Ground Hog Day and other Random Thoughts

• There's something my crew at work has noticed lately...  at certain times it seems we are experiencing ground hog day,( like in the movie).  For all the world it feels like ground-hog day for us but not them. Every day seems to be a bright, shiny, new thing and we patiently wait for them to "re-experience" the world around them and ask the same questions they asked last week.What's even stranger, and to the credit of my crew, we aren't upset by this at all, rather we find it mildly amusing, perplexing, but amusing still..
• There seem to be vastly differing opinions circulating on the safety and efficacy of home-made scaffolding. I've heard several people this week discussing methods and tactics. I will leave you to your own judgement and personal level of "risk adverse-ness".
• Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess... I love this book... I paraphrase it a little when talking to my boys... such as "You've got what it takes, with your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet."  Not even a close second to Scripture, but there's some handy stuff in there...
• We need a different  blog label other than Random Thoughts. A cursory glance at Chaos theory and Fractal Geometry may lead us to believe there is no such thing as "Random"... (sorry kids.  I know "that's so not random" won't have the same ring to it.)  I just somehow knew that there was no such thing as luck.

Veterans Day...

Thanks to all the Veterans.  This day always brings a mixture of pride and sadness to my mind. My wife said it very well at http://alisa-thesweetlife.blogspot.com/

HandGolf

Yes, handgolf... It appears that it is a sport unique to NorthEast Kansas and that there may be only one course in existence. I'm proud to say I'm a course regular and took second place at this years Men's Retreat Tournament.

It is a game played by throwing softballs (preferably the dimpled kind used in pitching machines) on a 18 hole course similar to golf. You can knock the course out in 45 minutes or so with 3-4 players. Any of the snobbishness associated with regular golf absolutely goes up in smoke with the first "hurl" of the ball. There are very few rules but here's a quick shakedown:

• underhand throws only
• one foot must stay on the spot where the ball lands on all shots after teeing off.
• person with the fewest strokes/hurls win

You get the idea... golf without clubs, gadgets, expensive lessons, carts, or special shoes. There is a great deal of skill involved in "reading" the course and it's condition since it's only grooming is the kind of mowing regimen reserved for good pasture. Mole hills play a large factor in the longer holes. A good straight "hurl" can be instantly diverted turning a potential one under par into one over in the blink of an eye. Tree limbs can knock balls right out of the air adding 1-2 hurls to a hole since most holes are directly under trees.

Our game even has it's heroes and memorable moments like regular golf but is mostly an oral history at this point. ( Current rumor has Kyle Dolenski as course record holder.) I had thought at one point that formalizing the game would add to the fun but I'm not sure now... although I wouldn't mind a course closer to home. Maybe a 9 holer somewhere in the Dotte... you know just to keep the skill level up.

Worship!

I have been inspired once again to blog, that yes indeed, there is a need:

This last weekend my wife and I went to Tulsa to visit friends (our old worship minister) and to see David Crowder in concert. I was not only a great deal of fun and a great worship time, but a reminder of something that occurred to me not long after I was involved in worship at my home Church... which is that music, the amazing gift from God, is the bridge between what's between your ears and what thumps in your chest. It is a powerful thing indeed to balance the emotive with the intellectual in way that is more that the sum of its' parts. While I admittedly only possess moderate intellectual and musical skills; I am thankful that I am allowed to experience the process while playing (and occasionally singing) on stage. Ah... another unexplainable mystery that brings me to the point of awe and childlike glee.

A exuberant exclamation of praise is in order at this point... (I will leave you to your own devices and good judgement to accomplish such as you deem appropriate)