a man, a woman, and Dean's Rent All

MKH and I wanted to deliver a piano from grandma's house in Illinois to our son and daughter in law, (A and B) who live on the east side of Ohio. I read testimonies online on how to move a piano and found almost nothing but warnings of death, destruction, and dismemberment for anyone except professional piano movers who would attempt to put a piano in the back of a pickup truck. The internet told of musclebound men whose muscles were torn and bones were crushed in failed attempts to move a piano. So I concluded that since neither my wife nor I are musclebound, we could surely succeed with the help of the local equipment rental.

We rented a piano dolly for $25 and 8 foot long ramps for $8. We also packed my straps and some straps we borrowed from our children's minister at church and set out for Illinois.

I had to cut down half a bush to get the truck in the right position, but once that was completed the ramps fit nicely from the tailgate to the threshold of grandma's house. The piano loaded easily onto the dolly and with the four handles, and excellent wheels of the dolly we were ready to roll.

Putting the piano in the back of the pickup was the easiest part of the whole move. The piano dolly was the star of the show, well, except for my wife who is always the star of my show.

We strapped the piano down using a two strap system I read about online from a man who said he had moved 600 pianos in the back of a Toyota pickup truck. I assume he meant one at a time. His system was great, but I added five more straps just because I have a tendency to over prepare. After all, if a little is good, a lot is better.

In Ohio our son had some extra muscle to help so I used my home made ramps and we had no problem wheeling the little, but heavy, Wurlitzer into a beautiful spot in their dining room. Mission accomplished. If we can do it, you can do it, with the help of your local rental place.

One bit of advice. My wife and I agreed that if at any point the piano started to tip and fall, we would just step back let it go. There was no way we were going to try to catch it. After all, we may be crazy to try to move a piano across three states by ourselves, but we're not stupid

comic relief

Everyone needs a little comic relief in the office. In the garden it is called "whimsy." In a movie it might be called a "sight gag" but on my desk it is "comic relief."

A lot of us have very serious offices where important activity takes place reflecting the years of study in properly accredited institutions. We've studied the books, written the papers, learned massive amounts of information from professors that were as serious as a heart attack. Now that we're in our own offices we need something to lighten the mood.

Some people choose a funny screen saver. Others drink their coffee from funny mugs. Me, I'm amused with the oddity of a mummified cat replica. This is an image whose makers intended to be serious. After all it is originally from Abydos, Upper Egypt, perhaps 1st Century AD. This is one of several artifacts from the British Museum's collections. We all know that the British are a pretty serious bunch.

Listen to this description of the mummy, "This cat is associated with the goddess Bastet, whose cult centre was at Bubastis in the Delta. The cat was very elaborately wrapped. A lot of effort was frequently spent on the wrapping and external appearance, while the remains inside are often incomplete. It seems likely that many cats did not die a natural death; many are aged less than one year old. The burial of an animal mummy in a specially designed catacomb was seen as a pious act."

While the British have a wonderful, albeit wacky sense of humor, I doubt if the Egyptian mummy makers had any sense of humor. Anyone who could dream up a way to stick an instrument in a dead person's nose and drag out their brains has taken "morbid" and "disgusting" to a whole new galaxy. And to mummify a cat, well that's a completely alien notion to most normal human beings.

So combine a demented culture, a sick religion, an overly obsessed death culture, and you end up with very weird relics that land in a British museum; and now I have a replica of said item on my desk simply because it makes me smile. It is my favorite cat. My grandson, Little Zee, broke one ear off and in my estimation that makes it even more charming and humorous. Hopefully something on your desk makes you smile.

What we feel and do without thinking

I am very intrigued by what Dallas Willard wrote in Chapter 8 of his book in Renovation of the Heart. I suppose I've read a lot of things about character over the years and there is an accumulated knowledge that we all share. It has often been quoted that "we are what we do when no one is watching." A related thought is that mentally handicapped people do in public what others only do in private. There is a lot of food for thought as we apply that conventional wisdom to ourselves.

Dallas Willard has a similar but very deep and interesting take on this subject. He says that, "will is not the same thing as character, but character does develop from it, as specific willings become habitual and, to some extent, "automatic." Character is revealed most of all in what we feel and do without thinking."

And then here is the part that really intrigued me, "But to a lesser extent it is revealed in what we repent of after thinking and what we then do as a result of repenting. Thought, feeling, and will give rise to character."

How many times have we heard someone or our own selves say, "I have no regrets." "Or I'm not sorry for what I did."

When we hear other people say these things we often find ourselves observing that if that person could bring themselves to be more objective, they probably should have "regrets" about what they said and did.

For what do you have regrets? What can you do about it?

PS I wrote this post back in March but never published it until now. As usual Dallas Willard helps clarify my thinking about the inner life of people. I've been in a search process, along with others, for a new staff person. I realize after reading this tonight that I am always in a search for "character" in a staff person. I'm not so interested in performance, but character. What does a person do automatically, without external stimulus or motivation? Left to ourselves, what do we do?

Anticipation

Building within me is a deep desire to make it around Lake Michigan on a motorcycle.  There are a few scenic spots I want to see along the way, such as the Painted Rocks by Lake Superior and the Tunnel of Trees in Michigan and so forth.  

This will be the third attempt by my brother and me and hopefully the old Wing will hold together for another 1,200 miles.  Unfortunately, it broke down on both of the other attempts.  I have a couple of maintenance issues to take care of before I leave and one that has been completed is pictured here in this blog.  I have brand new, very cool looking tires.  That is excitement enough for me but these tires represent something a little deeper to me.  

I am not a spontaneous person.  Spontaneity robs you of anticipation, and the anticipation of something good is a most wonderful part of the whole experience.  

I have new, cool looking tires but I bought them in preparation for my trip and that is much more fun to talk about with other cyclists than just going to the shop and buying some new tires simply because the old ones are worn out.  I have a new air filter, a new oil filter and other sundry items and they are all waiting to be installed with the annual Bro Ride in mind.  

Half of the fun of a date with my wife is anticipating it.  Planning all the fun things we'll do with our grandkids makes seeing them that much better.  Isn't this a deep principle of the universe?  In fact, I think God must have invented anticipation, He sure seems to like to use it a lot.

So excuse me while I go down to the garage and soak my new air filter in oil.  I plan for it to be sucking a lot of dirt in Wisconsin and Michigan on the Circle Tour.  

And don't those tires look great?    

What we feel and do without thinking

I am very intrigued by what Dallas Willard wrote in Chapter 8 of his book in Renovation of the Heart. I suppose I've read a lot of things about character over the years and there is an accumulated knowledge that we all share. It has often been quoted that "we are what we do when no one is watching." A related thought is that mentally handicapped people do in public what others only do in private. There is a lot of food for thought as we apply that conventional wisdom to ourselves.

Dallas Willard has a similar but very deep and interesting take on this subject. He says that, "will is not the same thing as character, but character does develop from it, as specific willings become habitual and, to some extent, "automatic." Character is revealed most of all in what we feel and do without thinking."

And then here is the part that really intrigued me, "But to a lesser extent it is revealed in what we repent of after thinking and what we then do as a result of repenting. Thought, feeling, and will give rise to character."

How many times have we heard someone or our own selves say, "I have no regrets." "Or I'm not sorry for what I did."

When we hear other people say these things we often find ourselves observing that if that person could bring themselves to be more objective, they probably should have "regrets" about what they said and did.

For what do you have regrets? What can you do about it?

PS I wrote this post back in March but never published it until now. As usual Dallas Willard helps clarify my thinking about the inner life of people. I've been in a search process, along with others, for a new staff person. I realize after reading this tonight that I am always in a search for "character" in a staff person. I'm not so interested in performance, but character. What does a person do automatically, without external stimulus or motivation? Left to ourselves, what do we do?

bald eagles

A trip to see mom and dad now includes eagle watching. At least during the winter months the eagles seem to like my mom and dad's little town of Havana, IL. We spotted two eagles. I don't know if you can see the eagle in the pictures, but it's there.

For someone who grew up being reminded that the bald eagle might be extinct someday it is nice to see them thriving.

ice

What would it have been like to live in a world your entire life without any knowledge of or access to ice? Jungle living is not for me. I'm glad to live in historic times rather than pre-historic times when ice had not yet been discovered.

I like ice. When I'm on a long road trip the lingering pieces of ice in my Panera cup are often the only things keeping me company, and keeping me awake. Ice is such a wonderful improvement to beverages. Almost anything can be made better by putting it "on the rocks." A notable exception to that rule would be milk. There were many times as a happy child growing up in Nebraska when my mom, in an effort to maintain the coolness of the milk in our cups on a hot summer day would put ice in the cups. That was only slightly better than warm milk but not much.

The British don't care for ice in their Coke. Other than that one small detail, the British seem pretty normal.

Just think of all the fun times we would miss out on if we didn't have ice. Certainly, donning hats, coats, and mittens and plunging out onto a skating rink would be much less romantic without ice.