Resolutions

Goals and expectations


Once again I made the usual commitment to myself in January to make a one last ditch effort to drop some tonnage from my person. I started out strong like always and did a good job of it. I started walking around the office at night while I was working. I also made great strides to get up and unearth the $600 close rack known as my treadmill. The goal this January one was to drop a buck fifty and play a season of softball. Being as how I am forty three as of March two the clock isn’t favoring this endeavor, if I am going to play ball it is now or never.



Excuses and pains



One of the biggest obstacles for one of my stature is motivation. Sure it sounds great when I think about getting off the couch and getting into the hamster wheel of death and running five MPH going absolutely no where. Getting off the couch when there is spring training baseball on to watch not easy my friend! That said I was up and on the treadmill and then it happened. Lower back pain and shoulder discomfort. That’s right folks my doc tells me I have to get my can up and exercise. When I have an injury from that he says take it easy. I can’t believe I paying this guy. Two blown shoe soles latter I am ready to go.


Ball Practice


We drafted this years incarnation of the Lady Yankees Pee Wee Girls team at GVLL. We have been practicing a week. One nice thing about practices is you learn all kinds of stuff about your own athleticism. Ever single over throw had me leaping an amazing 2, 3, inches off the ground easy. It takes a lot of thrust to raise this body off the ground. The bigger the gut the more gravity you have to defy. Either my players are going to have to learn to throw really soon or I’m gonna bring a latter to practice to reach those throws. I also discovered I can no longer go to my right with the glove. I see the ball traveling that way and I feel the signal going down to all the former muscle groups responsible for that movement but the body protest and flat refuses to go that way. My fall season is looking very doubtful.

                                                                                                                        Even this old fart can go to the right......


This season we drafted a bunch of first year players. We don’t mind that so much. They come complete with no idea how to do the things we want them to do and they have no bad habits for us to battle with. Their like a clean chalk board. We just have to find the right way to communicate what we want them to learn and hope when they throw a ball to us we are looking when they do.



I a lot of ways they are a little bit like me, we are all trying to get into shape for a season we hope will be good. I just hope my knees hold out.



Tread Mills and other things inspired of Satan



Next week I am on vacation so hitting the hamster wheel is going to be a bit easier to do. Down side Baseball starts on Thursday March 31. Yankees season opener. So no vile treadmill, I want a hot dog, some nachos, and the remote control! Opening day is a day to be celebrated like Christmas, only better. Hey, Christmas is only good for the little dudes getting toys, opening day is for everyone. Unfortunately I will be watching the Yanks from the treadmill. Vile, nasty stinking treadmill. With any luck I will not blown out my new shoes or any cartilage that may be just waiting for the right opportunity to launch me through the wall like an episode of Jackass. Perhaps I’ll set up the video camera for the million dollar shot.
April 2



We play our first game with the Red Sox. Who and why would anyone want to name their team after such and awful, awful team. I just don’t get it. Look at history at all the great Yankee players and you have a large list that comes to mind. You do that with the Red Sox you get Ted Williams. Ted “I live in Joe DiMaggio’s shadow” Williams. Sad I tell ya just plain sad. Well wish us luck as we go out there and win this one.

I volunteered to make some puppets recently for our Sunday school department for a puppet show they were planning to have during a Wednesday night service.  I opened my mouth and told the director of the department that I had read somewhere on how to make Muppets.  As a result of my big mouth and an over active imagination I embarked on a mission that would take several weeks and cost me a couple layers of skin to my finger tips from a close encounter with the hot glue gun.

I started out with those green Styrofoam balls like old ladies use to make flower arrangements.  I bought the next to the largest size they make.  The characters had to be two dogs and a cat.  But in the story line the cat had to transform from a mean nasty looking little cat to a nice loveable kitty. 

I used smaller Styrofoam balls for eyes and glued plastic craft eyes onto them.

The heads were carved and shaped with an exacto knife and sand paper.  I traced my hand to the bottom of the head and cut away a notch for my hand to operate the mouth.  I used card board to make the inside of the mouth, covered with felt and glued into place.

Felt was glued unto the head and the eyes were traced onto the felt and cut out od the felt.  The Styrofoam was craved out for the eyes to rest into.

The hand and the body are sew together and stuffed like a pillow.  The neck is made from scrap felt being sandwiched between the  the cardboard mouth and another piece of card board.

I recently was given the privilege to go and explore the inside of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Des Moines, IA.  It is one of the oldest standing churches in Des Moines.  It was constructed in 1885.  Many of the stained glass windows are original.  The ones on the south side of the church however are not.  In the 60’s located across from the church was a government office building that was the site of a terrorist bombing in protest to the Vietnam War.  The blast destroyed the original windows on that side of the building.

In 1952 South side of the building underwent construction.  The Street on this side of the church was being lowered down several feet.  During this time the church opted to excavate the lower base of the church and add on with a wing.  In this lower level they added a tomb and a small prayer room.

The church currently runs with a congregation of about three hundred.  The church has a long list of about six hundred.

They recently up graded their organ.  The pipe jetting out from under the rose window are part of that up grade.  They are planning the feature this new organ this summer in a festival.  I have been invited back to take more pictures this spring when the courts are open.

Only In Iowa

Only in Iowa will one find the following….

On Saturday February 5, 2011 I took a group of kids to a Bible Quizzing Tournament in Waterloo Iowa.  Along the way we made a pit stop in the small town of Iowa Falls.  Once inside the town of Iowa Falls we discovered a small station with a very peculiar looking logo.  Peculiar yet some how familiar.  The station in question was not a Phillips station but bare the name 67 ½.  We were amused.

The next thing was really bizarre.  We appeared to be the only people in the town operating what one may consider conventional transportation.  While we gassed up a large group of snowmobiles  Converged on us.  In fact surrounded us at the pumps.  It seems in small town Iowa it is customary to drive your snowmobile to the local 67 ½ to gas up.  All of the machines were very sharp looking and I wished I could have joined them.  It was way cool.

 

Quizzer’s did well.  Our girls senior team one first place.  My daughter Brittany took second place all Tournament team.  I was so happy for her.  The boys tried very hard but came up short.  Dillon if you read this remember “The Great One”  Wayne Gretzky once said, “You Miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”  Dillon tried to answer ten questions but missed a couple by a word or two.  If you have never Quizzed before try to memorize three entire books of the Bible and then have to answer fifteen questions about that from memory.  Dillon to miss by a couple of words is not a failure bro.  You made us all proud.

Make a World

Brother John at the Make a World Event in Des Moines, IA.  Brother John was meeting a greeting folks and offer them a chance to win a $25 gas card.  He also gave them to opportunity to come and see what God is doing at Westside.

Bronson Thompson.  God is going to do something big with this young man.  I can't wait to see here the Lord takes him.

This handsome couple are two very dear friends.  Chad and Tina Christy.  Brother Chad was one of the first people at church I met.  One of the reasons I stayed.  They are great ambassadors for our church.

Brother Dwayne helping with the Make A World Event.

The Thompson's and brother Eddie were making them selves available to any and all.  Each card is a potential life to be saved.

Ruben Stoddard performing.

That's me.  Doing the usual standing around watching as the work is done.

Winter Jam 2011

My younger days can be defined as the concert experience.  Being a young man of size getting a job as security for concerts was never much of a problem.  It worked out well you get paid and you see the show for free sort of.  Outdoor concerts usually meant free flowing booze and rowdier crowds.  It also meant a nasty sunburn. 

Being as how I live a milder life stile these days, on devoted to serving Christ I don’t define my existence as the concert experience.  I do still enjoy music.  In fact I am the only parent I know that has kids that scream at him to turn the music down.  Hey I grew up in the 80’s and my hearing is shot from all those concerts.  Not to mention I owned one of the first Sony Walkman’s and they could just pain get deafeningly loud.  Still I do enjoy the thundering feel of being enveloped in sound. 

I decided since my wife was unable to attend this years Winter Jam with me and our friends Burney and Caroline I would take my oldest two girls with me.   Since it is festival seating or stampede seating as I prefer to call it.  We got there at noon for a 7pm show.  You know introducing my girls to the concert experience of camping for tickets.  It was 1 degree out side actual temperature and about 10 below O my Lord with the wind chill factor.  Don’t worry I’m an old dude, I don’t do cold.  We waited in the modern miracle known in Des Moines, IA as the skywalk system.  It is heated and carpeted and genuinely nice.  We made our way to Wells Fargo Arena where there is no carpets to wait on a nice cold, hard slab of concrete.  But hey we were still inside. 

The girls seemed to keep themselves occupied and as more people got there the funneled us to the stairs to get ready to take our money.  Mind you this was still 4 hrs away at this point but we were making progress right.  As we waiting singer Chris August came out and performed his song Starry Night for the early birds and I got a chance to talk with him and take his picture with the girls.

After the gates open and we were all herded into the area like cattle, we made our way to what would prove to be awesome seats.  Now I like to consider myself a cool dad.  I like the music my kids like for the most part.  I like it loud and don’t freak when the performers are wild looking.  How scary can they be these are Christian artist right.  Well the first act was Chris August we net him cool.  We give him two thumbs up.  Girls happy, Dad happy, Everybody happy.  Then the Sidewalk Prophets.  Clean cut Guys, great music, still happy!  They had a young rapper come out while they prepared the stage for the next act.  He was cool.  Dads hip right, I was diggin’ it.  Still Happy.  Then it happened.  The next act comes out to a loud thunder of wailing guitars that made my flesh scream oh yes!  But their was something not so right going on here.  In the midst of all the pyro and loud music and the stage with demonic faces perturding from the set and the drums, was a mass of noise that made my sprit cry out where is the holiness.  Where is God being glorified.  My oldest daughter Brittany loved it.  Out of no where suddenly a generation gap that defies my ability to bridge.  Subtract several cool Dad points.  Subtract much of the hearing I also had left.  In fact several days later I am still struggling to hear things that were not  a problem before Friday.  The rest of the bands were good.  David Crowder in particular was just awesome.  His approach was more of a worship leader than a performer.  There was also some thing awesome about 12,000 people singing along with Newsong as they sang ONE True God.  Made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up.

How ever the best part of the night by and far happened that Sunday.  As we waited in line I met a couple of people that were form out of town and I asked them where they went to church.  They said they are splitting between two different  churched and were having trouble feeling at home at any church.  I told them about our church and invited them.  They asked me where it was and I gave them directions and left it at that.  Latter the man asked for my name and cell so he could get directions and then they showed up Sunday morning.  You just never know how God is going to use you, or where or when for that matter.  It was the best part of the weekend for me for sure.

Good News, Bad News

I have good news and some bad news.

The good news, there are.....

1. 2 days until the Hall of Fame announces the class of 2011.  (There is no way circle me Bert is getting in!)
2. 41 days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training.
3. 87 days until opening day.
4. 102 days until Jackie Robinson day. 
5. 190 days until the ALL Star break.
6. 209 days until the trade deadline.
7. 289 days until the World Series.

Above info courtesy of MLB Network.

The bad news.....

 The Phillies and Red Sox will be in the World Series.

Can't wait until spring training 2012.