Say What?

This is a continuation of a blog post I made yesterday. Tammy came downstairs yesterday morning, and out of nowhere, she asked me what I thought about attending a church that openly welcomes gays and lesbians. We must've been doing a mind-meld, because I'd just finished reading a blog post from a pastor whose point of view I very much admire. He was discussing this very thing—openly accepting members of the GLBT community among their congregation. It would be such a departure from the disappointment I'm feeling about Hosanna's approach to this issue—an approach that looks at it through a funhouse mirror, placing disproportionate emphasis on certain scriptures and sins in a way that makes no sense to me. Philip is one of Rachel's roommates in Rochester. He's gay, and he's working diligently to reach people in the city who will soon be casting a yes or no vote on the Marriage Amendment. He grew up in a Catholic family in Texas and hoped that his move to M...

The first church I was a member of as an adult was Family of Christ in Lakeville. We started out as not much more than a dozen families meeting at what is now Kenwood Trail Middle School off Highway 50. That would've been in the spring of 1988. The church grew over the next few years, and we eventually built on a piece of land in an undeveloped area south of 185th Street, just east of the freeway, where it remains today. As part of the organizational process for any new church, there were formalities we needed to follow, and one of them was officially calling our pastor to the position of Pastor at Family of Christ. Dell had been serving in that capacity for about 4 years, so I assumed this was a no-brainer. But it wasn't. To my surprise, one woman stood up and expressed her dissent with the nomination. I couldn't believe it. What was Kathleen thinking? I was totally oblivious to what had been happening behind the scenes there. It would take a couple more years to fully...

Rachel is beginning to worry me. I'm not sure this college thing is such a good idea. About a year ago a friend at work had a new procedure done on his knees in an attempt to restore lost cartilage. The procedure involves harvesting stem cells from your bone marrow and injecting them at the site of the injury. Stem cells have the unique ability to become the cells needed to repair an injury. The science is still new and will undoubtedly improve in time but even now it appears to be beneficial. Barry was treated by the people at Regenexx and says that one of his knees feels 100% while the other is improved but without as good a result. One other guy at work also had one of his knees treated recently. Jeff used to run ultra-marathons and hoped to begin training for them again but his procedure didn't yield the results he'd hoped for. There are no guarantees but the procedure has piqued my interest and I'm considering having it done. For the longest time, my knees hav...

I'm sitting here in awe after having just watched Felix Baumgartner make his leap from 128,000 feet then free-fall at speeds exceeding the speed of sound (at one point 833.9 mph) back to earth. Just wow!  What incredible bravery! Tammy and I watched it together, both spellbound as he stepped out onto the capsule's platform just before his leap. Video His jump is easily one of the most incredible things I've ever seen! But what is equally as impressive if not more so was the jump of Joe Kittinger from 102,000 feet in 1960 considering the technology of the day. I didn't realize while watching the coverage that he was the guy in communication with Felix, going through the checklist with him as he prepared to jump. I had to laugh just a little because while they got all of the highly technical stuff down just right, they really struggled to accurately get Felix the current surface winds for his touchdown. Clearly, one of the more no-brainer things on their to-do list...

It's been a busy weekend. I went into overdrive on the stained-glass panel project we're making for Paul and Kate. They'll be returning to town this week from their new home in Montana for a visit and I wanted to have it completed for them to take home. I'm happy to say that it's done and securely packed away. I found myself really enjoying being down in the shop working on it even though it was often beautiful outside. That's always been the sole reason for me only ever doing stained glass in the winter—it just can't compete with a beautiful fall or summer day. But I'm happy to have made this exception and envision I'll not be so averse to doing it again in the future, especially once I'm retired and every day is Saturday. 451 days to go. I've been contemplating what I'd like to do for my next stained glass project and I'm kicking around ideas for some sort of landscape scene—one done on a very small scale with lots of tiny piec...

I walked out in the yard this morning when I let the dogs out and noticed that fall had arrived overnight. Several of our trees have begun to shed their leaves in earnest. And so it begins, The Battle of the Leaves, 2012. Rachel is probably busier now than she's ever been in her life. I texted her Saturday morning around 9:30 and was surprised to get a response. She was up early studying. In addition to college, she's taken on a part-time job working as a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) with a local retirement facility in the city of Rochester. She'll be working three six-hour shifts per week (a .6 in medical jargon). She was trying to get some studying done before her shift later in the day. Once again this year finds her filling roles as co-captain of UMR's Ballroom Dance team; student ambassador; student liaison representative for UMR (where she sits in on staff meetings among other duties) as well as serving as one of the coordinators for STLF (Students Today ...