“Holy People, Holy Land”

I’m reading the book and I’m only a little bit into it.  The author has a thought about Genesis that I find interesting and there’s a lot to be read into it.

He sees that there are four relationships build into creation that were damaged at the fall.

• the relationship between God and mankind
• the relationship between body and soul (humans are the only creatures that have souls)
• the relationship between man and woman
• the relationship between mankind and nature.

I can see each of these and I can see how they are damaged.  Right now, I’m not sure how my connection is going to last so I’m going to close and see if I can post a bit more later.

Jenny Sanford’s Statement

I have a few thoughts on this whole situation - right now I’m taking a break from packing so I’m just posting an will comment later (think Jay Adams)

SOUTH CAROLINA (BNO NEWS) — South Carolina’s First Lady Jenny Sanford released the following statement on Wednesday after her husband publicly admitted to having an affair with a woman from Argentina.

“I would like to start by saying I love my husband and I believe I have put forth every effort possible to be the best wife I can be during our almost twenty years of marriage. As well, for the last fifteen years my husband has been fully engaged in public service to the citizens and taxpayers of this state and I have faithfully supported him in those efforts to the best of my ability. I have been and remain proud of his accomplishments and his service to this state.

I personally believe that the greatest legacy I will leave behind in this world is not the job I held on Wall Street, or the campaigns I managed for Mark, or the work I have done as First Lady or even the philanthropic activities in which I have been routinely engaged. Instead, the greatest legacy I will leave in this world is the character of the children I, or we, leave behind. It is for that reason that I deeply regret the recent actions of my husband Mark, and their potential damage to our children.

I believe wholeheartedly in the sanctity, dignity and importance of the institution of marriage. I believe that has been consistently reflected in my actions. When I found out about my husband’s infidelity I worked immediately to first seek reconciliation through forgiveness, and then to work diligently to repair our marriage. We reached a point where I felt it was important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect, and my basic sense of right and wrong. I therefore asked my husband to leave two weeks ago.

This trial separation was agreed to with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage. During this short separation it was agreed that Mark would not contact us. I kept this separation quiet out of respect of his public office and reputation, and in hopes of keeping our children from just this type of public exposure. Because of this separation, I did not know where he was in the past week.

I believe enduring love is primarily a commitment and an act of will, and for a marriage to be successful, that commitment must be reciprocal. I believe Mark has earned a chance to resurrect our marriage.

Psalm 127 states that sons are a gift from the Lord and children a reward from Him. I will continue to pour my energy into raising our sons to be honorable young men. I remain willing to forgive Mark completely for his indiscretions and to welcome him back, in time, if he continues to work toward reconciliation with a true spirit of humility and repentance.

This is a very painful time for us and I would humbly request now that members of the media respect the privacy of my boys and me as we struggle together to continue on with our lives and as I seek the wisdom of Solomon, the strength and patience of Job and the grace of God in helping to heal my family.”

O! Canada!

Rarely have I wanted to go to Canada as much as I have now…that I have my passport and want to use it.

When I was a kid, we used to go there to shop.  My second date with Art, we went to Chinese restaurant in Sarnia.  It’s the quickest way to Niagara Falls and Maine.  Quebec rocks.

Ah well…we’re going to settle for the Upper Penninsula.  which also rocks.

Early…

I’m on my way out the door for my Tour de Cure ride.

There have been thunderstorms all night, although it’s not raining right now.  In Middleville (where I”m going) there’s a 50% chance of thunderstorms during the ride.

It’s an hour away from here and I’m stopping for Biggby (quad mocha and chocolate chip scone).  I’m not sure if they’ll call the event for weather or not - I hope not, but if weather threatens I don’t have weather gear.

• iPod (for the drive
• sunglasses
• tire pump
• extra tube
• shot bloks
• GPS (for the drive)
• water bottles
• bike shoes and socks
• I’m wearing my glasses for the drive so I have my contact case in my bike bag
• inhaler and epi-pen (I always have one in my “trunk bag”)

and away I go

Fit Friday…(6/19/09)

(I run from Saturday to Friday, but I think I’ll change from Frida to Thursday, so that “Fit Friday” will cover all seven days.)

Weight…stayed even.

Weight Watchers:  was within points (but this is my last weight watchers week, since I’m going more low-carb -again- and I can’t eat the higher fat and stay within weight watchers points)

Exercise:
General Road Cycling,
06/14/2009 (Sunday), time, 01:56:53, total distance:24.25 mi., calories burned, 1,063

6/16/09 (Tuesday); time 1:58:48; distance, 25,09, calories burned 1080

6/18/09 (Thursday); time 1:25:03; distance, 17.46, calories burned, 773  (I had a flat tire and Tom came to pick me up in Conklin)

Total exercise: 5 hours, 20 minutes and 44 seconds.  Total miles on bike: 66.77.  I have a 40 mile ride tomorrow, which will go on next week.

My triglycerides are up and my gynecologist suggested I try to get some exercise in.

Word of the day: invidious

Chapter I. Code of Conduct for United States Judges (…)

CANON 2

A JUDGE SHOULD AVOID
IMPROPRIETY AND THE APPEARANCE
OF IMPROPRIETY IN ALL ACTIVITIES

(…)

C. A judge should not hold membership in any organization that practices invidious discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, or national origin.

(…)

Canon 2C. Membership of a judge in an organization that practices invidious discrimination gives rise to perceptions that the judge’s impartiality is impaired. (…) Absent such factors, an organization is generally said to discriminate invidiously if it arbitrarily excludes from membership on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin persons who would otherwise be admitted to membership.

~~~

Sotomayor…Balizean Grove.

Hope and same.

ppffttt…right.

He [President Obama] also reiterated his opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act: “It’s discriminatory, it interferes with States’ rights, and it’s time we overturned it,” he said. (FederalEye)

Since when has any politician in Washington DC (Ron Paul excepted) been concerned with “states’ rights”?

Pffttt.

Even is even

As I knit, I’ve been knitting socks, I’ve been using a variety of patterns.  After browsing patterns (mostly looking at pictures, I can sort out the patterns later) I noticed that they mostly follow the same basic structure.

Cast on 64 (56, 48, 32).  Are all socks multiples of 8?  The vast majority, yes.  ok.

There are only two places that the sock “decreases” - the heel and the toe.  I use the “magic loop” method of sock knitting, so I have the sock in two parts (the top of the foot and the bottom of the foot).  You decrease 1 stitch at both ends of both these parts every other row.

For a while I worried about trying to remember if I had decreased the even rows or the odd rows and then I just decided that (if I had to) I would adjust the pattern so that I also decreased on the odd rows.

EVEN IS EVEN

During the decrease times, I knit even (no increase, no decrease) on the even rows.

Once I established this habit, it became…well, a habit.  I have a row counter, if it’s an even row, I knit even.

EVEN IS EVEN

One of the big political flaps of the week was the Letterman/Palin media scuffle.

Other than the “top ten” lists, I’m not a big Letterman fan.  I appreciate the Palin family’s protection (even if overly dramatic) of their child.

Matthew 18 may (or may not) apply - Letterman does not claim to be a brother in Christ.  But we are to show the world how repentance and forgiveness works.  If Palin had gone privately to Letterman first, perhaps there would have been a different ending?    Right now, the sincerity of the  apology is being debated; if the confrontation had been private and Letterman had said the same thing, there would be no debate.

Palin made political hay.  While I understand her very public defense of her daughter and would most likely (at the very least have been tempted to) do the same, she still made hay.

Over the last couple of days, Sarah Palin had two roads.  Her “acceptance” of the apology is just as insincere as the apology is made out to be.  Her chiding had no place in the forgiveness by a Christian.

“Of course it’s accepted on behalf of young women, like my daughters, who hope men who ‘joke’ about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve.”

In an ideal world, it would have been

“Of course, on behalf of women everywhere, it’s accepted.”

Period.  Just as “sorry…but…” apologies have a more appropriate ending, so do acceptances.

But that is what is it is.

Just as important:

EVEN IS EVEN

Just as important is the response of Christians.

I’ve written before about how an apology is a cheap substitute for real repentance.  and “I accept” is a cheap substitute for real forgiveness.

Real forgiveness means restoration and a promise to not hold the offense against the offender again.  Ever.

An opportunity to show the Gospel has been passed up.  If the Palins (including Willow) had agreed to be on Letterman’s show and if Willow had held Letterman’s hand and said,

“We all do things that are wrong and we all need forgiveness.   I have been forgiven by God and I forgive you.”

What would that have told the world?

But no…there is hay to be made.

How Blessed (and spoiled) We Are

We should enjoy the blessing that God gives us - and God has given us much (I’m thinking in the Western mindset in the United States.)

We are privileged here and there is no reason that we should not enjoy the blessing that have been given us - but there are dangers and drawbacks to those blessings.

When we forget that they are blessings, and not entitlements, we become less grateful.
When we lose sight of those who do not have these blessings, we become self-centered.
We we believe the blessings are entitlements, we become selfish.

I was just on my facebook page…

At the same time I was updating my bike ride, a co-worker was giving us an update on another co-worker who has suffered a stroke

The health that I have is a blessing that others may not have. I am grateful to God that I have the means to become more healthy, while others are in hospital beds recovering.

As a co-worker was describing his delightful day on the warm, (relatively) clean beach of Lake Michgan, a missionary we support was telling us that 30 Karamong in a swamp.

The clean water that we enjoy is a blessing that some others in the world do not have.

Some of my friends are golfing, the Sliedricht family is visiting mass graves in Obalanga.

We have land that spreads out to enjoy life; in other countries there is so much death they do not even dig individual graves.

I have the summer off, the Sliedrichts are working with people in poverty.

Just saying.

Stuff I learned yesterday

Moving my bike cleats back just 1/2″ requires a whole different movement to click out (un-attach my shoes from my pedals when I stop so that I don’t tip over). Photos of the subsequent bruise can be available upon request.)

Riding with a migraine = bad idea.

If you have a bruise from tipping over with your feet attached to you pedals
AND
you have a migraine
AND
you’re a bit sick to your stomach from the headache…

AND
You see lightning ahead

YES…it is okay if you turn around and go back after just 4 miles.

The Alpaca Project…

The plan is to complete a project - start to finish.

Starting with the animal.

Shearing day was yesterday.  I started out with meeting the alpaca a couple of months ago.  His name is “Raffle Tickets” and he’s two years old.  He’s also never been sheared so he has a lot of baby hair left and some of the fleece is about a foot long.
The “VM” (vegetable matter) that sticks to him is because of the baby hair that is much finer than the adult hair.

I was able to spend a few minutes combing him before shearing to remove a lot of it - there’s still a lot to go!

I don’t have a good “pre” photo, but here’s what I have:.

Here’s the process:  The shearer has a table that tilts both ways.  Starting with the table top “up and down”, lead the animal to the table with his (or her - but I’ll use “his” because Raffle Tickets is a male)  body parallel to the table top.  There’s a wide belt that goes around his belly and 4 straps that attach to his feet.  Mostly we could get two of the foot straps on while the animal was on the ground.  You flip the table so it’s flat and get the other foot straps on, stretching the beast’s legs to either end of the table.   They leave the halter on and as long as the animal’s head is immobilized, they don’t fight and mostly lay very still.  If they think they can move their head, they try to get up.  I was the “head holder” for about 8 shearings.

Once the animal is on the table, the shearer goes to work (the whole table thing sounds like torture, but I’ve seen sheep being sheared that are not immobilized and it seems much worse because they fight and get nicked with the clippers - they are more likely to get hurt.)

The ranch where I was sorts the fleece into 3 bags (Firsts, seconds, and trash) - based on the consistency of the fleece.  The “first” clipping is from the back and sides - if the animal is a “good” animal, up the neck and sometimes the back legs).  The “second” is the legs and belly.  The “trash” is the shorter stuff from the rest of the neck, legs, etc - whatever didn’t get caught in the first two runs).  EVEN THE TRASH IS GOOD.   Our last trip to the ranch, several bags of trash was donated to our classroom - we’re using it to learn to spin and we’re doing a lot of needle felting with it.  But it’s not consistent enough to market.

I was a good “head holder”.

In order to shear the neck and head, you have to take their harness off and hold them by their ears and pick up their heads (it’s important to hold their ears up and out of the way so they don’t get nicked with the clippers)  Then you “throw the head” to a person on the other side of the table; as the head comes up, so does the body and you just sort of flip them over…it’s a lot smoother than it sounds.

As the shearer gets the other side of the animal, the “head holder” puts the harness back on.

As all of this is going on, the animal also has his “top knot” clipped with scissors, gets any shots from the vet and gets his teeth and hooves checked (and trimmed if needed).

When all this is done, his feet are let loose and the belt is loosely wrapped around him again (just for steering now) and the table is tilted in the other direction.  He gently slides off the table and lands on his feet - all done!

I’ve started a blogger blog for this project…it’s going to be quite a deal! I got 8.4 pounds of fleece so now I start the process of washing, cleaning (VM), combing, carding, spinning and knitting (or weaving)

Life…

I need to make a commitment to blogging - this is silly and it’s not like I’ve given up on life, it’s more like I’m just not organized enough to write about it (this time of year…)

Tomorrow is alpaca shearing day!  The young fellow I’m shearing is named “Raffle Tickets”.

One of my co-workers in my classroom had a massive stroke over the weekend and is currently in a coma.  There are some hopeful signs, but she needs prayer.

My mom was scheduled for back surgery on the 9th, but had a heart test that had some problems so they canceled the surgery in order to follow up on the heart thing.  The cardiologist cleared her for the surgery, but since it had been postponed, now she’s trying to get the original date again.

I rode my bike 50 miles on Saturday.

Restless…

wanting a change…looking at new Wordpress templates…

Seriously - I want one that I can add my own photos in the header.  The list of “must haves” for the side bar is pretty consistent so I’ll just go poking around to see what’s out there.

Passport…

Now that we need a passport to go to Canada (we used to “swing by” Canada on a pretty regular basis)…

My application is in (posting it here so that when I start to wonder where it is, I can look here for the date…)

lunes linkage 5/4/2009

Wordless Wednesday

lunes linkage

Satire blog:  “Barack Obama’s Teleprompter’s Blog”  (there is no POTUS without TOTUS)

Specifically, we just break out into giggling fits over some of the things the Administration folks have him saying. Like this morning, Big Guy was expected to record this with a straight-voice about
legislation that required the federal government to pay for what it appropriated: “We need to adhere to the basic principle that new tax or entitlement policies should be paid for, so that government acts the same way any responsible family does in setting its budget.”

~~~

I restarted and closed my open tabs, so this may be it…

It’s Raining…

And I’m not on my bike, I’m not out walking…

But Tom is playing disc golf…

Fit Friday…

A nice bike ride last Saturday and a couple of good walks since.  The weather has not been cooperating.

I’ve signed up for a Tour de Cure ride on June 20 - it’s a 40  mile ride so I’ve got to get out and train.  I got as far as the trail head this morning, but high winds and  the sound of thunder got me back into the car.

I will go out and walk Meijer Garden this afternoon (where I can get indoors fairly quickly if it pours on me) unless it’s pouring already.

I’ve got two “challenges” going on mapmyride.com  The first is 300 miles on the bike in 30 days, the other is walking a marathon (26 miles) in 30 days.  I most likely will do one or the other, but not both - or maybe both.  As the weather gets nice, our class walks more - that gives me the walking at work, with cycling after.