Airports

The airport is a place of many people and many emotions. As I sat there in the terminal today I watched as anxious people got off of the planes. Each person with a different look, some looked relieved, and others looked excited. A few people look morose, while others hit the jet-way running, hoping to catch the connecting flight. It is a place where raw emotion is up front and in your face. I few years ago A&E had a show on the followed various aspects of Southwest Airlines and the customers that they had to deal with. Of course it was a television reality show, so they went in and found the wildest footage and strangest people in the airport system. One episode I watched as a woman tried to board a plan with an imaginary friend, I think that in the end Security got involved in the situation. The show illustrated the real emotions in the airport good and bad. Today behind me in the gate area there was a couple sitting next to each other. They looked to be in their middle twenties, he had a ball cap on and a USMC tattoo down the inside left arm. I presume that he is in the Marines. The young woman was distressed about something. She sat next to him crying a little for 15-20 minutes. What was upsetting, were they leaving home, leaving each other, or was he leaving to go overseas? I do not know the answer to that question, nor will I ever know. For every sad moment that I see at an airport, there is always a happy moment. It could be a parent united with a child, or a child meeting his grandparent, or two lovers separated by a thousand miles making eye contact for the first time in months. Thus like the rolling hills of Oklahoma, an airport is full of emotional mountain tops, and valleys, all in the same building.

Busy Sunday

Today was a busy day, it was full of activities. I went to church, ate at my parents (my mom made Boston Cream Pie, which was the bomb!!!), mowed the front yard, helped Strebeck pack, went to hand bell practice, helped Strebeck pack some more, went home, and packed for my trip. I had an epiphany at church this morning; I will report more when I more fully understand the overall meaning. While we were packing I really wanted to get a picture of Don with a beverage box, but I missed my opportunity.

The picture below has nothing to do with this sunday, I just like it.

Sidewalk Chalk

While I did not post anything yesterday, I decided that I would post twice today to make up for my inattention to the blog. A blog is a lot like grass here in West Texas, if you do not water it, she be brown in less then a week. Since we all know that brown guacamole is not pleasant to view, I will write a little bit about my favorite part of today. In reflection the day was quite busy, and until supper time, I really did not have much of a break, however, after supper it was time for sidewalk chuck with Cap and Amy. I really enjoyed watching Cap work on his drawings, and then visit mine. He tried all of the colors, while the drawers were not as bold as Picasso on the wall, they were no less spectacular. Cap took away the boldness and replaced it with color. The great contrast between the cold (looks sterile anyway) gray concrete, and the vibrant color of Sidewalk chalk from the dollar tree.

Cap, like a vandal spray painting on a railroad car, he is chalking my drawings.

Of course Amy and I also colored on the sidewalk. There was a stint in college where I did a lot of crayons drawings. It was a very soothing way for me to relax at that time. I did a lot of things in college, but DRUGS was NOT one of them. No matter how hard you try to understand some of the things I did, like coloring with crayons, you can rest assured that DRUGS had nothing to do with it. Tonight when I was drawing n the sidewalk it reminded of those time, those wonderful times at WTAMU. It was the one year that I live with my best friend from high school, and I learned quite a few things about him. A time, when we had a house guest stay for 3 weeks in May, because he did not make his lease long enough of his apartment. On a cold snowy day in March, we had a snowball fight, in our apartment with 20 people (you try to explain that to the apartment manager.) At the end of the day, I would sit with the 64 color crayon box, 8 was not enough colors to be artistic, and I would draw houses, or streams or rivers. Below I present the drawings of J followed by Amy’s.

Amy's drawing, (she did a nice Bear, but I did not take a digital picture.

Porch Construction

Today, construction of the new porch cover began in earnest. I started this morning at 6:30 moving tools to the back yard, and have work mostly on the porch project, and associated issues all day. I had great assistance from my dad, yipper19, Strebeck, and Strebeck (Lane). I have put together a short series of Pictures that go throughout the day. Unfortunately I did not think about taking some this afternoon until it was dark outside. Below are the pictures from the day…

7:00 AM



















All of the guys working hard on the porch.





















Strebeck and Strebeck

Brad andmy Dad..

90 mph

Today I woke up and then laid down on the couch, I woke up a 6:30 am, ran around like crazy to make it to my 7:00 am meeting. I did feel rested; I think that I am going though no Café Mocha withdrawals. I really enjoyed walking to that coffee shop in the mornings in Nawlins, it was like one of the most peaceful times of the day. I would do the same thing here but the coffee shop that is open at 6:00 does not exactly have the same type of atmosphere. It is good, and quite unique, but it is full of smokers on one end that all think they have to talk at 95 dBa. The other end is full of non-smokers who, while they do not smoke, still think they have to talk at 96 dBa because they are better then the smokers. That is not nearly as relaxing as walking into a small coffee shop that has all sorts of strange coffee (that is what the people at the local place here would say, “Coffee, I though it came in two flavors, regular or decafe?”)

Tonight we had EPIC, four letters that mean a great deal to me. Well not the letters, but the people at EPIC…. We had a discussion about where we are heading, and had some good ideas. I was excited about the passion there was for keeping it going, and doing some more studying on a deeper level. Afterwards we though the football, I pull some muscles in my foot when I landed on my toes. I am going to have to give up those activities, and take up something less physical. Perhaps I should try the piano, or maybe writing a book, reading, or knitting. Knitting could be competitive, maybe not in the traditional sense, but I have friends that could make it competitive.

My life feels like it is going 90 mphs, I have stuff planned every weekend from now until after Labor Day. Work has been extremely busy, and I feel like a one armed paper hanger. Life is still great, I have a great little family, and have great friends, who also have great families. If it were not for the outside experiences, perhaps it would be closer to Christ and his blessings.

The Telemarketer

I had several thoughts that I was going to write about tonight but they all escaped me. Wait a second, I remember one of them!!!!

I was looking through the Travel Texas book that Amy picked up at the tourism bureu in Amarillo last week. I am always amazed at this book, because they can make places like Electra sound like a hopping little town to visit, with several paragraphs written. All the while, a town the size of Borger has two paragraphs written and sounds like a spot on a state road map. It is amazing that they can make such small towns sound like the oasis for vacations.

I had a telemarketer call this evening, the conversation went something like this:
Tele: Hello
Me: Hello,
Tele: How are you?
Me: I am fine, and yourself.
Tele: Good, my name is John Doe with Texas First Advantage, calling on behalf of the Texas State Troopers Association, are you Mr. Patman?
Me: Yes, that would be me.
Tele: I wanted to see if you wanted to give any money to the Texas State Troopers Association?
Me: Who are you with, The Texas Research Advantage?
Tele: No, it the Texas First Advantage, we were hired by the Texas State Troopers Association.
Me: You are not with the Texas State Troopers Association?
Tele: No I represent them, but work for the Texas Research Advantage. They are not allowed to solicit for funds?
Me: And this company, the Texas Research Advantage, is it a for profit company? (I tired a little Colombo, play dumb motif.)
Tele: Yes that is correct, we are a for profit business.
Me: Okay.
Tele: Would you like to donate any money to the associate?
Me: No that is okay, which is the same answer I gave three weeks ago when you called last time.

I find it strange that a non-profit association hires a for profit company to do the fund raising.

Amy and Cap attended Story Time at the Library, after which Amy proceeded to raid the library shelves and brought back a bag full of books. I am glad she got them at the library, instead of purchasing each book. Go Amy!!!!!

Cap Slept Under His Bed???

I have not yet recovered from the mission trip as far as sleep goes. Sunday night I tossed and turned, which was in eager anticipation of returning to work. Last night Cap, at some point, got out of his bed and crawled under his bed and went to sleep. At 4:00 he woke up and sat up and banged his head into the bottom of his bed. After that I only slept 30 minutes before it was time to get up. I think the poor little fellow was confused about his location, he seem a little dazed and confused. The end result of all of this, is today I stood up in the back of a room for 45 minutes during a meeting, because I thought I might fall asleep. The subject matter was not very exciting. (A word for everyone that makes fun of me and Bri-dog for talking about work, we only talk about the exciting stuff, none of that meeting will be exciting enough to talk about outside of work.)

Last night I took some pictures of my dad welding, and a couple of my welds that I made. I was impressed with myself, which does not happen that often, because it had be 4 years since I had welded anything. I have posted two pictures below for your viewing pleasure.
My Dad


My Welds

I have been bummed out about all the stuff I am working on at work and home because it is going slowly. Today when I left for lunch I head on the news that a Truck Driver was killed at Lake Steel in Amarillo (New Story: Man Killed At Lake Steel). This is a tragedy, I say that for several reasons. First, all work place injuries and deaths can be prevented. Secondly, this was a living human being that had a gamily, friends, and a life outside of work. It just reminds me of how fragile life is. This has caused me to think more because I was at Lake Steel a few weeks ago picking up a load of metal. I certainly do not want to end on such a low note, so remember to take time to spend with your family, and enjoy life. It is fun, or at least as much fun as we put into life.

Bibles

Mondays are always interesting for me. Take today for instance; I went to work, Amarillo, back to work, home, my parents, and back home. I got to spend 2 hours waiting to visit with a doctor, weld on my porch project, and work in between it all. I am kind of tired now, Mazie and I just got back from a jog.

One of the Coffee shops that I went to in New Orleans was named, Tout de Suite. I found one of the receipts from the trip.

When we got back from the trip I told Amy that I would like to get a smaller bible that would be good for traveling with. My two stud bibles are both 1500 pages, and I saw one that was small and compact on the trip. I want the kind of bible that one could slip in the briefcase, or back pack. While I was explaining this I realized that I already had several bibles, eight to be exact.
Bible Who gave it to me
Small Red one Parents
My Dad’s First Bible My dad, but he got it from the FUMC Borger
King James Church, when I graduated (United Methodist Women).
Student Bible Annabelle Ingham (Graduation from High School).
NIV Study Bible Amy’s Grandparents for Christmas a few years ago
RSV Study Bible The Chrysalis Team when I was Lay Director
Gideon’s New Testament (x2) The Gideon’s of course!!

There are people in the world who really desire a bible to read and I have eight, which seems a bit wasteful because I can only read one at at time. The ones that get used the most often are the NIV Study, RSV Study, and the Student Bible (which is also NIV.) The other bibles are keepsakes, and it is not like I went out and purchased each of these for myself.

If you would like to view a 4 minute patriotic baseball video click on the link below. If you are in favor of flag burning you would not enjoy it.

Movie Clip

The Mocha Mess

My attempt to make homemade Café Mocha this morning did not work out as planned. It tasted more like, watered down hot chocolate. I did a little more investigation into the receipt for Café Mocha, and I think that it is espresso, mike, cream, and chocolate.

Last night I went up and waited for the N.O. mission trip people to arrive, and they did at 2:00 am. They were surprised to see me, but I did not want to miss their arrival, especially after such a hard trip home. Mazie decided it was time to get up at 6:30 am, so I got a bout 4 hours of sleep. I feed Cap breakfast, and got him dressed this morning, we had a good time. I attended church, had lunch at my parents. Went back to my parents to work on the porch posts, they are being constructed out of 4 in square tubing. I think that they will be stout enough. I miss calculated one of the measurements, so we had to make a few adjustments. My dad did most of the welding, to which I am deeply thankful.

Amy and I attended UMY or youth tonight. There were 8 kids and we had a good devotional and participation in the devotional. All in all it was an uplifting day. There for a while I lamented about returning to work tomorrow, to a job that is not as rewarding as the mission trip. However, I did realize that there is no job that is that rewarding and I should be happy at the ministry opportunities that I have, and the blessings that God has given me. So I am… (no more lamenting, there is a book in the bible called Lamentations.)

Below Cap and Braegan are riding a stick pony in the living room.

Cap, Picasso?

While on the mission trip I clean all of the scrap paper that I had put in my bible out. I managed to find my latest contact prescription from the optometrist. Which I had been looking for so I can send it off to see how much new contacts would cost. I just got back in from jogging with Mazie the wonder dog, we went to the track and jogged one lap, walked a lap, and jogged the final lap. That was before we walked home. I feel pretty good, and I m glad that I have new shoes. This morning I enjoyed a nice trip to the store with Cap and Amy, where I bought some coffee and hot chocolate mix. I am going to attempt to make a café mocha at home. However, I fear that like sandwiches, it will taste better if someone else makes it. The rest of the afternoon was spent constructing the center beam for the new porch, I think that my dad and I have over engineered it, however, it will not bow if we can lift it up on the posts.

On a more adventurous note, I talked to the mission trip folks a couple of times today. They are making good progress and expect to arrive sometime in the wee hours of the morning. Please visit Nawlins06, for more information.

Cap decided he would attempt a mural in his room. Evidently he was not satisfied with the painting that I had done before his arrival.




Future Picasso?

I would say that I got upset, except that I really did not. I was just miffed about the situation, Amy had some stuff that took it right off, and the wall returned to normal. I gave little Picasso a bath tonight, he enjoyed it until it was time to wash the shampoo out.

Below is a picture of Cap and Braegan and Whately and Father...

Cap's Firts Horse Ride

Everyone has returned back in Borger Safely. We did some exciting things, although not in the same locations. The mission trip was awesome; please see the Nawlins06 blog to read about it. Cap had his first horse ride at the Heck Place with Lane and a horse named, “Texas Tech”. While I was visiting with Amy on the phone about it, she said, “Lane is the most patient man that I know,” not back for a guy who is a junior in high school. Naturally there are some pictures below.

Amy and Cap at the Zoo

Thursday

Well the mission trip was awesome, right not I am sitting in a small café on the corner of Pelican and ???. Drinking a café mocha, doing some wifi wireless internet stuff. There are so many things that I have though about, and prayed about over the week, to try to mention most of them would do a great injustice. God worked on me, through me, and around me all week. Praise be to God, for he is an awesome god. I love everyone that has been on the trip, and feel connected in a new way to most of them. To view more please see the nawlins06 at blogspot.com.

The City of New Orleans

The City of New Orleans

Driving across Lake Ponchatrain was very impressive on the bridge. It looks as if you were looking at the ocean. As we drove into the city, I weight came upon us as we saw the devastation, and destruction that is still in the city. When you look off the interstate across the tops of the houses there are still sporadic blue tarps on roofs and roofs that have been patched. As we drove in I felt once again that God has called this group of people down here. Additionally, he has called a group to stay behind so they can lift us up and shroud us with prayer.

I was awestruck by the sheer power of water, and the manner in which we harness it and how nature harnesses it. The hydraulic cycle, and the simplistic molecular design of water is amazing. It is a sign that God is the creator of everything. Although I cannot explain why nature will use water in such a destructive manner, I know that God is, was and always will be the great creator.

We drove past some of the project housing on the way to Algiers Point, the neighbor hood that we are staying at. If people understood what the conditions were, if they could grasp the fact that when they leave they cannot take their money, the world would be better. Moreover, if everyone understood what it mean to, “Love you neighbor as yourself…” the world would have peace. It is a hard concept to grasp, understand and live because of man’s sinful desire. I struggle with it in my life. There are times, when it is easier for me to show love to a complete stranger then it is to show love to a close friend.

Saturday

Last night I slept for 5 hours on the hard floor at a church in Hallsville. We are back in the van again traveling on I-20 towards Shreveport. I have traveled many miles sitting in this van, and quite a few in the very seat I am sitting. The church got it when I was in high school in 1992. It was a sweet ride then. The old vans (1973 model) were blue Chevy vans, which did not have any insulation, and had a rubber floor. I actually have fond memories of those vans.

The Lost Van

(We are in LA 8:16 am, July 15, 2006.)

Many years ago on a ski trip in the mountains we lost a van down the side of a hill. The story was always told that it was amazing that the van became lodged between two trees. No one was injured in the accident. The only injuries, were sustain when the skiers to be slipped and fell down when they got to the top of the hill. Once the driver of the van said, “I do not know why everyone thinks it was amazing we got the van lodged between two trees. We were on a mountain with lots of trees.

70 MPH
The youth group was returning from a trip Dallas, and Charley 3 began to have issues running. (Charley was what we named the church vans I do not know why.) The youth director at the time was visiting with some of the sponsors behind us, and Terry and I managed to get the van started. A fact that had mixed emotions from the youth director, he was glad the van was running, but upset that a two 6th graders got it started. He then drove 70 mph because the van was not cutting out at that speed. Keep in mind that the speed limit at the time was 55 mph. I was going to meet my parents in Wichita Falls and go back to Dallas with them. My dad being the excellent mechanic found a loose wire and corrected the problem.

Baseball

Last Saturday I wanted to purchase a new fitted baseball hat of either the New York Mets or the Boston Red Sox. Amy asked why those team, and I informed her that they were two of my favorite team. I also have a liking for the Brave, Astros, Rangers, and Cubs. The Braves and Cubs because they were on TV a lot when I was a kid. The Rangers because they are a Texas team, and the Astros because we would watch them every time we were in Houston. That was every summer.) She said that she had never heard me mention that I like the Mets, and I said that there were probably lots of things that I like that I had not mentioned. I am not sure why that is, perhaps they are things that have not come up in conversation, or maybe I just hadn’t though to tell her. Tuesday on her trip to Wal-Mart she bought me a reasonably priced Red Sox hat. It is not fitted but it did not cost $26.00 either. Last summer we went to a Braves game, Amy’s dad got tickets though his work and we sat 4 rows behind the braves dugout. They were great seats. The picture below is from where we were sitting.


Cap slept all night in his Big Boy Bed, however he did not nap in it. Tonight he got up and played for a while, Amy checked on him and he was laying in the floor so she put him into bed. Yesterday when we were moving the bed from my parent’s house, Braegan was a great help. He assisted me in carrying each piece of the bed out to the trailer. He proudly announced, “Help, J” to everyone he went by each time we went by them. It was a lot of fun. Cap has picked up several of my eating habits, like putting food on a cracker before eating it.

Today at work I visited with one of the electricians about his mission trip to China last summer. It was great, and encouraging.

The Big Boy Bed

I was flipping through the blog, as if it were a magazine, and realized that I had not put any pictures in lately. There are some below that I took today. We set up Cap’s “Big Boy Bed” tonight thinking that he would take a nap in it tomorrow. He decided that was where he wanted to sleep tonight. We laid him down, gave him his blanket, bear, snoopy, and funny looking zebra, and he has been content in there. It was hot today, and it is still hot. I just finished sweeping the debris off the back porch from the demolition project. Like porky pigs says, “That’s All Folks!!!”

Mr. Smilie


Below is a picture of the new bed, without Cap.


Here we are on the forth of July, I know my eyes are closed, but look at the shirts.

The Brandon Express

I was rained out from the walk, that and the lighting bolts shooting across the ski like fire flys, made me decide to come inside. Check out Brandon's Blog:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=37898167&blogID=140335925&MyToken=c5ad0ddf-dcd6-4d7e-adf4-9adb0040c650

The Picture

Today I went out to look at a storage tank with Les (our summer intern in our department.) It was a tank that I knew the precise location of, and he was not exactly sure where it was. He took the cap off of a foam connection (part of the fire protection system, normally supposed to be dry) and water started to shoot out. I walked over and grabbed the cap, to close the line off when it slowed down. While I was standing there with a hideous expression on my face, Les took a picture. It is terrible… I got a good laugh about it at the office, and now have something to rib him about the rest of the summer.

I am now officially the President of the Panhandle Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers. While it sounds a bit like the Swisher Sweet Smokers Society (SSSS), it is not quite as fun. The SSSS was a loose organization at the college I attended. It is unfortunate that we enjoyed spending our time making up clubs that would do unhealthy activities. However, at the time it seemed like the correct thing to do. We normally only met once per semester to pass on the secrets of properly smoking a swisher sweet, (since we were all in college that was the best we could afford.) That meeting we would also bring in a new group to initiate, which only amounted to three trivial things.

It is amazing some of the things that we though were cool, and now I look back and think, I can’t believe I used to do that. Perhaps the though has occurred to you, “While it was fun turning everything in Danny’s dorm room upside-down, it was not the nicest thing to do?” If you have I can relate, if you have not, you should find a guy named Danny and turn his room upside-down.

Prayer Room Sunday

Today was Sunday, and Amy and I were in the Prayer room. The prayer room is an old classroom upstairs in the education building that has bland colored walls, a fan, a radio, two uncomfortable chairs, and a square rug. It has several prayer books, a journal, and a very nice Kenneth Wyatt Painting. We were up there for most of the service praying for people by name. It is a nice peaceful time to reflect on the week’s events and prayer concerns of the church. After the service there was a picnic, although I think most people ate inside. My family did because that is where father was eating and I wanted to eat with them. We had fried chicken, which was tasty, not as tasty as the tasty burger, but good none the less.

After church I went home and started demolishing the back porch, things went well for 2 hours, then a thunder storm rolled in. I decided that instead of standing on the porch with thunder about, I would climb down and go in the house. The rain lasted 1 ½ hours, then it was back to work. My dad came by and help out a lot, we got what would take be 6 hours done in about 2 hours. It was also nice to have him there for moral support, like when I was a kid and helping him with his project, once he got there I was sure everything would go smoothly. It did, and I am grateful for the help!!

I ate quickly and Cap, Maize, Amy and I went for a walk. On the walk we stop off at our neighbors house for a few minutes and met their next door neighbors brother. As it turns out he lived in Abilene and attended McMurry University as well. Additionally, he also me his wife at the Fine United Methodist College –McMurry. I think that is quite unique to me someone who also met his wife some 30-40 years ago. I am sure that happens more frequently for the large colleges, Texas Tech, A&M, UT, OU, OSU, but McMurry has an enrollment of ~1,200 people. That counts commuter students.

Goals, I have several goals for my life. These are not sort term goals, but are long term goals. I would like to retire at 55-60, send my kids to college, and so on. I have added a new long term goal, and it is to whip my father-in-law on the golf course. I am not sure how good he is, but I think I would like to beat him at his favorite sport. While it will change nothing, and he still will not work hard to have a relationship with either of his daughters, it sounds like a challenge.

Now that is a Tasty Burger

Amy and I went to Amarillo today on a BIG ADVENTURE. We went to the Mueller and ordered roof material for the porch. As it turns out they custom make each order. Next we spent 2 ½ hours at Home Depot. The commercial says that they are the Home Improvement help center; they were not all that helpful today. We did get what we needed and then took off for lunch. We ate at Carino’s, went to the mall, Barnes & Noble, got a coke, had some dinner, and headed home. We had dinner at Blue Sky (I-40 and Western) and I have to say that it was a tasty burger.

After I took the first bite into the burger, I though about two movies. Pulp Fiction, and The Big Lebowski both came to mind. Neither movie is suitable for children under the age of 16 (18 really) and both movies have these great hamburger dialogs. The scene from Pulp Fiction goes something like this:
The two gangsters have barged into this apartment that has 4 or 5 college aged guys sitting around. After some dialog one of the gagsters picks up this kids hamburger and takes a bite. “Mmmm, now that is a tasty burger…” and the dialog continues for a couple of minutes about the burger, his girlfriend that is a vegetarian, and how he does not get to eat meat very often. The movie does have a unique ending which is it’s only saving grace. The first time I watched it was in College Station, we had gone to visit one of our best friends that was in college there. It was a preview or future student visitation weekend and they showed it at the student center. (Perhaps it was parents weekend). One of the students had brought their parents to the show, and about 20 minutes into the movie they all left.

In the Big Lebowski it is a scene where they are driving across LA in a car that no longer has a windshield taking about the In and Out Burger. To mention more than that would distract from the plot line of either movie.

I decided that, while we were shopping for new clothes for Amy, people really give a man strange looks when he is carrying around women’s clothing without his wife there. I did also get to pick out a new pair of Kaki Church Shorts for Cap. Not really sure why we gets to wear shorts and I do not, but that is the life of a 2 year old.

Suprize

Last night I was working on phrasing something just right and I laid back on the bed to ponder the words. At a point later in time (I would guess it was 30 minutes) Amy woke me up and said, you need to go to bed. When I sat up I realized that my arms were tingling and numb from the way that I had taken my nap. At what point in the day does a nap become not a nap, and more of a dozed off?

We attended a Birthday party for Wendy tonight, I was a surprise party, and we were late, so we missed the surprise part of the party. IT was a lot of fun, and I got to eat some Good cake. On the drive back in to town Cap said Hi to every truck, tree, cow, tractor and flower that he saw. He was being very friendly, and it was sincere the way he said it. I began to laugh and Amy ask, “Why do you think it is funny, you honk at the cows.” I was not laughing at him because it was goofy; I was laughing at him because it was cute.

Thursday July 6th

I did not post anything last night because I fell asleep on the couch reading a few scriptures to put on the New Orleans trip blog. Amy came in ~10:30 and said, “You are a sleep, you need to come to be.” The wrap up for the last two days,
It rained yesterday, and this morning. Work is still work, we had a drill at work this afternoon. It went ok, I was not as wiped out after the drill as I am a real incident. I had a migraine headache from 11;00 am to 1:30 pm. Amy and Amberly took Cap over for a VCUG test. The results as I understand them are that the large dilation of the renal pelvis is the same, and the small dilation on the other side is gone. The issues are not getting bigger. Amy, Cap, Maize and I went for a walk last night, it was great. We visited as we walked around the track with Cap in the stroller. There were not any stray dogs out, which made it even better. I did some posting the in New Orleans Blog, feel free to look at it. I am wiped out so I will be crashing soon in my bead for a good nights slumber!

Independence Day

Today was the celebration of Independence Day. In the move Dazed and Confused there is a scene where the history teacher is reminding her students (serious on the last day of school in 1976) to remember the 200th birthday of the country. She said, “Remember the reason we are celebrating our 200th Birthday is because a bunch of white, slave owning farmers did not want to pay their taxes.” That statement does not do justice to the cause for independence, or why the revolutionary war was fought. Thomas Paine authored a short essay called Common Sense. This essay help whip colonists (soon to be Americans) into a fervor about the British Rule of the colonies. America sits poised on another revolution. The country survived the Revolutionary War, the Southern Rebellion (aka the Civil War), the industrial revolution, the sexual revolution, the computer revolution. The question is, will we survive the moral revolution? (I like open ended questions, so if everyone could please submit a 1000 word essay (typed and double spaced) on the moral revolution I would appreciate it!)

On a smaller level of intellectual discussion I saw a house that had a PINL toilet in the front yard with flowers inside it. I tried to get Amy to take a picture, but we missed it. I question if it is not just a fundraiser. It did reminded my a Stanley Marsh III. He has the group of high school/college kids that run around Amarillo planting signs that are very unique. He, with the assistance of the Ant Farm they created the 10 car called Cadillac Ranch. His antics are famous. He once locked up the grandson of his family rival in a chicken coup naked for several hours. He claimed it was because the kid was vandalizing his signs. (The following link has the introduction to a Texas Monthy article about the fued. http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/1996-03-01/feature )

(I am clean, I had to take a shower so that I did not fall asleep at the key board and write something like this, “iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…”)

On a frustrating level when we returned home this evening there was a message from Amy’s father that said, “Hello everyone, I just wanted to call and tell you that we were back. I am sure that you are out popping fireworks. Talk to you later, dad.” One would presume that he had not just returned from the grocery store. We think that he went to the Dominican Republic, because he told Amy’s sister that he was going there sometime. The sad part is that he did not tell Amy of his plans to leave the country. I told her she should call him and say, “We got your message, where did you go anyway, to never told me you were leaving?”

522 Bricks

I finished with the brick flower bed project on the back porch. There was a total of 552 bricks, which are all nicely stacked on the side of the house in the back yard. It took lots of time, 5 springs, and 2 air hammer bits.

I got to sing with the praise band at church today. It was good, a lot better then I had expected. To say it was just “good” does not really give it justice. For me it was excellent!! While we were standing there waiting to start Strebeck asked me to read Psalm 150 right after the first song. I was more nervous about the reading then I was about the singing. When I started reading the passage, it occurred to me that the mic that I was using was muted at the sound board, and therefore, had been muted during the first song. (They were nice enough to turn it on halfway though the reading.)

This afternoon during, youth, hand bells, and dinner afterwards, I was worn out and subdued. To a point I think that Amy probably enjoyed that. I do not know what caused my melancholy mode…

I saw an interesting news story about a husband/wife race. Please click HERE to read. It does not sound like a fun event.

Porch construction details!
I visited with my dad about the design for the new back porch. We have come up with the following plans for the cross piece, which will span 13 feet across. I will get two 2X8X16 board, and trim it down to 2 X 6 ½ X16. We will get a piece of 3/8 in metal and bolt in-between the two boards. This should provide excellent support.

Friday Night at the park

Today I went and played golf with some guys from work. It was fun, and the group I played with were all on the same playing field. I shot a 52 and actually had a rough start. I did not get a chance to hit any range balls before we tee-ed off because I was running a little behind. We played at the Huber Golf course, which is where I played when I was in high school. I tired out the new golf shoes and they are comfortable. I stood on top of the elevated tee box on hole #6 (which was hole #15) and survived the course. In front of me was a 500 yard par 5 with a dog leg. It has green grass, large tress line both of the fairways and you do not want to land in the rough. Off in the distance I could see the large industrial storage tanks. Directly adjacent to the hole is an Oil and Gas Company’s equipment. It looked identical to the way it did 5 years ago. With old rusty pieces of pipes, and pump jacks. Next I had a flash back and envision the time that I nailed the diesel winch truck that was utilized by that Oil company. I shot a 52…

Today I also finished chipping the bricks on the porch so it is time to move into stage 2. Brad helped me get the test trailer, which had a tank on it. We used a backhoe to lift the tank up and drove the trialed out form beneath it. Amy, Cap and I also went and played on the playground at the elementary school.

I updated the New Orleans Mission Trip Blogspot, click HERE to be transported magically though a binary code system to the information.