I childproofed my house but they still get in.

Well that was interesting.
The process was exactly as described in the packet they sent me ahead of the sleep study. The one thing I didn't expect was the part where she said, "If we see you're having apnea episodes we'll come in and put you on a CPAP machine to watch what effect that has."
I fully expected that to happen, but alas, it did not. In fact, I told her last night I wanted it to happen because it would mean a solution to my sleep issues. So when she came into the room this morning I asked, and she said my readings didn't meet the criteria.
"You snore a lot!" (Where have I heard that before?!)
"And we got lots of good information about why you're not sleeping well."
So I'm curious to see what the pulmonologist says when I see him on the 15th. Maybe they'll stick a shop vac up my nose and suck out my adenoids.

There's a brush fire on the SW side of town that is spreading rapidly due to the 30+ mph winds in the valley today. The guy on the news said it started as a farmer's controlled burn.
Something wrong with that description.

OK, I'll say it, out loud and on the internet.
I don't like Vivaldi.
Everything he wrote sounds like Four Seasons, and that piece is harsh, choppy, and overly frenetic.
I sometimes play a game with myself, trying to name the composer of a piece they're playing on the classical music station. I never fail to ID a Vivaldi composition. He needed to go decaf. And get to know instruments outside the string section.

I hope this doesn't violate some copyright law. If it does you can expect these blog posts to end abruptly. But while laying in bed at the sleep study place waiting to get sufficiently drowsy I read this. See what you think.

"Doug Fraser says that the government ought to bail Chrysler out. I don't know about that. Will Chrysler make it? I guess I don't care. GM and Ford were supposed to beat Chrysler, just as Chrysler was supposed to beat GM and Ford. If memory serves, about 1,996 car companies have bitten the dust since the beginning of the automotive era. I don't know how badly those buys, the losers, got skinned up, but maybe it's just as well that those original 2,000 got pared down to four. There are about 10,000 automotive product variations available right now, and that may not be enough, but it's a better choice than you get with panty hose or underarm deodorants."


That's from a book I'm reading that is the collections of columns written by David E. Davis Jr. who ran and wrote for Car & Driver Magazine. The above paragraph is from a really powerful argument against govt. involvement in the auto industry. Davis argues that the chips should be allowed to fall, and that when the govt. and any industry team up the outcome will be bad for both.
Dated - October, 1979.
When I read that it almost blew the wires off my head.
Mr. Davis is now deceased. If he knew then that thirty years later Chrysler would need another bailout...

We hit 86 degrees today but tomorrow will top out at 63. Michigan weather.

Jack's giving me the eye. He lays there with his ears straight up and watching for the smallest indication I might get up to fill his food bowl. I guess I'll be a good dog owner and fill him with joy and enthusiasm. Everybody should be so easy to please, eh?

When I'm feeling down, I like to eat a bucket of fried chicken in front of a Jenny Craig Outlet.

I felt like giving you the heebee-geebees tonight.

I like interesting days and this one certainly falls in that category. And it's not done.

My routine usually involves (is that redundant? or self-contradictory?) watching the first 30 minutes of The Today Show to catch any important news. They aired this commercial. Wow! The production values are incredible, I can't figure out what it has to do with watches, there is NO speaking, and it's three and a half minutes long! During the first segment of The Today Show! It sure caught my attention.

I got the roof vent installed in the trailer. The guy who created these plans has over designed this thing twice and his instructions for putting the vent in are another example. The mating surface gets rope putty and silicone caulk. The screws get dipped in silicone caulk before driving. Then more silicone caulk around the perimeter after it's installed. 

I left mid-morning to meet Geoff and Shannon Husa - and little Abigail - for lunch in Gilbert. It took me an hour to get there but it was well worth it. I haven't seen them since they left for Papua New Guinea two years ago. Besides some catching up Geoff and I had a great discussion of the hermeneutical issues involved in a Bible translation, whether the target language is English or Mibu. Good stuff!

Geoff was right about the BBQ joint. Very good! I had a pulled pork BBQ sandwich and a side of homemade potato salad. 

I have thought for years that it would be fun to take a cross country road trip for the purpose of sampling regional BBQ. St. Louis, Texas, Louisiana.... 

I don't know which is which, but this was the sweet variety. And very good. 

We sat outside. It was 82 degrees. 

When I got home a worked a bit more on the trailer. Every seam and joint on the exterior gets caulked, and I'm far enough along that I can do that to the front portion and sides. All that remains is the strapping on the galley and I'll work on that the rest of this week. 

Speaking of beautiful cars, I love this one. And Pam agrees. The dash is gorgeous. Simple, graceful lines, wonderful colors...

In a couple of hours I'll leave for a sleep study at the Arizona Sleep institute. Pam has long commented on what she finds scary breaks in my breathing during the night, and this summer John, who was also staff at camp and was a cabin mate in the staff cabin, said the same thing. 

Meh.

But a couple of times lately I've come abruptly awake in the middle of the night panting, feeling very out of breath. OK, I'll go see my doctor.

After asking some questions he thought it was a pretty obvious case of sleep apnea but he sent me to a pulmonologist for follow-up. He agreed and ordered the sleep study.

As part of the process I had to fill out a questionnaire I'll take with me. And there was a page for "spouse or roommate" to complete. I read what she wrote and was, uhm, surprised. I had no idea! 

I show up at 8:30, get a couple dozen electrodes hooked up to my body, and then sleep in a mock bedroom until I leave at 6:30 a.m. But they said I don't have to go to sleep right away. They have a TV and a comfortable chair. I asked if they had internet and she said, "Sometimes we can get it from the hotel across the street." OK. I'll leave the computer home. 

I go back on the 15th to get results. 

An interesting end to an interesting day. 

Normally it would be creepy to know someone was watching me sleep. I'm not sure it isn't now. 

"It matters not whether you win or lose; what matters is whether I win or lose." - Darrin Weinberg

Just so you know, I should not be writing a blog post in this condition. If Pam were home she'd take my laptop from me. I'm apt to write the dumbest thing (or worse).

Rough morning. Between people out sick (lots), out of town, at professional development seminars (3 of our adults), and misc. other causes, we were as few as we've been in recent memory.
I always wonder when that happens if a gracious God knows I am about to preach a total loser of a sermon and he's protecting my innocent flock from the harm.
I wasn't feeling right, either. This virus is incredibly stubborn. I came home and curled up in my chair with I can't remember what on TV and lost consciousness for I don't know how long.

Last night I had plans for working on the trailer this afternoon. But the next step involves cutting a hole in the top for the vent and that didn't seem like something I should do while on the edge of comatose.

Kill Bill is on TV tonight. By the time they edit out the parts too violent for even cable TV that will be a 28 minute movie.

I saw a commercial van with "At Ease Pest Control" on the side.
Their logo is the silhouette of a solder standing at attention, saluting.

This morning in class we talked about Hellenism, the Greek plan for maintaining control over their empire by spreading Greek culture. It included three main elements:

• Making Greek the lingua franca of the entire empire. 
• Spreading the Greek religion by building temples to Greek gods in all major cities and assigning local deities (cf. the goddess Diana in Ephesus). 
• Establishing the city as the center of activity. The Greeks "invented" the city laid out on a grid pattern with the agora, or marketplace at the center. (Hence, agoraphobia, the fear of crowds.) I asked what we now call the agora and someone (who shall remain nameless at this point) volunteered, "the mall." I think she was kidding. I think. The correct answer is "downtown." At which point I sang a few lines. They all looked at me like I was crazy. So I said, "Petula Clark." Only one person in the room knew the name. 

Punk kids.

Coffee and brownies straight from the pan.
Good for what ails me on a Sunday night.

Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

Maine

I liked Adele a lot better before I heard her speak (including her sign language).
cf. Amy Winehouse.

In San Jose, CA cops were searching a home for stolen iPads. In the process of that search they discovered a stash of meth... $34 million in meth! The feds were called in to take over what was apparently a factory. The cops also found several items stolen in Palo Alto robberies.
If you're running a meth operation that has $34 million of product ready for shipment do you really need to steal iPads??


The Saturday opera on our NPR station today was Aida. Great music, some of which most people would recognize even if they don't like opera because it's been used in so many other formats. Including getting butchered by Junior High orchestras. DAMHIK

In addition to the normal Saturday chores I worked on the trailer. Getting real close. I put the "strapping" on - the 1.5" x 1/8" flat aluminum stock that goes over the top at the outside edges and seals the skin to the sides. Except I'm not sure it did. I couldn't find the vinyl "D" molding in the size he specifies, and the smaller version I could get didn't compress as it should have. No problem; a tube or six of clear latex caulk will take care of it. And he has so over designed this thing, including sealing it in multiple ways against water intrusion, that I think it could be thrown in a lake and it would float for a week.

Did Rush Limbaugh apologize because he genuinely regrets his stupid and offensive comments or because he was losing sponsors?
His stupid and offensive comments (I tried to come up with another way to say that but all the options involve language I shouldn't use) also serve to distract attention from the real and legitimate issues involved in the debate.
Yeah, thanks, Rush.
Have you met Howard Stern?

For reasons that we don't need to explain I had to file away the sermon I had finished Thursday morning and start over with another one. It happens. And it's not like the time was wasted; I can use it later. But it adds an element of excitement to tomorrow's efforts.

For now, Saturday night chillin' and an early bedtime. Pam will be out the door about 6:30 to be at her desk by 7:00 and I'll follow shortly thereafter.
G'night.

He never grew up. One day he just sort of haired over.

Today I learned the word meme. I'd seen it, just didn't know what it meant. It rhymes with "team" and refers to a bit of information or data that spreads through a culture via the internet. Memes ("teams") may be videos on You Tube, images, or sayings (LOLcat), including spoofs.
Hey, I'm here to help.

Today, Robin Young, on the NPR show "Here and Now," interviewed Glen Campbell and his wife Kim. Campbell is on his "Farewell" concert tour, so named because he's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and is slipping noticeably. As I listened I felt awkward at times; he's clearly lost a lot of his mental function and his wife had to finish some answers when his mind couldn't. But mostly it was sad. Not him; Kim said he's perpetually cheerful, from the moment he wakes up until he goes to sleep at night. What the disease does is sad.

Ole knew he had Alzheimers and in the early stages did what he could to mitigate its effects. He carried a notepad with him to help him. As it progressed he got increasingly frustrated and embarrassed at his inability to remember. Eventually he slipped into that stage where he didn't know he didn't know. Guni took such good care of him.

Then there's Tony Bennett on Great Performances (PBS) tonight. He's 85 and his voice and vocal skills haven't diminished an ounce. Incredible.

Why is it like that? Why does a very, very smart man like Ole descend slowly into the darkness, unable to figure out even the most simple tasks, while another man grows even older without any discernable diminishment?

The population of Sun City increases by 25% during winter months as snow birds driving Buicks arrive from Minnesota and South Dakota.
Spring training games began this week, and there are two stadiums (4 teams) within 10 miles of our house. Another two stadiums with 4 teams (rhymes with memes) 15 miles out. Thousands of baseball fans come during March from all over the country to escape winter weather and watch their favorite team get ready for the season.
NASCAR is in town this weekend for both the Nationwide and the Cup series. The local news guy says there will be 130,000 people staying in the temporary city set up at the track this week. Monster RV's rolled into the valley all week long.
This is not a good time to drive area roads and freeways.

After working her 12-hour shift Thursday Pam worked from 6 to 10 this morning to help them catch up from yesterday's computer system crash. Things were back up and running in the middle of the night but by then the backlog of paperwork was a foot deep. She has to work a 12-hour tomorrow, and again Sunday. By the time she gets to Monday...think vegetable medley.

In addition to Sunday's efforts I'll do chores and work on the trailer. Coming into the home stretch, it's all little stuff from here on out. Attaching trim, installing the vent, caulking everywhere.... Maybe by early next week she'll be a finished project.
We're ready to go camping!!

Music soothes the savage beast...unless it's polka.

The British pluralize "torques."
FAIL

Pam called from work this afternoon to say the computers are down throughout the hospital and that they expect the problem to last into tomorrow. Everything has to be done by hand on paper, and that's a whole lot of forms.

I feel like I should apologize, or at least issue a disavowal on behalf of all intelligent life in Maricopa County, especially because it made the national news.
County Sheriff Joe Arpaio assigned one of his volunteer posse groups to investigate the President's birth certificate. They concluded, and Sheriff Joe announced today, that there is probably cause to believe the President's long form birth certificate has been forged, and fraud has been committed.

A group of amateurs working for a 79-year old sheriff who has a serious love affair going with himself and is under investigation by two federal agencies (a federal grand jury and the Justice Dept.) have uncovered what even The Donald couldn't find.

We're embarrassed and await eagerly the next election. We'll take care of it. Promise. Until then, our sincere apologies.

During my time at the college I wanted a summer adventure as an escape from the intensity of the course overload I was assigned every semester. Eventually I got a motorcycle and went on 10-14 day solo camping trips. Before that I did bicycle trips, sans the camping part.

One year I drove down to Goshen, IN with my bike in the back, got a cheap motel room, and spent the next five days riding the country roads in that part of the state. I picked Goshen because it's surrounded by several Amish communities, and I hoped for opportunities to interact with them. Interesting trip!

The rural roads are beautiful by themselves, but I several times I came across an Amish buggy with a family inside. I'd ride up alongside and engage them in conversation. In one case I got invited to their farm where I was served cold lemonade and given a tour of the barn. Loved it! And I learned a lot about Amish life, including the 3-week summer classes all the children are required to attend so that they can learn the Old German used exclusively in Amish services.

Going into that trip I saw the Amish as quaint and admirable. They turn their back on contemporary culture in order to maintain a simple, godly life. They work hard, place a high value on family, and care for their own without help from the government. They are principled, committed, and live out the meaning of community.

Last night we watched a PBS documentary on the Amish and some of the challenges facing their lifestyle. It touched briefly on some of the things I learned on that bicycling trip, but only lightly.

Behind all the hard work and inter-dependence is a religion that punishes any member of the community for offenses as minor as violating the strict dress code or the wrong hair style, and dozens of other offenses. The offender is shunned, excluded from community interaction and meetings until they adequately repent.
And a hypocrisy that doesn't allow driving a car but allows one to pay an "Englishman" (their name for someone outside the Amish community) to drive them wherever they want to go.
A hypocrisy that doesn't allow the use of electricity but allows them to ride in the Englishman's car to a factory where they use electric machines and tools to build RV's.

Englishmen are outside the faith, reprobate. Their worship isn't acceptable because it takes place in English, not Old German. Their men shave. Their women wear dresses that show legs and arms. And they have adopted modern ways that draw people into sin (zippers).

That bicycle trip opened my eyes to see more than a hardworking, close-knit community of people who rely on each other. I also saw a legalistic community that bullies each other into a random (non-biblical) list of rules and regulations applied inconsistently, but which, when broken, are met with cruel punishment. They all treated me with graciousness, a kindness that masked their judgment.

FWIW

"Conscience is what makes a boy tell his mother before his sister does." - Evan Essar

Some topics are too culturally sensitive for humor. Racist humor is out of line unless you're a member of that race. Cf. the ESPN reporter who got fired for writing that there was a chink in Jeremy Lin's armor.
I think any group that has been the object of persecution gets a pass on being mocked once that persecution is seen as a social evil. Cf. the change in the appropriateness of humor that targets gays.
Fundamentalist Christians are clearly not on that list, as the SNL's "Church Lady" skits (very funny) demonstrate.
Now that it looks like we'll have a Mormon candidate for the White House will they be the subject of skits and stand-up routines? Or are they on the Do Not Mock list?
It's not like there isn't plenty of fodder there.
SNL will be our early indicator.

You gotta go look at this car!
Look at the size of that thing! And the distance from the back door to the back bumper. If you look at the detail pictures you'll notice that the back seat isn't especially spacious and neither is the trunk. So what's in all that space between them? A guest apartment? Storage space for a teardrop trailer? I want to see that monster in person.
And I love the dash. Notice that the only gauge, the speedo, is mounted on the steering column. The dash is flat all the way across except for the radio in the middle.
Great car!!!

Through a link to a link I read an article (here if you're interested) about the foolishness of expecting each quarter's profit to be bigger than the last. Through a review of recent decades in the automotive industry the author argues that periods of reduced, or no profitability are not only good, they're essential to qualitative improvement, and that making perpetual growth the metric of merit leads to compromises of core values.
I read the article from the perspective of a pastor and thought about how that dynamic pertains to the local church.

Church growth (a term understood to refer to numerical growth, as if there were no other kind) has generally become the measure of a church's health, and in extreme cases its legitimacy. A congregation with static numbers must have issues somewhere within, and falling numbers mean something has to change soon.

The Old Testament prophets would have a problem with this ecclesiastical version of the profit centered assessment. As a group they argued for quality, not quantity. For them the problem was never the size of the nation but the degree of its obedience to their calling as the people of God. Righteousness, not numbers.

Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 21 are written either to churches or to church leaders. Not one verse in those 21 letters refers to numerical growth. They do contain extended instructions on what it means to live as a child of God, the actions and attitudes that reflect a restored relationship with our Creator. The Apostle Paul wrote three letters to pastors (First and Second Timothy and Titus) in which he urges them to teach the flock the Word of God and instruct them on holy living. Nothing about increasing the size of the flock, adding ministries upon ministries, or going to a third service to handle the overflow crowds. (Granted, the risk of becoming lunch for a lion hampered recruiting efforts.)

The author of this article draws a direct connection between the financial failures of the Big Three and their need for bailout money with their decision to take the easy route to increasing quarterly profits by building more silly vehicles (SUV's and trucks). Instead of investing in R & D and making better vehicles they looked only at the short term and the quarterly report. A tightening economy showed the foolishness of that course. Have they learned their lesson? Uh, no. Look at the percentage of trucks and SUV's in their lineup. Then look at where gas prices are going.

What has the obsession with attendance done to the real health of the local church? Nickels, numbers and noise are not the same as biblically defined health - a body of believers living the Word as sojourners in a foreign land, ministering grace to each other and those around them.