Category: Unrelated News

Happy Birthday!

We have rolled around to that time of year again. I am another year older.

My wife bought me two books off of my Amazon Wish List. She got me Running Through the Wall and Hal Higdon’s Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide. I have no idea when I will actually get them, but they have been purchased for me. She gave me two envelopes with a picture of the books she bought.

I also was handed a package that was squishy. I had a pretty good idea what was in it. I had been looking for a short sleeve white shirt for a few months. I finally found one. Why it was so hard to find I am not sure. I picked it up Thursday and threw it in the shopping cart. I told my wife she could wrap it as a birthday gift since she was having trouble picking out something for me. I was a little surprised that she actually did.

I don’t think I am going to be going out and stuffing myself like I did last year. I mostly took care of that last night. We had some friends who had an open house type party. Lots of candy and such. I had more than my share. Tonight we have an activity at the church where we will be eating more candy. If I have any caloric deficit, it is being made up this weekend.

While running this morning with my friend Jeff I told him it was my birthday. Then I got a big laugh out of it. I was thinking about being 38 years old. That means that in less than a year my older brother turns 40. hehe

Someone plunged out my eardrums

Today I was reading Gordon’s blog and he posted about walking away from his notebook computer but having forgotten that his headphones were on and plugged into the computer. It damaged the headphone jack. That reminded me of something that happened to me a couple of years ago.

I have a set of earbuds that are like foam ear plugs. You squeeze them down and plug them into your head. As they expand they completely block out environmental noise. Then when you turn on your podcast player you have to make sure you turn the volume down really low, or you will blow out your ears.

One day I was wearing them while mowing the lawn. It is nice because they protect your ears from the lawnmower noise and you can still hear your podcast without turning the volume up too much. Like all life changing events, you tend to remember strange details. I was listening to Tom, Molly and Veronica from Buzz Out Loud as they discussed the Akismet spam blocker for Molly’s WordPress blog.

I caught the headphone chord with my hand and violently ripped the earbuds from my head. The way it happened though, I was instantly aware of the result but not the cause. The result was that all of a sudden my ears felt like someone used plungers to pop out my ear drums. I could no longer hear the podcast and this awful noise (lawnmower) was filling my head. I just knew my ears exploded for some un-explainable reason. It took a couple of seconds before I realized that I simply pulled on the chord wrong.

Scary times.

Are you willing to change?

My friend Nolan said on his blog yesterday that “Prayer without willingness to change my life is pointless.” I thought about that a lot this morning before heading out the door on my run. I have been running with a friend the last couple of weeks and we have been ending our running with a time of prayer with one another.

One of the themes of this week’s prayer time has been that there needs to be a change in certain areas of my life and areas of his. Two totally different areas, but we both see a personal need.

I was struck by what Nolan said. The willingness for change needs to be present, or the prayers are worthless.

His mom said he was an ugly baby

Betty Lukens pictureSeveral months ago we were given the opportunity to buy a Betty Lukens flannel graph set for a great price. There was a missionary family that was going to be coming to town and they are a retailer for the wonderful picture set. We were buying a small set from them and another missionary family was buying a large set. The family that was selling them would bring them in for us so that we would not have to pay unreasonable amounts for shipping. Their trip got postponed and we had to wait for our flannel graph sets.

However, they did come this week to teach a class in a local church on how to teach children’s classes. It was a great 8 hours worth of classes. I am really glad I was able to attend. The couple who taught the classes have over 40 years of experience in children’s ministry. Not only did they teach “how,” but more importantly they taught “why.” I have always been impressed by people who have a philosophy for what they do. It is not just a set of rules, but guiding principles, that if you keep them in perspective, will help you build your own set of dos and don’ts.

The husband was illustrating how to teach a Bible story and he chose the first part of the life of Moses. The Bible says that Moses “was a goodly child.” My Spanish Bible says he was a beautiful child. The whole idea is that he was a good looking baby.

The missionary telling the story stopped and asked the audience if they had ever seen an ugly baby. Of course, everyone obligingly said “no.” Then he said, “I have seen an ugly baby.” All the men laughed and the women were shocked that he would even say that. Then he continued by saying that his second son was an ugly baby. The women were even more shocked.

I happened to be sitting by the speaker’s wife. I leaned over and made a comment about my sister being the ugliest baby in the world (before you blast me, I don’t have a sister). The wife then laughed and said, “Our son really was an ugly baby!”

He must have really been a sight if even his mother admits that he was ugly. They claim he has grown up to be a handsome man though. Sure, like I believe that.