Today is Saturday Part 1. I have not been just sitting around the house though. Today has been spent doing some cleaning up and unpacking from last week. A good part of my morning has been spent updating my church website which I am webmaster. Later on today I will go help the folks do some moving and tonight Laura and I are going to see the Disney flick "Wall-E" and going out to eat. I will let you all know my thoughts on "Wall-E". Hope everyone has a great day and evening. Signing off for now.
For me today is Friday. My department is closing up for July 3rd and 4th. Talk about freedom ringing. I am spending it with Laura and helping folks out. Also it will be a celebration of my Dad's birthday which was on the first plus there will be a barbecue at my brother and sister-in-law's house. Funtimes to be had by all. Of course there will be blogging and other stuff. To all my American contacts Happy Independence Day!
The mission trip took a lot out of me. Including the desire to post blogs every day. Sure, there are more important things to do in life but this is something I enjoy doing. I am writing this to get my self and my fingers back in the game. The main frustration is figuring out what one wants to blog on. So I am blogging on getting back into posting.
I made a financial committment to Multiply by subscribing to their Premium Service so everyone here will get to keep me around for a long time.
May God bless and keep you all and thanks for letting me share what is in my head and on my heart with you. Your friendship is great.
Good friends I have returned from the mission field. As one of God's helping hands in Marion, Virginia I can say that much work was done and a family was helped who had a need for a new roof and more. I hope each of you have had a great week. I am tired but I feel like God helped me impact the lives helped and those who I served with. Pictures and more to come soon.
Summer is here and the time is right to be dancin' in the Streets. Yes Summer is officialy here although the heat has made it feel summerlike here. I hope everyone will stay cool. Click on the link below to read more from the blog Brian Smith who is the morning meterologist at the CBS-TV affiliate in Chattanooga.
First United Methodist Church in Madisonville, TN suffered a fire several months ago which destroyed their 100 year old sanctuary. The fire did not destroy their spirit it made it more resolute. This is a story from a Knoxville, TN TV station showing that this body of Christian believers are dedicated to rebuilding their congregation, their building and much more. I have an affinity for this church because they help my alma mater Hiwassee College host a faculty and staff appreciation dinner usually at homecoming weekend.
How do folks. I have not posted in the last couple of days because I have been busy with mission trip stuff and other parts of my busy month of June. Things are going well and I am excited about getting away to the state of Virginia. I have however been thinking as I am known to do and here are some thoughts.
My heart goes out to the flood victims in the mid-west of the US. Those folks are reeling right now. May God keep them close and help them recover.
Cleaning out ones space can help give new purpose to a room. While doing some clean out of some unused rooms at church this struck me as a good thing. One day those rooms will be used again.
The late Tim Russert will be missed in November during the presidential election coverage on NBC. His political and historical knowledge will be greatly missed during this Novembers coverage of the presidential elections.
Multiply is a way cool place. It's good to be in a community of bloggers with similar and sometimes different takes on life. I play around with other sites but none of them have the same type of feel as Multiply.
I am glad Riverbend 2008 is done. Late nights and early mornings are awful.
Hello friends and neighbours in cyberspace. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was go, go, go and parts of me said no, no, no. June is going to be like this. My prayer is July will be less busy.
One week from today I will be sweating for the Lord in Virginia. Looking very much forward to it. You might not hear from me very often but there will be pictures up right here when I get back.
Sunday my church welcomes a new pastor. Her name is Amy and she will be good for our little flock. My wife and I look forward to her coming.
Fathers Day was good. We visited with my dad and granddad. My wife's father passed a couple of years ago. Fathers are special and one Father I was blessed to spend time with was God in his house on Sunday.
Riverbend is over and I hope you saw the short fireworks video I shot and posted on Saturday night. It was a great display of the power of explosives and synchronized music. I will not miss the late nights and the heat this week. However next week might be a different story.
Its Saturday! As I am writing this I am relaxing, blogging, watching The Saturday Early Show on CBS-TV and contemplating breakfast with Laura. We are going to a memorial service this afternoon and then to Riverbend to see the Bachman-Cummings band and the traditional fireworks finale. I had a good nights rest but I am still a bit sleepy.
It's amazing to hear and see the reaction on the death of Tim Russert. He was a first class human being and newsman. An Irish Catholic with blue collar roots Russert was a guy who was influencial without being arrogant or stuffy.
The midwestern floods are a big problem. Cedar Rapids, Iowa has been under a voluntary evacuation to escape the standing water in its downtown. My heart goes out to them as they will begin the rebuilding process.
Good news yesterday is that we got our stimulus check by direct deposit. We have been waiting for it for awhile.
I hope everyone has a great day today. Stay dry, cool and classy!
Tim Russert who has hosted the long running news and public affairs show "Meet the Press" for NBC News passed away today at the age of 58. He is well known for his use of a dry erase board during the 2004 presidential election in doing electoral vote math. Russerts political knowledge made him one of the best reporters and presenters in the business. This comes at a time when we head into a presidential election and his insight and wisdom will be missed. For more info click the link below.
Last night I went with Laura and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law to see ZZ Top.
I enjoyed their hits from the 80s and the songs "LaGrange" and "Cheap Sunglasses" but everything else was kind of foreign to me.
Before going into the sea of humanity that gathered at the Tennessee River we went to The Mellow Mushroom for Pizza and it was good. We had the "Mighty Meaty" and enjoyed seeing the people walk towards Ross' Landing. We had a overall good time together. One experience I had was on my way to the portable bathroom (loo) facilities a drunk woman seemed to want to dance with me and that scared me to death. She did however throw away some bottles for me. One thing I wonder is how do those guys look under all their facial hair. They must have had those beards forever. The picture is of the Coca Cola Stage. It is the main stage of the festival that is on a barge. It is transported to Ross' Landing every year by tugboat. It has become a iconic symbol of the Riverbend Festival.
This week has seemed to scoot by kind of quickly. I think just keeping busy has done it for me. However this day seems to be going by slow.
My hearts go out to the Boy Scouts in Iowa who's camp was destroyed by a tornado. They are saying four were killed and up to 40 were injured. This story is still developing. God bless them all.
Riverbend Festival is tonight featuring the legendary rock group ZZ Top performing live. They did the theme song to "Back to the Future 3" and have many more hits.
I hope everyone is doing well, beating the heat and trying to keep going despite the price of living going up. Gas, groceries and more are hurting the average consumer hard. Something needs to be done.
I enjoy drinking coffee. Iced or hot, decaf or not coffee powers my day. I should have Maxwell House tattooed on my arm. Juan Valdez is my homeboy, Doughuts are meant as a garnish for Coffee. High-test (caffeinated) is the best for me. Coffee is a "perk" at work because its free all-day long. I saw this picture on one of my contacts guest book and I had to post it on my site. Thanks Celia for this.
Its another beautifuly hot and humid day in the Tennessee Valley. Last night I went to the Riverbend Festival here in Chattanooga to hear the Contemporary Christian group MercyMe. They were great and visually their stage show is quite good. I had a 5:00 AM wakeup call this morning for my Wednesday group meeting. To my surprise I am making sense and somehow feel more awake now...perhaps its the 4 cups of coffee I have already had this morning at breakfast. In four days it will be the middle of the month already. A month full of activities that have kept me busy. July I hope will be much better, less busy. I don't want to sound like I am complaining, God gives me through His grace opportunities to experience his creation. I am truly blessed. I hope everyone who reads this will have a great day...stay tuned.
"Here comes the rain again Falling on my head like a memory Falling on my head like a new emotion"...The Eurythmics
The Eurythmics, a 80's music group from the UK featuring Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart had a hit song from that era entitled "Here Comes The Rain Again". Yesterday afternoon and this morning are proof that the rain has definitely come again. It has been either hot or wet and in this part of the country humidity can be fierce. The oppressive heat of the weekend was awful and the rains of the last couple of days have been a welcome relief. My heart goes out to the folks in Indiana who are flooded out of their homes and in some cases the raging waters have carried away their homes and everything they own with it. May God bless them all. The weather can truly be unpredictable and sometimes dangerous.
My weekend was a busy one. Saturday morning there was a "tool shower" kind of like a bridal shower or baby shower except with tools and gender-inclusive for our church mission trip at the end of June. We watched a movie called "The Jane Austen Book Club" which was a good flick. Sunday we were at church in the morning, home in the afternoon (where I took a off and on nap) and the evening was spent in the sweltering heat of Riverbend Festival 2008 watching the 70's music group America perform with the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra. It was a great show. I hope everyone had a great weekend and we are all ready to get back at our routines for the week. Weekends can be too busy and therefore weekdays are a rest from our Saturday and Sunday marathons of activity.
I am proud to be a member of a blogging community where there are individuals of all types and stripes. We have much in common which is a love for blogging, communication, expression and more. One thing I promise is to be respectful in the discourse we have with one another. Respect is gained as it as earned. Our discourse should be constructive, informative sometimes transformational and always lively.
Here in the United States we are in the midst of a presidential election. Its easy for us to lose sight of what brings us together because we are focused on what our political heart tells us.
Sometimes we agree sometimes we don't.
We have differences on other issues as well but I want to let you know I will respect your opinion and celebrate the fact we are in each others lives and we are better for it.
I praise God for you and your families. Thank you for being my contact here at Multiply. One thing I ask is that you keep blogging like there ain't no tomorrow!
