No Grasp of Your Reality

On Friday, August 27th, the children and I drove to Indiana.
It took exactly 12 hours, including at least four stops. We didn’t get lost or have any trouble.

It rained heavily for about an hour in the trip, while in Ohio, making visibility quite difficult. I was thankful for the three lanes, and on that stretch, trucks were required to be in the right lane — they were whizzing by as if it wasn’t raining at all. All three kids were screaming and crying. I was driving, one handedly pouring bottles of chocolate milk and trying desperately to get them to stop. It was in a section where there was road construction, and so there was nowhere to pull over. A little tense.

Then, after the rain stopped, right before the Indiana line, the grey storm clouds were disapating, revealing a gorgeous beginning of sunset. Rays of light, seperated by clouds, beamed down and shone on the farm fields. It looked almost magical. I remember when we were little, we used to think that those sunbeams were from windows in heaven through the clouds and that it was God looking down.

Having only had four hours of restless sleep the night before, I was battling to stay awake during parts of the trip. I had a bottle of water, and I would shake some onto my hands and rub it on my face to stay awake. The combination of that and air conditioning is like walking into a freezer — definitely helps to keep the eyes open.

Also, I am thankful for caffeinated Starbucks Bottled Frappucino, for my Double Stroller, which made bathroom visits possible — it _just_ fit in the handicap stalls, and my new Sony Walkman, which worked great on the trip. No skipping!

We arrived about 7pm, and within an hour, the storm reached my parent’s house. My brothers unloaded the car, and it started lightning and pouring just as they were bringing in the last items.

My sister Bethany is getting married at the Botanical Conservatory, and we are in the wedding. Today, I went to the seamstress , who has already done an awesome job with Bethany’s dress — which came in too small. My dress was too small, too — because it was ordered right before my tummy started to grow! But, Kathrynn assured me that it’d be no problem to alter. The wedding is next Friday, and the dress will be back just the day before — right before the rehersal, in fact.

Four days till I see Tom!!!!!!!! =) =) =) =) He flies in on the 1st.

I can’t believe it! I was out at Pebbly Beach today with Bob Becker and Larry Butler, and I got hit by a freak wave. My camera was soaked, and now it won’t power up! I am so upset, as it’s one of the primary way I keep in touch with my family while I’m on travel.

It’s not going to be cheap to replace, since it originally cost around $400. I’m willing to accept donations to get a new one. If you’re willing to help, click here, or on the donations link on the right. No donation is too small.

Thanks!

Today I experienced a “Australian” evening. We went to the Wig ‘n Pen Brewhouse, and spend a good two hours there with the site guys after work. Had a great time, and some of the guys got some Vietnamese takeout, and brought it into the pub. Didn’t have too much to eat, and I was sorta disappointed, since it wasn’t really what I’d call a dinner.

Thankfully, it wasn’t really what the Aussies would call a dinner, either. After a couple hours and a couple beers, some of the site guys were ready to get dinner. Apparently, “going out for a meal” in Australia is an evening-long process, which can take you to a couple locations. The Aussies commented that while Americans consider the meal something to do before your evening plans, for Aussies, the meal is the evening plan, and they enjoy it to the fullest.

The restaurants around here understand how this works. When we first got here, Bob noted the “slowness” of the service in Canberra, but the guys explained that while Americans seem to like to be bothered by their waiters, Aussies consider the constant “can I fill your drink” to be annoying. Most Aussies will get a bottle of wine, and only see the waiter at each course, and when they finally call for the check.

So, this evening, after the Wig ‘n Pen, we walked to the Blue Elephant, but they only served dinner from 6 to 8pm on Thursdays, we went to Sammy’s, which is, we discovered, an amazing Chinese Restaurant. I ordered Roasted Duck Laksa (a spicy soup with coconut milk), and it was incredible. Spend another two hours there enjoying our meal, and walked out fully satisfied. I finished off the evening with a cigar while we walked the six blocks back to the hotel (you don’t really need to drive at all).

This was probably the most enjoyable evening I’ve spent here. As I said before, my irreverant personality goes well with the Aussies, and we all had a good time insulting each others culture for 4 hours.

Do not fret because of evildoers, Be not envious toward wrongdoers.
For they will wither quickly like the grass And fade like the green herb.
Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday.
Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; {it leads} only to evildoing.
For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land.
Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be {there.}
But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.
The wicked plots against the righteous And gnashes at him with his teeth.
The Lord laughs at him, For He sees his day is coming.
The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow To cast down the afflicted and the needy, To slay those who are upright in conduct.
Their sword will enter their own heart, And their bows will be broken.
Better is the little of the righteous Than the abundance of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked will be broken, But the LORD sustains the righteous.
The LORD knows the days of the blameless, And their inheritance will be forever.
They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, And in the days of famine they will have abundance.
But the wicked will perish; And the enemies of the LORD will be like the glory of the pastures, They vanish–like smoke they vanish away.
The wicked borrows and does not pay back, But the righteous is gracious and gives.
For those blessed by Him will inherit the land, But those cursed by Him will be cut off.
The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way.
When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand.
I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken Or his descendants begging bread.
All day long he is gracious and lends, And his descendants are a blessing.
Depart from evil and do good, So you will abide forever.
For the LORD loves justice And does not forsake His godly ones; They are preserved forever, But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.
The righteous will inherit the land And dwell in it forever.
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, And his tongue speaks justice.
The law of his God is in his heart; His steps do not slip.
The wicked spies upon the righteous And seeks to kill him.
The LORD will not leave him in his hand Or let him be condemned when he is judged.
Wait for the LORD and keep His way, And He will exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
I have seen a wicked, violent man Spreading himself like a luxuriant tree in its native soil.
Then he passed away, and lo, he was no more; I sought for him, but he could not be found.
Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright; For the man of peace will have a posterity.
But transgressors will be altogether destroyed; The posterity of the wicked will be cut off.
But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in time of trouble.
The LORD helps them and delivers them; He delivers them from the wicked and saves them, Because they take refuge in Him.

Out of the blue, Eban Brown saw my Yahoo! profile and sent me an instant message.

As if he needs an introduction, Eban was lead vocalist for the Moments in 1991, the Delfonics in 1993, and the Stylistics in 2000. He recently started a solo career. He even has his own record label, Stardom Records.

With all of these accolades, though, he comes across as such a humble and down-to-earth guy. He reminds me a lot of my dear friend, musician Rod Mitchell.

We talked about God, love, families, marriage, music… the gamut.
Interesting fact - he met his wife while she was working at a Shoprite!

Be sure to check out his guitar collection - on the website his wife created for him. Awesome doesn’t even begin to describe it.

He said he’d let me know of his next show in Philly – looking forward to it.

What a fascinating conversation. Certainly an unexpected one.

Today, Bob and I went to a Raiders game, which is Canberra’s local Rugby League team. We heard from the onsite guys that the Raiders generally weren’t very good, and while they did put up a good fight today, they couldn’t hold up to the Syndney Roosters.

I’ve been to American Football games, and I have to admit that Rugby League is a lot more fun to watch. Unlike football, this game never stops. There’s no timeouts, TV timeouts, player changes, kicking teams, special teams, challeges, or even injury time. Heck, the team doctors come out on the field while the game is still going on. It’s also a wider game, which doesn’t lend itself as well to television coverage.

I think more than rugby, though, I really like Aussie rules football. I’d go to one of those matches, but Canberra doesn’t have a team. But the sport is amazing, almost soccerlike in style. There is a U.s. Aussie rules league, and they even have a club in Philadelphia, so I gotta look into watch those games.

Check out the rules… it’s pretty cool. I wish I would have known, but there was a Aussie rules tournament at FDR park in Philly yesterday. Would have been cool to see.

Back to work tomorrow… whee!

Sorry I haven’t really had a chance to write, but the internet connection for my website is extremely flaky, which is why anyone who has tried to post comments probably weren’t able to.

As I said in a previous post, I’m really upset with Verizon, and I’m actively looking to find another ISP.

Well, I’ve been down here one week, and I kinda like it. It’s been really cold down here, and the climate in this area is very dry, so there are a lot of temperature variation, from below freezing at night, to the mid 50s during the day. The first Sunday we were here, Bob Becker and I went to Telstra Tower to get a view of the landscape. Bob and I both got our pictures taken at the top, overlooking downtown Canberra. After we were bored with the tower, Bob was going to take me to see Cinninderra Falls, but there was a gate closing them. Amazingly, we were only 15 minutes outside the center of the capital of the country, yet the land was so open.

During this past week, we were really busy with work, but on Friday night, we did manage to get out for dinner with some of the site guys. The Aussies seem to be very laid back as a whole, and I’ve really gotten along well with them.

Saturday night, Bob and I went went to one of the microbreweries in town, we we saw some pretty cool street performers with fire. Remember I said how dry it was? Well, combine my dehydration with two beers, and I had a hangover all day today. Good thing I had my Vegemite!

With the ongoing situation continuing in the Darfor region of Sudan, it looks as though both the U.S. and the U.N. are reluctant to step in to prevent the actions of the Janjaweed.

National Review Online has an article on the effect of gun control laws, and the creation of a nation of victims. It’s easy for those of us in “civilized” countries to look at nations like Sudan and think that nothing like that could ever happen to us. Yet, Sudan is clear evidence that the U.N. policy on strong gun control only serves to make a nations of people truly subject to their armed governments (or, in the case of the Sudan, those whom the government chooses to allow arms).

Of course, hand-in-hand with this gun control push is the implicit promise that the nations of the world will help if a government ever does choose to infringe on the rights of it’s citizens. But as we can see, that promise is beginning to ring rather hollow in the ears of the victims.

Ultimately, it is the role of the citizens to protect themselves from both petty criminals, and armed governments. The U.N. has no vested interest in protecting your family, and if your family must be sacrificed for the good of the U.N., then they are more than happy to do so.

As the NRO author writes, “It is time for formal international law to recognize the natural right of self-defense, and to acknowledge the universal human right of ‘having arms for their defense’ so that, as a last resort, victims can ‘restrain the violence of oppression’ As history has shown, as long as dictatorships exist, the only way to ensure the primary right to life is to guarantee the auxiliary right to arms.”

Psalms 38:12-16

Those also who seek my life lay snares for me;
Those who seek my hurt speak of destruction,
And plan deception all the day long.
But I, like a deaf man, do not hear;
And I am like a mute who does not open his mouth.
Thus I am like a man who does not hear,
And in whose mouth is no response.
For in You, O LORD, I hope;
You will hear, O Lord my God.
For I said, “Hear me, lest they rejoice over me,
Lest, when my foot slips, they exalt themselves against me.”

While I was cleaning tonight, I caught about three hours worth of the 9/11 Commissions discussion with a senate panel regarding their findings on the state of US intelligence prior to September 11.

It was fascinating to watch.

It was quite apparent that Bush was unknowingly acting on seriously flawed information due to lack of communication between intelligence agencies. I think, from what I have heard read from the 9/11 report, the information seems to vindicate Bush’s reasoning for going to war. There really were intelligence reports to back up his claims for why we were going to war. Other intelligence agencies seemed to have conflicting information and did not make this information known.

I think it would improve Bush’s ratings if he would make a statement saying that the reasons he went to war were based on faulty intelligence, and then list the bazillion improvements that have been made since then to ensure that information wasn’t so faulty, and that communication between intelligence organizations was more efficient. It would be good to again, in the same speech, outline his goals for Iraq and Afghanistan.

As I watched the Commission give their report, it seemed like some agencies classified information that was unclassified to other organizations. So, while the information was technically available, the priority level was different for a number of the organizations, which added to the communication problem.

I do think that a clearing house for all information would be smart — it would help prevent agencies talking past each other — but a fear that I have is the power that the director of this newly created agency would wield. To whom would this person be accountable?

The Commission strongly pointed to the “prior administration” and how funding was pulled from the intelligence arena and reshuffled to other budget items. This caused a roadblock in the ability to collect intelligence in the various agencies. When Bush got into office, that was the hand of cards he was dealt - an under funded, and as a result, inefficient intelligence network. The Commission noted Bush’s quick response to jumpstart the system, including the creation of a Homeland Security Dept.

This is an interesting item for debate — how intelligence is processed and who makes the final call when a decision must be made based on intelligence reports from different agencies.

I am eager to read the actual 9/11 Report.

3:34 am. Time for bed. Babysitting at 9am.

This is a very interesting news story on the discovery of John the Baptist’s cave by British archaeologist Shimon Gibson. Be sure to check out the pictures.

Tons of pottery shards were found from what archeologists believe were used as jars for for baptism There are amazing wall carvings telling the story of John the Baptist and a stone carved out for footwashing at the bottom of the 28 steps descending into the cave.

Not mentioned in the AP story, but on a website where you can preorder Gibson’s forthcoming book, The Cave of John the Baptist, the book description tells a little more: “For here is the largest ritual bathing pool ever found in the Jerusalem area, and found in the village where John the Baptist was born, showing unmistakable signs of ritual use in the first century AD. Also in the cave is the earliest ever Christian art, depicting John the Baptist as well as the three crosses of the crucifixion.”

I’ve got some of my first pics up online. It’s a bit chilly down here, and it’s rather dry, so while it can be mild during the day, at night, it’ll quickly drop down to freezing and below.

Write me a quick comment on the pics, and I’ll keep this page updated as I get more pics. I’m uploading them over a modem, so they won’t come in the torrent that was able to do in Japan.

Airports are amazing places. I usually fly Northwest, but they don’t fly down to Australia, so I needed to pick a different airline. United was my only choice.

I guess the LM travel services has some sort of deal with the major US carriers, but part of that deal is that LM employees must fly those carriers. So, even though Northwest has partners that fly to Australia — partners who would transfer my miles to my Northwest account — I need to fly United, and pretty much waste the gazillion miles I’m going to get by flying twice.

I’ve never been in this wing of the airport. I’ve got a long flight ahead of me in coach, flying to San Francisco, but thankfully, I have business class waiting for me there. Someone in the contracts office was very considerate, and we installers have permission to purchase business class tickets. Ususally, when you fly business, they give you an automatic domestic upgrade to first class, but because of the short notice for this trip, it doesn’t look like that option was available.

Stealing a line from the Apostel Paul, I thank God every day for my DVD burner. I’ve got enough television shows from off my computer to make even the 13 hour flight bearable. My brother Mark also let me dip into his DVD collection, which is populated by movies from Japan. That should get me through the whole flight

Christian magician Charles Wormsley was the guest during our Sunday School hour this morning. Thomas and some of his little friends stood right up front so they could see better (as opposed to sitting in the pews).

Towards the end of the presentation, Thomas ran back to me and said, “Mom! I REALLY want to HELP him!!” (All along, he has been asking for volunteers). I said, “OK — go ask him!”

Thomas walked straight to the front and said, “Can I please help you do a trick?” NO FEAR. It was awesome. He said, “Sure! What is your name?” And Thomas answered loud and clear. So Wormsley gave him a magic wand.

He had another volunteer help put a scarf with a picture of a caterpillar into a jar. As he was putting it in, Wormsley said, “Catepillars can be ugly little monsters and when you step on them, green slime comes out.” Thomas said, “Well, GODZILLA is the KING of the monsters…” Everyone laughed SO hard. Wormsley couldn’t help it and was laughing, too. He said, “Yeah, Thomas, Godzilla is a pretty big monster, huh?”

He had Thomas wave the wand, and when he opened the jar, a similar scarf with a picture of a butterfly was in the jar instead.

Wormsley had everyone give him around of applause.

Thomas felt like a hero.

Damn it, Tom! Why did you have to go and leave? Yes, a rhetorical question.
I teeter between being just fine and being on the verge of tears.
The only thing that I can do is re-direct that frustration to prayer — that God will protect you, give you wisdom in your work and to please please bring you home safely to me. I thank God for the employment that he has provided, and hope that He will someday provide something that doesn’t take you so far away from us, so frequently, yet provides for your need for mental stimulation at work and for our financial stability at home.
I struggle with the idea of facing superficiality and abuse tomorrow morning in what is supposed to be sanctuary. My stomach turns just thinking about it, and I wish you were here to lend me some courage.
I miss you, love. It’s lonely here without you.