Photos and fun

Ok, so here are a bunch of pictures. I had the worst time getting them up.

Our Wilderness First Responder instructor Ken puts a neck brace (sleeping pad) on Torry

This is the Star Lake campus. Some buildings are hidden, but generally people should want to take classes at a place like this.

That's me either thinking about Sarah or pondering if God is within time or outside of time.

I honored our fallen heros on memorial day by "pulling my weight" around the house. This is a before shot.

This is after I was done. The whole thing took me about 7hrs of work and cost $20. That's a mennonite Landscaper for you. A big thanks to Anita for helping glue the caps ( I couldn't have done it without you)

Randomness/Rambleness

So I usually post a picture or two and have some cleverly worded story to accompany it. But not this time. The internet doesn’t work upstairs where my pictures are. So instead of an entertaining story, I’ll just ramble.

Life is funny, but people are funnier. In reflecting on how I write my blog entries (do I over analyze my life?) I’ve realized that I’m conforming to a trend. People don’t like to share what’s closest to them. I don’t disclose details about how I feel about Sarah, or about God working in my life. In church people offer prayer requests for aunt Hilda and a neighbor’s friend, but do people share what is closest to them? Not generally. I could go on and offer some semi-insightful concluding thoughts but right now I only have two things to say: I’m tired, and I miss Sarah. It was crazy hot at work to day and it’s worn me out. At one point I picked up my hard hat and a pool of sweat had formed a puddle in it-running out of the head band. If I go to bed now I can wake up in the morning and one of my two problems will be fixed. On a side note, this is the first summer since ’01 that I’ve been around to work and play softball. Somehow I have to write a sermon by late July, any ideas. I wish God would be more direct about such things.

Blood and Gutts

Star Lake, NY. It's a cool place. (I would post pictures, but I don’t have my USB cable) There are some buildings, the woods, and of course a lake. And I'm here for 10 days. I'm studying, and it’s all about wilderness medicine. I find it all incredibly intriguing. The body is amazing. There is so much that a person can know about it. Maybe I should go to medical school.

Or maybe not. It would take more years than I ever would want to spend in one place. Besides, backcountry medicine is so much cooler. You can do more stuff with less education (that sounds scary). Then there is the adrenaline rush: something about seeing blood and guts helps you forget how little sleep you had. Today we walked onto a scenario that was as bad as it gets. Shelby lost a hand, Tim had a sucking chest wound and was spitting blood, but Torrie was the worst: his guts came out. So we did our best to fix them up. These situations make a dislocated shoulder seem like a walk in the park.

While I love this knowledge, it makes me realize some of the situations I’ve been in and not realized the risk, or the risks that I’ve taken in the past. Hopefully if I ever encounter serious physical disability on the trail I’ll remember my stuff. It’s a shame I’m involved in all the mock situations-I could have some really cool looking pictures.

Morbidity

This past week two children have died in equipment related accidents in Lancaster County. A six year-old was run over by a skid loader. And a three year-old Amish boy suffocated in a fertilizer spreader.
We work with equipment a lot at work. Skid loaders, tractors, dump trucks and stuff like that are all part of the daily routine. As spring wears on we have become even busier than normal. Organization and maintenance get left behind. This Thursday it caught up with us and I watched as our equipment destroyed a young life innocently standing his front lawn.
The trailer was parked on a hill in a development. It’s a peaceful development, the kind where children play in the yard and parents walk their dogs and chat with neighbors. I hitched the trailer up with-out giving it much thought: crack the jack, latch the ball, add the safety chains and attach the break-away brake. As my boss pulled away up the hill the hitch bounced off of the ball. Apparently I had failed to fasten it correctly. But that’s what safety chains are for: catching my mistake. The big moment for the safety chains came and their hooks bent without slowing the trailer at all. The break-away brake that should have locked all four of the trailers wheels didn’t trigger.
I ran along side trying to block the wheels with 6”x 6” blocks, but 22 feet of run away steel will do whatever it wants. In this case it wanted to go down hill through a development as fast as it could. The first thing it hit was the set of skid loader forks we had left on the shoulder of the road. They spun around and redirected the trailer a few degrees: on a bearing through a yard. As I sprinted in vain I realized that things were about to get worse.
He really didn’t deserve to get maimed. But sometimes you are in the wrong spot at the wrong time. And he was in the wrong spot and this was the wrong time. He had stood there and watched us work for most of the day. He never said anything: just watched. But that wasn’t unusual, that kind of thing happens in developments all the time.
I guess what happened to him was a lot like getting hit by a truck: a lot of metal hitting really fast. When the trailer stopped he was laying in the grass. We didn’t really know what to do. I had never been in this situation before. We pulled the trailer off of him and loaded him into the truck.
It took several hours but he was resuscitated. I had to find a pressure treated post and some stain, but I was generally able to reconstruct him. His little red flag still worked and I managed to reuse his numbers. We dug a new hole the next day and he stood there and watched us finish the job.

Weekend Warrior

Guillermo and I by the "Squeeze Inn"

The past 40 hrs have been crazy. Friday night the backpacking class fit ourselves into the school van and drove to Potter Country. After being lost in a State Forest for a while the ever-confident Hibb found the trail head. The hours that followed made me feel like I was living a Backpacker Magazine article: first timers setting up a tent, the “oh, I forgot my toothbrush”, and the scary stories around the fire. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer trail to hike. It was a slight downgrade that followed a mountain creek for miles on end. No wonder they call it “God’s country.”

The "Global Night Commute"

We got back just in time for me to leave for Rochester. I’ve never gone to any kind of political activism event. I’m not sure how much Invisible Children is into activism, but camping with 200 other people in downtown Rochester was cool. By “cool” I mean that the night was a swirl of people talking, cars going by, city lights glaring, and strangers offering to buy donuts and coffee. I took my prayer shift at 5:30 am and we started the 3 mile commute to our van by 6:30.

At the moment I’m pretty worn out, but the weekend was just the break I needed from assignments.

You see crazy stuff driving...

Story #1

Some knuckle head decided to crash into a restaurant in Lewistown, so my return trip to school became a little longer. Two lanes of cars were fitting themselves into one. I was giving the two flatbeds in front of me some space when an 1970s RV with a grandpa at the controls made a decision he now regrets. Following a dump truck in the right lane wasn’t good enough for him, he wanted that spot in front of me and he wanted it bad. I started to blow my horn as I saw he was going to cut me off, but the tin box on wheels never got that far. In his excitement he gunned the engine and swerved, just not well enough to avoid the dump truck. Seeing the awning being ripped off the side of his RV at 10mph was about the funniest thing I’ve seen. It reminded me of bulldozer smashing the slums of Nairobi, a shattering sound from cheap metals and plastics. I couldn’t help but smirk at Grandpa as we coasted by.

Story #2

I was about 3 miles from home when an older blue car darted backwards down a driveway and across the road in front of me-half burying itself in the bank. It was on a dangerous corner so I decided to assist the situation. If the car had keys or a driver the extraction would have been quicker. After knocking on a door I gave the half dressed homeowner the classic “is that ther yer car settin in bank?” I heard a women’s voice from inside “I told you that #@!$er’s e-brake didn’t work.” Five minuets and a lot of cussing later the car was back on the driveway.

Therapy: the cure for spring fever

Spring fever is setting in. In High School and Rosedale it was the kind of feeling that made you want to take off your shoes and lie in the shade of leafy maples. But no, that kind of spring fever doesn't happen here. There are no leafy maples, and taking off your shoes could be risking frost bite. I don't have that kind of spring fever.

I have the "I don't feel like doing anything" kind of spring fever. Its the kind of mood that lures you into playing Halo for hours on end. I really think it is a defense mechanism of the mind. Like your body, the mind will simply slow down or refuse to behave if you overwork it.

But there is hope and I think I've found the cure.

I've been going to therapy regularly and appear to be improving. Twice this past week I went therapying, usually for 7-8hrs. Tuesday was an "under the stars" session and it got a little cold around 4am. Sunday night's session was particularly renewing. I staked out my portable rehabilitation center and slid into my mummy bag, letting the sound of the rain rehabilitate me. My backpacking class has a required group therapy session this weekend, but I'll be back in time to go to Rochester for a Saturday night massive group session to help the children in Uganda. Details at http://www.invisiblechildren.com/theMovement/globalNightCommute/

Three adventures with "29537"

When I spend time with Adventurer 29537 I never know what might happen. We did several things worthy of mention in the past week.

First, we went to Goodwill. The “Bargain Bin” scored me a sweet costume. For 50 cents I BECAME BATMAN. What could be cooler than a Batman costume? How about standing up out of the sun roof of a gold Honda civic while your cape flaps in the wind! (Children remember; don’t try this at home. Unlike Batman, you are not a superhero and can’t stand up in a gold Honda civic just because you have a costume.)

Secondly, we are driving through Lancaster and Adventurer 29537 remembers that he knows a Muslim guy who works at a fitness club and that he will give us free smoothies if we come in. We never found the Muslim guy (Remade?) and we certainly did not get free smoothies, but we did get a tour of the place. A woman showed us all around with a very fabulous narration: “this is the free weight area, we have 14 benches and 2,700 pounds of weight…" Each bench had some buff 25 year-old on it lifting more weight than Rosedale has in their weight room. And the whole time I’m thinking: “smoothie.” We left an hour latter without smoothies but with an offer to “come back tomorrow and try a free work out.” The hot tub looked pretty tempting.

Lastly, Adventurer 29537 had to stop at the store to do some shopping. I needed some stuff for my lunches so I headed around back. I have never in my life seen such an enormous pile of snack food! About a case of chips had been opened and dumped out, so I waded in with my chacos. I was surrounded by about 40,000 calories of junk food! It was awesome. I only wanted a few goodies so I was in and out in about a minuet and back to the Bat mobile in time to see Adventurer 29537 come out $10 poorer.

I have cold toes today

There isn’t supposed to be snow on the ground. It isn’t supposed to be 20 degrees out. It’s supposed to be sunny, with green grass, fresh air, and flowers. But it doesn’t know any better. For the time being I’ll stay chained in the dorm so I don’t give my chacos frost bite.

And while I’m chained I’ll be reading my maps. I’ve developed an odd obsession with maps recently. I think it started when I got an atlas of the US for Christmas. Then I spent money on an atlas of New York State. But knowing every road in the state wasn’t enough. I need to know every building, stream, elevation change, dirt road, and marsh! So convinced the United States Geological Survey to sell me a Topo map of my area. But there is so much more to know. I’m making a birthday list for all three of you who get me gifts (this excludes Sarah, but includes Boni and Anita). This list will include: world maps, a GPS unit, a PA state atlas, and a personal cartographer.

Basic Survival

For my homework, sometimes I get to go on weekend-long hiking trips through the lowlands away from school. This particular friday I was in a hurry and packed almost no food. By Sunday I was rather hungry, and miles from a dumpster. By lashing my knife to a branch, and lying motionless in the shallow stream for hours, (hurray for GoreTex) I was able to bag enough venison to not only feed me, but also fill my pack for those cozy evenings back in the dorm, when I have a hankering for some good steaks, grilled on the heatsink of my roommate's sound system, a device I have been thankful for since the passing of Sir Heater.

Terror and Panic: I almost died.

For me it is fundamentally terrifying to be inside something that is underwater. If it ever happened, I would panic. As soon as the water closed in reason would flee and my body would fight the walls in a vain hope of oxygen.

And so, I’ve decided to face my fear.

The first time I sat in a kayak it took me almost two minuets to wiggle my legs and hips down into the boat. The whole time the little devil of my fear sat on my shoulder screaming “YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!” Somehow, deep inside, I agreed with him. The two life guards on the side of the pool were a bit reassuring, except that when I was upside-down they wouldn’t’ be able to see me struggling against my plastic grave.

My kayak was in the water now. Charlie, my instructor, told me “just roll under water and pull the skirt off the boat and swim out.” The voice on my shoulder whispered: “You are going to run out of air before you even get out of the boat.” I squeezed my eyes closed trying to ignore the voice; then I rolled to the right.

The water that closed around me was a suffocating blanket. It poured into my nostrils-a violent army overtaking my lungs. My mind panicked. I thought of those lifeguards on the edge of the pool, too far away to save me. Half drowned I realized the voice from my shoulder had been right. Why hadn’t I listened to him back on the concrete? Why didn’t I just stay in my room and study tonight? I didn’t want to die! Charlie wasn’t going to save me; he didn’t want to interfere with my learning the basics. I was about to black out. I had to do something! My hand tried the one thing that that Charlie had said to do. The release cord was only 18inches away, but it took my half drowned mind an eternity in the upside-down wet darkness to find it. The last thing I remember was pulling the cord.

Standing in the pool next to my boat I realized that the life guard’s conversation hadn’t progressed more than a few sentences. Charlie’s “good job! Ready to roll with a paddle?” insinuated that I hadn’t been under for more than five seconds.

There are some striking similarities between my pool experience and my faith experience. For me, trusting God can be like that first roll. I’m sure it couldn’t possibly end well. But I do it. I take the plunge. And when things workout I come back to God, who stands there like Charlie, encouraging me to try something even harder.

Pictures of life: Mine, your's, and maybe a critter's or two

A grave yard where Sarah and I started dating.

Cute, but it's what's for dinner

It's a poodle pup

This is a walk and wall combo I built this fall.

My mom loves Christmas gifts

Your very own: Kevin

Where I come from the women (in this case Anita) carry guns

He doesn't bite, I promise.

Boni-our very own american gothic

Samuel

People say that Joella is more like me than any of my siblings. I don't deny it.

My dad and a goat

Smackdown! and Platonism

I’ve joined the club. The HWF. W stands for wrestling, F stands for federation, and you can guess what the H stands for. I make my amateur Pro Wrestling debut this Thursday night pending my ability to get an outfit. I go by “Category 5” and will be joining the guys in our mattress arena on 2^nd East. Last week we had a smashing performance in which the Natural Hazard was “knocked out” by the new guy Too Cool A.J. Hawk. It was a real shame. I was rooting for the Natural Hazard. And after his jump off of the lounge table onto Shadow Dragon I thought he was untouchable. But a whack with the wet floor sign changed all that.

On the other end of my life, I’m trying to prepare for a test. I hate essay tests. The teachers always give you a bunch of questions and you have to prepare for them all. I wish they could do it orally; I’d do so much better. So now I’m trying to relate platonic thought to themes from Lewis’s book. It’s not such a bad thing, except that it is 70 degrees out and I’m dying to get out.

Dieing: families at a time.

Right now there are 3.5 million people in Kenya whose food supply is about to expire. The reason? Drought. That number grows to 11 million when you add Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, and some from Tanzania. What did they ever do to deserve it? But the numbers don’t have faces; they just have a string of zeros on the end and some relating facts: they are easy to forget. Its Africa after all, they die over there all the time. The news story will end and our life will move past it.

But will their life move past this drought? Will they expire with their food supply? Why would God let this happen? I don’t know. I’ve been studying the suffering in the book of Job and finding it to be an amazing time.

The theology of Job’s comforters was as follows: God rewards righteousness and punishes sin. Job is being punished, therefore he must have sinned. In studying the book of Job we see that Job did not sin, and thus the theology of the comforters is wrong. A theology truly reflective of the book of Job could go like this: “God punishes and rewards as he pleases, he is God. It stinks to be Job.” There are factors and events which we cannot see, but which affect us. For Job is was a wager by God on how loyal Job really was. We must simply accept what seems like injustice, and cry out to God for mercy in hope that he will change the things that only he can see.

This starvation is one of those events in which some supernatural arrangement is being played out on dusty plains. Have these 11 million committed some group sin worthy of punishment? I hardly think that the child in the picture deserves anything but the food he begs for. But we should become beggars on his behalf, begging God to send relief. Jesus came to proclaim freedom for the captives not just in a spiritual way but also in a physical way. Christ was an extension of God’s character. God can bring rain, hope, and a future to east Africa. And if we care at all, we will ask Him on their behalf.

Weddings and walking

So much has happened and I’ve written so little.

The wedding went well: The couple got married, the food didn’t run out, and I took lots of pictures. Then I loaded my car and pointed it south for a backpacking trip. Winter/spring backpacking is almost a different sport than summer backpacking. The forecasted 58 temps turned out to be 38. What was a 30% chance of rain became 100% chance of rain and ice. Fortunately the rain came at night, and the ice wasn’t thick. All of this suffering makes summer seem like a good idea.

Have skills, but none that pay.

It's almost break, I'm one 50min class away from feb. break. But what a break it will be. I've just landed a job taking pictures for a freind of a freind's wedding. Except they got me because pro's over charge, and I don't (charge). It should be cool. I only have to learn a Digital Rebel in 24hrs, shoot a wedding, and help them print online. What could possibly go wrong? I'll chill at the Mast's for a night or two and then go home. Adventuer 29537 and I are going to get together an plan a secret operation which I can't expound on here.

So after I've helped the folks remeber their wedding, and planned my thingy, I'm off for the AT with another YES group (www.needssalt.org). I need to plan a route and some trail side programing in one and a half days. And then, Bam! I'm back in the H-hood expanding my mind. But right now I'm wondering: "when will I see my family?"

I've also started signing my name with an exclamation mark. It's more exciting that way.

-Kevin!

Downloading my life onto an iPod.

There seems to be extreems on campus. Hot and cold. It seems to never stop snowing. The snowplows must wear down the sidewalks eventually. Thats the cold. In the pool it is rather warm. I spent almost three hours in there today. All my classes got cancled for friday so I'm just shootin the breeze. Maybe I'll work ahead for next week.

For those of you deeply engrossed in the life of Sir Heater, he has had some trouble. For almost a week he was silent, and we feared the worst. But today he returned, his joyful self, hot tempered as can be.

I watched the movie "southbounder" today. It's a movie about the AT. They did a great job making the AT come alive. Hippy hikers, pot smokeing, rainy days, and ben style hiking. But they missed the whole point of why the trail is great. You will have to watch it to find out what they focused on.

Time

Photo: Pocket watch of an Ozark greenhouse owner

Nature’s way of measuring the passage of existence is cycles. Everything has a cycle. There is the cycle of seasons with their indistinct starting and ending points. There is the cycle of a day which is a bit more defined. In a more abstract way the cycle of life is always continuing. Animals reproduce and die in a cycle that continues until interrupted by humans.

So what is time? Long before Copernicus the human mind had taken the earth’s cycles and divided them into segments that the present would march through; thus the creation of time. So now our centuries are broken into decades. Our decades are broken into years, which are broken into months, weeks, days, hours, and minuets. As if that isn’t enough we slice our minuets even thinner into seconds, and beyond. This is all fine and grand for the synchronization of society, but what about understanding eternity? Before time was created, existence happened in the midst of eternity. It still does, we just don’t see it that way. We come to passages about God’s eternal existence as the uncreated creator, or the infiniteness of our presence in Heaven and it blows our mind. What if time had never been created? What if time had been invented from a different planet? Our year might be a different length! But ultimately, none of this really matters. Cycles or days, it goes by the same.

The Great Divorce

This is my attempt to be both Tolkin and C.S. Lewis while talking about Western New York's weather. Enjoy

Something that has always been, is no more. I see it all around me. The cycles and forces that once controlled the earth have been shaken. A union that once was once strong, has been dissolved. A season is being dissolved. The marriage between Mother Nature and Old Man Winter has been broken.

The lives of ordinary men are being drawn into this extra-physical conflict as the earth around them thaws and the snow is melted. What has been done, they can not undo. They are powerless to act on the controls of their world. They wait, hoping that all will resolve it’s self without their involvement.

The world is subjected to a harsh chill as part of Mother Nature’s cycles. For centuries the cycle was never broken. And that chill that once was, had only to do with Old Man Winter’s presence at the controls. But he has been expelled, and winter with him. Now there is a warming. The cold has lost, and winter is warm.

Winter? Is that you?

I feel my facial hair freeze and I’m only 50yards from the dorm: it’s that cold. For so long it was warm; a happy radiant warm. But that is radiance. Winter has come. An ever thickening layer of powder swirls around in the air. It’s a magical snow, the kind that draws you to sit by the windows for lunch. It sneaks from the sky when I’m in class, adding layers without my permission. When I hike in the woods it lies very still. I walk through the silence around a corner and it pounces. I hunch over to ward off its attack. But through all its rebellious violence we are still friends. We have an understanding. It is always welcome on campus, but not allowed in the dorm. It has tried a few times, but always been frightened off by Sir Heater.

Sir Heater is a relic and this campus thrives on technology. We all have laptops. I can find a high speed wireless internet connection anywhere on campus. Doors open when I scan my ID card. I can read the menu from my room, check my chapel attendance, or learn how to set up my individual voice mail box. But Sir Heater is from the 80s, and he doesn’t do such a great job. There have been maintenance requests, but he still sleeps cold at night. He complained to me this afternoon: “It’s so ironic, they can network and fix anything with a mother board, but they don’t fix my pipes.” Sad but true, the days of Sir Heater appear to be gone.

Friend, Romantic Interest, and Inspiration

Up until now I have been mainly silent about my relational pursuits of the opposite gender, and for good reason: It is none of your business! But I have decided that since she is a part of my life I will share a slice of our relationship with you.

She is Sarah: intelligent, respectful, and God fearing. "A cut above the rest" in another's words.

In my ideology dating for sport is playing with emotions for the sake of getting high. She seems to think the same. When I asked her if she would date me she said "what do you mean by dating?" And so we are pursing a relationship with marriage as an ideal goal.

But there is a distance factor involved. We started in Dec. 2004. I started YES in Jan for a 6month commitment. A month after I returned she left for 12 months of REACH. In our first 19 months of dating, all are spent out of state, 12 are spent on different continents. A bad thing? Only if you look at it that way.

Our relationship doesn’t bear the normal emotional excitement that most have. Instead of seeing it as a bad thing we use it as a catalyst for relational growth. We use the distance and the lack of emotional distraction to help us get to know each other. We write letters about real life: the life we live being our normal self. In writing letters you scribe what is exciting and stimulating about your life. In that way we see who each other are; when the other isn't around. She knows how I spend my free time, and I know what her house mates do that annoys her.

I may sound like I'm turning a relationship into a formula, however you take it, it's my blog and I say what I want. I really haven't detached my emotions for Sarah. She is an amazing woman. Inside her heart is an wonderful commitment to God, a commitment strong enough to choose teaching school over being near her boyfriend. She tries things she is afraid of. She tells me about my faults when I don't face them. And she encourages me to do the same. In my estimation, she is amazing, and she inspires me.

The Show that never ends

Close your eyes for a moment. Imagine you are sitting in a high school auditorium: front row. It is completely dark. You can feel the presence of the other drama goers. Whispers sneak from backstage. Then the curtain rattles into the wings and the lights glow on the stage. Strangers prance about cardboard structures which strangely resemble walls or bookshelves. It is drama. The plot thickens. Characters are developed. Ultimately the events climate and resolve.

Then you blink. The glow of the TV flickers on the wall behind you. Your butt sinks into the same spot on your worn out couch. Bed time is past, but the lure of your friends is strong. They only talk from 11:00 to 11:30. Their set resembles the everyday living room, and their life is so funny! The laughter of people comes through their windows and through your TV. You laugh too, you like watching them.

Then you blink. The set has changed. The laughter and the cardboard sets are gone, everything looks real. The characters are genuine. The lighting is hidden somewhere beyond a total surround sound system. It is almost as if you are Lucy and have pushed past the last coat discovering Narnia. The cold wind rattles the trees. Snow flurries drift across the set. Or is it a set?

This is what I watch while I stump sitting. It is a show that never stops. The main character is a squirrel named “Quick-Toes”. The plot centers around his quest to visit neighbors and maintain the security of the nuts he has stored in Pine Tree #8, a high security nut storage area. His theatre has certain etiquette. The show only starts after everyone is seated and quiet. I didn’t have a good seat today. The show moved down the hill to Half-tail’s hollow log. (Half-Tail is the uncle of Quick-Toes named after a mishap with a hawk) I couldn’t quite see what was going on, but there was a great deal of noise and a pine cone. This isn’t the first time Half-Tail and Quick-Toes have gone at…..well, you really need to see the show to understand.

Learning outside the box (we call it a classroom)

Down and dirty

Liberal arts is boring. Who wants to sit in class trying to catch the gems that fall from the lips of the intellectual? After four years of this they put a funny hat on you and off you go. Then you move on to the real world and try to apply the skills that you acquired.

Somehow, I feel like I am not a liberal art student, sure I'm enrolled at a Liberal arts college. But I'm a Recreation student, and for some reason it seems like a different world. I'm not tortured by professors: I like going to class. It seems like all we do in class is have fun. The saying in the Rec. dept. is "take something you like to do and find a way to get paid to do it." So that's what we do, and the teachers get paid. No text books, no formalities, and lots of assignments. I was working on an assignment today: I was stump sitting and hiking. I have required hours for both activities. Latter on I'll make snow shelters, cook on a rock, and build fires without matches. For me, that isn't liberal arts, that's life at it's best.

.Edu

Right now I could be on a smoky bus filled with chicken catchers. But I'm not, I'm expanding my mind and surrounding myself with exciting individuals in a process that is known as a "liberal arts education" So far I haven't met any exciting individuals or expanded my mind. I did however meet an old High School friend (Joel Bru) who didn't know went here. Maybe more exciting individuals will arive when campus fills up and classes will stimulate my intellect.

Most of us write off the book of Job. I have a whole class on the book. In preperation, and out of boardom I read the first 15 chapters. It is amazing! Job asks some hard questions: "Why does God treat me unjustly?" "Why can't I talk to God and tell Him that He has made a horrible mistake?" It's a must read. I personally like the character "Billidad" who promotes the "just God" theology saying "God is always just".

I have a window in my room. If I look out the window I see stuff. I see some trees, a canadian hemlock, and a guard rail. So far the guard rail hasn't been very social with the trees. He sits by the road with a steel look. The trees, on the other hand, have a great time. They sway a bit in the wind and wave to eachother. The hemlock has an ego problem, he is the only green one of the bunch.

But the window is better used if you reverse the direction of viewing. Try looking in instead of out. Most windows are like that. Have you ever looked out of your neighbors living room window? All you see is your house, which is equal to "boring". But try looking in your neighbor's living room window. Yeah! its a lot more interesting. Its the same with my dorm room. I'm doing stuff and don't know you are watching. Who knows, you might catch me making my bed or organizing my closet. Ever see a tree do that? Maybe I'll mount a wireless web cam on that hemlock so you can all look in my window 24/7. I'll bet people would pay for that kind of excitement. I would be like "The trueman show" with me as the star!

It's like opening a Christmas gift, everytime.

This green font is a tribute to our friends at WM (waste management) and their green goody bins. From time to time I find myself in one of these bins ripping open piles of "gift bags" filled with presents for me. This week we came home with $500 worth of flower bulbs. Asher and I spent a good part of monday planting them around the house. I wish I could be around here when those two bushels of tulip bulbs turn our back yard into an explosion of color.
I've been a bit dissapointed with the meat situation around here. The temps have risen into the mid 40s, and there hasn't been any big hauls. Maybe we could convince the grocer to overstock steak like he did in Columbus.

Movin' on

My Grandma saw her last sun set on Chrstmas eve and met her Maker on Christmas day. The cancer that she had fought for months finally took her away. I drove to Del. with some of my family on thursday for the funeral. It was a fun and sad time for the cousins. There was the normal joking. The Aunts made sure we understood one thing: no explosives in the coffin. The grave side scene seemed like it was right out of a sad movie. The blue gray sky blew rain on people huddled around a grave with umbrellas and trench coats. Everyone cried as we shoveled dirt into the grave. And just like that, Grandma was gone.

While death is hard, it will allow some normacy in my family. Her illness took a lot of energy from my mom, and it left the home without much structure.

Anyone out there?

I've been wondering how many people actually visit this blog. So for next 7 days (until Dec. 30) if you visit, please leave a comment with your first name. If you want, tell what you liked best about the blog or a story about me and you.

A wild Goose chase?

So I started a new job. It is kind of a wild goose chase, except I don’t chase geese. I’m after chickens, and lots of them. Being at home for a while made me decide to try something new and exciting. In my case “new and exciting” means working 3^rd shift catching chickens. It is everything you could imagine and more. We catch chickens; way more than you would imagine. They guys I work with are rough. They have managed to integrate the same profanity into every sentence. I didn’t know an expletive could be made into a noun, verb, and an adjective. It is just proof that the English language is in a constant state of evolution. And I get paid. You would think that something as simple as catching chickens would pay $5/hr. But no, I get about $120 (gross) a night and spend 1/3 of the night sitting on the bus.

A wedding and a bumper

Yet another cousin has married off. This time it was Sim marrying Janelle. We had to go the whole way out to Middlebury IN for the wedding, but it was well worth it. The wedding was a simple, sacred, and really fun time. I rode with Sim to the wedding, except that he missed a turn and hit a fence before he got out of the lane. While I’m sure he wasn’t happy about it at the moment, give him ten years and it will be a good laugh. With the broken off bumper we took up a collection at the wedding for repairs: that $ will do a little for the front right corner of his Mercedes.

Cleaning and cooking

This past monday I got laid off work. A landscaper can only work so long until the work runs out and the weather gets bad. So now I'm at home doing what needs done. Right now what needs done is a lot of "motherly" things. My mom has been spending a lot of time in Del. with my dying grandmother, and I get the privilage of picking up all the loose ends that someone needs to take care of. So I've been house cleaning and making supper each night

Cooking is one of those things that I never learned growing up, but it really isn't that hard, if you know what you are doing. But it seems I operate in a constant state of confusion. "Where is the chili powder? Can glass go in the microwave?" So far I haven't done anything that has had strong negative concequences.

Why I am not a Mennonite

It’s kind of a deceptive title, because I am still a Mennonite. Maybe a better title is “Why I’m sick of Mennonites” But whatever you call this entry, here it is for all of you who have asked for it. I don’t feel like it is very clear or concise, but ask questions if they arise.

Over the past few years I have been noticing an increasing trend among the MC USA crowd. Many of them love to talk about being a pacifist, and they love to tell other people that they should become pacifists. I’m a pacifist; I strongly believe that the love of Christ is stronger than violence. But these people have meetings and classes on how to be good pacifists. People go to Washington to protest wars that violate their personal pacifistic beliefs. What makes me sick of Mennonites is this increasing focus on their pacifist status. A friend told me “what you focus on will consume you”. I think that’s true, in all this focus on being a pacifist, a person can loose track of the most important thing: Christ.

Recently I ended up at a service/rally at which Jim Wallis spoke. He was strongly promoting pacifism and morals as part as something that we should encourage in government. I agree. A moral and pacifistic government is a wonderful idea. But how he wanted us to get there intrigued me. He said that in a few weeks he was going to Washington with others to pray somewhere that would get them in trouble. His hope was that he would be arrested and thus draw publicity to what he was promoting. It would seem to me that he has lost a grasp on the purpose of prayer. It is of course not a show to demonstrate righteousness; it is powerful. Is praying to get arrested the way Jesus would change society? I think we are best off if we concentrate on becoming like Christ, he was after all the best pacifist ever.

Now by saying this I’m sure I will arouse quite a response from some of you. That’s fine. I don’t mind responses. Please don’t feel like I am personally attacking you. If people want to focus on Peace and Justice they can feel free, my main concern is that they will allow their faith in Christ to be eroded. And of course, if you want to talk to me about my thoughts I am more than glad to.

You cannot serve both God and money

I've been thinking about money a lot recently. Being off work for Jury Duty and taking out a school loan have been part of that. After a while it starts to dominate your thoughts. And so I found comfort in this verse. If you play with the words you can make it say: Both you and money can serve God.

I may be going into debt, but I'm doing it because I want to serve God. I belive that God will take care of me (and I am not using that as an excuse to live beyond my means). I think the important thing to gain from my wonderings about money is that trust in God is the only way. We can't always see how things wil end up, but we can follow God's leading.

Fires and Jury duty

Big Flames In the Night Sky

A guy driving his car ¾ of a mile away felt an explosion and saw a ball of fire above this chicken house. I watched the fire trucks from my window. Now our unfortunate neighbor has to clean up and rebuild. All from a broken gas line.

In other news, I had Jury duty. On the second day I was put on panel of 36 people, and out of that panel I was chosen to be one of the 12 that sat on a jury.

The case was the District Attorney vs. a guy for drug charges. What made the case interesting was that the guy was “accidentally” arrested. The Police were doing a sting operation and he happened to fit the description of another guy they were looking for. When they pulled up, he ran into his house. They followed him in and found drugs in the house. If he hadn’t run he would have been released that night.

Jury duty has a bad rap, but it’s not all that bad. Sitting and listening to witnesses and detectives isn’t so bad. It was cool to be involved in the process of justice and to see how it works. I wish the lawyers would take acting lessons, they were incredibly cheesy. But all things told, we deliberated for 7 hrs and ended up as a hung jury

The couch potato fitness program

It Could Change Your Life!

Dr. Atkins led millions to and from obesity with his breakthrough "Atkins Diet". People's weight changed by doing what they love: eating meat. What a hero! Now that he has died from a heart attack we should all celebrate a date as "Atkins day". Maybe everyone could have off work to have family gatherings. Grilling could be the main event, but only meat that doesn't require a carb filled bun. I suggest we celebrate on April the first.

And now, after that introduction, I present my very own fitness program "The couch potato fitness program". After some in depth research and careful feild testing I have tailored this program to apeal to the group that I call "the couch potato". Most people on the CPFP have two desires: First, they want to get in shape. And secondly, they want to watch less TV. With my program they will accomplish both (or at least one) and come out looking better.

Here is how it works. You can watch as much TV as you want. Every time there is a comercial break, you drop down and do ten pushups. Its that simple. Generally you will do 60-70 pushups an hour. Within a day you will be feeling different and have a strong desire to change your TV viewing habits. I do allow one exception. When viewing TV in public places or at other people's homes you do not need to do pushups.

The program works. I have been watching the tube much less the last three weeks and feel much stronger. Yesterday I actually had two middle aged women say to me "you can be our bouncer" as we walked out of the court house downtown.

So there you have it folks! Better TV habits, a ripped body, and soccer moms all in three weeks!



Coming soon:
- Why I am no longer a "Mennonite"
-My thoughts about being on a Jury during a criminal trial

A tree and a very important person

About the tree: It is a stately fir that stands over 6' high. I saved it from a certain death in the chipper. Most Americans participate in the tree slaughter this time of year, so I protested by "saving" a tree. Ok, so let's be serious. What practical purpose does a tree serve? It marks the spot where the loot is stored. Bigger trees are bigger markers. But brighter trees can be seen at night. With this in mind I used a large number of white lights just incase a late night raid was needed.

About Sarah: She is a girl whom I highly respect. She is fun to be around, interesting to talk to, and of course highly intelligent. Right now we have a kind of mutually exclusive romantic relationship going on, and have been that way for almost a year. She enjoys words, India, and learning. Right now she is in India telling people things and writing me letters.