29 August

On our teen retreat with a bunch of high school and jr high kids. Did a high ropes course, some skits, capture the flag, campfire, met a lot of new kids I didn't know. Pulled a hamstring running around. All in all a pretty good day.

Cherie's foot still bothering her so we may have to do something about it when we get home.

Ben's brakes will cost 500, but that's life with cars. Not a lot you can do but suck it up and pay.

My knee feels better though.

28 August

I have a nasty case of tendonitis in my knee brought on by my biking cleat being in the wrong position and riding a century last Saturday. I may not be able to ride DALMAC which would be a serious bummer. Oh well, I can’t do much about it but pray for healing and understand that God’s plan is best. Cherie woke up with something bothering her foot that looks like a cyst or something right where she pedals. She’s iffy for DALMAC as well. If we make it, it will be God’s doing; if we don’t make it, that will also be God’s doing.

Speaking of Cherie, she had a horrible, no good, very bad, day yesterday. She went to Urgent Care to have her foot checked out and ended up wasting a whole day for them to tell her that it wasn’t a blood clot. All fine and dandy, but they don’t know exactly what it is, and certainly didn’t “fix” it. Then she was driving home and got her first ticket ever! At 52! Not too bad considering, but she was a little down when she got home. The weather did not help. It’s been rainy and lousy for the past couple of days, as if we were in March or November instead of August. Horrible summer here in Michigan.

I didn’t get much accomplished yesterday. I ran 1.5 miles and my knee bothered me afterward from the tendonitis. Then I pretty much read the rest of the day until Cherie got home; First Family by David Baldacci. Pretty interesting book, not great, but a good story.

Off to Rodney, Michigan with the Youth Group this evening for a weekend of drawing closer as a group. The weather won’t be great, but it should be fun anyway.

Senator Ted Kennedy died the day before yesterday. He started out his political career as pro-life, but switched part way through and became a long time, and vocal supporter of abortion rights (I actually read a magazine article about the Kennedy family switch. Fascinating. Political expediency aided by a member of the Catholic clergy who “justified” abortion for them). At any rate, whatever else he accomplished in his political career, if one cannot find in one’s heart room to stand up for the weakest among us, the most disenfranchised, the one with the least powerful voice, then, in my view, whatever else one “accomplishes” for the neglected of society is of little worth.

25 August

I got to lap swim yesterday! Yay!! It has been about 7 years since I’ve been able to swim in a pool. We gave up our YMCA membership and then I had some injuries and basically didn’t have time or a place to swim. We discovered recently that Haslett has some lap swim times in their beautiful pool, so Kelly and I went down and swam laps yesterday. I sucked wind and only swam 600 yards, but I’ll improve. I think I should be able to swim there at least once a week, if not twice this winter, so I’m really looking forward to it. I also kayaked a couple of miles yesterday. Nice to get back into the kayak. I screwed up my knee on our century ride Saturday so I’m taking a couple of days off and hoping it gets better before our ride from East Lansing to Mackinac.

I was struck in Scripture reading this morning from Lamentations 2.14, that the one way to bring back success from a godly standpoint is to have one’s sins revealed. Fascinating. Obviously, in God’s standards there is not compatibility between sin and success. You want success? You can’t keep sinning. You want to keep sinning. You will not attain success.

23 August

“To the Lord belong escapes from death.” Cherie, Sue, and I were on a century bike ride yesterday—Pompeii, Ithaca, Alma, Ithaca, Ashley, Elsie, Ovid, home—and were on a road about as wide as Meridian Rd., when two cars passed a car that was in the opposite lane coming towards us. The first guy saw us and was back in his own lane when we passed him. The second guy did not. He flashed by in our lane at 55 or 60 mph. So in two lanes there was the car he was passing, him, and us. He probably missed us by a foot or so. A few more inches and he would have taken all three of us out. Not this day, however, because God preserved our lives, literally. We are grateful. Oh, and if you’re a skeptic, we also believe that “to the Lord belong non-escapes from death” as well. Our times are in his hands. We defer to him. If he is ready to call us home, we are ready. At any time.

It was an interesting ride. Sue fell crossing some railroad tracks and whacked her head on the asphalt. Hard. So hard she broke her helmet, but her head was fine. At any rate, I finished my 3rd century of the summer, and Cherie her 4th. Not bad for two old fogies.

We took Ben’s bike up to him on Saturday evening and took he and Ashley to dinner at Lone Star steak house. What did Ben eat? A steak? Nope. A cheeseburger. Back home and some decaf and then to bed. It’s off to church early for me to meet with a couple of guys at 8 a.m., then church and Sunday school. Then home to do some house cleaning. Then back to church. Busy Sunday.

21 August

Up early thanks to being a natural morning lark. Devotions and then off to work for just one day. DTW-MSP-DTW. Beautiful day coming over, sitting in the plane getting ready to go back home. Middle seat. Ugh.

Home after several stops.

News of the day is the Evangelical Lutheran C. Assoc. Voted today to allow gays in “committed relationships” and be clergy. Translation it is okay to totally reject the clear teaching of Scripture and not only call yourself a Christian but be a leader of Christians! Where to start on this. It certainly spells the death knell for the ELCA not to mention demonstrates to the world that the Scriptures take a backseat to expediency. May God have mercy on them.

20 August

Home again, home again. For a short time anyway. I go back on call at 1700 today. Pretty easy day yesterday, just LGA-MEM and then deadhead back to DTW. Of course that didn’t keep me from being tired by the time I got home. Took care of a few things, roasted some decaf (got some from Sweet Marias) and then to bed. Kelly got home from Cedar Point at about 1 a.m. and came in and talked for a few minutes. I guess she was supposed to be the ‘A’ driver for Badger and she slept all the way home until he turned onto Grand River with 3 miles to go. Great ‘A’ driver!

Had a talk with M. when I got home about school. What his motivations are in life, I do not pretend to know. Definitely exasperating, but God has put him where he is and given him the character that he does for a reason. I have to balance being a father and pushing him with allowing the Holy Spirit to work in his own time and way. Requires patience and seeing things from God’s perspective. Not easy as a parent at times.

19 August

Robert Novak died today. He was 78 and I believe he died of a brain tumor. He was moderately well known in his day, especially to the chattering class in Washington who all take themselves too seriously.

The point though is that no matter how well known you are, death will catch up with you just like it does everyone else. You will be forgotten. People will move on. I take 2 lessons from Robert Novaks life.
1. You’re never as important or necessary as you think you are.
2. Think carefully about what you are doing. Eternity is important. Do things that impact eternity. Don’t waste your life because it’s coming to an end.

May you rest in peace, Mr. Novak. I hope you were prepared for eternity.

18 August

2 hour sit in MSP on the way to yucky LGA. Beautiful day on the way to MSP, mostly clear and fairly smooth. Rockies were as gorgeous as always. Tired because of. 3.30 am wake up in LAS. Ran 1 mile and rode the exercise bike for 50 minutes with a few weights mixed in.

17 August

Up at 4.45 in Memphis preparing for a 7 am van to the airport. DTW them LAS for me today. Unfortunately I’ll have to sit almost 4 hours in DTW. I’m flying a Memphis trip so I had an afternoon deadhead to MEM yesterday, waited an hour for the lousy van service to the Doubletree, had a lunchable from Krogers for dinner and went to bed.

Spent some time worrying about M. again. No job, no apparent desire to get one. Drifting, unmotivated. Interesting to see what the Lord will do with him. I look at the loss of his job after two days as a lost opportunity, but I don’t think the Lord sees it that way. I trust that the Lord will bring him spiritually where he wants him. These are the broken roads that lead there.

16 August

Up at six.com! Just like the birds, except Cujo, he usually sleeps in until 9 am, or so. Devotions and then breakfast and eventually off to work for one day…maybe. I go out and back to Boston, but might have another trip tomorrow. We shall see.

I had an interesting discussion with Andy K. last night about devotions and getting into the Word. Using devotionals that other people have written is good, I use them sometimes myself. It’s just not the best way to do devotions. The best way is to get into the Scripture text and let the Holy Spirit bring it to bear on your heart. This way you are learning what the Holy Spirit is teaching you directly, rather than learning what the Holy Spirit was teaching someone else.

I compared it to a deer hunter who did nothing but read magazines and go to lectures about deer hunting. He would learn a lot, but one couldn’t really call him a true deer hunter unless he actually went out and hunted for himself. If he never actually goes hunting he will never experience the joy of the woods in the morning, and the sight of a buck poking his head through the woods, not to mention all of God’s great creation.

Get into the Scriptures for yourself! That is the best way to know God better.

16 August

Slow day here. On call but didn’t get called in. I have a one day trip tomorrow to Boston and back. We celebrated Ben’s 21st birthday because he is headed for school next week.

Finished a book called “Burn —-”. Started out okay but turned into a bloody mess at the end. Not entertaining.

15 August

Up early so Cherie and I could ride a century together. We went through Williamston to Dansville then west to Pottersville then north to Grand Ledge then home. 100 miles. Felt reasonably good.

We had dinner at Asian Buffet with Andy and Kelly then home. Tired, but a good tired. 7 more days on call starting tomorrow.

Prayed a little while we were riding.

14 August

Finished my trip yesterday. It wasn’t theoretically a long day, but since I woke up at 6.30 after less than 5 hours of sleep it seemed that way. At least we were on time.

Rarely does one get to experience the sun set twice in one day, but I did as we came out of BWI. We took off a few minutes after sunset and as we climbed it began to get lighter and lighter. At about 29,000 feet the sun peeked up over the horizon. It “rose” to almost halfway, then began to slowly sink again. It finally set for the second time over Ohio. Pretty cool to experience, and we had the benefit of flying directly towards it. Front row seats to the second sunset of the day. Not everyone can boast that they had THAT experience. God was good to do that for us!

Off to ride 100 miles with my wife. It’s going to be hot…and fun.

13 August

Arrived a little bit late into Miami last night. Had to fly a visual approach due to a rain storm sitting about 5 miles off of the end of the runway. It was a little bit crazy since a visual approach is the hardest thing to fly in the A-320, but we got it all sorted out by 1000 feet. The “meteor shower” was a bust from my perspective (38,000 feet). I think I saw two.

We did get St. Elmo’s fire flying around some thunderstorms near Daytona, Florida. It’s really quite something to see in the airplane, blue lightning bolts flickering around the bottom of your window and occasionally beginning to crawl up it in the darkness.

Thursday. Day 5 of my trip. LAX-MKE-LAX-MIA-DTW. Today we’ll go DTW-BWI-DTW, and then, Lord willing home. I’m going to try and ride a century tomorrow.

12 August

I’ve started this blog to keep track of my life for the future. It will be mostly boring data and I’m the only one who will read it. At least for now.

LAX – DTW – MIA today. Don’t get done until midnight. Uneventful morning in LAX, Starbucks, devotions, some drum practice. Had a jumpseater from LAX to DTW. Did an autoland in DTW.