My evening

I seem to have strange things happen to me on a regular basis. My evening didn't start off that way, but it ended in weirdville. I was able to locate a missing pair of shoes, Max's only pair that fits. They are fire engine shoes that light up when he walks. Cool shoes, but believe it or not, a three year old can't seem to remember where he took them off. Turns out, they were outside by the sand box. Problem is, Marcy said she looked there a few days earlier and didn't see them. One of two things happened here, one, she is blind as a bat to not see FIRE ENGINE RED shoes in my lush green grass. OK, grass has past lush by about negative one week of rain, cause I don't water, but seriously, red on green? The other option is that she never looked in the first place, pulling a Makiah on me. Makiah tells me all of the time that he can't find something, when I know damn well that he never looked for it because I stepped on it 4 times in the last 5 minutes and its right in front of him. Either way, I saved us the $20 to replace, or whatever they cost us. You could chalk up Marcy not seeing the shoes as a one time thing, if I didn't find a missing $20 bill not 1/2 hour later, in the van, where she said she looked for it. I swear I think she is messing with me. You might say, "Two things is not a full out problem." OK, lets flash back to Sunday when I found a "missing" coupon that she looked for, and I found in a pile of her stuff. I love you baby, but you might want to have those contacts kicked up a notch.

None of that is the weird thing. I was at a board meeting for the radio station I love, Pulse 99.5 here in Des Moines. The meetings are held at the station, which is located in a church off the beaten path, about 2 miles out in the country. When the meeting was over, I was walking out with a couple of board members and found a gentleman sitting on his bicycle in the parking lot of the church. We were discussing my trip to Africa, when I mentioned that the food we ate was "Americanized" which caused this guy to ask me what was Americanized? I told him my food, which sent him into a bit of a monologue. He said that "America isn't even Americanized." I'm not sure what that meant and wanted to walk away, but I didn't want to be rude and I wasn't going to leave my friend Mitzi anywhere near this guy. He continued the rant, but added a bit more venom to it. He went on about Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi and how they were ruining the country. I happen to know alot of people that feel that same way, so this wasn't new to me, not a big deal. Then he said they stole my children, which is bit concerning right now since I got home and my wife and kids aren't here. I'm guessing they are ok, the van is gone and no burglar would get into that rolling dumpster, so kidnapping is out of the question. Plus, why would somebody take my three boys? I'm guessing they'd bring them home after the first 1000 questions they rattled off before they even got off our street. Inquisitive little buggers. The guy continued on about how our schools are teaching homosexuality and some other stuff that all rambled on for a minute or so. His last complete sentence was this, "The church should be doing something about this country, if that is who you say you are." To him, I hadn't said a thing, let alone claimed to be the church. But the more I thought about it, I AM THE CHURCH. And so are you, WE are the church. Are we doing something about "it?" I don't know, not sure I know what "it" is. I try to do my part to change the bit of life I'm in, doing what I think God is asking me. I'm not sure if I'm getting it all right, but that is the amazing thing about God, he doesn't ask me to be perfect, only to strive. I don't buy into this guys view of America, I love my country and I'm proud of it. Are we perfect, hardly. We mess up all of the time and sometimes on a major scale, but when there is a disaster in the world, America is the first to step up, without fail, even to our enemies. Do you think that is founded on a capitalist principle, which America is accused of? Nope, that is a Biblical principle, a Bible that this country was founded on and the model for my life, and hopefully yours. I had my days of me first, really didn't get me anywhere, but since my life changed to God first, a whole new world has opened to me. Sorry to ramble on, but that wacko on a bike got my brain a turning. I would have loved to have chased him down and gotten into a discussion with him to see what his facts were that gave him this belief, but as he rode away, he barked and yelled a few things that I couldn't distinguish, so I figured driving away was better than them finding my body in the ditch a few days later, car missing and a bike tire shoved up my.....Sorry.