After Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. A few thoughts I had, one happy, one sad and one rant.

Happy
Makiah is involved in a group at our neighbors church called Sparks. It's basically a class to learn about God and I call it Rah, Rah. They learn cheers and songs about God, pretty cool stuff. They earn badges for memorizing Bible verses and somehow they earned Spark bucks, little fake Monopoly looking dollars. They saved them up and just before Christmas were able to "shop" with these dollars to buy gifts for whoever they wanted to buy for, they got to choose who and what. Makiah came home with his purchases and it was the cutest thing ever. He had picked out a gift for his mom, some discs that you put in your cup holder in your car to absorb any liquid that spills into the holder. He knows his mom loves coffee, so he bought these for her. There were some other items that were really cute, but this one stuck out. To see his face when he explained who it was for and why he bought them just about brought tears to my eyes. You saw the innocence of a 5 year old that did something for his mom, just because. I get misty just remembering his face and how proud of him I was. Usually, I want to kill him for total defiance, but that day, I couldn't have loved him more.

Sad
They always have the stories on the TV and in the paper around Christmas about people who are struggling to make ends meet and rely on other people to help them out at this time of year. I've seen them, you've seen them, they work. I always feel guilty about what I have, especially around this time of year. I donate, adopt a family, but it is so little compared to what I could do. I usually don't see the newspaper pictures as anything new, so they don't hit me as hard. There are thousands of stories of how people are suffering, and to be honest, you get kind of immune to it, sorry to say. There was a picture in the Des Moines Register about a week before Christmas that hit me, for what reason I don't know. It was taken at a local community center that acts as a distribution point at Christmas. They collect donations of food, clothes and toys for people in need. In this particular picture there were several tables set up in a room with mostly toys spread out on them. There were several people "shopping" with their kids, but the woman and her child in the front of the picture is what I was focused on. The woman was dressed in jeans and a NFL sweatshirt, she had the wrong team on it, but lets not loose sight of the reason for the story. She, for whatever its worth, appeared to be "normal," whatever that is. The child was well kept, nice clothes, clean cut hair, and nothing to appear to me as being poor. (again, whatever that is) This child looked like she could be in my kids class at school. I can say I don't profile, or put people into categories due to their appearance, but I do. When I think of someone getting help at Christmas, I think of welfare abusers, the uneducated (me being one of them), or someone that has made so many bad decisions in their life, that this is where it got them. I know it's wrong, but I can't help it. I know some people just had some bad luck, or a huge medical issue that wiped them out. I know plenty of single moms that have busted their asses to provide for their family, but it just isn't enough when you add the presents at the end of the year. This picture slapped me in the face a good one. In my head, I saw this woman as one of the hundreds or thousands that have lost their jobs this year, unable to find a replacement to keep her at the level she is accustomed to. Maybe her husband died, they had no insurance, and now she is struggling to make ends meet until she can get back on her feet again. Whatever her story is, she made me realize that I need to change my thought process. I kept thinking, that could be me, or someone I love. I need to make changes and teach my kids better lessons.

Rant
I don't have a snow blower. I've always wanted one, but never seem to have the money to buy something that I might use 3 times a year, or might use every 15 minutes for a month. I've tried to convince 2 of my neighbors to go in together to buy one that we all share, but I think they are waiting for me to cave and buy it so they can borrow it without the expense of it all. Well I can hold out as long as they can. Here is the problem, these same said neighbors both went out of town for Christmas. Then, being the ever humorous God that he is, had it snow a few inches of snow and then had the wind blow that snow into huge piles on our driveways. I didn't want it to appear that they were gone, so I set out to shovel all three of our driveways on Saturday. I got mine done and had moved across the street for driveway #2, when another neighbor, who lives right next door to me, came out to use his snow blower. This guy hardly ever clears his driveway, he usually just leaves it so it becomes a solid sheet of ice. Today, he decides to use his blower, which is brand new. For those of you who don't get enough snow to necessitate a blower, let me tell you that there are different kinds, as you can imagine. The smaller ones basically move the snow from where you don't want it, over a foot or two to where you do. The bigger they get, the farther they move the snow from its original position. Now, my neighbor buys the blower that puts the snow from his driveway into my driveway. Didn't know that was an option, but apparently he found the Nolan Ryan model. (baseball reference) I have just finished driveway #1, I'm working on #2 and watching Joe Considerate blow his snow into my drive, causing me to want to beat the #2 out of him. He has to see the snow crossing my whole front yard and landing in my driveway. For God's sake, can't he either re-aim it or turn the blower from jet airliner to just crop duster? He finished up his driveway, put away his blower and returned to the comfort of his house, while I stood in my neighbors driveway and shook my head. I was half way through the third driveway when a different neighbor showed up with a borrowed blower and helped me finish up. She did run their garden border through the blades, so I'll be sure to toss her under the bus with 100% of the blame. Next time they will think twice before leaving during prime snow season.

New Car

So I have my new car. I'm not as excited as you would think, since I have a car payment for the first time in 5 years. It has the SYNC system, which is a voice activated system to run your phone, MP3 player and pretty much all of your music options. I'm still learning how to run it all, by using the manual. I'm not one that is afraid to use the manual, I know I loose some of my man points, but I do read them. Here is an example why. I was in the car showing my friend how the phone works. You can see your phone memory on a little screen on the dash, it shows numbers, names, call history and I've read text messages, though I haven't tried that yet. I was working my way around, like I knew what I was doing, and got to the call history. Somehow, I accidentally dialed a number, which I didn't recognize. He looked at it and reminded me that it was his work number. Now the problem came, I don't know how to hang up. Every time I've used the phone in the past, the other person hung up, ending the call. My current phone call is now going to voicemail. I start pushing buttons and yelling at the car, as if it knows the commands I'm yelling. Now I have Joe yelling at my car and I'm sure, to passer byes, it looked like we were having one hell of an argument, but unable to look at each other so we stared at the dash. I kept hitting buttons as I spewed profanities at my car, and something worked. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the phrase "Hang up the damn phone," but you never know. I looked it up in the manual and found you have to HOLD the phone button down, not just push it. I guess that is what I did, but the flurry of activity from the front seat made it impossible to be certain. I think I should ask Joe if he had an obscene phone call on his voicemail when he got to work on Monday. The worst part of that is, it was him yelling at himself. That's got to be a first. I also found two new buttons that I had to read up on, both are something I won't use often, but it's good to know what they are. So far I like it, gas mileage is good and it handles well. Now that I know how to work some of the voice activation stuff, it's even a little better. I'll post a picture soon, but I might wash it first since it is covered in dirt from our recent ice/snow.

Ice Storm part 2

Here are a few more shots of the ice. You can't really see the beauty of it, but you can at least see the thickness.

I took this one to show how thick it was on the branches and the one below is our table on our deck.

Our bird feeder is now a jail.

And finally, a Christmas light on our bush out front.

That's it for the pictures, but there were two other things I wanted to mention.

1. What is it with kids wanting to eat the nasty dirty icicles that are hanging from my dirty car? I tried everything to get them to quit eating them, but no luck. I remember doing it as a kid, but I didn't have anyone telling me not to. I finally gave up and hope there isn't anything to bad on them, like arsenic. (If you read my blog regularly, you got that. If you don't, I didn't poison my kids)

2. If you know anything about Iowa, you know that the top two accidents involving amputations are: Farm accidents (mainly augers on grain equipment) and idiots sticking their hands in snow blowers. Seeing as how there is a half inch of ice on the ground, there aren't too many augers working right now, so the snow blower is the leader at this time. I would think that any half way intelligent person would know not to stick their hand/fingers into a spinning object, but I have observed over the years that I must be extremely intelligent, unless it involves a washing machine and a hose. (That is some complicated stuff) I watched as my next door neighbor, who we affectionately call Clark Griswald, stuck his hand in his snow blower, while the motor was running. Now I don't have a snow blower, but I think they actually can run without the blades spinning, but would you risk it? I mean, if the blades quit moving because they were being stopped by snow, would you then release that snow with your bare hand thus allowing the blades to spin, regardless if the motor is engaged or not. I'm both happy and sad to say that the blades did not turn into the wood chipper in Fargo (movie reference, hope you've seen it). That would have been gross and I'm guessing when I grabbed my digital camera to take a few snapshots of it, I might not be invited to the next block party. The sad thing was, he was clearing his neighbors side walk, who has a blower of his own, and left me scooping and chipping like an ass. He could have at least waited until I went inside to clear the neighborhood, except mine. I'll keep that in mind next time the cops show up at his house, which they do several times a year. I'm guessing it's a domestic situation, but oddly they don't discuss it with the neighbors. Next time, I'll be the first one down there when the cops show up and will tell them that I saw him stealing the neighbors mail. Snow blower has a whole different meaning in federal prison.

Ice Storm

For those of you that don't live in Iowa, you are missing out on all of the fun. Today we are in the middle of a nasty ice storm. I'm not sure how thick it is, but everything is coated. Here is a picture of our flag, covered in ice. Not sure if you can see it or not.

I'll be out with the boys later and will try to get some other shots. Right now, the ice has slowed down and the snow is falling. The boys are excited to sled on our huge 5 foot hill.

If you have a 2 year old, or have had one, this isn't news to you, but we now have zero ornaments on the lower 1/2 of our Christmas tree. I know some of them have been relocated to the upper 1/2 of the tree, which now is very top heavy and I'm sure illegal in several states, but I fear that most are just plain missing. I'm guessing we will find the stash sometime in June and I will have to get the Christmas boxes back down from the attic so we can put them away.



I will be purchasing my own present on Tuesday, but I'm not that thrilled about it. The car I drive back and forth to work, is done. We are buying a new Ford Focus. Why new you might ask? I'm not convinced that buying new is the best plan, maybe it would be smarter to buy a used car, but I'm so tired of dealing with repair shops, not trusting what they are telling me, and as soon as I get it home something else breaks. That is recent history with, what we affectionately call, the red car. We don't have a fancy name, like ocho, but red car has worked well for us. Once the boys learned their colors, we could tell them which car to get in using just the color and they would get it correct 50% of the time. I can say it all I want, they only listen when they want. We had a really bad experience with a local dealership regarding some warranty work on both of our cars. Now, I don't want to name names (Stew Hansen's Dodge of 12103 Hickman, Des Moines Iowa 50323), but lets just say the initials are SH. We had an issue with our blue car, from the day we bought it, that they tried to fix on several occasions. It only happened when it was cold, so I only complained in the winter, which helped make the issue with SH worse later. It was the power slider door on our mini van. It wouldn't work when it was cold, so when I was in for something, I'd have them look at it. They would "fix" it and it worked thru the summer and then it wouldn't work again. I'd take it in the next winter, some thing, they would "fix" it and then it would quit working the next winter. I took it in to have an oil change awhile back and told them it wasn't working again. Of course, the warranty is over, so now they tell me the motor needs to be replaced, $800. I explained to the guy the history I just spelled out above, but he wasn't impressed. He told me to call the service manager, which Marcy did while I was in Houston. Then, I called them about the red car, which we just had in but was making a new noise. They looked at it and of course it now had a new repair it needed that would put the total amount fixed higher than the value of the car, so we opted not to fix the new sound. Marcy called the service manager and they must have had quite the conversation, because he called me next and said they would fix the van door for free. He new he had lost a customer, but he tried. I did take the van in for them to "fix" the van door, so I'll let you know next winter if it took. Too bad for them. Since we had to buy a new car, we probably would have bought a new Caravan, but I don't trust them at all. I had the same thing happen with the red car, drivers side windshield washer fluid, and my boss said he had the same thing happen to him at this place. I'm glad to be done with them, now we'll see if this new place has a clue in regards to service. The car is pretty cool, as cool as a small box on wheels can be, but the features it has should be fun. I'll take a picture on Tuesday and post it. So as to not confuse the kids, we are getting another red car. I'm not sure we can fit all three kids and their car seats in this thing, but it has a decent sized truck, so it will do.

Well I'm glad to see that I have zero votes for the more than 4 watches. I don't have any crazies reading my blog. Congrats!

We went back to the Iowa Energy game again last night, and it was another good one. I took a little better picture of Surge, but I think he's growing on me. I wasn't nearly as amused/terrified of him this time.

I did notice something that I hadn't on my previous trips and that relates to the water faucets in the men's room. I went to wash my hands and instead of the now common "wave your hand under the faucet until it decides to come on" kind, these were the "push up the handle and watch it drop back down before you can even get your hands wet" kind. I thought I would be smart and hold up the handle with one hand and then wave my free hand under the water. Smart huh? Now add soap on those hands and tell me how and the hell you are going to get soap off of your hand without rubbing it against the other hand? I'm not saying it can't be done, but just how much time are you willing to stand there? This ain't a 5 second move, this takes dedication. So you think, "I'll just use a towel to wipe off the soap I didn't get off with the water." Think again, hand dryers. You think one of those dryers are going to dry soap? Luckily, I figured out after I lifted the faucet handle 4 or 5 times and it was dropping faster than my eyelids while watching a chick flick, that speed wasn't the issue. I watched some poor sap a few sinks down make the classic mistake of putting soap on his hands before he tested the water, thus eliminating the warning signs that this is going to be difficult. I watched him lift the lever and quickly drop his soapy hands under the faucet only to be teased with 2 drops, since the main flow had stopped .00000005 seconds after he released the lever. I thought an option might be to use another body part to hold the faucet up while you rubbed your hands under, but your options, in public, are limited. I narrowed it down to head, foot, knee or tongue. Lets identify the problem with each:

Head: Very difficult to get your head, especially if you have a melon head, down there to hold up the tiny faucet lever. Don't get me wrong, I think I could have done it, but I'm not sure I want that picture on someones phone. I know if I saw it, so would you on this blog. Plus, the risk of drowning jumps significantly once you put all breathing ports that close to running water and drowning in a public bathroom looks like crap in the obituary.

Foot: Probably the most reasonable choice, but I was thinking about balance. I don't drink at the games, so I was solid there, but still. I figured I would rather have my pee on my hands than every one's pee on my entire body. Personal choice. Let me also be clear that I hadn't pee'd on my hands, so I'm not sure why I was washing my hands in the first place. Peer pressure I guess.

Knee: I don't think I bend that way anymore. Plus, still have the balance issue, so, ruled out. Plus, odds of getting a wet spot in a place that would be difficult to explain, jumps 100%.

Tongue: I don't think we need to go there.

So you can see that I quickly rationalized my quick splash on each hand. I thought, just briefly, about helping this poor guy by holding his lever up, but even as I write this it sounds really gay, so I dismissed that as well. Plus, I was all ready laughing at the situation and if I went down to help him, he most certainly would have known that I was laughing at him, there by making him uncomfortable and me feel a little guilty. I left, giggling .

Car go fast

I know this is a crappy picture, but I took it from a moving car. (Please don't give my insurance agent this blog address) I saw this car, and as you can guess by the airplane wing they have added to it, they zoomed passed me. He got caught in traffic and with a little weaving in and out of cars, I was able to get close enough to take the second worst picture of my life. I hope it is clear enough for you to see this thing because it's the funniest thing. On top of the wing being huge, it was a bright white on a red car so it stood out that much more. Plus, the car was cheap, a Ford Tempo or something. (note the missing hubcap on the front wheel) It kills me when someone buys a car worth $50 and sinks thousands of dollars in wheels, radios that vibrate my car as they pass, and now wings. I'd say "kids," but this wasn't a kid driving this airplane prototype. Trust me, I'll be watching for this thing to be parked somewhere and will get a non moving picture if I can.

WOW, Scary

I found this article on the web. Makes you thankful you live in the good ol USA and have the freedom to name your teddy bear anything you want.

Sudan charges British teacher with inciting hatred after students name teddy bear 'Muhammad'

Associated Press - November 28, 2007 11:43 AM ET
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - Sudan has charged a British teacher with inciting religious hatred after she allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad.
Gillian Gibbons was arrested Sunday after the parents of 1 of her pupils complained, accusing her of naming the bear after Islam's prophet.
In London, the British government says Foreign Secretary David Miliband has summoned the Sudanese ambassador to discuss the charge.
Sudan's official news agency says Gibbons' case will be referred to a court tomorrow. If convicted, she could face up to 40 lashes and six months in prison. A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office confirmed the charge.

Skymall

So in my recent travels to Jamaica and Houston, I've had the privilege of leafing through the Skymall catalog. I'm sure you've seen these in the seat pockets, a potpourri of products that you either don't need or are way to expensive to actually purchase. A few of these have caught my eye for different reasons. I took pictures of them out of the magazine, but I think you can see them enough to get my point.
Picture #1.
Where do I start with this one? I think the nickname for this is the Boston strangler. Is that comfortable? I know what it is intended to do, but would you buy it after seeing this picture? I think they needed to find a model with a long neck so the pillow doesn't look like a torture device. Lets move on.
Picture #2.
Are you kidding me? These straps are so good that they can make, what I can only guess is a 500# dresser, weigh virtually nothing. They aren't even holding the straps with their hands, they are sitting on their forearms. Ladies, no offense, but do these 2 women look like they can hold this big thing up that high with anything other than an elevator? I worked for a moving company and moved a few of these in my day and I'm telling you this is photo shopped or something. Unless this thing is made of cardboard, this ain't happening.
Picture #3.
Who in the hell has enough watches to necessitate this thing? I have one watch and I'm guessing I'm closer to the norm (in this case only) than people that have 50 watches. Some women might have several, but this thing looks like it would hold 16 watches. If I'm wrong, call me out. Then, since you have enough disposable income that you can buy a watch for every month of the year, plus an extra one for Christmas, Anniversary, Birthday and Presidents day (I ran out of even reasonable days), drop one watch from your inventory and send it to a watch poor person to get them off the, cruel, one watch column. You'll feel better and that person will be able to hold their head high knowing they are on their way to needing this thing.

Side note, is this girl Shannon Daugherty from Beverly Hills 90120? How far we have fallen:(

Iowa Energy

So Iowa has a new basketball team, the Iowa Energy, that is basically a farm team for the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat. This is their first year and last night was their home opener. I bought 2 season tickets along with my little bro Brian who has 2 seats as well. Last night, Brian and I plus his son Addison and my friend Joe went to the game. Let me tell you that it was one of the best games I have ever seen live. We were down by 10 with 3 minutes to go and came back to win in the last 20 seconds, awesome. We bought the cheapest seats they offered, so I wasn't expecting very good seats. I was pleasantly surprised that when we got there, they are pretty good seats for being behind the basket. We are close to where we come in and the bathrooms and concession area is close as well. The arena is huge and not very full, so we will be able to move around if we want. There was one thing that bothered me, and his name is Surge. Here is a pretty bad picture of him:

You can't really tell from this photo, but lets just say he is disturbing. He is like a car wreck, I couldn't look away. Can you see that, thing, hanging from his neck? I'm not sure why they gave him a turkey neck, but they did. Maybe it's a Thanksgiving thing. I'll try to get a better picture so you can have nightmares as well. We had an interesting experience trying to get out of the parking ramp. I'm sure you have heard over the years that machines are taking the jobs that people previously held. Let me tell you a story on how that isn't happening in a parking garage in Des Moines Iowa. We got back to the car pretty quickly and got in line to get out. There was probably 8 cars in front of us and a second line feeding in, so say 16 cars ahead of us. I can see the exit and we just aren't moving that fast. I look a little closer and see a sign that says "Automated Pay Line." I can see the machine that you are supposed to put your ticket in and then I'm guessing you put money in it as well, but I can't see the details yet. The interesting thing is, there are 2 guys standing at the machine, one in front and one in back. Five minutes later when we have moved one car closer, I see the guy in front is taking the tickets from the driver and then putting it in the machine that is one foot from the driver. Then, he is taking the money from the driver and putting it in a slot in the machine that is one foot 2 inches from the driver. Does this driver not have any arms? No, he is driving so he must have arms. Perhaps he is challenged in some way? He must have a license and he has gotten to this point with no issues, so I toss that theory as well. Ten minutes later we have moved another car length closer and I see the guy at the machine is doing this for everyone. Apparently "Automated" means confusing to all, except Bill in his Parking Garage coat. After another 10 minutes or so, we make it to the machine and I'm so excited to see if the writing is in Spanish or Chinese, explaining the hold up and the need for Bill. I was slightly saddened to see everything is in English and quite easy to figure out, but I gave him my ticket and money and he in turn handed me my change that the machine spit out. This whole time, guy number two has been standing behind the machine, watching. So you see, this machine hasn't eliminated a job, so lets think twice before we talk badly about technology. It is obviously to confusing for us regulars to figure out, so we have Bill. Thanks Bill!

FUNNY

I found this the other night and it made me laugh. Thought I would share it.

http://www.break.com/index/japanese-binocular-soccer.html

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We had our first snow here in Iowa on Wed., 3 inches, and it was good to see that most people haven't gotten any smarter over the summer. There were several accidents and people going 20 mph over the speed limit, even with cars in the ditch and one SUV on its side. I say this and will probably end up in the ditch next and will have to eat crow. Marcy did the black Friday thing again this year, yes, she is nuts. The mall here opened at 12:01am, but that would be insane to go that early, so she went at 1:00am, much more sane. I guess that is the difference between insane and sane, 59 minutes. The paper said there were a lot of people there and Marcy said the line at Kohls was huge, as usual. I think most of our Christmas buying is done, but I'm sure we have missed someone and will be out again. I'm still working on Marcy, and have my usual problem I have no idea what to get her. I've given up on clothes, we don't have the same taste. I've given up on jewelry, she doesn't wear much. I swore I would never give her anything that plugged in, unless specifically requested. That leaves food, she is picky, or a magazine subscription, don't think that will fly.

Our friend Michelle is back in the USA, welcome home Michelle. We are glad you are home and the boys can't wait to see you. The insulation is all most all up and then it is drywall time, your room is coming along.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all have or had a Happy Thanksgiving. Here is a little gift God gave us this last summer. Now that I know how to get pictures off my phone, I thought I'd share it.

Love,

Mark

Disc Golf day

The whole family went Disc golfing today, so here are a few shots. Max hit me in the nuts and in the knee, my 2 most sensetive areas, so he now has a black eye. Don't mess with daddy, he hits back:)

All done

So here is a picture of the birds I talked about. There aren't as many as the first day, so imagine every inch of these wires and the big circle, covered in these birds.I also wanted to mention the desert that John and I had at a restaurant called Cafe Lux, which has the same owners as Cheesecake Factory for those of you who have heard of that. It's called the Molten Chocolate Cake and you can see what it looks like on this page: http://grandluxcafe.com/menu.htm

When you cut into that cupcake looking thing it just pours out melted chocolate. Not very tasty as you can imagine, I mean who likes rich chocolate cake with hot melted chocolate pouring out of it? Besides me? You order your desert before your meal and they bake it while your eating. Brilliant! You see this thing when you're hungry so you order it and then you eat way too much food so when the desert comes, you need to vomit to make room. You've all ready committed to it so you might as well figure out a way to get it down your gullet. John and I were both close to pulling a reversal on the walk back to the hotel. (If you don't know what a reversal is, that is a sports term from competitive eating (No shit) meaning to throw up. In competitive eating you would then have to eat that as well, but I'm not an athlete, so I would just leave that lay.)

We met our customer service people at a couple of our warehouses on Thursday, stopped in to say hi and took a couple out for lunch. I hope that meeting them will help us in the future get what we need from them. We also got a few better pictures of the bridge we crossed over into Baytown, where the Seapac warehouse is. Pretty cool. I wish I could show you via a picture how many oil fields there are in the Houston area, but it's impossible. Here is a picture of some of the structures, but I don't know what these are for. There are tanks everywhere, of course. We heard the the greater Houston area is actually bigger that the state of Delaware. I'm guessing the state of Rhode Island would be the size of just parking in Houston. I know we will be back in Houston since we have a bunch of warehouses and millions of pounds there, so I look forward to going back.

More from Houston

We had a great night out with John and Andrea. They are really nice and both have a good sense of humor. We ate at a steak house that you pick out your own meat and they cook it for you. I had my favorite steak, a New York Strip, and it was awesome. John drove us there and the car was equipped with a GPS system that was a tad bit lacking. It kept getting lost, tried to get us to down a one way street the wrong way, made us pull over on the interstate so it could reconfigure and had us do several U-turns. We all determined that we could have done all of this on our own, without a GPS system. If you ever rent Avis, think twice before you get the GPS. John and I headed out to Seapac in hopes of getting there around 9am, giving us a chance to miss the traffic and them a chance to get ready for us. We were told it was a 45 minute drive, which it is if you don’t do several U-turns. We didn’t even have a GPS system and we still got lost. It took us an hour or so, but when we went to lunch, we learned a back way out that saved us time on the way home. We finally got to the warehouse and set up in the conference room in a building that the air conditioning was broken. The last time a count was done here, I was told it was a mess. I’m happy to say that it went very well this time. We did our counts and were finished about 2pm and headed back to the hotel to put the info into the computer and finished up at 11pm. It looked pretty scary, but once we got back to Seapac on Wed., it all worked out pretty well. I have included some pictures of one of the 4 warehouses they have, and I will tell you that all 4 of them are huge. We used a golf cart to get around on Wed. and got lost in one of the warehouses. I know it seems like that would be impossible, but I assure you we hadn’t been drinking. This place is just that big. You can see all of the bags in this picture and there are thousands of them. Here are some pictures of some machines that they use to pack plastic out of railcars into cartons and bags. They are pretty dark, since it was almost 5pm when we took them and the sunlight was low. It was really cool to see how these works. All in all, this was a great trip. We will now have a good inventory record and we got to meet the people we deal with on the phone and via email.A couple of things about Houston. I had never been here before, but this place is crazy. It reminds me as to why I don’t live in a big city anymore. Most of the roads we drove on are 6 to 8 lanes wide and busy. The cars are doing about 65 to 70 mph and a bunch are weaving in and out of traffic. There are roads everywhere. The roads split, then split again, then again. If you don’t watch the signs close, your ass is in Mexico before you know it. There was one thing that pissed me off. We were on our way back from Seapac when we saw rain coming down up ahead. As soon as we got to the rain, the car in front of me slammed on their brakes. Now I’m going 65 mph and this guys stomps his brake with all he has. Was there a car in front of him you might ask, or perhaps a lost baby that had wandered out onto the highway. No, it was moist concrete that has frightened this brave Texan. I couldn’t believe it, then he proceeded to go 40 mph while still pushing his brake. I couldn’t get around him because all of the other lanes were doing 60 mph and it’s really hard to get from 35 mph to 65 mph before you get a Dodge up your ass. I did want to show you what my maid did to my toiletries on the counter of my room. I promise you I didn’t leave them like this, but this is how they are every night when I get back. I thought I was anal, this is crazy. I think I love her. Or him, I’ve never seen them so I’m not sure who I love on this one. They do keep putting the damn room service menu on my bed that I move everytime I get back. I think I will throw it away and see if they get the hint or just replace it. I think John is stealing all of the soap, shampoo and coffee in his room, so they might not miss a room service menu.

Day one done

The first day of counting is done. The warehouse is huge, here are a few pictures.

Here are a few of the silos out back and a new one on a flatbed trailer. We didn’t have much trouble, until we got to the back corner of the warehouse. There were these bags that we were having a hard time getting an accurate count on. I stuck my hand down the side, when I pulled it out it was covered in the white power that was in the bags, and all over them as well. I didn’t think much of it, but still wasn’t sure of the count. I had John check the count, and even though he didn’t stick his hand down the side like I did, he was covered in the white powder as well. No big deal, we were dirty anyway, right? So the forklift driver comes by to move a few things and he says, “Those bags have arsenic in them.” I chuckled since he must be messing with us. He drove off only to return a little while later and said, “You might want to wash that off.” Now, he is either really holding on to this joke, or I'm up shits creek, sans paddle. He takes us over to the bags and this is what we see. Not very damn funny anymore. What in the hell is arsenic doing in a plastic powder? This I don’t know, but I can tell you where the closest bathroom is located from the arsenic. Even after 2 washings, I still feel the cancer now growing in my body. Please us this picture in the lawsuit. We got a tour of the testing lab and that was pretty interesting. Lots of equipment and a lot of words I didn’t understand, but very interesting. Now we are getting ready for a dinner with John Strobel and Andrea Cronin from our home office in CT who are down here counting. Tomorrow is the big day at Seapac, the real reason John and I are in Houston. Keep your fingers crossed that, 1. We find Seapac. 2. That we are welcomed and not dragged to the back of the warehouse and beaten to a pulp(Did I mention that they aren’t that happy with me since I questioned their ability to do, about anything?) 3. That the counts are “close.” And 4. That we are able to get back to the hotel.

Monday

So we board the plane in Des Moines, and I hear something I’ve never heard before. Over the intercom, they say something about lap children. I know what that is, I’ve just never heard anyone use that term. The flights were good, about a 45 minute layover in Dallas and a quick flight to Houston. We picked up the rental car, which is a Mitsubishi SUV, but I don’t remember what kind. It only had 69 miles on it when we got in, so it still has that new car smell. We only made one mis-step getting to the hotel, but we figured out the directions and made it from the airport in about 45 minutes. We checked in and made it to our rooms on the 9th floor. OH MY, this is living. I’ve added some pictures, but I promise you it doesn’t do it justice. We have a pretty nice view and the rooms are pretty plush. We crossed the street to eat at The Fox Sports Grill. There were a lot of TV’s showing a bunch of football games. After about 2 seconds, I remembered that we were in Texas, a huge football state and I was now surrounded by the enemy. I’m a Redskin fan and I’m in Cowboy territory. The Cowboys were on TV and the crowd was pretty loud. I’m glad they weren’t playing the Redskins this week or I might have had to start something. Yeah, right. We made it back to our room in time for Amazing Race, priorities you know. Now it’s relaxing time until our 6:45 breakfast and off to count 18 million pounds of plastic. I’m not sure how often I will post, so there may be 2 posts at a time when I do. Nothing real exciting happened today, in fact, it went much smoother than I figured it would. We’ll see if we can get to Baytown with as much ease. Well, I off to bed to watch the rest of this semi-porn music video on an HD channel that I found. I think it is Pink, if you know your pop stars, which I don’t, but I think I’ve seen her before. Did I mention that we have HD TV’s in our rooms? I don’t even have one at home yet, so I’m in luxury right now. We did have an issue trying to get back to the hotel from dinner. The restaurant is across the street, but the street is like 9 lanes wide, so you have to wait for the lights. We got over ok, but coming back, we couldn’t get the lights to change, so we just dodged cars so we could get across. We watched someone else push the crosswalk button and it worked for them, so maybe John doesn’t know how to push buttons correctly. I’ll have to keep an eye on that. When we went to dinner, there were these wires that held this big circle with street names on it, I can’t really describe it since I’ve never seen anything like it. Anyway, the thing was covered with birds, I mean hundreds of them. I had a flash back to The Birds movie and was slightly frightened. They even sounded like the birds in the movie and they just kept flying in. I’ll take my camera next time we cross over and take a picture of the circle and maybe the birds will be there again. I heard them dropping gifts as we walked under, not the best thing to hear before dinner.

K-Mart

So I'm getting ready for my trip to Houston on Sunday, and I needed to pick up a few things. I went to the K-Mart by my office, which is probably the highest concentration of white trash in the state. I know that isn't politically correct to say, so maybe I should put like this. They are looks, money, soap and teeth challenged. Anyhoo, I watched a 350 pound guy pull up to the front of the store and park right under the no parking sign and walk in. The funny thing is, he had a handicapped license plate, so he could have parked legally just 6 feet away. As I go into the store, he is right in front of me, leaning on his cart as he pushed it. I shit you not, 2 inches of his ass crack were clearly visible along with another 3 inches of what used to be white BVD's. I grabbed my phone so I could take a picture, because I didn't want all of my family and friends to miss out, and just as I was about to snap the picture, Bob's Big Boy pulled them up. Sorry. I walked around the store awhile and I saw him again, this time only a small crack was showing, hardly worth the awkward feeling I got trying to shimmy up to the man's crack earlier. I now know how to send pictures to my computer from my phone, so be prepared for uncomfortable pictures in the future. I did find an interesting product on the shelf that I'm not sure what you do with. Here it is.

Can anyone tell me what this is used for? If you can't read it, it says "Head Lube" then the more scary line is "Glossy." I now see it says "Moisture" and then maybe lotion, but I'm not sure. I would have spent more time looking at it, but I'm uncomfortable looking at anything with "Lube" in the name and ass man walked by and I didn't want to miss the show.

Wish me luck in Houston. My intention is to post while there, but the Internet connection at the hotel isn't free, so I will have to see what it costs.

Let me tell you what a dumbass I am. I know, you all ready know this, but here is proof, just in case you doubted it.



We have had trouble in our house with drains smelling. I searched on the Internet and the consensus was, it has hair or other crap, stuck in the drain and, for lack of a better word, rotting. If you have seen me lately, you know that if it's hair, it ain't me. Regardless of what exactly is causing the problem, the suggested remedy is bleach and hot water. It has worked in our shower drain and once in the laundry room washing machine drain. Well, the smell was back in the laundry room this weekend, in fact, it about made me gag, so I set out to clean the drain on Sunday. The spot you have to pour the bleach and water is set back into the wall and very hard to get to, so I use a funnel, that is actually to short and small to use without getting water every where. I looked at 2 home improvement places this weekend with no luck of finding a larger funnel. I got it all done and started the washing machine to see if the smell was gone. Tip for you, when you remove a drain tube, you need to replace it before you start using the equipment. I skipped this important step, so I returned in time to see a tidal wave wash across the laundry room, kitchen and eating area. My first reaction was to cuss, which I now know only allowed the water to get that much further across the lower level of my house. I ran to the laundry room to find the source when a light bulb went off and I replaced the drain hose back into the hole in which it belonged. I was a little late seeing as how there was no longer water spewing out of the hose since that cycle was done. I turned around in time to see water start to pour into the air vents conveniently located on the floor. Luckily, we had a stack of old towels, so I tossed one on the vent in the laundry room and ran to the other vents to plug those up as well. I was at a loss as to what to do now. I don't own a wet/dry vac, so towels were my only option. I figured it was too late to put a for sale sign in the front yard a call it a day. I could say it had an indoor pool, all be it not very deep, it was still deeper than anyone else's in the neighborhood. I threw towels around and ran upstairs to grab a bunch more. I threw those around and started to sop up the water, wring out the towels and re-sop. My arms were exhausted and I kept finding water in places I didn't know it got to. After I had the pond contained, I decided that I needed to check on the basement to see if I had a pool on two floors. I'm guessing there aren't too many houses with two indoor pools, maybe I should have sold it. I have been working in my basement to finish it, so luckily I had removed just about everything that was down there. There was quite a bit of water, but since there is a drain, the major pools were gone. After about an hour, I had it cleaned up, other than a small seepage from under the dishwasher that I'm sure will cost me a mint to fix at some point when I think it's all clear. That was my excitement, jealous?



Update on the basement. There are now lights and cable. I will be pulling the wires for the outlets this week before I head to Houston on Sunday. Our hopes are to go to the Houston Rockets vs Los Angeles Lakers basketball game while we're there, so we will see. I'd also like to play a little disc golf, but that might be a stretch. Take a look at the hole on the front page of this website. http://www.hfds.org/index.html I want to play this one.

This is my second post, so be sure to look at the photos below. The whole fam went to Mt. Pleasant a few weeks back and Marcy spotted this sign when we stopped for gas.

I don't know about you, but I'm not eating anyplace with colon in the name, whether it be a village or a whole damn town. Ass does not equal quality food to me. Hooters, OK, colon, no thanks.

I thought I would post some trick or treat photos and a recent one of Max, since I haven't in awhile. Here you go:

A friend sent this to me, thought I would share. You may have seen it, but its worth a second read.


The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.Are you laughing?Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it ... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards.Honestly and respectfully,Ben Stein

Update

I haven't written in awhile, just too damn lazy, but I thought I would update on the family a little.

Mason: Doing great in school and actually seems to be branching out a little. Mason is pretty much a keep to himself kind of kid, but I had a conversation with him last night and he seems to be getting bolder and more open. I think his mother sending him to just about every extra class the WDM school system offers, is a big reason why. He loves the classes and is really learning. He had a science class that ended yesterday. I asked him what his favorite part of the class was, he said his favorite part was learning about the next class that starts in Jan. Living in the future. He is also in a sign language class and I'm amazed at how much info he retains from the class. I only know 1 sign language phrase, but I can't show it to him or I'll get yelled at. I was looking through the WDM section of our paper and saw a picture of Mason in his science class. It's always a little surprising when you see someone you know in the paper, but to see your own kid for the third time is really surprising. I'll try to take a picture of the paper and post it, but it might not come out very well.

Makiah: He really loves school and is learning his sight words faster than Mason did. I think it helped to work with the flash cards with Mason in view of Makiah, because he all ready knows some that he hasn't worked on in school. Their minds are so open to learning, I wish mine still was. Makiah has had strep several times this year, so I think the tonsils will be removed if he gets it again. The little guy goes from being the sweetest kid, hugs and I love you galore, to me wanting to smash him into the freezer for rest of the week. I know Mom and Dad are laughing their asses off, but it aint funny.

Max: This is our climbing monkey. He went to school with Marcy last week to have lunch with the boys and fell off his chair and split his lip in 2 places, and got the Shrum bloody nose. (Mason gets bloody noses all of the time) He got caught on the kitchen counter with the candy cabinet open this morning. This last weekend, he was climbing on a storage tub and jumping off. It's only about 18 inches high, but he seems to have no fear of getting hurt. If he does and starts crying, I just ask him if he wants to go to bed, he says no and stops crying. Not sure how much longer that will work, but I'm using it until its dead.

Marcy: Marcy is still working at our church and seems to be enjoying it. The money isn't as good as the good ole days of a full in-home daycare, but she is happier and that is worth a fortune right there. She is on a painting and redecorating kick right now, so the house has a little more color than it did just one week ago.

Me: Same ole shit. I am going to Houston in Nov. to do a physical count of a warehouse we have there, that I'm looking forward to and I'm not. I like to travel, but this warehouse is so messed up that I think I'll be more frustrated while I'm there than I am now. I told my rep I was going to be there and she was fine with it, but her boss is none to happy about my visit. Probably because they don't know where our stuff is and don't want me to see that. Trust me, I all ready know. I bought a new dishwasher and it will be delivered on Friday. Sad state of my life, that is the most exciting news I have, a new freaking dishwasher. Long gone are the days of all night parties, lots of girls and crazy fun. (Wait, I never had any of that) I got my "contribution" report from church the other day and realized I have spent $800 dollars on mission trips so far this year, with a $150 deposit now due on my next one. I never totaled it before, but seeing that, makes me think I need a second job to support my habit:)

Well I need to get back to work. I hope you are all doing well. I've got more rants, so I'll post again soon.

Back home

I wanted to let everyone know, that we made it home and are back to work and settling back into the routine. Friday, Sept. 21st, was our last day to work and I spent the morning at Church Rock working on the roof of the parsonage replacing shingles. Luckily, I spent the morning working with Roland, a Navajo from the area. We had a great talk and he told me how he had just returned to the area from a town about 1 1/2 hours north of Church Rock. He went up their after he was threatened, and nearly attacked, by 2 guys that he had fired for being worthless. Roland was a painter and these guys were assigned to his crew by his employer, but they didn't know how to do much of anything. He happened to be in Home Depot with his boss after he had fired them and they were just about to beat him when his boss pulled a gun and told them to leave him alone. He headed out of town to let things cool off, but now was back home to be with his family. I asked him if things had settled down, he said no, but he was happy to be home. I hope things work out for him, really cool guy. He invited me come out early next year and he would take me camping and fishing on the reservation. That would be cool, I'll see if that will work out for next year. I was surprised when he said fishing, since I hadn't seen even a creek since we got there, but he assured me there were lakes further back. We then proceeded to an area that has been dubbed "Kid Canyon" by one of the ladies in our group due to the number of kids that live in the area. When we got there we only saw a few kids, but there were a shitload of dogs, most in pretty bad shape. We handed out some of the toiletry packets that we had, (soap, shampoo, toothpaste, tooth brushes and some other stuff) plus some Bibles. There were a couple of dogs that were none too happy that we were there, made me a little nervous. When we left, Deke said he had something that he wanted to run by us. He said he wanted to go buy some dog food and go back to kid canyon and put down some food for these malnourished dogs. John and I agreed that that would be good, so off to Walmart. When we got there, the suggestion was to buy a bowl for food and a bowl for water. My suggestion was several bowls for food and one for water. Reason being, there were a bunch of dogs that were really hungry, I figured one bowl was a Micheal Vick fantasy of one big dog fight. I was shot down most unceremoniously. After we bought the food, we headed to Tolaki to pass out more packets and now feed a few dogs. I felt a little like a Jehovah's Witness, but without the preaching. We saw people in their yards (If you want to call a patch of dirt a yard), but when we knocked, amazingly there was know one home, must have been the time machine out back. A few answered and we gave them the packets and Bible's if they wanted them, and all did. Not sure if it was because they wanted to read it or because it was free, either way, they got it. We came to the house Frank lives in, he was the guy Chris and I worked on the church roof in Tolaki with. He had 3 big dogs and 2 puppies that we saw. We asked if we could feed them and he said sure. Deke and John put one bowl of food down for the 5 dogs and a fight broke out almost immediately. (It's so good to be right, but being the Christian that I'm trying to be, I said nothing) There was the Alpha male dog who was hogging the bowl which had enough food in it for 10 dogs, but I'm guessing by looking at them, they don't eat very often. The 2 puppies weren't getting anything, so Deke took a pile of food for them. Before we left, the Alpha male had his bowl and the other 2 big dogs had chased off the puppies for the other pile. I see it in Mexico as well, but I don't understand why you have pets if you can't afford to feed them. Seeing the reaction at Tolaki just reinforced what I knew was going to happen with all of the dogs at kid canyon, which it did. I didn't go to KC the second time, but I spoke to a few of the ladies that went up with Deke and John and they said the dogs were going at it pretty good. I was really uncomfortable with the door to door thing, if you know me you know that ain't my thing, but we were welcomed most places pretty warmly and since we weren't preaching to them, we didn't get the same looks I used to give people who came to my door to preach to me. We had Navajo Taco's for supper, which is fried bread with meat (there was hamburger, beans and something else in the "meat", might have been mutton since they seem to eat a lot of that), lettuce, onions, tomato's, cheese and then you had salsa or green chili's to choose from. I had the fresh green chili's and that was great. We got on the road home about 9:00pm or so. We drove through NM and into north Texas where we pulled over for some gas at about 1am. We found a closed gas station, but the pumps still worked and since it was the first place we had seen in a half hour, needed to fill up. I got out to pump the gas and grabbed a hold of the pump, only to realize that bright lights, plus middle of nowhere Texas, plus 1am equals a shitload of bugs. The pump was covered in bugs that I now had crawling all over my hand. I jerked my hand away and since I had to pee really bad, tried not to piss myself. I knocked the bugs off the handle, since I didn't think hundreds of bugs in the gas tank would help our fuel economy, and began the filling process. As I mentioned, I needed to pee really bad, so I set off to find a bathroom, but as I mentioned, the station was closed. Now any of you who have traveled with me or Brian know, we don't have the largest bladder capacity, so I wasn't going to be able to wait until we got out of middle of know where Texas to pee, so I went behind the building to, well, do my business. There are a few things that scared me about this option:



1. There were several, I'll guess lonely, truckers in the area that I though might find it entertaining to see a guy pissing in public. I had no interest in recreating the "squeal like a pig" scene from Deliverance, so I was concerned.

2. Did I mention there were bugs? I didn't want them on my hands, you can bet I don't want them anywhere else.

3. The last thing that caught my eye was a sign that read, "This premises has 24 hour video surveillance."

Well I went anyway, behind a dumpster, just like the good Lord had intended. We finally stopped for the night in Amarillo, TX and got a few hours sleep before we hit the road again. We stopped off at a McDonalds, we travel in style and only eat at the finest establishments, and I had a good laugh, even though John didn't see the humor at first. If you have been to a McDonalds anytime recently, and you have unless you are a vegetarian or a communist, you might have noticed that all of their drive thru windows are put in for the SUV's of this country. That makes it more fun for a car of smaller stature to give their money and receive their purchase. Lets focus on the second part of that. The Prius is small, so the bottom of the drive thru window is the top of the Prius window, so when you reach out, you reach out past the window frame and then up. This would then tell you to bring your purchase down and in. Take into account that we are driving a lot of miles and a little sleep, and you might do like John and forget the down part. He grasped my EXTRA LARGE Coke (nectar of God) and pulled it into the car, without the down, and proceeded to dump said nectar into his lap, rendering it less than desirable. My first instinct was to laugh, which I now know was incorrect (live and learn). He was less than happy at the outcome of the "in" move. I realized my error in my reaction and stifled further snickering. The kid working the drive thru appeared to be 8 years old, so in his stunned look, asked John if he wanted napkins. Seemed like a silly question to me, my response would have been "No, I'll just soak in it Madge." (How many of you oldies got that reference?), but John just said yes. The fetus handed John about 5 napkins, to soak up an extra large Coke (nectar of God) which John responded with "Keep'em comin." The kid handed him a wet towel, which didn't help John's mood. He sped off and pulled into the parking lot so he could get the ice out of his crotch. Since we were hauling all of our dirty clothes with us, he had something to change into, so as he put it, he went into the truck stop bathroom and he "got to get naked in front of a few truckers" (see my "squeal" comment from above). After about 100 miles, he thought it was funny, just in time to be pulled over by a Texas State Trooper. It seems that those signs that say "Speed Limit 70" are NOT a suggestion, but a rule. (Live and learn) The guy walked up to the car and introduced himself as a Texas State Trooper, which seemed a little redundant since we had been watching his flashing lights for a short time. He asked for John's license and said he'd be right back with a warning, which was good news. I feared a ticket my push John over the edge and we'd do a Thelma and Louise (another damn reference) The cop was back a few minutes later with a warning and gave us a piece of info that will be valuable should you drive in Texas, or at least the very tippy top of it. "The speed limit is 70 mph, we'll give you 75mph, but anything over that, we'll stop and visit with you." Good to know. The rest of the trip was good, I dropped John off in Kansas City, he was meeting up with friends to go to the Chiefs game on Sunday, and I headed home. I had a great time on this trip, but I know its the return trips that make all of the difference. You start to see the same people over and over again, they begin to know you and most importantly, trust you. That is when the real connection is made. They are used to people making a one time trip, they look for people to come back again and then they connect with the people who come back a third time. After that, its like family, which we are, one God, all brothers and sisters in Christ.

God Bless

Thursday

Today was a pretty uneventful day. We worked on the tub surround in the parsonage and I painted a little. I guess I had a little excitement with the painting. We were painting the peak of the church, and I had to climb about 2 stories up and lean over to paint. I don't like heights, so I was a little shaky. After I did one section, the other Mark on the trip volunteered to do the next section, my hero. We had borrowed the ladder from a local lumber yard called Gallup lumber, so we took it back and I had a chance to talk to the owner, Michael, for awhile. He had let us borrow this huge ladder for free and does a lot of things to help out with the mission. He is a really cool guy and later came to where we were having dinner and we gave him a plaque expressing our thanks. He said he would put it up in the front of the store, where I noticed he had several plaques from other organizations. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures from today, but I didn't think anyone would want to see pictures of me working in a bathroom and I don't have any of me on the ladder from hell. There are several things that I'm going to miss when this trip is over. The first is being referred to as a young guy. I am one of the younger people, but I think I'm older than most people think. I think my bald head and protruding stomach must scream out late 20's to early 30's. If they only knew. Another thing I will miss is the daily connection with the people I'm working with. A lot of them have shared their stories and they are amazing. To hear people's triumphs and struggles and how they have gotten through it with their faith is inspiring. I didn't share my story this year because I didn't think I had a story, but after a evening with several of the ladies on the trip, who asked for my story, I'm told I do. I owe the base of my faith to mom and Miller, since they were the ones who drug me to church as a kid. Then, when I fell away, I would say that a lot of it was do to being drug to church for all those years and for me being arrogant and thinking I could disprove the existence of God, which I did in my mind. The thing I've realized is that I was using today's world to cancel out everything I had learned as a kid. I'm from Missouri, show me. I didn't think I could be shown, so I didn't open my eyes, mind or especially my heart. I met Marcy and I wanted to impress her, so I said I would go to church with her, even though I had no intention of ever believing again. I thought I could fool everyone, I had with so many other things in my life. Well little did I know that this was all in God's plan, that this was step one in a process to bring me back into the fold. I went to church, I listened and thought, are these people serious? I had never been to a church with live music, so I right away thought, cult? I've been to a lot of church's in my day, thanks to Miller's job and friends, and I had never seen anything like this. I can't just take the word of these people, so I started to look into religion and this God thing on my own. I read a book called A Case For Christ, written by a man who was a non-believer. He talked to scientists, religious leaders, historians and all kinds of both believers and non-believers. The case was overwhelming that Christ did exist. It's written, in non religious books, just regular books, that there was a man who was called Jesus Christ and that he performed miracles. I can't tell you everything in the book, but it is a good read, especially if you don't think God is real. I know where your coming from, I was there, but look into it before you discount it. In one of the devotions given tonight, there was a quote that I don't know exactly, but it said that you are put in a place, not to move someone from 1 to 10 in their faith, but maybe from 5 to 6. I wanted to thank Marcy from moving me from a -100, to a positive number. I'm not sure where I am on the scale, but I'm climbing. For those of you who read this blog, just to see what I've done, you just got a short faith story from me. With all of the stories I've heard this week, I wanted to get that off my chest, now back to the cursing and crappy pictures:)

Wednesday

WOW! What a day. I started it off with a 6:15am hike to an old cemetery up a winding road, in the dark. There are a few places I don't like, hospitals, unless its for a baby, Walmart, ever, and cemeteries. My family had a stretch where we were together every year for a funeral. First for my mom, then my dad, then there were my grandmothers and a grandfather. These were some of the finest people I have ever known in my life. They taught me so much, were always there for me and gave birth to more of the finest people I've ever known. I know I'm biased, but I wouldn't trade my family for anything in the world. On top of me not liking cemeteries, I sure as hell don't like them in the dark. We finally arrived just as the sun was coming up, so we were able to read the headstones. They were all pretty recent, early 2000's up until just last month. One that caught our attention was of a Navajo lady, I can't pronounce or spell her name, that had lived to young age of 117 years old. Can you imagine what she saw as she went through her life? We wandered around and started finding headstones from 1920's and the 1930's. There were a lot of war veterans, from WWII, Vietnam and the current war in Iraq. The place seemed to be over run with native grasses and plants, so some of the markers were buried in plants so you couldn't see them. If I'm buried in the ground, I sure hope someone will come and at least uncover my headstone(plus drop off a fresh coke every once in awhile). We made it out to Tolaki and Chris and I started work on putting in a tub surround in the parsonage. It went well, but since we were only working half day, we were only able to replace the drywall and put up one section of the surround. I really have no idea what I'm doing, but Chris has a clue, so I do what I'm told. I feel like we are working pretty well together, I hope he feels the same. We came back to Rehoboth and had lunch with some of the Navajos and then headed out to Red Rock state park for a hike. This place in incredible. Here are some pictures, but you know the scoop, can't do the place justice. The first picture shows John checking out the map to see how far and which way to go. The rock behind him is common to what we saw throughout the hike. The second is more along the way. The third is of our destination. It's called church rock because it looks like church steeples. I don't see it, but hey, they didn't ask me. As you may remember, church rock church is one of the places we are working, this is where it got its name. The hike was really cool, lots of ups and downs and a total elevation change of 700 feet. I'm in terrible shape, but I actually surprised myself and did pretty good. There was one time when I was pretty winded, but we took a rest and I was ready to go. Thankfully we had water so I didn't pass out from dehydration. Don't worry Marcy, I put on lots of sunscreen so I wouldn't burn. If I hadn't, I would be a crispy critter right now. I'll include several more pictures at the bottom, but look at the one with the goats. These crazy bastards were walking on the smooth rock face and stood right on the edge. There wasn't anything to eat around there, so I don't know what there were doing there, but they are goats, who are you going to complain to? We made it to the base, or as close as we could and made it back safely. We finished the day with a little shopping, a great dinner and a church service at a local church that one of the ladies that has been working with us at Tolaki had invited us to. I'm going to save that story for another time because I am really tired and want to go to sleep. I'll write more Thursday.










Crazyass goats.

Is it Tuesday?

Man, my days are all mixed up. Today started with a 6:30am hike with John up a hill, in the dark. There was just enough light to make you feel you wouldn't step in a well, but an ankle twister wasn't out of the question. I'm happy to report that there were no accidents, but I thought we might have to fight off a dog/wolf at one point. We saw him running down a path between us and the interstate, so the lights from there were just enough to see him, but not enough to tell if he might come after us. At the last second before I screamed like a girl, we saw its owner, so he was changed from the dog/wolf category to just the dog category. It was kind of pretty up there, but the area reminds me a lot of El Paso, brown and dusty. The mountains are pretty cool, but after that, kind of plain. It's great to be able to visit places like this, but it makes me appreciate the beauty of Iowa, yes Iowa. The work day consisted of Chris and I climbing back on the roof of the church to finish the shingle job. Here is a picture of Chris tying our safety line to the steeple. Chris says this is us putting our lives in God's hands. The picture doesn't do the slope justice, it is really steep. You can't set your tools down, because they will be on someones head below, so you have to keep them in your belt, tied to the rope or go back and forth to the flatter roof of another section of the church. Mitzi, Chris's wife, took a picture of us both holding our ropes, so when I get that I'll post that as well. You can see the dark spots on the roof and that was what we were replacing. The wind was blowing again today, but nothing like yesterday. There was a section on the back side of the roof that was pretty big that we had to replace, but all worked out well and we were able to move onto the parsonage and the garage. The slope there was much flatter on those, so our ankles were saved. I told you about our improvised ladder, so here it is. I think it was a roof rack from a van, but I could be wrong. We got back, had supper and then our devotions. The devotions are one of my most favorite things we do. You really get to know people, here about their faith and draw you closer to both them and God. We have had 5 different people tell their stories, 4 of them had me in tears and one was just plain powerful. These are good people that I can learn a lot from. The 2 that spoke today talked about the deaths of people that were close to them and how it affected them. It brought back a lot of memories of mom and dad and the last days we spent with them. Not going to write about that now, but someday I might. John, Mitzi and I went out for a little shopping after that and had some good conversations about our experiences. Mitzi and I are working together at Tolaki, but John is at Church Rock, so it's good to hear how it's going over there. That's my day, but I saw something yesterday that I forgot to mention. You see a lot of people hitchhiking around here, sticking their thumb out, as you would expect, but Chris and I saw a guy yesterday that was using a tactic I have never seen before. Instead of sticking out his thumb, he was sticking out money. Maybe this is common, but I have never seen it. We didn't pick him up and another mile down the road there was another guy with just his thumb. I wanted to tell him he better stick out some cash or get on the other side of the guy with the cash, because if I pass on the cash guy, thumb guy is screwed. Tomorrow is our half day, but I'm not sure what we are going to do. I'll let you know tomorrow. Goodnight.