Are you a good citizen?

Being a good citizen requires more than showing up at the voting booth. It means carefully considering the options before you. I've shown up in the past only to find confusing names and issues and felt ashamed for going in unprepared. Not anymore. I've learned and admonished myself enough over that to always prepare by checking out the issues and candidates ahead of time. Not that this is giving any readers much notice for this election, but a website I've found to be handy is "smarvoter.org." About to go there myself to do a bit more research on the issues after spending about an hour or so last night reviewing the candidates. It doesn't take that long to find out what you need to know to feel informed, but ultimately, you can't really know the candidate entirely from any information you can find at this or other sites. The next thing to do, then, is to leave it in God's hands after prayer. Really, unless we've done both, we're not being good citizens, nor good Christians.

One last pertinent comment regarding Obama's statement about him not being socialistic because he shared his cookies in Kindergarten. Roger pointed out, deftly: "But did your teacher make you share them." Aye, there's the rub, now, isn't it. Let's see it for what it is. Democrats, I'm all for many of the programs that you want to support, but let me choose when and how much to give, and it might surprise you how much you get. Christians are supposed to work hard to obtain excess--yes, that's right, excess. But what is the excess for? Ephesians 4:28 tells us. Sadly, I bet that I give more to multiple charities personally than many of the Democrats in office with much more affluence, and I'm not "giving until it hurts," by any means. When Dems put their money where their mouth is (not mine), I might consider their social work policies more seriously. Not that there aren't other glaring problems with their policies otherwise, namely abortion on demand.

Now, go do your part ... THEN vote. Let's not encourage ignorance or popularity polls. And let's continue to set the example for how to care for others without compulsion. That, my friend, is charity. Government is something else, entirely.

Addendum (11/4/08):
I meant to add this earlier. Reading with 'Ri last night brought us to Isaiah 37. Verse 14 is particularly appropriate today. Let's lay our ballots--and the nation--before God today.

Who won?

I'm not the most patient person. I never liked politics. Never liked much of what's on TV. Never really liked debates in general. So maybe I'm not the best person to comment. But has anyone considered that the words "who won" and a discussion concerning presidential (or vice-presidential) candidates really don't belong together, at least until November? If the debate serves any useful purpose--whatever that is supposed to be--it seems like it should be more than winning a battle of words. When the country is horribly divided, the economy is in shambles, and the war isn't over, I don't care who won a silly debate.

I know who's losing. We are. The entire political system is much like that debate. Pointless and much like a popularity contest. Who's the best speaker? Why does that really matter. What we need is an intelligent person surrounded by other intelligent people knowledgeable in several different fields that can make good decisions.

I heard talk of how people felt differently about the outcome depending upon the medium--e.g. Nixon was said to have won the radio version of the debate with Kennedy, but Kennedy won on TV. This just proves my point. It's all about perception. Not about who's right for the job. And, y'know, if the job were something non-important, I guess it wouldn't matter so much, but this is perhaps the most-important job on the planet right now.

All this to say, I'm in a state of despair over our nation. I've heard sensible people say the debate came out a "tie," yet I hear that support is continuing to swell behind Obama. Not that McCain is my favorite person in the world, but if the nation supports Obama, that, for me, is just the last nail in the coffin of common sense---in fact the survivability of our nation---for many reasons I won't go into here. Suffice it to say, I see him and his campaign much like Herod who didn't quiet the cries of those who said "the voice of a God and not of a man," except the worms are eating our nation.

Ike, day 3

A friend sent some photos of shingles flying off houses (below), and Ken Ham posted some pictures of damage at the Creation Museum on his blog. These are, perhaps, the most telling, apart from some reports coming in of deaths caused by falling tree limbs. Still many without power, including my musician friend and in-laws. Got another friend coming over to do laundry. A friend in Boston had no idea--they just got winds. BTW, those in Hamilton Co., there is a boil water advisory--1st time I've ever heard of a county-wide one. Still hearing distant chainsaws through my open window (the weather's gorgeous today) and amazed at the widespread and longlasting effect. I actually waited in a line to get into a gas station yesterday. That's another first.

We had no idea ...

Got up this morning, went to church, began to carry out my plan of 1 week ago to visit the Celtic festival with my daughter and a musician friend. Noticing it was cloudy and windy, I checked the weather. No big deal ... chance of rain 40%, high 88, windy--gusts up to 40 mph, remnants of Hurricane Ike. No problem. I've been through hurricane remnants before. They're pretty much nothin' by the time they get to Ohio. The wind will keep it from feeling so hot. But as the wind continued to increase, we gave the plans a second thought, going, rather, to a nearby restaurant to see how things were panning out before heading across town. Ri and I even walked partway to the restaurant (got picked up by our friend en route, when she saw us). We were beginning to get the feeling that this was not the run-of-the-mill (lol, like u could say that in Ohio) hurricane remnant when on our walk, we saw several tree branches---I mean big limbs---down.

Well, to our surprise, the winds continued to increase further, and the poor little restaurant was getting battered (pardon the pun). The awning in the back tore half away, the awning on the front was picking up and ramming into the ground, the ceiling tiles were lifting, the tent in back totally collapsed, the windows were whistling and groaning, patio tables overturned. The power went off. They had to lock the door to keep it from blowing open and slamming shut. While we never really felt imminent danger, it was entertaining in a slightly worrisome manner.

I took my friends offer to drive us home. Good thing. On the way home, there was tree debris covering the sidewalk--even the road. There was flying or skidding debris that did look dangerous, such as metal chimney tops, street signs. Craziness. Obviously, we decided to forgo the festival.

Once we were home, things looked ok for the most part. We don't have many trees in the yard or much in the way of lawn furniture. The power was out at home, too. The winds continued to increase for another 2 hours. Not knowing what was going on and why the forecast was off by apparently so much (winds were waaaaaay more than 40 mph), we called a few others. Roger's parents had a telephone pole (not just the lines) down in their yard--with a transformer, no less. I called Roger, who was coming back from Dayton, and he said they were playing "dodge the moving barrels" on I-75 and on an exit ramp.

Rog noticed a shingle loosening on our roof and had me hold a ladder while he put some rocks over loosening tiles. Down below, a gust nearly wrenched the ladder from my hand, meanwhile wrenching my back a little. Not too bad.

Just when we were wondering how to "do" dinner, had all the candles and flashlights ready, and opened the windows around 6, the power came back on. From what I understand, we're pretty blessed as both our parents are still out late this evening. Went over and checked on neighbor and mom to make sure she had candles and to get food from her for us to keep in the freezer/refrigerator. Can't get to in-laws with power line still down across their yard. We'll see what the morning brings. No school, that much we know ...

Anyway, seems like we had the "perfect storm," of sorts, as Ike and a cold front merged over our area making things worse than they expected. We had gusts up to about 75 mph and sustained winds at around 40 mph. Who knew? At any rate, the whole 5-hour ordeal gave me a new appreciation of hurricanes and the power God has given mother nature. :) All-in-all, kinda exciting. I love storms. Our elderly neighbor said she hadn't seen anything like this since 1974 when a tornado hit just a few houses down the road and took out a corner of her house.

How has everyone else fared? If you have any pics, I'd be happy to post them. I may try to get a few tomorrow.

Since I don't have any pics of the storm, thought I'd share this one from the Yellowstone trip and a quick funny story:

This pic was a dare: I dared Rog to take it. It's not what you think .... it's a guy. :) And with that I leave you. You're welcome. :D

Adventures Out West

As we are wont to do every 5 years, we tend to have a bigger celebration for our anniversary. September will mark our 20th, so we wanted to do something kinda big. I've never been to Yellowstone, and Ri hadn't been much west, so we decided to "do the west," although another trip will be required for southwest for Grand Canyon, Zion, etc. I may recount aspects of our adventure in future blogs, but for now, I think it will suffice to post some pictures--most are from Yellowstone. Some will make lovely desktop pictures. Be my guest.


Badlands


Wall Drug


Ri blocking the recent Obama addition ;)


Needles at dusk


Devil's Tower


Beautiful flowers at 10,000 ft. in Bighorn Mt. range


Yellowstone Lake


Colorful (& HOT!) thermal pools in Yellowstone


Old Faithful (of course)


Lillypad stream on one of the surprisingly many continental divides in Yellowstone


Forest fire that lasted 3 days in Yellowstone while we were there


One particularly dangerous-feeling area of Yellowstone--taken from a walkway that ran right next to the spurting, steaming pool


Another dangerous-feeling area: our campsite. A grizzly had been spotted in this campground just 3 days prior!


Buffalo traffic jam--sheesh, we went out west to avoid this sorta thing!


One of the more impressive falls and canyon in Yellowstone


Snow at 12,000 ft. near Estes Park


Note the lake


Note the color of the water on the snow

Hope you enjoyed the fast, sequential tour. So many pictures to choose from and videos too, it was hard to pick. More may pop up later. :) Missed everyone while we were away!

One of "those" moms

Well, it's official.  I'm one of "those" moms.  Yesterday, I chose to say the word that children (at least nowadays) all too infrequently hear (trying not to get onto too much of a tangent with that! ;)), i.e., “no." Afterward, I overheard a discussion about my decision amongst the children through my window.  When asked about why the decision was no, I couldn't hear what my daughter said, but I did hear the reply: "Oh, one of those 'because I'm the parent' things." I had to laugh. At least they'd heard it before!

But y'know what?  I'm really fine with that.  I'm fine with being a "no" and a "because I'm the parent" parent.  And y'know what else?  I think the world would be a better place if we had more. Did I have a really good reason to say no?  Actually, I didn't.  I had reasons, but none were show-stoppers.  And I told my daughter that. When she began to verbalize that she felt my reasons were unsatisfactory, I stopped offering them, countering with the (can you hear it coming) "I don't answer to you; I don't owe you an explanation."  And whether or not I had good reasons--or none at all--doesn't matter.  I'm the parent, and I said no.  Can I be talked out of it? Maybe. But if the "talking" is not respectful and reasonable, my resolve will solidify further. So that must make me a "when I say no, I mean no" kinda mom, too.  Yeah.  I like that one, too. :)

Before I go any further with this, though, it's important to realize that this "I'm the boss" attitude (if you want to call it that) does not come out of thin air.  It's not about control, really, it's about roles and responsibility: God-given ones. And it's about Him and us wanting what is right for our children, even when it means forcing them to put away the cupcakes to eat spinach. This is not a new concept in our house.  It's one that's been instilled since day 1. If it has not been, the pill is going to be a whole lot bigger the older they get. Think of a young horse learning its reins at a walk, as opposed to a wild stallion at a full gallop.  Pulling the reins on the latter is not going to be nearly as effective--if at all. Now back to our story.

After the emotions settled down a bit, we had a great talk.  We discussed anger and we discussed sinful anger.  We discussed respect. We discussed love and how most decisions were hopefully made with that as the driving force.  Good stuff. I must commend 'Ri for admitting and wanting to atone for her sinful words and anger at my decision, of her own initiative.  How satisfying it is as a parent to see fruit such as this.

It is a tough world sometimes for a Christian tween with a "no" mom. Would you pray for her with me?  Even though it's love that drives the "no," and reliance on both the truth of the Proverb that "the way of the transgressor is hard" and the commandment with a promise (Ex. 20:12). Hard for now, perhaps (for me, too--it's really easier sometimes to say "yes"), but the payoff is well worth it.  And praise the Lord, sometimes we get a little payout early.

There may be an ironic parallel to this story.  I found out just hours after this incident that a cousin, about 8 years older than me (that's 40's, people), had died.  She'd had quite a rough life, sadly, due to some poor decisions made for her and by her when she was younger as I am to hear. Tragic, really. She was almost raised as my half-sister in a near-perfect, loving Christian family. How blessed I was. One can only wonder how much of a difference that would have made for her. What a precious responsibility we have as parents.  Sobering, but wonderful.

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Dance Recital

Well, it's been a busier month than normal, apparently for almost everyone else too, so not much blogging going on. Need to catch up a bit. Ri had a recital in May. Didn't get any video, but got a few cute pictures of her in her garb.

One reason we didn't get video was because I worked backstage one of the two performance nights. Incredible that there were so few parent volunteers. Sad. I was in a hallway with about 40 girls (some only in 1st grade!) and only 1 other parent. It was chaos. The tensions were high and the tears flowed, and I kept wondering how it could be that not more parents would offer to help, especially when there's 2 nights--one to see it yourself and one to help. Needless to say, my faith in American parenthood wasn't really shaken--because I didn't have much to begin with, sadly. But I digress. Anyhoo, Ri had a great time. Here's some pics:

The second picture is with one of her best friends. She was so dedicated to come and watch the performance that she came a second day after her attempt the first night was foiled by her swelling finger (injured just before the performance, but she still came and tried to stay, only to have to go to the emergency room to find that it was broken!).

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