorgeous, but as a result of arriving 5 hours later than scheduled, we were bumped from a full-size car to a two-door convertible. Luggage handling was an issue as well as three adults nearing 60-years-old squeezing into the car. Cat and Carol pose in the car with the top down. We did drive along the shore with the top down, but it got pretty cool for the back-seat passengers.

Getting ready for Christmas

2007-12-07T19:28:00.000-08:00

This year our church is presenting a cantata with orchestra, video images, and dramatic scenes. I am the stage manager. The scene pictured here is of Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus. I designed the set and led the team that built it. Turned out OK, I think. I am also in charge of the actors. The scene depicted above will have four angels enter stage right. I captured the photo below as the angels were awaiting their entrance. Aren't they just precious?

Office cat

2007-11-28T20:08:00.000-08:00

SpookyRach suggested that I needed a cat for my office. Hey! I already have one! And it is very low maintenance. My mom painted this one about ten years ago. Every week or so I move it to a different location in the office. Oh, I have decorated the office for Christmas. I'll take some pix and post them later.

Yeah, the utilities workers came by and dug a hole in our street to fix the broken water pipe. I guess the part where they put asphalt over the mud comes later. For now we have a big mud square in front of our driveway.

Suddenlink did get our phone line operative, so now everything works--phone, internet, cable TV. The cost is lower than those three services purchased separately from other vendors, so I am happy. Just hope that Suddenlink is reliable.

I am so far behind on my preparation for the classes I teach online! Thank goodness for the upcoming Christmas break. Maybe I can get two or three lessons ahead. OK, it's bedtime now.

Just waiting.

2007-11-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

This morning I noticed a puddle at our curb and realized that a water main had broken under the street and water was bubbling up to create a birdbath. The birds appreciated it, but I called the city to get it fixed. The phone rang and rang--no answering machine. Ten minutes later (after 8:00), I called back and the lady said they would send someone right out.

I was already waiting because the service rep from Suddenlink is supposed to be here between 8:30 and 10:30 to change my phone service. I called at 8:30 just to be sure that I was on the schedule. It took 27 minutes before a live operator answered. She reminded that he has until 10:30 to get here. In the meantime a truck from the city came out and painted a rectangle on the street to mark the area for the excavator to dig. As soon as they left the birds returned, intriguing the cat across the street. I cleaned out the refrigerator.

I checked my online class. I read a few blogs. I straightened up a bit. No excavator yet. No service rep. It's 10:19. Suppose I should start now calling Suddenlink so that it won't be too much past 10:30 when I get hold of them? ~subdued grrrr~

Ramblings

2007-11-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

Somehow it has been hard to return to the ol' blog. It would be wrong to refer to the following as "highlights"--they are ordinary events--but that's about all that has been going on the last few weeks.

Remember the plants that I grew from seeds I found in Australia? The seeds were in pods on the ground under this bush with wonderfully perfumed flowers. I asked my son to find out the name of the plant, if he could. Yesterday he told me it was jasmine. Hmm. OK, jasmine grows like a vine and does not produce seed pods. So this seedling of which I have five iterations apparently came from the seeds of a tree above the jasmine shrub. I still don't know what it is. One pot is in my study; the plant is doing well. One pot is in the sun room and it is doing fairly well. One pot is outside and the stripling endured last night's snow very well. Whatever it is, it's hardy. Here is a close-up of the top of the plant. The leaves grow in pairs which close at night and pop open in the morning. Strange.

We didn't leave town for Thanksgiving. My sister had invited us for dinner at her house (outskirts of Austin) and my brother said we could stay overnight at his house (San Antonio). Very kind of them, but the weather here threatened snow and the idea of driving down there at night in the snow (and returning in similar weather) was sufficiently offputting that we declined. Cat would not have been able to get off on Wednesday anyway (to make the 6-hour drive). When some friends from church invited us to eat at their house, we agreed. On Tuesday evening I got a message that the cabin near Santa Fe NM which had our name on the wait list (since summer) was suddenly available. No, we did not change all our plans and drive into the teeth of the storm just to get to a cabin in the snowy woods all to ourselves. How would I explain that to my siblings?

I got out the Christmas tree and added lights. Now it will be time for Cat to hang the ornaments. Sometimes she lets me help with that. We bought some 12" long glass "icicles" from a company that was going out of business; they should be a nice addition. I am taking the chili pod lights to my office to decorate. I like to keep it interesting.

Now I have to go finish grading papers and projects from my church history class. They give me a headache. Do American high school students learn how to read (with understanding)? I am beginning to doubt it. How I long to discover a student who really understands research and analysis. OK, enough whining--now for grading.

It's a mystery

2007-11-11T20:10:00.000-08:00

First of all, the papers got graded and grades turned in. I have notes for tomorrow's Old Testament, Biblical Interpretation, and Latter Prophets classes. I will have to write up notes for the Church History class, but I can get up early in the morning and get that done. The set for the Christmas play should be fairly easy to build and I will have help from some experienced people. So I am stressing less. But that's not what I want to talk about.

In Sunday school we are working through Ephesians. It has been a good study; we are taking about half a chapter a week. Here's what struck me out of this week's study. When Christians choose to actually submit to God's direction and wind up suffering for the sake of others (as did Jesus), it not only binds us closer together as believers and strengthens our connection with and dependence on God, it serves as the evidence of "the manifold wisdom of God . . . to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms" (Eph. 3:10) that God's sovereign plan is working. When we Christians put aside our differences and act as "one body" (verse 6), we affect not just the members of our local church or the city in which we live, not just the denomination we claim, not just the visible Church around the globe, we--you and I--are the "theater of God's work" (J. A. Bengel) for the spiritual powers of the universe to observe. Everyone talks about trusting God, but just imagine how much God trusts us! Amazing.

After a long hiatus

2007-11-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

Here's the list:

Research papers and projects to grade before Monday

Old Testament summaries to grade before Monday

Final grades to turn in on Monday

Christmas drama to produce in four weeks (had our first meeting today!)

Hybrid class to prepare (starts next week); meets in Big Flat City 45 miles south of here for eleven weeks

New online class to teach; I have no lecture notes ready; starts next week

Projects from church history class to grade

And a month from now are the auditions for Proof. Do I dare even show up for that? The part (same one Anthony Hopkins had in the movie version) is very juicy. And of course there are the holidays which will require travel for us--once to central Texas and once to California. I may be scarce(r) around here for a while.

After a short hiatus

2007-10-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

It's just been busy, that's all. I thought after the play was finished, the pace would slow down, but not so. Anyway, it is Fall Break here on the campus and at least I do not have class to teach today. Most of the teachers in my office decided to stay home, but I think that since the university pays me to work full-time, I ought to be here. And it's not like I have nothing to do. The new online term starts in a little over three weeks and I have MUCH preparation to do. If I wasn't working here at the office, I would be working at home. Just thought that I would take a break and post something so you wouldn't think I abandoned blogland. Have a good weekend.

Four things meme

2007-10-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

Rachel tagged me for this meme. Hope you like it.

Four Jobs I’ve Held:
Cabinetmaker
ESL teacher for foreign military personnel
Student minister
Professor

Four Films I Could Watch Over and Over:
Chocolat
Wait Until Dark
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Princess Bride

Four TV Shows I Watch:
Boston Legal
Mythbusters
Grey's Anatomy
Almost anything on HGTV

Four Places I’ve Lived:
Austin Texas
Nice, France
Aiea, Hawaii
La Jolla, california

Four Favorite Foods:
Homemade green chili enchiladas (with mushrooms and spinach)
Traditional Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, yams, etc.)
Any kind of fruit pie
Almost any French food like an herbed Brie cheese with crusty bread, um, yummy!

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
My institution's Blackboard site
Various blogsites
Gmail.com
[That's it for DAILY viewing. Every other website view is on a need-to-know basis. Really.]

Four Favorite Colors:
Sky blue

Red

Black

Soldier blue

Four Places I Would Love to be Right Now:
In my workshop at home
Any of the places I have lived before
Wales/Scotland/Ireland
Sydney, Australia (where it is turning spring)

Four Names You Love, But Could/Would Not Use for Your Children:
Nopadol Wongsaengarunsri (this is the name of a student that I had at UT Austin)
Margo
Palo Alto (OK, it's the name of a town, but I like saying it all run together)
Epaphroditus (name of the oldest ancestor I have tracked down)

OK, I now tag Phyllis, Songbird, Patti, and Carolanne. Write up your four memes now.

Another photo of the actors

2007-10-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

Here is a shot for the newspaper. The idea is that Einstein is explaining his theory to Sagot, Germaine the barmaid, and Freddy the bar owner. This scene does not appear in the play, but there were only four of us available for photos yesterday. The painting behind Germaine's head is a copy of a 1906 Matisse that I did. Made the frame, too.

We will have a warm-up rehearsal tomorrow and then finish out the run Friday and Saturday nights. I am eager to present the play a couple more times, but even more anxious to shave off this little mustache and goatee.

This is my 200th post but it is not exactly earth-shattering. Glad you stopped by.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile

2007-09-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

I have been busy this last week. Our play opened last Thursday and we have been very much in rehearsals. So far it has gone well--lots of laughs, no major goof-ups. One night a gel (colored filter in a metal frame) fell off one of the lights and landed a couple of feet from one of the actors. He just looked over at it, said, "Hmph" and went on with his lines. The show must go on.

The photo is of some of the cast. The characters are, from left to right, Picasso, Schmendiman, Suzanne, Einstein, and Sagot. The set for this turned out fabulous, especially a five foot square copy of Les Demoiselles D'Avignon that was painted by an art teacher here. She did an amazing job and the cast sometimes just stands in front of it gawking. I will try to get a decent picture this week. We close on Saturday. Yesterday (Saturday 29th) one of the people in the audience was a cousin of Steve Martin (who wrote the play). He lives in Big Flat City south of us, had never seen the play, and decided to come up for the show. That was kind of cool.

The play has a lot of laughs, some immediate, some what the play itself refers to as "icebox laughs"--when you don't get the joke until an hour later when you are standing in front of the icebox. It has some poignant moments, too, when the actors are discussing art. The script reveals Martin's love for great artwork.

I am looking forward to four free nights before our next performance. If you are in Fake Cow Town this weekend, make plans to see the show.

The snacks worked!

2007-09-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

At the suggestion of Mindy, I set out some peanut butter AND tortilla chips on the deck to see if the Mindybird would be attracted to it. Then I sat with my camera on a tripod and waited. And waited. And waited. Good thing I brought along a couple of crossword puzzles. Then it happened--the Mindybird flew to the railing and eyed the snacks. She looked me over carefully then dropped to the deck floor. I was able to get this photo before she snatched a chip and took off. Amiable little critter, but kind of shy.

Quit flittin' around!

2007-09-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

The Mindybird has been out and about, but of course, when I see her, I don't have my camera at hand. I will try putting out some croissant pieces, maybe with a nice raspberry jam, and have my camera ready. Be patient--this could take a while. By the way, she is very colorful and flies extremely fast.

New sighting

2007-09-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't expect the birdhouse to attract a resident so quickly. Looks like we have a Mindybird living on the north side.

Mystified

2007-09-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

Something odd occurred this last week. I posted a notice about SpookyRach and Jonboy. That's not the odd part. What was strange to me was the fact that several people commented on that posting who have never ever commented on my blogsite before. So that appears to mean that there are more-or-less regular readers of this blog who never comment. OK, just this one time, would everyone who reads this leave a comment, even if it is just to say "Hi"? And if there is something that would engage you more in my postings, let me know. (We used to play games here, but it has been a while.)

Here's the latest project: a multi-room birdhouse. Cat kept placing pages torn from magazines in spots where I would find them, pages with pictures of birdhouses. Doesn't take me long to get the hint--only several months. So I built this six-room house with a screen floor (for easier cleaning). At first I used old license plates for the roof, but that looked pretty tacky. The final material was left over from a kiddie swimming pool at least 40 years old.

I dug a hole, poured in concrete, and plumbed the pole yesterday. All that left was mounting the birdhouse this afternoon. We will see if the birds like it. I tried to keep it out of range of the squirrels.

Here's another project. On Tuesday of last week I was asked to be in a play ("Picasso at the Lapin Agile" by Steve Martin) here at the university in Fake Cow Town. The role is that of a French art dealer during the beginning of the twentieth century. How could I say "no"? The play opens the last weekend of THIS MONTH, however, so there's a lot of work ahead. By the way, we are still looking for an actor to play the part of Elvis, so if you know of anyone . . .

Doing better, it seems

2007-09-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

Rachel and Jon's dad seems to be on the mend. Check out Rachel's blogsite for a commentary. She's funny even in a crisis.

Prayers for fellow bloggers

2007-09-04T19:33:00.000-07:00

Most of you know SpookyRach and Jonboy; well, heck, ALL of you know her. Rachel and Jon's mother is so severely crippled that their father must devote a considerable number of hours a day caring for her. Well, he has just been diagnosed with heart trouble and will need bypass surgery immediately. So not only do Rachel and Jon need to be concerned about their father's wellbeing, but about their mom while he is not at home to take care of her. If you are the praying sort, please pray for Alvin and Cathy as well as Rachel and Jon and their families. Thanks.

Mindy's turn, moon view, and another dream

2007-08-31T19:40:00.000-07:00

The Princess of Everything (and then some) has requested an interview. So here we go:

Why has pantie-palooza become so important to you?

Sometimes a sensory perception will set off a nostalgic moment. When is the last time that happened to you?

You have many blog buddies. If you had a party where you could meet them all face-to-face, where would it be held?

In your experience, where has the church most succeeded?

Did you do arts and crafts as a little girl or did you start that later?

Just in case you do not remember the rules, here they are:
1. If you are interested in being interviewed, leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by posting five questions for you. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

This is the best shot that I could get of the lunar eclipse the other night. I tried holding one binocular eyepiece (what would you call it? a leg? an "ocular"?) up to the camera lens, but of course it was impossible to hold it steady enough for a good photo. So I hope you have seen better snaps than this, because they certainly exist.

Last night I had a dream in which I came up with a word game. Here is how it went. The game creator writes a series of sentences with a blank space for one word in each of the sentences. The word that should fill the blank can be deduced by rearranging the letters in another word in that same sentence while either adding or subtracting a letter. Here's an example (from the dream):
The first pig to the trough ______ to be the fattest. (ought) [R]
The person playing the game would have to figure out the missing words and write the extra letter in a box at the end of the sentence. Then the player would try to rearrange the extra letters into a word that completes the last sentence. What do you think?

And now more interview questions

2007-08-26T13:22:00.001-07:00

Cat and I had a great time at the concert (Three Redneck Tenors) on Friday. It turns out that one of them is married to a lady who went to school in Big Flat City. The guys gave us a show that included some impromptu clowning around and a couple more encores than one might have expected. As a bonus, the couple that sat next to us included a woman whom Cat and I had known in our college days. She had lived in Georgia until recently.

When we exited the theater, a thunderstorm was just beginning to get worked up. We got pretty spattered on the way to the car. (Yes, I offered to go get the car and bring it around, but Cat insisted on going with me. "It's only water.") Well, it was pouring down by the time we got to the car. Fortunately, we already had a hotel room there in town to which to return. And we spent most of the next day shopping in stores more diverse than those in Fake Cow Town. Little did we know that our fair town was hit overnight by lightning and windstorms that wreaked havoc. Tree branches were scattered all over the place when we returned home. That's what it is like to live in West Texas.

Enough delay--let's get on with the interview questions. These are for Patti and Christopher.

Patti--
Was there a "precipitating event" that sparked your desire to conserve and re-use?

If you could exchange one aspect of living in NY state with something characteristic of another state, what would you choose and why?

Was meeting Songbird face-to-face pretty much what you expected or were there surprises?

Out of all the American presidents past and current, with which one would you most like to sit down for conversation?

What do you think is the oddest item that you have saved although it no longer has a use?

Christopher--
How did you get from being an associate of San Antonio Baptist pastor Buckner Fannin to pastoring a UCC church in Indiana? Just the short version, please. (BTW, Cat and I belonged to Buckner's church for about 10 months in 1977-78.)

What prompted you to try your hand at writing poetry?

Is there a style of hair (facial or cranial) or of clothing you have wanted to try out, but didn't quite have the nerve?

What do you remember about a teacher during your elementary school days who most influenced your view of life at the time?

What experiences have you had with Iranians?

I look forward to your responses, really I do.

The Interviews

2007-08-24T14:33:00.001-07:00

What I am supposed to be doing right now is getting ready for an overnight trip to Big Flat City. Cat and I are going to a show featuring the Three Redneck Tenors (did you see them on TV trying out for that reality show?) and we decided to have a nice dinner first and spend the night in a hotel afterwards. But it doesn't take me long to pack, and besides I promised Rachel and Phyllis I would post their interview questions by today. So here goes:

Rachel--
1. Let's say that you have 24 hours to absolutely do whatever you want: family and friends, co-workers and telephone solicitors have all agreed to leave you alone for the day. What are some of the activities you would do?

2. Sometimes after leaving a movie you are still "in the movie" for a while. What is the most memorable such instance?

3. Your blog persona of SpookyRach gleefully incorporates dark and weird elements. To what extent do you think this is a reaction to being a pastor's daughter?

4. When do you think that you felt most failed by the church?

5. Besides the physical exercise, what have been some of the benefits of riding your bike to and from work?

Phyllis--
1. You are proud of being a redhead, but if you had to change your hair color for a week, what would you choose and why?

2. If there is one habit of your local church that you could change, what is it and how would you change it?

3. Have you always been artistic or did this develop gradually?

4. What spiritual discipline do you find most difficult to practice consistently? Why do you think this is so?

5. What do you remember about the first time you realized that there was a bigger world than West Texas?

Patti and Christopher, I am working on your questions. No lifelines and no German (OK, eine kleine deutsche).

Long time no post

2007-08-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it been ten days since the last post? Thanks for not bailing on me.* I cut out the article about SWBTS and put it on my office door. There have been a few comments, most sardonic.

Remember the neighbor across the street? The one that got me to thinking about hosting a neighborhood barbecue just to look for an opportunity to witness? Well, the other evening, he brought over a sack of veggies (his wife has a garden that is starting to overproduce) and we got to talking. Turns out that both he and his wife were raised going to church. He claimed to love the Lord and agreed that he should be going to church again. But he is working about 80-90 hours a week, so that leaves little time for anything else. He said that the barbecue was a good idea--maybe in October. Well, it would be cooler then and maybe most of the mosquitoes would have departed.

Over on Paul's site But a Poor Reflection, he has posted interview questions for me (and several other folks). Here are the questions with responses.
1. Why do you call yourself ‘Little’ David? Are you really a small guy or just very humble? Well, I am relatively short: 5'7" and shrinking as I age! My parents named me after Israel's second king, the one who evidently went up against a giant. Turns out he was short too. It would be disingenuous of me to claim that I am humble.
2. What is the biggest challenge for the church today and what can individual Christians do about that? And now for an easy question, eh, Paul? Churches in this century have a huge variety of contexts, particularly when compared to the first-century church. In some ways, the (biblical) advice given to them just does not connect today. But in a meaningful way, what the gospel writers have relayed to us about Jesus' words and actions, as well as St. Paul's advice to the beleaguered church, still speak to us now. The age-old challenge that I observe in churches I have called home is that of dying to self. We (and I am really a part of this crowd) still want God to sanctify us according to our ideas rather than submitting to what God has in mind for us. We want to be served rather than to serve. We want to be fed rather than to feed. In short, we continue to be babies. The most that an individual Christian can do about that is to constantly submit oneself to the Lordship of Christ: hear the Word, obey the Word.
3. You visited all the continents, except South America. What’s wrong with South America? ;-) And: if you had to move to South America, please tell us the preferred country and explain your choice. Nothing personal, really. I would have to polish up my Spanish or learn Portuguese in order to fully appreciate the experience. Curiously enough, since participating in an online conference several months ago, I have started a correspondence with a fellow from Guyana who is studying in England. I used Google Earth to locate his hometown in Guyana and to look at photos of the area. The photos revealed poverty and natural beauty, not unlike most parts of Africa. I think that I would like to visit this student. Who knows? Maybe I COULD live there.
4. The North Pole is melting. Do you care about this and do you think Canada, Denmark or Russia are entitled to claim the melted ice / the part of the globe where the ice used to be? Yes, I do care about global climate change and the consequent melting of the poles. I am ashamed of the inadequate response my country has made to this issue. As far as the northern countries claiming more land, though I have not pondered this before, my initial reaction is, sure, go ahead. If you can do something useful with it before the next ice age, be my guest.
5. You have rescued a highly talented artist out of a life-threatening situation. As a reward he offers to make something for you – for free! Please dream with me – what kind of artist would you like this to be and what would you like him / her to make for you? Hmm. Seeing as I have several artists in my family who have already produced some wonderful watercolors, oil paintings, pastels, and sculptures, I think that I would ask for music. Truly great music transcends the ages and touches the subconscious over and over. Purely instrumental would be fine and if there were lyrics, they could be in another language, I wouldn't mind (OK, well, I am not all that wild about German).

Those are my answers and here are the rules I agreed to:
1. If you are interested in being interviewed, leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by posting five questions for you. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with a post containing your answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

*Note to Carolanne and Paul--"bailing" = "bailing out, leaving unceremoniously"

Dream joke and you must be joking

2007-08-10T20:29:00.000-07:00

Do you ever dream something that seems so logical and real and then when you wake up it makes no sense at all? I think that is a typical experience. Well, the other night, I dreamt that I had made up a joke, and when I woke up, the punch line actually made sense! OK, it's not the funniest joke in the world but it makes sense. Here's my dream joke:

At the hospital they kept having trouble with new interns from the medical school, especially in the pediatric ward. Many of the interns were brusque to the point of rudeness, even cursing in front of the children. The hospital initiated a program to try to sensitize the interns to the needs of children patients. They supplied the interns with little teddy bears to keep in their pockets, instructing them to give the bears to new patients as they met them. They also provided a list of alternate exclamations to use instead of swearing. You know what they called the program? "'Golly' docs and the free bears!"

OK, not hilarious but pretty good for a dream joke.

Now from the news, an item that made my jaw drop. It seems that Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, largest seminary in the world (I think it still holds that title) is going to start offering a new degree: a BA in Humanities with a concentration in Homemaking. That's right, folks, they are teaching students cooking, sewing, home decorating. But not all students--only WOMEN students. No men need apply. There's seven semester hours of textile design and clothing construction as well as a three-hour course on the "biblical model for the home and family" (AP). Gosh, wouldn't it save time just to give 'em a chart with the hierarchy graphed out? How do you spend 45 contact hours describing a "biblical model" when everyone already knows what the teacher is going to say?

The new program is offered through their College at Southwestern and is designed "to prepare women to model the characteristics of the godly woman as outlined in Scripture." If you want to see a list of the courses required for the specialization click here and scroll down to Homemaking.* Somehow the idea of creating a bachelor's degree specifically for Christian housewives--how did they ever get that by the accrediting agency? I know that the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is one of the toughest regional accrediting boards in the US. I'm just floored, I tell ya. I'm a John Leland, Thomas Helwys kind of Baptist. This tripe going on today just makes me woozy.
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*The core requirements (108 semester hours) for the BA in Humanities includes a whopping 45 hours of Christian history and only three hours of introduction to social science. No psychology or counseling, no modern languages, no math, no geography, no music (well, 3 hours of "Fine Arts Perspectives of Life"). More PE hours are required than natural science. This is a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities???

"Everybody's doin' it, the locomotion, . . ."

2007-08-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not everybody, but it seems to be the blog rage of the moment.

Words are weird

2007-08-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

OK, except for Patti's comment, it is pretty clear that you didn't think much of the "fonetik alfubet." I must admit that I worked on it late at night.

So how do you pronounce "dour"? We watched the movie "Prairie Home Companion" again the other night and looked at all the featurettes. Meryl Streep commented on Garrison Keeler's countenance and pronounced the word to rhyme with "pour" instead of "sour." Just looking at "dour" I would have used the other pronunciation, but hand it to Meryl, she got it right on this one. That's because the word comes from Latin "durus" meaning "hard." Duh! Why didn't I think of that? It's because English is spelled so goofy, I tell ya!

Now in other news, Cat and I were so sick Friday morning, we didn't go to work. Well, she went to work and then came right back because there was someone to cover for her. (Thanks, JW!) We slept until 1:00 or so and finally had lunch at 2:00. Haven't gotten out of the house today except to buy groceries. It's yucky being sick. I've had pneumonia for five weeks (and now maybe pink eye), and Cat just had zero energy. Gettin' old.

I guess this is one of those rambling posts. Let me go take a photo of my latest project and I will be right back. Don't go away!
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Seven minutes later
--------------------

Now that I have a new office (well, not NEW new, just new to me), I have been thinking I needed a little table to go between the two chairs against the wall. That's where my somewhat infrequent visitors sit to chat, and it seemed like a good idea to provide a table on which to put their keys or cell phone or coffee mug, you know, that sort of thing. Makes it more homey. So, using some oak left over from a flooring project, I made this little table: 12 inches square, 24 inches tall. It only has two coats of finish on it right now, so it is not as shiny as it will be by Monday. I am also thinking of putting a thick glossy coat on top using this stuff made for decoupage. It's left over from Mom's art supplies.

We still have lots of that stuff left over. I have a cigar box with at least a hundred pencils in it. And there is a boxful of little cutters for making clay beads. And there is a kiln out in the workshop. Maybe when I retire I will have time to make stuff.

OK, on to other things. The other night I was thinking about my neighborhood. We've been living here for nearly seven years. We know the names of our neighbor to the east, our neighbors across the street (well, two of them at least) and our neighbors next door on the west. And that's it. Oh yeah, there's the "cat people" who own the house on the end of the block but actually live in the one across the street. Their cats live in the garage of the house on our block. And that's it: maybe seven names total. That's pretty pathetic, if you ask me. And it turns out that the little girl who wrote the "Y'all R so nice" message on our driveway lives in the house two doors down. She sent us a note saying what good neighbors we are! All we do is wave at her when we drive by--that's it!

So I am thinking that before school starts, it is high time that we have a neighborhood barbecue, you know, have some burgers and sit out under the carport just getting to know each other. I'm sure the single guy who lives next door to our across-the-street neighbors would like to feel more a part of the neighborhood. Well, I guess he would; I haven't talked with him since he moved in a year ago.

Maybe, just maybe, there could be a development out of this. Perhaps we could agree to have a get-together a couple of times a month. Maybe as we got to know each other, we could talk about important things. I know that most of the folks on our block do not go to church on Sunday. I am certain that the family across the street are not Christians; we have talked some. Hmmm. I think I had better go buy a grill.

streinj langwij

2007-07-29T13:28:00.000-07:00

Do you realize how hard it is to pronounce English words based on the spelling? It is an awful language for non-native speakers to learn (and more than a few native speakers have problems with spelling). For example, how do you describe the pronunciation of "ough" in light of: tough, though, through, trough, thought, and drought? It's a nightmare! The only logical thing to do is to use a phonetic alphabet, one in which every letter maintains a consistent sound, there are no digraphs (combination of two or more letters to produce one sound, e.g., "ph") and both vowels of a dipthong (one letter representing a blend of two sounds) are written. Well, that's a challenge if you want to stick with the letters in the present alphabet.

I decided to try my hand at it keeping with characters available on the standard keyboard. Tell me what you think. (Oh, that hibiscus is a recent addition to our porch. So far it has been pretty hardy. We'll see what happens in winter.)

Scroll way down. For some reason, Blogger does not care for table code.

Character	Sound	Character	Sound
a	fat	n	now, dinner
q	father, hot	o	poke, okay
b	bag, jab	p	poke, sap, supper
c	cheese, hatch	r	rake, arrest, car
d	deed	s	sand, face, asset, science
e	bet, edge	t	treat, better
f	fix, phone, effect	u	bug, apple, president, anonymous
g	guard, dog	v	vein, heavy
h	had	w	went, queen
i	it, you	x	shoot, sugar, addition
j	jug, wage, giant	y	shoot, tuna
=	azure	z	easy, zip, buzzed
k	clerk	#	thin
l	lit, allow	\	then
m	mix, summer	^	fee, beat, gene, receipt
Diphthongs
qi	eye, aisle, five, buy	ao	house, how
ei	make, vein, pay	qu	ought, taut
iy	few, music	yu	should, wood

hir iz u post wic wil rikwqir sum dusqifur^ng. it iz nqt ^z^ ty rqit u funetik alfubet for ^nglix iyz^ng onl^ #u k^z qn u k^bord wi\aot dqigrafs. #u vaowul saondz rikwqir men^ dif#qngz. qi \^nk #is wyud teik sum praktis az qlmost evr^ wurd wyud b^
r^speld. and wqt xyud b^ dun ubaot \^ngz lqik "etc."? qi ges #ei wyud hav ty b^ speld aot: "etseturu."

hao wyud wun ukaont fqr r^junul aksents? fqr egzampul "would" mqit b^ speld ^#ur "wyud" or "wud." wqt if evr^wun speld wurdz #u wei #ei saond ty #em (or #im)? qi no wun gqi hy pronaonsez "us" as "uz."

wqt ubaot kapitul leturs? kyud #ei b^ yzd just for neimz? but wqt ubaot neimz #at stqrt wi\ "#" and "\"? meib^ iy wyud hav ty kapitulqiz #u hol wurd: \^UDOR ("Theodore"). kuntracxuns wyud b^ streinj; "it iz" kuntracts ty "its" (or xyud it b^ "it's"?). if iy hav red #is fqr, iy mei b^ az loko az qi am.

Feeling better, thanks.

2007-07-22T11:10:00.000-07:00

Well, let's just say that I feel less sick. And the first week of the transition is OVER! Of course, there will still be times when I will need to go back over to the other office to help out, but all day Friday I got to stay in my new office relatively uninterrupted. It was wonderful!

The lawn is starting to look like a jungle. Perhaps I can muster up the stamina to do the edging today. Cat's sister CS was here over the weekend and kept promising to mow the lawn. But that didn't happen. Oh, and Aileen, one of our friends from Hawaii, spent last week here in Fake Cow Town visiting the various offices. We wound up the week going to see the musical TEXAS in Palo Duro Canyon. The show was good (we sat three rows from the front of the stage!) and the person who got the award for visiting from furthest away was a Kenyan. I went and talked with him during the intermission. His sister-in-law, who was present, had taught Swahili at Brackenhurst, the Baptist conference center where Cat and I have stayed on our Kenya trips. Small world, eh? Anyway, Aileen seems to have enjoyed herself and will go back with memories of an incredibly flat landscape (the drive between here and the canyon). [Note to Aileen: I have opened the pineapple-papaya jam and guava jelly so far. Ummmmmm! Yummy!]

Aloha, y'all.

Personality

2007-07-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

Over at Carolanne's site I ran across a link to a personality test online. Here's the report from my quiz (run your cursor over the blocks to see the individual components):

The inventory was interesting. I admired its construction and, at least in my case, it seems to be fairly accurate. Of courses, I am the introspective sort, so I have already considered a number of the issues that it raised. If you would like to take the inventory yourself, click on PersonalDNA. There is no signup necessary to take the inventory.

In other news, I am pretty tired today. I hope that this means that the antibiotic I am taking for my pneumonia is taking effect. Tomorrow starts a big week for me: new staff members at work, a visiting colleague to fetch from the airport, training several people at once, providing dessert for an office lunch. And that's just Monday and Tuesday!

Cat and I went impulse shopping yesterday. We bought a clothes dryer and a vacuum cleaner. Well, we have needed replacements of those two for quite some time and, by golly, let's just do it, I heard myself say. From my brief and recent experience, I can tell you that Dyson's really work.

Inspired by SpookyRach's yearbook photo, I decided to post a yearbook photo myself. It is not from my yearbook. It is from the first year that our son Greg was in college. He made quite an impression, apparently. Yep, that's my boy.

Gallimaufry

2007-07-11T18:08:00.000-07:00

That's right--this posting is just stew. No particular subject. Who knows? I might post a photo. We'll see.

When I came back from Ruidoso, I came down with a cold on Monday. That was two and a half weeks ago. Mostly it's gone now, but I still have this hacking cough and a really sore throat. Yeah, yeah, I am going to see the doctor tomorrow. Taking a book, because the receptionist had to "squeeze me in" to the schedule, so you know I will spend most of the afternoon in the waiting room. But maybe something useful will happen.

It's weird at work. I have been an administrator at my university for the last four years. Then an opportunity came up for me to be the university's first full-time online religion professor. So I jumped at the chance. The job started July 1. In theory. The reality is that since my replacement is not on campus yet and the other new employees have to be trained and there's no computer yet in my new office, I'm hanging around the old office. And then I wander over to the new office. Two sets of keys. Two phone numbers. Two desks. It's weird.

Our Sunday school class has been studying the sermons of Jesus as recorded in Matthew's gospel. In preparation for last Sunday's lesson ("take no thought what you should wear . . ."), I counted the clothes in my closet. If you take all the short-sleeved shirts (with a collar--no T shirts) and multiply that by the number of pants, I could wear a different combination of clothes every day for 555 days! OK, so I wouldn't match at least half of those days, but think how many people in the world have two or even just one set of clothes! That's it. I'm not buying any more clothes. Well, maybe socks and undies.

I went looking for a photo and decided to give you an etymological lesson on the word zenith. It actually came from an Arabic word samt ("road") which got transcribed as cemt in medieval Europe. But because Gothic letters consist of mostly vertical strokes, cemt was mistranscribed as cenit. Because this was a scholarly word, most Europeans encountered it in books and had no idea about its original pronunciation. Eventually it became pronounced zenith. And now you know. (See how lazy I am--this appeared in a previous posting!)

Must be summer

2007-07-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it must be summer here because we are having big ol' whopping thunderstorms. It stays hot all day and the clouds, teenage punks hanging around outside the smoke shop, keep threatening to do something. Finally it cuts loose and when the rain falls hard, the lightening takes off. Some of the strikes were no more than a quarter mile from our house. We just sat on the porch and watched the show. I was lucky enough to catch this strike, although it went behind a tree, so you don't get the full effect. And what a BOOM when a bolt hits nearby! Went on for about twenty minutes and then it just settled down to sprinkling. It's all my fault--I watered the backyard last night.

Oh yeah, I have a guess as to the mysterious chalkwriter. About a week ago, an adolescent girl riding her bike down the street fell over right in front of our house. Cat rushed out the door to see if she was OK. The girl professed to be just fine and said not to worry about her. Waving off Cat's "Are you sure?" she pedaled on down the street. I'm thinking it might have been her.

A couple of oddities

2007-07-08T05:54:00.000-07:00

Friday when we came home from work, we found that someone had left a chalk message on our driveway. This is quite confusing because the only person on our block with whom we regularly exchange favors is a bit old to be down on her knees writing with chalk. Was it the people across the street? We hardly ever talk to them--mostly friendly waves and "Are the 'skeeters eating you up?"

Maybe some children were playing on our driveway and one wrote the message for the others. After all, there is a small "Thanks" scrawled to the side. Could that been a playmate's response? But it seems to be in the same handwriting.

Perhaps friends who do not live nearby did this. I am intrigued that the word "y'all" was correctly spelled (not "ya'll" as one often sees) while "R" was substitutetd for "are." Maybe I am over-analyzing this. Maybe space aliens did this. (Rachel is out of town or I would suspect her.)

Another oddity is this flower growing in our backyard. Like Jonah's vine, it just sprung up all of a sudden. When it was about a yard tall, we thought it was a sunflower. But once it started flowering, the flowers look like brown-eyed Susans. The thing looks rather gangly with the thick stalk and leaves that are many times larger than the flowers. What do you think it is? And who planted THAT in our yard? We are going to have to keep a closer eye on our house!

Mountains of New Mexico

2007-07-01T18:49:00.000-07:00

As you may recall, Cat came up to Ruidoso with some friends so we were able to spend a couple of nights together (Cat and me, not our friends). Anyway, we were wondering what to do on Saturday before the play rehearsal and saw a lookout spot on the Chamber of Commerce map. Hey, if it's on the visitors' map, I figure we can go see it, right? So we turn off the highway at the appropriate exit and then depart from the asphalt to take the gravel road uphill. Did I mention that we are in the PWT Saturn? As we grind on up the hill, the rocks and the potholes get progressively larger. Every time I think that we are almost to the top, there's another turn and a long climb.

Finally we make it to the top and people are there. I mean lots of people, some of them camping two yards from the parking lot. Families of people. People with dogs. This is anything but secluded. Well, it was on the Chamber of Commerce map, after all. So Cat and I hike up to the steps that lead up the tower to the lookout.

Wow, what a view! We can't go all the way to the very top, because that's where a forest ranger is sitting behind a locked door, scanning the horizon for forest fires. Or maybe watching TV, I'm not sure. But the view is incredible. Of course, photos do not do it justice. But here's the view from atop Monjeau Tower. Be sure to click on the photo to see it better.

Five things I dig about Jesus

2007-06-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

Patti tagged me for this posting. The rules and my selections are below the list.

1. His humility (not to be confused with false modesty). "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" [Matthew 24:36].
2. His sarcasm with the religious elite. "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God" [Luke 12:42a].
3. His integrity and willingness to tell the truth no matter what. "When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at [the centurion] and turning to the crowd following him, he said, 'I tell you , I have not found such faith even in Israel'" [Luke 7:9].
4. His compassion. "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" [Matthew 9:36].
5. His acceptance of people's faith. "When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven'" [Matthew 9:2b].

Here are the rules:
(a) Those tagged will share "Five Things They Dig About Jesus".
(b) Those tagged will tag 5 people.
(c) Those tagged will leave a link to their meme in the comments section of this post so everyone can keep track of what's being posted.

Here's who I tagged:
Mindy, Annie, Carolanne, Paul, and Phyllis

Shadowlands in review

2007-06-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have to say that I am amazed at how well the play went, especially in light of the obstacles. We were only allowed in the Spencer Theater Wednesday through Friday, 9:00 to 5:00. And then we went through a technical rehearsal the afternoon of the performance! So we had to do all rehearsals (except for three-and-a-half days) in some other location. But the crowd was bigger than last year's by at least a hundred people. And they really liked the play and none of us seriously dropped any lines. The theater has only invited one university in the US to present a play on their
stage, ONE. And that is Wayland Baptist University. And they have told us they want us to keep doing this annually for the next seven years! Yeah, I'm proud.

The top photo is the much vaunted wardrobe. As Jonboy stated, it is ten feet tall and nine feet wide. The doors had to open and close automatically three times during the play, twice with fog coming out. And guess who designed the doors, hung them, figured out the mechanics, and pulled the strings to make it happen? Yeah, me, that's right. It was so cool to see this actually work. The wardrobe was disassembled and will be reconstructed on our campus for the ceremonies which welcome the freshman students in August.

The bottom photo is me in the role of Harry Harrington, a stodgy British preacher. The hardest lines for me to deliver came right after the very poignant death scene. I had to be uncaring, saying "Better sooner than later. Better quick than slow. After all, it was no mystery--the writing was on the wall." It was so difficult to watch the actors right before my entrance without weeping. They were really good.

Well, we are experiencing thunder and lightening at the moment, so I guess I should shut down my computer. I will post again later with scenic shots of New Mexico.

"Return to normalcy"

2007-06-16T04:49:00.000-07:00

It has been almost two weeks since we returned from Kenya. That is enough time for the body to re-adjust to this time zone. Enough time to get back to the routine foods. Enough time to get consumed by the work and church schedules. But there is no returning to normalcy. I think that "normal" is simply an idea. It doesn't really exist. It is just a collection of attributes selectively extracted from the processes of life. In some ways, the idea of normalcy distracts us from reality. Instead of being attentive to the distinct details of life's progression, we dully register only the "normal" attributes.

Now to something else. While we were gone, a neighbor watered our houseplants. Well, she actually opened the door so her daughter-in-law could take care of them. And the plants look terrific! Our plumeria had started to bloom right before we left and we thought we would miss the show. But it was in full flower when we returned. The plumeria is a constant reminder of Hawai'i for us. When we visited Australia almost a year ago, I collected seeds from a flowering bush and brought them home with me (sssssshhhh! Don't tell Homeland Security!) I waited until spring and planted them. Lo and behold, there are now four seedlings! The leaves fold together at night, and in the morning when they open back up, they actually vibrate from springing open. Can't wait for the flowers because they smell so wonderful.

I'm headed to Ruidoso next week to be in a play. If you happen to be in New Mexico on Saturday 23rd, go to the Spencer Theater in Ruidoso and buy a ticket. It's a small role, but part of a team effort that has not been without its challenges. The play is "Shadowlands" and it is based on events in the life of C. S. Lewis. I will take a photo of the huge wardrobe (free-standing clothes closet) that we built for the play. It is awesome.

Safari

2007-06-07T04:16:00.000-07:00

While I attended the e-learning conference, Cat was on safari at Lake Nakuru. This salty lake attracts flamingos and pelicans in great abundance. In this photo, the pinkish white color is thousands of flamingos. Of course there are other animals to see as well. On the early morning trek of the safari there was a family of lions within several hundred yards of the campsite. This video shows them strolling out towards the lake. Cat took this video.

Busy, busy, busy

2007-05-31T23:19:00.000-07:00

Wow, a lot has happened since last week! Our team (or members thereof) conducted a workshop at a church, visited an animal orphanage and giraffe preserve, went on safari, attended an international conference, and walked through mud to make evangelistic visits in the slums nearby. The photo is Cat with a little girl in a Christian day care center in the slums. Some of the kids were abandoned and living on the street when the center started caring for them. They get two meals a day, education, games, and love in a one-room facility (there are separate buildings for kitchen, storage, etc.)

Here is an example of a visit that Cat and I made in the slums with our fellow Christian and interpreter Peninah. We simply opened the gate to the yard and walked up to the closest house. A grandmother was washing some clothes, but she immediately stopped and invited us in. We sat on a wee bench and a stool. This woman loved Jesus and would start singing about how faithful God has been to her. We talked about children and about physical ailments (her eyes are burning and she has not been able to go to a doctor). We prayed together. She insisted on giving us a gift, so we took the two sweet potatoes she offered. When I said I would like to take her picture, she disappeared for a minute and came back wearing her black and white hat. Here is Cat, Mama Jane, and Peninah. Peninah told us that we were doing good with our visits because we were showing concern for people without being condescending. We listened to their stories and told them ours. When we could give them something we would (Cat gave her Bible to at 19-year-old named Lillian, I gave a packet of Kleenex to Mama Jane). The people have been warm and welcoming and mystified by white people. (Peninah could not believe that in the US, if you knocked of the door of a stranger, they would likely send you away without even asking your name, much less inviting you in.) It is humbling to get to know another culture.

The Nest--it's the best!

2007-05-24T22:49:00.000-07:00

Kenyan women are traditionally dependent on men. When a husband abandons his family, the woman may try to gain income from selling vegetables (without a license), stealing, or even prostitution. There is an orphanage in Limuru which specializes in children of imprisoned women. It is named The Nest. The children in this orphanage recieve excellent care and the program is wholistic. It involves counseling for the family. These babies sleep in a huge bed secure in the protective environment. Visiting here, feeding infants, playing with the older children, and hearing their stories was a wonderful experience.

Has it been a week yet?

2007-05-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

It is the fifth day of our Kenya trip and we just completed the first full day of work. And I do mean full. For this first week, we are partnering with members of the Banana Hill Baptist Church. It is located in a town with high unemployment and political unrest. There are many single mothers. Here I am in the home of one of those mothers. She is on the left; I have her son on my lap. We visited with her because the gate to her yard was unlocked. She was washing clothes when we walked up and she invited us into her home. It is one room with a bed, two couches, a cabinet, and clothes hanging from clothesline stretched over the walls. A cooking pot with ugali sat on the floor. She was raised as a Catholic but rarely goes to church. Her two friends (pictured) go to other churches and they said that they all pray together. Her boy had to stay home because he was sick; the little girl was in school. When I asked her how to pray for her family she said that money for medicine (and food) was lacking. She also asked that we pray for peace in Banana Hill. Two factions in the town have become violent towards each other and mutilated bodies have turned up. One faction is characterized by drug use (marijuana).

If you pray, please remember these people.

Now coming to you from Africa

2007-05-21T03:57:00.000-07:00

I have not taken any photos yet; the camera has been buried in my take-on luggage. But I have had plenty of thoughts over the last 48 hours (38 of which have been spent wearing the same clothes I put on to start this trip. Weather was not problematic, all our luggage arrived at the Nairobi airport the same time we did, and there were people at the airport to meet us when we arrived. Now our team is dog-tired, but enjoying the sunshine, flowers, and cool mountain air.

I am composing this post on a computer in the lab in the library basement. The electricity has shut down twice while I have been working on this; but we have a large bank of batteries for backup, so the only thing hindering me is that I keep dozing off while typing. It makes for a lot of editing.

Promise, I will take some photos and come back when my sentences don't end witg worfffffffffffff

Mothers' Day

2007-05-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the end of Mothers' Day, and despite the fact that both our mothers are gone, we had quite a busy day. The peony in the photo came from a bush we transplanted from my mom's house before she died. This year our peonies are just performing marvelously. We cut this stem and put it on the table for Mothers' Day lunch. "If your mothers are dead and your kids live far away, who came to this event?" you might ask.

Well, Cat's sister decided she had better see us before we left for Kenya so she came up. And my sister had to make a business trip to the Route 66 town north of us, so she came down. My cousin, her husband, and their daughter had already planned to come into town to see her mom, my mother's sister, and her husband, so they all came over. For orphans, we had a pretty fair sampling of family around us. They all enjoyed the food and talked way into the afternoon.

I'm glad they all came to be with us. But I still miss Mom.

Bullied into posting

2007-05-06T20:04:00.000-07:00

OK, so Phyllis saw me in church and asked why I had not yet posted photos of the living room floor. So I snapped some shots and here they are. One is of the floor and two are of the walls that I repainted. Do you like the art? Most of it came from my family. My mom was a painter. Most of the pastels and watercolors are hers. I did the wood assemblies a long time ago.

Fixing stuff

2007-04-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

When we moved everything out of the living room to make way for the floor refinishing, the stereo had locked up four CDs and would not open up. So I just put it in the back room and called Sony. No, of course they couldn't tell me what was wrong. They are only prepared for such problems as "Is the unit plugged in?" Finally they recommended a repair shop in Big Flat City 50 miles to the south of us. Hmmmph.

That was several weeks ago. Last Saturday, the Cat and I made a spontaneous decision to go into BFC for something else. And clever me, I brought the stereo along. We managed to reach the repair shop 15 minutes before closing time. Well, that's the good news. The reality is that the diagnostic would cost $45 and if they actually made a repair, it would cost a minimum of $95 for labor. Now this particular unit cost us $180 at Wally World three years ago. I gathered up my unit and left in a huff. Well, actually we left in the van. "Let's just go buy a new one," I said. "Then I will disassemble this one to remove the trapped CDs."

We went shopping here and there, finally finding the other stuff we originally went to BFC for. Then we went to Best Buy looking for a stereo. The ideal would be to find a CD changer that we could plug into the old unit since the radio and tape player still worked. But that was not to be. We picked out a unit and found a salesman. But the unit on display was the only one in the store. I noticed a tag on the shelf for a 5 CD unit on clearance for $19. Yeah, nineteen bucks. But there was no model on the shelf. The salesman was intrigued enough to go searching around the store for it. Sure enough, there were two boxes left. For an extra $6 we got a replacement warranty, so if the cheapo unit breaks in two years or less, they'll send us a new one.

So when we got home, the first order of business was to activate the new stereo. Hey, it not only worked but it has a storage space for 6 CDs. Then I got out my screwdrivers and assaulted the Sony. This is what it looked like when I finally got the CDs out of it. Only the back was still attached to the frame. But they are good CDs, so it was worth it.

Amazingly enough, I was able to put the thing back together. And, wonder of wonders, now the CD changer actually opens like it was supposed to. I hooked up a speaker and tried out a crummy CD. Hey! It worked! Now the good old Sony is back in its place and the new stereo is in our bedroom. We can use the remote to turn on CDs from our bed. This worked out a LOT better than anticipated! Here's the Sony back in the entertainment center. I sure hope that the metal plate and the handful of screws that I have left over don't really affect the performance.

A week later and it may snow again

2007-04-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

The resurfacing of our living room floor was (and continues to be) quite interruptive. The computer is in a room on the side of the house without an external door. While the living room floor was drying we could not cross it. So we have been living in half the house. The kitchen still has living room furniture in it as it will until Monday. You see, the workers made a mess of the floor and had to re-sand it, re-stain it (actually I did that part), and put on two more coats of polyurethane, buffing between coats. So the job that was to take two or three days has taken a week.

The floor does look nice now: the color is good, the surface relatively smooth, and it is dry. Once the furniture returns it will look quite nice. But I must put down some trim and paint some scratched places before that can be done. So this weekend we will not be going to central Texas for a friend's daughter's wedding after all. Besides, Cat has to work tomorrow and Sunday since her job is with an accounting firm. Taxes, you know.

When it snowed last weekend, I had covered the peonies to protect them from freezing. Ther is the possibility of light snow tonight, but I think that the flowers will be all right. The tulips had pretty well reached their seniority even before the snow. They still have blooms, but they are tired old ladies now, gaudy in color, but losing their form.

I know that Easter is over. Here's the extent of our decorations for the season: pastel rabbits. In the kitchen. With everything else.

Yeah, it snowed

2007-04-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

As predicted yesterday, it snowed overnight. Here is what tulips look like after a two-inch snowfall. There has been a little snow coming down this morning, but now that the temperature has warmed up to a degree below freezing, the streets are wet but clear of snow.

If you did not read the previous post, do so and then come back to these photos. They will make more sense that way.

Here's our kitchen filled with couches and an entertainment center. See the dark area on the top of the front couch? That's where the dust has been wiped off. Oh, yeah, there's a fine layer of dust throughout the house, but mostly in the kitchen. We will be washing everything we cook with and eat from before and after using.

Here is an example of the interruptive flooring pattern. The area to the bottom left was in the old sitting room. The top left is from the old dining room and straight ahead is the former hallway leading from the front door. Cat had hoped that the sanding and staining would make everything the same color, but there are some dark areas (from the stains left be previous owners) and light areas (from my piecing in new wood). Well, it's old and I suppose I have some light and dark areas that will not go away as well.

Here's the way that the whole living room looks now, solemnly awaiting the restoration of pictures and furniture.

My excuse this time

2007-04-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

The house in which we live is about fifty years old and has wood floors in the original parts of the house. As we discovered when we removed the carpet in the living room, the house used to have a different structure. When first built, the entryway opened into a hall with a door straight ahead leading to a sitting room. To the right was a door leading to a dining room with built-in cabinets (china hutch?) on the south wall. This would have been a tiny dining room, allowing for no more than six people.

When someone along the way decided to remove the interior walls to create one large room of the two small ones and the hall, rather than replacing the vacated wall plates (bottom 2 X 4s) with oak, they just nailed in some scrap wood and laid carpet. When we made the decision to rip out the carpet, I removed the scrap wood and pieced in oak planks. There were also several squares in the floor where an oil burning heater had vents and these had to be pieced in as well. That was about three years ago (um, okay, maybe four or five). Anyway, we just never got around to sanding the floor and refinishing it.

Several weeks ago, I got a carpenter to agree to send his team to the house to do this task. Scheduling was a problem due to the fact that I would be gone to Galveston for a week (see posting below). So we finally agreed on Wednesday, April 4, as a start date. That meant that I had to move ALL the furniture and books and artwork and memorabilia somewhere else. Just packing up the rocks and elephants occupied Cat for a couple of days. Her back is hurting, so I pushed around all the furniture BY MYSELF. On Wednesday morning, I called the floor guy to find out when he would arrive. "Um, early afternoon," he said. Great, I would just wait for him after lunch.

It was about 1:45 when I realized that we had voicemail. You know, don't you? He couldn't come until the next day at noon. Did I mention that the entertainment center and two couches are stuffed into our kitchen? We can still get to the refrigerator so it's been cereal for breakfast and eating out for dinner. That's my excuse for not posting earlier.

Today (Friday), they got the stain on the floor and the house smells like petroleum distillates. Tomorrow (we fervently hope) will be polyurethane day. Cat and I may just go to a hotel over Easter weekend. If you have observed the weather reports, you will know that snow is predicted for tomorrow. Yes, April snow in West Texas. Tomorrow, before the workers arrive, I will take some photos and post them whenever I can get back to the computer (located in a room on the other side of the living room). Then you will see what I mean.

Catching up

2007-04-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

I was gone all last week and had limited computer access. I was attending a conference on distance learning; the sessions were interesting and the people were very friendly (this was, after all, the Texas Distance Learning Association conference). I met several people who are Christians and were quite interested in our Kenya project. In fact, one lady got to the point that she started crying when I talked about it just because she is struggling with what God wants her to do in her life. She has already started a cowboy church service in El Paso, but feels that there has to be more that God has in mind for her.

The speakers at this conference generally got straight to the point without wasting a lot of our time convincing us that the theory was sound. You can read my notes at eLearning if you are interested. I will be adding to them over the next week. During Tuesday's general session, one of my new buddies volunteered me to respond to the keynote speaker, so I got to talk to all 800 participants. That was cool. And I met some people I had only known through email and phone conversations before. One of them turned out to have gotten his Master's degree from the University of Texas in French linguistics. So did I. And he participated in UT's exchange program with the Université de Nice. So did I! In fact he was the last one to participate in the program before the French folks changed the program.

While I was gone, the tulips in our yard started blooming. They are stronger this year than last. Maybe it is due to the prodigious rain we have had. Anyway, they are lovely and have a delightful aroma. I will be posting more flower pix as the season wears on.

Well, that didn't work

2007-03-23T19:19:00.001-07:00

So you didn't care for "What's the story," huh? Let's see, you want to hear about our mission project to Kenya? Once again our church is sending volunteers to Kenya this summer. We have three teams this time so that the logistics won't be too overwhelming. Everyone is excited, but we are running into a snag.

Back in November, we received a floor plan of the building that our church is paying to have built. The idea has been that the summer teams would be able to do some construction work on this building. But we find out that there has been much discussion and very little action. The final plan for the building still has not been approved or submitted to government authorities for permits to build. It is only two months until the first team is supposed to go. What do you think the odds are that construction will be started even?

So we are having to explore other activities we can do there. (The non-refundable tickets for all 18 people have already been bought.) One possibility would be to accompany the Kenyan college students back to their villages to do ESL or Bible school or door-to-door evangelism. Sounds exciting, but I wonder if some of our team members will be up for that. I guess we will see what God makes available, won't we?

What's the story?

2007-03-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

Funny, I had already been thinking about posting a photo and asking for stories. Then I read Rev. Dave's posting and he beat me to the punch. So let's try this--see if you can put together a story that combines BOTH the photos below. Let's start with something easy, shall we?

Got a new project

2007-03-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

Sure, it's an eye, but what kind of eye? It's part of a new project that I have going.

Like I don't have enough to do already. There are still the cabinet doors to finish up for the kitchen. They are cut and ready to glue up, basecoat, sand, paint, paint again, add hinges, and hang, but it is rainy outside today and, besides, I won't have much time before church (the evening service). When I ran out of glue yesterday, I went back to another project that I started with Cat in mind. See, she is a collector of elephants (I could easily do a year's worth of elephant photos), so I drew off a flying elephant for her. Not a "Dumbo" ear-flapping elephant, but one with wings, serene and mystical. We decided to make a wall hanging of it so I enlarged the drawing and sketched it onto a piece of MDF. Then I fired up my trusty scroll saw and cut out the form.

Well, it sat like that for a while. When I sharpened my chisels and started to work on it, I realized that an assist from power tools might be in order. A router helped reduce the thickness of some of the back legs and wings. And a sander got me started on the belly. But what helped most was finding a wood carving set made in Japan. Wow, those blades are sharp!

Here's the way the whole project looks at present (lying on our dead lawn). I am saving the tail for the very end of the carving so I won't break it off. Eventually the wings will be completely detailed, there will be wrinkles here and there, and it will be time to paint. What color do you think a flying elephant should be (NOT pink)? I can't decide between a solid color or the kind of decoration that they use in India with little mirrors glued to it. Or maybe several layers of different colors, then sand it and otherwise distress it for an old, nostalgic look. Hmmmm, what do you think?

Back from my nap

2007-03-09T20:30:00.000-08:00

No, I was NOT taking a nap. Sometimes you just get real busy (I am not going to whine about that, however). So how about a combo posting? Let's start with a rock picture. This amethyst was bought in Austin, Texas (I think). I went to school there long enough to get a Master's degree. It was a cool town back then and probably still is, except the traffic is maniacal. Anyway, one often finds amethyst inside geodes. This piece is about 3 inches wide.

Now for a vocabulary item. A friend of mine sent a list of fake musical terms that included dill piccolino (a very small wind instrument that only produces sour notes) and alregretto (a tempo which the performer discovers is much too fast). But now let's talk about a real word: ort. This is not the "helping verb" my grandmother used to express an obligation (although she did say she was "too tarred to arn the close"). No, this tiny, completely English word means a scrap of food left from a meal. "'Scuse me, are you gonna eat that ort?" Or how about "Oh, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. I said I was an ort collector." Well, you make up your own usages.

And finally we conclude with a "watzat?" This one should be pretty easy. It is in my study, of course, and we have had it for about five years, I think. Reminds me of a fireworks display. What do you think it is?

Here's the rug. It isn't old or expensive or even the right colors for the room, but it keeps my tootsies warm in the winter.

Rock and roll

2007-02-26T18:43:00.000-08:00

Know what I got Cat for Valentine's Day? I got her a CD by Santana. Now this was surprising, not to her but to me. I was surprised several weeks ago when we were at a basketball game. Jonboy, the commentator, put on "Oye Como Va" during a timeout and Cat asked, "What's the name of that?" I told her and she said that she had always wanted a Santana album. Who knew??? So that went straight onto the list of "what to get her for the next occasion." We have an anniversay coming up next month (our 37th) and now I have to discover something else she has always wanted. (Cat, if you are reading this, drop some clues, OK?)

Here's another rock photo. It's a somewhat small geode. What fascinates me is the shape. Does it look like the outline of a fish to you? I have no recollection of where we got this one. We have a dozen or so geodes with a variety of interiors. One of them was sawn in two for me by a teacher in my university's science department. But not this one. Just don't remember.

Zebra stone

2007-02-23T18:49:00.000-08:00

OK, I promised some rock pictures (and I am not talking about Mick). Here is an unusual stone from Western Australia. It is called zebra stone for obvious reasons. The red stripes contain iron, but geologists are uncertain regarding the process of formation. I bought this from a Frenchman who had lived in Australia for twenty years. We had a pleasant little conversation (in French) and he made me a nice deal on this rock and another. I only regret that I didn't buy a piece of opal from him.

Where in the world? Please comment.

2007-02-19T19:12:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the map over there to your left? Click on it to see it bigger. It records the locations from which people view this blogsite. Now I recognize a number of the dots: Annie in Louisiana; Patti in NY; Mindy, Jonboy, and Rachel in West Texas. But who are those other viewers scattered around the world? Paul is in the Netherlands, but who looked at this site from China or western Africa or eastern Europe?

If you are visiting this site, please, just this once, at least, leave a comment telling where you are in the world. Even if you leave an anonymous note, where are you? Je peux parler français, but I am no good in Chinese or Swahili, so I hope you speak English.

Antique--Photo Hunters posting

2007-02-18T17:49:00.000-08:00

When I first thought about the antiques that I might photograph, I went to our shelves in the living room where we have all kinds of stuff displayed. Here is a shelf with a couple of little figures that we bought in France over 25 years ago. But they are not antiques. The bowl behind them is. It is a Rosewood piece that was given to my parents for a wedding gift. It is one of the few ceramic pieces that I inherited which does not have a chip in it.

Then I remembered that we have something really antique. The statuette was given to us by a friend from Mexico who lives in Hawaii. She described it as pre-Columbian. Well, I have not done any research on it. Maybe it is that old. Or maybe it's just made out of concrete. But it looks old.

While I was pondering this, it struck me that we have some undeniably ancient items in our display shelf. I mean what is older than rocks? This geode has a wonderful sparkle to it. I think that I will feature some of our rocks in upcoming postings. We have a few that are rather unusual (got 'em in Australia).

Becoming cyborgs

2007-02-14T14:22:00.000-08:00

Have you thought about how dependent we are becoming on technology? A human who depends on mechanical devices for some physiological functions is called a cyborg. Are we all becoming cyborgs?

One day I went to the dry cleaners to pick up a quilt we had left there. The young lady who fetched the quilt told me the cost of the cleaning--$14.60. I handed her a $20-dollar bill and she apologized because the cash registers were not working. "We'll have to do this the old-fashioned way," she said as she reached for a pocket calculator. "No, the old-fashioned way would be to do it in your head," I replied. She laughed and said, "Yeah, right!"

Yes, we have become increasingly dependent on technology in the last century. But that has been true of human development from the beginning. Who in the industrialized world can look up at the stars at night and know immediately what direction is north? Out of a hundred Westerners, who can weave a bowl out of reeds tight enough to carry liquids?

Broken--A Photo Hunters posting

2007-02-11T19:53:00.000-08:00

Those of you who have followed this blog for a while may remember this photo from a previous posting. I have started to participate in Photo Hunters and the required photo for this week must relate to the theme "Broken." This piece of pottery qualifies. It is the wick spout of a first-century Jewish oil lamp which was dug up in the Jerusalem area. I like to think, even though the chances are remote, that Jesus or his disciples might have handled this lamp.

How my dad influenced me

2007-02-09T19:54:00.000-08:00

When I was about 14 or 15 years old, our family experienced an upsetting event. We came home from a church meeting on a Wednesday night and were confused by the arrangement of objects inside our house. What was the television doing on the couch? Why were the closet doors open? And why was the dog barking so furiously in the back yard?

Then it sunk in; we had been burglarized. A quick check revealed that, among other things, the suit my mom had just bought me that week was missing. When the policeman arrived, he used the clues to suggest that the burglar(s) probably ran out the back door while we were pulling into the garage. That's why the dog was barking.

The policeman made a list as we discovered what was missing. He opined that the chances of catching the burglar(s) were minimal. He did not call in a team to dust for fingerprints. In fact he wasn't all that investigative. Mom lost some jewelry, but we apparently interrupted the process early enough to prevent a great loss.

Somewhere along the way, my dad got tickled by something, maybe the randomness of the objects taken. Anyway the policeman didn't understand. "How can you laugh when you have just been victimized?"

"You cannot help what happens to you," Dad said. "You can only control how you react. I choose to laugh."

In many ways, we were lucky. The bad guy didn't get away with much. He didn't shoot our dog. He wasn't hiding in a closet with a loaded gun held in a shaking hand. Most importantly, he was not able to steal my dad's integrity. Thanks, Dad. It was a wonderful lesson for me.

Me and Dad when I was 13 years old and he was younger than I am now. Dad enjoyed camping with us Boy Scouts. A banker by trade, he reveled in the opportunities to get out in the woods or off to the beach. I wonder what he would think about what we are doing to the environment these days?

If you have not seen An Inconvenient Truth with Al Gore, you owe it to yourself to rent the video and watch. I makes me mad that he got cheated out of the election.

Sunny days

2007-02-05T19:01:00.000-08:00

This photo is from several months ago, but the sun is starting to return to Fake Cow Town and the snow is melting. We still have about three inches of ice on our sidewalk (the part that stays in the shade), but the temperature is now warm enough that the roofers can come replace our roof. We discovered a leak when we were putting away our Christmas decorations. Yes, it has taken that long for the weather to be decent enough for the roofers.

I saw robins and a blue jay today. We will have to start putting out seed for the jays. It was a pleasant relief from the hordes of grackles that have plagued our fair city. Between them and the migrating geese, you have to watch your step in some areas. Yuck.

Today I participated in an online conference. There were several hundred people in the live audience and almost 200 logged into the synchronous presentation. The presentation concerned education and how it is changing, particularly due to technological innovations. An idea that came out was the need for teachers to be more transparent about the process of learning. We teachers are losing our role as providers of content since our students have remarkable access to information. We have to help them learn how to evaluate the information so as to make use of it. And we have to help them learn how to learn.

Did any of your teachers ever say, "Here's how I learned this concept" or "Read my journal so you will get a sense of what I go through"? I don't really remember that happening much in my education. There have been a few times when I have handed out a chart explaining that I had to put it together in order to organize the material so that I could understand it. But I have not consciously thought about letting students know how I learn things. Just think--if all your teachers in high school and college had told (or, even better, showed) you how they learned, you would have been exposed to almost 100 approaches to learning. Surely you and I would be more adept at learning if we had had that kind of education.

So I am planning on being more transparent with the biblical interpretation class that I will start teaching in about three weeks. Maybe I will invite them to read this blog site. Stay tuned.

Numbers and randomness

2007-02-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

Here I go again with the chaos/order quandary. As you can see, my PWT Saturn rolled all the way to one hundred twenty-three thousand four hundred fifty-six miles. And I had my camera in the car. And I thought it was sufficiently significant to take the picture and post it. Now I have a series of photos of this odometer. So what?

The other day I was playing ping-pong with Jonboy and the student minister came in and asked if I would say the prayer at the women's basketball game that night. (I work for a Baptist university, so we say prayers at the games.) What do you pray for? I thanked God for the energy and enthusiasm of the students and asked him to keep everyone safe and that the game would be an example of good sportmanship. Afterwards, Jonboy said, "Sportsmanship?!" And a long-time staff member told me at halftime, "You shoulda prayed that we would beat the hell out of them!" Our team lost miserably. Answered prayer?

I took this photo because I admired the leaf. It lies there valiantly day in and day out absorbing what little heat there is in the air and warming the ice below. Maybe just the slow act of deteriorating is generating heat. Making a difference even on the way out. I should learn something from this leaf.

Antsy for the weekend

2007-01-25T21:11:00.000-08:00

There were lots of good guesses on the "watzat?" but the closest anyone got was realizing it was glass. Does anyone remember Royall Lyme cologne? I loved that stuff when I was a teen. After my mom died several years ago, we were cleaning out the storm cellar I lived in for my senior year of high school. (It had electricity and telephone and a built-in desk.) There were several Royall Lyme bottles that I had saved. This is one of them. The "watzat?" shot was taken from above (hence the blurry center).

For the last several days I have been working on another arrangement for handbells, one that combines Amazing Grace and Farewell to Tarwathie. The cool thing is that I finally bought some software that allows me to compose on my computer. Since I do not have aMIDI keyboard, it means figuring out keystrokes. But the best part is that I can start at any measure and play back what has been written. That makes editing a lot easier. I still have a lot to learn (for example, how do you number the measures?), but it is a lot easier than writing it out by hand.

Time for another "watzat?"

2007-01-21T19:03:00.000-08:00

Can you believe that I still have some of these "watzat?" photos? As with previous items, this is in my study. It is at least 35 years old. What do you think it is?

Tonight I led a Bible study for some college students. We were discussing the issue of how one knows the truth. When we discussed the necessity of trust in order to know the truth, I thought of the story in Genesis 3. You know this one--Eve is hanging around the garden when the serpent shows up with a proposition. Her decision is all about trust. Does she trust her husband (who told her to avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil)? Does she trust God (who spends time with her and her husband on a daily basis)? Or does she trust the very wily (and medacious) serpent? Clearly she wants to know the truth; she applies her analytical abilities to the tree. It looks good, the fruit is juicy, and it will increase her knowledge. So she decides to trust her analysis rather than to trust her most foundational relationships.

After they eat the fruit, the man and the woman are described in these terms: "Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves" (Gen. 3:7). Sounds like they learned something. Maybe the "eye-opening" experience was educational. I don't think so. While they focused on the relationship with God and each other, they had no need of clothing. When they trusted their own conclusions rather than the relationship with God, they paid attention to their physical selves. Thye hid from the relationship. They covered themselves from each other. They got distracted from the truth rather than more knowledgeable. Truth has to do with spirit, not matter.

When we get distracted by our physical situation, we have taken our eyes off of God. When we trust our finite rationality rather than our relationship with the Infinite, we depart from the truth. Why is this so hard to learn?

More weather pics

2007-01-17T19:34:00.000-08:00

The ice has mostly melted now, but we are expecting snow later this week, maybe lots of it. When the sun came out I took these pictures. Hope you like them. (Click on them for a better view.)

Virtual violence

2007-01-15T17:02:00.000-08:00

On this anniversary of the birth of Martin L. King, Jr., I am reminded of how oblivious I have been to the monumental events which have taken place in my own lifetime. I was in school during Rev. King's civil rights activiites, yet I paid no attention at the time. I hear his sermons now and feel deprived that I have not really heard them until now. How would it have changed me had I been listening back then?

Has television helped us know more about our world? The civil rights marches, Viet Nam terrors, protests and riots have all been served up to us in our living rooms when we were younger. What did we learn from those images? Now we see gruesome execution scenes captured on cell phones and broadcast worldwide. How does that afffect you?

I have never been in a fistfight. The last one that I witnessed firsthand was when I was in junior high school. I found it revolting. I have never shot anyone or been shot or even threatened with a gun. But I have been virtually exposed to horrific violence. And that's just watching the news. I think that virtual violence is going to prove to be detrimental to us Westerners. If we witnessed firsthand the violence we see on TV, would it have the effect of compelling us to take action? When you can't just click the remote to make it go away, does violence have a sobering effect? Does virtual violence numb us to real violence? Is it all a computer game? Is it Wag the Dog?

I wonder if the "deciders" who have gotten us into this war in Iraq are as naive as I am about violence. How have they been affected by virtual violence? How real is this war to them? I wonder.

Weather pics

2007-01-14T12:53:00.000-08:00

Those of you who live where it gets cold all winter may be unimpressed with the photos. But the buildup of ice crystals on the limbs in our backyard this weekend impressed me. You can see that the initial layer of rain had to freeze first. Then the subsequent moisture could stick to the ice layer and grow these great formations. (Click on the photo to see more detail.) Meanwhile, walking anywhere outside is a slippery proposition. Happy Martin L. King Day!

After a bit of readjustment . . .

2007-01-07T13:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks to those who commented (or tried to do so) on the Return from Hibernation posting. Doggone if I didn't get all bumfuzzled trying to upgrade to the Google Blogger and a new template. This durned technical stuff!

OK, how about a photo of our grandson. My sister says he is just too adorable. (Well, she has only seen photos, but the kid is cute.) When we arrived in the town east of LA where he lives, the Christmas tree was decorated, but had no presents under it. According to our daughter-in-law's theory of How Christmas Should Work, presents should only make an appearance under the tree on Christmas morning. OK, so there was a huge pile of packages on Christmas morning. Orion was slightly overwhelmed. Generally he enjoyed chewing up the wrapping paper. About the time he started playing with one present, another wrapped package was put under his nose. The boy does NOT lack for toys, let me tell you. Next year, we will be conferring with the other set of grandparents beforehand to see if we can be slightly more rational about the whole gift-buying thing.

The Sunday after Christmas, I asked my Sunday school class what is authentic about Christmas. Since the date was first set during the time of Constantine (4th century), there is precious little info in the New Testament about it--only the two birth narratives (Matthew and Luke). No Christmas trees, no cards, no presents, no Santa, no snow nor jingle bells. Think I was being too harsh on them? Just call me the Grinch.

As I think about my cultural background, I see that so much of who I am devolves from my heritage. And it has been a largely undifferentiated heritage. I don't know where so many inclinations and prejudices got their start in me. Maybe this year I can examine a little more closely who I am, what I believe, and why I believe it. Happy New Year to you all.

It's January and I am back

2007-01-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

I am back on the blog now and will try to be consistent with my postings. Thank you for being patient with me. I discovered that several people were relying on my blog to keep up with the happenings in our house. I will tell some saved up stories in later postings. Today I will describe a surprise that I had in December.

When my mom died several years ago, we inherited most of her houseplants. One of those was a mother-in-law's tongue (sanseveria) with leaves about three-and-a-half feet tall. Since it was trying to break out of the pot it was in, we decided to repot it. I took a couple of the smaller leaves and planted them in a 6-inch container which I placed in a south window.

Lo and behold, one day the small planting had a spike coming up with tiny buds on it! I had never seen a mother-in-law's tongue bloom before. (Evidently it does so routinely in tropical settings, but not usually on December.) Here's what the buds looked like.

The flowers turned out to look a bit like honeysuckle and there were large, clear, viscuous drops of sap which formed underneath the blossoms. I was tempted to taste it, but after reading that this plant is poisonous to animals, I am glad that I refrained. Have you ever had one of these plants bloom for you? Maybe it was once in a lifetime.

I hope that your Christmas season was warm with meaning. I will have photos of our grandson's first Christmas for later postings. How are those New Year's resolutions coming along?

Hibernating

2006-10-29T13:51:00.000-08:00

This makes my 142^nd post in a little over two years. I am surprised to have gotten this far with it. Along the way I have met wome wonderful citizens of the blogosphere (see links at right). You know some things about me that F2F friends do not. Some of you have gone through terrors and the best I could do was to pray for you. I still do, you know.

If we regard the blogosphere as a virtual reality where people (or their avatars) encounter and interact with one another, then I have to say that I will be hibernating from that realm for a while. The non-virtual realities in my life are demanding attention. I think it is better to just say, "See you later, maybe in January" than to post sporadically and under a feeling of compulsion. When the hibernation is over and I am reawakening to the springtime of the blogosphere (virtual, of course) I will start dropping in on old friends and leaving comments behind.

To tie up loose ends, the play Community was enjoyable: great sets, engaging plot, wonderful orchestra, and snappy dancing. Yes, it was a musical (Sondheim). Most of the students playing the characters were actors rather than musicians, so everyone had to have a microphone (you know, one of those really thin ones that loop over one ear); the singing wasn't that great, but the acting was good. All in all, it was worth the drive and the price of admission.

The dusty little town in which I live participates in a community concert program with a number of other small West Texas towns. We always get season tickets, and this year, the first performance was scheduled for Saturday night. Cat had gone to Austin to have fun with her "girl cousins" and I worked all day on a Habitat for Humanity house. I seriously considered heading for bed after dinner, but then I figured I would go see the concert. I could always leave at the intermission if it was boring or I was too exhausted to stay awake.

The group performing was named Time for Three: two violins (Zach DePue and Nick Kendall) and one double bass (Ranaan Meyer). Man, am I ever glad that I went! They were phenomenal! It has been a long time since I have seen such intensity, such elegance, such virtuosity combined with wit and humor that delighted the audience. If you ever get a chance to see these three guys in concert, by all means, go. They do classical, bluegrass, gypsy, jazz, improvising along the way. You won't regret it.

Well, I will see you later, maybe in January. For now, I am going into my den.

Moving down the road

2006-10-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

We have had this Saturn for almost ten years. We bought it new in Hawaii. And today it rolled to 122,333 miles: one one, two twos, and three threes. That averages 33 and a half miles a day. How's your car doing?
I have to confess--I stole something. From the church office. I went by today to drop off some photos and there was a tray on a desk with a few pumpkin squares left on it. And I just took one and ate it. I hope they weren't saving those last four for some needy family. Or that they were the ones that fell on the floor.
Well, we are going into Big Flat City tonight to see a thespian presentation. It's called Company and I have no idea what it's about. It's the big state university's presentation, so I hope it is not full of foul language and risque behaviors. They kind of like that daring stuff at the big state university theatre department. Hope your weekend goes nicely.

And now for something else

2006-10-12T19:42:00.000-07:00

The other day my wife got something out of this drawer and then gave me a big hug. See, I made the little partitions for this drawer. You have your scissors-and-other-tools section and the square cell for sticky note pads. The rubber band ball is starting to get almost too big for its spot. There must be twenty-five or thirty pens on the right side. This drawer is in the kitchen and has been the "junk" drawer for the last six years. It used to have an oval basket in it to hold the small junk, but that was not organized enough. So I took my measurements and drew out a plan and built a partitioned box to fit the drawer. And my wife thinks that is terribly clever. Am I blessed or what? Any time I goof up, I can just walk over and open that drawer and she will give me the "Well, OK" look. It's a lifesaver.

No one home but the birds

2006-10-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

While in NM, my boss took several of us over to a chapel named Sanctuario de Chimayo. It is supposed to be the "Lourdes" of the Southwest, with people from all over visiting in hopes of physical healing for their ailments. There is a room filled with walking canes, orthopedic devices, testimonials, etc., left by the healed. I looked in the window, and it's all there. But no people were there on Tuesday evening. Only the pigeons were hanging out. Maybe it's better that way since we would have been curious onlookers intruding in the rituals of the ardent believers.

Great place for a meeting

2006-10-04T18:18:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it has been a while since I updtaed this thing. The weekend was really busy as I got ready to leave town. Sunday through Wednesday I was gone to a meeting (actually a series of meetings). The acaademic and administrative leaders of our univeristy campuses (about twenty-five in all) all came together in Glorieta NM (not far from Santa Fe). The weather was wonderful. Maybe this photo doesn't do a whole lot for those of you who live up north, but for those of us who live in West Texas, this kind of stuff is magical. The trees were beginning to turn, the ducks were squawking for snacks, and there was a chill in the air. Very refreshing. And the meetings went very well also. There have been times in the past that the atmosphere was acrid with antagonism, but the Glorieta meeting was really productive and harmonious. Maybe it was the Mexican food.

Remembering Sydney

2006-09-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

One evening in Sydney we went down to the bay and looked across at the sights. Downtown Sydney, all lit up, is quite beautiful. This is the opera house, of course. It has now been a month since we were in Australia and it seems like a year. What is a memory, after all? Several neurons agreeing to link up like they did once before? How do the cells contain memories? Time is a river flowing by, always moving, irretrievably gone. OK, that's enough philosophic pondering. Cat and I went to the fair last Saturday. We enjoy seeing the flower arrangements, the produce (biggest pumpkin was 203 pounds), art exhibits, and the animals. Only, going through the swine barn, I stepped on something squishy. Even though I have scrubbed the sole of my shoe, the smell still lingers. That's a memory that won't go away. I will try to have an audioblog posted on Saturday.

Something from Arthur Miller

2006-09-24T21:12:00.000-07:00

Whew, this last week has been very full. At church we have been in the middle of a missions emphasis and I am the chair of the missions committee. I have had something to do in the worship service for the last three weeks (and today I had to run the slides that get projected onto the two big screens at the front). So I have been busy.

But I got double-dog-dared to do another particular audioblog, and I just couldn't refuse. Here is the setup for this clip. The character I am playing is a 90-year-old Russian Jew, an antiques dealer, who has come to an apartment to bid on some furniture. When he gets there, he discovers it is a LOT of furniture and that is troublesome for him. The fellow trying to sell the furniture accuses the old man of jerking his chain. Here is the old man's reply.

A little bit of drama

2006-09-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I was in a play called "The Young Man from Atlanta" by Horton Foote. The lead character, Will Kidder, is a Houstonian in his mid-60s who is about to be fired from the company he has worked for all his life. The young boss will claim that they have to downsize. To compound the pain, Will's son Bill has recently drowned. In the following speech, Will is rattling off his views to his younger associate (who will wind up taking his place in the company). Hope you enjoy the accent.

There's just no call for this except it's interesting

2006-09-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well, it is interesting to me. The other day when I was looking up "puggle" in my dictionary (just to make sure it was not readily available to all you guessers), I saw some other words that were interesting. Imagine that! (I love dictionaries.) There was the word puisne [pyoos-nee] which comes directly from French puisné [pwee-ney]. It literally means "born later" and refers to a younger sibling. But what amused me was, following a hunch, I discovered that the word "puny" comes from this term. I think that's what I will start calling my younger brother. You can try it, too, Rachel.

Here's a puny looking critter, especially considering his reputation. This, my friends, is a Tasmanian devil. Taking a nap, evidently. He wouldn't even give us a snarl. So much for Taz.

I kid you not

2006-09-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is an echidna. Only two mammals native to Australia lay eggs: the platypus and the echidna. After choosing the wrong one first, Patti did finally get the echidna. And Rachel gets a point since she said it was an anteater, because this spiky character does eat ants (although he prefers termites--they're juicier). The one in the photo was poking his nose into holes in the rocks looking for lunch. Check out this website if you want to know more: Australian Wildlife--Echidna. Really, they are fascinating creatures. I mean, can you flick your tongue out seven inches beyond your lips 100 times a minute? I'm just saying . . .

And speaking of platypuses, we did see a couple of these at the aquarium in Sydney. But the little rascals swim pretty quickly so the best picture I got was just the bottom half. So there are his two hind legs and his tail viewed from the underside. I say "his" because, well, . . . just because.

And for our last photo, here is another shot from the aquarium. I have done my dead-level best to enhance this so you can see this very odd creature. It is something like a seahorse, only the fins look like leaves. I think they call it a sea dragon. It didn't dart around the tank (fortunately) since it obviously hides best by acting like a plant. It's about six inches long. Hasn't God created some mind-boggling creatures? He's amazing, really. (God, that is.)

Now it's time for a "watzat"

2006-09-10T03:01:00.000-07:00

But this time the item is not in my study. It is from Australia. Here's a clue: you are looking for an animal in this photo. And a further clue: the infant of this species is called a "puggle" (at least in Australia). We had to go to a wildlife park to see one of these; they weren't just running around everywhere.

Hey, did you notice that I joined a Baptist blogring? I wonder if that means I am supposed to say something "Baptist" in my blogs? Or at least religious. I'll work on it.

ME-ME time

2006-09-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

Here's an idea: this is a me-me with oral responses! So here are the questions that I will be answering. If you listen to these responses, then you must do this me-me on your own blog. (And it would be great if you would use audioblogging, but, hey, no pressure.)

1. Name something over which you had no control that you got teased about as a kid.
2. Describe a choice you made that you got teased about as a kid.
3. What do you remember most about your first boyfriend or girlfriend?
4. What was something your parents did that embarassed you?
5. What was something your parents did that made you proud?
6. What piece of furniture first comes to mind from the earliest house in which you remember living?
7. When did you first break a bone or get a bad cut?
8. How did you get your first traffic ticket?
9. When you were a kid, who or what did you dress up as for make-believe?
10. Which of the previous experiences have you thought about most recently (before taking this quiz)?

First stab at an audioblog

2006-09-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

Hey, have any of you tried audioblogging yet? This is my first attempt. Click the link to hear me talking. When you click the link, you will get a new page with just a progress bar. After the recording has played, click your browser's back button to return to my blogsite.

More photos from abroad (not a broad)

2006-09-03T14:51:00.000-07:00

Let's focus on birds today, shall we?

These owls look they had been used for dustmops. They had loose feathers sticking out at odd angles. I wish that I had snapped the photos three seconds earlier when one of them was yawning. Their mouths are as wide as their heads.

This kookaburra landed on the railing of the deck at the house where I was staying. He stayed in place while I kept walking closer for a better shot. I must have gotten within four feet of him before he finally took off. I was a bit disappointed that he did not laugh before leaving.

There were so many brightly colored birds in Australia. This one was in a zoo, but I saw lots of green (and red and blue) parrots as they zipped past. Did I already mention the fact that parrots fly really fast? The pink cockatoos in the background looked like they were scooped from some kind of sherbet.

Here is the placid pelican whose eye now graces my bio. The lines on his beak seemed watercolored, they were so definite. He patiently endured many admirers clicking away with their cameras. There are areas of Sydney where every other lamp post has a pelican atop it. Guess they like the view. Click on the photo to enlarge it and look at the stubby feathers on the back of his head. Very cute.

Now this fellow pestered us while we were picnicking near Sydney harbor. He and his buddies came dancing up to see if we had snacks to share. Then a fresh group of tourists arrived, and he left to try his luck with them. (There were kids in the group.)

Back in Fake Cow City

2006-09-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

That is one very long flight coming back from the other side of the world. Because we passed through New Zealand on the way home, we had to go through four security checks in one day. At least we broke up the trip by stopping in LA for a few days to see our grandson (who is really quite cute).

Strange how, after two days of work, it seems so long ago now. Let's see if some photos will bring the memories back.

Look, Princess, they have painted cows in Australia, too!! This one was rather incongruously located inside a very pricey jewellery store. She is an "opal cow." Cat looked at a ring here which the saleslady confided she could sell her as low as $1400. We said, "Thanks, but no thanks" and scooted away.
Now, that's a croc, mate! He reposed peacefully at the Featherdale Wildlife Park in Blacktown (I promise that is the real name of the town) on the west side of Sydney. I guess we should have tried to come at feeding time. Speaking of which, see photo below.
And this is an Australian hamburger. The cafe is right on a low cliff overlooking the ocean. This burger was NOT the biggest one they make. That one is called "The Works." Greg had it. Cat ate all of the pictured burger, but not all the fries. Greg nearly passed out from eating his massive two-hander. Seriously! He got kind of woozy at one point. But then he finished his thick shake and felt fine. It is so wonderful when Dad pays for lunch.
One morning we hiked up a chunk of land that pokes out into the ocean. This was the view we saw when we looked back. The central coast of Australia features an alternation of cliffs and wide beaches. Gosh, it is beautiful! If you click on this photo, perhaps you can enlarge it enough to see the red-tile roofed house sitting on the green-tufted ledge of the cliff (about in the middle of the photo). Would that be a great view in the mornings or what?