Sunday, December 31, 2006

New Year's Eve

Well, another year is reaching completion. Another New Year's Eve spent quietly at home, "protecting" the dog from the local unauthorized fireworks display. Another December 31st figuring out which 'midnight' show to watch. And, you know what? I like spending New Year's Eve this way!

I've never really enjoyed the madhouse nature of New Year's Eve celebrations. Just to be clear, I enjoy parties, enjoy dancing. However, there's something about the parties at New Year's that seems to hinge on seeing how far over the edge one can go. At least, that has been my experience in the past. I'm not ruling out entirely the possibility that things have changed since the last New Year's Eve celebration I attended.

This particular shift from one year to the next has had it's unusual components to it. I had hoped to be back in my own house by this point, but I'm not there yet. It's possible I'll at least be able to live there while finishing up the non-essentials by the end of next month. No guarantees, though.

On Friday, my mom had a heart-weirdness attack and ended up spending Friday night and Saturday in the hospital. She's feeling fine now, and they've let her come home. Of course, her timing is impeccable. She already had an appointment with the cardiologist who implanted her defibrillator on Wednesday. So she's going to that appointment, then the doctors are going to put their heads together and figure out where to go from here. I'm glad she's home, doing well, and was permitted an escape from hospital food.

Because I wasn't sure what was happening with Mom, I was considering a trip to visit her today. Part of the reason I didn't go was that the Penster would have had to go with me and my sister-in-law and niece, who were staying with Mom, are allergic to dogs. It's a good thing I ended up staying home. A couple of hours ago, my son arrived! HOORAY!! The timing of his arrival was uncertain, but I'm glad he's here.

He's all a dynamo, planning to do what he can to get my house put back together. *smile* It's going to be a good new year. There's something bright and uplifting about his energy and enthusiasm. It's been a bit of a difficult year, so something good happening at this, the transition between one year and the next, is encouraging.

It's a bit early, not quite at midnight yet. However, here's wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year, and that it be filled with abundant and rich blessings!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Woolgathering

Just got home from Christmas at Mom's. Kind of a quiet way to spend Christmas. Since my son isn't making it to southeast Texas before next weekend, I decided that I didn't want to spend another Christmas in a home not my own. So I drove over Sunday evening after our candlelight service, watched the end of Miracle on 34th Street, then went to bed.

Christmas day was slow and lazy, with favorite foods for eats and the dog playing with her Christmas toy for fun. The cat. Well, the cat was still in hiding. She's not too impressed with having a dog around (even though they lived in the same house for over five years). The boy called, so at least he survived this far!

And now I'm back in town. The dog and I have left the cat to her solitude, probably really chewing Mom out for letting that crazy dog wreck her serene existence. I have it on good authority that the cat has just discovered herself in Mom's new patio door - to the detriment of her poor head. The twit has charged the glass at least 2-3 times without learning her lesson. *chuckle*

While driving home, I found myself noticing the hawks along the way. When I did my internship in rural Oklahoma, it was always interesting to drive from one little town to the next. I started noticing that each field had its hawk. They'd sit on one of the fenceposts until they noticed something worthy of swooping on. It got to where it was odd to see a field without its hawk! Now, I'm not a birdwatcher. But I've gotten quite interested in looking for hawks, and feel at peace whenever I see them. There's something cool about those good sized birds just watching over things.

The Old and Lost Rivers are really low! I think it's the lowest I've ever seen them, and I drove back and forth over them for 10 years in the mid 70's/early 80's and for the last 3 years. Just seems odd to see areas of dirt in the middle of the span. Wonder what's causing it.

An old Christmas memory popped to the surface today. One of the very first Christmas songs that I remember learning to sing in church was C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S. As you might guess, it was an acrostic with each letter having a meaning ascribed to it. C is for the Christ child, born upon this day ... H for herald angels in the night.... and so on. The children's choir even had 'sign language' for each of the letters. It certainly wasn't ASL, but the spelling stuck and I still remember it. I'm not sure whether I remember the song because I like it (which I do), or if it was for the total embarrassment I experienced when we sang it. I was the kid on one of the ends and couldn't remember which end I was supposed to be on. (Directionally-challenged even at that young age!) After swapping ends about 3-4 times, the director told me to just pick one and stay there. *blush* It's still embarrassing after all these years!

Here's hoping that next year I'll be able to spend Christmas in my own home, with my decorations and my own traditions. One never can tell whether kinfolk will be around, but I feel blessed to have 'family' around in a variety of guises, and know that the family part of Christmas will always be a part of the season. However, I feel kind of rootless at the moment and hope my exile comes to an end shortly. *fingers crossed*

Thursday, December 21, 2006

The Nativity Story

Well, I finally broke down and saw The Nativity Story yesterday. I'd been kinda avoiding it because all too often movies like this foul things up just enough to irritate me. This one was no exception. I'm glad I only paid matinee prices for it.

Up front - a few positives:

While I personally detest the story, I appreciated the movie not avoiding the slaughter of the innocents. It began and ended with this horror 'tale' that occurs in conjunction with the birth of Jesus, and is one that the lectionary occasionally skips and pastors often tend to avoid. I've preached on it a few times, but don't go out of my way to do so.

I also believe the movie gave a somewhat reasonable, if truncated, picture of what things might have been like for both Mary and Joseph once it was obvious that Mary was 'with child' and it wasn't Joseph's. Even though I'm acutely aware that Mary was a poor, unwed mother, I tend to gloss over the social implications of the day, and the bible doesn't make much mention of it either. It was helpful to see some of the cultural expectations played out as a reminder that Mary's lot wasn't an easy one, yet it was one she accepted without any more hesitation than a "How?" question.

And it did answer for me the question of how a single, teenage girl could travel from Nazareth to her cousin Elizabeth's. While I'd figured she'd found someone to travel with on those dangerous roads, it was nice to see that played out, in both directions.

Now to my grouses:

According to the movie's timeline, a span of one year occurred from the time that Zechariah came out of the Temple mute to the point where Herod's soldiers began their reign of terror in Bethlehem and its surrounds. As I read my bible, the biological math doesn't quite work out. Either that, or Jesus was extremely premature - and they didn't have neonatal units in the local hospital in those days!

Here's the biblical timeline: the angel announces to Mary that she's gonna have Jesus, and as proof that this is possible, says that even now Elizabeth is six month's pregnant. Even if Mary becomes pregnant right that second, that puts her at only month six when Jesus is born and the slaughter occurs, according to the movie. Don't you just love interpretive license?

Then there's Herod. In the movie, he's pretty prophetically astute, even to the point of obsession. If you take a gander at scripture, he's not even aware of the possibility of a messiah in his time until the magi come on the scene. And even then, he has to sic his local religious experts on it to determine where this 'ersatz' king might be born. In the movie, about the only thing he gets wrong is that he should be looking for a baby, not an adult. There's no way he had enough info before the fact to set his soldiers out to target eligible males headed to Bethlehem in response to the census decree.

Then there are the poor magi. They've been set up as the 'comic relief', which is totally unfair! "What about my food?" "Bring it!" GAH!! These guys set out on one of the greatest faith journeys of all time, not knowing where they were going or how long it was going to take to get there. They packed their camels and took off after a star! Mind you, it was a singular star, not some anticipated convergence of three stars that would at the right moment. This little anachronism is one that slipped into the telling of the story.

I also wasn't impressed by the idea that the magi 'logic'-ed their way into avoiding Herod on the return trip. What would have been so wrong with having the warning arrive in a dream? God has been in the midst of this entire journey. Why abandon them at this very important juncture? Now, I'm not saying they couldn't have figured it out for themselves, but if you're planning to tell the biblical story, shouldn't you at least use the Bible to tell it?

Another grouse is a casting grouse. Zechariah and Elizabeth were supposed to be way past child-bearing years. The actor chosen for Zechariah ... well, maybe. However, I wouldn't have doubted the actress chosen to be Elizabeth having a baby for even a second. Perhaps if they'd gotten my grandma, I'd have believed the scenario. *shrug*
I realize the screenwriters were attempting to infuse some tension and excitement (?) into a story already fairly well known by most who'd see it. However, having Herod's soldiers come in the front door, so to speak, as Joseph and all fled out the back was a bit unrealistic. Herod was a crafty sort, but I'm still reasonably sure that it took him more than a few hours to realize that the magi had given him the slip and headed home via a different route. It most likely would have taken him a few weeks, if not months, to become aware of their 'treachery' (from his point of view, from theirs - he wasn't their ruler) and set his response in motion.

There were other things which were just touches which set sideways with me; however, the biggies ran rough-shod over the positives. And just from an aesthetic point of view, my local theater was having some sound difficulties which kinda set one's teeth on edge!

I will end with a positive, though. I did appreciate the time spent showing the difficulty of the trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It's not a handy one day's distance between them, and it was hazardous travel, even in groups. I have a quibble about how much of the trip they spent journeying alone. While I'm reasonably sure most people tended to live near the homes of their ancestors, a significant number of Hebrews had been relocated through various exiles and diasporas. The number of those headed to Bethlehem was probably greater than the dribble shown, especially since scripture tells us there wasn't any room at the inn, and family would have gone to ancestral homes, which were probably filled to the rafters. Gee, that didn't sound like a positive comment at all! Yet the journey was a rather difficult one, and the movie gave more than a nod of acknowledgment to the fact.

As one of my young members said, "I think I'll read the book."

Saturday, December 16, 2006

When All Else Fails ...

Punt!

In November, our choir director/accompanist resigned. While this was not ideal, it was sooooo much better than having it happen the week before our annual cantata. However, anytime approaching the start of Advent is a lousy time to find a new choir director. Accompanists are easier to come by, but someone who can do both take time to find. The problem is that by November most choirs are already working on their cantata music and choir directors aren't going to leave until after the performance, unless there are extenuating circumstances (and then they wouldn't be available to take up new responsibilities anyway).

So, what do you do when you have a congregation with a tradition of a cantata?

Get creative! While it's a total pain in the rear and I would have done almost anything (well, not really, but you get my drift) to avoid the situation, I love the challenge of a problem like this. How do you honor the tradition when you simply don't have the resources to pull one off?

Strolling through one of the listserves I'm on, someone commented on something they did one year for an alternative children's pageant. Instead of the usual "everyone dress up and do the nativity scene" pageant, they had the participants share their family traditions at various times throughout the worship service. Hmmmmmmmmm......

Some of my best thinking is done in my sleep. The next morning I awoke with an AHA!

What is a cantata but a series of related pieces of music tied together by some scripting or scripture? What if we turned our cantata upside-down: share a series of related stories and join them with music and scriptures? Tomorrow we're celebrating our Upside Down Cantata!

My original plan was to have 5-6 people share something of their family Christmas traditions and what they mean to them. In between, we'd sing a verse or two from various Christmas carols or hear a scripture read. I've got nine people who are willing to share their traditions!! All ages. One of our young instrumentalists is going to play for us after two of our 'pieces'. We're singing a verse of three different carols, and hearing three scriptures read. I'm so looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

It's always amazing to me to see how this group deals with adversity. They are absolutely awesome! I feel so richly blessed.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Why Is it?

Why is it that if there're two appointments, one at a specific time and the other between time x and time y, AND you've told Company Two that the only time you aren't available is during Company One's time block, Company Two arrives at the precise time you aren't available? For the most part, this wouldn't be a problem. This time, however, Company One was scheduled for the house where I'm staying and Company Two was blowing insulation into my attic (which is a very good and important thing!).

I get the call from Company Two that they'll be over in about 25 minutes, which puts them at my house about 15 minutes before Company One arrives here. I think - "Ok, this may be doable."

Wrong! Why is it that if scheduling is tight, of course that's the day you're driving a rental car and you've left your own car keys with the house key attached in the pocket of the jacket you wore yesterday? Fortunately, Company Two is willing to wait 10 minutes for me to run back and get the key to let them in.

I arrive at the house, hoping that Company One will be there a bit early so I can introduce the pupster to them and then leave to let Company Two into my house. Wrong! However, Company One was driving in as I was driving out (and they're a company I trust), so I gave him the key, warned him about LeDog, and told him I'd be back after letting Company Two into my house. Whew!

Run back to my house. Why is it that whenever time's tight every single car on the road decides they have to pass in front of you while you're waiting to make a left turn? And, why is it that in similar situations every light is red on the long cycle? I did manage to make it before Company Two needed to drive off. Let them in, then quick turnaround and back to where I'm staying (after receiving a stern admonition that Company Two will only be about 20 minutes).

Arrive at house as the Company One guy has finished with the outside stuff and he's entering the front door. Praised the pupster for being a good dog and not biting the nice man. *sigh* Chatted for 1-2 minutes, signed the appropriate papers, gave lockup instructions, jumped back in the car and drove like a bat out of hell back to my house in time for Company Two to finish up their job and pay them.

Why is it that when there's no hurry at all and the rush is over, every light is green when you get to the intersection and all traffic seems to have gone into hiding?

Go figure!

Sunday, December 10, 2006

One of THOSE Mornings

It was one of those mornings. You know, the kind where nothing seems to quite go right. I arrive at church, head to the sanctuary, to discover that the door's still locked. Now this is unusual because we have a staff person whose job it is to arrive early, open doors, turn on lights, make coffee, and make sure the buildings are ready for the morning. *slap forehead* She told me last week she'd be out of town this weekend on a cruise (envy! envy!).

Get my key out and go into the sanctuary. brrrrrrrrr! It's cold ..... or is it just me? Get things set up and head over to the fellowship hall for our Second Sunday Breakfast. At least that's going well. When it's after 10am, I notice that our accompanist hasn't arrived yet, and she's usually at the church around 10. Walk back into the sanctuary and, yep!, it's cold! Something's happened to the heater and it's not doing its job.

Mild panic! But we've dealt with this type of thing before. Standard operating procedure is to dither for about ten minutes while one or more of our mechanically apt individuals kick the machinery to see if it'll start. Well, it finally started, but there was no way the sanctuary would have been warm enough for our oldsters and toddlers. So, having spent the requisite amount of time dithering, we pulled up stakes (and Advent wreath, collection plates, hymnals, bulletins, and bibles) and headed to the significantly more comfortable parlor. Everyone kicked into high gear and the furniture was rearranged in a timely fashion.

The accompanist arrives in plenty of time for worship and, once the furniture and people are in place, worship begins. I kind of like worshipping in the parlor from time to time. It's cozier, and people have to sit closer. It's a "live" room and sound carries well. So we wend our way through the order of worship.

Of course, the floor is harder for "Time with Young Disciples", but that's not a big problem. One of my members and I do a duet with our accompanist. A loss this particular Advent season is that we currently have no choir director, and so no choir or special music. We've been improvising occasionally, though.

Then comes time for me to read the scripture I'm using for the sermon. "In the sixth month..." That's what the scripture said. It's not what came out of my mouth. It didn't help any that the scripture was the one where the angel Gabriel tells Mary that God's gonna make her pregnant.

I almost made it. Went back. Got to 'sixth' (and actually said it correctly), when from the front came a tiny *snerk*. Should have never made eye contact! I started laughing. *snerk snort* She started laughing. And we were off and running. The whole congregation lost it! Someone suggested it was a good thing we weren't on tv.

Slowly, we regained our composure, I started the scripture again, and we made it through the rest of the worship service. I promise, from this day forward, I'll never say 'sexth' again! *chuckle .... snerk .... snort...* Oh, to heck with it! HA! HA HA HA! HA HA! (everyone needs a good belly laugh from time to time, right?)

Thursday, December 07, 2006

A Different Fundraising Idea

Wandering through one of the online forums I participate in today, there was this post:

"I just got an e-mail from a friend with a telephone number that I had to call. So I dial the number, and am informed that the call will cost me 90 cents. Ok...

Suddenly, I hear heavy breathing, nay panting. Then a bark. Then more panting. Then a "schlurp" noise. Then a voice comes on to thank you for calling the "heavy breathing line" of the Amsterdam Animal Shelter, and telling you that all proceeds from the call will be going to rebuilding the shelter. The animals thank you. :)

I called twice."

Apparently, the shelter placed an ad in the 'Erotic' section of the local paper. Ummm..... can't find that section in our local classifieds. Well, the shelter is in Holland, after all! *chuckle*

Monday, December 04, 2006

Memory Lane

Today is my day off. It's cold outside, so to keep warm, I decided to troll the internet just to see what I might find. When I was a teenager, our family roller skated competitively. (No - not roller derby! Don't go there!!) We went to local and regional competitions and, because Mom and Dad skated in a division with few competitors, usually went to nationals. I competed for six years, taught for five, and for years judged competitions and profiency tests and helped to take the judges' scores and tabulate the results (pre-computer, you had to do it by hand!). The sport was kind of a focal point in our family's life. The family who skates together, stays together? *shrug*

Anyway, I thought I'd see if any of the old familiar names might pop up on the internet and happened to come across a website dedicated to artistic roller skating in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Browsing through the guestbook, it was interesting to see notes from household names (well, at least in our household), people I hadn't thought of for years! It was sad, though, to learn that one of the big names had died recently and unexpectedly. He was several years younger than me. But that's part of traveling Memory Lane.

I'm not planning to pull out my skates anytime in the near future. It's been a bit too long since I last had them on. However, I do from time to time wonder what it would be like to get back to competitive skating again. Things have changed a lot over the years. Now those who turned professional (like me) can compete again. I'd have to travel to Houston to pull that off, though. The rink here in town (where I used to teach) doesn't have a competitive club anymore. Nope! Don't think I'm going to do the 3-hour round trip just for a couple of hours of lessons and practice. I'm not that dedicated. *chuckle*

And the type of skating I'd like to do requires a partner. *snort* Couldn't find a partner when I was actually competing. There weren't that many guys who wanted to dance skate, then, and I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be that many around here now. My specialty ended up being the compulsory figures that everyone used to hate in the ice skating olympics. I could chase that line with the best of them! Well, sort of. I'm not particularly interested in taking that back up again either.

So, I guess I'll just enjoy an occasional trek down Memory Lane. Catch ya later!

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Floating Chips

When I was in seminary, "Introduction to Greek" was a six-week intensive summer course. We Greek-ed for four hours every morning, five days a week. At about the four-week mark, the daily test scores began plummeting. The teacher asked if any of us remembered the Lays Potato Chip commercial where the lady opens the bag and the chips began to float away. Well, I did. Stupid commercial! Who wants to chase their chips around in order to eat them? Guess you use up the calories you'd take in eating them.

Oops! Got sidetracked! Anyway - she went on to comment that at about this point in the course everything we'd learned would begin to float away, just like those stupid chips. Told us not to worry about it too much. In a few days the language would begin to click back into place and things would get better. How reassuring to know that I wasn't losing my mind!

So - what brought this image back to mind?

My potato chips are floating away again! Or my sanity, I'm not sure which. And it's not just me. I've begun to notice over the past 2-3 weeks that things which ordinarily happen with clockwork precision have fallen off the map, if that makes any sense. Meetings scheduled either don't have a quorum or the moderator forgets to come. Stuff that was ordered and, apparently, arrived is nowhere to be found. Events that usually bring at least 10-15 people for planning and preparation have only 5-6 show up. We've talked about finishing up the hurricane repairs, but nothing has been done to actually finish up the repairs (and that's at the church, not my house. We know what's going on there!). I'll remember that something needs to be done, and then forget to do it.

There have been some staff changes at church and a couple of positions aren't filled, so that's part of the discombobulation, but not all of it. I truly HATE to impose this on Her Horribleness recovery, yet that may be the case. It's certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that this kind of stuff will pop up over a year later. Anything I've read keeps reminding me of that. *sigh* I just want things to be 'normal' again (whatever that is!).

Part of the reason the floating potato chip image came to mind is that I'm feeling a real disconnect, and am seeing the same thing in others. For example, those meetings. Everyone seems scattered in 100 different directions at once, so bringing them together appears almost impossible. And, when we do get together, there's almost an impatience to scatter and get on to the next thing, even if we happen to be enjoying and getting a lot out of the activity we're involved in at the moment.

Maybe in the grand recovery scheme we're at the two-thirds mark. Maybe that's why it feels as though everything has become scattershot and disconnected, like the potato chips have gone free-floating out of reach. Perhaps this feeling is actually a good sign. I don't know. I just hope it goes away soon!

Saturday, December 02, 2006

X-Ray Vision

Interested in x-rays anyone? Then, coming soon to an airport near you, just take a short or long flight and you'll get your fill. The latest in invasive anti-terrorism technology, backscatter, is apparently headed to our airports for screening purposes. The equipment is capable of taking, ahem!, rather graphic x-rays of the human body.

According to
this AP article in today's Enterprise, there's a plan in place to blur the appropriate anatomical areas, and the x-ray will only be seen by one person off-site, and any x-ray will be deleted as soon as the person walks away from the screening site. I'm just skeptical enough (paranoid, maybe) to wonder if that will really happen. Of course, I'm also not sure what use keeping such pictures would be to anyone, unless there actually happened to be contraband or weapons viewed on aforesaid x-rays.

What I do know is that our government has gone one step further into invading our privacy, and I don't like it! Privacy issue aside, however, if this technology goes into everyday usage and someone is a frequent flyer, what are the health implications of such ubiquitous use of x-rays? Not a word in the entire article about the health aspects of such exposure to x-rays on a regular basis! To me, that's downright scary!!

In it's initial usage, the TSA is looking at the technology as "secondary screening", so not everyone would pass under its rays. And they are planning to give people the option of the traditional 'pat-down' instead. However, my guess is that, unless someone puts the kibosh on it, it might not be too long before this equipment shifts to the primary screening.

I think I'm going to just start driving everywhere! Oh, wait! Rats! Four days travel for a 2 1/2 day meeting? Plus the ecological, economical, and sheer exhaustion effect of such driving for one person's travel? *sigh* Looks like I'm not giving up flying anytime soon. But I'm definitely NOT going to be happy about it.

Friday, December 01, 2006

"Convicted Felon?"

"What part of prison do you miss? Put down the gun."

This huge billboard greets me each day when I exit the freeway on the way to church. The US Attorney General's office sponsors it.

Now, there's nothing particularly unreasonable about reminding convicted felons to stay away from guns. It's part of their conditions for continued freedom. However, something's been bugging me about this sign since I first saw it. It just took me a while to figure out what it was: the implication that someone who's a convicted felon would automatically continue on a criminal path.

The way the billboard is worded sounds to me as if a police officer is telling a criminal during the commission of a crime to "put down the weapon". And, I guess, technically, a convicted felon (as opposed to an unconvicted felon?) in posession of a gun is committing a crime. Yet the image that popped into my head as I read the billboard is of some character brandishing a revolver while robbing a convenience store. Robbing the store would, of course, put the felon back in prison anyway, but not every convicted felon returns to society to turn around and commit another crime.

Those who are released from prison after completing their sentence have a difficult enough time returning to productive and legal integration to society without having everyone and their uncles and aunts be reminded of their status every time they drive past that sign. Recidivism can be a real possibility because of the difficulty in acquiring and keeping employment, overcoming the suspicion that someone once convicted will again commit crimes, finding a place to live, continuing to rehabilitate one's life while 'on the outside', avoiding getting tangled up with the people and lifestyle that contributed to the original criminal activity, etc.

I guess there's a part of me that's wondering why the US Attorney General's office decided it was necessary to spend money on putting up the billboard. Are there really that many convicted felons running around with guns? Well, it IS Texas, after all, so maybe there are, what with our 'concealed carry' laws. Perhaps they think they can get away with it. *sigh* But do you really think that a billboard is going to change that behavior?

Obviously, I've noticed the sign and it's provoked me enough to post this. But in general billboards don't have much impact on my behavior. I don't buy something because I see it advertised on a billboard. Occasionally I'll learn about an event I want to attend on a billboard; although, I usually learn that information through the newspaper or perhaps actually listening to the tv. I wonder how many of the signs we've paid for throughout the country, and was there any particular reason that Beaumont was chosen for one?

Oh, well! Just a momentary peccadillo. Maybe now I've gotten it out of my system and I can go back to ignoring billboards again! *chuckle*