Friday morning with fotos

This is my dad. He's watching the football game. Mom would tell you that's one of the things he does best. But she'd also agree that after a lifetime of very hard work for God and for his family he deserves all the football games anyone can watch.
This is my mom, working in the kitchen. Everyone will tell you that's one of the things she does best, especially anyone who has sampled her cooking! To get a sense of scale, look at the counter height vis a' vis my mom's height. Yeah, she's not exactly towering. But her rep in the kitchen and at the organ is.
This one is just to give you a sense of the fauna of the PNW. This is the drive into the cabin. Pine, cedar, fir...all beautiful.
This one I took from the high tide line, so you'll notice that we're about halfway between high and low tide. That buoy out there - the little white dot - is 220' out from the high tide mark. The island in the distance is about 1/2 mile away. Pics don't give a good sense of scale or distance without some reference object, which you don't get on water, but I took this because by Thanksgiving Day I have to be able to swim the equivalent of the distance from the high tide mark to that island. Once I did the math and looked at that amount of open water I got more than a little worried! Fortunately, I don't have to do that swim in open water! That is, I'll have lane ropes for pulling myself along.

I have more pics that I'll post later, including the rest of my family - a nod to those who like people in their pics :-). But I didn't want to load this one up with too many.
On that subject, don't look for a post tomorrow morning, tho I should be able to post tomorrow night.
I'll leave the cabin about 3:30 a.m. and drive into the airport, gas up the rental and return it by 5:00 so I can be to the airport in plenty of time for my 7:15 flight back to Phoenix. I arrive there about 10:30 a.m. Lunch with the kids and over to set up for church, and then back home to get things ready for Sunday morning - print bulletins, handouts, etc.

We've confirmed that whatever other capabilities he has, making dynamic speeches isn't one of McCain's strengths. The last section, where he called out things even as the audience cheered (instead of his earlier awkward pauses) was his best segment. End strong!
Now the real trench warfare begins. Blood sport.

I'm feeling guilty about this hiatus from my normal exercise routine. Will I have lost ground when I get back to it all Monday morning? Has the enforced break been good for my body? We shall see.

I don't want to ruin the surprise for the readers of this blog who attend Pathway, but we've got a surprise for Sunday morning! I'll report Sunday evening, but I'm looking forward to what represents a significant step in our growth as a church.
We'll also begin a 4-week series on the names of God. Only four, though there are many more names for God used in the Bible. I've picked these because of their particular power to speak to 21st century life. The first is El Elyon, "God Most High," which first appears as Melchizedek speaks to Abraham in Gen. 14. The transcendence of God doesn't get the play that it did even 100 years ago. Back then it represented the dominant view of God. In the latter half of the 20th century the pendulum swung to his immanence. Both are biblical and essential to a proper understanding of who God is.
Feel free to join us! We're having fun while we learn and grow!