This Dude Turned 73 Today!

 

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Some Tamped Sand (in my backyard)

 

Bless Your Heart

Bless Your Heart (framed artwork):

Proverbs 16:16

Strategy of the month for November

The strategy is "questioning" and the character is The Question.

Photo Friday - Blissful

"Blissful" is the title for this week's Photo Friday submission. For my entry, I have posted a picture of a bunny I found in my yard.

A Great Decision

In October 1989, sometime near Halloween, there was a Ghost Rally hosted by the Lynch Fire Dept. I borrowed my dad's Chevy S-10 pickup, called a friend to see if they wanted to go, and then... called a girl.

Her name was Charity. I had had a crush on this girl for quite a while, but she was definitely "out of my league," if you know what I mean. It was a long shot, and I figured that at Ghost Rally would be casual enough that I could get a "yes" from this girl, even if she didn't actually like-like me.

She said yes... and she did like me.

I was eventually engaged to this girl (more than once). We were eventually married. And even though Halloween can be controversial (I guess) to some Christians, it has been redeemed for me. Twenty Five Halloweens later, we are still together and we are still getting ready to go on a Ghost Rally. I love her more now than I ever have, and I am fairly certain that asking her to that Ghost Rally was one of the best decisions that I have ever made.

For the last several years I have doctored up an old photo into a Halloween-themed image. Here is this year's rendition to celebrate 25 years.

Photo Friday: Portrait

Photo Friday: Portrait

Photo Friday... today's topic is Portrait.

Photo Friday: Solitude

Solitude

My Photo Friday participation photo for this week: The key word was "Solitude." Since I am sitting alone at a coffee shop, I decided to snap a shot of my solitary table, with my solitary cup of coffee, next to my solitary computer.

In the Catalog!

I made it into the Maranatha Baptist Bible College Catalog!

I am on page 95 of the catalog.  I am in the Math Education section.

I knew that they were thinking about putting me in there, but I hadn't heard whether or not they had actually done it.  I sent them my "teacher photo" from the school.

Click this picture to read my little write-up.  (Or you can click here to look at the education section of the school's catalog and scroll down to page 95.)

New York City From Space on September 11, 2001

This image is from NASA's Image of the Day website.  Here is part of the description:

Visible from space, a smoke plume rises from the Manhattan area after two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center. This photo was taken of metropolitan New York City (and other parts of New York as well as New Jersey) the morning of September 11, 2001.

Click on through to read the rest.  click here

I just wanna be a sheep.

I just wanna be a sheep... 

baa... baa...

I just wanna be a sheep... 

baa... baa...

Pray the Lord my soul to keep...

I just wanna be a sheep.

(Image via 22 Words)

Through the Clouds

From Life's best photos of the week, here is the final Space Shuttle mission as it broke through the clouds.

click to enlarge

worth every penny

click to enlarge

A friend of mine forwarded this picture to me the other day.  Usually when I get forwards, I give a little chuckle, then archive the message.  I felt this one deserved to be passed along.  I don't know who to give credit to for the image, but here is the caption from the e-mail:

House Minority Leader  Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, pictured standing, far right, speaks while colleagues Rep. Barbara Lambert, D-Milford and Rep. Jack F. Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, play solitaire Monday night as the House convened to vote on a  new budget. (AP) 

The guy sitting in the row in front of these two....he's on Facebook, and the guy behind Hennessy is checking out the baseball scores.  

These are the folks that couldn't get the budget out by Oct. 1. Should we buy them larger screen computers - or - a ticket home, permanently?  

This is one of their 3-DAY WORK WEEKS that we all pay for their salary, which is about $179,000 per year. 

I don't want to be overly critical, most of us have played solitaire in a meeting before... but c'mon!  At least be discreet about it.

Before and After in Japan

Google has uploaded several before and after pictures from Japan. These are satellite pictures and really show the devastation that has impacted this country. Some of these pictures show whole neighborhoods... whole towns washed away. Here is a sample:

Before

From Google's Media Tools Gallery

After

From Google's Media Tools Gallery

The New York Times uses these same photos for an interactive collection.  It has the photo with a slider bar that you can slide back and forth to compare the before and after.

John Piper has posted an excellent prayer for the people of Japan.  I would like to share a snippet of the prayer.

Father in heaven, you are the absolute Sovereign over the shaking of the earth, the rising of the sea, and the raging of the waves. We tremble at your power and bow before your unsearchable judgments and inscrutable ways. We cover our faces and kiss your omnipotent hand. We fall helpless to the floor in prayer and feel how fragile the very ground is beneath our knees. 

O God, we humble ourselves under your holy majesty and repent. In a moment—in the twinkling of an eye—we too could be swept away. We are not more deserving of firm ground than our fellowmen in Japan. We too are flesh. We have bodies and homes and cars and family and precious places. We know that if we were treated according to our sins, who could stand? All of it would be gone in a moment. So in this dark hour we turn against our sins, not against you. 

And we cry for mercy for Japan. Mercy, Father. Not for what they or we deserve. But mercy.

(Read the rest of that prayer by clicking here.)

8 ominously vicious animal photos

I am reposting this from the 22 words blog. Here is a link to the original...

8 ominously vicious animal photos:
These images and their captions are all taken from The Telegraph’s 2010 Animal Pictures of the Year.

Shark and Seal

A lucky seal launches itself to safety from the mouth of a great white shark – using the predator’s razor sharp teeth for leverage. Photographer Chris Fallows, 38, watched as the Cape fur seal darted left and right in a desperate bid to evade the vicious 11-foot-long shark. The massive creature failed to get a proper grip allowing the seal to launch itself to safety as the shark tried to get a second bite. Miraculously, the seal escaped with a minor flesh wound off Seal Island in False Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

Pelican and Pigeon

An unlucky pigeon takes its final look at the world – peeking out from a pelican’s beak. The little bird had been eating near a pond in St James Park, London, when it was scooped up by the much bigger bird. Adults and children watched in horror as the pigeon tried desperately to escape for 15 minutes. At one point it looked like it was going to break free as the pelican opened its beak, allowing the pigeon to gaze out. But the startled creature missed its opportunity and was swallowed whole. Photographer Paul Mansfield, 44, captured the remarkable scene while on a day trip to the capital with his family.

Tigers and Chicken

Siberian tigers look up waiting for a chicken to land at the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin, China. Visitors to the park can buy birds for 50 yuan (£4.50), pieces of meat, or even a live calf to be fed to the tigers…

Eagle and Starling

This tiny starling didn’t stand a chance when a hungry bald eagle swooped in for a mid-air snack. The bird flies on, unaware of the enormous predator closing in behind it

Crocodile and Elephant

Photographer Martin Nyfeler was traveling through South Luangwa National Park in Zambia when he saw this female elephant and her baby drinking from the Luangwa River. Leaping out of the murky waters a vicious crocodile set upon the pair, biting into the female’s trunk. Aided by her baby, she survived the attack and was seen feeding from the river later in the day.

Heron and Gopher

A gopher looks horrified as it realises that it is dinner for a heron in Arrowhead Marsh, California

Elephant and Lizard

Madhuri, an Indian elephant, swings a monitor lizard around by its tail. The unlucky creature had been swept off the ground and was carried around for a number of days by the elephant. With its tail firmly clamped in the animal’s trunk the lizard was swung around and occasionally put back on the ground. The scene was captured by Jagdeep Rajput during a trip to Corbett National Park in India

Frog and Mouse

A mouse looks out from the jaws of a huge voracious African bullfrog. These carnivorous amphibians have an aggressive temper and can jump 3.5 metres.

Black Friday marks opening of new resale shop

image via the Commercial News

Black Friday marks opening of new resale shop

That's one of the headlines on today's edition of Danville's Commercial News (Newspaper).  Which resale shop is that?  Why would I be mentioning it?  Because it is talking about my wife's parents!

The Commercial News article starts like this:

COVINGTON, Ind. — Duane and Donna Lathrop have turned their hobby into a business with their new venture — Double D Resale — which opens on Black Friday.

The resale shop is outfitted with furniture, appliances, home collectibles and other “what-nots” the couple has been accumulating through shopping trips to estate sales and auctions the past few months.

“Our date night is at the auction,” Duane Lathrop said.

(Read the rest by clicking here.)

I've been on those "auction date nights" and I have to say, they can be fun.

Cool Star Wars pics...

I wish I could remember which blog had these photos, couldn't find that blog, but re-found the pictures here.  They are behind the scenes shots from the making of The Empire Strikes Back.

And my personal favorite...

my couple of tadpoles

I went out to the church to put add some branches to the burn pile.  While we were there, my boys discovered a pond, teeming with life.  Literally hundreds of tadpoles.  So, I snapped some pics of my little tadpoles looking at those hundreds of tadpoles.

Here is the little church "pond"

They spent the entire 30 minutes that I was there in this same position.

I wish I had a better camera with me.  the colors in this picture were so vibrant.

Click this one to enlarge, so you can see the hundreds of tadpoles in the water.

Being boys, they cannot resist picking up the tadpoles.

Asking him what they felt like, "well... wormy."

Desktop Background

This new background came from NASA's image of the day: Earth's Horizon