reflections on some new things

So I am now 6 days into new car ownership, and it is quite different. As a Jeep Driver, I braced each summer morning for hot, sweaty, windblown rides back and forth to work. Visiting the hospital was a bummer becuase I would be all sweaty by the time I got there. BUT, 6 days in, my new silver Element's air conditioning works great, the seats are comfortable, and it is a blast to drive to the tune of 800 miles in week one. Sure we had a business trip to Atlanta, but it was a fun business trip.

CBF
Last week nat and I went to the meeting of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in the ATL. It was a good meeting where they recognized her new job in the CBFNC meeting, we went to some big sessions to hear sermons and business and stuff, and we went to some breakouts. I got to meet an emergent guy from ATL who is planting a church in the little 5points area and engaged in the the emergent steering committee. I am looking further dialogue about being emergent but also being in a traditional setting. I think emergent has something to it, and the folks in my traditional context could be into it too.

I sat in the back of our E on the way home and worked on the computer with my legs kicked out on the reclined front seat...it was pretty awesome.

This week we have something almost every night with church and then we leave for NYC on mission trip next week. It will be crazy busy and fun at the same time.

I hope you are well, thanks for reading.

ps I love my XM radio preview.

wow

WOW, what else can I say about this week.

I have had a great week at work, but have not been hanging out with youth as much as I would have liked to. It will come since we are prepping for our mission trip to New York in the next 10 days, dang.

For the rest of the week outside of my work I post the following pics and say that Natalie and I are off to ATL for the CBF General Assembly, if you care. Peace to you all from my fun week...

AND the followup to my previous post:



thats all I got...

Lucky number 7?????

I originally titled this post
"frustrated with my team"
but, I have decided to change it. Read on to see why.

I guess it is only fair that if I am going to be proud of my team on my blog, I might as well whine about them and cry sour grapes about them too. Usually I don't blog about the teams I root for because I have a tendency to jinx them, but it cant hurt now.
After leading the Stanley Cup Finals 3 games to 1 and heading home with a shot at the win, my team has stunk it up, two games in a row. They cant seem to get the puck on the net, skate better than the Oilers, or catch a break. Tonight they didn't even score a goal, and the team that is used to beating other teams in shots on goal is getting killed in that stat. We are being pushed around, out skated and out everything that leads to being outplayed.

I am upset in a slightly unhealthy way. It is sad how our moods are so swayed by the performance of athletes. We let what others do determine our emotions, and this something that we let happen in sports and in life. It is good when we weep with those who are weeping, and rejoice with those who are rejoicing, but when we cry because our team plays crappy, well, we have taken this teaching a little too far.

Soooo...Here is the silver lining. We have a chance to play for the coolest trophy in sports on our home ice and win it with the home fans. It would be awesome to be there. AND, Eric Cole, one of the teams star players is back after three months away due to an injury. AND, home teams are 11 wins and 2 losses in game 7s in the Stanley Cup finals. Combine that with a team that was second overall in the league, and two bad games in a row, at least the law of averages is on our side.

Monday, I am wearing my Canes Jersey all day, unless I have to go to the Hospital or funeral home or something like that. I am going to root well for my team and enjoy the fact that 7 years ago to the day, the DALLAS STARS won their First Championship and Natalie and I watched from the couch in our hotel room on our wedding night (we were eating a late dinner at the time as well). Hopefully we can see another great victory on LUCKY NUMBER 7. GO CANES!!!!!!!!!

weekend update

Well, another week has come and gone and I have said nothing. It is not as if I have had nothing to say, but I have been a bit busy. School is out now and kids (youth) are around so I am trying to get to places and doing things that engage them and allow us to build relationships. It has been a good week of that, or at least I had fun.

Sunday night we went to the country, rocked on the porch, ate burgers, survived a rainstorm and then played a monster game of croquet. I lost, but it was great. If you have not played any lawn games lately, you should. They are great and facilitate meaningful dialogue with good friends.

Tuesday Night we had some youth over for TACOS and played UNO and Scattergories. It was excellent as well.

Monday and Wednesday, I watched Hockey and Mountain Biked. Monday was a bit rough, flattened a tire and saw a copperhead which could have killed me with his bite, but, I was too quick...and completely freaked the rest of my ride.

Friday, I played my first raquetball EVER with the nilator. I was completely soaked with sweat before he was finished warming up, but we had a blast. No score was kept, but, next time he will skunk me for sure.

We also had some excellent food this week. Grilled some fresh chicken on wednesday, tacos on tuesday, great pizza on friday, and really good expresso this morning.

I type this morning from BOONE, NC which is becoming my favorite town in NC. It is a college town with a good mix of cool kids, local hippies, fresh small businesses and in the winter is it within 30 minutes of 4 ski hills. What's not to like.

The only downer for the week is that Nat. is taking a teaching test this morning which is giving me tons of free time in a cool town, but she is taking a standardized test which is just dumb, really. It will be done soon enough, but we suspect the AC is going out at the house. Not so bad for us becuase it wont hit our pocketbooks, but, landlords are sometimes not nearly as excited about getting AC fixed as tenants are. We have the best landlords ever, but I still hate bringing bad news like this, and they still hate the bills.

I hope your week brought good thoughts, challenges and moments to you.

until next time
aho

man down...

This week our church here in Mayberry lost a good man, Ralph Epperson. Ralph started the first radio station in the county in 1948 and it is still working in a similar format. No payola, no national contests, and Clearchannel to cloud up authentic local music. He is kinda a legend around here and his staion, WPAQ broadcasts the third longest running live radio show called the Merry-Go-Round, which is behind in length only the Grand Ole Opry.

Ralph was a funny and smart man, who created and ran great business, and he will be missed in our community.

Check out the NPR story on him here...