Monday message.

Yesterday I heard a sermon on the Prodigal Son.  Now, the first thing we need to look at here that we might well not realize is the meaning of the word "prodigal".  I have been guilty of using it the wrong way myself, even after I knew the true meaning.  Many who don't look into things think it means one who has left and come back, but it doesn't go that far into the story.  It means wasteful.  As in the younger son went out and wasted everything.  But he wasn't the only one wasting.

The story began with Jesus defending His work with the tax collectors and other downtrodden, whom the pharisees, self-appointed judges of righteousness, wouldn't touch.  The Pharisees looked down on Jesus for His association with them, for wouldn't a prophet rather be with the "holy"?  So Jesus first told them two stories that pointed out that His job on earth was to seek out such as these, the lost children of Israel, that their repentance would be the thing that brought God joy.  But it wasn't getting through, because the Pharisees couldn't get past that "fact" that they were "better" than these.

So Jesus told a third story, and for most of us, this story starts with a son who left home, hit bottom, and ends with his father forgiving him.  But that's only half the story.

At the younger son's (the so-called prodigal) request, the inheritance was divided in thirds, because by Jewish law, the elder son got two-thirds.  I think we get the impression that the father tallied everything and "cashed out" the younger son, but actually he was given his share of everything- sheep, cattle, etc.  And after he sat there on the family plot for a while, he gathered all his possessions and left.So he didn't just go out on some bender, he truly was starting a new life, with no intent of going home.

But he mismanaged his assests, blew all that he had, and soon was at rock bottom, working for (of all detestable things to Jews) a hog rancher- and he wasn't making much more than room and board.  He got so hungry that he was slobbering over the food he gave the hogs.

This was, in Jesus' story, the tax collectors.  They had taken on a reprehensible job.  Not only were they scorned (with good reason) by their countrymen, but their means of existance required them to extort from their neighbors to earn a living.  Wonder why the Bible never talked about rich tax collectors?  Because the actual taxes went to Rome (or who passed for Rome in the area) and their living was based on whatever they collected OVER the fair taxes.  You had to sell a bit of your soul everytime you ate your crust of bread in such an arraingement, and they had to feel themselves the lowest of the low.

So finally the younger prodigal decided, "I need to go back to my father and beg forgiveness.  Being a servant for him is better than being a slave here."  IOW, he had to ADMIT he'd been wrong, and ask for forgiveness with full knowledge of the Asshat he had been.  He left in pride of place; now he would have to go back humbly, seeking no more than a servant's job- and realizing he didn't deserve THAT much.

But not only did his father forgive him, he'd been waiting for him to come home.  He had him cleaned and put his own robe on him; gave him the signet ring that indicated he had returned to the position he had rejected- that of "son"- and put sandals on his feet, which servants didn't get to wear.  IOW, he was "re-adopted" back into the family.  I don't think I have to spend a lot of time on the analogy that this is of our process of forgiveness.

But then go on, and read Luke 15:25-32.  Here we see our other prodigal- the elder son- getting upset over the "salvation" of the younger son.  He points out to dear ol' dad that he never left, he's been right here with him all these years, and he "never gave me a young goat to make merry with my friends".  And isn't it funny that this son, who was given 2/3 of everything, still wants dad to supply his goats? Oh, it's not that, you say, he just wanted to be TREATED the way the younger is getting treated.  Never stopping to think that by allowing him to stay and serve him, the father made it so he never had to go through what the younger son did.

This is where the elder son was prodigal as well.  He had all the advantages of being with this kind loving father- but was still stuck on possessions and position, and apparently never once appreciated his father, or learned the traits of love, patience, and above all forgiveness that his father possessed.  Or to put it another way, he WASTED the good things he had by not using them to become more like his father.

And these were the Pharisees- so blinded by pride of position that they failed to use the gifts of the knowledge of God that they had to benefit anyone but themselves.  In our minds, we usually think of the elder son as the good son, and the younger as the bad son.  But in reality, Jesus was painting a much different story.  The coda to this parable can be found in two spots-the first in Luke 18:10-14 when he tells the difference between the Pharisee's "devotion" and that of the tax collector ("Be merciful to me, o Lord, a sinner"); and the other in Matt. 23:15 where Jesus aptly describes the lessons they "learned" from their father ("woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of Hell as yourselves!").

Now it took me till last night to get to the application, because of trying to add things I thought important to a simple lesson.  A fellow blogger, Elise, has been posting about what I would call extreme forgiveness.  Another has been struggling with her faith as she watches her mother go through cancer treatments.  I wanted to find a way to salute Elise's forgiveness, as it is at a level I would think a lot closer to the prodigal's father than my own.  And to the other, I wanted to express how even the great gifts of God on earth are ephemeral; even those Jesus brought back from the dead, such as Lazarus, eventually died.  It is the gifts of forgiveness, such as the father gave the younger son, that in the end were more important to him than all the possessions he was given beforehand.

But application has to start with me, and with me that application is to appreciate the things God has given me.  I've been posting about the new job and the lack of doing things that has gone on with it (Hopefully it has been "humourous" and not "whiney").  But, it is a job I can do.  And it is a job that I have.  And it is a job I can come home from after 8 1/2 hours, instead of say being a solider in Afghanistan where there is no coming home to the barcolounger and a cold one at the end of a hard day.  And I come home to a home that has my two best friends, rather than a one room shack for one person, or a mat at the shelter, or just to an empty house.  Application means not whining to God about "the goat to share with my friends" that I don't have.

Most of all, application means learning from My Father the spirit of love, patience, and forgiveness that He has.  Being the younger son, the so-called Prodigal, was never the problem.  Being the elder son is.

It was a blood, er, Bird bath

Yesterday all God's chillin threw a big "finish off the bird feeders" party.  At one point there was a squirrel on the bell, two birds on Laurie's feeder, and three sparrows waiting in line for their chance, as well as Mr. Chipmunk on the ground waiting for scraps.  Here's some of what it looked like.

Guess what? The camera actually saved the pic of the Red-Bellied Woody from the other day!  Not a great pic, but there he is!

Scrappy modeling as I made sure the memory card was now working.

Class clown- Mr. Squirrel.

Newest member of the pig club is the chipping sparrow , sitting under the chickadee.  He stayed on that perch no matter who joined him.

Chickadee gets his turn.

Of course the funniest part came when Scrappy and I went out to see if Mr. Squirrel would ever leave.

Okay here you see our porch, and on the left you see the neighbors porch w/shed.  Squirrel still hanging on bell.  When we came out, he kicked off the post- so hard, in fact, he sent the bell flying- bounced off our fence, hit their fence about six feet away, made it to their shed roof in a single bound, and shot across the shed roof and disappeared- all in approximately a second and a half.  I never saw a squirrel (or for that matter anything but a bird in flight) go that fast.

Today, Laurie's feeder is still in business, but the bell and all but the (formerly) top disc of suet on the other hanger are gone.

______________________________________

Last night was the OT night at work.  Again, we were assigned to one of the two box-making areas.  This area- the less-busy- is where the fancy boxes for the .com stuff are made.  Five color-coded types of boxes, each with a regular box and a box with a gift box inside.  We make them and either put them on the stock carts around the work area or store them on the floor in our area.  Each cart has certain boxes that are SUPPOSED to be on it... yesterday, I spent 20 minutes sorting them out, because first shift had totally mixed the size-green regulars and gift boxes.  Not only putting them on wrong carts, but actually had one cart that was supposed to be regulars, and had a stack of gift boxes with one (1) regular on the top of the stack.

No sooner had I done this than the picking area boss came over and took me and Dan to "wholesale boxes".  Unlike the .com, which is picked in old, beat up boxes and then put in the nice boxes, wholesale is picked in the boxes they ship in, each one getting a bag (color coded by shipping priority) inside of it.  Boss told us that one guy didn't show up, and they were "really busy".  I said, "Good, that'll make the day go faster."  Someone passing by said, "Yeah, that's what you think when you don't know any better."

Famous last words.

There was a period of relative (but not real) business until about a half hour before first break (AKA 5 PM).  Then one girl left because she "didn't feel good"; she was replaced with a girl who actually wanted to work.  By break time we were building boxes when we had room and stocking the pick areas in one and two boxes at a time- in other words just about what we'd been doing in .com.  At ten minutes to lunch time (AKA 7:50), we got to get in line because the company bought us all Pizza Hut.  It got busy again just before that- mainly because the other original girl left do to various aches and pains around 7:30- and that lasted until about a quarter past nine.  At 9:30 the kid we had been working with in the other area came over and said he was going home.  By 10, I was sweeping the area (and it took half the area before I even saw the dirt I was sweeping).  I said to myself, if the boss comes by before break (10:30), I'll ask her if they thought it was going to get busy again, or else I'd go home.

At 10:112, our lead from the other box area wandered by, and I stopped her to chat.  Seems the computers were down again.  Two nights ago, they had quit at 11:20 and were still out when I went home at midnight.

Last straw.  I went to the boss, she took me to the shipping supervisor.  I explained to him the situation, and said, "It's hard enough to try to do "something" on regular time, but doing it on OT doesn't help anyone."

And the supervisor told me a little story about the company philosophy on OT.

Fort Wayne locals and longtime readers remember the storm early this summer that knocked out most of the power in the city for between a day-and-a-half and a week.  That night, they sat there in the dark, on OT, and called extra people in, for over 8 hours, expecting "the power will come back any minute".  That said, Supervisor said, "It won't hurt my feelings," and as long as I wasn't about to screw myself on attendance points, he "did'nt blame me."  So I left at last break.  As I told Dan I was leaving, his comment was, "Good."

Time Machine week 38

Welcome to October 19, 1970.  As the first tenants began today to move into One World Trade Center (though the upper floors were still being constructed), a grisly Manson-esque murder was being committed in California.  Dr. Vincent Ohta, his wife, two kids, personal secretary, and cat were shot execution-style and dumped into their swimming pool, and his mansion designed by a FL Wright protege was lit afire.  At first there was no clue except a note that read (in part):
" today world war 3 will begin as brought
to you by the people of free universe. From this day forward, anyone
or company of persons who misuses the natural environment or destroys
same will suffer the penalty of death by the people of the free
universe."

The savior of the universe was soon caught as Ohta was a friend of the hippie community.  John Frazier, who was leading a normal life until mescaline and LSD turned him into an "eco-freak" six months earlier, was fingered and despite being pretty much out of his mind, ended up getting life in prison (once California abandoned the death penalty) and to this day is one of those government expenses they are having so much trouble meeting.  For more on this story, go here.

This is Time Machine, and this week I have a mini-special.  In honor of this being the week 50 years ago that Sherry fell from #1, we're going to play a little trivia.  Also this week, we find out who sang the meows on the old Meow Mix commercials, link Tony Orlando to the second of two look-back features, oh, and a new #1.

Plus, it's that time of year again! Click on the Martin Hall Of Fame link at the top of the blog (up by President Nixon), peruse the list, and see if there's anyone you'd like to nominate, and in two weeks we'll bring in the latest class of honorees.

Let's kick it off with the trivia feature.  Throughout the blog, I'll list the songs that were in the top ten when Sherry slipped from #1.  You try to guess which one knocked Sherry out of the top spot, and I'll rattle off the top ten that week in order later on to see if you guessed right.  Your first three contestants: Nat King Cole's Rambling Rose; The Crystals' He's A Rebel; and Chris Montez's Let's Dance.

Now onto the hot 100 debuts this week. There were 14 of 'em, and I will note 4.  Singer, actress, and political expert Barbra Streisand comes in at 98 with Stoney End;  Badfinger debuts at 92 with No Matter What; at 90 is the song I want played at my wake, the Guess Who with Share The Land; and at 87 the Fifth Dimension with One Less Bell To Answer.

Which of course brings us to our birthday songs this week.  A lot lighter a list this week.  Turning 35, we have Queen's We Are The Champions/We Will Rock You, Rod Stewart's You're In My Heart, LeBlanc and Carr's Falling, and Chic's Dance Dance Dance (Yowzah Yowzah Yowzah).  Turning 40 are Gilbert O'Sullivan's Clair, and Billy Paul's Me And Mrs. Jones, that tramp.  Hitting 45 are Dionne Warwick's I Say A Little Prayer, Gladys Knight and the Pips' version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine, and Glenn Campbell's By The Time I Get To Phoenix.  Turning 50 this week, apropriately enough, is the Four Seasons' Big Girls Don't Cry, along with The Tijuana Brass' The Lonely Bull and Elvis' Return To Sender.  The King also hits 55 this week with Treat Me Nice, along with Sam Cooke's You Send Me.  Blow out the candles...

Your next three contestants? Booker T and the MGs' Green Onions; Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-kicker five with the Monster Mash; and Bent Fabric's classic instrumental Alley Cat.

The big mover this week belongs to- where have I heard this before- the Partirdge Family with I Think I Love You, climbing 17 spots to #52.  WHICH reminds me- it was pointed out last week by Bobby G. that I might indeed be a closer look alike to Dave Edmunds than to David Cassidy, as I had posited.  Let's see, shall we?

Me 'n' Dave:  There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder...

The big dropper this week is Clarence Carter's Patches, falling 35 to #52.

Which then brings us to our Where Are They Now contestant.  And this week at #50 we have Mark Lindsay, late of Paul Revere and the Raiders, with And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind.  This would be Mark's last venture into the top 50, despite soldiering along both as a solo act and with the Raiders, except for the big hit Indian Reservation (which was actually a Mark solo recording credited to the Raiders).  He retired from touring briefly after the band broke up in '77, becoming A&R head at United Artists (in which capacity he had something to do with Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street, but my research only managed to turn up that the previously reported story about Rafael Ravenscroft being paid for his sax lick with a bounced check was a fabrication:  "Don't believe everything you hear," Ravenscroft said when asked).  He also wrote ad jingles before turning back to touring after doing a concert to celebrate the Statue of Liberty's centennial in 1985.  He "retired" from touring again in 2004, but soon returned and is currently doing the Happy Together tour with Flo and Eddie, the Grass Roots, the Buckinghams, and Mickey Dolenz.  At least, that is how it appears- he hasn't updated his "official website" since October of 2010.

Final three contestants, so you have some time to mull it over:  Dickie Lee's Patches; Gene Pitney's Only Love Can Break A Heart; and the Contours' Do You Love Me.

Which rolls us up to the top 40 debuts this week, and we have five of them.  Moving up 8 to #40 is Dionne Warwick's Make It Easy On Yourself.  Up 4 to #39 are the aforementioned Grass Roots with Come On And Say It.  Joe Cocker's Cry Me A River jumps 15 to land at #38.  The Temptations come in at 34, up 8 with Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite The World).  (Aren't you glad they at least subtitled it?) And finally at 33, an 11-notch climb for the hardest working man in show business, James Brown and Super Bad.

Before I go to the lookback segment, an almost but not quite shout out to three songs that are on their way down.  The Spinners peaked at 15 last week with It's A Shame, and it's a shame that it now drops to 37.  Hotlegs' Neanderthal Man (no word on whether the Geico caveman is offended) falls from a peak of 20 down to 40.  And finally, Michael Nesmith's First National Band drops from 17 to 45 with what should have been another top ten hit, Joanne.

Our lookback this week is on Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra.  "The Sentimental Gentleman Of Swing" started out working with older brother Jimmy- the Trombonist/clarinetist duo played with many top bands, including (and didn't everyone of the era start with) Paul Whiteman.  After doing their own band for a while, the brothers split up and became "solo" stars.  Tommy racked up 132 top 40s, 81 top tens, and 11 top dogs according to MusicVF, and hit his peak when from November of 1942 to October of '43 he had (again, according to MVF) his top 4 all time hits- There Are Such Things, It Started All Over Again, In The Blue Of Evening, and Boogie Woogie.  I have some problems with MVF this week, and one of them is that while they say this is his top 4, two of them didn't hit #1 (It Started.. peaked at #4, and Boogie Woogie at #5).  I think it has something to do with whatever arcane formula they use to combine the US and UK charts.

Anyhow, Tommy acquired a rep for head-hunting from other bands, as well as hiring and firing based on his perfectionism, and apparently his mood at the time.  At one point he loaned Glen Miller money to start his band; but when Miller didn't want to give Tommy a percentage as part of the payback, he sponsored Bob Chester's band under the condition that they play the same style as Miller in order to compete with him.  Like many big bands, they broke up right after WWII as musical style changed; but when a greatest hits lp was a big hit the next year, he reformed the orchestra, hitting #9 with How Are Things In Glocca Morra in March of '47.  He went on to have 3 more singlkes- two top tens- in 1949.  In 1956, a combination of a big Thanksgiving dinner and sleeping pills led to his choking in his sleep.  With the permission of his wife Jane (whom he met at the Copacabana in 1948), Warren Covington continued to lead the band, and they hit the top ten with Tea For Two Cha Cha in 1958.

Two songs enter the top ten this week, two drop out.  Ain't No Mountain High Enough tumbles from 7 to 16, and Looking Out My Back Door falls from 4 to 23.

Ready for the Sherry answer?  Here's the top ten fromthis week in 1962: 

Let's Dance was #10.
Only Love Can Break A Heart was # 9.
Alley Cat was #8.
Patches was #7.
He's A Rebel was #6.
Green Onions was #5.
Do You Love Me was #4.
Rambling Rose was #3, after spending three of the six weeks at #2.
Sherry was #2.

Which means our answer was...

... Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Monster Mash!  Did you get it?

Onto this week's top ten.

Anne Murray slips from 6 to 10 with Snowbird.

Moving up five to #9 are Three Dog Night with Out In The Country.

Rare Earth slips from 5 to #8 with (I Know I'm) Losing You.

Up five spots to enter the ten at #7, Sugarloaf and Green Eyed Lady.

Up 3 to #6 is R Dean Taylor with Indiana Wants Me.

Free moves up 3 to #5 with All Right Now.

The Carpenters zoom from 10 to 4 with We've Only Just Begun.

And that brings us our six degrees- along with a mini-lookback.

Candida by Dawn falls from the top spot to #3.  It was a collaberative composition by several people, including three members of the Tokens (The Lion Sleeps Tonight).  In fact, Tokens' drummer Phil Margo played on the record.  One of the members of this original iteration of Dawn was a woman named Linda November.  Linda was a session singer who made a name as a commercial jingle singer, and sang the catchy "meow meow meow meow" song for Meow Mix cat food.  She was also one of the main singers of the Wing And A Prayer Fife And Drum Corps, when they took their disco-ized version of the old standard Baby Face into the top 40.  Baby Face was first recorded in 1926 by the Jan Garber band and hit #1 according to wikipedia.  Jan (short for Jacob Charles) was a band leader in the Guy Lombardo-Rudy Valley mold who had 59 top 40s, 26 top tens, and 3 #1s according to MVF- BUT Baby Face was NOT on their list for some unknown reason.  It was, on their list, a #6 hit for a man called Whispering Jack Smith that year, though.

The Jackson Five move up a spot to #2 with I'll Be There.

And that means the new top dog this week is...

Neil Diamond with Cracklin' Rosie!!!

Don't forget to comment with your nonimations for the MHOF!  See you next time!

Midnight rambler

Not the song but it's after midnight, and I want to ramble (so's I can work on Time Machine in the morning- got that Friday OT, doncha know?), so here's what's on my mind.

Animals- Chased off Mr. Raccoon sans his buddy again last night.  Just gotta love the, "Yeah, waddaya want?" look he always gives us.  This time, though, I caught him first, and Scrappy found himself caught between a hard sniff and a howl and ended up going, "snork, snork" for two or three minutes before I got him calmed down.

-Today was a smorgasboard of critters at the bird feeders, and I had a really great shot of the chipmunk on the feeder eating and a ruby breasted chickadee on the top of it watching.  I can't share it with you, though; apparently the last time I charged the battery I hit the release on the memory card, and didn't figure out why it kept telling me "not more storage remaining, would you like to delete pictures?" until after it decided to delete them.

- The reason I was snapping pictures (or trying to) was that we had our first visit from this guy:

This is, believe it or not, a red-bellied woodpecker.  "Red Bellied?" you say?  So did I.  Apparently back in the good ol' days, naturalists shot birds before studying them, and apparently somehow the belly becomes redder post mortem.  Go figure.  Anyway, I had a real good picture of him too, but it was likewise lost in the great memory card scandal.

Sports- First I would just like to say vis-a-vis the game 2 between St. Louis and San Fran in the baseball playoffs:  Matt Holliday is a horse's ass.  I sinxcerely hope that next year when it won't cost a playoff game, the first Giants pitcher to face Holliday hits him somewhere that will put him out of action for as long as he incapacitated Marco Scutaro with his dirty slide.  I haven't liked him since three years ago when he signed with Oakland and played just bad enough that we were forced to trade him to St. Louis, then decides, okay, I can play like an all star again.  Go eat a steroid burger, you bum. 

I wish you could play against Ty Cobb, Matt.  You'd go home crying to your mama when HE got done with your lame self.

- This morning (actually Wednesday morning, er, Wednesday night their time..or is it...) Lokomotiv had their game with Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg.  Seven and a half minutes into the game, the home team was up 2-0, but back we came.   Florida Panther deneseman Dmitry Kulikov netted his third goal of the year with 5 seconds left in the first.  The second period we netted 2 goals on just 8 shots, with Yegor Yakolev scoring his 2nd and Nicklas Hagman his 5th to give us a 3-2 lead.  However, Ekaterinburg tied it halfway through the third, and it was off to OT yet again.  But this time it never went to shootout, as Kulikov got his second of the game with one tick remaining in the OT to give us a 3-2 win.

Kulikov's literal last-second shot for the win!

Work- Yes, this is the first of the dreaded "manditory OT" weeks, and I have to work Friday.  You couldn't tell it by what I'm doing, though.  Me and two other guys, in the company's interest of moving newbies around to all different places, got sent to the box making area for what they call e-commerce.  And it is dead.  How dead?  We each got took for tours tonight of the new part of the building that they are just starting to move into- just to kill time.  You see, we can only make so many boxes ahead due to space constraints.  And the area they need the boxes in has been verrrrry slow.  To top it off, third shifters start drifting in at about 11 PM. so we have a good deal of time where nobody really has anything to do.  But, I guess it's their money.

- Coming home two nights ago on I-69 (for out of towners, the Big Kahuna of Ft. Wayne's roadways), I got behind a rather slow gentleman (speed limit 70) and moved into the far right lane (of three) to go around.  At this point, he speeds up just enough to be in my blind spot.  And there he stays, even when we began to approach an area where my lane was barrelled off due to construction.  I had to do eighty to get around him before I started barrelling the barrels- at which point he slows back down and I never see him again.

Until last night going home.  This time I am already in  the far right, with a slow semi (barely doing 60) in front of me, when he creeps up out of nowhere, achieves my blind spot, and hits cruise control.  I'm not of a mood to deal with his (or her) idiocy, so I drop back and drift into the far left lane with an eye to passing the both of them.  Luckily, I held off.  This utter moron then speeds up to reach the semi's blind spot and begins to ride there.  Yes, he was purposely (although outside of suicide by road rage I cannot guess what that purpose was) driving in a SEMI'S BLIND SPOT.  And what happens when that semi wants to move over, say when the barrels from last night are swift approaching?  Yep, it's kinda like that old joke about  the 800-pound gorilla.  I really thought I was going to be desperately trying to avoid his remains, but he managed to finish shitting himself long enough to get outta the way.  The semi would have never saw him.  I could see someone being a jerkwad to cars on purpose.  But to a semi that doesn't know your there?  No, this guy had some other issue.  Either that semi or another subsequent one must have settled that issue for him, because tonight I saw not hide nor hair of the dipstick.

Time- it's taken me an hour to write this, and I'd still like to throw some food down my throat.  Enjoy, and see ya on Time Machine!

Tuesday message (?) and fantasy football

Last night, instead of having one raccoon wake us up three times,  it was two raccoons doing it twice.  After a bathroom trip, I tried to get back to sleep at 9... and as usual paid for it with a very unenjoyable dream (Hint to those of you that believe dreams are warnings:  NEVER combine a bank and a laundromat.)  So by the time I did force myself up, I was achy, whiny, not really happy with things.

But I am also smart enough to know that my body's aches and pains (and my mind's unwillingness to work at a job) are nothing compared to what a LOT of others are going through.  Some of you reading are going through stuff; I have a friend right nopw who'll be coming back to Ft. Wayne soon for a while to help her dad through his second (or third, I lose track) health breakdown since the summer.  And, I found out Sunday that an aunt had passed away- albeit one I really didn't know (in fact, when my sister called me, I told her I thought she had already passed, and my sister said, "Don't feel bad! John {brother # 2} didn't remember who she even was!"). 

And so, as Scrappy and I took our walk, I prayed.  I prayed for these dear people- and you guys- and mused to God that He set things up so that "we have to live on earth so we don't forget to appreciate heaven".  And went back through many of the things about "being stuck here" that I've went through with you right here in the past.  I thought about the many comments I've had on Sunday's message, especially the one I read this morning from Skippy, and how my job here on earth has seemed to be messing up six days a week, learning a lesson about what I've done on Sunday morning, and sharing it with you (actually, it was more like, "why not just have me exist only on Sunday, and put me in a closet the rest of the week?" "because then you don't need the lesson", etc.).  And finally I came to a point and prayed, "I wish You would start me over from scratch, keep the good parts, and throw out all the rest."

And that still, small voice that Christians know and atheists fail to grasp said, "I already have."

Isn't it wonderful that God can answer 15 minutes of legitimate prayers and petitions mixed with a lot of lazy, self-serving whining in just three words?

_______________________________

Now, on to football.  Once again, Laurie rose to the (unasked but appreciated) task of keeping most of the scores.  The Beagles overcame having three out of four receivers on the bye week- mostly through the amazing night Aaron Rodgers had against Houston- to post a 39-26 win over the B2s.  The Beagles win their third straight and the B2s (who had two out of three RBs off) lost their third straight, despite that 15-point Rothlesberger to Wallace TD pass.

The KCAs break out of their mini-slump, breaking the Beagles' high point mark for the season with an 84-36 romp over the Elks.  I suppose we should thank Phillip Rivers- it was his Monday night miscues that netted Denver's D 25 points to push the score.  But Ray Rice and AJ Green had already chipped in 27 to make it a foregone conclusion.

The Angels win for the second time this year, parlaying 12 Josh Freeman points and a Monday night TD from Denarious Thomas into a 44-35 win over the Ducks.

The Aguas opened a can on the Clock BBQs, getting 12-spots from Dez Bryant and Arian Foster for a 53-33 victory.  Christian Ponder got 8 points in his first start for CBBQs.

In a game still in doubt going into last night, Phillip Rivers couldn't outscore Eric Decker (at least not for his OWN team), and Buzz hangs on to a 30-19 win over the formerly-streaking Greenwoods.

And finally, the still-streaking Porkchops win their third straight, 51-29 over the Rangers.  Shaun Greene amazingly led the 'Chops with his 3 TDs, and the once promising Rangers' season has turned into 3 losses in their last 4 games.




The season's second half starts with a repeat of week four, with the Beagles and Angels (that was the game the Beagles won 83-32), KCAs and Rangers (the last time the Rangers managed to win a game, 33-17), the Aguas and Greenwoods ( the Elves won the 47-46 shootout last time), the Clock BBQs and Ducks (CBBQ 48-42), Buzz and B2s (Buzz started the B2 losing streak 46-18), and the Porkchops and Elks ('Chops 41-39).  The Elks are due; they haven't won since they beat Buzz in the season opener (wow, a five-game losing streak!), but Porkchop has averaged 51 points the last three games, and the Elks are averaging 34 for the year (ironically enough, winning their one game with 34 points).

3-2, 3-2, 3-2

I'm gong to have to step back my critique of goalie Semyon Varlamov after the last three games for Lokomotiv, because he's finally getting his feet under him.  To catch us up, we go back to last Wednesday, where Vitaly Kolesnik was in the nets for a 3-2 loss to Yugra.  The bad guys were up 2-0 before Alexei Kalyuzhny got his fifth, and 3-1 when former NHL vet Viktor Kozlov netted his first late in the game.  Not surprisingly, coach Tom Rowe went with Varlamov on Saturday against Metallurg Magnitogorsk- the team with Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar.

 The first goal- for Magnito- was scored by former Fort Wayne Komet Justin Hodgman.  Justin played on the back to back to back Turner Cup winners from 2007-10, though he only had 7 goals spread across 20 games in those three years.  His goal was a clean breakaway, and Denis Plotnikov poked one underneath Valamov in a scramble 5 1/2 minutes into the second to make it 2-0.

Then came the Yegor Averin show.  2 minutes into the third, a Metallurg player threw one out from behind the net right to Averin, who slammed it behind the goalie for a 2-1 deficit.  It was much later- just under 2 1/2 left in regulation- when Alexander Chernikov of Loko did the same thing, hitting Averin almost exactly in the same spot, and he slammed it through again for his 6th of the season and a 2-2 tie.  They went to the shootout, and seven players- including Malkin- failed to score before Daniil Apal'kov beat the Magnito goalie for the 3-2 win.  Shootout goals don't count in player stats, but Daniil has three regulation goals.

That brings us to this morning, and the battle with Traktor Chelyabinsk, who led the Eastern Conference with 10 wins, a shootout loss, and 4 regular losses.  Last season hero Emil Galimov got things started at 5:06 of the first, unassisted on a power play for his second goal, to put us up 1-0.  We were tied at 1-1 going into the second when Sergei Plotnikov scored his 4th- with an assist from Averin- one minute in to make it 2-1.  Traktor tied it again early in the third, and we once again went through overtime to the shootout.  Varlamov this time stopped five opposing shooters, while Traktor's Michael Garnett- a Canadian vet of the KHL with 21 games in the NHL with Atlanta- stopped four... the one that got away was a shot by Alexei Kruchinin, a winger still looking for his first regulation goal.  His shootout score, though, gave us a 3-2 win and a record of 8 wins, 5 SO wins, and 4 losses.  It pulls us back within one point of rampaging Dynamo Moscow, who have won 6 striaght.  We play them 2 games from now, next Monday, in Yaroslavl.  Before that, though, we play Wednesday in Ekaterinberg against the perpetually struggling Avtomobilists.

Speaking of struggling, Dinamo Minsk fired their coach this weekend.  Kari Heikkila, a Finn who led Karpat to the S-M Liiga title in 2004, got canned for the team's 5 win, one OT win, one OT loss and 9 loss start (despite the fact that that's just the fourth worst record in the KHL).  He is replaced by Alexander Andriyevsky, who spent some playing time long ago in the IHL with Chicago and Indianapolis.  Good luck with that.

Sunday Message

Perhaps it was all the pizza or too much pepsi, but last night was an adventure in sleep.  Thus, my first attempt at hearing a sermon and my last attempt were seperated by two hours of dreaming about playing with other people's kids.  Is that important? Maybe.

The first attempt was at the end of The Lutheran Hour, and the host and pastor were answering a question from a listener who was a "former Christian".  He asked, "A Christian man falls one night and gets drunk.  He ends up hitting a car full of people and everybody dies instantly, including himself.  Does he go to heaven or hell?"

Now obviously the questioner has a trouble grasping the concept of grace, and of God's forgiveness of sins past, present, and future, through acceptance of Jesus Christ.  If the man had indeed accepted Christ, then he accepted Christ's payment on the cross for ALL his sins, and, yes, goes to heaven.  The accident was the consequence of a grievious sin; but the only sin that keeps one out of heaven is rejecting Christ's atonement.  As with many who struggle with spiritual matters, the questioner could not get to the concept that God, as the creator of time, is Himself beyond it, and thus Christ's sacrifice once for all truly means Once.  For All.

2 hours of fitful sleep later I came in at the trailing end of a similar sermon which allegorized the point in the story of Noah.  Noah was a preacher of God; yet in the hundred years it took to build the ark, he brought only seven people to join him in it.  This did not mean he failed; rather than go to the examples of why that is cited in Ezekiel, I'll just share the quote the preacher shared to explain this "failure":  "The preacher's job isn't to fill the pews; his job is to fill the pulpit."  Meaning, his is to expose people to the word; theirs is to accept or reject.

What does the first have to do with the other?  Hang on, we're getting there.  Two key verses have to be looked at to see where I'm going.  The first is Genesis 7:1:  "Then the Lord said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you and your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation."  God didn't say go, he said "come", which indicates that by entering the ark, Noah's family was going someplace where God already WAS.  Just as by accepting Christ, we are found "righteous in our generation" (Through no ability of our own, but through Christ's sacrifice) and enter into God's presence.  The second verse is same chapter, verse 16:  "So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God commanded him; and the Lord shut him in."  Get that? God shut them in where He was, and sealed them in.  Just so are we sealed into salvation the moment we enter into the "ark" of Christ's sacrifice.

Now our questioner, as the LH pastor pointed out, would no doubt bring up the age-old comeback, "Then a Christian can get away with anything, right?"  This is a question that has been answered many many times in many many ways, to the point that one who asks it is generally a smartass trying to scoff at God rather than someone genuinely trying to understand.  But this morning I thought of a new way to look at this answer, which I will share with you, as well as help myself understand one of those passages that always bothered me.

At the end of Genesis chapter 9, we run into the story of Noah's son Ham.  Noah, for those of you who don't know the story, planted a vinyard shortly after the flood in order to lift a cup of wine to the Lord.  But after the flood, the world went through a great deal of physical change; one of those changes made it so that wine was a good deal stronger than before.  Thus, Noah got drunk and passed out naked in his tent.  Ham came along and found it funny, and ran off to tell his brothers.  The brothers were aghast at his disrespect of their father, and walked backwards with a blanket, so as to cover their father without observing his nakedness.  And when Noah woke up, he lowered the boom... but not on Ham:

"Then he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers."  And he said, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem (brother #1), and may Canaan be his servant.  May God enlarge Japeth (brother # 2), and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant." (Genesis 9:25-27)

Who's Canaan?  Why that is Ham's firstborn son.  Why did he catch the curse instead of Ham?  That's what I always wondered, until I heard the analogy made today.  You see, Ham had already been saved from the flood and came into the new world beyond death.  Just as, we do when we enter the "ark" of salvation.  But.... there are consequences to our actions.  If we are truly saved, nothing that happens will seperate US from Jesus... but our actions can lead our CHILDREN astray.  If we set a poor example, if we do not exhibit "righteousness in our generation."  We might still make it to heaven "scorched as if by fire" (I Corinthians 3:15), but what about our children who watch us?  Will they follow our good examples, or the ones that lead to their curse?

Was the dream important? Maybe.  The person whose kids I played with was a classmate in high school who I knew but didn't hang with.  His name was Dan, just like the patriarch (IOW a son of Jacob and brother of Joseph).  That patriarch's children founded a city they called Dan after their father, and it became home to a golden bull, one of two made by King Jereboam of Israel for the people to worship instead of worshipping God at the temple.  Within 25 years of the bull's placement, the city was destroyed by Beh-Hadad of Syria.  So you might say that in giving this message I am "playing with Dan's children", trying to get them to hear and "get in the ark" before their own flood, their own Ben-Hadad, sweeps them away.  Whether I am any more sucessful than Noah isn't up to me.