The Fall

Today I skated around the 'hood. I was timing the last half mile (going downhill, and trying to go as fast as I could go...), when a Wayside Furniture Truck pulled out of Bob's driveway about 30 yards in front of me. I didn't really slow down that much because I figured I could fall in behind it. But once it pulled out, it stopped, completely blocking the road. I darted up Joe's driveway onto his sidewalk and tried to maintain rolling, but decided to lay myself down in the soft grass instead of kissing the sidewalk. It was a perfect fall - I was completely unhurt. Just then Bob pulls up. He asks if they hit me - I said 'no - just pulled out in front of me' - he asks how I'm doing, apart from the fall - to which I reply, if you're referring to The Fall (like, Adam and Eve) - apart from that, I'd be doing AWESOME. We talked for a bit - I was sad to hear that they miscarried this week. I was able to share a bit about my brother's situation - and he agreed that it would be difficult to go through such a thing without the support of the church family. We'll pray for them.

We had Lifegroup tonight at Mike and Lisa's. They had some extra friends over, some of whom just moved back to the area - which was really good. The conversation went really well. We are studying a book/workbook called The Insider.

Who am I?

for what it's worth:

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational. Cultural Creative 75% Fundamentalist 56% Romanticist 56% Postmodernist 44% Existentialist 25% Materialist 19% Idealist 13% Modernist 6% What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com

Great Day

Today was such a beautiful day. Went to work (a little late), got some good stuff done, then subbed in the Timken Golf League. I putted 110% better than last week (Made a 15 footer and a 20 footer and didn't miss any of the stupid little ones that ruin my game). Whew. My chipping was lousy, but I can continue to work on that. Stopped by Panera and picked up a Cinnamon Crunch for tomorrow's breakfast, came home, ate leftover Cherry Raspberry Pie (Homemade by my wonderful wife) with whipped cream and ice cream. Mmmmm. Plus for lunch I had leftover Stromboli that she made for Father's Day. She is really good at making the holidays special. After the good food we had family devotions (we've started reading The Newsboys' Shine, Make 'em Wonder What You've Got) - So far, it has mostly talked about Being a light - Which we cannot do apart from Christ. And being a city on a hill - Christ is that hill. "Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."

I should try to get to work early tomorrow...so I should have been asleep an hour ago!

Vacation Day two, Part 2

I was hoping to not get the van e-checked, because I had it e-checked June 8, 2004, and it is valid for one year - but the current registration doesn't expire until the 15th - so it wouldn't go through. Oh well. I'll have to do it some time in the next week. I chose not to complete the process yesterday because we needed to get going.
We went out to West Akron - First we went to Barnes and Noble and looked for books. Melissa would like to get the Lucky Shopping Guide - but it was $30. We checked on Eldest - Christopher Paolini's sequel to Eragon - and discovered that it comes out August 23. Then we went to this new jewelry store and looked around - prices were similar to Wal*mart or Kohls. Then we went to lunch at Mariachi Grille. I had a huge lunch fajita. After lunch we went to Gabes (our only purchases;)). Then to West Point Market. It was interesting. Wouldn't buy anything there, but it was interesting.
Then we went to the Main Library and got several movies - of which, we watched Welcome to Mooseport and then O Brother, Where art Thou. O Brother was much different than we thought it would be - we thought it was pretty funny. I loved the whole Homer's Odyssey thang - I wish I had paid more attention in school! Now we need to get rolling with Vacation, Day Three...

Vacation, day two - Part One - Racism Revealed

Yesterday was day two of having the kids at Grandma Camp. First thing in the morning, I took the car to be e-checked. What a ripoff. While waiting in line to pay, a couple of interesting things happened. First, all the (older) folks around me were complaining about the whole process. Then, the young attendant, who happened to be dark skinned, called out to SmokerLady, who was lighting up...
Attendant: "Ma'am...Ma'am...Ma'am" - and I called down to her: "Ma'am" -
-she looks up from lighting her cigarette.
Attendant: You can't smoke in here.
So she puts her cigarette out.
Then the attendant was explaining to one of the older folks, "Your car passed. You'll need to take this entire form to the BMV when you renew your registr..." and the old guy says, "What? It didn't pass?"
Attendant: "It passed. You'll have to take this entire..."
Old guy: "You're gonna have to speak up - "
and I chimed in (giving a thumbs up): "It passed, it's okay"
Attendant: "Yes, it passed. You'll need to take this entire form..."
and then the old guy just blows up: "You're gonna have to speak up, @#$@#, some people can't hear ya know!"

After the attendant walked back out, one of the other older guys makes a comment about the "Floor monkey" and I said, "Come on, now"
Older guy 2: What - I'm not prejudiced, I just don't like black people!
Me: Aww come on - you can't judge an entire race...
Older guy 2: what do you know - you're just a kid - if you've ever been around them much...
(which I think is hilarious, because I am turning 40 next week - "just a kid!" Yesss!)
Smoker lady: Yeah, you've obviously never lived next door to any of them...
Me (finishing paying and walking out): Until you get to know someone...

Then I ran into SmokerLady at the BMV.
Me: you know, I have lived near some, and I've never had a problem...
SmokerLady: Yeah, well you've never had your identity stolen by one...
Me: I'm sure there are people of all races who steal identities...

Oh well, these people obviously have their minds made up about how things are. Hopefully I got them to think that you can't judge a person until you get to know them.

Ahhh Vacation, so to speak...

My kids are at Grandma and Grandpa Camp (Pops and Meme's house) - So we are on our own. Monday, I sort of stayed home from work. I got called in late Sunday night - so I had a couple hours then...Then I got called before we left to take my mom to the airport - so I logged in and checked some things out. Then I tried to talk them through the problem on the way to and from the airport.

(it is so weird to go to the airport to drop someone off anymore - it is so quick, because you aren't allowed to go to the gate, so you just drop them off in front and that's it. Mom wanted to be at the airport about two hours ahead of time. I probably got her there 1.5 hours ahead. Then she called about an hour after she was supposed to leave saying she was still on the ground because of thunderstorms in Atlanta.)

After futilely trying to talk them through the problem, I realized I would have to go in. Earlier in the day, I had agreed to be a sub in the golf league - so I went in, found that neither unit was working (I won't go into it) - and went back to my office to get a spare - found the trailer locked and had to make 3 trips to the computer room to get the right key - and rushed to the golf course to make my 5:30 tee time. I played erratic golf, (great one hole, terrible the next), picked up 9 points for the team I was subbing for - and arranged to pick up 2 more units for the problem at work. Went BACK to work, picked up the units - tried to install them, discovered that NEITHER of those worked either - so I took them out of the crane and plugged them into a normal wall outlet and the worked fine! Called an electrician to check the power in the crane - he went and fiddled with something on top - and VOILA - everything started working. (The operators THEN told me that their radio hadn't been working right either - that may have been a handy piece of information to know!). Went home (about 10:30) and went to bed. And THAT was my first day of "vacation" - sooooo relaxing.....NOT!