Are answered prayers. (Mr. Brooks notwithstanding)

A very few weeks ago, S. was experiencing substantial pain in her abdomen to the point she could not sleep. Her doctor discovered ovaries that are normally the size of almonds were actually larger than oranges! This new size prevented the laparoscopic operation, so a LONG transverse incision allowed for their removal early Monday morning at EAMC. While she was still in the O.R. , the lab determined the large cysts to be benign.

Thanks to God.

Although she received superior care at EAMC, I was determined to stay with her until she was ready to leave the hospital. I feel that a hospital environment is one of those situations you should avoid without an advocate. Amazingly, she is already at home, but she has a good distance to go to reach "recovery". She still has three drains sutured to her body, and I am glad that I don't easily flinch. Maybe I can "catch up" on the rest in the next few days.

Her sister, Helen, is down from Nashville and is a great blessing. She is certainly making a difficult situation easier, and we are all enjoying spending time together.

UPDATE - OCT 15th

Susan was able to make it to midweek Bible study this week!

It was challenging to cover/hide still-existing drains, and it was quite tiring for her, but she made it - surprising everyone!

She will probably pay a price for her excursion, but she would go nuts if her "solitary confinement" went much longer without respite.

Although she has a long way to go, her remarkable recovery is absolutely answered prayer.

...who feels I should post more often than quarterly:


We have been renovating our house.

It is a process I must describe as tantamount to bamboo under the fingernails (applied with malice aforethought).

We started before school let out for the Summer, and it is still not done. We began because of structural repairs needed in the greatroom, then added the kitchen to the list (so that it could be more accomodating for the "Silver Polishing" summit), and we were going to build the basement garage into a music room downstairs where amps, guitars, and other playthings could be left in a constant state of readiness.

We really were.

First, we evacuated the greatroom and kitchen into the parlor and the master bedroom. (Yes, I know that is impossible - we did it anyway.)

We also ripped out the entire kitchen. (let me tell you - no kitchen for eight to ten weeks is mind-numbingly torturous...no "quick" drink of water, no "quick and easy" snack...you have to go all the way back to the bathroom just to pour something down a drain!)

Doing major construction on a house in which you are living is somewhat akin to doing engine work on a car you are driving.

I do not recommend it.

OK - the greatroom is just about done (98%) - but it is still cluttered with debris and other things that should have gone into the playroom.

The kitchen is about 85% done, but it doesn't matter - we need it NOW. We'll finish it as we get the chance. No, it wasn't even close to ready for the "Silver Polishing" gathering - We had to rent Keisel Park.

The play room never even got started. We'll get to it when we get to it.

Life will be better when we are done. We're just not sure when that will be.

However, God's love is evident in his sending of Oza Rena' to help us - her high quality painting covers a multitude of other worker's shortcomings. It is no wonder she is always in demand. I wish she was a general contractor!

I had dinner with my best friend Tuesday evening. It was a celebration of our long-standing partnership. We had known each other for a little while before, but we finalized the institution of our partnership twenty-five years ago. This year it was Tuesday, but twenty-five years ago it was a Saturday, and some of you readers were there. Our relationship has enjoyed great success and weathered a few storms, but some of our best collaboration has been evidenced by our production of tricycle motors. It took over nine years to bring our first model to the public, but it has been durable and dependable. In the sixteen years since first released we have really enjoyed our interaction and continue to tweak as needed. A little over five years later, we came out with our second tricycle motor. It seems that the development of the second model has been completely different from the first. Hardly any of the tools and skills we had used on the first one worked with the second – but we are equally enamored of each, and we hope to provide continuous improvement through constant research and development. Each model uses the same manual that we received from the Source. In fact, the Source has been a wealth of knowledge from which we could garner guidance for every important decision throughout the entire partnership so far. Here’s to another twenty-five.

Life is funny…but only if we make it so.

Last Saturday morning at about 3:00am, I was reminded that you must step UP to leave a modern camping tent. I had accompanied my youngest son to the annual Freeze-O-Ree campout. It was not freezing - which is probably good since it RAINED ALL NIGHT. I have spent several nights tenting in the rain, so this was not a problem. We do not touch/poke the tent from the inside, and we are fine - no leaks at all. So when I opened the flap in my excursion to relieve the pressures of life, I was in a hurry to make as small an opening as possible - as quickly as possible - to avoid the introduction of Di-Hydrogen-Oxide to the interior of the tent. Everything went well until the second foot left the tent...

Milliseconds later, from my new vantage point, I could feel the soft clay on my left cheek. It was very moist and relatively soft when you consider my speed of impact. I’m sure that Faulkner could have supplied several paragraphs about the fine, silty quality of the mud, and how I could feel it quickly becoming one with my clothing, but I simply staggered to my feet and carried on with a low chastised grunt – comforting myself in the fact that no one witnessed (or recorded) the event.

Lord willing, we will undertake an odyssey of mammoth proportions this Saturday. We (S and I) will be leading a Cub Scout caravan of (not more than 28 - I'll tell you later) cars down to Mobile. We'll start about 6:30am (yikes!) and head down I-85 to I-65 till near Bay Minette, when we will head down the East side of Mobile Bay and follow the tiny peninsula to Fort Morgan. After a couple hours, we'll ride the Ferry over to Dauphin Island and see the Estuarium. After another hour or two, we'll drive up and over the bay bridge up to the USS Alabama battleship. It promises to be a most memorable excursion! I keep asking myself, What do I think I am DOING!?

Keeping control of this crowd will be akin to pushing a rope. They say that "Scouting is fun with a purpose." I missed the "measured insanity" part. I can hardly wait...