Attentive

Miracle

Astonishing

Zany

Inspired

Nocturnal

God-fearing

[Update:] Added the underscores because people didn’t catch that the words spelled a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

Tuesday is one day I wish never happened. It was probably the worst day I’ve ever had. It was one of those days that is so streaked with unluckiness, you are constantly wondering, “what next?” Any one or even two of the things that happened could be written off as an unlucky day; I think this was more like a cursed day.

It started off innocent enough. I woke up late and didn’t get a shower. Ok, like I said, innocent, but it bugs me when that happens. So I get to work and realize I need to reshuffle the stuff in my car so a friend could borrow it. I take out the things I might need and set them beside the car to take in to the job site once I move my car. Long explanation shortened, I run over my camera. It’s worth about $1700. Rather, it was. Number three came while crawling out of the attic. Yes, almost out and (can’t think of a sound). I cut a 3 inch gouge across my back, just above my butt. I could actually feel through my gloves that there were now two separate pieces of skin. It went from a scratch on one end to about 1/4″+ deep on the other. That put me out of commission for about 4 hours while trying to make sure that it would close and stay closed. (Butterfly bandages rock!) While resting, I find out that my bank account became overdrawn by some stuff that took 3+ business days to post. I figure, that has to be the end. I mean, seriously, how much worse can it get. Oh, I didn’t mention that all that happened before 10:00 in the morning. The afternoon was pretty uneventful. Was able to do a little bit of work and then working on one of the final things I poke myself with a staple. Well, so I thought. I mean, I do that all the time trying to open little bags. No, I had to go and slice the tip of my thumb with the staple. It still hurts today worse than a paper cut. So there you have it.

I guess I should tell the rest of the story. The camera body is still OK as far as I can tell, so I only have to replace the lens. The gouge is healing nicely and hasn’t split open again. I was able to put some money in my bank account that afternoon, so I won’t be overdrawn again. So the major things are pretty well taken care of.

It was kinda ironic that I was reading the last two chapters of Mark that morning and the next. Talk about a bad day! The amazing thing is that that was the purpose for which He came. He came to be beaten just because some leaders were jealous of the power He held with the people. He came to die because Satan decided he needed more power than Him and He couldn’t let that affect our chance to live with Him.

So, in that light, my day wasn’t as bad and I shouldn’t let it get me down. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still hurt. The cuts still hurt and my lens probably won’t get replaced for about 5-6 months. I’m gonna miss my camera, but it will get better eventually. So I leave you with a blessing, that you don’t have a day like my Tuesday.

cheers!

This one is really stretching back. This was taken over a year ago while visiting 17 Mile Drive in the Monterey area. I really like the silhouettes of these trees and yes, I did take some liberty with editing this photo. I was just playing around with iPhoto’s features.

cheers!

Some of you may have noticed me in some of the pictures that were in the slide show of mission trip construction project. I was wearing a cowboy-ish hat and sporting more facial hair than normal. The guy I work with made a bet with me that he would shave his beard if I grew mine out over the Honduras trip. Now this wouldn’t be so significant, but he has not shaved his beard in 23 years. That’s only three less than I’ve been alive. His wife hasn’t even seen him without a beard and has wanted to for some time. So I agreed to do it and so this was the first time ever that I’ve grown a full beard. This photo was taken about a week after I got back and the beard was gone no more than 10 minutes later. Without further ado.

cheers!

This is a picture I took last July in Capitola, CA. This is similar to Shutter Lock, but this time it came out like a multiple exposure. I’m not sure how I got such a clear shot of Sabrina without flash, but awesome accidents happen. I’m putting this up in honor of getting my gallery working like I want it to, finally. Since Sabrina was online to celebrate with me, she gets to make her 3rd appearance on here; twice as the artist and now once as the subject.

cheers!

There is a lot to this story and I only know a little bit. I wish I could remember all of the different parts that I’ve heard. I guess it starts with a little girl. She had to do dialysis three times a week. That is the reason the she was living at Pan American Health Services (PAHS). Well, this last Fall or Winter, her family’s house was destroyed by a storm. It was an adobe house of some sort, mostly sticks and mud. There was a lot of horizontal rain which softened up the walls and then a heavy wind knocked them down. They moved down to PAHS to be with their daughter who also developed a problem with the shunt. She basically was done fighting and I’ve also heard that the government doctor refused to treat her, but at any rate, she died just a couple weeks before we went down. The family then moved in with family or neighbors in their village.

The first Sabbath down there, we went for a hike through the rain forest land owned by PAHS. The trail starts in the village that the girl comes from, so we went and checked out the house before the hike. Basically, there were the four corner posts and three other support posts holding up a tin roof. PAHS didn’t have a major project planned for us; so, we decided to build the house back up. Pastor Steve had been to Pakistan and learned a new way of building a small structure. He shared that with Gary, our resident engineer, and promptly left us. (To be totally fair, it was always planned that he was only there for four or five days.)

Sunday, we pretty much finished up the painting project on the PAHS campus and Monday, I was part of the crew that went up. That was one of those times I was glad I was the #2 cameraman on the trip (Tom was #1). It was only a partial crew because the rest were supposed to stay behind and finish the painting, but wasps made it impossible to finish. At any rate, the first day was spent digging a trench, pouring cement into the trench for the wall foundation, and stretching seventeen wires around the whole structure. And, that’s how we left it for a couple days. It kinda looked funny.

Tuesday/Wednesday were mostly touristy days and Wednesday evening four of us picked up three metric tons of sand in town and shoveled it off at the site. Oh, something I forgot to mention. This town is quite a bit higher up in the mountains and probably only reachable with four wheel drive. We carried everything up there on a flatbed trailer behind a good sized truck and when there was more than four people, most of us rode on the trailer as well. Definitely not something you could get away with in the states. I’m not to sure of the trip time, because I didn’t have a watch or cellphone while down there, but I think it was about 45 min drive. With the sand on Wednesday, if I remember correctly, it took one and a half hours. It was quite the heavy load. Although, Thursday’s load wasn’t light.

Thursday, we loaded up 25 100lb bags of cement, a cement mixer, and 20 people. On this day, I actually arrived late because of a little adventure, but that’s another story. During that time, they had back filled the trenches and stretched the wires vertically, so they were taut. Next, was tar paper and chicken wire around the whole structure. They also erected the window and door that I had helped Gary make on Monday. Next was putting cement mud against the side walls. This took the rest of the day and most of Friday.

Friday was spent finishing up the mud and also adding plywood. When we realized that we wouldn’t be able to finish mudding all the way up the wall, due to time constraints, and it was decided that plywood would be used on the upper half. Also, Tim did some electrical work so they would have two lights and a plug. That pretty much sums it up and I’ve got a slide show uploaded now. Just click the picture below.

cheers!