Improv

So, the weekend was actually relaxing for me, save for mother's visit which stressed me immensely as I never know when or if the shoe is going to drop with her.

Sunday, my high school class went very well, I took myself out for lunch - running into a good friend whom works with youth in another church and back home to a peacefully quiet and stress free house.  Then I got a wild hair.

I had seen some fliers around about an improv group which was going to be doing something weird on a Christmas theme and I thought, 'Why not?'.  So I went.  Of course, my long time readers know I am not normal so what followed was nothing to surprise them, but ........

So, I am nestled in a very crowded auditorium.  I see some of my kids from class there and a few adult faces I recognized from Nevada.  No idea whom they were or why they were there but I never have forgotten a face, names however have always been my downfall!

The play begins a little roughly, smooths out and then becomes quite humorous.  Of course, since I am not quite normal I sort of was the only one laughing a few times.  At least that is what one of 'my girls' told me afterwards and she was laughing quite a bit about it.  Probably was simply shocking to her parents.  LOL!

But, I was glad I went as it was a good wind down to a stressful week of driving all over dodging idiot Washington drivers in the snow.....

The Blahs and Thankfulness

Last week was the first 'different' week I have had in quite a while - there just has not been anything to post about.  Yeah, such an exciting life I have led in the past several months!  The usual day has just been one of driving my tail off and accomplishing nothing on my to do list - which hopefully will change this week, but last week is what I wanted to post about.

So, if you watch the news I am sure you heard all about how western Washington was paralyzed by a 'snow storm'.  On the first day of the storm I literally saw four cars spin out on the same snow flake.  The road was wet, not icy and there was no snow except for what was falling.  Drivers here are insane.  At the most I saw there might have been 3/4" of snow and 2.5" drifts rarely.  Total journalistic hype.

I was headed for mother's because I know she is not going to drive in the snow and would be in need of groceries (such a good son, but I still got cussed out - as usual). As I went along, I got to thinking about what a weird year it has been so far and how much stress has been involved.  I thought about Gaelic Girl, whom told me that I have not even started to mourn father's death.  About being hospitalized and flat on my lips for months through the summer.  Then of course mother's heart surgery.  About Second Daughter's little surprise.  And, of course, did I do the right thing coming here, much less bringing the kids?  The moral failures of now five of 'my girls' from past Sunday School classes.  Yes, it has been quite a year for everyone it seems.

Then I got a text from KJ, whom disappeared last December.  He was embarrassingly thankful for our relationship - showing him Jesus and discipling him.  I thought, "Wow!  How unexpected is that?"

Hours later, back home, I found an email from SD which apologized for basically the past 8 years of her life.  Those years were mighty hard on everyone - the police, mental professionals, her teachers, our church, her friends, her siblings, GG and of course me.  In fact, it was almost to the point of bankrupting me trying to get her the help she needed.  But, I knew it was a spiritual battle, not a mental one, and she just figured it out!  PTL!

Then on Saturday, my mother shows up at my door demanding turkey sandwiches.  So for the first time since 1998, she was in my home and all went very well.  And she apologized for all of those years she had blown off my children and me.  And she told me that she had been considering how thankful she should have been for me to have driven thousands of miles last month in order to care for her.

Yeah, a very interesting week indeed.....

Stupid Is As .....

Sometimes the simplest of situations can go completely out of control and in direction you could not imagine.  Take this little story, which will shortly turn into a real nightmare for a certain young man!

Now, Timothy left his car for safe keeping at the kids' place.  He is on tour with his motor home he bought about three years ago to tour American in, and never did.  So he is off on tour now and the car is just sitting there.

Last week I was driving back from mother's and thought I would swing by the house and see how it is going.  Spying said car, I thought, well you know it has not been run in a while so I will take it out for a spin.

Of course it started right up, drove beautifully over to Southcenter, where I grabbed some lunch and expected to drive right back home.  Nope.  Car is completely dead.  A quick check of the battery showed that the positive terminal had broken completely off of the battery!  I think I have seen this happen maybe once before and that was on a race car I had built (long story).

It took Oldest Daughter two hours to make it to Southcenter, where we then had to wait three hours! for the parking space next to mine to open up, so she could pull in and jump me.  Of course, remember that the battery is now junk, so what did I do?  Well, I rewired the engine to run like a 1950's VW, which has no alternator and by-passes the generator to run.  Yeah, do not try this at home kids!  I could have painted "Bomb" on the side of the car with no false advertising.

I made it back to the kids house with a bucking, wheezing, very unhappy Mazda and terrified OD trailing me.  But, I did make it back!  Now, I had bought Second Daughter a battery two months ago so she could get her car on the road and then towed to her home.  But that car is dead, dead, dead!  So, if I could get her to sell me her battery to use in Timothy's, then she would have some cash (a unique occurrence in her life), Timothy would have a battery and son, whom owes Timothy, would be out of debt to him!  Simple huh?

Well not quite it seems.  Turns out son spent all of his money on who knows what and now is completely broke and seeing if he should sell some of his sports cards to get back some of that money - that was supposed to be in savings for what he owes the IRS for doing contract labor this past summer!  Yeah.

So far, I am out the cost of a battery and son is looking at some jail time if he does not get his act together quickly enough.  SD is searching the internet for Goth stuff and OD has now decided that I am indeed crazy....

Sigh.

Teething Problems

This could be a young Ernest Hemingway in training, someone with a real teething issue or a good reason why not to drop your kids off at grandpa's when he is cleaning his guns.....  (face blurred to protect the innocent!)

Armistice Day

Growing up in Europe we know today as Armistice Day, the day of the end of the First World War, The Great War, The War to End All Wars.  Too bad we do not remember that it was just that - the war to end all wars. 

Of course, it could not end all wars with the ludicrous conditions forced upon Germany by the treaty to end the war.  First we will strip Germany of its coal reserves and give them back to France, whom had taken them in the Franco-Prussian War.  Then we will give the lands with the iron and gold reserves to Poland and Czechoslovakia.  Next, fine Germany billions of dollars and demand payment only in gold.  Yeah, exactly where was that to come from?  Oh, yeah, they have to buy gold on the open market, mostly from the USA, and then give it back in payment form.

Woodrow Wilson was nothing if not conniving, but stupid also fits the bill as well.  Germany inflated the mark, allowing for reduced payments to the USA; which helped to fuel an economic collapse in the USA; but it backfired and collapsed what was left of the German economy - allowing for a smooth talker named Adolf Hitler to step into power with promises of restoring Germany's glory.  The rest is history.

Of course, in Europe this war is also known as the battle of Victoria's brats.  Yeah, everyone of the countries starting this war were relatives of Queen Victoria.  From the Kaiser to the Czar, they never got along in life and even worse when it came to politics.  Bet you did not learn any of that in our politically correct school system.

But none of this should fade the memory of the thousands whom lost their lives on all sides of this conflicts.  I grew up with many an old soldier, from opposing sides in that war.  None of them considered war to have a victory, everyone came out losers.....

Sunday School

I have been a bit at wits end this school year.  I have two post high school kids, whom are doing fine in class, one high schooler whom is fine as well, but the rest of the class has severe problems in reading!  I have been having to explain meaning of English words to kids whom have lived their whole lives here however have never mastered reading!  ARGH!

But that is not the only problem this year.  The kids are also the most immature I have ever had.  It is like some aspect of growing up has been severe hampered in their lives and so I am also having to devote a third of each class to addressing basic life questions and behaviors which should have disappeared in Junior High at the latest!

The hardest one to address is a young woman, whom would fancy herself as a future daughter of mine, however I need to figure out how to tell her gently about self respect, self worth and when to tell an abusive young man to take a hike.  Yeah, my son......

Information and the Internet

Once again I was forced to talk with my Sunday School class over what not to put on the internet, in this case a 15 year old girl whom had posted her phone and homes address.  Sigh, kids just do not understand that there are creeps out there looking for someone just like them.

So, I gave them a real example of how I managed to collected information on one of the girls in the youth group - just by viewing photos on the church's web page and cross referencing first names until I had her narrowed down to her phone number and address - all posted on the web.  It took me 20 minutes and I did not use any of the facts I did know about her!  So if an internet clumsy user like me could find her that quickly, guess how much less of time it would take for someone whom is a stalker with poor intentions!  (I should mention that I am a friend of her parents, so I already knew more than what could be found on the web about her!)

Then I woke up this morning to a news story about some woman whom met a man online and traveled to Australia, then Arizona, then California, before figuring out he lived in Issaquah (sp?), Washington!  I guess she managed to confront him in front of his family! (wife and children) and is now suing him for leading her on an around the world trip to meet him!

I really hope that wife got a really good look at what kind of creep she married!  Man, if one of my son-in-laws pulled a stunt like that!!!!!  Well, certainly daughter would be out of there in five minutes at the most.....

But, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by any of this.  The innocent such as the 15 year old girl, the web master for the church and this Issaquah wife, all do not even think within the realm which would even make situations like this possible.  And although praise worthy, still someone needs to keep youth and the innocent aware of the dangers of how the availability of information can be misused.

Please look at your children's social networking sites, google their names and assure yourself that they are so far safe.  Then (POLITICALLY INCORRECT) inspect their phones and I-Pods for photos they have taken of themselves and have received from others.  Especially for those of you with teenager girls and boys!

Little Children All

In Sunday School the kids got off on a rag over their parents (luckily son kept his mouth fairly shut!  :^) )  Anyways, one of the girls was quite vocal over how unfairly her father treats her and how frustrating it is to not be able to ever please him.  (yeah she is from his wife's first marriage and nothing will ever be acceptable!)

So, I mentioned that just as she sees her relationship with her father, is the same way I saw mine.  Then I wondered if maybe he saw his relationship with his father the same way.  It lead to quite an interesting rabbit trail in class but it left me thinking as I went to service.

Sitting there, I could see pregnant teenager I mentioned earlier - hurting.  Her mother as well.  Her mother's friends, the same.  A few pews over some others whom I know, hurting as well.  In the choir, a woman whose father just died.  The pastor whom lost a close friend last week and would be leading the service for him in three hours.

Yeah, a whole lot of hurting going on out there.  And I thought to myself how each of us, no matter our age is still that little child inside: hurting and wanting to be comforted.

Maybe there are times when a service need not be about singing and a message, but about sharing our pain and needing acceptance.....