This Pilgrim's Progress

Tympani-Schlepping in San Diego

We had a busy weekend,  the last two performances for our daughter's orchestra were Saturday and Sunday. We've were "volunteered" the duty of "semi-official-tympani-drum-schleppers" for this concert series. The only thing that didn't fit in Mathew Garbutt's van were the two smaller tympani drums, which we were given charge of to transport to and fro to distant points in the county.  They're not particularly heavy, but they are big and awkward!! By this weekend we had mastered the logistics of stuffing two oddly shaped drums in the back of our Expedition.

The orchestra did very well, and they were enthusiastically received by the audiences this weekend and last weekend too. There were a few rough spots, but the inherent beauty of the music and the enthusiasm of the orchestra won the audiences over!! Maestro Garbutt and the kids obviously worked very hard to master these pieces. They played Beethoven's 8th Symphony, Walton's Shakespeare Suite, and Holst's St. Paul Suite. Great selection!! It was a wonderful combination of pieces that complimented each other very well.

Our son had a swim meet Saturday. He did very well, but didn't quite meet his goal in the 200 fly. He's 2 seconds away from JO cut in that event, and he was hoping to at least get a little closer. But that's a tough event to swim,  and I think he did real well. He likes to swim and compete, but he doesn't seem to let his pride get in the way of enjoying it, no matter how a particular race goes. He just continues to try to do his best at each meet. 

My "cold" or "sinus infection" or "crud" or whatever is still going strong. I finished my antibiotics last week, and I honestly don't think they made a dent on whatever bug is making me feel so lousy. Oh well, back to the doctor! I'm just tired of being sick....

I spent my day off last Friday downloading the tape of the concert at St. Paul's Cathedral to the computer and making some dvd's.  I had a lot of problems getting the copy on the dvd to come out ok. It was like the coding s/w couldn't keep up with the stream of data.  I eventually saved a good copy in .wmv format to my hard drive, and then created the dvd from that file. The sound came over pretty good, and of course the video is grainy, but there is nothing I can do about that short of having a large empty hard drive to put AVI files on (they have more data, but are also huge in size, making them pretty much impractical for most people).  Capture from my camera to the PC in mpeg just didn't hack it.  I've got this weekend's concert at St. Gregory's to work on next, and I'll try a few other options to see if I can get a better end-product.

To top off the weekend we had a small party for my mother-in-law's birthday. It was very nice, and I think she enjoyed it. Our church also officially completed moving to the PCA this weekend too. Now maybe we can get down to the real work of finding a new senior pastor!!

I'm starting to ramble, and that's usually a good sign that I need to stop, so I will.

Iraqi Elections

The left doesn't quite know what to do with itself, after the very successful Iraqi elections this weekend.  Kerry was blathering away about "overhyping" the election...what dreck!!! These people bravely faced death threats and fear to experience the democratic process of voting. We need to continue to pray for these people and our military and our countries' leaders.  To God belongs the Glory, amen!

American Idol

I was forced to watch "American Idol" again last night.  It was my son's birthday, and he chose to watch it, one of his favorites.   

The most wierd thing about this show is the amazing number of really, really, really bad singers that try out.  It is actually physically painful to listen to some of them.  Small wonder that Randy, Paula, and Simon get testy with each other halfway through the show!! I think we ought to use tapes of the show at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, those terrorists would spill their guts after listening to just one of these characters!!!

Some of them think it's a variety show and try to get everything in but actual singing. Of course, the prime motivation for most of them is the hope they will get on TV and get their 15 seconds/minutes of fame, and so they go for the "wacky factor".  They figure, rightly, the more outrageous they come across, the bigger the chance of them being shown on the TV broadcast.

Maybe the producers should charge potential auditionee's  some large fee to do their stuff in front of the judges, something substantial like $500 or $1000 to keep the riff-raff out. That would defray some of the huge production costs they must incur, and limit it to the truly determined and hopefully talented few. One wonders if they do any pre-filtering of the contestants before they get to the judges panel???  My family thinks they only let through 2 groups of people....the really bad and the really good.  I could do without the bad ones!!!!

Sometimes the judges themselves are a great source of irritation. Simon Cowell is legendary for his quirks, but Randy and Paula have their moments too!!

I really, really, really hate this show!!  Can you tell??

Death, be not proud

I ran across this poem by Donne yesterday while perusing his works for my daughter's literature curriculum.  Truly a calvinist's outlook.....

HOLY SONNETS.    X.

By John Donne (1572-1631)

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so ;
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy picture[s] be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke ;  why swell'st thou then ?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more ;  Death, thou shalt die.

John Donne is an interesting man. He was raised a Catholic, well-educated and talented, but led a mis-spent youth and wasted his fortune. He later converted to Protestantism and joined the church as a cleric.  He had a sensual nature, as well as a deep spiritual sensitivity...quite an interesting combination in one man. Luminarium has a very good site on him including biography and works.

Darwin Awards

If you need a chuckle or two to brighten up your day, I recommend the Darwin Awards website . The Darwin Award is given posthumously to those who die after doing something really stupid, thereby removing themselves from the gene pool. This site is well done, and will provide many moments of amusement. Some of the items are true, and some are urban legends.

Sunny San Diego

The weekend was glorious!  We had warm and sunny days that were just beautiful. We are suppose to have a "Santanna" condition most of this week, which will help to dry things out. The hills are looking green and beautiful.

We spent most of Saturday at a swim meet. Our son was swimming in 4 events including the 500 freestyle, but we had to wait most the day because his events and age group were late in the afternoon. Considering that long wait, he did real well in his events, with very little rest time between them.

I spent Sunday after church cooking up a batch of chili and a batch of "cowboy beans", and paying bills. I cook my chili in large quantities, because I like to, and we often give a lot of it away to family and friends. My chili has pinto beans (dried, rinse, soak overnight in water, discard the water and simmer in fresh water for two hours on medium heat) , lean hamburger, garlic, onions, canned Italian tomatoes,  Anaheim chili peppers (Ortega) in it, with cumin, chili powder, basil, worcester sauce, soy sauce, and cocoa powder for seasoning. I learned the recipe from my mother.  I cook to taste, so don't ask for measurements. I sometimes add beer, wine, or sherry depending on my mood. I seldom make it exactly the same way twice in a row. The Texans think they know how to cook chili, but then they are conceited about a lot of things!! Real chili has beans in it!! Chili without beans is just beef stew!! Typically we serve in a bowl with grated cheddar cheese on top and tabasco on the side.  It's a great quick meal to have in the freezer, taking just minutes to warm up in the micro-wave or stove top. We usually eat with soda crackers, and sometimes backing-powder biscuits, or cornbread, or tortillas, whatever we're in the mood for. It goes well over rice or over a plate of tortilla chips like nachos. I'm getting hungry just writing this!!

Anyways, it was a great weekend, and a good recharge for the week.

Soggy San Diego

Southern California has been experiencing a series of heavy rain storms the last couple of weeks. We desperately need the rain, as we've been in a 10 year drought.

The only problem with rain is that the residents of this area react as if they had never seen or experienced this sort of weather before. They do stupid stuff like trying to cross flooded roads, streams, arroyos, etc.  There was a bad mud slide up near Santa Barbara that caused some deaths and injuries, destroying about 15 homes. Our local officials and home-owners are worried about the bluffs above the beach collapsing, as they are wont to do from time to time. 

This kind of weather is not new to San Diego or Southern California. One of the things you should learn living in this area is don't try to cross a flooded road, stream, or arroyo. You also learn that it's not a good idea to buy a home that is on unstable ground (seaside bluffs) or below it (graded hillsides in developments), or in a flood plain or flood prone area. These aren't secrets, and it's actually pretty easy to avoid getting into trouble. But...people don't learn from history, and they suffer the consequences. 

San Diego has a history of periodic 10, 50, and 100 year rain-flood cycles. This timeline of area disasters show that these cycles exist and are well-known (and well-ignored).

One of the most heavily developed areas in the county is Mission Valley. This valley gets flooded from one side to the other every 100 years or so.  The last one was in 1916.  We are overdue for the next one, maybe this is it! The pictures show what it looked like in 1916 with no development.  It will be scary to see what a 100 year flood will look like now!!

And we are also taught the same lessons about wildfires and earthquakes.  The Northridge earthquake caused much needed reforms in construction standards and practices, but the general public awareness is no longer there. We don't seem to have learned much from last year's wildfires,  our local fire and emergency services are extremely underfunded and poorly managed in this county.

I guess my whole point in this post, is that God designed the world to work in a certain way. The natural processes (or "forces") He created are ones we need to learn to respect and deal with. When we choose to live in certain areas, we need to understand the risks and how to live with them or ameliorate them.  And sometimes we just have to pick up the pieces and go forward, because nature is not always predictable and it is always overwhelming in its extremes. 

Tsunami - a Biblical Perspective

I've been silent the last few weeks. It's been hard for me to find anything to write and grouse about since the Earthquake/Tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean. Our petty concerns shrink to insignificance when we are confronted with something like the Tsunami. Our minds struggle to put it into context, to comprehend and grasp the reality of such a disaster and what it means to us.  My Calvinistic/Reform Christian worldview stresses God's Sovereignty, and that helps me understand that as tragic as events might be on the human scale, on an Eternal scale it's all part of God's perfect plan. This might sound trite and smug if you are not familiar with the doctrine of God's Sovereignty. The doctrine may be hard for humanists or post-moderns to accept, but once you internalize it's truths, it provides a real context for all of life.

John Piper, a highly regarded reform Baptist pastor and theologian writes about all this in two excellent articles: "Tsunami and Repentance" and "Tsunami, Sovereignty, and Mercy" .

If you are struggling to understand the meaning of disasters like the Indian Ocean Tsunami, then I highly recommend these two articles for your consideration. He not only talks about the context of such events and what they mean, but also about what our personal response should be as Christians.