Unrelated News – Page 13 – My Thought Spot

Uncomfortable breakfast

Last Wednesday morning I had breakfast with a group of men from the missions conference I was in. This conference was held at the church which is connected to the college I attended. One of the men at breakfast happened to be the man who told me I had to withdraw from my college classes 18 years ago because I could not pay my bill. I am not sure what his job title was, but he was the man who had to put the screws to the students when they did not pay.

At this breakfast table there was another missionary who did not know this man. He asked the man what his job in the college was. The older man smiled at me and said “Mr. Peach can tell you what I do.”

You have to understand that he was not being unkind. He and I have a pretty good relationship today. But, to counter his comment I replied with, “He is the person who kicks you out of school when you can’t pay your bill.”

Tagged!

I got tagged by PlaneT3rry to give 7 little known facts about myself.

THE RULES:

Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
Post THE RULES on your blog.
Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
Tag 7 people and link to them.
Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

I am not much for passing along these kinds of things, but I don’t mind playing along for myself. So, I will be breaking rule 4 and not tagging anyone.

1. I am an amateur radio operator–KU4LL.

2. I have only had 2 girlfriends. The second one I married and the first one and I are still on speaking terms.

3. I used to insist on being in bed by 9:00 so I could be the first person up every day. Now I go to bed last and am still the first person up.

4. I enjoy public speaking and feel like I could speak extemporaneously on just about any subject to any audience. It probably isn’t true, but I love public speaking so much that I would give it a try.

5. I graduated 6th in my high school class…of 6. Didn’t do so well in college either.

6. I play classical guitar. Not very well, but I play.

7. I am great at keeping secrets. My ability stems from the fact that I forget most things that people tell me. If you want my wife to know something you should tell her yourself. If you depend on me to tell her then the message will probably never arrive.

Waving to a blind lady

The reason we made the wild trip to the US is we are in a conference this week. It is a conference we really wanted to attend and the next time they will hold it is in 2 years…just after we return to Mexico for our next term.

Yesterday morning I was asked to speak in a Sunday School class. As I got up to speak a lady waved at me. I thought it was odd, but I waved back. I know it looked strange, but I did not want her to feel awkward for having waved and me not respond with something. I was just doing a short presentation of our ministry and was quickly done and back at my seat. It was then that I remembered who the lady was. She is a blind lady whom we have known for some number of years. She has put on a little weight and therefore I did not recognize her right off.

I started laughing when I remembered who she was. I had been concerned about her waving and me not responding which could make her feel awkward. I was the one who felt awkward then as everyone in the class probably knows her and that there was no need for me to respond with a wave.

Christopher Parkening

Tonight I was privileged to hear Christopher Parkening in concert. He is a classical guitarist. I first heard about him when I was in college and started taking guitar lessons. My teacher was very heavy on theory and classical music. He told me about Andres Segovia. Through time I learned about Parkening as well. David and Christopher Parkening

In 1993 or 94 my wife to be and I went and heard him in concert in downtown Pensacola. David Brandon was traveling with him at the time.

The concert that we heard back then was phenomenal. I think he played 4 encore songs. He got a standing ovation after each one.

Tonight was a great experience as well. He was asked by the concert organizers to explain the pieces and a bit about the guitar. This concert was put on by a college and many of the attendees would not necessarily be guitarists. I did not think to look at how full the auditorium was, but it seats 8,000 people and the whole bottom floor was filled.

I thought he played well tonight. I did, however, sense that he was working hard to play the pieces. When I saw him before, it was obvious that he was enjoying being on stage and performing for the crowd. Tonight he seemed to be very engrossed in the technique of the music. Particularly early in the evening he seemed to be a bit stiff at the guitar.

However he put on a great performance with the mic. As I mentioned, he explained the music he was playing. He also just got very personable and shared a few stories. He really connected with the audience.

My family and I got a chance to meet him afterwards and chat very briefly.

If you have not read his book, you might want to check out my review of it. You either have to love classical guitar music or just really be into biographies to enjoy the book.

What a great time to learn we don’t have a heater

Did any of you experience the nor’easter that blew through this week? We had a taste of it.

We have owned our Suburban for 4 years but have never had the need to turn on the heater. We got it in the spring and then took it to Mexico that summer. This week when we hit the Texas/Mexico border we found out that the heater does not work. We got up Wednesday morning to 48 degrees. That is quite a bit colder than we have experienced in a few years.

We fired up the heater in the truck and waited for it to warm up. The truck warmed up, but the heater never blew warm air. During the day the sun helped warm us a bit, but we followed the cold front right into Florida.

When we stopped to eat for the night we began a frantic search for a small heater with a fan. We found one, but it drew too much current for our DC to AC power inverter. We hit a couple of truck stops to find a heater that was designed for use in the car. They were all sold out!

Since the temperature gauge in the truck does not work, I have changed the thermostat just in case it was stuck open. I also changed the coolant temperature sensor in case that was causing the problem with the gauge. No luck.

Still looking for the problem.