Addicted to . . . OIL!

Thomas Friedman had a great op ed piece earlier this week in the New York Times. In the article Friedman talk suggests that President Bush is our "Addict in Chief" and that the Bush energy policy is to get us to take "one more toke on the ole oil pipe."

Friedman then points out that Bush is doing his best to blame our addiction on the Democrats. I love his sarcastic sense of humor.

He challenges the president to offer the following energy plan:

“Oil is poisoning our climate and our geopolitics, and here is how we’re going to break our addiction: We’re going to set a floor price of $4.50 a gallon for gasoline and $100 a barrel for oil. And that floor price is going to trigger massive investments in renewable energy — particularly wind, solar panels and solar thermal. And we’re also going to go on a crash program to dramatically increase energy efficiency, to drive conservation to a whole new level and to build more nuclear power. And I want every Democrat and every Republican to join me in this endeavor.”

There is no doubt but that we are dependent upon oil, and the big oil companies and the Saudi's are going to do their best to keep us addicted. 30 years ago when I was in high school and gas was creeping up to --- oh my gosh --- $1 a gallon we started talking about the need for other energy sources. Unfortunately, until we hurt enough --- we are not going to give up our addiction to oil!

Transitions

A lot has been going on over the last couple of weeks. Lindsey is doing great since her surgery. I have noticed a change in her condition, she seems much more stable than she had been prior to the surgery. In a couple of weeks we will do some blood work to see if we have found the right amount of synthroid that she is taking every day.

Jeff and Heather headed back to Kansas this morning. I wish them well as they begin this new phase in their lives.

I am moving my office back into the office I started with 10 years ago. I moved when Jeff came and then had to move again (into a smaller room) because we needed the space for the Sunday School. It is a pain to move but I know I will be happier in this new room. I also am trying to get my new computer up and running, I have transferred most of the files, now I just have to re-install all of the programs. WHAT A PAIN!

At lunch today I went and holed myself up so that I could do a little reading --- I just needed to get away for a while. I finished a great novel by Laurie King. I had previously read a book in her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series called O Jerusalem --- which I loved, because it took me back to Israel/Palestine. The Beekeeper's Apprentice is the first in this series in which Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes meet. The book is slow at times, yet I wanted to finish so that I could figure out who the villain was. King does an interesting job in tying together the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with her version of an older (and "retired") Sherlock Holmes.

Sorry that it has been so long since I wrote on my blog.

Last week Lindsey had her surgery to remove her thyroid. Everything went well, but she had to spend an extra night at the hospital because she was oozing more than the doctor liked. She will go back to see the surgeon on Friday, but she is actually planning on going to work this afternoon (she works at the Munster Branch of the Library). She is doing really well, but is very tired and still not very interested in eating.

Nancy spent the two nights up at the hospital and I spent the days running back and forth. With all of the trips that I made, I am thankful for my little Honda Fit which gets 32+ MPG on the Highway. I also want to thank everyone who kept us in your thoughts and prayers. As I said Sunday, I really appreciate the love and concern that Ridge Church has shown us!

Today I am still trying to get my Palm data moved over to Outlook so that I can get my Blackberry up and running. Thus far it has been a royal pain in the butt! At least I haven't lost all of my data (yet!!!).

Sunday will be Jeff and Heather's last one with us. It will be a bittersweet day. I am excited for them, because I know that they are anxious to get home (I remember when I made the decision to leave North Carolina and head back to the heathen North, at least that is what my church people in Richfield, NC thought). But I am also sad to see them go. Jeff has been a phenomenal associate and has really grown over these last three years. I wish he was taking a church, (because that is where his gifts really are) but I know that he will do well on the staff at COR.

Appeasement

I came across an interesting article this morning. It is found on Beliefnet and Sojourners, the God's politics blog called Diplomacy = Hitler Appeaser? It was written by Garth Higgins a Christian Peace activist in Belfast Ireland. It is pretty interesting that Bush used the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of Israel to make this comment --- which was I believe a back handed attack of Barak Obama and his stated willingness to talk with our enemies.

The implication that Bush was making was that there are only two choices --- using Higgins words: "terrorize the terrorists or to cower in fear and denial." I agree with Higgins that there is always another way -- and as Christians we need to seek that alternative vision.

Throughout the history of the world we have talked with our enemies. Whether is is Roosevelt with Stalin, or the British with the IRA and even Bush with Hamas.

Is Obama naive? Probably, and I assume that if he is elected he will use every back channel opportunity he has to build links with other powers throughout the world. Some of which will work, others that will not. But the Bush policy of the USA beating up everybody who does not do what we tell them has not worked either. It is time to quite using rhetoric simply for political gain and to starting working for shalom.

What was I thinking?

Last fall, with Haley joining the Munster HS marching band, Nancy and I joined the "Band Backers." It is an organization that supports and raises money for the Marching Band. We also were asked to sign up to help with a number of different areas. I signed up to help take photo's of the band throughout the year. One of the worse things that an organization can do is ask people to help, and then not give them the opportunity. On the sign up sheet, it stated that we would be contacted by the people in charge of that area. Needless to say, I was never contacted.

At a recent Band Backers meeting, they were looking for someone to put together a slideshow - DVD of the year and the seniors. Nancy suggested that I could do it. The deadline for the pictures was APRIL 15th --- the last picture I received was May 17th, with a large group arriving on May 12th. I don't know what people think, but putting together a year end DVD with 26 seniors doesn't happen overnight. The banquet is tomorrow and they want 36 copies from me. As I write this, I hope that the final version, is being burned to a DVD. Once I watch it again . . . I can start making my 40 copies that are needed for tomorrow.

Once this is done, I get to begin working on the Ridge Church senior DVD. That should not take as long (it better not!!!).

I have been doing some reading. I have recently finished two novels that I picked up at the Rummage Sale and have mixed feelings about both of them. I am a big Clive Cussler fan, especially the Dirk Pitt series. His books are rather mindless, but do take you on some great adventures. FLOOD TIDE was written in 1997 and was one of those books that you knew in reading it that it had to have been written prior to 9-11. It is unfortunate how some details just don't work because of our new emphasis on "homeland security." The premise of the book is that during the Chinese Revolution in 1948, treasures were taken from the country by Chang Kai-shek and ultimately lost at sea.

Fast forward to 2000 and a modern smuggler is bringing illegal goods and people into the United States with the hope of eventually creating a Chinese country on the West Coast. Qin Shang the smuggler is more interested in building an empire for himself, but is most interested in finding the lost treasure. Of all the Cussler books that I have read, this one seemed the most far fetched. I know that the government can be inept but this was beyond belief. This book gets a "C" from me. I did finish it, so maybe that says something.

While the video was burning, I read a Tami Hoag book: LUCKY'S LADY. Pat hooked me up with her mysteries when I went on my renewal leave. This one was not typical Hoag. She even tells you that in the forward. Hoag stated as a romance novelist. This book is kind of a bridge between her earlier romance books and her later suspense novels. It is set on the bayous of Louisiana, and centers around the Sheridan family. Like most families they have lots of issues. I have to admit, while I almost put the book down a number of times, I am glad that I finished it. It was well written and had a good message. It gets a "B" from me.

I will try to find some time while I am burning the copies of the video, to write about the last book, but first I need to go and watch the video once again.

Catching Up

It has been too long since I took the time to write, and I will try to do better this week.

Over the last few weeks, Nancy and I have attended five plays. Two of them were of the professional variety, one was community theater, one had Jessica in it and the other had Haley. Overall they were pretty good shows, but one stood out head and shoulders above the rest.

The Center for Visual and Performing Arts (Theatre at the Center) in Munster recently held the world premier of a show called Knute Rockne: All American. It is a brand new show celebrating the life of the great Notre Dame football coach. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much --- a musical about football . . . Most stage actors don't (can't) look like football players . . . But I was totally surprised. This is a great show! Hopefully it will eventually make its way to Broadway and I can say I was there at the beginning.

We also saw, as part of the Broadway in Chicago series, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The performance was very good, but I could not stand the show. It was the first time that I have been downtown and noticed a great many people leaving at the intermission. I don't mind dark stories, but I would like it to go somewhere (anywhere!), Sweeney Todd goes nowhere. I have a hard time imagining how this could be such a successful musical. I haven't seen the movie, and I doubt that I will waste my time.

The third show is from our local community theater: Towle Community Theater. They are in the midst of a run called: No Way To Treat A Lady. This was a cute musical. Rather dark, but well done and at least it came to some resolution. I love the Towle, the do a great job in a very creative space in downtown Hammond.

Jessica was involved in a short play (one of six senior shows) that we went to see at Butler last week. All of the shows were very creative, some too long (I imagine they had a time requirement), others just sort of wandered. For me two of the shows really stuck out. One was of a homeless guy who shared his story in an amazing way. Unfortunately, this one went to long and the middle section --- when he decided to preach at the audience got stupid --- but overall it was a powerful look a the mind of someone who is living on the street. My other favorite, of course, was the one Jessica was involved in. All six short plays were done in different rooms throughout a building on the Butler campus, Jessica's was done in a stairwell. Yes, a stairwell. And believe it or not, the used it extremely well. All six of the shows were about relationship angst. The only bad thing about her show was that it started at 9pm went 2 hours and we still had to finish loading her up and drive back home. They all slept as we got home about 2am.

Haley was involved in the Munster High School production of Guys and Dolls. I have to admit, I am sick and tired of all the "classic" musicals but overall they did a great job. The pit, however, was the pits! Sometimes I wondered how in the world the people could figure out which note to sing since the orchestra was all over the place!!

Coming up we get to go back to Butler to watch Jessica in Transitus Animae an exploration of the tabOO. I have no idea what that will be about. We also will head back into Chicago to see Avenue Q next week.

Boston sidetrips

It seems as if this is my fate lately. Have a flight home, a funeral the next day and then flight problems. Nancy and I were supposed to catch a 8:45 flight back to Chicago this evening. That would have meant getting in around 10:15 and getting home no later than midnight. It is now 10:45 and we do not seem to have any departure in sight. If, and that is a big if at this moment, the flight gets off at 11:15 like they are now saying, that means landing around 1:00 am and getting home at 2:30 or so. Nice.

We had a great day today. We started the morning by going to Concord and saw some of the Revolutionary War sites. We followed along the Battle Road from that first day in the War, April 19 1776, when shots were fired at Lexington and the bridge at Concord before the colonists chased the King’s troops all the way back to Boston.

Following that we stopped, also along the Battle Road, at the home of Louise May Alcott, the author of “Little Women”, later owned by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Unfortunately the house was closed, but Nancy knocked on the door anyway hoping that someone might let us in.

We then drove a couple of miles, just outside of Concord to Walden Pond. The location that Thoreau went into the woods for his two year experiment. It was a beautiful place.

I have to admit that I never realized that so many authors came from this small area . . .

We then spent the afternoon in Boston, first at Cheers for a late lunch and then Nancy and I walked the freedom trail through town. We had a great time.

She did it!

Nancy ran and completed the Boston Marathon in 4:09:57. Her goal was around 4:15 so she did just what she wanted to do.

This is a very different race from Chicago. Not nearly the crowds, and not the crazy runners or crowds. This felt much more serious than Chicago, which I guess is not surprising. What was amazing was the number of "bandit" runners that we saw, especially early in the race. My guess is that there were 10 or 15% of the runners at the 10K mark that were not "official" entrants in the race. However, by the 20 mile mark, when I ran up Heartbreak Hill with Nancy, the number of "bandits" had diminished greatly.

Nancy is feeling good this morning, and we are going to go and see the sites of Boston. I have posted a lot of pictures on my flickr site of the race.

Boston

Greetings from Boston!

We arrived safely yesterday, but I found myself in charge of driving and managed to get us lost a few times. I like the nice straight streets of Chicago!, everything in Boston goes around in circles.

We went downtown to find the spot where Nancy has to register (and where the race ends). We spent a couple of hours at the fair, and got all kinds of goodies. Nancy got a few autographs, one from a woman who is running in the Olympic trial this morning.

After that we went looking for our hotel. I got us lost again! But eventually we found it. We took a little nap and then we went and drove the course.

YIKES! This is the starting place in the village of Hopkinton (it is a Korean Presbyterian Church). The course is HILLY, a lot worse than I thought it would be, but Nancy for the most part didn't freak out.

I am glad we drove it, because I will not really see the course again. My plan is to try and see her a few times along the way. One spot about 5 or so miles in, and again by heartbreak hill, and then toward the very end. We will see how this works out.

Today we are going sightseeing, up to Salem. Were gonna get some of that Old Time Religion, in which we killed people we disagreed with!

Nancy's number in the race is 19539, you can follow her on Monday by going to the Boston Athletic Association site.

Exhausted

I am emotionally, physically and spiritually exhausted! I think I am coming off the worst couple of week periods in my life. OK, I can think of some worse times, but this has been pretty bad!

As I got home this evening from visits to the hospital I just wanted to collapse. I tried to take a short nap but even that didn't work. I just need to get away for a few days . . . oh yeah, I get to do that --- but who picked the 6:30 am flight anyway? What was I thinking?

This week has been exhausting because of all the sickness and death that I have had to deal with. One of our staff members has been sick since the first of the year and they decided to do a little exploratory surgery --- fortunately that has been good news. No cancer, but what exactly is going on?? We are all still anxious to find out.

On Sunday I was asked to share with the congregation that our Lay Leader (and a great!! friend) had cancer and was having a surgical procedure on Monday to find out if his lymph nodes were involved --- NO! That was certainly good news. Then this morning he had surgery to remove the cancer from his lung. That, too, went well and he is on the road to recovery!

For the last few weeks I have been spending time with a family whose son is dying of cancer. It has been tough because they have been in total denial and even as the end is drawing closer they cannot see the forest for the trees. It has been frustrating and draining. I think that I have had to re-live a lot of my emotion of Stewart's death, as his brother has tried to deal with his brothers death and all the guilt and anxiety that he feels. Tonight they were moving him to Hospice --- thank goodness for this wonderful organization! As I get ready to leave town I wonder if he will still be alive when I return.

Last night I presided over a memorial service for Bob Sutter. It was a great celebration of his life. His son Scott and three others spoke, and his words were powerful and from the heart. It truly was a celebration of life!

All this is going on as I try to create a new scenario for the Ridge Church staff. A very good candidate as an associate has been presented to me and so I am working out what this might mean. I am looking forward to getting to know him better and he and his wife getting to know me and the ministries of Ridge Church. I hope that we both can sense discernment as we go through this period of courtship.

But all of these things have left me wiped out. I know that spending the weekend in Boston will be a big boost!