Life's Not Fair...

How many times did you hear that phrase as a kid? Awww, that's not fair! Well, life's not fair, you'll have to get over it. Ever catch yourself saying it? Sure you do... If you know me you may know that I've been planning a trip to Peru with my wife and 20+ folks from our church. We will depart Friday 12/26, take a limo/bus to Chicago, fly to Miami then after a layover take the red-eye to Lima, Peru. Another layover to freshen up a bit and a local flight from Lima to Piura where we'll be picked up by volunteers with pick up trucks and taken to Santisimo Sacramento, our "sister parish" and return to the frigid midwest a week later.

You're right, this isn't going to be your ordinary winter vacation. It will be warm and should be sunny. Piura is a desert area, with daytime highs around 95F and overnight lows around 70F. With the current Milwaukee temperatures, Piura weather sounds rather wonderful. So, what will we do in a desert? Anything the pastor needs us to do. Feed the hungry. Clothe the poor. Distribute supplies, gifts, visit an orphanage, help build new thatched roofs for some of the "houses", meet the families we support, go to church, visit, pray.

If you've seen me recently, you may have noticed I'm walking with more of a limp than usual. Early this month, I had two days of flu-like symptoms that turned out to be the onset of a nasty infection - cellulitis - in my left leg. I've been on a program of injected and oral antibiotics to kill the infection, a diuretic (sp?) to help reduce the swelling, culturel to combat one of the side effects of the antibiotics and a steady diet of Alleve to help with the pain, itching and swelling.

Last Thursday I saw the doctor again and there was good news "I think we've killed the infection" and bad news "like a war, after you've killed the enemy, there's a lot of cleanup and rebuilding to do". My leg has a number of open sores that need to heal and the real bad news is that I can't go to Peru due to fears that the sores will get infected with no decent treatment options available.

Did I mention we've been planning this trip for a year? Paid for it months ago? This was my Birthday and Christmas present to Teresa, and her Birthday and Christmas present to me. Now I'll be staying home. That's not fair!

Well Steve, life's not fair, deal with it. Fortunately American Airlines will let us change my ticket to our 14 year old son. Lan Peru is not so accommodating. They'll let me use my Lima - Piura - Lima ticket some other time in the next six months and we had to buy a ticket for Matt. Ouch.

Matt was really looking forward to staying with some friends from his Scout troop. We think he's really looking forward to Peru now. I asked him if he'd take my camera to take pictures for me. Wow...

Obviously God has some reason that Matt has to get to Peru or that I have to stay here. I wonder what's in the plan? I wonder if we'll recognize it when we see it? Will it be fair?

45 days

A few days ago, the TV networks were awash with the "100 Days Until The End of Analog TV" message. Unless you've been living in a desert, you know that the FCC has decided that the current broadcast frequency spectrum is valuable and wants to make money by auctioning it to someone other than the current users - television stations. Before they can do that, they need to kick the TV stations to a new portion of spectrum and everyone is using it as an excuse to transition from analog to digital broadcast signals.

According to the informational commercials, unless you dear TV watcher take action by switching to cable, satellite or internet TV delivery, or buying a digital set top converter and new amplified antenna, you will have nothing but flickering static to view on February 17, 2009. With all the fuss being made, this must be a significant transition. I wouldn't know...I've been a cable, then satellite and now internet based TV viewer - for those few shows I watch each week - for many years, over 20.

Here's my very own infomercial. In just 45 days, I will travel with my wife and 21 friends from St. Anthony on the Lake Parish in Pewaukee, WI to Piura, Peru. There we will meet the families we help to support throughout the year. We will celebrate their joys, share their sorrows, pray with them, sing with them, deliver food and clothing to their homes, take many pictures and strengthen the bond of Christian love that already binds us. We'll learn more about their culture and share a little bit of ours.

I've been on mission trips before, although never one this far from home, and I know they are life changing transitional events. Somehow I think the Peru transition is going to be much more impactful on my life than the digital TV transition.

What transitions are you working on?

Thank God for "Ceiling Pink"

I'll admit it, I hate to paint. I mean, there must be a million other things that I'd rather do than paint. Maybe even wash windows. No, wait, maybe not. Anyway, since I hate to paint, my lovely wife usually picks the colors. Well, most of the colors. You see, I've felt for a long time that if God wanted ceilings any color other than white, He never would have invented the color "ceiling white". Right?

Now, ceilings are tough. Not as tough as trim, but our house has 9' ceilings on the first floor so that's a bit of a stretch with the roller, even with the 18" extension handle screwed in. After all, I'm a bit vertically challenged at 5'8".

Working with your arms stretched up like that is kind of like praying. Dear God, give me strength. Dear God, please make my arms stop hurting. Dear God, can't I be done yet? Dear God, give me patience. Etc...you know the drill. Well, we can't let all of that Dear God talk be requests...that would be awfully selfish. Dear God, thank you for waking me up in time to see the frost this morning (http://fotoart.karoleks.com/2008-10-04FirstFrost/index.html). Dear God, thank you for a lovely wife who paints all the trim sections (see the previous request for patience). Dear God, thank you for making her let me paint the ceiling white. And, finally, Dear God, thank you for ceiling pink!

If you haven't used this stuff yet, you don't know what you're missing. It goes on a pinkish-purplish color (from this point forward to be known as ceiling pink) so you can see where you've painted and make sure you don't miss any spots. As it dries, whatever chemical makes it pink evaporates out and what's left dries white. Ceiling white, just like God intended! Thank you God, this stuff is great.

Got any more ceilings that need painting?

Steve

BANG!

One of my many online friends (I guess that's a topic for another blog...can you call someone who you've barely or maybe never met in person a friend?) writes a blog that I follow regularly. You might even say religiously but that could be considered an awful pun. Anyway, yesterday Danny Clayton wrote about the recently energized "Large Hadron Collidor" and the search for the "God Particle". You can read Danny's thoughts here:
http://dannyclayton.blogspot.com/2008/09/switch-got-flipped.html.

My initial reaction was to post a comment. But, recently Danny gently reminded me that I have this space and should make better use of it. So, here goes.

I have followed the stories about the LHC "loosely". I knew they were building it and I even spent a few hours on-line researching that "Higgs Bosun" thing. However, I lost track of it until Monday when I stumbled across an article on cnn.com about Tuesday's flip-the-switch event. The bit about creating a black hole and having earth implode on itself got my attention. Well, I have to admit that I'm glad that the first crash after power-on (how long does it take two particle beams to each travel 17 miles at nearly the speed of light anyway?) did not lead to our immediate and ultimate demise, as some had feared. That sure would have been something to see.

I'm not sure what they're going to find with this new tool. Surely they found out how to spend a lot of money. The research may help Mmsers. Higgs, Brout, Englert, Guralnik, Hagen, and Kibble to finally get a good night's sleep after searching for over 44 years. I don't think that they're ever going to find a "God Particle" though. I'm pretty sure we're not meant to be able to understand at that level. I've got a related theory that I'd like to share. It can be summed up in just a few words.

"In the beginning, God said BANG!".

And, with apologies to Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.

Steve K

211?

Today Wisconsin is in the spotlight, as a significant primary election on the path to November's general election. I voted shortly before noon, and was ballot 211 at my assigned polling place. This number is unusually high for me since I almost always vote on my way to work in the morning. Today that wasn't going to work so I set aside time around lunch to head to the polls.


Now I have to ask myself "self, is 211 a good number or a bad number?" You see there have been some elections in the past where my polling place didn't get 200 voters all day and here I was, number 211 before lunch. That could be a good sign. Or, it could be a bad sign. You see, there are many more than 200 elegible and registered voters assigned to the same polling place. How many more I'm not sure but I know there are many. Where are they? Don't they recognize that they have a right to exercise and a responsibility to uphold? Don't they think their vote counts?


Perhaps they think by not voting, they are casting a ballot for "None Of The Above". Unfortunately, last time I checked, Mr/Ms. NOTA wasn't on the ballot. Perhaps it was too cold to go out to the polls today. Perhaps they were too busy with other things. Perhaps the polls weren't open long enough. Perhaps they just don't care.

How unfortunate it would be if any of those reasons were true. When you head out (after all you're not too busy and its not too cold for you) please take time to call a neighbor and offer them a ride. The car will seem warmer with a passenger and they'll be thankful that you cared.

Thanks for exercising your right to vote!
Thanks for upholding your responsibility to vote!
Thanks for caring!