Out of the Fryin' Pan…

Nothing much to report. I've been going from work to bed and back.
I spent some time getting some stuff out of Mom's garage before we close the sale on the 29th.
Other than that... Puttin' on the Ritz is done for another year and I finished a couple tiny video projects. Not too exciting.

Georgette just told me Julia is set to arrive on August 1st, so we have much to do before then. I'm hoping we'll have the house shingled and spruced up before her arrival, and I'm hoping to get some more windows replaced as well.

The girls spent the night in the new tent. (an 8 person for $50 at a garage sale) It's in very good condition for a used tent. Hopefully the summer will contain a bit of free time to put it to use somewhere other than our own yard.

The Blackberry had some quirks and data connectivity issues, so I swapped it out for a Palm Treo 755p and am back to learning a new phone. It's a bit easier because I used to use a Palm E2 and have a ton of software for this new unit. Livejournal even had a Palm format app so I expect this to work fine. The 3rd party app for Blackberry was questionable at best. Stay tuned.

First off is the crew of the Atlantis (STS-125) as they work on the Hubble telescope. They're up there on the fifth and final mission to repair and upgrade the telescope and it's some pretty delicate work, especially considering the bulky gloves they have to do it in.

Making things even more treacherous is the fact that the area is a hot zone of space junk, posing enough risk that NASA has Endeavour fueled and on the pad to launch should the Atlantis crew need a quick rescue. (Ditching to the ISS isn't an option because of the orbital paths.)

I'm looking forward to the next ten years or so that the mission could give to Hubble, and to seeing what kind of pics a 60 megapixel camera can deliver. These folks are truly heroic, and I'm praying Endeavour can remain right where she is.

Secondly, it's with sadness that I note the burial of Mickey Carroll today and his family is also in my prayers.

I am too young to recall his vaudeville days, but as a fan of Old Time Radio, I've enjoyed Mickey's work in that medium. I'm planning to revisit some Burns & Allen and Jack Benny shows this week just to refresh my memory and enjoy another laugh or two.

Most of you will remember Mickey for his one film role as the Town Crier in 1939's The Wizard of Oz. He was one of the last surviving residents of Munchkinland, and his appearence is seared into the memory of several generations now. As it should be.

"It's not me; it's the movie," Mickey has been quoted as saying. "When they see me, they think of their childhood, and it makes them smile."

How true, Mickey. Thanks for those smiles and God Speed. Say hello to Stewart for me when you see him.

OK. Here I am then. I went and found a LiveJournal app for the new Crackberry with the intention of actually posting something here again. We'll see how it goes.

After Mom's death, I just kinda put my head down and went to work. It seems like a strange grief reaction, but there it is. Everything has been fine, but I didn't really feel like writing anything. Another part of me wanted to leave my post about her death on the top of the page, but it's been almost a year so now it's time to move forward.

Firestorm has also been on hiatus for a year, but we're shooting a film this weekend so that's coming to an end as well. Last May the boss at my day job left and I moved into his job which made getting any movies done a real pain. Now that I've had time to fall into the rut there, I'm comfortable enough to try to get some editing done. I just need to get the website updated and things will be back on track.

Well, it's time to get some work done. As always, check Gette's blog for the details of the past year. She's been a much more faithful blogger than I.

Is this thing on?

Hi all. I know I've been absent for a long time. We've been dealing with a lot around here, and blogging wasn't a priority. Tonight I feel the need.

My Mom has died.

She slept away peacefully at about 7PM on July 28 after a relatively brief but valiant battle with cancer.
Throughout, she kept a positive attitude and was resolute in not letting the disease defeat her. It didn't.

While I am feeling grief, certainly, I am a bit surprised to find that I actually feel pretty good about it all. It's times like these when we can find our faith tested. Do we really believe what we say we do or is it just lip service when times are good?

I'm happy to report that my own faith has passed the test. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that she is at this moment in the embrace of Jesus the Christ and the hosts of Heaven are singing with joy to welcome her home. There will come a time when we are reunited and I look forward to it eagerly.

So, while there will be many tears to come in the next days, they are not for her. They are for us. We will miss her companionship until that reunion occurs. She was a fantastic Mother and an even better friend. When someone asks me how I know that God loves me, all I have to do is point out that He gave me a Mother like her. I was… am… truly blessed.




I'll leave you with the last words I said to her this afternoon. They sum up how I'm feeling better than anything else I can think of.

"I love you, Ma. I'll see you later. Thanks."

Wow. I can't believe it's been three weeks since I've posted! I had such a good run going for a while and then I blew it.

One of the confidential items from before is now public knowledge. My Mom has been diagnosed with cancer and is pursuing treatment. She has spent the past few weeks being subjected to various test, but we have yet to receive any results. It's like we've all been holding our breaths for three weeks. It has been very frustrating. We are hoping to finally have some details by this Saturday. Keep your fingers crossed. Originally we thought we'd hear something by Jan. 29th… then it was Feb. 5th… and now it's Saturday. They say "no news is good news" but in this case that certainly is not the case.

I've also set up a site for her over at Caring Bridge. Please drop on over there and send her a word of encouragement if you could. Her attitude is good and she's a woman with a lot of natural strength, but I'm sure every kind word would be of help at this difficult time.

Besides that, I've been prepping a couple small movie projects, getting ready for the first shoot of the year on Saturday and preparing to update the front of the website for the beginning of decade #2. It's going slowly. I'm still trying to get a handle on juggling film stuff around a full-time job.

I've also been organizing my Old Time Radio collection and realizing that I have way to much to listen to. I started collecting very slowly after finding some old Whistler episodes. These had been a favorite of my Dad's back in the day, so I searched some out. They were very enjoyable. Then I discovered that James Stewart had done a western called the Six Shooter. He has always been a favorite of mine and it was great to find several hours of his work that I had never experienced.

From this slow start, the collection has grown to 52 shows amounting to almost 63 days of combined run time with more coming in every day. I am constantly amazed at the extremely high quality of the writing and the sheer entertainment value in these old gems. They also, unfortunately, shed light on the incredibly low quality of most of what "The Entertainment Industry" foists off on us these days. God bless all the folks in the collecting community who work so hard to preserve all this material! If you'd like to experience some for yourself, drop me a line and I'll hook you up.

Until next time… and I'll try to make it soon.

Just poppin’ in between night shifts. I got about an hour and a half nap, which won’t be nearly enough and I sure would like some more.

All the big girls decided to go to the movies tonight despite not having arranged rides home - or at least informing me of the arrangements if there are any. This means I have to stay up, drive to town and sit around outside the theater hoping to catch one on the way out. The weather isn’t really conducive to a six mile walk home. It looks like I’ll be giving a lecture about proper communication and scheduling when I finally manage to round them all up.

Other than that, I don’t have much more for you today. Everything that has consumed my time the last couple of days is of a confidential nature, not leaving much else in my thoughts to talk about. I’ll be back when I have something. Stay warm and be well.

Yesterday, I ran over to Willmar with a friend and just had a day of knocking about together, which is something we haven’t done for quite a long time. It was swell. We made the Menard’s run that was the reason for the trip, caught a bite at Arby’s and took a run through game stop for some cheap Playstation diversions. We’ve set aside tomorrow as the official “Day of Getting Nothing Done” and will try out some of these new games then.

Today then becomes my day for actually doing something. So far I’ve monkeyed around with the water purifier, gotten the dishes lined up for their bath and gotten some video processing. Before I really dig in, I thought I’d drop by for a little coffee and get the ball rolling on the promised Moses Code post.

So what is it all about?

The Moses Code is a combination movie and book release combined with a prayer vigil seeking to aid the quest for peace in the Middle East. On the face of things, this seems harmless enough. I recognize the power of prayer. I’m in favor of peace. I even like books and movies. So far, so good. It didn’t take long, however, before the hair started raising on the back of my neck.

(Before I continue, let me say that items in quotes were taken from the websites The Moses Code and The Beloved Community. Rather than link these each time they are cited, I’ll provide them here and allow you to dig things out for yourself as you desire. Also, in complete fairness, let me state that only the first three chapters of the book are available online, so I haven’t had the opportunity to read the entire text but I believe what is available is sufficient for us to get an understanding of the whole.)

The author, James Twyman, asserts that he has found a secret “technology” that was hidden by “orthodox authorities (who) believed that people weren’t ready to use it wisely.” This “technology” involves “learning the most powerful manifestation tool in the history of the world” to “use the Law of Attraction to create peace.”

What does that actually mean?

Basically, the idea here is that you get what you think. Or more precisely, you are what you think. Your reality is defined by your thought life. Whatever you really think, consciously and even subconsciously works with the Law of Attraction to draw those things into your reality to become actuality.

This is not a new concept. Please refer to the link above for a nice, concise article.

The ‘new’ secret Twyman is promoting is that there is a more potent power source that unleashes the full potential of this process. That power is the name of God. According to Twyman, it was this power that Moses recognized and used, but it is more than just calling upon God, it is the invocation of the god-ness that was in Moses and that he claims is in each of us.

It would be difficult to paraphrase Twyman here, so permit me a rather lengthy copy and paste from Chapter 1 of the book.

(Begin Quote)

“Let’s examine some of the passages from the Book of Exodus that describe this conversation with God. It begins by saying:

God called to him from the bush and said:
Moses, Moses.
And Moses said: Here I am.
(Ex. 3/4)

Pay very close attention to Moses’ response upon hearing God’s Voice streaming from this fiery bush. He doesn’t run in fear. He also doesn’t fall to the ground and say: “Why are you speaking to me? Don’t you know I’m not worthy of this?” Instead Moses turns toward the bush and says: “Here I am.” This may seem like an innocuous response to an honor so great, but if we look a little deeper we realize that it is far more significant. However, it’s impossible to understand how significant it is until we continue a little further in our conversation.

Hearing Moses’ response, it’s almost as if God is pleased. God then says to him:
Do not draw away.
Take your shoes from your feet,
for the place where you stand is holy ground.?
(Ex. 3/5)

Why is this place so holy? The obvious answer would be because it is the spot where God is making himself manifest and known in the world. God’s presence is being experienced through an ordinary bush on a mountainous ridge. The fact that this very same bush is burning with a fire that does not consume it is certainly miraculous, though. It makes this ordinary moment quite extraordinary.

But is there another possibility for why this ground is so holy?

God clearly understands God. This is something we can all agree upon since God is omnipotent and omnipresent. Therefore, if God knows Itself to be in all places at all times, would the Creator single out one place as holy above all others just because it is being experiences there by a particular man? Is it not the Will of God to be seen and experienced in all places and in each person? From God’s perspective all places are holy because God is in all places. This means that God is not likely to identify one physical location as more blessed than another.

The greatest difficulty of our humanness is that we are unable to view or experience God in all places at all times. Our minds simply cannot conceive of anything so vast. But does the Divine also share this limitation? If so, then God would be as restricted as we are, unable to know itself as ITSELF.

Is it possible, then, that when God asked Moses to take off his shoes, for the place he stood was holy ground, that God was speaking much more intimately than we first guessed? Moses said to God: “Here I AM.” It’s almost as if God smiles at him and says: “Ah, well said, Moses. Indeed, Here I AM. This ground is holy because it is the spot where you have known yourself to be who you are.”

You may be thinking:
Wait a minute!
Are you saying that God was pleased
because Moses seemed to recognize himself
as one with his Creator?
The answer is YES!!!“

(End Quote)

So, hopefully not oversimplifying, because Moses recognizes he is as much God as God he now has the power to use the Law of Attraction to unleash his own creative power and call into being whatever he desires. In the case of the Moses Code prayer vigil, that means peace in the Middle East, but could as easily be a new car, a winning lottery ticket or anything else. Think of it as The Power of Positive Thinking meets The Prosperity Gospel meets Isaiah 14:14.

I have several problems with this. The first and foremost is that Twyman’s ‘secret code’ is based on a completely erroneous reading of the story in Exodus 3. His assertion is that Moses knew and understood himself to be one with God based on his use of the I AM name in his response to the call. Unfortunately for Twyman, this is not what the text says. Moses did not say ”Here I AM.“ He said ”Here am I.“ (Ex. 3:4) The distinction makes all the difference. In fact, it shows Twyman’s entire premise to be flawed and the ‘Moses Code’ to be a non-existent fantasy.

Before I continue, let me recognize that a great number of you may have just said: ”Well, that’s splitting hairs. Sure, it says ‘here am I’ in the King James, but what about the other versions? Aren’t you nitpicking? Couldn’t Twyman’s reading be just as valid as yours?“

The answer is no.

With all the various versions and translations of the Biblical text in circulation, the argument seems plausible, but we should never base our conclusions of truth on plausibility. The text is the text. It is not what we wish it said. It is what it is. Any first year Bible scholar will agree that whenever a doubt about translation arises, it is best to go back to the original languages to find an answer. In this case, such a search is a simple one and is most illuminating. What does Exodus 3 actually say?

”And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.“ (Ex. 3:14) or actually,  The portion we are most interested in here is the actual name of God or .

If Twyman’s assertion is correct, Moses must use this name in his statement. He does not. Exodus 3:4 reads, ”And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said Here am I.“ or actually, . The important section here is the portion that clearly says ‘Here am I’ ().

This is not nitpicking. It is central. The entire Moses Code concept is based on the fact that Moses knew and consciously identified himself with the name of God and that doing so enabled him to access the powers associated with that name. He did not.  (here am I) obviously does not equal  (IAM THAT IAM).

On this basis alone, The Moses Code is a bust. The entire concept is based on a fiction.

There is indeed power in the name of God. He is able to do amazing things. The unfortunate part of this newest of old heresies (this is just Gnostism, once again) is that it attempts to usurp that power. There is one God… and you are not Him.

That being said, the issues raised in looking at The Moses Code provide many interesting questions to explore:

What is prayer and how does it work?
What does it really mean to be ‘in Christ’ and how does that differ for the ‘you and God are one and the same’ ideas put forth by Twyman and his guest speakers?
Is there a credible hope for peace in the Middle East?

I hope to address these topics (and others) in the near future as time permits. For now, I’d better quit and get some housework done. As always, remember that Acts 17:11 should serve as our guide in all things, that we adopt the practice of the Bereans ”…in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.“ Never just accept a human’s word for truth, be it Twyman, your own pastor or even myself. Get your hands on the scriptures and do the work for yourself.

Until next time. Be well!

Ok. You could’ve left your reading glasses at home. I’m still fixin’ to get ready to do something.

I came home a little early last night. My relief goofed on the schedule and showed up an hour early, so I got to head home. Once I got here, G’ette wasn’t too far behind. She wanted to head across the street for a little karaoke, so we did. She only got in one song because we showed up so late. It was a little strange to be out with humanity again. I’ve unintentionally become a bit of a hermit with my night owl ways, and frankly, even I am growing tired of my own company. ;)

Pastor was preaching on prayer this morning which was entirely fitting. The topic has been on my mind lately as you’ll see in the next couple of days. I really mean it. I’ll get around to the promised post tomorrow. After this evening’s shift, I’m heading into three days off and will finally have time to sit at the keyboard. For now, it’s a quick shower and off I go.

If you want to get ahead of me a little, head over to The Moses Code. This was brought to my attention by a friend and is the catalyst for my thoughts in the days to come. Check it out, give it some thought and I’ll be back with my take on it. See you then.

As I said last night, I’ve been stewing on a more substantial post for the past few days. One of the things that has been slowing me down is this cold of mine, but the bigger hold up is the matter of writing style.

You see, I want to address some very serious topics, and my mind turns over to an essay writing mentality. This is a slight shift of gears in my head that causes me to think about structure, punctuation, crediting of sources, checking and rechecking of facts, and the avoidance of wanton run-on sentences like this one. It also makes me want to insert links to various things, and then I have to try to remember the correct html tags and wonder how long those links will be valid… and suddenly the idea of the post has become a chore instead of a joy, and it’s preferable to go do a load of laundry.

I have always enjoyed writing, but I despise homework. Those little old ladies with the red correcting pens drive me nuts. I like to write for the ear; words falling to a particular rhythm that builds a tone and a feel instead of a “correct” form. I love to free write. I want to share an idea, not a structure. I love the ramble and the comma splice. In fact, as an axiom, I love, at almost any time, to drop a comma in, seemingly at random, almost anywhere, and I don’t care who knows it, or who it drives crazy.

With this disclaimer, of sorts, I’m preparing to spend my day typing away at the promised big post. Don’t expect eloquence in the writing. There are so many tangents my thoughts could (probably should) explore that the only way I’ll ever get anything done is to just begin… without worrying about the form. As a rule, it’s probably best to read me old loud. Or, perhaps, G’ette could use my blog as practice as she works toward becoming one of those ladies with the red pens. (Not to say that she’s old...oh my, now I’ve done it.)

I’ll be back. Might want to bring your reading glasses next time.

I spent the day off doing some minor cleaning like picking up in Thing 4’s room and running various errands.
While making supper, I found out my fryer doesn’t function anymore. This ticks me off because we’ve only used the thing a dozen times or so. So much for the quality of stuff out of the Evil*Empire.

After retrieving Thing 1 from her job, we settled in for a few episodes of Cheers and that pretty much shoots the day. It’s a bit early, but I’m still not feeling up to snuff. It’s getting to the point where I can breathe - somewhat - again, but everything still tastes awful so I guess full recovery is still a day or two away.

I’m actually stewing on a post. Fair Warning is hereby given that I’ll probably hit y’all with a lengthy diatribe in the near future.

The sickness hasn’t gotten better. I’ve just added the tired after last night’s shift to it. Still Ug.
No big deal, but doesn’t make me feel like writing much.

Here’s an idea for you to fill the time: I got a call yesterday from a friend wanting to to know how to spell “embarrassing.”
After the call, I decided to pop this into Google and see what came up. This led to several links to galleries of embarrassing tattoos. Good humor, I tell you.

I am not a fan of ink anyway, but these morons (or Mo-Rans as G’ette would say) take the cake. Give it a try. Catch you later.

I’ve picked up a bug and feel like… I don’t know what.
After surfing about a little looking for something I might care to post about, I have given up.
Right now, I just don’t care about anything.

Of course, this didn’t hit during my off days. It waited until I have the overnight shift tonight. Ug. Actually, going to work is about the only thing I feel like doing, and I wish I could go now instead of waiting until 10 to start. Work is predictable and I won’t have to think there. Just watch and report. I think I can handle that.

You’re all on your own for something interesting or funny. Game called on account of rain… well, snot, actually.

I’m laying there comfortably on my bed, visiting with G’ette and Alex, when she says,
“I’m eight for eight.” Blink.

“What?!?”

“I’m eight for eight… are you.”

Oh, Schmidt! I haven’t posted! “I gotta go.”

Here I am. <pant, pant> That’s a lot of stairs.

I had all day to get it done too, but spent it all cleaning the desk in preparation for Grand Taxation Post-ation Day.
There’s a lot less papers in the studio now, but not much else to show for the day.

This evening was dance night for the girls. Things 1 and 3 at Putting on the Ritz and Alex for GoldDusters during the basketball game. G’ette and I went up to see her dance, finally, but they wanted $5 each to get in, and my inner Scotsman about had a coronary. It would be different if we came to watch the game, but we just wanted the 5 minute JV danceline performance and we were outie, so there was no way. I put on my best “You must be daft” expression and returned to the van to watch Cheers on the iPod while G’ette went in to view and retrieve Alex.

Apparently, they did a fine job, except for a few G’ette thought were overly enticing the 16 (and 40) year old boys with a little too much bottom shaking. When it was all over, we took Alex for a run through Evil*Empire Stupid Centre. It wasn’t until she was inside that she realized she still had all her performance makeup on. Good fun! She looked like she was really out on the prowl.

Anyway… enough for now.

It’s not a lot, but “Yes, dear, I’m 8 for 8.”

Nothing profound tonight.

The other night I brought my laptop down to G’ette in our bed so she could do a last minute post. I may have created a monster.

I’ve been allowing some grand thoughts to perk all day, but when I go to post… guess who has my equipment in bed with her playing Scrabulous. So, I waited - impatiently - for her game to be over, and here I am. I didn’t want to miss since this makes 7 for 7. This is a new record for me and I’m finally starting to feel a build in momentum. Woo hoo!!

Deep thoughts aside, then, I’ll just report that I had a lovely day made up of a little time at the computer, followed by a little time doing chores… rinse, lather, repeat. All was swell until the girls got home. Thing 1 and I got in it again, but it eventually blew over. Once again, she is too much like me. Neither of us will back down.

I also made my first batch of broccoli cheese soup today. It seemed to be well received by all. It was a bit surprising to me that I had never tried to make it before. (I did spend 15+ years as a cook in various eateries, after all.) It seemed a little salty to me, but had a good robustness to it. I’ll work on giving it some more unique character next time out.

After dinner and clean up, Alex and I caught up on Desperate Housewives and I ran a couple of Cheers episodes on the big screen for the younger ones and myself. Good, casual fun all around.

I did actually get some work done on Firestorm’s first film of the new year this afternoon as well. I had planned to grab a screen cap to post here, but didn’t get around to it. This one is a little piece showing modern harvesting equipment at work that will go into a display at a farm show in September. Today’s work was just capturing some footage and arranging things on the hard drive for work I’ll get to this summer. It’s nice to be ahead of the ball game again. I suppose now that I’m actually back editing, I need to find time to replace the “we’re in hiatus” sign on the front of the website back to “open for business.”

I’ll type at you all again tomorrow. Be well.

Thing 1’s night owl ways are still on the top of our issue agenda. She kept G’ette and I up until around 2:30 this morning. It wouldn’t be such a big deal except that our crazy schedules only allow us to sleep in the same bed at the same time about twice each week. That being the case, sitting up visiting with our 14 year old wasn’t exactly our first choice of possible activities. ‘Nuff said. <ahem.>

Anyway… I explained to Thing 1 that if she was a bit more active, physically and mentally, during the day it would be easier to fall asleep at night. Then, as a really cheap trick, I gave her my copy of Alister E. McGrath’s “An Introduction to Christianity,” told her to read and report on Chapter One in the morning, and sent her to her room.

This was a cheap trick because McGrath is a typical undergrad textbook. <snooze> I’ve actually accumulated quite the library over the years with many fine texts, but this one does not top my list. How McGrath could take the “Greatest Story Ever Told”™ and the long and fascinating tale of church history and suck all the joy and life out of it is beyond me. It’s quite an achievement, actually.

I figured that if she managed to stay awake (which she didn’t), she might learn something, but my real purpose was to use the tome as a sedative, and specifically chose it as such. I know I drifted off several times on my way through, and I’m intensely interested in the subject matter. Mission accomplished!

When morning arrived (later than desired - I missed church as a result, which I despise) it was time to introduce the physical aspect. I revived some long suppressed Army memories and showed Thing 1 the joys of such gems as “The Body Twist.” Vets in the audience will have just groaned at those words. For the rest, just substitute the words “arduous torture” and you’ll have the idea. I’d quite rather be a waterboarding subject, I think.

I was also pleased to discover I can still execute a proper push-up. In fact, I actually managed to drop and “give her twenty” as an example and for sheer old-time’s sake. This was a great achievement considering I’m a full 60 lbs. heavier than when I left the Army and hadn’t done even one since the day of my discharge, which was more than 20 years ago - which doesn’t seem at all possible. Thing 1 can manage 10 pretty decent reps herself, and we’ll see if the exertion helps bring about some change in her sleep cycle.

I worked the 3-11 shift today and am all set to enjoy a couple of days off. This should give me a little freedom to work on solving this little hitch in our household operations. I hope she’s ready. I don’t think she is, despite her “Bring it on.” I even downloaded a copy of FM21-20 (the Army’s trusted Physical Training Field Manual), so she’s in deep now. If nothing else, maybe I’ll shed a few of those extra 60 along the way.

On an unrelated note: I had a dream that made me realize it has been a while since we participated in a major motion picture. In the dream, I was hanging out on set during one of those customarily long intervals between takes when John Travolta approached and began discussing some things with the folks next to me. I didn’t get much more than a friendly nod. I don’t know John, after all.

The funny thing was that while this was going on, Georgette came up to talk to me. (Circa 1987 Georgette complete with long hair and backstage headset, mind you - it was good to see her again.) As she reached me, John looks up with a smile and a warm “Hey, G’ette! How’s it going?”

Suddenly, I’m awake and there she is lying beside me.

“How do you know John Travolta?” I ask.

The quizzical blink I got in response was priceless. It wasn’t your average first-of-the-morning question, I guess. At least she can’t complain that I’m predictable.

I spent the evening with ABCNews and Facebook as they conducted debates with all the leading presidential candidates. It was a very informative night. I enjoyed it quite a bit, although I did miss a large portion of the Democratic segment of the program when my father stopped in for a visit. I’m hoping to catch that part again when they do the rebroadcast.

It was also cool to be able to take part (in a limited fashion) through Facebook. It shows that technology is getting to a point where we could conceivably move to a system of a direct democracy instead of the “representative” system we’ve used until now. Before you all start writing about all the reasons such a system wouldn’t work, realize I’m not advocating such a thing. I’m just noting the intriguing possibilities our evolving technologies are making possible. (I do believe our current system is “representative” in name only, however. The only folks I see truly represented in our current government are the wealthy and well-connected.)

The real down-side of the debates for me was that the economy was almost completely ignored. There was some discussion on gas prices that led to the predictably canned “we must reduce our dependence on foreign oil” responses, but that was about it. For me, the economy will way very heavily in my voting decision.

When Dad was here, for example, we were discussing the topic. I shared with him that in the past 45 days just filling our LP tank for heating (twice) and putting gas in the van (also twice) used up 93.76% of my take home pay. Yes, I did the math while he sat here - - and that is NOT a typo -- it was indeed 93.76% in my income. That also does not include the cost of electricity, which pushes the number well past 100%. Thank God Georgette also works two jobs, ‘cause my income is gone.

Now, before anyone thinks we must be fiscally irresponsible, I’ll also share that I “blow” $44.95/month on my internet connection. That is the full extent of our discretionary spending. We do not have television. Our telephone is VoiP across that same internet connection. We don’t drink. We don’t go out. The thermostat is locked in at 62 degrees. I honestly believe we have cut everything back about as far as we can.

We do have a mortgage, a car payment, student loans and a little credit card debt that we also need to find... somewhere. Generally, this means praying that Georgette will get tipped well at work.

That’s probably more than you all need to know, but I think you can see why the economy is of concern to me. I’m sure you can also see why I don’t feel these folks spending millions on their campaigns, or the system that requires them to do so, is in any way in touch with the real concerns of people like us. While they bicker and position and sound bite, there are a lot of real folks out here trying very hard to just make it through the winter. I appreciate that since the Iowa primaries the buzz word for both parties is “change”, but I admit I don’t hold out great hope that we’ll actually see any.

Finally, just to avoid ending on a negative note, let me also add just a few more things about our lives:

Although all of the above has left us somewhat stressed, we...
        …are still happily married after almost 18 years
        …have four wonderful children (we wish we had more time for)
        …enjoy giving homes to our international “children”
        …have a few very good friends
        …have a great extended family
        …are reasonably healthy (though obviously not 17 anymore)
        …have a fantastic and supportive church family
and
        …are loved, forgiven and redeemed by our God.

We are blessed. Life is good.

<sigh>

Thing 1 is fourteen. She is fully fourteen.

Unfortunately for her, she is a nearly perfect clone of her father. (only gender outstanding as far as I can tell)
I can see in her all of the good qualities I had at her age. She is verbal and inquisitive and spontaneous and imaginative. The list could continue for some time. She is just generally a good kid.

She is also, at times, too intelligent for her own good and shows a real tendency for mood swings and argumentativeness. Like me, she is also a night owl, and this has been the current source of our distress.

I’ve spent untold hours trying to convince her she needs to learn to sleep, even if she has to force herself. The world does not operate on our vampire’s schedule. She, of course, has attempted in every way possible to convince me that “it’s no big deal.”

It all caught up with her today and her body decided it was catch up time. She absolutely would not wake up this morning. So we left her there. We’re hoping we can get her body clock reset so she can join the real world, but so far the jury is still out.

My concern, and the reason I started this post with “unfortunately” is that she is right on the cusp of those years when I made my own greatest mistakes. I want to help her avoid all the wrong decisions I made that led me to years of regrets. I want her to grow healthy and happy and strong, and dread it when I see her make the same types of choices I did that led in the other direction.

I know parents (probably including my own) have faced this problem forever, but that doesn’t make it any easier. God, grant me wisdom!

Here’s another lesson for all: Never start a blog post 30 minutes before going to work. Perhaps I’ll finish my thought later. I gotta go!!!

So much for finding time to post.

I ended up way short on sleep, and spent the day with the wee lad. We watched some TV and just generally hung out.
Now, as much as I’d like to be in bed, I have to stay up until 2 or 3 this morning so I don’t get my days and nights mixed up (or perhaps straightened out) before I have to return for another overnight tomorrow night. It is a strange life I lead.

To pass the next few hours, I’ve begun sorting out my Old Time Radio (OTR) collection. Perhaps I’ll find something interesting to listen to tomorrow night. With that, I’ll post off for the day. It’s a good thing I didn’t promise to be profound.