The Evening Rambler for the beginning of Summer 2011

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? The jury’s still out on that, tonight’s contestant dropped out rather than tackle a fifth grade social studies question. So we don’t know, and we didn’t get to see the question to test ourselves. He ended up with $7,500 though, so that’s not too shabby.

That is of course, if that’s an after tax figure, which I kind of doubt now that I think about it. It would be nice if game shows did that, figure the tax owed and send it to Uncle, since they’re giving away that money anyway. But what I heard years ago is that the contestants owe the tax on the winnings.

Seems like a shame though. You get all excited that you’ve just won $7,500, only to discover that you end up with only thirteen dollars and eighty-five cents.

Much has happened since my last Porch post. The big news in Missouri was the Joplin tornado, back on May 22 nd. Much has been said and I don’t know what I can add…the whole event and aftermath was so tragic. My sister and her family lived in Joplin in the late 1980s, so I’m somewhat familiar with the city. That area will never look the same, and the recovery will be a long one. Rumor has it that our church will send some people down there, but I’m not sure of the details, whether soon for cleanup assistance, or later for help in rebuilding. I’m not sure how much I’d be able to do if I went down there, but I have the desire to help in some way, if I can.

The Kansas City Star last Sunday had an amazing article, a collection of first person reports of survivors at St. John’s Hospital and nearby.

Since then, we’ve had several rounds of rain and thunderstorms here, but they’ve only blown the tornado sirens once. No damage here, though.

My garden is doing well with the rain and the warm weather. I have several blossoms on the tomato plants, and the cucumber plants are growing well. We got the fence up, but it still needs adjustment to make it varmint proof. I’ll have to get to that before any fruit sets on the vines. The potato plants are bigger and healthier than any I’ve ever had. I guess we finally got enough compost worked into the soil in that corner.

Father’s Day was a simple celebration. What I really wanted was to get my family around the table all at once and play a board game; we haven’t done that in too long. So we chose Pictionary, and my second daughter and my son teamed up and ran away with the game. They ought to enter a tournament.

My first daughter called from California, which was a delight. I told her that was the high point of the day so far, and said I wasn’t sure that would stand because her mom had made me a peach cobbler. I did get to “talk” to my one year old granddaughter. It wasn’t real words yet, just sounds on her part. Practice talk.

As it turned out, the cobbler was great, but I’ll rate the phone call the high point of the day.

Of course I thought of my Dad. The question came to mind, how would I respond if someone asked “What words of wisdom did your dad pass on to you?” I’m not sure how I’d reply, though I suppose if I give it some time and consideration, I'd come up with something. Dad was a very intelligent man, but also a quiet person most of the time. I’m sure he kept many things to himself, and yes, I should have asked more questions when I had the chance.

While my Mom gave me an appreciation for music and art, Dad passed to me his interest in things technical. His interest in aircraft became my interest in rocketry. And I have good memories of working side by side at his electronics workbench, putting together some Heathkit project or other.

I’ve come to believe my odd sense of humor is about an equal mix of my Mom’s general good humor and creativity (sometimes moving across the line into silliness), and Dad’s quiet, unexpected, dry humor. Interesting that I’ve included comparisons with Mom into these comments about Dad. When I think of one, I think of the other…the way it should be, I suppose. Anyway, here’s what I’ve written before on Father’s Day, if you’re interested.

One of our digital TV subchannels, 9.2, changed formats today. It was one of two weather channels, but now it’s a MeTV affiliate. So far, I’m impressed. I’ve watched parts of The Streets Of San Francisco, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, the original Hawaii Five-Oh, M*A*S*H, and the Dick Van Dyke Show.

Rumor has it they also have The Beverly Hillbillies, but I don’t know in what time slot. I’ve also read on the internet that this fall they’ll be adding Star Trek (I assume it’s The Original Series).

And…Batman.

Who needs cable?

Oh, and happy Summer!

See you tomorrow…and Sunday

I might as well weigh in on this. Apparently there’s this fellow, Harold Camping, who heads up a church ministry somewhere, and who has quite a following. If I’m understanding the news stories right, he claims the world will end tomorrow, Saturday May 21; I think I heard at 6 p.m., but I don’t know what time zone; God’s judgement will soon follow.

Now, I try not to discuss religion much here, most of my readers know me and have an idea what I believe. Perhaps someday I’ll start another blog with a more pointed message, “Life as I see it…Here’s the Truth”!

The last thing I want to do here on Poppy’s Front Porch is to start arguments about religion. My vision for The Porch is still to reminisce about good times, and create something new from time to time…come to The Porch! We’ll have fun!

But now I think a bit of personal background is in order. Yes, I am a Christian, I have been since age 11 when I was baptized and received into membership in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Here’s part of what I believe…

Humanity was created to serve God and live in fellowship with Him. But as a result of Adam and Eve’s rebellion, we are estranged from Him and spiritually dead through our first parents’ original sin, inherited through the generations; not to mention the multitude of our own sins. All of us in our natural state are fallen and unable to reach God’s perfection. By ourselves we cannot avoid death and God’s judgment and punishment.

That’s all people through all time…with one exception.

In God’s plan of redemption when the time was right, the eternal God the Son was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary. Born in Bethlehem, Jesus Christ of Nazareth taught, called disciples, healed the sick, and performed miracles. More than that, everything Jesus said and did was in complete obedience to the will of God the Father. His life of humble service was a life of perfect faith and purity. He never missed the mark, and there was no sin in Him.

But most of all, He came to ransom us. Offering himself a sacrifice on the cross, Jesus took on our sins – all of them – and took the Father’s wrath against sin in our place, to the point of death and the grave. On the third day, God raised him from the dead, and Jesus appeared to many of the disciples, who witnessed this new life. Days later, he ascended to His Father’s heavenly kingdom.

Our old sinful human nature, does not, cannot accept any of this. This one faith that saves is strictly a grace gift from God, a work of the Holy Spirit.

So what about this end of the world and imminent judgement day prediction?

As a Christian, I do believe everyone will stand before God eventually. At some point in time there will be a judgement day, Jesus Himself spoke of this. And it could happen in my lifetime, though I suppose it’s as likely – if not more likely – that due to some reason or circumstance I’ll draw my last breath and pass away as my parents, grandparents, and for that matter everyone else who has lived their natural span has done up until now.

My problem with Mr. Camping’s prediction is (and I’ll bet you’ve heard this before and were waiting for me to get to the point) found in Mark chapter 13. Jesus had spoken to his disciples about the coming downfall of the temple in Jerusalem, and Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him when this would happen. Jesus then warned them not to be deceived by false prophets who would come in His name, and not to be alarmed by wars and rumors of wars, and earthquakes in various places. Then…

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.” (Mark 13:32-33 – also see Matthew 24:36).

This speaks to me of considering every day a grace gift, and a reminder to walk in the faith daily. Apparently Mr. Camping thinks he’s seen hints in scripture that clue him in to when the day and the hour will be. As interesting as such number crunching might be, it’s just not the way we’re meant to read God’s plain word.

I’m concerned that all this numerology does is set his group up to be a laughingstock on Sunday May 22, when the day dawns normally and everything will be business as usual. Worse than that, scoffers in the secular media will jump at the excuse to paint all Christians with a broad brush and call us all fools. Well, not that they need that excuse, unbelievers do that anyway.

For what it’s worth, I can vouch for the fact that most Christians I know aren’t worked up about this. All the chatter I've heard has been news articles on the internet and one mention on the local TV news.

The funny thing is, if it weren’t for the media, I never would have heard of Harold Camping. I think I did see one of the billboards, but as I was watching traffic to merge to an exit lane, I didn’t even notice who was claiming the end of the world.

I fully expect to see 6 p.m. come and go Saturday without incident, except for the media fuss about the botched prediction.

Of course I could be wrong, but in this case that would surprise me.

Mom and me and the family

Happy Mothers' Day, one and all! To celebrate, here's a couple of pictures from back when...scans from slides, actually.


Colorado vacation, 1957. My sister, my mom, my dad and myself; as best as I can figure this is a park in or near either Silver Plume, or Georgetown Colorado. What I remember most about the day was I had a great time digging holes in the park with dad's rock pick.


Christmas 1966. Mom looks on as I open a gag gift from my sister.

And this only touches the surface of the family photo archives...I need to get scanning some more.

Just to set the record straight

My wife and two youngest children and I did finally catch up with Mike. We had been delayed getting to our second daughter's Senior Show (by the time we'd finished supper, it took quite a while to find parking in downtown Springfield), and Cousin Mike had already been and gone. We did have a nice surprise when Mike's daughter and son-in-law came by the show.

So we stopped by Mike's house before lunch on Saturday, and had a great visit.

As you were.

Perhaps it's a supernatural delight

It's been said that it's a small world and I suppose in some way (or ways) it is. Or maybe it's not the size of the world but the number of possibilities that is relatively small, even though it seems as though a given event is about as unlikely as a whale landing on my house.

I'm expecting to see Bob this weekend, and thought I would see him tonight, but did not. His daughter's a senior at Missouri State and will graduate with a degree in Interior Design. I think that's right - her degree might be officially called something else.

Anyway, her and her soon-to-be similarly-degreed school chums were showing their projects in a gallery downtown and I went and saw her (and her project!) but missed her parental units. After a few minutes it was time to go, so I headed for the car. I got out onto the street and had not walked very far when I heard my name. I looked across the road and there was my daughter and her husband.

I ambled over and we chatted and soon up walked my son-in-law's uncle, whom they were meeting for dinner downtown. I left them and went on to the car. A few minutes later, in the car, and I was headed for my next destination and had the radio playing.

And what upon my wondering ears should fall, but the cheerful sounds of "Dancing In The Moonlight" by King Harvest. Regular readers of the Porch, whoever you are, would be familiar with the conversation that occurred on this blog with Bob and one of the members of King Harvest a while back. Bob had named "Dancing In The Moonlight" as one of his favorite tunes of 1973 and one of King Harvest's members was kind enough to chime in and provide some details, some real behind-the-scenes info! If you wish to re-live those heady times, the posts are here, also here and one there.

So, how likely is it that this confluence of events would occur in the space of 15 minutes and four blocks: I don't see Bob, who I expected to see; I see my daughter and her husband, who I don't expect to see; and I hear "Dancing In The Moonlight" on the radio which I probably haven't heard since Bob, who I expected to see but missed, was discussing it in the fall of 2008.

I'm not sure, but I think "Dancing In The Moonlight" should be considered the Official Song of Poppy's Front Porch.

Never forget The Porch!

That month of February just seemed to flee; don't know what it was so afraid of, but if you look quickly you can see it vanishing in the distance.

Just about gone, and there's not a thing to be done about it. But everyone's tired of hearing about how fast time flies when you get older, we never seemed to notice that when we were young, blah, blah, blah.

So, what have I been doing instead of posting here more often? Home repairs? Not exactly. But we did have to call the overhead door guy three Sundays ago. The garage door opened, my wife backed the car out, then I pushed the button to bring the door back down. Instead, it failed in the open position, and it didn't take long to figure out we weren't going to get it to close. Since we couldn't secure the house, we skipped church, much to my annoyance. Within a couple of hours the repairman came out, and he made a good repair...the door runs more smoothly than before.

That, and our dryer failed on us. The appliance repairman gave us a choice, he could put in a new motor. But that would have been more than half the cost of a new dryer, and there were no guarantees how long we'd have until something else failed on the old machine, the heating element, perhaps. Sears happened to be running a special - free delivery - so we now have a new dryer. Much better than what we were using. But, it's been a bit costly this month.

What I'm more excited about though, is I've been taking a continuing education class online, on writing for internet markets. I'm most of the way through the course, and I'm very encouraged. I had no idea how many different options their are for writing and having content published online...this course has been worth every penny.

One thing I will probably do is start a new blog, and monetize it. This will be a more focused effort, as soon as I decide what I want to write about.

But never fear, Poppy's Front Porch isn't going anywhere, I'm just expanding my opportunities to write. I will post more than the once a month rate so far this year, but it may only be just two to four times per month, at least for a while. It's possible I might move some subject matter over to the new blog, but right now I think the family stories, photographs, and much of the silliness will remain right here.

From January Thaw to January Blizzard

And really, that's about all I have to say about that. Seems like it was only last week - because it was - that our last 7 inch snow mostly melted. I didn't even take any pictures of that one, I've got better snow pictures from prior years. Today we've had just enough freezing rain to make a few slick spots on the pavements and motivate us to put down ice melt chemicals a couple of times. No threat to tree limbs or power lines here.

Tomorrow, the snow will begin after 3 a.m. and turn into blizzard conditions around 11 a.m. Depending on who you listen to, by the time this is all done on Wednesday, we could have:
from eight to ten inches, or
from ten to twelve, or
from ten to fifteen, with some areas just southeast of here getting maybe 16 to 18 inches. And half way across the state in Columbia, they could have 20 inches or more of snow.

We're all stocked up, and there's plenty to keep us occupied at home.

I don't think any of us are going anywhere tomorrow.