Two pretzels were walking down the street. One was assaulted.

A Greyhound's feet are particularly sensitive and during their racing career they are always on smooth surfaces. The coarse gravel in our back "yard" was obviously causing Al pain and that may have contributed to the living room issue. So step one was to remove the gravel from a path running from the patio to an area in the far corner of the lot and from the perimeter of that area.
Next step: get 7 tons of "fines" delivered. That's the stuff that they wash out of gravel for people that want a clean covering of rock for their lot. Fines are just what the name suggests and the cheapest of all the rock products. It also compacts well.
I hired a guy with a bobcat and a crew of three helpers to scrape off the rest of the gravel from that area and distribute it over the rest of the yard. Then he carried the fines back and spread it around, but not all the way to the perimeter. Yesterday I put in edging and pushed the gravel and fines up to the edging.
I'm not happy with the edging. I got the synthetic stuff that comes in a roll because it's a lot cheaper than bricks, never mind easier to install. But as you can see it doesn't give a smooth edge; the rock pushes it in/out all along the run. So tomorrow I'll go back and get either brick or pressure treated 1x4's to clean that up.
I could tell almost immediately that Al appreciated the change. In the distance, "above" the wheelbarrow, you can see the traffic cone. It has been used many times since last night. No fire hydrant ever had it so...wet.
Alas, we've hit a snag. Al ate only a small portion of his food this morning and shows no interest in eating tonight. And his stomach has been very noisy all day. We'll keep a close eye on him and if this continues we'll get on top of it. I'm hoping it's part of his adjustment period but I don't know why he would go from eating well to this.

I spent the day in the books. I proofed lessons in both the Student Text and Teacher's Guide and in the process found an error in two Power Point presentations. I also worked on my stuff for Sunday. The message will be from the second half of 1 Cor. 10, a section about participation in idol worship. (How is this relevant for 21st cent. America??) In Foundations we'll begin a study of Ruth and Esther, two great books with good stuff for all of us.
After yesterday's physical labor it felt good to put my mind to work.

The WHO has elevated the alert level for the swine flu to 5 out of 6. That means that all countries should take immediate steps to prepare for a pandemic.
I don't think the WHO has done much right since Pinball Wizard.

I liked this news story.

I watched an NBA game (Heat vs. Hawks) and a hockey game broke out.

I read an article today advocating for a vigorous study of philosophy as part of all seminary training. The author said that without several courses and significant time spent studying philosophy no one can be adequately prepared for pastoral ministry.
I was going to give that some thought but I was too busy with my Power Point slides.

Seriously, one of the author's statements that troubled me was, "In order to speak the Gospel effectively, the Church needs an intellectual milieu where the Gospel can be heard as an objectively true alternative; otherwise it will either be dismissed as superstition or appropriated only as 'true for me but not for you.'"

That statement seems seriously flawed on several counts. First, history shows us that the Gospel has flourished in the most hostile of environments. The Roman Empire was not a milieu favorable to Christianity in any sense, intellectually or otherwise. The church, though underground, was strong during the time of Stalin and Marx when it was officially ridiculed as the opiate of the masses.

Furthermore, the church doesn't need anything beyond the truth of the Gospel and the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit certainly doesn't need us to set him up through philosophically sophisticated arguments before he can speak to the human heart.

I also thought of 1 Cor. 1 where Paul reminds his readers that the wisdom of the world considers the message of the cross foolishness. They will not be won over by rhetoric.

I only took an intro to philosophy course as a college Junior, but I was dismayed to read my alma mater (seminary) placing such a strong emphasis on the study of philosophy at the seminary level.