Rain, Rockets, & Swine Flu?

Boy how things change. For most of the winter it has been extremely dry around these parts. I know, some of you say, me too, me too. Drought is unusual for the Gulf Coast. I think our average rainfall is around 54 inches a year. That's an average of 1 inch a week or little more. No wonder I seem soggy as of late. In the Houston area we have officially gotten over our drought and gone straight to flood stage. Some areas of west & NW Houston got 10+ inches of rain early and through midday on Monday. Lots and lots of flooding, stranded cars, likely a death or two. We had gotten 10 inches Saturday before last, 5 inches on Friday, and well more on Sunday. Not the ideal way to catch up from the drought but thats the way it goes here sometimes, rain, rain, & rain.

I do enjoy the NBA playoffs, especially our local boys the Rockets. Been following them since we moved here in 89'. Saw them win most of both championships in 94 & 95. They've pretty much been in a drought since then. Oh, yeah, they've made the playoffs but haven't gotten out of the 1st round in forever. I think its the T-Mac curse. Some guys got it, other guys don't, the "take over the game" mentality and will to do it. Not sure if that guy exists on this years Rockets or not. We will see. Ron Artest thinks he may be that guy but he hasn't showed up the last two games. I'd like to think its Yao but he's not learned to dominate yet. Don't know if he will. Scola is impressive and if some of the other guys contribute, we'll see. Has anybody gotten the kind of calls that Brandon Roy seems to get and that Yao never seems to get. Come on!
The Mavs are looking impressive. Couldn't be happier to see the Spurs lose. Duncan's first ever first round loss if I heard correctly. Looks like it will certainly be the Cavs & Lakers. Not sure anyone can derail either. Game 6 on Thursday, yo! Go Rockets.

The media never ceases to amaze me with their hype. Surely a "pandemic" is coming they say. There's only been a few pandemics, which means a new serious flu strain that kills millions of people. The government already has a website out, that must mean its real. The big ones were the spanish flu of 1918, asian flu of 57-58, Hong Kong flu of 67-68, and some say the avian flu, but it never really made pandemic status. My thoughts, its the flu, albeit a new strain. Watch yourself, watch your kids if you got em. If they get the flu or you get the flu, take em in as a precaution. Try not to cough on people and wash your hands. Come on folks, use some common sense. Its unlikely millions of people are going to die. More will die in poor places where they don't have access to health care and medicines. Please don't start wearing a mask everywhere, it looks stupid and doesn't do that much anyway. Wanna talk pandemic, lets talk traffic fatalities which are holding steady at 40,000+ a year for the past 15 years. Hey, wear your seatbelt. Don't drink and drive. Watch out for the other guy. That will probably come closer to killing you than the swine flu. Hey, I'm thinkin pork chops for dinner, how bout you?

So I rant once in awhile, ;0)
de

My coworker Paul, sent me a surefire thing not to do if you want to avoid the swine flu.

Quiet Lately

I was going to say it was an ordinary week, but one might assume that its quiet or that there's nothing going on. I guess thats really opposite the truth. We continue to do construction on the building that was damaged during Ike. We ran into a bit of a snafu that has delayed our completion of the blue room for another couple of weeks. I may be able to tell you about that later. The rest of the building is pretty much done, all the classrooms are ready to be occupied, some already are the rest should be starting this week or the next. We've been without a regular slate of kids classes for some time. We started a makeshift lineup of classes several weeks ago but not in our regular classrooms. I know everyone is excited about having our building back.

The Lakewood Talent Show is this evening. We had our first one last year and it was a lot of fun. It will be the debut of our newly formed, Lakewood Praise team. With the go ahead from the elders, we've been practicing weekly for about 6 weeks. We'll sing a couple of songs at the close of the talent show. We sing live in the worship for the first time tomorrow. We are all excited about the opportunity to help make our singing the best possible. We'll not be standing in front but seated in the audience. Lord willing we'll not even really be noticed but if you are listening to hear your part, you'll be able to hear it better over the speakers.

Jared and I attended the Rockets/Blazers game last night and had a great time. The Rockets won. It was an ugly win, but any win is exciting. Nothing quite like the energy of a playoff game or Bowl game or something like that. The only down side was that pesky 20% chance of rain we had, on the way to the game, walking into the game (pouring), after the game on the way to my truck, and all the way home. I think it rained at least another hour after we got home. It was the wettest 20% chance I've ever seen but...we really needed it even though it rained 10 inches last Saturday, the wind came up right after and blew for days and quickly dried it out.

I'm sure there's more but I gotta go home now and get ready for the Talent Show.

Thanks for reading,
de

Amazing Instruments!

If you have any question about whether the human voice is the most amazing instrument ever created, you've got to see and listen to "The Voca People."

Who are The Voca People?
The Voca people are 8 friendly aliens from the planet Voca, a musical planet that has no verbal communication but use vocal expressions only. They have heard the music from earth for decades now and with their imitation abilities they have decided to pay a one evening tribute to humanity and to perform the songs they love as musical- gratitude.

This video is only a short clip, 3 min 15 sec, and is nothing short of...well...amazing! The costumes are kinda weird but the vocals are great.

Enjoy and thanks Wendy for passing that along.

de

Thought I Was Saavy!

All along I was thinking I was fairly computer literate. I realize its just electronic 1's & 0's on disk but I thought I kept up and was capable. I've run ethernet cable and connected the ends, make the connections and such. Actually, you don't really have to be all that saavy, just connect it up right and it works. Most stuff now has "auto detect" so all you have to do is plug it in.

I have antivirus, antispam, adware software that I keep up to date and run on a regular basis. I have a registry checker that does the same. Apparently that's not enough. Finally got a new modem late on Friday and everything checked out fine. Yeah. Pc had internet, wireless worked, everything...until...the dreaded until...I decided to upload new firmware for the router. Guess I should've left well enough alone. I won't bore you with more of my sob computer stories. The wireless is working...the bride says better and faster than ever...the pc...well not so good...the pc is actually fine...it just won't connect to the internet.

I just thought I was somewhat computer saavy....not! Doesn't mean I'll give up though.

:) de

It's Modem Wars Week!

Usually after Easter/LTC things kind of let down a little. Time to take it slow, relax and recover from all the busyness. Then on Monday night, who knows what time, Jared shows up in my bedroom, flashlight in hand, to inform me, "the power is out." He apparently calls the problem in and by the time I'm up, everything seems normal. Ah yes, the proverbial seems normal, except for the internet. It seems to be working....but extreeeemmmeeellllllyyyy slow. So I attack the problem for a few moments in between the office and my elders meeting. Ok, power down and reset everything, you've done this dozens of times before....and whalla...is that a word? Well, it wasn't whalla, it didn't work. Call Comcast...get them to do a reset and no whalla but at least the phones working again. More trys after my meeting and the phone works and the internet works when plugged directly into my computer but no wireless router which gives internet to the brides laptop and Jareds room.

So Tuesday, I go at it again, same stuff, no router. It must be the router....so its USR support time. Oh the computer and the router for some reason are conflicting and are trying to use the same IP address...time to reset...power everything down....and up...call Comcast for a reset...and no whalla...nada.

Well, I could go on. It's Thursday now...I even have a new Comcast modem at home...installed by tech...who declared it was my router...all is well with the modem...except for a few more hours on the phone with USR and resetting the IP addresses and all. Now...I've got no internet at all...not even when its plugged up directly to my computer....comcast now says it must be my computer...to get it checked...so I trump with Kim's laptop...oh now it must be my ethernet cables...or both computers....Somebody shoot me please.

This morning a friend at church says a comcast tech told him..."they are at war with their modems." Hmmmmm....me too. Not sure what the outcome will be. Still don't have the net at home. It's amazing how dependent we are on that thing. Sorry to vent my frustration but I've spent hours and I'm worse off than I was when I started. On top of that I might have to miss dinner with some dear friends cause I'm waiting on another CC tech to show sometime on Friday.

So...I'm taking office time to blog...and vent...and hope the modem wars end soon...so I can keep my sanity....yeah, yeah, I can hear your comments now...are you sure you were sane to begin with...well no...but it shouldn't be this hard. The modems are winning!!

Go Rockets,
de

James, via Astros County Blog

If you click the following link, you can listen to an interview with James, blogger for "Astros County" on United Cardinals Blogger radio that he did last night... You need to click on the UCB Radio Hour link. He comes in on the program at about 25 minutes in for those who don't want to listen to Cardinals jabber and the interview goes for about 20 min about the Astors. Very cool.

http://www.unitedcardinalbloggers.com/

direct link to the radio hour

de

It's Back!

Ah, the hectic pace of LTC week. During the rest of the year, most of what happens with LTC is fairly quiet, an occasional meeting or contract to sign or something but its mostly quiet. Then, after the first of the year it starts to pick up with hotel questions, that's my primary responsibility, dealing with the hotel contracts, details, setups and such. Then about a month beforehand activity starts to really ramp up to this week. Really, its a great week.

From the first time I set foot in Dallas back in the early 90's to scope out LTC I was impressed and thrilled with its purpose and how that culminates in the LTC Convention weekend. Even though its changed some over the years, I think LTC is one of best things the churches of Christ have going for them, the training of young Christians in the area of Leadership activity. I was going to say LTC teaches them...but the truth is LTC doesn't each them anything...parents and other involved adults...even some older teens teach the younger ones "to do something," to teach, to sing, to speak, or write, or puppet, or serve...well the list goes on and on. I really can't think of anything more practical or important for the future of the Lord's church.

So, this week, Easter week, its pretty much all about LTC. From tomorrow afternoon through Saturday night, there won't be all that much sleeping, or eating, or sitting, or anything except coordinating the Convention...and I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing. There's a bit of a downside to helping with all the coordinating and not getting to be all that involved with the actual kids and what they are doing. But I plan to stop in and watch from time to time just to witness those kids, doing what they do, for Jesus, their peers, and their parents. I can't wait.

cya,
de

Oh yeah, we get to see Noah and his parents who will come and spend part of the weekend with us!

Not Much of A Blogger Lately

I guess I could say I've been extremely busy (I have) or that I've spent every bit of spare time in the yard (some but not all that much) or that we've been traveling to some desirable getaway(not). I guess life has just been a bit hectic. Not to mention that I've been trying to help with our church rebuilding in my spare time, I volunteered some at the Shell Houston Open, and oh yeah...LTC is this coming weekend.

Oh yeah, we're prayerfully in the process of trying to add elders at the church too. All in all I'm feeling just a tad crazy with everything that's going on. LTC is quite enough to make me that way all on its own. And on the elder thing, I've been praying really hard about it, and I know that God will work it all out, but at the same time, I'll be getting some new bosses. I guess its my dual personality thing going on as both elder and preacher. Some days I'm not sure which I am and I know its an unusual thing for some folks to have someone as both. Some in fact don't like it at all. Oh well. God's in control, I know that. It's been a weird spring so far. It's warm for a few days, then a cold one comes rushing through at 40 mph and we're shivering all over again. Hope I can get some tomatoes planted soon. Guess I'll do that in my spare time.

Sorry for the rambling,
de