"Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly." - Voltaire

DISCLAIMER: It's Sunday night, which means my brain is fried

This morning's service req'd extra focus from the preacher. I broke my message up into three segments with a song (and a couple of other elements) between each segment. Practically speaking (pun intended) that's like preaching three different sermons. And because I run the slides for our songs it was hard to shift gears and get back into the next portion of the message.

But we have songs in our list that perfectly fit each of the sermon sections. Only by placing the song adjacent to its segment would the effect be maximized.

Note: explaining the Greek word used in the NT which is translated "hope" in our English Bibles is somewhat problematic, especially in an area of the country where so much Spanish is spoken. It's a good thing this is a laid back group of people.

Tomorrow's forecast calls for 30 mph winds. Neither cycling nor golf work in that kind of weather. What to do with my day???

I filled the lily pond this afternoon. I've been eagerly awaiting this next step and Shirley told me at church this morning that it's time. Her lilies are showing some new growth after their winter dormancy and will be ready for planting in a couple of weeks. The water needs to sit for that long so the chlorine can evaporate out of the water and the pond can stabilize.

It takes over two and a half hours for a garden hose to put just more than 800 gallons of water in a pond. But I've got a problem.
The pond held two or three inches of water left over from our last rainstorm. As the water got near the top I could see hundreds of mosquito larvae "swimming" about in the water. Maybe thousands. And here in the desert that's a particular problem because they carry the West Nile Virus. Nasty stuff.

So tomorrow I'll call Maricopa County Vector Control and arrange to pick up some of the free Mosquito Fish they offer as part of their abatement program. One fish will eat 5,000 larvae over an 11-week period, and the little eating machines reproduce at a rate that would humble a rabbit.

As an illustration of the power of the media, is this what you expected?

1. There are an average of 26 crib-related injuries in the U.S. each year among children under the age of two. Most of those come from kids climbing out of their crib and falling to the floor.
   
2. In 2005 there were 5,500 yoga-related injuries in the U.S.

After recent news stories I'd have expected the reverse - that cribs killed thousands of American children every year. They're death traps, aren't they? Especially those drop-side cribs...like our boys had.