Fowl weather

My, my, my, haven't we gotten soft. They say it's hard to get to the games because of the snow. I actually like the snow. It fills up the potholes and makes driving easier.

Snow

Okay, so it did snow yesterday. We got maybe four or five inches at our house. Now I have bad news and good news. The bad news is that it's going to drop to zero tonight. The good news is that my air conditioning is working again! Have a Happy New Year!

Probability of snow

The probability of snow at 5:00a this morning is 100%. I looked outside and it's clear, sunny, and dry at 9:00a this morning. Who predicted this? We're supposed to get 4 to 8 inches! So where is it? It is cold here and they say it's coming from Canada. Can't we weatherstrip the border? In fact, it's so cold when I open the front door, a little light goes on.

Family

I found this old family photo the other day. I'm the kid on the front row on the right. The watch I'm wearing has been in the family for years. My grandfather sold it to me on his deathbed. The girl in the middle front row in the white sweater is my cousin Gail, and her brother Gary is on the back row next to the guy looking at the ceiling. We have been close friends for many years. As for the rest of them, I found a great way to solve the problem of visiting relatives. I borrow money from the rich ones, I give it to the poor ones, and none of them ever come back!

Flying Saucers

On the way back from Arizona we went though New Mexico. This particular flying saucer had a bad steering mechanism and landed deep in the sand trap on the sixth hole of this golf course. The pilot called back to his home planet and asked what he should do. The answer was curt: "Dummy, use your nine-iron!"

Set up the tent

The most unusual toy at Christmas was the Thomas and Friends tent. The kids took their toys in the tent and then ran inside and out, over and over and over again. It was endless. The idea that kids enjoy repetition and then we teach them to like variety is probably true. Why is that?

Christmas morning

On Christmas Eve we went to the Winterhaven Festival of Lights. All the lights were great, although the guy who put up stonehenge in his front yard was a little strange. It was cold, so we all bundled up.

Chistmas morning met me with blueberry muffins, hot coffee and lots of presents. The most fun was watching the kids try to open a present in one hand and play with a new toy in the other. The best gift of all was being together and remembering the love of Christ who gave us the greatest gift of all.

Santa Catalina Mountains at Christmas

How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven.

Insects galore

I went insect collecting with my Dad yesterday. He said he got most of what he was looking for. He handed me a big knife and I cut the bark off of the biggest mesquite trees I could find and held his net under the vermin hiding in the bark.

Christmas graffiti

I've been admiring the "rock" art in my daughters back yard. Of course the kids contribute to the design and general appearance of the art. It's something more than abstract. In fact, I think it's a category all its own.


Hey, if there are flowers, there ought to be bees! Here they come, one by one looking for nectar to take back home to their kids.

White Christmas

We're looking forward to another year of Christmas fun, snow, and enjoying Colorado! Who cares if we can't find the driveway! And how come the snowbank is never overdrawn?

Nap Time

Friends

People often complain that they find no friends. But this is very often untrue and one's own fault. I suppose it depends on what a man wants in the world. A friend is not necessarily a refuge for weak souls. Rather it may be someone who breaths life into you, someone who asks you to think and to be yourself, someone who lives a hard life and shows you the way. I'm so thankful for my friends.

The love of God

It was God after all, who gave up heaven and came to earth as a child. His goal? To redeem and save mankind. 1 John 3:1 says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us" referring to the gift of Christ. We love him because he first loved us. It reminded me of what Alcibiades said about Socrates, that from being the lover he became the beloved. And so this also expresses God's relation to a human being - it ends with God becoming the beloved.

Tyler coming home

We heard from Tyler and he is definitely coming home from South Korea in January. How he gets here is still unknown. But, he is coming home which is all we care about. These are always special times for us as a family and hopefully he'll be here during the birth of his new nephew, Eli Timothy.

Do you really want a "Do Over?"

Someone asked me the other day, "If you could live your life over again what would you do differently?" My reply was, "Plenty." She said she wouldn't change a thing and she was very happy about her life. I looked at her and thought, "It's rough to go through life with your contents looking as if they settled during shipping." Then I told her, "I get the feeling that I'm cutting the lawn of life with cuticle scissors!"

Anyway I said, "I don't have to live my life over. The first thing you need to know about life is, Christ lived it for you. And, he lived it perfectly, and then he took care of all the penalties and accusations against you and me. He assumed the blame for all the mistakes. Just believe in him and you'll be saved." Life isn't a dress rehearsal you know.

What does it mean to love?

The Bible says in Ephesians that the wife is to be submissive to her husband. I find it interesting that society is so offended by this. Simply take the statement that as a child, Christ was submissive to His parents. He shared their work, did his chores, obeyed them, etc. Society will always be offended by these viewpoints. The savior of the world stoops to this? Nevertheless according to the Bible, the husband is also to love his wife, just as parents love their children, and Christ loved the world.

So what does it mean to love? It is to want to be like the beloved, or it is to move out of one's own interests into the beloved's interests. So God (Christ) moves into the world (our interests). Once again society is no doubt offended by this. I think the most enlightened social norms define love as a 50-50 relationship, which is too bad because then you're always thinking about who is giving or loving the most and you end up measuring everything. Someone always loses.

Exercise and eating

I went to the doctor last week and he asked me how much exercise I've been getting because I've gained a little weight. I told him I jogged backwards the other day and put on five pounds! The problem isn't a lack of exercise, but I'm a very brisk eater.

I go to this power pump class at the Y sometimes. Our instructor gives us paper plates and we do lunges by sliding our feet back behind us and across the floor on the plates. The real challenge is getting your feet back once they're behind you. We do this many, many, many times. The other day I asked our instructor, "Where are the hot dogs?" Now I have a brand new exercise which is worse.

Optimism

I was an optimist when I tried to program my new TV by myself. Now I get movies on my electric can opener! I'm one of those guys who does his laundry, folds a sock, and thinks he's found the missing one! I just see the bright side of all the problems.

Fancy Lake

Someone asked what my favorite hike was this year. I think it has to be Fancy Lake in the Holy Cross Wilderness. It's beautiful, pristine, no people, magnificent scenery, and a very nice hike up to the lake.

Nancy and I stopped near a ravine for a short lunch on the way up. The weather was cloudy that day but no rain until we got back to the car. This is a place I hope to return to next year.

Didjeridoo

I play the didjeridoo for fun around the house, and sometimes outside to irritate the neighbors and animals. Mine is made of bamboo and uses beeswax for the mouthpiece. It's interesting that little Andy is interested in imitating it. I just hope he doesn't watch me too closely.

Dinner with your dentist

Nancy and I are going out for dinner tomorrow night with my Dentist and his wife. They are very nice people, so I guess I should take my toothbrush. They recently got back from Nepal and trekking in the Himalayas. I'm anxious to find out about their trip.

After dinner we're going to the Denver Botanic Gardens, Trail of Lights. The Gardens are a great place. They've got plastic Christmas trees now. They're hard to tell from the real aluminum ones.

Christ

It is heartbreaking that Christ, who is the teacher of love, is betrayed - with a kiss. This fact causes me to re-examine my own heart more closely because I tend to want what I want, when I want it. After all, what did Judas want? His own way. Larry Crabb says that we are so interested in fixing our own problems, and feeling better, and being restored, etc. etc. that feeling better has become more important to us than finding God. He's right. I think we often value healing for our pain more than pardon for our sin.

Finding God

Jesus was born of a virgin and so if we're going to talk about Christmas, it's not related to marriage and the nursery, or family or Christmas celebrations, or nice trees. No, the Christ child is spirit but also represents what it is to be human and consequently is not related to mother, father, child, etc. He is related to every single human being as spirit but also as man. He is not just the son of God, but the son of man. At every moment Christ is God just as much as he is man. This makes Christ's birth central to our faith. If he was not born of a virgin, he is of no value to mankind.

The birth of Christ is an event not only on earth but also in heaven, but our justification is also an event not only on earth but also in heaven. Christ now relates to us as man and can justify us. As God he has authority to justify us.

We find God to the degree that we want to find him.

Wake up!

Hey! I was the one who was supposed to sleep on Thanksgiving! What she needs is a good cup of coffee. It's a pretty powerful stimulant you know. I had a friend at work who drank twenty cups a day. He died last month, but a week later he was still mingling in the company lounge.

Pregnancy

My daughter seems to be enjoying herself out in the sunshine while being 8 months along. Pregnancy is an example of a woman's ability to take physical pain. No man could go through it. When a man cuts his finger trying to peel an apple, he has to lie down for ten days. No man could stand morning sickness. After the first urge to hurl, he'd say to himself, "if that woman tries to kitchy-koo one more time... I'll... I'll... get a headache maybe."

Crime or punishment?

When Thanksgiving was over and everyone was gone except grandad and gamma, and we could all finally relax a little, he had the look of a great Russian book, but no one could figure out if his face was witnessing crime or punishment. We opened the windows!

Zen ruination

Playing with the grand kids is loads of fun. We spent considerable time in the sandbox. The problem is they kept messing up my Zen garden designs. They had designs of their own.

Thanksgiving

We had a great time at Thanksgiving. There is so much to be thankful for besides food, shoes on our feet, and a roof over our heads. We have our family and friends, our health, and so much more. We trust you too had a special time with family and friends.

Thanksgiving

It's a good thing I'm not cooking on Thanksgiving. I'd put the turkey in the microwave and we'd probably eat at seven-thirty in the morning. I won't say this has been a trying year, but this is the first Thanksgiving we had a turkey that volunteered! Last year the turkey was sick. All day long it had a thermometer in it.

Ruined pants

Last week I was flying from Seattle to Portland on Horizon Air. The guy next to me by the window ordered red wine. Of course the flight attendant spilled it on my white dockers! I guess I should be happy, I got a drink to go. And I was worried about terrorists! Then I realized, you only need to worry about hijacking if your pilot's name is Mohammed, or if your filet mignon is served in pita bread.

Cars vs. autos

I've decided that the difference between a car and an auto is about $30,000. My friend wanted a 1950 Plymouth ever since 1950. He finally realized his dream. Last week he bought a 1950 Plymouth. The car pictured below has been there as long as I can remember...

Common Sense

Common sense is what we all have so much of, and can't understand why everybody else doesn't have any. For example, when we had the Democratic convention here in Denver a few years ago, all the hotels got ready by putting their Gideon Bibles on chains! Now that's common sense!

Cruise ships

The latest cruise ship disaster sent the ship back to port with thousands of hungry and smelly passengers. For all the cruise ship disasters, click here. On my last cruise I became so ill I was afraid to yawn! It was a great ship. I think they called it SS Deadly.

Another hike on another beautiful day

I got up this morning to go hiking with our little group and the temperature was 30 degrees and foggy. I checked my email and yes, the trip was still on. By 9:30 when we left it was 55 and sunny! Ahhhh, Colorado.

We hiked up to the summit of Carpenter Peak and enjoyed seeing a big beautiful buck several times on the hike.

At the top we enjoyed a nice view of the "brown cloud" over Denver (an inversion layer had set in), and we also enjoyed a nice lunch.

Being deaf

According to Nancy, I'm at that age where people have to start repeating. So I got a new voice mail that starts each message with "What was that?" One of these days I may get a hearing-aid dog.

Now here's the perfect marriage. She's blind and he's deaf.

Mountains and mosquitoes

On a recent hike near Breckenridge we enjoyed some magnificent views. Pictured below, our group is hiking down from a beautiful alpine lake high in the Mosquito range. Mosquitoes do grow big in this area. Recently a man in this area found one with six ticks on it. A mosquito is like a kid. When he stops making noise, he's on to something.

Flying saucers

I found out that Initiative 300 in Denver was voted down. The Initiative would have demanded the legitimization of flying saucers in Denver and required the city to post information on sightings and recent research on their web site. It also required the city to get a group of scientists together to form a committee to do more research on first contact preparedness.

You see, there are flying saucers over us all the time. Their occupants want to talk to our responsible leaders, but they're having trouble finding one!

Sunrise

The views from our house in the morning are sometimes stunning. It also means I'm getting up early in the morning to go exercise. It's mornings like this I have a real desire to exercise. So stay in bed till the desire goes away!

Deficit

It was Everett Dirksen who commented about the spending getting out of hand. On the Senate floor he said, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money." Now we're talking a trillion here, and a trillion there! So now, you have to tax people more, but they're unemployed! And Uncle Sam can't tax unemployment benefits. And since unemployment benefits have been extended, it really isn't all that bad. When you get up in the morning, you're already at work!

Where's my plane?

If the Lord had wanted to people to fly, he would have made it simpler to get to the airplane! So the other day I go over to the ticket counter of a no-frills airline and say, "Can I have two chances on your six-fifteen flight?" Looks like I lost. But it all turned out okay because at the end of the flight I didn't have to steal back my luggage. You see, it's a little disconcerting when you go to the airline counter to complain about lost luggage and the ticket agent is wearing your clothes!

Congressmen and cows

A Colorado congressman, returned to Western Colorado to his constituents for the first time since he'd been sent to Washington. He was trying to explain all the unpopular things he'd been voting for and the lack of results. His audience, irate farmers who'd been promised much weren't pleased with his explanations and pressed him. He tried a final explanation:

"You men ought to know the facts of life. You can put a bull in the pasture one evening, but you can't expect a herd of newborn calves by morning."

One farmer from Fruita, CO jumped up and said, "No, but I'd expect to see a heap of smiling from a heap of cows!"

Ymer

According to very old Norse mythology, clouds are formed by the giant Ymer's brain. I think this is because clouds make you reflective, they make you think and you never tire of looking at them. It reminded me of a profound thought. One way to live longer is to cut out the things that you want to live longer for.

Too busy?

November 15, 1905

A father and his young daughter were great friends and much in each other's company. Then the father noted a change in his daughter. If he went for a walk, she excused herself from going. He grieved about it, but could not understand. When his birthday came, she presented him with a pair of exquisitely worked slippers, saying, "I have made them for you." Then he understood what had been the matter for the past three months, and he said, "My darling, I like these slippers very much, but next time buy the slippers and let me have you all the days. I would rather have my child than anything she can make for me." Some of us are so busy for the Lord that He cannot get much of us. To us He would say, "I know your works, your labor, your patience, but I miss the first Love."

-G. Campbell Morgan

Hope

Perhaps the difference between heaven and hell is the proud courage which arrogantly thinks it can dread everything and the humble courage which dares to hope everything. I think it's those who learned to harden their hearts with a certain proud self-satisfaction that life stinks, who have the hardest time trusting in God. Perhaps it's better to have our heads bowed down in affliction and suffering.

I like what Herman Melville wrote about it.

"Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity."

-Herman Melville

Evergreen Mountain

Our group hiked up Evergreen Mountain yesterday. The result was this this nice view of Mt. Evans from the summit on a beautiful November day! You can't get much better than this.

Colorado is fantastic. We had a nice, warm 76 degree Colorado day for our hike. Our next hike is up to Carpenter Peak in a couple of weeks. Let's hope the weather holds out.

The opera

Nancy and I went to La Boheme last night, the opera. The way I see it is that no matter when you go to an opera, you've gotten there on time. I figured I'd go to the opera whether I needed the sleep or not. Actually, it was very good. The girl who played Mimi and was the main character was wonderful and her voice magnificent. Opera would be great if it weren't for all that singing!

Autumn in the morning

I walked around the lake yesterday and enjoyed a beautiful morning. It reminded me of the words of SK, "Everything during autumn indeed reminds us of decline - and yet it strikes me as being the most beautiful of seasons. When I begin to decline, would that someone might think as well of me as I do of autumn!" My prayer is that I finish strong.

We need to live more with nature if for no other reason than to get more of an impression of God's majesty. Huddled together in large urban centers we've pretty much abolished all overwhelming impressions of God's creation. By the way, I saw a beaver swimming in the lake but I was unable to get my camera out in time.

Miracle of the loaves and fish

I wonder if a man who could perform miracles would think about having the crumbs collected? Jesus collects the crumbs and it's no surprise that a poor person might say: 'He does not disdain the crumbs.' It is no surprise that a poor person says: 'The scraps, too, are bread - but now the richest one of all gathers up the scraps as if he were the poorest of all.' Now this is divine. Then, Jesus makes something big out of something small and feeds 5000. He becomes poor so that we might become rich.

I like what Leif Enger said about miracles:

"My sister, Swede, who often sees to the nub, offered this: People fear miracles because they fear being changed--though ignoring them will change you also. Swede said another thing, too, and it rang in me like a bell: No miracle happens without a witness. Someone to declare, Here's what I saw. Here's how it went. Make of it what you will."

Skull Valley

My Dad and I drove down to the little town of Skull Valley, AZ over the weekend. We went to the general store and got a couple of root beers. Skull Valley is a town of about 500 or so people, and believe it or not, it's quite lovely, charming, and quaint. The name Skull Valley came from the early pioneers to the area who found Indian skulls everywhere. Evidently, there was a major battle between two tribes and they just left their dead.

Below is a picture of the Skull Valley Elementary School. I know if I were a kid, I'd be climbing in those big cottonwood trees. You see, there are two important days in the life of a student: the day he starts school and day he's booted out!

Car manufacturers spend years designing cars with smooth, sleek lines. Then you have to get gas. What I want to know is, why do auto mechanics carry rags when they have perfectly good seat covers to wipe their hands on? Ah, Skull Valley. My guess is, these guys will fix your car and do a pretty good job.

Top Secret

They just added a new classification to secret papers in Washington. "Top Secret" used to be the ultimate. Then later you got, "Destroy Before Reading." Now you have, "don't bother reading it because it's too long." Did anybody ever worry about what the initials of the Senate Office Building were?

Voting

Some late-breaking news - with six cemeteries still to heard from, the election is too close to call! And, if Acorn is in charge of things the new motto will be, "Vote early, and vote often."

So, I thought I would impart a few words of "wisdom." Such as it is these days. I found voting for judges to be the most difficult thing. You have to go on-line and read all the reports about each one of them. Because I remember the Memphis judge who gave a hillbilly a divorce from his fourteen-year-old bride because she'd acted like a kid. Then there was a judge who had mirror in his chambers. Every time he passed it, he asked, "Who's the fairest of them all?" You just can't be too careful. After all, they were appointed by politicians.

As it relates to the rest of the candidates, I am reminded of the words of Woodrow Wilson, "If you think too much about being reelected, it is very difficult to be worth reelecting." And we've certainly seen a lot of that this year. It was former House Speaker Tip O'Neill who said, "As we all know, the truth is a frequent casualty in the heat of an election campaign." House Speakers say the strangest things, don't they! Maybe they should stop speaking!

Weather

I'm not sure how much more biking we'll have this year. Below is Nancy biking near our house, close to Chatfield State Park. We've had unseasonably warm weather but it won't last long. Knowledge of bad weather and preparing for it just doesn't cover the agonies of a morning when the temperature is zero. You know it's winter when you see a Dalmatian with thermal spots!

Halloween kids

On Halloween, he really knew how to scare people, smiling and waving. It's pretty clear to me she wants to pick it up and take it home. Shopping runs in the family. This is one of the sports in which her mother has a black belt!

Where to go on vacation

The government tells us to go to friendly countries. I can't find any! So we go to the mountains. I know a few things now. Knowledge is what's left after we smarten up!

Pessimists and Horses

Nancy and I went biking a few weeks ago near our house. Seeing this reminded me of the definition of a pessimist. A pessimist is an optimist on the way home from the track! I remember the last horse I picked at the track. He was so slow, I think they made him a mascot for the post office. I like to follow horses - which follow other horses.