September 18, 2006 – 8:57 pm
Last week was pretty hectic. Aside from being really busy at work lately, I had also set a goal to have the grass in the backyard done in time for Randy & Jacquie’s 30th Anniversary party (which turned out really great, BTW), as well as putting together a slide show for the party, which I didn’t end up starting until about 10pm the night before. With that on Friday night and the party itself on Saturday, I ended up not getting a whole lot of sleep this weekend, and I foolishly didn’t really make up for it by going to bed early last night.
The grass rush turned out not to be a mixed success: it looked good, but it was still not really ready for people to walk on it since you have to water it so much in the first week. I heard that may be because I didn’t smash the dirt back down after I tilled it but before laying down the grass, but oh well, it will still be alright. I did get it all in and finished off the playground area on Friday afternoon; now we just need some more wood chips to add to it and we’ll be set.
Still no pictures of the grass yet, and I don’t know if I’ll take the time at this point. Everyone who’s interested who hasn’t seen it yet can check it out the next time they’re over.
September 10, 2006 – 10:37 pm
As you can tell from my lack of blog activity, this was another jam packed weekend. I think right now (Sunday night) is the first time I’ve cracked open my computer.
Saturday was a bit crazy, with a garage sale, 3 soccer games and more yard work in all the time that was left during the day. Huge thanks to the Camerons and the Aldersons and everyone else who ran that garage sale for us (to raise money for Christian and Emma’s school trip) while we ran around to the various soccer games.
Once we were done with that, I ran over to Home Depot to rent a tiller and bust up all the dirt in the backyard as step two in the process we started last weekend of getting more grass in the backyard. It was a bit tougher than I thought for a few reasons. Not only was the dirt in a lot of places really solid and hard, there were also two spots where we recently pulled up trees that had been there for a long time, and there were thick roots everywhere (along with a fair amount of big rocks) which would interfere with the tilling process.
I’d post pictures, but it’s not that different that the last ones I posted, other than everything is smoothed out and more even now. That’s one thing that’s a bit frustrating since after a lot of work you still just have a whole lot of dirt, just like when you started. Of course the dirt is in a lot better shape for planting, but still.
While that wasn’t the end of the draining aspects of this weekend, I think that’s all I’m going to post about tonight. Thanks again to everyone who helped out.
We went to Kristi’s “pinning ceremony” (nursing school graduation type event) tonight, and celebrated all of her hard work in becoming a nurse. Since she’s probably too humble to brag about it herself, I’d like to point out that she won (I’m pretty sure) every single available award, including the “single best 4.0 GPA student / over-achiever in the whole class” award (I don’t remember the exact name, but you get the idea).
Now it’s time for a cruise to celebrate!
November 27, 2005 – 12:41 am
… my favorite day out of the year, it would probably be the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
October 30, 2005 – 9:53 pm
Here’s a blanket Martha’s been working on made from Tim’s old t-shirts.
For some reason today I was thinking about him again; reflecting on what a statement it makes about a guy’s life when the lives of pretty much everyone who knew him will never be the same when he’s gone.
(PS - excuse the poor quality of the photo, it was taken in a pretty dark room from my cell phone, so there’s only so much adjusting of the levels, etc. in Photoshop that I could do to get it to look decent).
October 30, 2005 – 8:41 pm
I forgot that I wanted to publicly thank Randy for an emergency babysitting session on Friday night. It was kind of last minute, since I had to take Martha out to dinner to make up for forgetting to meet her for lunch, even when it was my idea and we talked about it that morning. doh!
October 5, 2005 – 12:12 pm
On September 20th, a man named David Malloy was run over by a train here in Ventura. If you live around here, you probably either knew him as “JD”, or just another nameless and occasionally annoying homeless guy on the street, depending on how you’ve become accustomed to viewing people.
JD was a vital part of a community known as “the bridge” here in Ventura; a community that has recently experienced the loss of several people we care about a lot. Each of these people has left a differently shaped hole in our lives, and JD is no exception. Since learning of his passing Sunday morning, there have been several disorganized thoughts in my head that I felt like putting out here for all to share. If any of these offend you, please excuse me.
- For me, JD was a frequent reminder of the centrality of the poor in the message of the gospel, in the midst of a culture that tries to marginalize them as much as possible
- I loved how he always kept coming back, and he didn’t let the fact that you may not have thought you had time to listen to him at any given moment dissuade him from relating a long story to you that usually didn’t make much sense. The funny thing is that when you actually did listen and decipher what he was saying, it was pretty funny stuff sometimes, especially his accounts of “guarding the turf” around the b building.
- I will always remember leading worship during the Sunday gatherings and looking down and seeing him laying on the monitor, either trying to play along with his harmonica or just savoring the experience.
- His inability to overcome his addiction is a reminder to me of the position in which every one of us stands before God, constantly being forgiven. I remember some people relating to me their questions about why we would allow an intoxicated person to enter the gatherings, and I remember asking why we should allow anyone to enter, except for the grace of God that covers us all.
- I am again reminded of (and frustrated by) our city’s policy towards the homeless population. It goes beyond social stigma and the subliminal discriminatory attitudes of the general population, and involves the active decisions and stated goals of the city council and the police department to get them the f… out of town. It’s pretty sick when you think about a city that is as wealthy as Ventura being filled with pride to the point of looking at people in this situation and inhumanly labeling them as “the homeless problem”.
There is more to say, but that will have to do for now.
September 9, 2005 – 1:38 pm
Our fellow Tythyl podcaster has a blog now too. I wonder if we’ll ever get around to recording another episode…
Thought I’d give a little sales pitch / Google rank boost for Sam’s blog - maybe he will post more if more people visit?
with 6 posts within the last 12 hours, even!
