"The secrets of success are a good wife and a steady job. My wife told me." - Howard Nemerov

I got a call this afternoon from Emirates Shipping, the firm that the buyer in UAE uses. Yes, uses. Apparently mine isn't the first car he's purchased from the U.S. So far everything is coming together as it should, and the car will be picked up the end of next week.

I built a 4'x8' platform out of 2x4's and set all the truck body parts except the cab and bed on it. Then I covered it with two layers of fairly heavy plastic. We have a small chance of thunderstorms on Saturday and we can't have freshly blasted metal getting wet. Bare metal rusts quickly. And the neat bundle has the back of the house looking less like the yard from Sanford & Son.

This morning I had a stress test. Interesting experience! After getting me all hooked up to a dozen wires and shooting me up with some kind of special chemical I got on the treadmill. She gradually increased the speed to 4.5 mph and then increased the incline until my heart got up to 157 bpm where it had to stay for two minutes. When I was done she said she's only had one patient that required a steeper incline. That was a triathlete who had to get to 20; I was at 17.

After the treadmill bit I went into another room where I laid on a table while an x-ray-like camera rotated around my torso for 13 minutes taking pictures of my heart. I meet with the cardiologist next month to get the results of this and other tests, and I'm curious to see what he says.

After Easter we're beginning a sermon series from the OT book of Ezra. I worked on that this morning and, as is typical, I'm getting eager to preach it. Good stuff, stimulating stuff, relevant stuff.

I first read about the order that Jews in one of the eastern Ukraine all register or run the risk of losing their property and possessions I suspected it was bogus. I read it on Facebook. But then I saw the story on several major online news outlets. Surely that will galvanize international opposition to what's going on there, won't it? And if Putin doesn't denounce that policy it's hard to imagine any civilized nation not speaking out against him. Not that it will happen like that.
It didn't last time.