Welcome, May!

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The past few weeks have been stressful. Training new employees, dealing with difficult customers, not sleeping well, not exercising (I’ve gained 20 pounds in the last two years), getting through family drama (two life-threatening events in the same day, 2000 miles apart: my dad’s heart attack in NM and a 9 year grandchild starting the rest of his life with Type 1 Diabetes) . . .  My CrossFit lifestyle withered into oblivion when I lost my job at the University in 2020, as Covid got going. Deep depression brought me to a standstill as I took a few months to try to reset. Since then, my physical status has been on steady decline. Now my daily schedule looks something like this: Work 3-11 pm (on a good day), Go to bed at 4 am, get up between 10:30 am and noon, get booted up and go back to work. If I get one day off a week I’m fortunate. At least I don’t have to work all night for now. That was the worst.  So I haven’t had time or energy to do much, even read, much less write. And since my

Exciting days

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These days are certainly getting exciting . . .

We just finished "Nick at Night", our VBS program at church. The format was based on John 3, Nicodemus visiting Jesus at night; however, the delivery of the program was patterned after the Nicolodeon game shows. The entire event took place on Wednesday evenings at the downtown public park. We had live music, lots of kids and plenty of games. I don't think many people went home very dry each night because of all the water games played (I made certain I was one of the dry ones).

Last night was so hot that with the heat index, it was about 110 degrees. Though I was sweltering, I kept the water flowing! The station I was in had no shade, so when I moved to get out of the sun at one point, one certain individual thought to be helpful and dumped a bottle of ice water down my back. I just about went into shock, to say the least.

August is just around the corner! I am teaching a Sunday School class more regularly now and some final decisions are being made as to our permanance there. I start teaching "Christian Ethics" on the 16th and "Pilgrim's Progress" on the 21st.

I am getting excited also about getting the Fall garden going. I would like to plant some 16" rows and mixed rows instead of single rows to increase our yield. I am settling into doing a salad garden as opposed to a full vegetable garden--though I would like to plant a fuller garden in the spring. Right now I am wanting to get lettuce, kale, radishes, carrots, cabbage, spinach, snap beans and perhaps some winter squash in the ground. If I get that much in, I will be happy. I think I missed the chili season, but cannot find anything stating it could not be a late summer/fall vegetable. Thinking about pumpkins, too.

Am loosing the battle of the summer squash bugs right now, but tomatoes are coming in nicely!

Poor astronomy this summer--either too cloudy at night, or the bug swarms were too much. Maybe those were clouds of bugs . . .

Oh, and congratulations to STS-114 on their successful launch. Happy flight and safe return ladies and gentlemen!

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July 2004 I went to Kenya, Africa to speak in two Pastor’s Conferences on the subject of Man, Sin and Salvation. At the end of each day I left just over an hour for questions (half the time were questions touching the subject of my lectures, and the other half for “open questions”; that is, people could ask anything). For the next few weeks, I will be sharing the questions that were asked of me, and my answers—and believe me when I say these people really know how to think! Question from Kenya #1: “Men and women who saw God in the Bible: Why did they not all die?” [“ But He said, ‘You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live! ’” (Exodus 33:20) was the basis of the student’s question]. Answer: First, consider those who did see God—how did they respond when they saw Him? They were instantly aware of their sinfulness, and God’s holiness and righteousness (to name a few. And notice also that each responded in an attitude of worship, bowing down): Abraham built altars, wors
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Welcome, May!

-
Image
The past few weeks have been stressful. Training new employees, dealing with difficult customers, not sleeping well, not exercising (I’ve gained 20 pounds in the last two years), getting through family drama (two life-threatening events in the same day, 2000 miles apart: my dad’s heart attack in NM and a 9 year grandchild starting the rest of his life with Type 1 Diabetes) . . .  My CrossFit lifestyle withered into oblivion when I lost my job at the University in 2020, as Covid got going. Deep depression brought me to a standstill as I took a few months to try to reset. Since then, my physical status has been on steady decline. Now my daily schedule looks something like this: Work 3-11 pm (on a good day), Go to bed at 4 am, get up between 10:30 am and noon, get booted up and go back to work. If I get one day off a week I’m fortunate. At least I don’t have to work all night for now. That was the worst.  So I haven’t had time or energy to do much, even read, much less write. And since my
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