Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Prayers for Donna

A long time and dear friend of mine is undergoing (likely as I'm typing this) an extensive surgical procedure to fix her lower back. Aside from being in la-la land for six hours, Donna will have bone tissue excised from the pelvis and used in the fusion of two lower vertebrae. Suffice to say she's a bit wigged out.

Pray for Donna, pray the at the LORD grant her peace of mind and heart. Pray for the hands of the surgical team that they skillfully complete this procedure.

Were with ya' Donna...

BREAKING
I received word from Donna's son that at 5:50 EST, she was out of surgery and resting comfortably. Thanks for yer' prayers.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Oldies are almost always Goodies


I can't help it... He's sappy and schmaltzy but ever since I was a kid, I've always enjoyed Mr. Neil Diamond. Hello old friend, hello...

Monday in San Diego

B&B typically stands for Bed and Breakfast. For now it stands for Beautiful Bummer. I'm sitting on the ninth floor and taking in a beautiful vista. My camera is sitting back in Suburbia Majora. Na-Ja as the Germans say.

Looking at a busy day.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Between the Coasts

I'm sitting in the departure lounge in Denver, waiting to hop aboard an airbus bound for San Diego. More on that as it unfolds...

Friday, June 19, 2009

Friday Reverie - A long distance request


Ms. Loreena McKennit has what I can only describe as some powerful gift that causes my Celtic DNA to stir anytime she opens her mouth to sing.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Tuesday in Charlotte

The day job has taken me to any number of spots, most memorable though some forgettable. In all, I've made more trips to and through the "Queen City". Charlotte is the gem of the Carolina Piedmont, at the confluence of two interstates and just south of the Holy Land of NASCAR, also known as Concord.

Typically, I arrive at Charlotte via a quick flight from Reagan National, or a grinding drive down the I-95/I-40/I-85 trail. Yesterday however, the little Australian lady who lives inside my GPS gave me a new route and a very pleasant surprise.

Our ride took an unexpected turn onto the Powhite Parkway, then onto US-360 heading southwest towards South Boston and Danville Virginia. The majority of the segment was over well maintained federal highway that wended southwest through the Virginia Piedmont. This region is pristine rolling country that is a world and an age away from the grind of Suburbia Majora. We counted ZERO nail salons, kabob joints, Five Guys or dry cleaners! We did though, come across real country stores that have stood unfranchised on real country corners for multiple generations. We saw places where you ordered hamburgers or hot dogs from someone's aunt or grandmother named Betty.

These are the "roads less traveled" where you're going to pass far more cows than corollas, more blackbirds than BMWs. Folk are far more ready to offer a friendly wave instead of waving an angry finger.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

A Thursday Encouragement



Hang in there pilgrims...

The Wrong Cure

If I said that for me, 2009 has been a year of medical misadventures, it would border on comedic understatement.

I emerged from the ankle cast in the last days of March, itching to ditch the crutches and Frankenstein boot that would be my transition to normalcy. For the next four weeks, I would wean myself from crutches to cane and from boot to footwear. To date, though almost there, I'm still experiencing ankle issues to one degree or another.

As April turned into May, I noticed a rash redeveloping on my right foot. It has all the symptoms of a garden-variety foot fungus and being the self-reliant types, we treated it as such. So far so good; nearly everyone has in some point in their lives gone 'round the pole with a case of foot-shrooms. Ya' keep it dry, hit it with your choice of OTC antifungals and it gets better. No dice here; not only did the shrooms not go away, they jumped to the left foot and seemed to be blooming elsewhere. Before we knew it, I was walking around with perhaps 10% of my skin surface effected by itching, cracking, weeping lesions. I was ready for the sackcloth and the leper colony. Realizing that we were essentially exercising the definition of insanity, I raised the white flag and hooked up with a Dermatologist at Inova-Fairfax.

I was gobsmacked by the Dermatologist's diagnosis; the lesions were neither fungal nor bacterial. I was in the grip of Systemic Allergic Dermatitis or in daily parlance, a really wicked rash. The Doctor's treatment was simple; hydration and antihistamines for the itch. The itching stopped within hours and the lesions followed shortly after.

So what's the deal?

A legitimate cure illegitimately applied will provide unexpected results. Continually drying out skin that already inflamed and dry will only exacerbate the condition. The damage will extend into subdural areas and could ultimately result in dire results.

Hold that thought... More to come.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

The first time as tragedy, the second as farce


It feel's like we've been here before. The world as we know it is awash like the troubled seas of the North Atlantic heaving under an angry February Nor' Easter. No one is immune as even the best prepared are slashed by the sea's icy breath. Then along comes one promising to calm the seas with stirring words of Hope and Change.

I only know of one who could truly speak to the wind and the waters. Others had tried, only to be revealed as either pious frauds or maniacal madmen, whose darkened hearts were shrouded and dripping of death.

When will we learn that there is only one who offers genuine hope, and radical, thransformational change?

Friday, June 05, 2009

Friday Reverie


U2... I loved them, repudiated them, then learned to love them all over again. Funny, no one could rock a mullet like Bono Vox. These bleeding-edge new wavers from Erie have been together for more than a generation and don't seem to show any signs of bagging off anytime in the near future.

Pour yer' self a mug of tea and enjoy "Gloria".

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Chasing away a Gray Thursday Afternoon


Just like Jell-O, there's always room for Depeche Mode!

But hey, did ya' know?
(Did we know what Andy?)

Depeche Mode is French for "Fast Fashion".
(Oooooh, cool...)

Monday, June 01, 2009

Who's the real catbird?



Hmmmm...

A Sunday in Wichita

The event may have unfolded like a scene from a crime novel. A man of notoriety or infamy is standing on the his church steps when a bullet from from the blue shatters the reverie of a Sunday morning. A man falls dead and a manhunt is on for a killer. Except for the immediate family and a larger circle of law enforcement and judicial figures, the event might soon fade from our collective memories. In this story however, the decedent was Dr. George Tiller and the echo from the gun barrel will resonate for the foreseeable future.

Doctor Tiller was a lightning rod in the highly emotional national debate over our national practice of in-utero extermination of developing humans, otherwise euphemistically referred to as "The Right to Choose". Given his being the face of late-term abortion, I was afraid for several years that the Doctor would fall into the sights of some misguided self-assumed avenging angel. It has happened and now, Dr. Tiller's Wichita is the epicenter of a cultural earthquake that may have dire repercussions for those on the side of life.

Let's be painfully clear here on two facts that can't be ignored. Doctor Tiller left this world with blood-stained hands. He snuffed out the lives of a sea of children who could have easily survived with neonatal care, and adopted out to loving families. A friend of mine and educator has suggested that he may have been responsible for up to 68,000 abortions. IIn otherwords, the Doctor's bloody harvest would represent the depopulation of a small to medium sized city.

A second fact is equally stark; the assassination of Doctor George Tiller was an abhorrent, criminal act that cannot be justified in any way. The alleged gunman usurped the authority of both State and the Almighty in killing Dr. Tiller. In His economy, our God ordained governments to be His ministers of Justice. He gave them the "Sword", according to St. Paul, for the specified purpose of punishing evildoers. If its proven in Court, the gunman will face the very justice that he wrongly usurped.

Please, right/left or mushy middle, stop finger pointing and gainsaying long enough to pray for the families of both Dr. Tiller and Scott Roeder.

Pro-Life is for ALL Human life. Anything less is not pro-life. If you claim to be pro-life and you're armed with anything beyond the Word of God, you're in the wrong cause and it would be better if you just stayed on the porch.