Snowstorm

The morning after a snowstorm is always the best. I don't mind freezing sleet and snow, but I wish they'd come in the summer, when the weather is nice! And to top it all off, the prediction for tomorrow is 60 degrees!

Health care

I find it interesting that the President is still campaigning. At least it appears that way. It's like he's constantly selling something. Years ago, Tip O'Neill offered a poignant observation about campaigning, "As we all know, the truth is a frequent casualty in the heat of an election campaign."

The White House

Truman once advised, "If you can't convince them. confuse them." Okay, I'm confused.

A national personality

I think no one suspected that modern man, at least in the 21st century, would be found to have unprecedentedly extreme nationalism. 110 years ago historians were saying that the national problem was withering away, and that smaller nations would slowly merger into the larger and that the differences would gradually diminish. World War I and II crushed these theories. Many believed that in the not too distant future mankind would fuse into some worldwide unity. The European Union still naively believes this. Now we're witnessing nations which pursue the maximum suppression of the individual. Religious fanatics for generations, in the middle east, find their identity in controlling others. Perhaps a controlling nature is the malicious personality of socialism too.

Dostoyevsky's notebook contains the following words: "The nation is nothing more than the national personality." He also said, "A nation is not a collection of different beings, it is an organized being and moreover a moral personality." How would you describe their national personality?

Snow again!

Some of you emailed and asked about our latest snowstorm. This one is a little bigger than the one last Sunday. I put on my coat to take out the garbage, and it didn't want to go. The photo below is from Tyler's bedroom window upstairs. It's expected to snow into tomorrow.

This photo was taken from the back porch. I enjoy this very cold weather we've been having. So does my wife Nanook! I mean Nancy! I don't think the sun is coming out today. Would you come out on a day like this?

After the snow

We had a nice little snowfall on Sunday here in Denver. Monday morning, I got up and took this photo of the Dakota Ridge (the hogback) behind our house. I thought you might enjoy it.

A family celebration

Nancy is not pictured in this photo (hopefully I will get one with her in it later), but I thought you might like to see this. The caption reads; "U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gives Florence Tupper a silver platter as she marks her 100th birthday in Northern Virgina. In 1962, she was Ban's host mother on his first U.S. trip. Also shown are Ban's wife and Tupper's niece."

Nancy meets U.N. Secretary General

Nancy is in Alexandria with her Great Aunt this weekend celebrating her 100th birthday. One of the guests for the evening at her party was none other than the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon. Read this article in the Washington Post. I should have photos tomorrow or Monday of Nancy with him.

Nancy called me tonight and said that it was a very nice event, crowded with reporters and photographers, and lots of excitement. The Post article explains the reason for his visit.

Hotels

As many of you know, I'm on the road quite a bit. In fact, I've spent most of my life in strange rooms. I'm convinced that a hotel is a place where you give good bucks for poor quarters. And the closets! They're so small they make special hunchbacked hangers! Not long ago, I was at a place in Portland and heard every moan and groan from the couple next door. All five minutes of it. Hotel walls are so thin when you want to sleep, but so thick when you want to eavesdrop!

The Island

I was in Seattle this week on business. I drove up to Mukleteo and took the ferry to Whidbey Island. Even though it was overcast and rainy, the views were spectacular.

I took the ferry over to the island and then drove to Oak Harbor. I thought you might appreciate this view from inside the ferry. Normally, I park the car in here and then go upstairs for clam chowder for the 20 minute ride. It's a nice break from all the traffic.

Hot in Denver

It was 81 degrees in Denver yesterday and the Broncos weren't playing, so Nancy and I went for a walk. It was almost too hot! I guess that's why we live in Denver.

My prediction for the Cy Young Award

I hereby have an official prediction on the Cy Young winner for 2009. Will it be Josh Johnson, or Tim Lincecum, maybe even Santana in the National League? In the American league it could be CC Sabathia or Felix Hernandez. All of these are great and worthy candidates. My prediction is Barack Obama will throw out the first pitch in the World Series and he'll win the Cy Young Award in both leagues.

What did you expect?

How can you call the President a cheap politician? He's cost the country a fortune! You see, I think a public official is very often a man who has risen from obscurity to something worse!

Breaking News

BREAKING NEWS: This just in!!! Obama wins the Heisman Trophy after watching a college football game!!!

My trip to Oregon

Nancy went to Portland and Skamania with me last week. I had a meeting on Friday at the Skamania Lodge. On the way there we stopped at Beacon Rock and climbed to the top. Below is Nancy on the very steep trail overlooking the Columbia River.

We also went to the Bonneville Dam to see the fish ladder. And yes, there are fish swimming up the ladder. They have windows in the observation room and you can see them in the water swimming up.

On Saturday, I played a round of golf. On the first hole I missed a hole in one by eight strokes! What a game, you can spend your whole day with hookers and your wife doesn't care. After shooting 106, I realized that golf is flog spelled backwards!

Do you believe?

Here is the Bible passage: "he who does not believe makes God a liar." (to put an end to all this impudence of having to prove something.)

Finally, have you believed? Is there something in your life which expresses that you have believed, for this is the only proof. (to put an end to all this impudence that you have to be this or that denomination.)

Catholicism

As it relates to what Catholics require; the fulfillment of the moral law, they apparently put less value in the Pauline development of man's relationship to the law - that it is impossible for sinful, unregenerate man to fulfill it - and fail to recognize the far deeper meaning of grace. As SK sees it, "either the law must stand before man as something external, and then there is from the outset the implicit impossibility of fulfilling it (Mohler, Clausen, and Hohlenberg, Tidsskrift, II, 1, p. 182), or it must have passed over into man completely and have been embodied as a priciple, but then it is no longer law."

Gomer and the Gingerbread man

I heard an interesting set of stories this week. The first story is from the book of Hosea. This story is about a man who marries a harlot named Gomer. No matter what he does to please her she strays and is unfaithful to him, and she finally runs away. Years later he finds her broken and nearly ruined and buys her back as a slave with 15 pieces of silver. Thirty pieces of silver was enough at the time to buy most any slave, so she must've been in rather poor shape. He says to her you mine and I am yours. We are to live our days together. It's an analogy for what God has done for us, even when we are unfaithful.

The other story I heard was the story of The Little Gingerbread man. The little girl makes the Gingerbread man but he runs away. She is not fast enough to catch him and he is gone. She is greatly saddened by this. Some time later, she sees the Gingerbread man in a store window lying on a pan. She goes in and asks for the Gingerbread man. The shop owner says, "that will be ten cents." She protests and says, "but that is my Gingerbread man. He replies, "it costs ten cents." So the little girl goes home and scrapes together her last pennies and manages to come up with ten cents. She returned to the store and bought the Gingerbread man. She looked at him and said, "I made you, and now I purchased you, you are mine."

Your Congress

I'm pretty fed up with our Congress. My fear is they are trying to be like California and finally take up the marijuana issue. They're planning a joint session.

At least they're economy minded. They manage to save a million dollars a year on a salary of One Hundred and Seventy Four thousand!

You Don't Miss Your Water

The Byrds sang these Lyrics in Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968:

In the beginning you really loved me
But I was blind and I could not see
But when you left me oh how I cried
You don't miss your water till your well runs dry

I was a playboy, I could not be true
I couldn't believe I really loved you
But when you left me oh how I cried
You don't miss your water till your well runs dry

Pascal says, "The reason it is so difficult to believe is that it is so difficult to obey."

Butterfly Pavillion

We took Noelle and the grand kids to the Butterfly Pavillion in Broomfield today. It was great fun. There must have been 10,000 or more butterflies all over the place. Andy seemed transfixed by some of them.

I got a few good photos too. In fact, there was a bus load of Polish people at the Pavillion and one of the butterflies landed on somebody's nose. Then it leaped onto another nose. It was the longest flight in history. The butterfly went from Pole to Pole in one jump!

Our granddaughter Daisy had an encounter with one of the "big eyed" ones in her stroller. Wait a minute, how many eyes does that thing have?

Need a sweep

This is what needed to happen when we played the Cards. If the Rocks can do it again, just win the last three games against the Dodgers, we'll take the Division Championship. You think we need a bigger broom? At least we won the wild card, but why stop there? Go Rockies!!

Grand Obsession

My friend Jerry Driesens suggested I read Grand Obsession about Harvey Butchart and the exploration of Grand Canyon. It's written by Elias Butler and Tom Myers. I really liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys an unusual biography. What made the book special for me was the fact that I knew Harvey Butchart growing up in Flagstaff. He was a math professor at NAU where my father taught. I played chess with him a number of times. And, unfortunately I never hiked in Grand Canyon with him which is what the book is about, his obsession with hiking the trails in Grand Canyon.

The writing style is wonderful, Harvey's life is interesting, funny, and at times very tragic. The approach to it is obviously honest, yet tenderly written without being sentimental. What a great read. You'll be surprised.