Homeowners

The Carnrikes are the newest members of the homeowner's club :) Just heard from Jocelyn a few minutes ago that their offer was accepted and a contract signed on a house in Lincoln.

w00t!

Nate

Forgot to tell you, the casual reader, that on our way to SoCal we stopped in Clovis. The occasion was Nate's baptism. He has wanted to be baptized for quite a while now but chose to wait until I could be there :D

He is an amazing young mane. The link to the photo album is HERE

Well Then

Finally recovered from vacation - 4 days at Disney can take it out of you. We had a great time; went to Santa Monica Pier, Disney and the mall in Newport Beach (an interesting experience).

Emma started days shift this week so we get to have dinner together a whole lot more often! Noah has another game tomorrow night, as we missed the last 2 I am not sure what the team standings are.

Work has been a kick this week as we have 6+ new employees. I like messing with the new people (go figure). Spent much of yesterday trying to finish off a task that has been hanging around since mid-February :p Hopefully I got the last round of changes coded correctly and I can close it out.

I admit it has been hard lately finding things to write about. The neighbors have been behaving themselves and my life seems a little calmer right now.

blessing on your day

SoCal Bound

Sunday we head south. First stop is Clovis where we will be on hand for Nate's baptism. From there we will head over to the Boyd house for lunch. Afterward we will go to Fresno to get graduation pictures for Andrew and Hannah taken.

After pictures, we are bound for SoCal. We will stay with our friend Julie for a couple of days and spend some time at the beaches. Later in the week we will do the whole Disney thing (from a hotel close by) and stay Friday for the fireworks show. Sunday we will pack up and head back North.

Hopefully by avoiding Spring Break, we can avoid some of the crush of humanity as well.

Hide-n-Seek

I have a tendency to hide when pain, stress or anxiety strike (as more than one of you, the casual reader, have pointed out). I have also learned that this does not work in the long term. Hiding from pain doesn't really make it go away - it just postpones "judgment day." At some point, the price still has to be paid and the pain has to be processed.

Slowly but surely I am learning to reach out rather than pull within. I hesitate, I back peddle but gradually I make progress. I am also learning that having good friends that you can lean on is critical to the healing process.

My advice to you today is to take a risk - reach out to someone you love and share your pain.

Sola Scriptura

I was listening to Alistair Begg on the radio while driving to work this morning. Part of his topic was Sola Scripture - 'by the Word alone.' Unless you have been immersed in the Christian church for a long time, you probably have never heard this phrase.

What it means is that the only way to interpret the bible is by reading the bible. I have listened to many arguments regarding errors, inconsistencies and misinterpretations of the Word. To date, not a single one has stood up to scrutiny. The bible is the most internally consistent work or literature extent. Written by multiple authors over a 2,000 year period, you will find the same message delivered and the same God presented no matter where you start.

Many people have claimed to have insight into the Word and many more will eagerly interpret it for you. The only way to know what God is saying in the bible is to read it.

blessings on your day

Tool Tips

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted vertical stabilizer which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, "Oh sh!#..."

SKILL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

WELDING GLOVES: Heavy duty leather gloves used to prolong the conduction of intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.

TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps neatly off in bolt holes thereby ending any possible future use.

BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 24-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A very large pry bar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws.

PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.

DAMMIT TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling 'DAMMIT!' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

What a Long, Strange Trip

Almost 11 years ago, Emma and I started attending Bayside church. It met at GBHS and had about 600 or so people attending every Sunday. Within a few months we had been recruited to usher (do ushers help people "ush"?)

Bayside now sees 8,000 adults or more each weekend in 5 services and I have been a head usher for about 4 years.. Next Sunday, Easter, will mark my last service as an usher and mark the start of our journey to find a new church. There are a lot of reasons - in part simply due to the size and the focus of the church. In the end it comes down to the fact that this season is over and we are starting a new one.

And life moves forward....

Essential Liberty

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~ Benjamin Franklin

I typically refrain from political commentary and won't get into a discussion on the current administration. I would like to address the trend in government, however. Many years ago Ronald Reagan pointed out that government never gets smaller - "a federal bureaucracy is the closest thing to eternal life in this world."

The last few months have seen the formation of several new agencies and oversight committees. This trend will almost certainly continue over the course of the year (and possibly accelerate). The feds have rescued insurance companies, banks, S&L's and now the entire automobile industry. We all heard the announcement that the feds will guarantee the warranties on GM & Chrysler cars; that they have issued ultimatums to each board; that they are using taxes to take the bonuses away from people that work for bailed-out companies; forcing mergers and acquisitions - all in the name of "need."

It used to be that when a company ran out of money, they closed the doors. Watching how well the SSA is doing does nothing to bolster my confidence in the governments ability to manufacture cars or issue insurance policies.

What we *NEED* is a balanced budget, less oversight and a president that is willing to let companies that screw themselves into a hole - FAIL.

If I wanted to live in a socialist state, I would move to the UK (sorry Andy).

My $0.02