I did not buy you a $300 bike so you could strap a big bucket of kitty litter to the back of it.
My wife, after seeing my latest bicycle rack hack.
Archive for the 'Family Life' Category
With the closing of N. Greenriver and $4 gasoline, I’m going to try to bike to work today… We’ll see how it goes.
If all goes well, I’ll slip in a detour to the Donut Bank on my way!
During the most important part of the church service, the background music played is an anthem to their country. Pictures of their military are shown, some even with guns in hand, while the congregation meditates on the Eucharist-the body and blood of Jesus who said “blessed are the peacemakers.” At the end, the men’s choir who is usually brought in to sing the most stirring and powerful songs about the saving power of the Gospel puts words to the same song played earlier, singing about God’s favor for the country and the men that fought in bloody wars to keep it ‘free’. The final moments of the song were punctuated with video of huge guns being shot off and cheers from the congregation.
This is not a tale from some state-controlled church in a third world military dictatorship. This is from my church in Indiana, and to all of my non-american friends I say I am so sorry.
So there I was, going to close on my house. The realtors from both sides were there, the loan guy, and the closing guy. It was kind of refreshing to sign a bunch of documents in a language that I could read. After two years of getting docs shoved in my face in the 9th most corrupt country in the entire world with the command “Signature!” I was a little gun-shy going into the closing.
I threw fear to the wind and signed everything they put in front of me with hapless abandon!
After signing enough documents that they stacked up a full inch, we were done and they handed me the keys to my new house. At last, I was a homeowner.
“ok,” says the loan guy “Now my assistant will just make copies of all of these for you and we’ll be done. Now who wants to see some fish?”
[insert record scratch sound here]
Yes, you read right. he said,
“NOW WHO WANTS TO SEE SOME FISH?”
And with that, everyone in the room (except me) jumped up with excitement and big smiles.
I wouldn’t have been weirder if he would have opened up a jar of pickles for all of us to share.
I went along as he ushered us down the hallway, out of the signing room, and to an unmarked door at the end of the room. He opened the door for all of us and we walked in and there was another hallway and then a room full of tropical aquariums! The walls were lined with tanks of exotic fish, the center of the room was a big open tank full of coral and clams and snails.
A man was standing in the middle of the room and my loan guy said to him, “This is Steve and Judy (names changed) and they want to switch from freshwater to saltwater and this is Dan Sullivan and he needs a saltwater.”
Steve rescued me by starting to talk to the fish salesman while I stood in a little shock. A tropical aquarium business in the mortgage company?
Then two people came in another door with a younger high-school kid. He began to talk genus and species with these other customers and I wondered if there was a sign outside that door.
I checked and there was. There in the backyard, the sign said “Employees Only”
“Ok, so this is really weird.” I said to Judy. I figured the next thing was that they would block the doors and commence to steal our kidneys. After about another minute, I had enough. I didn’t leave work early to close on a house I’ve been waiting for for months to look at fish.
I headed for the door and got the classic handshake at the door that I learned at the Shoe Carnival. If the customer is leaving empty handed, shake their hand at the door and thank them for coming to turn them back toward the store, you may be able to turn them back in from there.
In the signing room, it was no surprise that my documents were ready and after a few moments, I got out of there.
All of this led me to think about first-fruits. All over the scriptures, God asks that we give Him the first part, and He will make all the rest Holy. I’m wondering about the first-fruits of my homeownership. If the first 10 minutes were so bizarre, what will the next 10 years hold?
Right now, I’m reading “Forgotten Ways” by Alan Hirsch, I just started “Organic Church” by Neil Cole, I’m reading “The Horse and His Boy” by C.S. Lewis with my kids, Jeremiah for my Wednesday Donut Bible Study, and selections from John for some discipleship.
I think the first two will fall by the wayside when I close on my house tomorrow.
It’s time to quit reading and start doing.
Here is one of the pictures of the eclipse that I posted on my smugmug gallery. It was more of an experiment, but some of them look kind of cool.
I am now putting the more inane things that happen over on Tumblr.
This is the place for stuff that I come across that I just want to share or save. It may not be Bible study goodies, and some of it may not be clear at all, but it’s the stuff that I think “man, I should post that.”
Ok, I think this is the official first picture from our new house, that we should close on sometime next week. This is in the basement. I took this shot during our mold test yesterday. This thing is growing out of the wall. In the background, you can see the room where somebody had a dog locked up. He went all over the floor, and ripped the drywall to shreds. Maybe someday that will be our tornado shelter.
What a Walmart adventure, a father beat his kid in front of me because the kid would not get out of my way and I had trouble finding everything and at the end the cashier was so mean, I ask him to his face, Are you angry at me? And he was startled and said no.
And I got out of there spending $120 and not using a single plastic bag.
I know you’re not supposed to blog about your co-workers, but JVP, this one’s for you.
Last night we were reading The Chronicles of Narnia as has been our new nightly activity. It makes a great hour around bedtime. I find myself waking up in the morning and thinking, “man, what movie did we watch last night? That was awesome!” and then I realize I just read ONE CHAPTER of The Chronicles of Narnia.
Last night began something that I think is going to happen through all of the 7 books. It was the part where Aslan is singing and creating Narnia [ok, I’m now tearing up at the Donut Bank]. He sings the whole world into creation and the grass springs up like waves of water coming away from him. (I feel like I should capitalize that him.) Then Aslan chooses a few of the animals out of all of them that are created and calls them away from all of the other animals. He gathers them in a circle, looks at each one of them, and then commissions them. They were all alive, they were all moving around, but then He spoke, “Come alive, Narnia. Think. Love. “ etc. [dripping tears at Donut Bank] and as I read it I just threw away all of the creationist hogwash and the big banger hogwash. I’ve become a Narniast. I believe that the world was created exactly as C.S.Lewis described it. A big Lion sang it into creation, and then commissioned His creation.
It’s funny. In college I had some friends that said whenever I was about to say something important I adjusted my glasses. I bet after a few more chapters the boys will know that whenever Daddy starts crying, something of Biblical proportions is happening.
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