I've always wanted to put lights on my house. Somehow my family never shared my desire. This year I did it. I planned ahead and bought the lights 75% off last January. With a few trim nails and some special clips it only took about 3hrs to hang them.

The lights aren't working right now. I"m not sure why, but I"m guessing it is large connection I cached in the downspout. I think there was a warm day, the snow melted and then froze into a block of ice in and around my connection. Everytime I turn the lights on, the GFI outlet trips. Hmm, next year will be better.

The Wart!

The last time I had a wart I used wart remover, a sharp knife and a pliers to remove it. Painful? Yes! but it worked

There is now new and different wart on my foot that has been really hurting. It's been nine months of painful walking and I'm ready for it to be gone. This time I took an online wart remover course through YouTube and became self certified to make my own liquid nitrogen wart removing device out of a can of air duster. Sarah talked me out of it, something about damaging nerves and the low co-pay our health insurance has.

So I tried over the counter wart remover but it didn't work.

Finally, I went to the doctor yesterday.

This was a new doctor for me, since I had recently moved to the area. He did the normal new patient routine of asking my health history, full patient exam, and entering all of the information into a networked database (very cool). Then he did what he does to all new patient: EKG, blood tests for Lymes disease, vitamin deficiencies, and about three other tests that I can't remember.

Then he looked at my wart. He told me about warts (nothing I hadn't already read on web MD) and referred me to a dermatologist.

Three hours later I was at the dermatologist. She looked at my wart and decided there might not be a wart left under all the skin I had killed with that wart remover. If there was a wart there she couldn't get the liquid nitrogen on it because of the dead skin. She told me to do nothing to it and come back in six weeks.

So, I still have a wart. It is exactly same as it was at the start of the day. It makes me walk differently, giving me shin splints when I go jogging. After a day on my feet I can feel a throbbing pulse in the base of the wart, reminding me that (contrary to what the dermatologist might think) it is very much there. Maybe I'll explore the pliers/knife/YouTube option again.

The "But" in the sermon on the mount.

I've been thinking about Old Testament Law recently. How important is it? Do we follow it or ignore it? I did not think either seemed balanced. An "Eye for an Eye" doesn't seem to reflect Christ's love. "Go and sin no more" doesn't seem to reflect God's justice.

Today I re-read part of the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5. Christ says he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Then he gives six examples of the law, after each example he says "But I tell you" and gives an example of grace and love.

I think the "but" is the important line between the law and the life of one who imitates Christ. Christ is telling us to live on his side of the "but" while respecting the law on the other side.


Two observations

First, Christ's standard is higher than the law's and more difficult to meet. Under the law I wasn't allowed to kill my brother. Christ has upped that. Now I can't even express my anger at him. While Christ has upped the standard, he also upped the grace. Under the law no-one was dying for your failure. But now Christ has died because you can't make his standard.

Secondly, it is messy knowing how to live as Christ tells us to while respecting the law (which is still valid). How do we maintain justice and take an "eye for an eye" while turning the other cheek?

In the Schleitheim Confession Michael Sattler wrote "The sword is an ordering of God outside the perfection of Christ" I find this concept of ordained by God but outside the perfection of Christ to be helpful in understanding how we relate to both the law and the commands of Christ. The law is ordained of God, but outside the perfection of Christ. My goal as a follower of Christ is to live towards the perfection that Christ demonstrated and to leave the law part behind. I will not protest when others execute the law, because it is ordained of God. I simply believe that Christians should choose to live by the higher standard that Jesus taught.


What are your thoughts or comments? I'd be interested to hear them.

Using a level doesn't always help

Every time I do a small home improvement project Sarah reminds me of the importance of using a level and a square so that things don't come out looking, well, like some of my past projects.

Yesterday I used a level. I was building shelves for our laundry room. It took forever. I had to start with rough cut boards. By mid-afternoon I had things almost ready to hang. The boards had been planed and cut to size. I built braces to mount and put a coat of finish on everything.

I used a level to hang the braces. It took about an hour because I was working over top the washer and dryer. When I finally climbed down and took a look it was obvious that these shelves were far from level. I have not been that angry in a long time.

Then I checked the level against a level edge of trim in the house. It was a faulty level. The little bubble was there, but it was making things off by about 10 degrees. Then I took a hammer and smashed the level. Then I quit. Then I ate supper.

I had a fish named "beet"

Up until this week my aquarium had three fish: beet, bop, and stripe. I now have two fish. Beet passed away. He had a fin rot disorder so I gave him the flush to a better place. Bop and Strip do not seem to miss him, though I do. Condolences, cards, flowers, and cash gifts in his honor can be sent to my home. Especially the cash gifts.

I have a wart on the bottom of my foot-right on the meaty ball part. I've been using wart remover for the last 10 weeks. It slowly eats away the flesh at a rate that is comparable to the speed at which my teeth grow. Occasionally I try to speed things up a bit, you know, take matters into my own hands. I use my knife and Sarah's leather man (don't tell her, she doesn't know and might be kind of germophobic about it) to remove larger parts that I consider to be part of the wart. Inevitably I remove too much flesh and my foot hurts. I end up limping around for two or three days. Today is one of those limping days.

Shucks,! Sarah just found out about her leather man.

Sometime in September we are going to be taking a canoe voyage down the Delaware River. We plan to spend 4 days and 3 nights floating, camping, eating fresh toxin containing fish, and generally having a grand old time. I'm not sure if Nelke will be coming. She has become a bit of an old dog, which doesn't make much difference considering she has hated water as long as I've known her.

I'm off to hear the reading of "The egg and I" as read by Sarah

Ramblings of a sweatty man

I like to sit on my porch in the evenings and relax with something cold to drink and listening to the radio or the birds chirp. I like to work in the garden pulling weeds or making things grow. I'm realizing that when I was growing up, my dad sometimes did the same things. Hmm.

After years of backpacking I'm realizing I don't have any car camping gear.I'm looking for one of those old green Colman camping stoves. If someone wants to clean out their basement I'd be up for taking it.

I'm trying to decide what to do this fall. Paddle the Delaware River Trail while camping on islands along the way, spend several days camping in the Catskills, or go south and camp in Cape Henlopen State Park? One of these years we are just going to start driving west. Sarah hasn't seen the Rockies, much less camped on the tundra at 11,000 feet with views of mountains 50 miles away. Why do I keep ignoring these adventures I know I could have? The Black Forest Trail would be nice to do some weekend.

I have to go drive the tractor and wagon now. The campers seem to always love it and I don't know why.

Anyone have a garden gnome they don't want? Anyone's neighbor have a garden gnome? Sarah would like a largish one.

Iraq

This is a hard documentary to watch, but it was very helpful in clarifying my understanding of why Iraq is the way it is. I'm sure you could get it through netflix.

Pictures

Sarah's chickens (above) and shed (below)

Steve an Korin's wedding, and our outing to a nature preserve.

Our dinning room and Sarah's garden bird (anyone have a Garden Gnome? She really want's one)

Out my window

I live in a cabin in the woods. This means I get to see and hear the woods scenes: Foggy mornings, wet evenings, snowy pines, flowering laurels, and an occasional deer or turkey. Right now the woods are in the unique situation when it clears up after a thunderstorm only to transition to a wet misty dusk. A bird is singing loudly.

Why do birds sing?


In other news, I took my first legal trip with my CDL. I drove the bus from Camp into the Bronx. It wasn't hard at all.

Sarah is making brownies, now is a good time to visit the kitchen.

I'm back...did anyone miss me?

I know, I abruptly stopped posting. I gave up the computer for lent. Then the computer gave up the ghost. Then I moved.

Now I'm in a new house with a new computer from which I can write blog entries. Did anyone miss me? Do I need to transition to facebook to be heard?

Anyway: Camp is about to happen. I'm managing as many details as I'm forgetting. Things are moving fast-really fast. Problem arise, we look for solutions, and we solve them.

My new computer has Windows Vista. I don't know what all the hype is about. It seems to work fine for me, and I kind of like the newer look.

Our strawberry plants are growing nicely. They arrived in mid April and I planted them out under a large plastic dome. Now they are producing a strong supply of berries and producing runners. I didn't expect them to do so well.

Money

Is passing a big stimulus a way of not dealing with our economic problems but drowning them them instead?

Some teenager should do this next summer

I had this idea that a jobless teenager could do. Plant a flower garden like this one. Its a $10 flower garden with instructions. After you have some flowers growing the jobless teenager picks them and visits a local nursing home visiting residents to deliver flowers. Each week the teenager picks more flowers and delivers them to the same residents. They could even go to goodwill and buy up a bunch of 25 cent glass vases for the flowers. As the person builds relationships with the resident they could start to glean stories. If the teenager was a good writer (like my sister Boni is) he/she could journal about the experience or write down stories that are gleaned from the residents. A parent wanting their child to do this could use incentives like movie tickets and I-pods at the end of the summer.

Anyway, I thought this would be a cool thing to do and that someone (Not to mention any names like Boni or Anita) should do it. Besides, a flower garden is a nice thing.

I have no pictures to post

Sarah and I have returned from a week long tour of the west (by "west" I mean that we made it to Fort Wayne Indiana) I was recruiting for camp and she was catching up with friends along the way. Along the way we picked up a side table made by my cousin out of an old gym light and several bill board tarps that I plan to make into the worlds biggest slip and slide.

Sarah keeps the books around these parts. She is very good at it. She is good at a great deal of things. Tonight she was giving me the monthly financial briefing complete with interactive color coded pie charts illustrating how much money we spend. (I'm not making this up) I know know that we allocate 26.76% of my income (after taxes and tithe) to paying for student loans. When I saw that I thought to myself: "Gee Zach, if you didn't go to college you could be buying motorcycles (like my younger brother), a new house (like my older brother), or running up large cell phone bills (like someone who I won't mention)." Was college worth it? I could be talking on my expensive cell phone as I drive a new bike to a new house. Instead I'm being told by a pie graph where my is going.

I've always had critical things to say about higher education. Especially about how a liberal arts college doesn't always give you practical skills. Sarah's frustration in job hunting and this article seem to make my point for me.

So long for now!

Looking back at the year

This morning at breakfast Sarah and I decided it has been a good year. I've uploaded some pictures of our journey through the last year.


Our house at Houghton shared with Ethan and Queena was a year of life that the four of us will never forget: good food, friends coming over, and playing games.



Last year this time I had completed my college classes and was looking for work. I ended up driving an hour one way to work for minimum wage doing a job that was boring beyond all imagination. Somehow I actually miss working at the ski lift at Holimont Ski area.

Graduation was a happy time. Sarah was co-salutatorian of our class and Ethan was the junior class marshal (that's what the white gown is about)

This is me turning 25 on the Black Forest Trail. Myself and the Mast family men explored the trail during our "Men vs. Wild" backpacking trip. It is the best trail I have ever hiked.




Moving day from Houghton to Camp Deerpark. We could not have done it if Dan and Steve had not randomly showed up to help. With all of our valueless things in the U-Haul we left for Westbrookville, NYon May 21st.

Some of the camp staff took a long weekend in Cape May NJ before the summer season started.


Construction on the new cabin project (our future home) dominated much of the fall.

Nine cousins and Nelke spent a week hiking slowly through the Delware Water Gap National Recreation Area in New Jersey.


Sarah and I spent a week at a resort in FL with her family and grandparents. A good time was had by all. Nelke spent the week in her homeland of Pigeon Valley, NY

The cabin project is starting to shape up on the outside. The inside still needs drywall, paint, flooring, and a kitchen.

Free to a good home

I happen to have acquired a wireless card for a laptop. It is brand new and I have the CD for it. I'm looking to pass it along to a deserving person. Also willing to trade it for canoe related things, new crocs (or knocks).

My rants and raves (If you read the whole way through then you must have nothing to do)

Rant #1
It was not that long ago that the word "communist" carried the connotation that "terrorist" now does. We fought communism with democracy. Our post 911 strategy is to let democracy sweep through the countries that hate us. Even as we do that our Government has begun regulate our economy. First it was an economic stimulus, then the bail out of banks. Soon it will be an auto industry bail-out which carries conditions for manufacturing certain types of products. This is not communism by any measure, but it is a move towards it. If communism is so bad, why are we leaning that way? Why don't we practice the democracy that we preach?

Rant #2
The prospect of the auto makers being bailed out has me thinking. Generally in business if you are a bad business person your business fails and you look for work in another sector. I consider this to be natural selection in the free market. This process should be motivating people to make better business decisions. If the government does bail out the auto industry, I'm concerned that the motivation to make good business decisions may change. I'm also worried that a government regulated industry will not produce the best possible products. (For example: if GM and Ford went under, foreign auto makers would have a larger market and we would have cars with better fuel efficiency)

I have to stop now so Sarah can use the computer. I realize that some people think I'm nuts for spending my time posting these kinds of things. Sarah says my poor grammar and spelling undermines whatever credibility I might have had. But I say: "This is my blog and I can say whatever I want to (except for threats and hate language which I think might be illegal) and you keep reading it."

It's november

Its November and the elections are over. I'm not happy that Obama won. I voted for Bob Barr and he did not win. Before you criticize my vote I want to know who you voted for. Today I passed a sign in someone's yard that read: "I'm a bitter gun owner and a I do vote"

The construction on our new dwelling is continuing. We just got back from FL where we stayed in an nice resort, didn't go to Disney world, harassed large alligators from a canoe, and had a generally good time. Pictures of FL are on facebook.

Help!

Somehow my start menu and blue tool bar ended up on the right side of my monitor. How do I make it go back?

some pictures and some thoughts

We started construction on the new staff housing project this week. Nelke is checking out the foundation location of the addition that we will live in. I've taken a holiday from program related work and have been spending my days helping to dig footers, haul fill away, and set the forms.

Below is the view this morning from the porch of the house we live in. The fall colors are hitting their peak this week. I did some thinking as I walked the dog this morning. It is all of our senses working together to create the specialness of fall. Simply seeing the fall colors, or feeling the cool air, or smelling the damp leaves doesn't trigger the "its fall" instinct in us. All of those things must happen at the same time. Anyway, that's what my mind was doing while Nelke was doing her thing.

Some more thoughts: The Election. I think we should all vote for Ron Paul even though he isn't running. This week the building inspector came and told us specifically how we must frame the footers of the houses. I noticed that the existing structures hadn't been constructed with any of the standards we are required to use and they were still standing. That is when I decided that our government is too large and too involved with stupid details. I still don't know why we have to pour a concrete floor in a crawl space.

Some more thoughts: The Economy. Here is what I think happend: Greed and materialism were the driving ideology at both the consumer and corporate levels. Or, to simplfy things: Too many people chasing the American Dream at the same time.

Now it's nap time on the sofa Sarah recovered

Election thoughts

After watching the debate last night (thank you to fox5 for postponing your normal pointless programing) I'm realizing Obama and MCcain are very alike. The PBS guy would ask a question and Obama would respond, then MCcain would respond with slight variations same answer. What if I don't like their answers? What if I don't want a President micromanging "Main Street" by bailing out "Wall Street"?

The gas station down the street has over 10 choices of cold cereal. In a country this big, can't we get at least half a dozen parties? Apparently half of americans would like some more choices.
You and I can't instantly start a party that competes with the two leading parties. But we can vote. The internet has given us access to a halffull of other canidates position's on issues. By putting our vote on the issues that matter to us (as opposed to the lesser of two evils) we give power to those smaller parties and take it from the larger ones. We also force the big canidates to rethink their position on the issues we leave over.

Anyway, that is ramblings.