Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Gritting My Teeth Over: Fat Little People with Wings all around me

I just saw The Fisher King for the first time. Interesting. There was room for some profound statements about friendship and Godship, but for some reason, either the statements were cut for sake of time or they were never included. Maybe that movie is mine to write.

what bothers me, now...
Is that I "hear" stuff.
First off, I am undeniably Christian. My love of God, Jesus and the blessed Holy Spirit is true. period. So, please don't say that I "hear" stuff because I belong to the devil, okay?
Monday morning, in the gray area between sleep and awake, I hear someone say, "He's Asian." and someone answered, "Well, regardless, he's the one."
I rolled out of bed wondering about the benefits of psychiatric meds.
Later at work, I learned of a young Asian man who turned on his classmates at Virginia Tech.
You know. It just makes a person wonder.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Gritting My Teeth Over: Cats, Again



One of these, hm, kittens who came to live in my home turned out to be a "designer".


Her name was "Josie" when I adopted her. She and her sister are equal halves of the Morse Code twins: Dot and Dash.

"Dot" is a gray tabby covered in spots. Spots are supposed to be rare in a tabby. Her mama was a Siamese/Abyssian mix. Her daddy was a great american alley cat. Dot looks just like an "Ocicat", a designer breed.

"Dash" is a gray tabby covered in, you guessed it, elongated spots or dashes.

It's a misnomer. Dot dashes several times a day, in no particular direction and for no particular purpose, except maybe to make me wonder what the heck she is doing. Dash wouldn't dart after a mouse if it ate all her tuna fish and bopped her in the nose on its way out of the house.

They were identical twins at six weeks, when I hired them to rid my remodel-prone house of rodents.

By the way, they own the house now.

Which reminds me of another designer. Jack Sherman Lloyd. Hang onto that name.

When he was maybe ten years old, he came over to my house because he didn't have a red vest for his cubscout patches. We probably used a scrap of red felt leftover from a Christmas tree skirt. We may not have even used a pattern. Vests don't exactly need patterns, just a few measurements. Jack used my sewing machine to sew four seams on his vest and then proudly wore the thing home.

I forgot about the incident for about 13 years. Saturday, Jack's mother passed on some news to me from Jack. "He's working as an intern for Oscar de laRenta!"

Woo! An internationally known designer! Way to go, Jack!

She continued, "He wanted you to know because you taught him to sew!"

I did? Oh! What did we sew? a cubscout vest?

Encourage kids with whatever you can. I thought I was giving him life survival skills. What did I know?

"So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word."

2 Thessalonians 2:15-17 , NIV

Friday, April 6, 2007

Gritting My Teeth Over: Rabbits get more mail than I do

I don't hate rabbits too much. I hate cats.



Rabbits live in my backyard, constantly working to mow the clover down to the correct height. I permit them a free run of the yard.

Keep mowing!

Yesterday, the rabbits took off with a piece of my mail. Well. They can't really be blamed. The wind blowed the letter to the backyard. The rain made it soft. The little missus was making a nest under a rotten tree stump.

I tugged on a clean corner of the paper, raised it to the light and tried my darndest to find the right spot on my bifocals. It was addressed as follows:

"To the Primary Resident of the Household"

Guess it was her mail anyway.

When something gets put in a hole in the ground, you expect it to stay there, don't you?

These disciples left the scene of Jesus' death and headed off to the village of Emmaus, only to be surprised by the same Jesus they had just watched being stuffed into a hole in a rock:

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"

They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"

"What things?" he asked.

"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."

He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon." Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Luke 24:13-35, NIV