...if you bring a church bulletin you get in free...

Ya gotta love Indiana. I do and I'm not kidding. Last week I worked way more than what I think is morally responsible so my wife and I took a break this afternoon and went to the Home Show at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. We went today because I had coupons to get two dollars off the $9 entry fee. They oughta pay us to attend since the whole thing is one huge advertisement for things you probably don't need, and is designed to lift every dollar you'll make for the next 40 years, but it was fun to look. This show was certainly not about "need."

The main attraction was a beautiful two story, fully furnished house that they built inside one of the big indoor arenas. A house like that sells for $524,000 on the lot of your choice. There was no line so we walked through it twice. It was awesome. They built it brick by brick, stairstep by stairstep, ceramic tile by ceramic tile, fully landscaped with tulips, hyacinth and dogwoods blooming. Of course it will be torn down and carted away, every last brick, piece of mortar and wallboard.

We munched on roasted almonds, fudge, and teryaki flavored pickled garlic cloves; they were free samples. You've seen the roasted almonds in the malls. $8 bucks for one of those little packages? Could I have another free sample? $2 bucks for a bottle of pop? That's chump change though compared to the $900 dollar ironing board. It was made like the kind you see in a dry cleaners. The specially designed iron had such a powerful stream of steam it would just glide over your clothes. You could literally wad up every item of your clothing and throw it in a bag for weeks but on Sunday morning you could iron anything you wanted in seconds and it would be dry cleaner pressed perfect. If you wanted to perfectly press your wadded up blue jeans you could just lay them out on the board and the stream of steam was so powerful you could press all four sides at once. Of course this wonderful contraption would pay for itself in all the money you won't be spending at the dry cleaners.

But here's the best thing. If you bring your church bulletin with you to the Home Show on Sunday afternoon you can get into the show, including the model home, for free. Yes, free. I'm sure that is something that only happens in Indiana, and I'm not being sarcastic. Not only that, but your church bulletin will also get you ten percent off your lunch at many local restaurants.

So attend the church of your choice and get the bulletin, save 10% on your lunch, get in the Home Show for free, and buy yourself a $900 dollar ironing board, which by the way, if you buy a display model will be only $800 because it is the last day of the Home Show.

I know it's obscure but I thought of Revelation 6:6 "And a voice from among the four living beings said, "A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley for a day's pay. And don't waste the olive oil and wine."

a hunter and a vegetarian

I saw something yesterday that I had a hard time believing. My wife exclaimed, "There's a robin in the back yard." I didn't believe her and yet I knew she wouldn't lie so I had to look to see and sure enough there was a robin in our backyard sitting in one of our little crabapple trees. While I stood at the window two more robins flew at the single robin and they got into one of those little bird fights that you often see when a bird is being territorial.

We don't have robins in our yard during the winter. But here they were, three robins fighting over territory in our backyard on January 28th.

And while I was musing over that remarkable fact the robin reached out and ate one of the little crabapples on the tree. Maybe that doesn't seem like a very big deal to you but that's significant to me because a robin is a hunter and a meateater. Robins are not freeloading birds that eat food that kindhearted people put out for them, they hunt worms, kill them and eat them. Robins are tough little birds and that's one of the reasons I like them. So does the hunter become a vegetarian during the winter? Is the earth now rotating the opposite direction? Did the pope give up Catholicism? Did hell freeze over? Do submarines now have screendoors? Did the robin see a worm that had climbed the tree and was sitting on a crabapple and I only thought the robin eat a crabapple?

I need to do some research. What is a robin doing eating a crabapple in Indy on January 28? If anybody has a clue I'd like to hear it.

"Cursed be the day of my birth,"

Proabably everybody has had the thought at some time or another, "I wish I had never been born." I think it's pretty safe to say that most people have had a bad day, some unfortunate circumstances, some super stressful moments, days of disillusionment, despondency, despair (do you get the idea?) and we've said, "I wish I had never been born." Well compared to a guy named Job we are novices and neophytes mere amateurs, green as a gourd in the fine art of wishing our life away.

I came across his rant in some recreational Bible reading and had to stand back in appreciation of his thoroughness, emotion and the sheer creativity and (as TRH said, artistic or poetic quality) of what he said.

Not only did he curse the "day" of his birth but the "night" he was conceived as well. He wanted that moment to be lost to his parents but he wished it to be lost to God as well. He wanted darkness and utter gloom to claim that day. He wanted a black cloud to overshadow it and in addition to have the darkness terrify that day. He wanted that day to be blotted out, completely removed from the calendar never to exist again. He would rather the universe be deprived of that day than have the day he was born to continue to exist.

Here's the best part. With all this blasting of his day of birth, he apparently didn't feel like he was doing a good enough job of cursing that day so he said, "Let those who are experts at cursing--those who are ready to rouse the sea monster--curse that day."

It's one thing to curse something thoroughly and artistically but then to try to find others who could curse something better than you, and get them in on the act, now that's a mighty thorough cursing. My opinion is that you could find those expertly cursing people working for the railroad, at least they were the most accomplished cursers that I had ever heard.

There is more, he goes on, but I won't. Read it for yourself in the New Living Translation. Job 3

Actually I'm glad to be alive, thankful that God has been merciful to me and let me live. I'm thankful that my parents and God made me. Life is good. God is good. Have a good day.

da Bears vs. the Colts

I wanted to go on record that I am pulling for a Bears / Colts Superbowl. I've been saying it for some time now but I recently heard a tv commentator suggest that matchup as a possibility so it's more than just my personal pipe dream.

We've adopted the Colts since we've been in Indy. We love to watch the Colts offense. We have a Colts license plate on the front of our car. When you live in Indiana you don't get a license plate for the front of the car and you have to put something there to cover up the two holes left over from the front Illinois plates. We've been to two Colts games due to the generosity of some members of the church here and we loved every minute of it.

How did the AFC get so good and how did the NFC go so far downhill over the last couple of decades?

I dug my Bears suspenders out of the closet to wear under my sport coat this Sunday. Yes, I'm going all out. Thursday and Friday were "wear blue for the Colts" day or something like that. It was an edict from the mayor of Indianapolis. I like being around that kind of excitement over something, anything.

During the game I'll be rooting for the Bears all the way. When the game is over, I'll be happy no matter who won. No, these games don't amount to a hill of beans in the big scheme of things, but January is long. Go Bears.

...infatuated...

Okay, I'm not screaming like a 12 year old girl at a rock concert, or writing someone's name on my notebook hundreds of times, but I believe I'm somewhat infatuated. Infatuated with what you ask? With my grandkids, what else?

Recently my wife and I were invited to see our son and daughter-in-law's sonogram session where they could potentially discover the gender of their baby-on-the-way. Yes, we want all the benefits of what technology can give us, so yes, we were there.

A casual observer would have detected the first signs of infatuation when we arrived an hour and 15 minutes before the suggested time of arrival. I'm still not sure how that happened but it must have something to do with crossing a time zone at the speed of sound.

Since I didn't bring our pup tent for camping out during the extended wait, we decided to kill time in the avant garde shops in downtown Springfield, IL. That took about 13 minutes and back we went to the waiting room.

Our daughter-in-law came in from work, her parents arrived as well. They all looked well adjujsted and happy without any signs of infatuation. I on the other hand... Well I arrived with my backpack full of camera equipment and my monopod. The monopod was a gift at this past Christmas so I think I can be excused for having the monopod. After all, I wanted to use my new toy, and standing for 20 minutes videotaping the sonogram seemed like a good time to have a monopod to keep the camera steady and my arm rested. I still say that was such a good idea.

Maybe it was a little over the top to have a digital camera, and a video camera that takes digital movies and still shots, the battery chargers and all the cords to hook the cameras up to a computer or TV, along with extra memory sticks, videocassettes, batteries, etc. I was prepared to capture a glimpse of the new little prince or princess.

In my defense, it's easier to just have all that stuff in the backpack so that when I think I might take a picture I just grab my backpack and I have everything I need to film just about anything except maybe a full length Hollywood movie.

Yes, they laughed at me in the waiting room. I don't care. Then I got into the sonogram room and the technician told me that taking pictures was prohibited. Why don't they tell you these things ahead of time? Then the technician proceeded to take a dozen or more pictures of my little grand-child-on-the-way. Some of the pictures were taken from very unflattering angles.

Imagine that you come home from work, take off all your clothes, sit down on a glass coffee table, spread your legs and then someone takes a picture of your private parts from underneath the coffee table. Granted I don't know why you would come home and do that, and I don't know why someone would take a picture like that. Unless you were a sonogram technician in a room with six hyper adults who were dying to find out if the new baby was a boy or a girl. We have a brand new baby..................................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't want to say on this blog yet. I'm waiting to see if a certain son writes a new post for his blog "Introspection."

But I have pictures of the technician's pictures.

the Rose Bowl on Wednesday night?

The family was sitting around the table and something was said about the Rose Bowl on Wednesday night. What? That can't be. Bowl games are on New Years Day, at least that's what I thought. What was so important on New Year's Day that it pushed the bowls to Wednesday night?

Today I read a very funny article by Randy Hammer on this subject. He's much better informed than I am and a really good writer. You can find his article at http://streatorsports.com/columns/hammer.htm

enjoy