Lead, follow, or get me a donut.

I like this guy.

To say it's windy doesn't do it justice. We've got 30 mph winds with gusts to 40+ mph, and when you live in the desert that means a lot of what the weather guy calls "particulate" in the air. A very fine sand everywhere. And it gets inside the house, coating everything.
I just got back from Home Depot where I got a new garbage disposal to replace ours. I drove Gerta up there, and keeping her in my lane was a challenge. She tips the scales at just a bit over 1800 pounds, so a wind like this makes driving exciting. Note: Gerta's original price was below her weight. How many women can make that claim?

How is it that a town with a name spelled Worcester gets pronounced Wooster?
It's not Woostershire sauce.

I sometimes suspect that the people who get caught doing embarrassing things on video have really staged the clip to claim their 15 minutes of fame, even if it is by looking stupid. But I don't think that's the case here:
FAIL

The title above this video is an unnecessary double entendre, but I sure like the concept:
Trick Bed

For the last few weeks we've had intermittent trouble with Yahoo Mail. I got a small business mail account with them so that I could have separate mailboxes for the two of us and for the business. My Yahoo ID goes back a few years, so I have a mailbox for that ID. But I don't get any mail there; it all goes to my personal or my business address, and Pam's goes to her personal address. At least it used to. Something is broken with Yahoo's forwarding function and I'm getting incoming emails all over the place, regardless of the target address. And messages I send out often show up as coming from the wrong address - my old Yahoo ID. Pam has had the same problem.
I've spent a couple of hours over four different sessions with their tech experts. They make changes, test it with emails and pronounce the problem fixed. But 24-48 hours later it's back.
So I'm seriously thinking about switching to a different e-mail carrier. But what about all the places that have my Yahoo address? The people are the easy part; I can just send them a notice of the change. But what about all the businesses - the airlines, the places we regularly order from, the newsletters we get.... What a hassle! So which is the lesser problem, Yahoo or the change?
And what carrier? Is it worth it to choose one that, for a small fee, will allow me to have my own domain name?

Our finch sock is swinging wildly in this wind but as I type this three finches are clinging to it, getting their supper.

So this bobcat walks into a bar....
Normally that would be the beginning of a joke. But in a small town north of here it actually happened. And that bobcat attacked two men inside the bar. The cops were called and they shot the animal. It tested positive for rabies.

I worked on my sermon today, including reading in several of my commentaries on the passage we'll be in - 1 Cor. 7:25-40. Interesting section! (Any section that begins, "Now about virgins..." is sure to present a challenge or two.) Godet is one of my favorite commentators; almost always gets me thinking about the passage in a different way than others. Today was no exception.

If you were to graph the moral state of humanity over time, what would your graph look like? Number the Y axis (the vertical one) from 1-10, with 10 at the top representing complete righteousness, and 1 at the bottom representing total moral failure. The Y axis will represent time, stretching from the Garden of Eden to the present.
Where would high and low points appear?
The age just prior to the flood of Noah's time would have to be a 1, or very near it. "Every inclination of the thoughts of [man's] heart were only evil all the time" (Gen. 6:5). The incident at Babel (Gen. 11) can't rate much higher.
After that it would be difficult to graph because the Bible quickly moves its focus to the local scene - wherever Abraham and his descendants are located. So, for the sake of this exercise, go with that local situation, whether it's Egypt, Promised Land, Babylon....
The years of David's reign would chart higher than the days of Manasseh (bad dude).
How about the world of the first century - the years of the NT?
In post-biblical times, would you put the Medieval Ages higher or lower than the waning days of the Roman Empire? Do the Post-Reformation years represent a measurable improvement over the preceeding years?
In more modern times, how would the 21st century compare to the late 18th century - the colonial era? Is Puritanism really better than the current situation, or just a a cover-up, an outward show of righteousness?
OK, here's the payoff. Is there any pattern to this ebb and flow vis a' vis God's work in the world? There certainly was a cause & effect relationship at the time of the flood. Beyond that?
Paul says that in the end times things will go south in a big way. Does that suggest another cause & effect pattern?

I don't have answers, at least not at this point. I'm just pondering.
Wanna join me?