As I learn more and more about healthy eating – both through personal experience and study – my interest has grown in not only growing some of my own food, but also in being able to do it for as much of the year as possible. In that vein I am very interested in the possibilities presented by this idea of a below-ground greenhouse.
I’m seriously looking into whether I can make this idea work.
If you were to look at my email inbox and my twitter feed you would discover that besides being a regular(ish) guy I am also the former mayor of Toronto, a businessman (and former mayor of Elkhart) in Indiana, a playwright in New York, and a professional cricketer in South Africa.
I can only imagine how confusing my digital Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder) would be if I also got communication for the former mayor of Lubbock, Texas who also shares my name.
A man I’ve never met feels more support today at his wife’s funeral because I came to work today. As I realized this morning that that would be the case today it got me thinking about what I call secondary service – that is, service which makes possible a more direct or primary act of service. In my case today my service of staying at work and taking over the on-call duties allowed all my coworkers to support the man who retired from this team before I was hired on. If I were unwilling or unable to do that then one of the team members would have been required to skip the funeral in order to perform on-call duties during that time.
I don’t mention this to pat myself on the back, but rather to recognize how ordinary actions that we don’t even think of as significant can be very significant to others. Sometimes the person being served doesn’t even know of the service being rendered. It reminds me of something that Spencer W. Kimball taught years ago that I have heard repeated in recent General Conference addresses:
God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other. (Spencer W. Kimball, “The Abundant Life,” Ensign, July 1978, 4)
I was intrigued by a recent article on the Art of Manliness about the male desire for true brotherhood. It discussed what I have chosen to refer to as intentional brotherhood (that is the most succinct of a variety of terms that seemed to be applied to the idea being presented). The article discussed the origins of that natural desire and also ideas for how to find or foster bonds of intentional brotherhood. To put that in context, when speaking of finding those bonds of brotherhood the author and commentors frequently pointed to church groups and fraternal organizations (e.g. Elks, Moose, Rotarians, Freemasons, Knights of Columbus, or college fraternities).
The whole concept was interesting but it also reminded me of the idea of Master Mind groups (sometimes called mutual improvement societies) that the Art of Manliness wrote about a few years ago. I’d like to explore how those two concepts relate to each other, how they differ, and whether there is any connection between either of them and the theological concept of priesthood quorums. I would also like to have others share their perspectives on the relationships between the three concepts.
We witnessed a miracle this evening. Actually, we witnessed several. At one point we had 5 vehicles and a FedEx truck stuck on the hill between our house and two houses down from us. Over a two hour period we had at least 10 vehicles slide into various snow banks in that 150 foot stretch of road. Even the snowplow got stuck in front of our house when it tried to turn down our hill in order to salt the road.
On top of that the most obvious miracle was watching as one out of control car slid down the hill through four other stuck cars without hitting any vehicles or people who could not get out of the way because of how slick the road was.
Eventually we got all the cars freed and the only damage sustained was one tire flattened on a UTA service vehicle that slid into one of the curbs quite hard.
I failed to get a picture of Ezra after he climbed into the toilet but I couldn’t pass up the chance to take a picture when I found that he had climbed into the sink this morning (in the same bathroom):
At some point in their lives everybody has seen a picture on the internet where a parent chose to snap a photo of something crazy happening to (or caused by) their child. The photo is very funny but you are left wondering why the parent chose to take apicture rather than intervene in the situation.
I had one of those experiences with Ezra. Because I did not have a camera immediately available I opted to intervene even though I could have run to grab a camera first – I am starting to think I made the wrong decision. I am left with only the ability to describe the scene that I failed to capture on film.
Ezra is at that stage where he is fascinated by toilets. His fascination is much more acute than any of the other kids’ ever was. He will walk to distant parts of the house to get to an unguarded toilet so that he can play in it – often by sticking in a toy or brush and stirring/flinging the water. This time I walked into the bathroom to discover that he had a new trick – he had climbed into the toilet bowl and was sitting – happy as a clam – as if her were in a hottub. He was completely inside the bowl with the toilet seat at shoulder level. He looked up at me as if he had just conquered the world by climbing into the toilet. after considering a run to get a camera I opted to take him out of the toilet, strip off his diaper, and give him a bath – so much for the viral internet photo opportunity.
2013 is now a week old and I finally have resolution in sight for the problems I encountered last week: the kitchen is usable but there are a couple of finishing touches before the job is complete and the van was a completely different problem than what we first thought – the mechanics are hopeful that they can complete the work on it tomorrow.
In case all of that was not interesting enough we woke up on Saturday morning to discover that our tub would not drain AT ALL. After hours of work for me and a plumber we found that water had frozen in the drain for our tub (probably while we were out of the house the previous days). If anyone has that problem and is able to access the section of pipe where the ice is located – a good hair dryer is your best friend. ($300 to diagnose the problem – less than $30 to fix it.)
After all that – things are looking up.
I just finished cooking my first turkey and I just had to share:
As a followup to yesterday – I got a ride to work and left my car so Laura would not be stranded while the van is being fixed (it seems to be more complicated than it appeared yesterday) and she just let me know that my car was dead this morning.
I’m pretty sure we have arrived at farcical now.