nearby trees [kith]
abrupt lee
lil’ flower tracer
b’land
sheerpanicbarbie
kn29
sister of a friend’s spouse
wush [tafka bish]
olive
spenglar
shwan
susanity
chinicity
gonna get a used van this week, and i'm feeling pretty good about it. our other van we got real quick as i really hate shopping for things that i usually learn to hate. this one feels better. it could be a lemon [i doubt it] but i feel better about us choosing it. it'll be very freeing to say «hey, let's go to bisbee» or even arkansas and trust our ride. the kids are pretty much out of the «oops i spilled my chocolate milk all over the seats» way of life, so that will be good too. my wife im's me this, sung to the blue's clues song for mail:
we are getting a new van.. we are getting a new van we are getting a new van and now we can go places
i'll also be getting a new bike, and i'm just as frugal with that but i'll use it a lot and ride hard on it. it would be good to build one that will let me race for the first several years and then maybe i'll just ride. we'll see. i got this im from sarah, too:
we are going to get you a new bike.. we are going to get you a new bike we are going to get you a new bike.. one thats lots of fun.
now i just need to get sarah to stop watching so much blue's clues.
i do believe i've been too busy to think the last few weeks. life is tiring me out, as well as added stress from getting a van. i really do hate spending money, especially on cars. someday i hope the government's Reliable Vehicle Act passes. i'd feel so much more at ease. super fast frank found one thing with the van as he checked it over - with a stethoscope [yes, i have no idea to spell it]. isn't that crazy and cool at the same time? it'll be great to pick it up tomorrow.
[doesn't this look so much more like your normal css blog?]
what i have been noticing lately is how many people i used to find normal are so very far from healthy. i don't know if i can just see it now as before i was clueless or if i am getting healthier and it is more obvious. there are so many of my friends [all younger] that are seeing where they need work on, while so many of my older friends are not seeing much at all. i wonder why. i don't want to put so much thought into it, but i do find people heading towards health a little wearing but very refreshing at the same time. i did joke about seeing if i could test out of some classes for a counseling degree. no, i'm not nearly good enough. i'm not even sure how healthy i am. maybe just parts and pieces here and there. it is tiring, though, not just hearing people that have some pieces in backwards and it results in on things coming out, but talking to people that know that parts are in backwards and needing help discovering where the problems lie. i keep going on everyone elses road trip of discovery, but i get to drive at night. i hate driving at night, and everyone's cars are far too small for my big frame.
halloween is coming up - these two images plus a video tell much of the story for little spenglar last year.
oooh, i purchased some «cold weather» gear for commuting [it was all on sale] so i'm set for our weather to start cooling, whenever that is. i do believe today will be in the high 90s, which is borderline evil. bring on the cold!
i also went to wiener with the guys and yes, my stomach has shrunk - i could barely eat my whole meal.
tomorrow we may take the kids to kitt peak, the greatest observatory in the world. i do believe i will spend several hours playind «chase spencer», which is very similar to courtney's game at age 3 called «run!». she makes up the best games. we'll need to go on a trip because... we've got a van that go faster than 50 and still be safe. wow is it roomy and nice. my parents helped with the purchase, so we got more than we could really afford [mostly]. these are great days...
i've been talking with plenty of friends [and yes, long ago i tired of making a genx, then postmodern, then emergent church - see here] about the crowd younger than me. they are harder than anything to excite or get passionate about. it is as if they are in a space station with nothing to push off of or to provide any kind of tug or direction. another friend believes that they've got golden spoons in their mouths and they've grown tired of gold. other thoughts have been that they have yet to feel any pain, that there is a lot of comfort there. maybe a base level of comfort far higher than any of us have previously experienced. kinda like rich people - they've grown bored and sad as there is nothing to strive for [or nothing that they can see to strive for while still in fowler's identity stage - go down to #10]. i can see where garden state is the great movie of identity - the shallow, semi-attached relationships are what they are living. the closer relationships are also malformed, based off a lack of commitment and trying to keep all options open. nobody ever gets in the boat. okay, this is what i and some others are seeing, not correct i'm sure nor across the board correct, but observations. so how do you jump start those that don't know their engine isn't running?
trevor, while playing xbox on sunday, repeatedly was singing «oh oh here she comes, watch out boy, she'll chew you up». where does he get these things? over and over and over. courtney used to sing the monkees song improperly «cause i'm a begeeter» instead of believer.
odd snippets: the van in fantastic as was kitt peak. plenty of wind, but what a great drive. i really want to ride my bike up it. i've ridden to it, but up it would make it over 100 miles. my body is all messed up and i don't have the speed/endurance in me. also, the shifters on my bike make the same sound the packing of a filling makes at the dentist. yowtch! it is now cool. i still broke a sweat on the way to work, but it was much cooler [high 50s]. fun story by olive, too. spencer also seems to be putting two words together, which i would take as a good sign. he seems to be communicating more. last thing: while at a meeting after church, all the kids were making noise so i borrowed a key for one of the electric golf carts and had spencer on my lap and 8 more kids hanging off the sides. we went all over the parking lot and campus, them squealing all the while. when stopped, spencer slid off my lap and stomped on the gas pedal. what a nut.
oh yes: i'm getting oh so very tired of natural disasters. this is miserable.
we were talking about the infamous quiet times yesterday, the little spiritual time outs many take with God. as far as a few of us can tell, it was a well-intentioned creation in the last 50 years, coupling some of the spiritual disciplines into a lunchable for new disciples [kind of like a do it yourself discipleship.] the comment was made about how we have them, and do we have them every day. i got used as an example for having 5 minute quiet times, but i really don't. i haven't had a «quiet time» in years and years. i think i may know why.
if, as we mature spiritually, we move from using words and reading words to talk with God and move towards spirit to Spirit interaction, as well as God continually permeating all parts of our mind and life, why have a quiet time? why take out the time?
i imagine the more mature as farmers, wrangling horses, building fences, slopping the pigs, roping and branding cattle as well as walking behing a horse with a plow. you get up, you work hard all day. who in their right mind would say, «hey, let's go to the gym and get a workout!» after that. there is no need - you've been working out all day. granted, maybe their could be isolation exercises and maybe muscles you didn't use, but that isn't all that strong of an argument. i'd guess that most people have a sedentary life where God really isn't involved, and quiet times are those short moments where they allow God in, just like prayer. it takes time to get there, but don't get all bent out of shape if someone isn't having a qt - it isn't a sign of spiritual maturity. or maybe it is, if you don't need one. God is constantly talking, we just don't know how to listen.
trevorisms:
if you have faith like a mustard seed, then you can move mountains. then you are really in trouble. if you move the mountains, then all the tornadoes can come into the state.
we took the kids up mt. lemmon and had a cookout with the schange people. afterwards, we went up to the top and rode the ski lift. there was a family deal [2 parents + 4 kids] that fit us well and saved us 50%. it was slightly stressful as there wasn't a strap on the lift and the bar was pretty thin. there could only be two to a seat, and that made for problems? who would go with who? sarah and i could only take one each, and that left two kids out. spengladesh was a given to ride with me, but corcor refused to ride with the middle kids, so she was with sarah. that left the twins on their own. oh my, talk about stress. we put the fear into them about not swinging or goofing around. if one had fallen [we sent them off first] i suppose i would have had enough time to see how bad off they were, but i couldn't really jump with spencer - he'd try to follow me. chances are, i'd break my leg from the fall. great.
it all turned out fantastic, other than being super cold and windy. it was incredibly quiet. at one point sarah and corcor leaned back and yelled, and spencer quietly responded with a «shhh». he sat very still and didn't move much, and i do believe all the kids enjoyed it. it went very very slow, and the trees were beautiful. i found a great red leaf for sarah, as well as noticing a few small stands of tiny aspen as well as douglas fir. very nice. it would be fun to take them all skiing sometime.
oh yes - i got my hair cut by a friend, the first in 7 or 8 years. i haven't combed my hair since the late 80s, too.
my big toe has finally lost the remainder of the scab. the scab acted as if it was folded into my skin, making a V-shape and attached deep inside. it makes for a pretty good scar. i'll post a photo soon enough. i'm a fast healer, too, so that WAS a good ding.
tah-dah!
a few weeks ago sarah accompanied corcor on a field trip to the university's marine sciences lab. the kids went in groups of 3 or 4 and every station had one or two university students leading them as they dissected a shark, played with squid, etc. that may seem really cool, but i was more impressed with how they traveled. instead of getting a school bus to take them, they walked a half mile down the road their school is on and hopped on a public bus. everyone had to bring money for a bus ticket AND they had to transfer buses. how cool is that? in life skills and getting a chance to see how much of the world travels. i grew up with friends thinking we were going to run a core part of the world, most of them all headed to super prestigous colleges and doing very well there. but rule the world? hardly. there is more to living than just knowing a lot. knowing how to use it matters.
sarah is off to arkansas to see her sister's new home and watch our oldest nephew play football. he is doing quite well. we should be out there for christmas.
sheesh, no blogs for a long long time. why? another printshop closed down and we took their employees and as many of the customers as would come over [it is all about relationships, no?] - so we've been swamped. crazy swamped, but a good kind of swamped. the majority of our equipment is busting a nut right now, which is good use of the machinery. even so, it is tiring. i think that plus the cold weather has been giving me great dreams. there was one with a teeny square car, more like two matchboxes on top of each other where the center had some sort of super cutter that was cutting through everything. another with a fishing line trap where i ran ahead of a tank on a hill and dodged the bullets [mysteriously shaped like 12 oz aluminum cans where the bottom has bulged out]. i got the tank to shoot downward and blow itself up. then there was one with some fantastic percussion in a field and all of us there quited down and our exhaling breaths would be beautiful blues with sparkles, sliding out into the field. it was pretty cool. i really need to write them down, but i'm far too tired.
today i'm dressed like little john in disney's animated version of robin hood. actually, i'm dressed like him when he and robin were gypsies and were working on robbing prince john. this time it was my wife's idea. if you are unlucky, i'll post a few photos.