There Is But Little I Can Say…
Personal thoughts and ramblings from the inner world of my mindSpring is coming
Always seem to want to plant more in the garden than there is room for. Last year we did a few tomatoes (grape, beefsteak, and roma), some green peppers, several chili peppers, some gr onion, and lettuce. Most of it did okay, though the green peppers were sparse and the beefsteaks never got properly staked so they were less than they could have been.
This year, we are adding a second 4’X8’ bed, so I hope to concentrate on doing better with a planter or maybe two for herbs, then as much as a whole bed for tomatoes, and Judy is in to egg plant and maybe some rutabaga (have you tried this wonderful root? We just did and we loved it!). I might try my hand at a garlic plant as well.
It is also my hope to journal on my garden more here so that I can learn about what I am doing.
Isn’t it a lovely day…?
Eastern North Carolina is a different sort of place, meteorologically speaking. In many other ways too, but the weather in particular differs from my previous places of residence. It seems to be somewhat of a meteorological oddity, right on the edge of everything. We are near the coast, but far enough away to not have their good and bad weather affects. We are near the mountains, but far enough away again to escape being alike unto them. We are just north enough to truly have cold weather (it was 19 when I got up today) but so far south that snow is a very rare thing.
Almost everything in ENC has shut down for a few days. Yesterday we received a few inches of snow/sleet that has frozen and given us a small ice storm. Beauty laced with danger. Four boys and their parents shut up in a house together! And I begin to think of the garden again. It is amazing to compare what a little ice here does to everything in the community compared to a much larger snows or ices in Kansas or Maryland. It’s all about what you are used to, what your experiences have prepared you for. But such times of quiet and schedule change can be a blessing, if we pray them through. Thank You, Lord.
A Life of Song
If the story has come down to me well, and I think it has, he sat in a small Baptist church miles from anywhere in the middle of Kansas and heard the voice of an angel. The young lady, just out of high school, whom he had met at a roller rink (do those exist anymore?) was singing that old spiritual, “Sweet Little Jesus Boy.” And all he knew was that it was the voice of an angel. The courtship progressed, she finished college, they got married, she brought him to the Lord, and eventually they adopted me.
And so Sunday, 50 years later, I am sitting in a pew listening to my mother’s strong alto voice gently find the notes and blend with those around her, ever careful to make others sound better and ever seeking to bring glory to her Lord. They were the old carols (thought “Sweet Little Jesus Boy” was not among them), the ones we all know. And yet I was less in the moment their strong theology brought to bear on my mind, and more in the generational notions of a faith passed on. My parents greatest gift to me has been a life lived with Christ at the center. It was Christmas Eve that they brought me home in 1965. And now their four tall (thin – how did that happen?) young grandsons sat and heard the voice of their grammy, the voice of an angel still. May God gift them with the continuing of a spiritual heritage.
Bachelor Bits
So Judy loaded up the Phil and the Caleb for a trip to her parents. Of course, they got lost, doubled the length of their trip out there, and no sooner than they get there than the Phil decides to get a bug and throw up. But course its all good. And I am left alone with two teens. Don’t get me wrong; I love my sons, I might even like them. But we are three bachelors. I won’t record all the stuff that does or does not happen when Judy is away, but my point is simple: it just is not purty. Without the feminine around, things get dank and musty. Words are less. Meat and cheese abound. Things just do not work the same. And in the end, it is a loss. There is an initial delight in the change, but very quickly, we miss wife/mom. So hurry back. By the time you get here, things will be clean, properly arranged, most of the laundry done, etc., but that will all come about in the hour prior to your arrival. And we will be glad to see you home.
U2 Photos and Films
I was too busy enjoying the moment of surrender to do a lot with my camera, and when you use my little digital camera in video mode, it stinks, but the following are places to find what I did take.
Photo Album on Facebook: If you are not my friend on Facebook, shoot me a request so you can see it.
Videos on YouTube:
The Muse – their opening act
Magnificent
It was the only word Bono could find for the evening and I can’t improve upon it.
Judy and I attended our first U2 concert and had a really great time Saturday night in Raleigh, NC. We enjoyed a nice meal at The Gourmet Factory, which may be a little “over named” but had good food nonetheless. We had to park about 1 1/2 miles from Carter-Finley Stadium, and could see the top of the staging apparatus even from there. We arrived in the stadium at our upper level seats about 6:20pm. The Muse was the opening act – did not care too much for them.
U2 came on with David Bowie’s “Ground Control to Major Tom” coming over the huge set of speakers. One bank of speakers was larger than my whole house! Refering to the staging as a “spaceship” we launched into orbit. They were simply awesome on a clear night with cool temperatures. They played almost 3 hours. I have mounted some pictures and video elsewhere. I will blog those locations soon.
Their set list was:
Concert Set List:
- Breathe
- Get on Your Boots
- Mysterious Ways
- Beautiful Day
- No Line on the Horizon
- Magnificent
- Elevation
- In A Little While
- New Year’s Day
- I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
- Stuck In A Moment
- Unforgettable Fire
- City of Blinding Lights
- Vertigo
- I’ll Go Crazy – Remix
- Sunday Bloody Sunday
- MLK
- Walk On
Encores:
- One
- Where The Streets Have No Name
- Ultraviolet
- With or Without You
- Moment of Surrender
We slogged back through the 58,000 people all trying to get out the place full of the music and tired. We got home about 2am. I will blog more as I unravel all my many thoughts on the experience, but again, MAGNIFICENT.
The Challenge of a Constant State of Change
Our culture is constantly on the move. It is headed somewhere. I am not always sure where that is. But it does not stay the same. And then there is the issue of growth within the community that produces a constant state of change. So I am rather nonplussed by politicians who campaign on change. Change is constant. The conservation of that which is good, true, beautiful, is the challenge faced by those wanting the constant changes to not remove those things from our culture. Two disparate but linked moments brought me to face again this challenge:
A. I recently had lunch with a father in my school who engaged me in a discussion that is common to all parents: my kid just keeps changing. Every time my wife and I feel we have a handle on our child’s needs, she goes and changes on us. This father and I discussed the fact that one of the major skills of marriage/parenting is having a process of communicating with each other through the constant state of change. If you can’t deal with change well, you will have trouble parenting. When you multiply that times four in the case of my four boys, it is mind numbing.
B. Then I read this article about the changes our dear government has foisted upon how we raise our families. Read it for yourself; I cannot be as eloquent.
So my point is to admit there is a challenge and to then determine yet again to continue to contemplate overcoming this mountain in my path. The kind of change I am seeking in the next life (that of Lewis’ “further up, further in”) is much more appealing, but Lord willing, still a few years off.
Trying it again…
Man! I don’t post much. Been a busy and quick summer.
Caleb (my youngest, six years old) is going to do the Kindergarten thing again. He started up yesterday. Much stronger start, more familar with the situation, though we gave him a different teacher. Maturity creeps up on us all. They grow so slowly, and yet so fast. And moving from being one of the youngest to one of the oldest can only help. We have done this with all of our boys in one way or another. Part of me understands the rush to “get them through,” they can be a pain. But then the sensible side says, “Take it slow, let them mature and grow at a pace that gives them solid strength.” And the marathon continues.
But Caleb is the son of his father. At recess the first day he walked up to his teacher from last year and said, “I know you.” And trust me, little dude, she knows you too.
Phil’s Jacksonville Adventure
Philip is a bona fide soccer fanatic. And after his last rec league soccer season, one of the coaches asked if he would play on a tournament team. So he did, and we went (myself and his older brother Josh) these last two days. They got trounced because all the other teams have been playing together for years. And some of these parents have been steadily growing in their estimation of the importance of soccer and their son’s ability in it for some time as well. Man was there some drama just over a bunch of “twelve year olds” playing soccer. The quotes are because some of these 12 yr olds had facial hair. My pictures were terrible, but are posted over at my Facebook photo albums (Phil’s Soccer Tournament 2009). They did not win a game in the four they played, but they played with character and for playing well above their ability level, they played well. They were not humiliated, to be sure. Some of the other team’s parents should have been.
Doc gives guarded thumbs up
I guess you have to be really careful how you write your titles these days…
I did see the doc this week and the diabetes thing seems to be stablizing. I am not happy because in short I have put on weight since I started working out and got on his meds. His explanation is that the diabetes had been causing the weight loss and now that my body is getting back to normal, my weight is finding its current “real” level. Which means that I am further from my goals, but hopefully now can be losing in real terms rather than the “diabetic fake” that had me so encouraged.
I hate limits. Who really likes them? We all have them.
Springing upwards
The garden is actually in. I went with the notion of a raised bed due to the high clay content in this NC soil. I started with just one bed, 4′X8′. It is just a little larger than the last really good garden we had, way back in Baltimore when we rented in Cockeysville. We have two rows of fancy indeterminate lettuces, two rows of green onions (better known as kiss repellent), two tomato plants, two green peppers, and a jalapeno plant. Not a lot, but enough to keep me content until we build up a few more beds over the coming years. We have had good rain since and actually ate some of the lettuce thinning for dinner with a fine set of pork ribs the other night.
Slowing Slipping Down the Gardening Hill
I have stepped a little closer, or really a lot closer, to a garden again this year. We are doing a raised bed like we had way back in the early 90’s in Baltimore. I purchased the wood and soil (had a great moment of trying to use my geometry to figure the amount of soil I needed) last night. We are doing a 4 foot by 8foot box for now. Caleb got all excited about buying seeds. Now if the rain will just hold off long enough to let me get it all “up” we are going to be eating out of our own back yard this summer!
Loosing during Lent
Lent so far has been somewhat unusual for me. Normally I feel the loss of some particular dietary enjoyments, consider my own sinful desires as a result, and generally “get” the whole Lenten experience. But this year, with the already strident restrictions of diabetes closing in on me, a new effect has been produced. I am struggling to distinguish between what has been given up for diabetes and what has been set aside during Lent. The one is mandatory, in part due to my sins of overeating and poor eating choices in the past. The other is voluntary and purely for spiritual benefit. Both are somewhat cathartic, but the diabetic diet is one that causes me no small amount of temptation and resultant guilt, while I have maintained a rather clean conscience about my Lenten abstinence. This is curious and even confusing at times. What it needs is more prayer and contemplation. What I should give up for Lent is time consuming activities, meetings in particular!
And thus, a year later…
Gardening takes time, work, sweat, etc. As such, the wishes of last year (see post from last January) gave way to inactivity. But perhaps not this year. I am again taking a look at things and considering a vegetable garden which may include an herb garden as well. We will see if I make the commitment this year or not. You would think with four boys, but then again, they are displaying all the boyish predilections against work that one is bound to find, especially when mention is made of a garden. So, the saga continues.
OneNote is awesome
Folks, if you don’t know what OneNote is, you have to find out. And if you do, why did you hide it from me for so long? I just love being able to gather all my stuff into one place on the computer. I thought I blogged a lot! This is like some sort of mania. I have a work notebook, a personal one, and a writing one. All three are filling up fast. If anyone has any neat uses, pass it along. I will be riffing off this software idea for years to come.
