To Copy & Paste...ah yes.

With the apparent lack of time to blog lately I did take time to do this thing on FB after being tagged. So, I figure the ideal thing to do was to copy & paste. Boy that didn't take long. I only tagged Kim though cause I'm unsure about the whole tagging thing.

Copy and paste this into a new note and change the answers...If I tagged you, it means I want to see yours! Tag all the people you feel like tagging.

What are your middle names?
Ray & Denise

How long have you been together?
30 years this Dec.

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
a few months

Who asked who out?
I asked Kim

Whose siblings do you see the most?
mine - hers has lived in SD for 10 years

Do you have any children together?
uh...yeah...3

What about pets?
Frazier the dog, 15 years old, mostly blind & deaf

Did you go to the same school?
Yep...then OCC.

Who is the most sensitive?
Hands down...herp.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
most...El Toro...favorite...Pappas seafood!

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Australia.

Who has the craziest exes?
there are exes? I thought I was the only one.

Who has the worst temper?
neither...we both avoid that kind of thing with all we've got.

Who does the cooking?
Cooking...what's that...me probably, but she does the dishes.

Who is more social?
Neither of us is all that social.

Who is the neat freak?
Uh...neither...although if there is one...its her.

Who is the most stubborn?
Gosh...is this over yet...we can both be pretty hard headed.

Who hogs the bed? (i understand she does not hog the bed, hey, its a king)
she does.

Who wakes up earlier?
when both at home...me.

Where was your first date?
The Oklahoma State Fair of 1977...a Ted Nugent Concert. "Catch Scratch Fever tour" really.

Who has the bigger family?
close fam...me...extended fam...hands down its her.

Do you get flowers often?
only when I do a funeral but sometimes I bring em to her.

How long did it take to get serious?
Is it serious? We try to keep it light...really. What does that mean? Maybe a few months...not all tha long.

Who eats more?
meep.

Who sings better?
she sings better alto...I sing better tenor/bass. We sing great together.

Who does the laundry?
today...its her...for the past few years it was me. We both do it. (i was corrected on this one)

Who's the smartest?
Herp.

Who’s better with the computer?
lol...meep!

Who drives when you are together?
Meep!

Who picks where you go to dinner?
either or...depends on if she's been out of town and for how long.

Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong?
What? I hope meep.

Who wears the pants in the relationship?
I wear pants and briefs...she wears pants and panties.

Who has more tattoos?
Golly...my kids get those for us.

Who eats more sweets?
Herp, maybe...we try to be easy on the sweet stuff.

Who needs sugar when you're sweet to begin with...I know..yuch!

cya, de

Oh yeah, Elton John & Billy Joel was as good as any concert I've ever been too. 3 1/2 hours without a break. Nothing short of fantastic.

Concert Tonight

I'm anxiously awaiting this evening. Tonight my bride and I, and our youngest are going to H-town to see Elton John and Billy Joel together. Hopefully it should be some kind of concert. We've seen Billy Joel 3 times I think and he's one of our favorites by far. We had tix to Elton a few years back by himself but it was Easter/LTC Saturday night and we were just too pooped to go so we sent K&J & A&A. They said it was terrific. We are anticipating that tonight will be terrific too. So, we'll head in afterwhile, find something good to eat and head to the Toyota Center for a night of singing along with Elton & Billy and some terrific piano playing. That's all for now. Till the next time I'm on the blog.

cya,
de

And as always, thanks for reading!

Too Busy...Too Tired

Haven't spent much time at all on the computer over the past few days. Been too busy...too tired to do much of that. I've been trying to help around the church building with our remodeling project...which by the way is quite a big project. I wonder at times if we haven't taken on too much of it for our own good...we will see. This past Thursday and Friday afternoon I spent with Harold Allen trying different ways to get the old mastic glue off the floor so we could lay new tile on the floor. We did eventually get it to come off after varied attempts and with the right chemical it came up pretty easy...it was the getting it up and off that was the disgusting part. And labor intensive let me tell you. Thanks to a second crew who came in late Friday we did manage to get 1/3 of the blue room floor ready for tile. Then Saturday morning we spent laying that much of the tile floor. I'm still way sore from 4 1/2 hours on my knees laying and slapping tile around on that floor.

After our tile excursion I went home, showered, laid down for 20 minutes then drove to Kirbyville, TX where the STB quartet sang on Saturday night. Turn around to arrive home about 11 pm pooped. Then yesterday afternoon Kim's brother and fam came in to spend a few days for their spring break. In between all that other stuff we were trying to get the house back in shape for company. It still wasn't all the way back from hurricane Ike, so I helped the bride as much as possible to get it ready. Oh yeah, I preached yesterday and our Life group had a pounding party for Mike and his new bride. Boy it was a busy weekend.

Today is rodeo day. We're going to see all that is RodeoHouston and Darius Rucker as the Concert entertainer for the evening. Hopefully the rain is over and the sun will shine before the day is out. Not sure when I'll blog again...maybe after some rest. Right now I'm just too busy...forget the tired part...I'll rest later next week.

cya, de

Insurance Poor

If your like most Americans to some degree we're all insurance poor. We've got insurance on everything. Of course it is a good and necessary thing...say...when you have a hurricane blow by and it blows the roof off part of your house and the rain comes in a makes a terrible mess...and they pay. By way of the constant commercials on TV here in H-town, some insurances did not pay or people thought they didn't or something. Our insurance did ok...they did pay...maybe not as much I thought they should...but we managed to get back to where we were without having to put too much of our own money back in.

One of our biggest issues since Kim went to work as self-employed has been the health insurance issue. Never take for granted if you have access to group insurance. Once you don't have access everything changes...especially if you have any health issues at all. That's been our deal for the past 5 years or so. If you're diabetic like I am...insurance companies just won't write you any reasonable insurance for anything close to a reasonable price. So, if you can get it, its poor coverage and very expensive. So you make do the best you can.

Here's something pretty cool I found to save on ordering glasses. I know you'll think its just not right to be ordering your glasses off the internet and hopefully you have insurance that covers you and your glasses are cheap. I went for my annual eye exam...covered by the way...and had the lady give me a quote for glasses like I have, progressives no-line bifocals, lightweight, metal rims, no scratch, etc...almost $650 retail but I was to get 20% discount. So I went home with my prescription in hand and went to 39dollarglasses.com.

Yeah, you read right...I order my glasses via the internet. Got my $650 glasses for just a little bit over $200. Same glasses with everything I wanted and even got transition lenses too. So if you're insurance poor or just don't want to fork over that much for glasses, check it out. Yeah, I admit its a bit unnerving but everything is there you need to get it right. Maybe you won't feel quite so insurance poor and jilted anymore.

No, I don't get anything for telling you about it. I just know how I felt when she told me my glasses were going to be $500 with my discount...some discount.

Praying for rain,
de

Changes in Latitudes

Not all that much new or exciting going on at the Elhome lately. Not that there have not been some significant things taking place. The most exciting thing has been the change in latitude of our oldest kids Kami and James. They made a successful move from Lat 42.5 to lat 36.1, yeah. That's quite a move any way you compute it from north to south, NY to Tenn, Coop to Nash, above or below the MD line, its quite a change in latitude, probably in attitude as well.

A,A&N are getting ever closer to adding a C to their alphabetic lineup. Baby Cohen is coming along quite nicely and Lord willing he comes into the world in June. They are making room changes, added a hide-a-bed couch for mimi and pawpaw, planning to paint and who knows what all else. A nephew of mine Blaine and his wife Tamara are having a baby quite soon. Baby Anton is expected any day now. My sister, her first grandbaby, is beside herself with excitement, as I'm sure Blaine and Tamara are too. Jared continues to do his 12 hour thing at Lee college in the computer dept, work 20-30 hrs a week at BB, and well...that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for much else.

Kim's getting ready around the house for her brother and fam to come for their spring break week. It's really amazing that we continue to clean up and get things situated from hurricane Ike. Yeah, we're probably slow, possibly even a bit lazy. Then when you walk down the end of our street and see the 15 empty lots where houses were bulldozed, and other neighbors just getting their roofs replaced, and well many who haven't done anything yet, I guess we're doing ok.

We've been working in the yard over the past few days and continue to find storm leftovers. I'd sure like to be done with that thing. Someone from Florida told Kim that when a huge storm like that comes through that it affects the climate, weather, airborne stuff for a long time afterwards... that it literally can suck the moisture out of the air for months or even years to come...that it sucks up dust and stuff from far off places and dumps it here. It would seem to be so for this area anyway.

Lord willing we'll be selecting and affirming some new elders at the church before too long. That's good news. Our building remodeling is coming right along. Walls are back up and even painted. New kitchen area is taking shape nicely with all the work being done by members, a bunch of them. New ceiling and flooring has to be in works soon. Talk about changes...the bathrooms in the office building finally have solid walls again...yeah! They got wet from the storm and were torn out because of mold. The only thing covering the walls were sheets...for months...can we talk privacy here. Once in awhile the only option was to head home to go. Talk about a change in latitude. Now, we've got nice painted sheetrock and panelling back where it should go. Whoohoo! That's todays update...gotta go.

de

Blankness of Mind

In view of my blankness of mind today I submit a thoughtful but truthful collection of sayings about our government as we move ever more towards complete government control of our banking system, the auto industry, and ultimately socialism. Did I say that? Sorry.

de

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. John Adams

2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. Mark Twain

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself. Mark Twain

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. Winston Churchill

5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. George Bernard Shaw

6. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

7. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. Will Rogers

8. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! P.J. O'Rourke

9. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. Voltaire (1764)

10. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! Pericles (430 B.C.)

11. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. Mark Twain (1866)

12. Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it. Anon

13. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. Mark Twain

14. There is no distinctly native American criminal class...save Congress. Mark Twain

15. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

Speeching's My Job

I speak for a living. It just so happens that I speak for my Lord. It's my great privilege to be blessed to do both. I often think of how weird it is that preachings my job and that for someone who's terribly shy on the inside. Truly I am...no kidding. And I can't recall the last time I was speechless.

Monday was one of those days. One of our close friends Brad Wims, a young man who grew up in the Lakewood youth group when we first arrived back in '89, passed away from a long, courageous, and faithfilled battle with cancer. My bride seemed to know it was going to happen soon when she left town on Sunday afternoon. As soon as she read their blog on Saturday night when we got home from seeing Noah and fam...she knew. Reluctantly, with 6 days of paid work ahead of her this week, she left for the airport, feeling as though she might have to miss the services if they happened this week. She knew and she will miss seeing the family to express he love for them.

Brad was truly a unique child and man of God, both at the same time. No one I know was able to do both better than Brad. Maybe it was a gift. He loved to play. No one enjoyed life and was able to keep his childlike attitude with him like Brad did. As a man, He had a faith like I'm sure I've never quite seen in someone his age and in his situation. He loved His Lord more in his last days than ever. He loved to worship and sing praises to His God even when he had no breath.

The saddness that surrounds his loss is great. The victory that goes with his passing is unmistakable. The hole that is left by his absence...well it made me speechless and speeching's my job! If there's an Aggie section in heaven...Brad's there...front and center. If not, then he's lobbying for one as we speak.

Brad...we miss you and you will always hold a special place in our hearts. You will never be forgotten.

de

Busy weekend

Technically it was much more than a weekend. It started on Wednesday. Three of our kids, K, J, & J were to be on the road from Cooperstown, NY to Nashville, TN. We were praying for good weather and safe travels for their move south. We left town after we sang a duet and preached at a friend's mothers funeral. We headed north in J's truck, thanks J for the loaner, stopped at a Houston Plant around Conroe and filled the back end with three trees, and almost as many shrubs and plants as we could carry. We then drove to A&A's to drop them off, then on to Richardson where Kim was to work on Thursday. While she worked I went to find a pickupload of good dirt to amend A&A's front flowerbeds. By the time I got to unloading it around 12:30 it was 83 degrees and sunny. By the time I got a bunch of it unloaded I was almost overheated. Guess I should have stopped for lunch. By the time Ade got home from work, with his mom in the car and Al & N got home from preschool the flowerbeds were just about ready to work. Regular updates were coming in as the movers headed out of C-town, through, Pennsylvania, Maryland, WVA, VA, then Tenn. Two days of tough driving but they made it.

Friday we got up and took Noah to see "Elmo's Green Thumb" in Grand Prarie. He called it "Elmo day" and it took forever to actually get here. His mom & dad had to quit mentioning it because he wanted every day to be "Elmo day," don't we all. He was pretty hesitant through the first half and watched virutally all of it with his head on Mimi's shoulder, watching ever so closely out of one eye. By the time the intermission was over he was sitting straight ahead watching with both eyes, smiling, pointing at Elmo and Bigbird, clapping, and enjoying the whole thing. I proudly I resisted paying $10 for a helium ballon that looked like Elmo. I felt bad for all those who whipped out the ten, only to leave it on the ceiling of the theatre or to watch it fly away into the sky on the way to the car. We opted to spend that money on crawfish at Pappadeaux for lunch. Good choice dave. Then it was back to Forney and the flowerbeds.

We kept after those flowerbeds till we got them all planted by sundown and I think we were all pooped. By the time I got up on Sat to go buy some mulch it was 40 degrees with a 25 mph north wind. Glad we only had the trees to plant. We put down mulch on the flowerbeds, and planted 2 of 3 trees and called it a project. Ade will have to plant tree #3. It was time to head home. The bride was leaving Sunday for a six day work week and I needed to be ready to preach on Sunday.

When we got ready to "go home" little Noah plainly declared, "Me go home too, me go home too." His folks tried to explain that he was already home but he was very clear when Pawpaw & Mimi were going home, "me go home too." If that don't make your heart swell up, nothing will. Mom & dad promised him this summer he could go home with M & PP. We can't wait.

We got home tired but early enough to be ready for the Lord's day, thankful to have spent a bit more time with our kids and thankful that all had safe travels.

You can check out pics of our landscaping project on Allison's blog on the blog links.

thanks for reading.
de

About Bolivar

Before we even drove off the ferry on to the Bolivar Peninsula, you could see a huge pile of cars to the left hand side of the road. It looked much like a salvage yard that was not there before. There were dozens, maybe 100's of destroyed cars, I assume awaiting their ride to a mainland salvage yard via some barge. After that a huge pile of appliances of all kinds, then debris, and well having to drive ahead at a reasonable speed to keep up with the traffic I surely didn't see it all. It was pretty sad. As we drove east there were some houses left standing on the beach side and a few on the bay side. On each side of the road are huge piles of debris, remains of beach houses that have been gathered up, piled up, and ready to be picked up and taken away. In between those piles of debris are huge piles of sand (the beach) right on the road which I assume means that Ike picked up the sand from the beach and brought tons of it inward, put in on the road and it had to be scraped up to make the road drivable.

As we continued east, the damage gets worse. Anything that was built or sitting on ground level is either completely gone or pretty much totally destroyed. Many of the landmarks that once helped you to know where you were are unrecognizable now or gone completely. A 5th wheel RV serves one of the local grocery stores. A large RV park has sprung up a few miles in, on the bay side. A sign indicates that the Stingaree marina is now open. The grocery store is in the works. Where the church of Christ stood in Crystal Beach now stands a makeshift sign that says "Church of Christ" and a white tent, with a big stack of bottled water at its side. A few things remain but what does remain suffered extensive damage.

The familiar signs of the various beaches as you drive on eastward are gone, some replaced with plywood telling you the name of the beach. Once you reach Crystal beach it gets worse. From Crystal beach east, there's nothing, well no houses anyway. The beach has been eaten back from its normal place maybe 75 feet or more. All that's left of the houses may be pilings or a slab, nothing else. All at once the bride kinda lets out a bit of a scream as we recognize we're at the Rollover Pass bridge. We didn't even know it was coming because nothing is recognizable, no landmarks.

We pullover at what used to be Rollover Pass bait and tackle and stop. It was tricky pulling off the road there in the convertible because its so washed out and rough. We get out to look around and try to get our bearings but can't because its all gone. Whatever was there before, is now gone. You couldn't even pull off on the SE & NW sides of the road, just too washed out and rough. There were a couple of folks fishing and catching the occasional redfish but we're stunned. We cross what's left of the bride, passable enough and pull off on the NE side where I'd come to so many times to fish and to flounder. The bride stays in the car, wiping her eyes at what we've seen but I want to walk the pass. I walk towards the bay side and realize that all the sand and shell from the beach side is now deposited on the bay side of the pass, in huge piles, along with a sign laying on the ground, pole and all that says "open." There's all kinds of other debris, a sink, the regular beer can, a road grader or bull dozer and piles of sand or mulch. There is one house standing, obviously a fairly newer house, way up high on stilts that made it but thats it.

We sit, we contemplate, we realize just how serious that Ike was. We still can't believe its all gone, forever changed. There's no doubt in my mind that I'll be long gone before much of it is rebuilt and the fact is, it will never be the same. Sorry to sound so depressing but it was a lot to take in. It was impossible to fathom and this a full 5 months after the fact.

Unless the beach is replinished the next big storm will take out chunks of the highway making it impossible to reach High Island. The water is so close now that a really high tide will send the waves and water over the road. It washed out the dune all the way from Rollover to the turn north to High Island. Staggering. No wonder lots of people died and some will never be found.

Well, that's all of that. Just thought I'd pass along our trip. I recommend you go and make the drive yourself. Just be prepared to cry. It's really, really sad. No I didn't take my camera. A picture may be worth a thousand words but a drive down there, well, there are no words or pictures that do it justice. We did finish the trip with an evening meal of "Al-T's Special." They have totally remodeled due to Ike damage. It was as good as ever.

Again, thanks for reading.
de

Trip to Galveston

The bride and I took a drive we have been wanting to take since September 13, the day hurricane Ike paid us a visit. We have wanted to take the drive down to Galveston, take the ferry, and go over to the Bolivar Peninsula to see the damage. About 2 pm on Friday afternoon after she had finished some major cleaning around the house, or at least got to a stopping point, and I was done working the church building remodeling, we headed out in her favorite way to travel, her convertible. It was really a bit cool, low 60's, to be wearing shorts and driving highway speed with the top down but the sun was out 100% and we just couldn't resist. Each time we got over the water it cooled down a few degrees and it was windy but overall it was great.

We drove the speed limit to Galveston, turned down 61st street and headed out to the West end to see what it was like down there. The moment we turned on to 61st, there was still a sailboat perched right by the road, in a parking lot, like it was parked there for the night, then a few blocks another, then another. The housing edition on the left side of 61st not too far across the small bay was obviously heavily flooded by the surge. Most of the businesses just off of i-45 & 61st were closed but as you got closer to the seawall, more and more were open, and many others were under repair. Traffic was fairly heavy. We turned right and drove to the West. Almost anything situated at ground level was damaged or flooded. Many of the condos were under repair, trying to get ready for the summer season. Unfortunately, there was no beach extending out from the seawall. The waves lapped right up on to the rocks all the way down. We didn't go too far before making a uturn and deciding to go ahead and drive to the Bolivar ferry. The city seems to have brought sand in to a couple of sections across from the Convention center area to rebuild the beach between about 3 of the jetties. Every pier, structure, everything on the beach side is gone. Technically the Flagship hotel is still there but heavily damaged, everything else that was over the water is gone. Murdoch's and those places are nothing but pilings in the sand now. We didn't drive to the strand or around in the neighborhoods but there was obviously a great deal of flooding damage and many blue tarps still on roofs. A fair number of eating spots were open and some hotels but its going to take a long time for it to be back to normal.

We went ahead and drove to catch the ferry and waited well over an hour for our turn to take the ride. The ferry ride is one of our all time favorite things to do in Galveston and it has not changed. Sitting in the convertible with the top down, while the gulls fly over head is not the most comfortable feeling in the world though, we manage to get on without getting pooped on. By the time we got on the ferry it was time to put the top up, it was just too cool.

Well, there's much more to say about Bolivar but I better get to work now. Maybe tomorrow I'll write about what we saw or didn't see on the Peninsula. I will say this, the further east we travelled the worse it got.

Thanks for reading,
de

What's on my mind

I can't help but be fascinated and concerned by what's happening in Washington these days. I heard over the weekend that with the passing of the stimulus package the Federal governments share in the GDP of the United States goes up. What's the GDP? Its one of the measures of national income and output for a given country's economy. It is the total value of all final goods and services produced in a particular economy; the dollar value of all goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a given year. I'm certainly no expert on such a thing but what I heard is that for the past 20 years the Gov't share in the GDP has ranged anywhere from 17%-22% in any given year. Probably higher than I expected but ok. With the new stimulus package in place and the government taking a huge part in the auto industry and banking, the gov't share of the GDP goes to, get this, 39%. Looks like we're running headlong into socialism. I'm not saying there weren't some serious issues with corruption, greed and such but I've never been a big advocate that bigger gov't is the answer. I guess time will tell.

The other thing that is happening is all those folks he's trying to put around him. I guess it is best explained by this cartoon I got today.


But I guess its only been 30 days. We should give him a chance. It's the debt he's given my grandchildren that I'm concerned about.

de

The Beat Goes On

The bad news is that there is pounding outside my office and over my head upstairs in the teen classrooms. That's also the good news. Construction is in full swing at our church building. It's been a long time coming or so it would seem. It's a tremendous undertaking and I'm grateful we've hired pros to do most of the work. I recall when I first arrived in Baytown in May of 1989, that the men of the congregation had undertaken the task of remodeling this same building that I am still in. Of course I volunteered to help as did many of the men in the church. I like to work with my hands and sometimes I'm pretty good at it. The trouble with that undertaking was the sheer size of the project. Not that we didn't have the skills to complete the work but the sheer size of the task was likely too big for a set of volunteers to sustain the momentum. Plus, if things didn't go just right, who could you blame? Always an issue. There remain some hard feelings that go back to that remodeling project almost 20 years ago. Thankfully, this time around, the insurance payment from hurricane Ike should pay for most everything, done by the contractors. If there's a problem, you have someone to hold responsible for making sure its done right and they are working each and every day, not just when voluteers can make the time to do it. I guess that's my point, the beat goes on, every day, the sooner the better as far as I'm concerned. Our building should be in better shape than it has been...well since the last time it was remodeled, and in some ways even better. My prayer is that we can utilize it in all kinds of ways that Gods name and His Son will be lifted up.

I'm still enjoying our winter here in S Texas. Bright, sunny, and 70 degrees.

de

Following Obama Closely

I hope that everyone is following the first few weeks of Obama's Presidency closely. No, I didn't vote for him but I understand the various reasons why so many did. His was a message of hope, of change, of youth, of lower taxes, of something new and different. Here's the final paragraph of an editorial which ran in the Houston Chronicle yesterday entitled,

"New age of Obama ends in frenzy of hypocrisy." by By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

It's too early to say "I told you so" and boy is it early.

"After Obama's miraculous 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear that at some point the magical mystery tour would have to end. The nation would rub its eyes and begin to emerge from its reverie. The hallucinatory Obama would give way to the mere mortal. The great ethical transformations promised would be seen as a fairy tale that all presidents tell and that this president told better than anyone. I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks."

I hope the next two and half weeks is better for him and us.

de

Recent pic

Here's a recent picture of my favorite grandson. He's a got a ton of personality and a unique look in his eye, don't you think? Have a blessed day.

de

Ike Update

Unless you live on the Gulf Coast you have long forgotten hurricane Ike. The media forgot it after 3 days. I'm amazed at the number of roofs that still have blue tarps on them, waiting for a roofer to show up and do the work. In a recent conversation someone commented that "the folks in Houston got a whole week off for the hurricane, why do we have to go work when its icy?" It's a "you had to be there" kind of thing. The bride and I live on S Burnett Dr, right on the water. We are fortunate enough to be high up enough that we were spared the total devastation of others who lived just a bit further down the street. Yesterday when I did my afternoon walk to the end of the street and back, I counted 15 houses that have now been bulldozed on that end of our street. About 8 more were taken down while we were in Ok last week visiting family and I mean bulldozed to the ground, nothing left but a pile of rubble. Maybe 5 or 6 are being rebuilt as their basic structure, studs and roof were intact. Another 8-10 have yet to be bulldozed but look like they should be. Its a sober reminder of how powerful a storm Ike was.

We are seeing real progress at the church building. The sheetrock and mud has been delivered. Insulation is going up. Some redoing of the kitchen walls has finished. Hopefully today they will start putting up some of the sheetrock. Yeah! Its been almost 5 months since the storm. Its really hard to understand the impact of it all unless you see it every day. That's my Ike update FYI.

de

Oh yeah, while I was home I set my dad up with his own blog, Poppie's Blog. Now if I can just get him to use it.

Took a chance and we made it!

I left H-town Monday afternoon and headed north, knowing that ahead of me was a "winter storm watch." Leaving town it was 74 degrees and balmy. As I trekked north the temperature slowly dropped, the fog and mist set in, and by the time I reached DFW airport to pickup Kim it hovered around 38 degrees. We were headed further north into a stiff north wind to Oklahoma to make our Christmas trip to both sets of folks. We had intended to do it during Christmas but were unable to due to other situations. It's always a risk going north this time of year but it was time to go. We didn't know if we'd make it before the storm got there or not. Still misting and raining we headed west towards Ft. Worth then north towards Bowie and Hwy 81. The temp continued to drop and the sky kept on spitting.

By the time we got to Bowie it was 33. We stopped for gas and a break and headed on as fast as we could. About 45 minutes later mist turned to sleet and it was freezing on the windshield. About 5 miles out of Duncan we hit our first slick spot, just a little bit icy. We slowed down a lot and drove slowly to my folks house, getting there just after midnight. It sleeted the rest of the night and all the next day, probably as much as 4" of sleet. It looks like snow but its really solid ice. The skies finally cleared last night and the temp dropped to 8. Hopefully by tomorrow the roads will be much clearer and we can head out to the other side of the state, without sleet and freezing rain to see Kim's folks for a couple of days. We took a chance by coming and we made it. Lord willing we'll make the rest of the trip without too much more winter weather. Merry Christmas everybody.

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Shhhh! We're not allowed to talk about it.

A fascinating scenario has unfolded in our country. Yes, we elected our first black President, thats not news but what is happening or not happening is what is so interesting. What is happening is that he is quietly on his way to rearranging a host of things that went with George W. The most recent thing he reversed a W policy and opened up funding once again to help provide abortions all over the world. Here's a quote from the article.

"Obama issued the presidential memorandum rescinding the Bush policy without coverage by the media, late Friday afternoon. The abortion measure is a highly emotional one for many people, and the quiet signing was in contrast to the televised coverage of Obama's announcement Wednesday on ethics rules and Thursday's signing of orders on closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and banning torture in the questioning of terror suspects."

Oh, wait a minute...nobody is talking about it. Shhh....it all happened very quietly and nobody is allowed to criticize at this point because Mr O has the cure to all the worlds ills. Well, almost all, Tim Tebow has the rest. Next is wide open stem cell research. Lots and lots more unborn babies are going to die under this administration. Shhhh....We're not allowed to talk about it.

Hey, I've got no problem with closing a torture camp that probably never should've been open. My concern right now is that virtually no one is allowed to second guess much less criticize him for what he is doing. I'm afraid he may end up being the out of the park liberal he was accused of being but everybody downplayed that he was. And the he is the media's greatest darling.

Not to mention that many of today's current comedy writers will soon be searching for jobs now that no one knows what to do because you can't make fun of the president. That would be racist. What will happen to comedy as we know it?

I'm all for a change in Washington, it needs it, Mr O really concerns me...and we're not allowed to talk about it.

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Somebody's Blogging but Nobody I Know

It must be the first of the year doldrums or maybe its the cold weather that only the Steelers really love or I don't know what it is but nobody's blogging. Technically that's far from the truth. I suspect Obamamaniacs are blogging like never before. MLKites are blogging like they have never blogged before. The Democrats are surely about to bust from all their blogging but nobody I really know is blogging much. But most of the blogs I read are silent these days.

I don't read the political blogs of either side, its just way too much. No matter how much somebody promises change and a better tomorrow, when they hit the political wall that is Washington DC, its gonna be tough sledding. I hate to see what will be record deficits to bailout all those crooked people who stuffed all that money somewhere and now claim that nobody has it. I hate to see the government be responsible for "great works" that will rebuild our society. They don't have the track record for being able to do that very effectively but at this point neither does much of the private sector.

I'm always optimistic though when it comes to the people of America. If our new President can make a broad appeal for Americans to stand up and rebuild America, that is truly the only thing that will really work. Corporate America can't do it, they're only out for profits. Political America won't do it, they're only after their own personal political agenda. The military can't do it, they can't even talk on the phone to each other from one branch to another. Fastfood American will only make us fatter. The truth is only Americans can stand up and rebuild America and we must do it morally, ethically, spiritually, and physcially. We've got to get over our own selfishness and begin to look out and see what we can do for each other.

But nobody's blogging about that. Somebody's blogging somewhere, but nobody I know.

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Honest truth is, James, my snl blogs all the time but that didn't fit my Title, sorry James, I do read.

More Important Matters

Next Tuesday our nations capitol hosts the Inauguration of President Obama. (boy that sounds weird) It's a brand new day in the United States of America for many reasons, some good and some bad. Regardless of any of those issues, one thing remains the same, our obligation to pray for those in power. I hope we will all spend some time in prayer for this historic occasion, for those who attend and for our new president. He needs it now more than ever before as he faces some of the greatest challenges our blessed country has ever seen. I got the link below from a friend. Thought you might want to see it and participate in prayer for our new president.

http://www.maxlucado.com/president/

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One of our close friends Diane is working every day with the Red Cross setting up shelters for all those who will be going to DC with no place to stay. There are likely to be 10's of thousands with no place to stay.

Are You Over Being Mad?

The pest control guy who comes to the house every quarter came this morning before work. He's a huge sports fan and a Longhorn fan. Anyway, his first question was "are you over being mad" referring to the National Championship game on Thursday. I told him, I don't get mad at that kind of stuff anymore. Maybe I used to or let it affect me more than it does now. Maybe I've just seen enough to realize, its just not all that important in the scheme of things.

Certainly I follow the Sooners closely and love it when they win. I certainly thought they were going to do it in Miami. No doubt, we were all disappointed at the way they closed out the game. Yes, big-game Bob may have to change his name to get-to-the-biggame-Bob. But in the end, its just a game. Some you win, some you lose, well in national championship games since 2000 its you lose but, hey it was great fun to be there and watch. The energy and excitement are something to experience. Even most of the Florida fans were good natured. Deep down they realize they dodged a big bullet in the first half and were fortunate to come out of it the way they did.

Am I over being mad?...I never was mad to begin with, sad, forlorn, disappointed, slightly disgusted, down for a little while, yep...but never mad. I reserve mad for things that are lot more important in life...like what...greed and stupidity and apathy and abuse and people who don't signal or who txt while driving...sorry.

Not mad,
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