… emy j’s would have two copies of “the late, great planet earth?” isn’t one copy per city for historical reason enough?
yeah!
i don’t really understand why the artist of the above image put the date in january since shark week is this week!
this was what mobile was like
we have been having some pretty bad storms around the point area recently. it actually has been kind of reminiscent of when pam and i lived in mobile, alabama where major storms happen every summer afternoon. i have never seen roads flood as often around here. over the past four years in central wisconsin our experience with rain has been that it tends to drizzle for two to four days and then become sunny again. so these storms have been abnormal for our wisconsin weather experience. the above picture is from thursday night when some threads from tapestry fed at the place of peace.
just in case you are wondering the place of peace is a thursday night meal that was originally a part of the local catholic workers movement/chapter (i will probably discuss my thoughts on “movements” versus “organizations” and the “organizations” that call themselves “movements” later but not right now). about a year ago the point area catholic workers chapter went defunct and asked evergreeen church to take over the place of peace weekly feed. evergreen is a great church and their pastor al kinnunen is someone that i really enjoy being in ministry with. anyhow the place of peace invites locals groups to do a weekly thursday night meal for anyone who needs one. it’s an interesting and fun group that comes for the meal. a while back tapestry started doing a meal every three months. talking to genesis, the evergreen member who coordinates the thursday night meal, everyone there see a lot of spaghetti and lasagna brought in by groups. therefore, tapestry has become the “jambalaya church.” while i make the jambalaya all the other threads make other homemade things to bring – such as fresh bread from adam h (a few slices of which made it back to my house and i have been thankful for each one i have eaten). it is always a good night.
back to the storms.
after the meal at place of peace i jumped on church street to head back home to plover. this is a 6.5 mile drive that normally takes no more than 20 minutes (and that is stretching it). unfortunately i ran in the underpass pictured above. so i turned around to use division street to get to the interstate. the problem was that division was flooding bad enough around the ymca that only trucks were making it through the road. so i turned around again to try water street. i should have realized that with a name like water street there was no way it wasn’t going to be flooded. it was flooded.
in a rather anti-climatic way i finally made it 
home by weaving around streets with less water on them. instead of the twenty minutes maximum time that it usually takes me to get home i ended up traveling for around an hour trying to make it 6.5 miles.
i need to end this post now because we are being hit by another storm. seriously. 60 mph winds, rain, and hail. i’m not used to experiencing this up here.
i’m the mayor
foursquare has just declared me the mayor of the green circle trail. i gladly accept this position and my first two mayoral actions are the following declarations:
- as mayor of the green circle trail i declare that while running, biking, and walking are free the following fines will be associated with certain things that some participants in these activities tend to do.
- if you are riding a bike and don’t scoot over a safe distance away from runners and walkers then you will be forced to stand against a tree for three walker/runners to pick up your bike and throw it at you. they should aim for your shins but it counts as long as they hit your anywhere on your body.
- if you are running/walking and you leave trash on the green circle trail then your fine is that you will be forced to eat your own trash – without water to drink or appropriate condiments.
- if your dog defecates while you are walking on the green circle and you fail to pick it up then your fine is that you will have to wash your hair with your dog’s poop.
- if a runner/walker/biker has to dodge your dog (leashed or unleashed) because you fail to move your dog over to your side of the trail then your fine is 6 kicks to the shin. if your shins are not bleeding by the end of this kicking then you will be forced to finish walking your dog while on your knees.
i understand that my role as mayor will evolve as needs are found and i will work to meet those needs as they arise. as a part of the growth of my duties i will now begin looking for individuals to join the green circle trail mayoral police force.
30 days of creativity
i had not heard of 30 days of creativity until my friend amanda posted something about it. btw, if you are crafty you should probably read her blog – she does some pretty cool stuff – in fact she made this crown for one of tapestry’s lent stations. anyhow she posted about 30 days of creativity today and it sounds like a pretty good idea.
i believe we were all designed to be creative because we were created in the image of the GOD who creates. creativity is a theological issue for me. since GOD is Creator and i was created in HIS image then i should be creative.
if you think about it many of your proudest moments probably involve some form of creativity. maybe you saw a problem in an entirely different fashion. maybe you repurposed something in such a way that no one else had ever thought to. maybe you actually created something. all of this involves creativity. see, you were created to be creative.
for me i am usually most creative when i am on a creative trend. i know that sounds stupid but here’s what i mean. when i am consistently doing something creative – writing, photography, drawing, etc – i tend to view everything from a slightly different angle. for me this leads to creative thought. new ideas spring up easier during these time periods. so that’s what i am hoping will happen during the 30 days of creativity. hopefully i will see things in a slightly different manner and respond to everything in new ways.
thanks amanda.
when was your bread baked?
i know i haven’t been blogging much lately. this probably doesn’t matter to many people but blogging is something i have been doing since 2003 and therefore it matters to me. i go through phases of extreme blogging and then non-blogging. apparently i am presently in a non-blogging phase. that will change eventually.
so here’s the info on bread.
i just read this over at neatorama. the color of the plastic tie tag designates when your bread was baked. i don’t really have any idea when this information would be useful for someone outside of the bread industry but i know that it enriches my life.
should i be preaching
i’m presently in a pastors’ meeting where the subject being discussed is preaching. while talking about what good preaching is a standard was reached by most of the group. i agree with most of the standard. it was that good preaching was not just about the truth that was spoken but also about the truth that was communicated and understood by those who heard it. i thought it was a pretty good standard and fits in with aristotle’s model of communication (sender – medium – receiver). based on this standard i jokingly threw out "based on this standard i assume ½ the people preaching shouldn’t be preaching during a worship service." everyone in the room thoroughly agreed.
now i’m sitting here trying to figure out which half of the room shouldn’t be preaching. i’m assuming it is the other half of the room while i’m fairly sure they think it is this side. 🙂
the superbowl
most people who know me know that i pulled for the alabama crimson tide in college football (the preferred sport of choice) and the green bay packers in the nfl (the only team whose ownership i respect enough to want to see do well). i care about football and enjoy watching games but i don’t base my life on it. being raised in alabama i’ve seen people who care way too much about sporting events. still i really enjoy watching football and i certainly care about my teams winning.
so last night when the packers won the nfc championship game i was pretty pumped. i was only able to watch the first half of the game because i needed to leave home during the second half to setup for the normal sunday night tapestry gathering. while setting up adam, joel, and i listened to the game on the radio. listening to a football game is a wonderful experience. in some ways i prefer it to watching a game on the television. radio announcers really get into the game and its ok for them to be biased. t.v. announcers can’t pull for a specific team but radio announcers are blatant about the teams they want to win. it was amazing when we heard the radio play-by-play guy shout out that shields had made the game ending interception. joel and i screamed so loud that a washington school teacher who was down the hall heard us and came over to say we could watch the rest of the game with her. i think she felt sorry for us.
february 6th we will have the third annual tapestry superbowl gathering at our house. it has been a ton of fun the last two years watching the game with all of our friends from tapestry. it is going to be so much better this year.
GO PACK GO!
an experiment
i’ve seen other people video this but i wanted to try this for myself. it is presently -10° outside with a wind-chill that is significantly lower. the above video is what happens when you throwing boiling water into the air at this temp.
fitting
i feel like this collapse is a fitting metaphor for the vikings’ season. i personally don’t believe it could have happened to a more deserving team. 🙂