(September 30, 2005 Fri 6:38 AM CDT)
Wow!
I can't believe it is 6:38 AM already!
I have so much to tell you
and I don't have any time to write about it.
Like last night the people in my Bible Study
went to someone's house to pray for them.
They have cancer.
We were there two hours.
I am serious...
it was just like you read in the
Acts of the Apostles...
Jesus was with us...
He was there among us...
Every one in that house got blessed
and even literally the cat(s) and dogs too!
God is good.
Sorry...
I have to go to church to pray for a miracle.
You can pray for God to heal that person, also.
Jesus, be with Dan's friend... heal her...
Bye.
(September 29, 2005 Thu 6:42 AM CDT)
This morning it is down to 41 F degrees in Omaha.
A good friend of mine sent me this verse from the Bible
May there be joy in your life.
I started up the new furnace that I got for free this year.
It works great.
Thank the Lord.
He is most kind to me.
in an email the other day.
(from page 824 of my Bible...)
"Gladness of heart is the very life of man,
cheerfulness prolongs his days."
(or another translation says...)
"A joyful heart is life itself,
and rejoicing lengthens one's life span."
Sirach 30:22
May the sun always shine.
May you be at peace
knowing that God loves you.
Have a joyful heart.
(September 28, 2005 Wed 6:05 AM CDT)
(Update at 9:45 PM:
Last night was the night to be a homeless person...
Here are some pictures of the mall in downtown Omaha
at about 5 PM today.
Picture 1 is the Union Pacific Railroad Building (left) and
the Qwest Building (right) where I work.
Maybe some day after I retire
I will work in the UPRR building.
Pictures 2 and 3 are some weird art
floating in the pond of the mall.
It changes position over time with the wind.
Very strange.
1)
2)
3)
I got my haircut tonight at the Crossroads.
Michal/Michael without an "E" cut it.
I told her I owed her one since they let me park there
all day for free and the security watches it.
Some little kid named Tyler was before me.
Tyler was complaining the whole time I was there.
His haircut looked very nice and I told Michal that.
She did a great job.
I also told her to pray for Michael that plays the guitar
on 16th Street and is homeless from Boston
that I met the other day.
My hair is much shorter now like Tyler before me.
I told Michal that I will look just like another brother (Upn)
of mine and we also have the same voiceprint.
We are 6 years apart and could impersonate each other.
I bought that hat on Saturday of the Philadelphia Eagles
in anticipation of my hair being shorter.
Nancy at Parables called and said they had my book in,
so I picked it up this evening.
Now I just have to do my homework and read it.
I absolutely "hate" their parking lot.
It is very hard to backup to escape/leave.
It is just not designed right.
I checked out this tanning place that gives you a "UV Free" tan.
I can't sit out in the sun to get a tan because of the
possibility of skin cancer returning.
Shane says that the tan will only last a few days.
Some people get these tans before weddings.
Earlier Michal said that her aunt had skin cancer
and then brain cancer.
)
They had 60 pizzas from Godfather's Pizza
at the Siena/Francis House.
I tried to volunteer to help serve dinner,
but they did not need me.
I did find out that they have a Bible Study there
right before dinner.
I'm not sure how often they meet.
The priest from St. Richard's Church leads it,
and then he helps serve dinner.
Then I drove to Parables near 114th and West Dodge Road
to get that book for the Bible Study.
They did not have it.
They said they would call me when it comes in.
How can I do my homework for the Bible Study?
I can going to "flunk" Bible Study... heaven help me...
While I was at Parables I did get two
surprises for my Bible Study buddies.
They have these two Bible verses on them:
"Delight yourself in the Lord
and he will give you
the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:4
"Every good and perfect gift is from above."
James 1:17
Friends are a gift from God.
I never told you about Sunday walking around Boys Town.
I could hardly walk.
I was worried that I could not get back to my car.
I was hurting from riding the bike so hard the day before.
I must have pushed myself too hard
trying to set some "world record" for my neighborhood.
This morning I was up at 4 AM trying to print pictures
of the Painted Desert in Arizona.
So far I have 4 done, but the printer was low on ink.
Number 5 did not pass the test... it flunked!
Now I don't print that many pictures, do I?
So I have to get the ink cartridge refilled today at Westroads.
Speaking of the Westroads...
last night I found a kid's report card.
It was outside the JCPenneys near the northeast door.
He/she is in 4th grade room 113 of some elementary school.
The teacher had signed it at the bottom with the date 9/27/05.
It had happened that day.
It said "Keep up the good work" in the comments.
I turned it in to the person at Customer Service.
She said they would call the school.
She repeated the words "Keep up the good work."
It had to be signed by the parent and returned.
The best grade the kid got was "2+"
and a lot of S's for satisfactory on many things.
All the grades were handwritten in blue ink on a form
with the name of the school at the top.
(September 27, 2005 Tue 6:11 AM CDT)
I have no idea of where to start...
This was a Bible verse we discussed last night.
there is so much to write about!
There are wonderful things happening
in Omaha, Council Bluffs and Denver.
Right now I'm listening to KGBI 100.7 FM.
That is a Christian radio station here in Omaha.
I told the people at the Bible Study about
it last night.
It was the first night for our Bible Study.
We will meet weekly on Thursday nights 7 to 9 PM.
Really truly neat things happened at the Bible Study.
I mean... wow!
I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it.
One of the things we have is a list of petitions.
We will pray for each other's intentions during the week.
We can have PRA (Prayer Request Alerts) during the day
if a need for prayer arises.
One idea is to write down Bible verses
on 4 by 6 index cards.
You would read these Bible verses over and over
in times of need.
The prayer requests are on an index card I have here.
You too can pray for these intentions.
God knows that it says.
He knows all the details.
He knows how to answer the requests
in the best possible way.
You can pray right along with us!
We had a candle.
I only had one emergency candle in the house
and I took it to the Bible Study.
Jesus is the light of the world.
We gathered in his name last night.
He promised where 2 or 3 are gathered
in his name he is there.
Maybe you are called to start a Bible Study
at your house.
You just need one or two people to join you.
The early Christians all met in people's houses.
It was very common.
The setting of a house is neat.
Well, I'm out of time and there is so much to say...
"Cast all your cares on him
because he cares for you."
1 Peter 5:7
Give all your cares to Jesus.
He loves you very much.
You have nothing to worry about.
Give your problems to the Lord.
(September 26, 2005 Mon 3:49 AM CDT)
They won!
Was there any doubt?
The Eagles won yesterday.
Look what time it is...
I just could not wait any longer to find out...
Now I'm going back to bed.
(September 25, 2005 Sun 6:23 AM CDT)
Here is a picture this morning of the dryer
"Do you not know
I want you to get out your Bible and find these words.
in my basement.
The picture is out of focus.
Sorry... I'm not awake yet.
It has the 11 cents I told you about yesterday
and a hat that I purchased at the Westroads Mall yesterday.
It is a dark teal color and
has the symbol of the eagle on it.
The writer of the Gospel of John
is often
symbolized as an eagle
.
So far this season
Philadelphia
is 1 and 1.
They play at home today
at the $512M Lincoln Financial Field at 1 PM local time.
It is 63 F degrees this morning in Philadelphia, PA.
The high today will be 79 F degrees.
The game will be shown on
KYW-TV CBS 3
.
I have never been to Philadelphia.
Yesterday I went for a walk to the Westroads Mall and back.
On the way I stopped at the new grocery store in Regency.
It is called
Whole Foods
.
It is organic foods.
Everyone and their "cat and dog" were there.
It was crowded.
I checked the price of some items.
You can buy a dozen eggs for over $3, if you wish.
At my grocery store eggs are less than a dollar.
They had an interesting buffet for $6.99 per pound
of different things that I would like to try
a sample of each.
There were some people playing Jamaican music... mon...
I will have to go back and explore some more.
One of the people that worked there
asked me what I thought of the place.
I told her I thought it was a little expensive.
It is Regency.
or have you not heard?
The Lord is the eternal God,
creator of the end of the earth.
He does not faint nor grow weary,
and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.
He gives strength to the fainting;
for the weak he makes vigor abound.
Though young men faint and grow weary,
and youths stagger and fall,
They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength,
they will soar as with eagles' wings;
They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint."
Isaiah 40:28-31
I want you to highlight them.
They are very important words.
I want you to read them over and over.
Hope in the Lord.
The Lord is your strength.
You will soar as an eagle...
above all your problems and troubles...
Read and reread and believe it.
(September 24, 2005 Sat 7:24 AM CDT)
Here is a picture of downtown Omaha yesterday morning
It is so.
around 8 AM.
This is from 14th and Douglas Streets looking west.
I had just got off the bus and went to Starbucks
and was on my way to the building where I work.
Notice the resurfaced street.
It looks very nice.
It started off a very bright day.
We pray this morning for the people in the path of hurricane Rita.
God be with them and protect them.
I'm listening to Bach again this morning.
"Goldberg Variations BWV 988 ('Clavierubung' Part IV)".
I think I like organ music
because of the
organ at the Cathedral
.
I hear it frequently, like tomorrow at 5:30 PM Mass.
The other day I was looking for the CD to get my printer going
around the house.
I came across a dime and a penny in this box in the basement.
The 11 cents is sitting on my dryer right now.
Yesterday morning I took the number 11 bus to downtown
from the Crossroads at 72nd and Dodge Streets in Omaha.
It took twice as long to get there... about 40 minutes.
I have no idea of why I got on the number 11.
It made no sense.
The number 2 and 98 buses came and went and there I sat.
Those buses have direct routes to downtown.
The number 11 took a route past two cemeteries.
It went by the cemetery where my Dad, sister,
grandparents and great grandparents are buried.
It went by the place that has Bud/Lois names.
In fact it went by there twice,
since the bus circled the block.
I will never again take bus 11.
It is just too depressing and takes too long to get to work.
I read
William Barclay's
book during the ride.
I have read this book before many years ago...
also on a bus.
Pam and Rich were at the Starbucks.
I got a pumpkin/nut/cream cheese muffin.
They are great.
No mocha this time.
I wanted a carton of milk and they did not have any.
Ryan (Pam's sister-in-law's boyfriend) was there earlier.
I missed him.
I wonder if I will meet Ryan someday.
We probably have seen each other,
since we work in the same building.
I did not eat the muffin.
I gave it away to Mary on the first floor of my building.
I took food to the cafeteria.
I gave them food instead of buying some.
Mary was very kind and gave me a muffin made by Bridget.
Bridget made her version of the pumpkin/cream cheese muffin
for the first time Friday.
It was a historic day.
But they have a ways to go
in order to match the muffin made by Starbucks.
They forgot the nuts too.
At lunchtime I was out for a walk to the bank
and back.
I got a refund check from the parking garage ($46.25).
That is 37 rides on the bus.
I stopped and talked to Michael from Boston.
He was playing the guitar at 16th and Douglas Streets
on the southeast corner.
He was in his 20's and had a Mohawk haircut.
The intersection is in the picture above,
but two blocks west.
Michael needs help.
He asked me for any change that I had.
There was change on his coat on the brick sidewalk.
I contributed a quarter to the cause.
He has been in town for 5 weeks.
I asked him if he stays at the Siena/Francis House.
He only stayed there once,
but he does eat there often.
He did say that he got sick
right after he came to town.
When I came back from my trip to the bank
he was nowhere to be found.
I looked up and down the streets for him.
He disappeared.
I had a bottle of water for him and a piece of pizza,
but I could not find the guy.
It was surreal... where did he go?
At the bank Julia was trying to cheer me up.
I was a little down because of the overcast skies.
I watched the videotape of ER last night from Thursday 9 PM NBC.
This kid Alex runs away from home and gets sick.
I could not believe the parallels
of fiction (Alex) and real life (Michael).
Art imitates life.
There was no Dr. Carter.
I have never seen an ER without Carter (Noah Wyle)
in the credits.
He was not even mentioned in the program in the dialog.
You can't have ER without Carter.
I guess he went to Africa... but I'm not sure...
I stopped taking the Allegra again.
I guess I survived allergy season.
Cool.
This guy that taught our MSDN seminar on Thursday
has
a blog
.
I was reading it yesterday.
This guy impressed me!
He did.
He flies a plane.
He flew a plane to "Mississippi and Louisana/Louisiana" to take supplies there.
45 flights... I mean... Wow!
I listened to him for about 3 hours Thursday.
And the temperature has been dropping in my house lately.
It stays around 73 F degrees,
so I moved south for the winter already
to the south bedroom.
We had rain at 2:42 AM this morning.
I heard it pounding on the house.
Then it quit.
It was great while it lasted.
We can use some rain.
It is a NCD (No Car Day).
I need to go ride my bike to Starbucks and get a muffin...
Thanks for waiting.
Here is a picture of the muffin and
one of the carrusel roses from Sunday.
I gave the other 23 away.
My Mom really liked the ones I gave her.
No, I don't have a granite countertop...
yet... maybe next year...
They called it a "seasonal muffin."
Downtown they call it a "pumpkin muffin."
The person behind the counter also recommended the
pumpkin loaf and the blueberry muffin... maybe next time...
I bought the dishcloth from the Wal-Mart on 168th and Maple
on Sunday also.
I put a lot of miles on the car last Sunday.
I have had the glass that the rose is in since 1980.
On the bus number 2 from downtown to the Crossroads last night
the bus driver kept saying "Good Afternoon" and
"Good Bye" or "Have A Good One", as the passengers came and went.
Many people told him "Thanks" or "Thank You" as they left the bus.
I was studying this advertisement from NFM (Nebraska Furniture Mart)
as I rode the bus.
They have a
62-inch Toshiba TV 62HM94
...
only $3167... $127/mo. (for the rest of your life)
My house is not big enough for a TV that large.
I wonder if this is the TV that my brother has.
"...they welcomed the message with great enthusiasm.
Each day they studied the Scriptures
to see whether these things were so."
Acts 17:11
It is true.
Jesus is alive.
He is well indeed.
He changes people's lives each day.
Day by day he is changing many people.
Study the Scriptures/Bible.
They are there for you.
Grow in the knowledge of God.
(Microsoft Word, word count 1,196.)
(September 23, 2005 Fri 5:47 AM CDT)
You have to see this picture...
Jesus said,
Get together.
It is in Time magazine the September 12, 2005
issue pages 80 and 81.
Go to the public library and see it.
Here let me see if I can find it on the Internet.
OK... I found a
copy of it
.
Well, it is not the same picture,
but it was taken very near
when the other picture was taken.
The picture in Time magazine is two pages tall
and it does have the same 3 people in the picture.
The people are not in the same spot.
This morning I was trying to figure out
how to start a Bible Study.
I have about a page of thoughts written down.
One of my thoughts was to start and end
the meeting in prayer, so...
I need to write two prayers...
You better pray for me.
Yesterday at about 12:30 I was driving to the
AMC theaters on the east side of Oak View Mall.
(The Microsoft seminar was held in theater 12.
There were about 200 people there.)
I was "maxed out"... in panic mode...
I lost it.
It was just WAY too busy of a day for me.
By 4:44 PM all was well...
you wonder how can that be.
I went for an hour walk at the mall,
since I was right there.
Rance at Radio Shack sold me a BT-905 battery
for my Uniden cordless phone.
The old battery just would not hold a charge.
Steve the insurance guy rang my doorbell yesterday morning.
He was taking pictures of my house.
I talked to him on the doorstep for a minute or two
and then went back inside.
It was just a beautiful fall day outside.
There is nothing wrong with my house.
I did not put in a claim.
He just wanted current pictures of the place.
OK.
Sara has the
number one country song
this week.
Congratulations!
Sara loves Jesus... she does!
Really truly.
God is blessing her.
"Again I tell you,
if two of you join your voices on earth
to pray for anything whatever,
it shall be granted you
by my Father in heaven.
Where two or three are gathered in my name,
there am I in their midst."
Matthew 18:19-20
Pray with others.
Study the Bible with others.
Jesus will bless your efforts.
He is right there in your midst.
(September 22, 2005 Thu 4:33 AM CDT)
Called Crystal in Illinois yesterday at 866-633-4384
and I told her that I am not Philip/Phillip.
OK?
I told her that Omaha set a record high of at least 99 F degrees.
The internet
says 98
which is higher than the 95 of 1937.
Hopefully their computer will stop calling my cell phone.
My cell phone number is registered on the
National Do Not Call Registry
.
I asked her what this guy had done.
Doesn't he pay his bills?
She said it was a personal business matter.
There are two people that I work with
in two different towns (Bellevue/Denver) that are going to
Estes Park, Colorado
this weekend.
Now that is not fair.
They are both taking pictures.
I told them to watch out for each other.
They don't know each other.
The
events calendar
says there is a concert on Saturday night at 7:30 PM.
Check it out.
I have not been to Estes Park in many years,
but it is a very nice place.
They sell taffy at this candy store on the main street.
I guess it is called The Taffy Shop at
121 East Elkhorn Avenue
.
I'm going to a Microsoft MSDN Seminar today 1 to 5 PM
near the Oak View Mall in Omaha.
I'll get a free T-shirt and some free software.
(September 21, 2005 Wed 4:08 AM CDT)
Raw notes:
- happy b-day Matt
- 866-633-4384 Philip/Phillip Moon junk phone calls
on cell phone at 4:45 PM Tuesday
- SFH on Tuesdays now
- Joel Osteen, TV programs online,
http://www.joelosteen.com
,
nice web page, one hour program instead of 30 minutes,
WATCH ONLINE, 16,000 people in the service Houston, Texas,
Victoria Osteen preaching
- can't get printer working on new hard drive,
can't print things
- 28 letters in Spanish alphabet/alfabeto,
http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Spanish/Grammar/Spanish-Alphabet.html
,
Spanish lessons on CD player in car
- free bottled water at Mangelsen's,
http://www.mangelsen.com
,
Kelly, two small pictures of aspens, $900 ahc/bbc,
1115 Harney Street,
- 1739 Mt. Moran and Oxbow Bend:
http://gallery.bcentral.com/GID4842940P2652874-Limited-Edition-Photographs/Landscape/1739-Mt.-Moran-and-Oxbow-Bend.aspx
- 6166 High Noon on the Oxbow Bend - Bald Eagle and Osprey:
http://gallery.bcentral.com/GID4842940P2881028-6166-High-Noon-on-the-Oxbow-Bend-Bald-Eagle-and-Osprey.aspx
- Victoria Osteen (at 21:45 to 27:58)
psalm 90:12 (at 23:54)
"Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
- south doors locked at Crossroads Monday 7 AM,
so close to buses but could not get out the doors,
guard came to unlock them in a minute or two
- Yeah...printer is fixed at 6:21 AM
thank God
- faster and faster pace of life lately and
and sense of tasks getting completed
- sun directly west on Dodge street driving
home Tuesday from SFH, blinding
(September 20, 2005 6:11 AM CDT)
I'm listening to Bach
I have to go.
"Goldberg Variations BWV 988 ('Clavierubung' Part IV)".
Nothing unusual there.
There really isn't much to write about this morning.
No one tried to hit me head-on like that SUV on Sunday
on the South Omaha Bridge Road in Council Bluffs at 2:33 PM.
I was eastbound they were westbound and crossed the dividing line.
I was honking my horn and driving in the gravel on the
shoulder of the road.
It was very scary and upsetting.
It took me awhile to calm down.
We could have gone in the ditch, but that God did not.
My brother says it is common to be driving by there
and see people in the ditch.
There is a slight curve in the road to the right and
people are asleep at the wheel or talking on their cell phones
and don't make the curve.
I need to forgive that person.
They did not intentionally try to hurt me.
There are 3 marks on the top center of the front bumper.
I will have to take a picture of them and show you.
The damage to my car really upset me.
I guess I hold on to my car too tight.
Yes, I met James Michael on Springfield Drive Sunday at 1:50 PM.
Michael is another one of my favorite names.
The phone book listed him as "James M." and
I told him my Dad was "James M." also.
He was out in his driveway as I drove up.
I did not even have to ring the doorbell.
Today is chips and salsa day.
I am bringing that into work.
We are having a going away party for someone.
They are moving to Minnesota (said with a Minnesota accent).
I can't write much...
Forgive.
It is all over the Bible.
Forgive those who hurt you or damage your possessions.
Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.
(September 19, 2005 6:08 AM CDT)
These are raw notes that I have and
"Remind people to be loyally subject to the government
Pray for your Mayor and city officials.
need to translate into English for you.
I will do that as I get time.
- yesterday 2:33 PM, SOBR, curve black SUV over on my side,
Hail Mary, gravel flying, lot of people go in ditch - ihl,
3 marks on front bumper, very upset, asleep at wheel,
tried to kill me, never want to experience air bags going off
- Millard Plaza Hallmark b-day card lla
- Sams Club no one at flowers to arrange them on Sunday,
24 carrusel ecuador and greens
- get car back after not driving for a day -
car is the greatest invention, get around places fast instead of bike
- new Wal-Mart 168 and Maple, Terri, zest soap aisle 9 - Not!
- Lowe's no African violets that I liked
- NFM looked at big TV's
- Spanish CD-s Sams Club in C.B., $2.38 gas but pumps were broke
- James Michael Springfield Dr. 1:50 PM
- I/Mom walked to church alone, Kay - pray, lives in parallel
- maybe Public Pulse on not driving Sept. 10 and 17
- "morality of the playground" Andy Alexander (not Richard
Houser), 9:30 Mass less crowded than 20 years ago
SRB bulletin - I'm a cruiser - scare me off
instead of welcome newcomers
- dream house has pool and sprinkler system, had to cross
street to avoid water
- 6:44 PM GRIEF license plate on SUV,
156 and Dodge turn to south, why have it? makes no sense
- Vineyard two weeks in a row, vineyard church, gospel on vineyard
It makes perfect sense to me...
and its officials, to obey the laws,
to be ready to take on any honest employment."
Titus 3:1
Pray for the President and those in government.
They give order to society.
God bless them and their efforts to
create a peaceful world.
(September 18, 2005 5:31 AM CDT)
I made it past Harrison Street.
"Apollos began to speak boldly in the synagogue.
Do you ever do that?
I was in Sarpy County on my bike.
It got me there and back.
I'm not sure if I was in Bellevue or not.
How far was it?
Here are the mileages on the
trails in Omaha
.
I was on the Big Papio Trail from Dodge to Harrison,
so that is 7.94 miles.
I was on the Keystone Trail for just a few hundred feet.
Then I "panicked" and turned back.
I want to go home and I have to pedal to get there.
I went about 16 miles in 2 hours, so 8 MPH.
You see things on the bike trail
that you can't see from a car.
It is a different world.
All the other bikers said Hi to me.
The walkers would not respond to Hi.
I guess it is a cultural thing.
I was not "one of them."
Most of the bikers wore very colorful clothes.
I certainly was not dressed for the occasion
with my Saturday clothes (shorts and polo shirt).
It is neat to watch the "Lance Armstrong" guys.
They just fly buy.
I wonder if I will be able to do that some day.
This morning my right leg is hurting a little...
not too bad.
At times I had to get off the bike and
just walk the bike.
In fact at some points they tell you to walk your bike
when it gets really narrow on bridges and sidewalks.
It hurt too much to sit on the bike for that long.
I did not get tired.
The paths are near level.
It follows the creeks.
There are no steep hills to climb.
When I got home I was beat.
I went to take a short nap and
woke up 5 hours later.
I slept great.
Now I have to go buy new biker clothes
and a new bike.
4 or 5 car payments and you have
the most expensive bike that they make.
(Well... not quite...
I was wrong.
The bicycles that Lance rides
cost $7K
.
But for $1K or $2K you have the nicest bike
you could ever want/need.
You don't have to climb mountains like Lance.)
The gas mileage is off the chart...
100, 200, 300 MPG... you name it.
There is something else I need... a water bottle.
I only used 3 gears.
I need to push it a little more.
I think I need a helmet too,
if I'm going to go that fast.
I have no pictures to show you.
I figured I better travel light,
since I have not gone that long
of a distance since I was in college at UNL.
I used to really enjoy UNL football.
It used to be fun to watch.
I looked forward to it.
I had the TV on yesterday afternoon and
I hardly watched it at all.
It is just no fun anymore.
I don't even know if we won...
here let me check...
espn.com
says we won... 7 to 6...
How could they destroy UNL football?
Whatever...
I had to get out the Allegra yesterday.
There is still significant pollen in the air for me.
We need a killer frost.
I put some new 1-inch aluminum blinds and curtains
in the computer room and north bedroom yesterday.
I got them from
JCPenney
a few weeks ago.
The blinds are custom made.
They were 75% off and then coupons also.
I had to get out the power drill to install the hardware.
It is fun.
I do enjoy that drill.
Many people have the 2-inch wood blinds...
I just don't care for them.
Sorry.
Here are the pictures of them...
I do have a sore throat this morning.
Is that from bike riding?
The south wind was in my face half the time.
I guess I did need a water bottle.
When Priscilla and Aquila heard him,
they took him home and
explained to him God's new way in greater detail."
Acts 18:26
Do you share your faith with others?
You hear people say to never discuss
religion and politics.
You have to be PC politically correct.
Well (said with a special/funny/sing-songy accent)...
the Bible does not say that...
It tells you to speak up.
Change your world.
Get together with people and talk about your faith.
Put them on the right path.
(I wonder if I should record S2L?
You would just listen to me, instead of reading this.
You could download me to your
iPod
.
Then you could hear that accent I referred to above.
S2L goes digital...that would be the day!)
(September 17, 2005 6:23 AM CDT)
What am I listening to?
"The next day,
Point out Jesus to others.
The Police...
"Synchronicity II"
.
Track 6 on this link.
I "hate" the lyrics, but love the music.
Yesterday I caught the wrong bus number 2 at the Crossroads.
(I'd take a picture of the Crossroads and show you,
but it is a mess right now with all kinds of construction
and I don't want you to think that Omaha is that bad a place.)
I got on "2 Westroads" instead of "2 Downtown."
It turned and went west.
I saw the Best Buy store and thought
I have to escape.
Pulled the cord and walked back two blocks and
caught the "98 Downtown"... much better...
it was going east.
See you can learn from my mistakes.
Don't get on a bus going the wrong direction.
(Sounds like something in the Bible...)
I'm trying to survive without my Allegra medicine
this morning.
Last night's newspaper says that the pollen count
has dropped, so I'm checking it out.
This week I've been keeping up
with reading the daily newspapers.
Usually they stack up during the week
until I get to read them on Saturday.
I read them in reverse order.
I find the punch line that way.
It saves time.
I took the 98 bus to 15th and Douglas.
I always exit at the front door of the bus
and tell the driver thanks.
This picture shows you where I got out of the bus.
They just resurfaced the street the other day.
The stripes for the crosswalk are brand-new.
I normally get off at 14th and Douglas,
but today I wanted to go to the new Starbucks in this picture.
It has only been open a week.
I talked to Pam and ordered a Mocha Frappuccino.
(I had to learn how to spell it.)
I also asked for recommendations on a muffin...
I got the pumpkin cream cheese muffin.
Excellent.
$5.08.
I told Pam that I worked for Qwest and
she said she has a friend Ryan
that also works at Qwest in computers.
She says that Ryan comes there everyday.
I told her that Ryan is checking her out.
$5 is way too much for breakfast.
Why did I get a Mocha?
That Bach person in Denver recommended it.
It did wake me up.
It gave me a slight headache too.
I will have to check in with Pam from time to time
and see if she marries this Ryan guy.
She says she has a different boyfriend now...
yeah right...
I looked at the calendar yesterday on my desk...
"September 16, 2005"
There is just something about that date that is very important.
Something inside of me says there is unbelievable significance to it.
And it WAS that day yesterday all day.
And I got blessed.
I did.
It was not even my birthday.
It was a friend of mine's birthday.
I had to get out my calculator this morning to see
how many shares of
Qwest
that I bought/sold September 15/16.
The stock went up 2.41% for the day ($3.74 to $3.83).
What else can you say?
I got blessed.
God is very good to me.
Wait a second...
I have to go get the newspaper in the driveway...
I'll be right back...
I need to check the record high temperature for September 16.
...
It is cool out there (57 F degrees).
The newspaper on page B-5 says
the record high is 97 F degrees in 1931.
That does not sound at all familiar.
I just
checked the internet.
1931 is the year.
OK.
Last night I filled out the 4 rebate forms from
Best Buy for the two hard drives that I bought.
I put my name on two of the rebates and
my Mom's name on the other two.
I told her that if she gets a check in the mail
two months from now... cash it.
Take the money and run.
She will not remember.
Yesterday my brother gave me a ride to the Crossroads.
I was thinking this morning...
I did not even thank him.
I thank everyone else...
That was very nice of him.
I took my Mom shopping at Dillards at the Crossroads.
She wanted some new shoes.
Eight and a half narrow.
I always give her a hard time about buying things...
I tell her she will return them tomorrow.
I will call her today and see if she took them back.
Dwana was very patient with us.
Today is a no car day.
I will see if I can ride my bicycle
to Bellevue on the bike trails.
It is a hard surface all the way there.
I wonder how far I can get.
I will have my cell phone with me, if I get too tired.
There are probably other magical things that happened yesterday,
but that is enough to give you an idea...
I almost forgot...
I have to buy a card and flowers for S17 today.
It is her birthday.
How will I get it to her without a car?
I love a challenge!
How am I going to do it?
Can you see me riding my bicycle
up to her house with flowers?
when John caught sight of Jesus
coming toward him, he exclaimed:
'Look!
There is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world!'"
John 1:29
He is there.
He is alive and well.
Others need him.
You need to point him out.
There he is.
(September 16, 2005 5:59 AM CDT)
Good morning...
Someone on the editorial page of the newspaper last night
There you go...
You would not believe what I am listening to...
"Dance The Night Away"
by Van Halen.
Track 4 of this link.
Before that I was listening to
"Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 5 KV 219"
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Who would name their kid Wolfgang?
I put a link on
"concerto"
here, so you know what it is.
See you can say that you learned something today.
I put all the stuff back in the trunk of the car.
It looks much better.
It was just too clean.
Anyway a gallon of milk would roll all over the place back there
without all the stuff to hold it in place.
I saw DMC again at the bus stop.
She knows Bud and Lois from 20 some years ago
at St. Margaret Mary's church.
referred to this Bible passage in reference
to the houses of New Orleans below sea level.
"Anyone who hears my words and puts them into practice
is like the wise man who built his house on rock.
When the rainy season set in,
the torrents came and the winds blew and buffeted his house.
It did not collapse;
it had been solidly set on rock.
Anyone who hears my words
but does not put them into practice
is like the foolish man
who built his house on sandy ground.
The rains fell, the torrents came,
the winds blew and lashed against his house.
It collapsed under all this and was completely ruined."
Matthew 7:24-27
words from 2,000 years ago.
Where will you build your house?
Will you build in a place that has floods or
pick something safer?
Low ground or up on a hill?
How much risk are you willing to take?
Jesus says to not take the risk.
He says to build your life on him.
He is not to be moved or washed away.
He is more powerful than any storm.
He is your sure foundation.
He has been around a lot longer than 2,000 years.
He knows what life is all about.
He is the rock.
(September 15, 2005 4:59 AM CDT)
Here is a picture of the trunk of my car.
It is taken by a camera that I have for just a day.
Anne at Lexus did a very nice job, don't you think?
My schedule is changing daily as I adjust.
Look what time it says above.
Yesterday I got a ride to SFH from one person
and then someone else gave me a ride to the Crossroads.
You feel uncomfortable asking people for rides.
I need my car.
We are so independent instead of dependent on each other.
You think of Jesus running around the countryside
he had no car, no house, no money, etc.
He trusted that someone somehow would help him.
Interesting.
I think I got my Mom upset with me
because my schedule is changing.
I am in trouble.
It does create stress to change things around.
It does.
But you learn new things.
You learn there are a lot of people to meet on the bus.
I said Good Morning to the bus driver for example.
I had to address him twice to get a response from him
yesterday morning.
How are you doing?
I didn't even get his name.
(September 14, 2005 6:23 AM CDT)
This morning I'm listening to Johann Sebastian Bach.
We give praise to God today for music.
Let me tell you...
it changes the whole atmosphere of the house.
Why Bach?
Well, yesterday I was talking to someone I work
with in Denver and I asked her how she pronounces
her last name.
Her last name ends with the letters "bach."
"It is pronounced just like the composer Bach," she said.
So this morning I dug out my 2 CDs of Bach music.
He is playing the organ now.
Can you hear him?
It is like a time machine.
You are back in the 1700's...
I was trying to think...
"How can I buy this house
that is not even for sale?"
I thought I should just bury a statue of
St. Joseph in the yard late some night
under the cover of darkness.
What if they have a dog?
The Douglas County records on the Internet say that the current
owner paid $0 for it on May 18, 2005.
It might have been a gift/inheritance to Joseph that owns it now.
I was going to write them a letter and
say I was willing to pay them WAY more than what they paid
to buy their house from them whenever they sell it.
I'd give them at least $1.
That would look good in the County records right after the $0.
I just cleaned out everything...
I mean everything even the 3 golf clubs
from the trunk of my car.
It is empty.
I took 3 pictures of it to show you,
but it is very dark in the garage
and I used a flash and the pictures did not look good.
I will have to wait for some daylight to show you.
Another thing I was trying to figure out this morning
was how to buy a BMW car.
And I tell myself I don't want to buy another car.
I like my 8 year old car.
It is very confusing.
But I am researching it.
It is a challenge.
Where would I get that much money ($30K/$40K)?
And I don't even need it.
Maybe I could take my lucky watch to a casino,
but that would be like stealing.
It would not be fair to take their money.
I feel like I am in church as this organ music plays on...
I looked at page 1374 in my Bible and did not find
something interesting to quote, so I'm on page 1474 now looking.
Here I found something on that page...
"O Lord our God, you are worthy
to receive glory and honor and power!
For you have created all things;
by your will they came to be and were made."
Revelation 4:11
It inspires us.
It lifts us up.
Played in a church it is worship.
It is moving.
It is power.
It is a gift from the Lord to us.
Thank you, Lord, for music.
(September 13, 2005 6:18 AM CDT)
I'm back to using my new hard drive this morning.
"Jesus wept."
There will be sad times.
I just flip the cables around to switch it.
There must be an easier way to switch.
I need to learn that.
The new hard drive is 7,200 RPM
which makes the access faster.
I bought this stock yesterday morning
KMB
for fun.
It is nothing to sneeze at.
This is called the shortest verse in the Bible.
It is two words.
I took a picture of these two words yesterday.
You can see the picture below.
John 11:35
There will be times of loss.
It happened to Jesus.
It will happen to us.
Jesus is there for you in those times.
He is right there holding your hand.
(September 12, 2005 6:21 AM CDT)
(Update at 9:14 PM:
Today?
Jesus said,
Pastor Scott talked about this Bible verse yesterday.
Here is that sign I was telling you about
at the church on 90th and Pacific.
Jesus is right there with us.
He wept also.
I past the 94,000 mark tonight.
That was 35 days to go 1,000 miles.
Hopefully it will take longer to go the next 1,000.
I did ride the bus to work today.
I drove to the Crossroads and caught
the number 2 bus to downtown.
I rode the number "98 North Park" bus
to get back to the Crossroads in the afternoon.
Remember back on August 12th I wrote about DMC.
Well, DMC was waiting for a different bus
on the same corner where I was.
We talked for a minute and then I had to go.
The bus I took was not air-conditioned
and cost $1.25.
I put in $1.50 because I thought it was an express bus.
I want my quarter back.
The ride in the morning was no big deal,
but the afternoon ride was real stressful.
I guess it was all the commotion on Dodge Street
outside the Union Pacific building.
It was just normal rush hour traffic.
I guess it was just different for me.
I cancelled my place in the parking garage
that I had downtown on 12th and Capitol Avenue.
They will send me a refund.
I did have time to read some things in the newspaper.
I now have three 160 GB hard drives.
They have a sale at Best Buy for $39.99
after rebates of $80.
I bought two at the store on 168 and Dodge tonight.
I was told that my niece at school in Lincoln (UNL)
was helping one of the students from Louisiana
around the campus the other day.
I guess they will be there for a few months to study.
Hey, good kid.
Way to go.
)
What do I have planned?
I don't know, but it will be an adventure.
Oh...
I have to take a picture of this sign
outside the church at 90 and Pacific.
I saw it yesterday afternoon.
"When you fast,
you are not to look glum
as the hypocrites do.
They change the appearance of their faces
so that others may see they are fasting.
I assure you, they are already repaid."
Matthew 6:16
It does not say "if you fast" ---
it says "when you fast."
It was a "given" to the followers of Jesus.
They fasted.
You go without food for a day.
Pick a day any day.
Go for it.
Try it.
It will help your prayer life.
It will change you.
(September 11, 2005 6:21 AM CDT)
I'm watering the yard this morning.
Jesus said,
You need to be connected.
(Update at 9:11 PM...
Here are 3 pictures from today.
This is the house I was telling you about
that I would like to buy one day.
It is valued at $288,400 with taxes of $6,200.
It has 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,606 sq. ft., and 3 car garage.
It was built in 1964.
It is currently owned by someone named Joseph.
This is the Vineyard Church that I attended today.
I met the pastor Scott.
He is a pretty cool guy.
I had nice pants, shirt and tie...he had jeans.
He helped at the Civic Auditorium
with the evacuated people from New Orleans.
He had all kinds of stories about these people.
Some were forced from their homes and put on a plane.
The music was great.
They had 9 people on the stage.
I took a look at their visitor's package and
they give away the same CD that I got in Costa Mesa.
Scott taught about prayer and fasting
and the gift of tongues.
At the end they asked people to come forward for prayer.
I went forward and prayed with the first person I found.
I asked Meredith to pray for a friend of mine
since her Mom died last week.
I pointed in a direction and said she lives
so many miles that a way.
Meredith was very nice and prayed for the whole family.
She prayed for peace.
Amen.
This is St. Robert Bellarmine church at 119 and Pacific.
A church bulletin says the new church will be ready
by next Easter.
A black security car came by as I was taking these 5 pictures
which I merged together.
The original church is to the right.
The school is to the left with cell phone tower equipment on it.
The school has a gym where they hold the church services.
)
It is dark out there.
You can still see the stars.
I think I spotted Orion.
I saw the newspaper guy driving along
throwing the papers out the window of his car.
That is not the way I did it
for 4 years on my paper route.
I put the paper as close
to their front door as possible.
When you can't drive your car
you get a new appreciation for it.
It takes a long time to walk to places.
The exercise is great, but it takes time to do it.
My muscles are hurting in my legs from riding the bike.
You see a lot of things that you don't normally notice.
Crossing busy streets is a little scary.
In my walk yesterday I stopped by
the church near 119th and Pacific.
It is under construction.
They hold services in the gym of the school.
I ran into Brother Jerome there.
He is part of the Intercessors of the Lamb in north Omaha.
I asked him to pray for a friend of mine,
since her Mom died a few days ago.
I used to go to this church 20 years ago,
but now I go to Boys Town usually.
Yesterday I bought two tickets over the phone
to a concert on October 21 in Lincoln.
I might actually get to see/hear Sara this year.
When I do drive my car lately I have been listening
to the CD of music for Vineyard Church.
I like 5 of the 7 songs on it.
I might go to the Vineyard Church today,
since I can drive my car again.
13305 I Street at 10 AM.
I looked it up on mapquest.com.
It is just west of the new Sam's Club and Wal-Mart.
Maybe they will give me a new CD.
Yesterday on my walk I saw this house.
20 years ago I thought about buying it.
I would walk by it every weekday
when I rode the express bus to work.
At the moment it is not for sale.
I wonder if I will ever buy it.
You just never know.
Sometimes your dreams do come true.
I saw the movie "Million Dollar Baby" yesterday.
I returned it to the video store as part of my walk.
I won't ever be seeing again.
It did so great for an hour and a half,
then there was this music...sinister music...
You knew something bad/mal was going to happen.
Why do they do that?
The first part was light, funny, interesting...
The second part was depressing, down, destroyed
the main characters they took 1.5 hours to introduce to us.
Here they were all fighters and
then they give up the fight of their lives.
It made no sense to me.
One of the main characters knows the right thing to do,
but does not do it.
The movie contradicts itself.
It took me about an hour to bounce back from seeing it.
It knocked me down...but I got right back up.
"I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who lives in me and I in him,
will produce abundantly,
for apart from me you can do nothing."
John 15:5
Jesus is your connection.
He will help you grow.
He will fight for you.
He will pick you up.
You will win.
You are the champion.
It is inside of you.
I know it.
(September 10, 2005 6:50 AM CDT)
I just could not wait to get today started.
Here is another reading from the funeral on September 7th.
I believe in Jesus.
I even cheered then the alarm went off at 4:59 AM.
Yeah...let the day begin...
I have a lot to do today and
it is going to be lots of fun.
This cost me $1.50 to show you this.
I went to the Omaha World-Herald on 14th and Dodge yesterday.
They have about a month of old newspapers in their lobby.
I found the 50th wedding anniversary announcement of
these two people that I know.
This is from Sunday, August 21, 2005 page 6-E.
It is copyrighted by the OWH.
It does not say anything about being a deacon.
I will have to take them to dinner some evening and celebrate.
You can hold your mouse over the picture and
you get 4 arrows to expand it so you can read it better.
You can do this on all the pictures of S2L you view
in an Internet Explorer browser.
Blow them up and take a good look.
Hey...the sun is up...7:19 AM...
I just rode my bike round the block and
watched the sun come up.
I was shifting gears for the first time.
They are not too bad.
They are different than shifting gears on my old bike.
I will need my bike today.
It is an NCD...No Car Day.
I can't drive my car today.
I need that bike to get around.
But I'm crying because I can't go to the party tonight.
It is WAY too far away to ride a bike to.
I will have to call my brother and tell him that I can't make it.
Hopefully someday I will learn about the bike trails and
get into shape to go 10 or 20 miles at a time.
He lives in Bellevue and I think you just follow
the bike trail along a creek to get way down there
from Omaha.
Two nights in a row I drove the length of Harrison Street
from 168th to 127th in the dark going east
and then got on Interstate 80 East.
I don't see too well at night, but...
at about 133rd and Harrison on the south side
someone has white rope lights
on the deck of their house.
You can't miss them.
There were two parties on the last two nights.
Last night I got to see this baby that was born on
July 13, 2005 at 1:18 AM.
Hi...welcome to the world...
I just printed out an 8 by 10 picture of her.
She is so cute.
She was asleep the whole time I was there.
That bridge south of 168 and Harrison
is scary to drive over.
You wonder if you will make it.
I will have to take a picture of it and show you.
And I've gained two more pounds from all these parties.
I definitely need to ride my bike today.
I'm told that my bike is the $200 K-Mart special.
The guy next to me at work has a $2K bike.
OK.
I'm not there yet.
I do wonder about what I should do if I get a flat tire.
Will AAA come and rescue me?
I could call them with my cell phone.
I have a flat tire on such and such bike trail...
I bet they would laugh.
It definitely would be easy to tow it away.
Just throw it on the back of the tow truck.
I did make it to the hospital yesterday.
My friend has a nice view out the north window
near 84th and Dodge.
I took her the African violet
that I had bought at Lowes's on August 27th.
She needed it more than me.
Now I have to go buy another one.
I used to always give friends African violets
when I was going to school in Lincoln.
Lately downtown at lunchtime people from the
Woodmen Tower have been collecting for the Red Cross.
I make it a point to give every one of them a $1
and tell them they are doing great work.
They stand there for an hour and do that.
They don't work for the Red Cross
they work in the Woodmen Tower.
God bless them.
And one told me...God bless you too.
A few days ago I sent in a check to the Qwest Foundation
and they said they will match it to the Red Cross.
Great.
Can you tell I took notes?
Jesus said,
"It is the will of him who sent me
that I should lose nothing of what he has given me;
rather, that I should raise it up on the last day.
Indeed, this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who looks upon the Son
and believes in him
shall have eternal life.
Him I will raise up on the last day."
John 6:39-40
I believe he will raise me up on the last day.
I will one day be with him in heaven.
I pray for you that you will believe in Jesus.
You need him.
You cannot save yourself.
You need Jesus.
He is your only hope.
...time to mow the lawn...bye...
(September 9, 2005 6:10 AM CDT)
I found out yesterday that someone I used to work with
From page 1269 of my Bible...
There he is.
had a heart attack this week.
Please, pray for them.
I need to go visit them in the hospital.
Yesterday I was out walking to the ATM machine at 12:25 PM
and someone honked and waved at me at 16th and Douglas.
I waved back and so did the person next to me.
It was my favorite sister.
She was going back to work.
The odds are that the person next to me
probably did not know my sister.
It was just a reaction.
You wave back even if you do not recognize
the person instantly.
There are 6 people that I love (the "L" word, C3)
who have birthdays in September.
That is why I had one party at my house last year.
We had birthday party number one last night for my niece
at their place.
She is 11.
We got her a card, a CD player and batteries.
I should have wrapped the gifts.
I screwed up.
Well, I still have 5 more chances to get it right.
Her Dad has this huge Toshiba TV.
What is with these huge TVs?
It is like peer pressure to go buy one.
They have a cat that I am "deathly" allergic to.
I can only take about 30 minutes in their house
and then I sneeze uncontrollably with watery eyes.
Cake number 1 is gone.
I brought them a frozen cake and
B3T/BBBT (Blue Bunny Bunny Tracks) ice cream.
I bought the CD player at a store near 132 and Maple.
Daiva helped us find the gift.
We looked at a few things.
She had an accent.
She was from Lithuania, if I got that right.
She said it was in the middle of Europe.
I need to take a look at a map.
She married someone here in the USA and
has been living here 7 years.
Interesting.
Elizabeth checked us out.
She had a cross on.
She asked about the cross my Mom was wearing.
"'Lord,' Philip said to Jesus,
'show us the Father and
that will be enough for us.'
'Philip,' Jesus replied,
'after I have been with you all this time,
you still do not know me?'"
John 14:8-9
He is honking at you.
Are you going to wave back?
Do you acknowledge Jesus?
Get to know him.
That will be enough.
(September 8, 2005 6:05 AM CDT)
(Update at 9:55 PM:
Yesterday is what I call a non-stop day.
This is one of the Bible readings yesterday from the funeral.
You belong to the Lord.
Here is a picture from about 8 AM today on a car
at 13th and Douglas Streets just outside the
building where I work.
And I say to God...what about 2007?
What is significant about 2007?
I always talk about retiring in 2007.
Here is the answer to the number of their
wedding anniversary...50 years.
Congratulations to Bud and Lois.
And you know how old they are...
72...a biblical number for sure...
Any you know their birthdays to send them a card.
I took this picture at about 6 PM today.
)
It takes off running and does not stop.
You can see I was up until 10:30 PM
which is late for me.
You could not fit anything else into the day.
Last night when I got home I got out my new bicycle
and was test driving it up and down my street
in the dark with my good clothes on from the funeral.
It rides nice.
I then took a look at the warnings on the bike.
It said to not ride in the dark...duh...oh my...
It said to wear a helmet which I don't have.
I also went to Blockbuster Video
to find the movie "Always" from 1989.
They did not have it.
The guys there suggested going online and
buying it at overstock.com, bizrate.com or half.com.
Holly Hunter is supposed to have said
some word in this movie when she was crying and
I wanted to see/hear it myself.
It was another word for coincidence.
I have a picture of that couple who are still alive
that have their names engraved at the cemetery.
The picture was in my north bedroom on the dresser.
They look so young.
It is from a wedding at St. Margaret Mary's church
62 and Dodge in Omaha about 20 years ago.
He is a deacon at a church somewhere in the Omaha area.
He was a deacon at that time.
In fact their picture was in the newspaper within
the last month.
They had a wedding anniversary, maybe 40 years?
(The answer is 50 years.)
Their wedding date is engraved on the stone,
but I don't recall what it said.
I will have to take another look today.
I was almost in a traffic accident at 7:21 AM.
See what happens when you don't get enough sleep.
We just missed each other by a few feet.
I kept waiting for the sound of impact,
but somehow I got by them without touching them.
So I still have my perfect record of no accidents
thanks to the angels.
Thank the Lord.
He is so good to me...he is.
"For if we live,
we live to the Lord.
Or if we die,
we die to the Lord.
If therefore we live or die,
we are the Lord's."
Romans 14:8
You are his.
Live for the Lord.
Die for the Lord.
Your faith will save you.
Trust in Jesus Christ and you shall live.
(September 7, 2005 6:02 AM CDT)
(Update at 10:00 PM:
Yesterday I overslept...
Jesus said,
Wake up.
Here are some pictures from today.
This is from 78th and Center at 7:30 AM.
It is a south-west-north view.
As always the cars don't hold still.
It had just rained and they were watering the lawn.
On the left are my car and the mortuary where
my sister's wake was held in 1998.
This is the view to the west in the center
where I saw the sundog.
You look at this and I thought to myself
what a perfect day for a funeral.
It was dreary, overcast, raining, thunder, etc.
Next is a picture at 7:30 PM of 20th and Cuming Street
looking west into the sunset for today.
The end of the day and
what a day it was.
I was going from the SFH to the cemetery.
The cemetery was still open at 7:45 PM.
I wanted to see the final resting place.
It was very nice...very peaceful.
There were even chairs to sit down.
I was the only one there.
I sat there for a few minutes and said a prayer and
looked at all the many names on the walls.
Some of the names were even people that I knew
that were still alive.
I guess they are planning ahead.
I did not see the name of the person I was looking for.
They have to engrave it.
)
now how could that happen?
I did reset the time on the radio/alarm clock
in the north bedroom,
but I did not activate the alarm.
I kept waiting for an alarm that was never to happen.
Then I saw there was daylight outside...6:42 AM.
I was to pickup my Mom at 7 AM,
so I called to tell her there was no way I could make it.
When I got home from the wake last night
there was a different bicycle in my garage.
My brother had dropped it off
out of the clear blue sky (cbs).
(This morning you can hear the thunder in Omaha.)
I have not had a chance to even touch it.
I think he said it was a mountain bike,
so now I can go riding with the President,
just like Lance.
At the wake I met a number of people
that I have only seen in pictures or heard about.
Keep praying for the family.
I sat with two people that I work with.
We talked about picking out a church to attend
or starting a Bible study in a house.
All 3 of us are interested in the Bible.
I told them about
Vineyard Church
in Omaha.
I have never been there.
I have been to the one in
Costa Mesa, California
.
Vineyard is known for their music.
It is international.
I have one of their CDs.
I got it for free one time in Costa Mesa.
I will have to dig it out...found it.
I will listen to it in my car today.
I wonder if iTunes carries Vineyard Music.
They do!
I just downloaded one of my favorite songs.
"Hungry (Falling On My Knees)"
by Kathryn Scott.
(Kathryn is another one of my favorite names.)
Let me see if I can find a sample of it
on the Internet for you to hear.
I found it.
Just click the link above and
"Play" next to the song's name.
Kathryn's home is
Portstewart, Northern Ireland
.
I had my camera with me last evening,
but I did not see any rainbows
with the off/on rain we were having.
That happened at the wake for my sister back in 1998.
We saw
sundogs/parhelia
in the western sky
from 78th and West Center Road.
"Everyone who practices evil
hates the light;
he does not come near it
for fear his deeds will be exposed.
But he who acts in truth
comes into the light,
to make clear
that his deeds are done in God."
John 3:20-21
The light is coming.
What are you waiting for?
Don't hide.
Listen...the Lord is calling you.
Come near.
See what he is all about.
He is light.
Come and see.
It is clear.
(September 6, 2005 ?:?? AM CDT)
I don't know what time it is.
These words came to my mind yesterday.
Yesterday I got out my yellow bicycle from the garage and
The electricity was out in my house yesterday for 27 minutes.
The Bible reading today is the same
Jesus told Martha:
We trust in Jesus.
I hope it is near 5 AM and the day would begin
and get going.
I have a rule that I can't look at the clock
until my clock radio goes off at 4:59 AM.
I have a post-it note over the lower right
corner of my computer monitor which shows the time.
I'm listening to "All Night Long" by Lionel Richie.
All night long I have been having problems sleeping.
I do actually fall asleep at times.
My nose is running from allergies.
I am sniffling and my eyes are watering.
It was about 5:30 PM yesterday and I finally sat down
to read the morning paper.
It was the only paper for the day to be printed.
I usually get the evening paper on Mondays,
but it was a holiday.
It had been sitting in my south bedroom all day.
It was like a time bomb just waiting to explode.
It was there all day as I did all these things around my house.
There is was.
Someone's name was in the newspaper.
For many months I had her name misspelled.
I had 4 letters and it is 6 letters.
on a piece of paper in my shirt pocket.
It was a reminder to pray for her.
Lately I've been carrying 6 pieces of 8.5 by 11 paper
folded 3 times to size 2.75 by 4.25.
The paper with her name also has my cousin's
address in Centerville, Ohio.
So it goes back to when my Uncle died in Ohio.
We were at my cousin's house on March 11, 2005.
Wow...beautiful house.
There...I fixed the spelling of her name
on that piece of paper.
I never met her in person that I can recall.
You wonder though...we probably crossed paths a few times.
We both lived in Omaha for many years.
I did go to her church for a year back in 1975/1976.
(I lived on 67th and Grover at the time in an apartment
with one of my brothers.
It was a brand-new apartment.)
We probably were there at the same time at least once.
That is an interesting thought...
we prayed together a few times.
I might have even shook her hand in church.
I read that obituary in disbelief.
I knew it was going to happen.
I had been watching the obituaries
very closely the last few days.
My reaction was to call her daughter.
There was no hesitation.
I did not think about the action at all.
I picked up the phone and called her.
Caller ID says/announces who you are.
She knew it was me.
She knew I would call.
Just a few words about seeing her Mom
in the newspaper just now...
I could not talk.
She could not talk.
It is amazing how you can think so much
and you can't say a word.
Death just is very tough to experience.
It reminded me of October 6, 1998
when I called my Aunt in Ohio to
tell her that my sister had died.
You get a few words out and that is it.
It is there for you to read on S2L:
"October 7, 1998 6:08 AM CDT
This morning I am in shock..."
I tell you death is big.
So pray for her and her family today.
God be with all of them.
It will be very hard the next few days.
Thanks...thank you very much.
Your prayers make a difference.
See the last paragraph of the poem.
"Into each life some rain must fall..."
-The Rainy Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
shined it up with Windex and pumped both tires up
and I went out riding around my neighborhood
exploring the bike trails.
I was
Lance Armstrong
for a few minutes.
There are LOTS of wild sunflowers on those bike paths.
I will take a picture of them and show you...
if the sun would just come up.
Whatever time it is...
it is still very dark outside.
Sunrise today is at 6:55 AM here in Omaha.
I had to reset 5 clocks at 7 PM last night.
Good thing I remembered that.
I would have been in my own time zone.
Scary to think about that.
I turned off all the circuit breakers in the basement.
My brother helped me install a new thermostat
with the help of flashlights and a power drill.
Power drills are fun.
When I was a kid I drilled holes in wood all the time
with my Dad's electric drill.
The thermostat has all kinds of settings for different
days of the week and times of day.
I set all the temperatures to 78 F degrees.
It will be more important in the wintertime
to turn down the temperature when I am gone and
warm it up before I get home.
It takes 3 batteries to drive it.
We also fixed the fence in the rain on the south
side of the house.
A piece had broken apart.
I bought it at Lowe's on August 27.
I had an umbrella out to keep us dry.
The rain was not predicted.
I take that back...the newspaper did predict it.
My brother and neighbor on the south side
both said the rain had not been predicted.
as the one I picked for October 7, 1998.
"I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me,
though he should die,
will come to life;
and whoever is alive and
believes in me will never die."
John 11:25-26
We trust in his promises.
We believe in him.
He is our hope.
Yes, there is death in this life,
but there is the promise of heaven.
It is real.
I believe it.
One day we will all be together again.
Bye...I'm going back to sleep...
(September 5, 2005 6:21 AM CDT)
(Update at 4:05 PM:
I have a piece of light green paper (green piece)
Jesus told a story.
He did.
I forgot to show you the pictures of Lake Manawa
in CB from yesterday afternoon.
1) It's a sailboat race.
2) Guy doing wheelies with a skidoo.
3) Sailboats with two buildings of downtown Omaha
in the background.
1) 
2) 
3) 
)
8.5 by 11 folded in half and it says on it:
NO CAR TODAY
So I'm not going to drive my car at all today.
I need to put some air in the bicycle tires
in the garage.
(clap) Pump... you up
, as they used to say on SLN.
(Said with an Arnold Schwartzenegger/Schwarzenegger accent.
They misspelled his name on this link above.)
Can I survive without a car for a day?
I paid $2.90 per gallon for gas yesterday in CB.
It is getting way too high.
And I'm going to look into riding the bus
to work tomorrow.
I'm looking at the
bus schedules
.
Several years ago I would just drive to the Crossroads
at 72nd and Dodge and catch the bus there
to get to downtown.
It gives you a lot of time to read.
I read many of the
William Barclay's
books on the bus.
I have a few copies of his books
on the bookcase here in the computer room.
Did you know...
"There's a tradition in New Orleans to keep a/an axe in the attic."
That way you can escape the rising waters.
I did not know that.
I heard that yesterday.
And more trivia...
We went to a jewelry store yesterday with my Mom.
They used Windex "No Spot" to get a ring off.
I could not believe it.
It took at least 5 minutes to get it off.
Well...it worked.
But very strange.
And more trivia...
Lately people are using the word
"prolly"
on the Internet instead of probably.
Well, you prolly won't see me using prolly
on my web site anytime soon.
I'm mean that is weird.
People really spell it that way?
I was listening and watching the Paul McCartney DVD
last evening at my brother's house.
He has a big TV and the speakers are awesome.
I think my computer can play it.
Please, stand by...
Nope...it did not work.
I have to switch the cables inside the PC around.
It is not seeing the DVD drive at the moment.
Sunset in Moscow the day of the concert
May 24, 2003 was 9:51 PM.
(Sunset yesterday in Moscow was 8:16 PM.
Sunset in Omaha yesterday was 7:52 PM.)
Part of the concert is in daylight and part in darkness.
You do see the sunset at one point in a song.
The concert started at 8:30 PM.
This morning I thought about letting a family
from Louisiana (
loUiSiAna
, USA) stay at my house.
I wonder if that is getting too "carried away".
I'm thinking about it.
They are doing it in Texas.
God bless Texas.
I am doing research this morning on
"Rachelisms"
.
"You have the freedom to be yourself,
your true self,
here and now,
and nothing can stand in your way."
I will let you know what I find out.
I do remember Rachel saying...
"I was born on my birthday."
It's almost time to wake the neighbors and mow the lawn.
"The owner of the vineyard asked himself,
'What am I to do now?
Perhaps if I send the son I love,
they will respect him.'"
Luke 20:13
God sent his only Son to us.
Jesus came and lived among us.
He knew how to use an axe.
He was one of us.
He had nowhere to sleep at night sometimes.
He relied on others for a place to stay.
His family had to flee to Egypt at one point.
He was a refugee.
(September 4, 2005 6:22 AM CDT)
Yesterday around 2 PM I got my car back.
Jesus said,
The lights are out in New Orleans.
The brake light is fixed.
Everything that could shine was shining inside and out.
It was the Lexus detail job.
Anne told me she vacuumed the trunk
and I thought of all the stuff in the trunk...
oh my...
sorry about that...
It only cost $497.50.
Well...it's better than those monthly car payments.
The mileage went from 5511 to 5548...
37 miles I put on the purple car.
Here is a before/after picture of my two cars
taken at the same spot at Girls and Boys Town
a half hour apart yesterday afternoon.
Which one do you like the best?
Ignore the gold letters on the passenger door
of the left one.
They both really shine.
I started writing this today on my new hard drive,
but I could not edit the pictures above,
so I'm back on my old hard drive.
I have a lot of things to copy over and install.
I also needed Microsoft Word to spell-check.
The song today that is playing over and over
in my head this morning?
It's Martina McBride's "Independence Day".
I heard it on the radio Friday night and
Saturday morning scanning the radio
in that purple car and
it is just sticking with me for some reason.
I wonder if I have it on my old hard drive.
Nope...I did not find.
Well...now I have it...thanks to iTunes.
In reading many newspapers yesterday
I ran across ICE.
Have you heard of it?
ICE stands for
In Case of Emergency
.
They want you to program this on your cell phone
to call the ICE person.
Here is some real trivial trivia as I listen
to Sara Evan's "Let's Dance" (and now
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Mary Jane's Last Dance").
Sara will be in Dallas on September 16th, 7:30 PM
at the Smirnoff Music Centre, 1818 First Ave,
Dallas, TX 75210, 214-421-1111.
Well...it's not just Sara...
Alan Jackson and his frayed jeans will be there too.
He even gets top billing.
Here...look at what I found in reading our local newspaper of
Tuesday, August 30, 2005, page 7-B yesterday.
It is from
The New Jersey Record
of August 5, 2005.
It is copyrighted by them.
One of them coincidences again.
One of my errands yesterday was to get some more Allegra.
Would be believe the pharmacist at the Walgreens
on 30th and Dodge gave me 5 pills for free?
Free drugs.
Of course, I have to go back for the other 25 next week.
Then I went to NFM (Nebraska Furniture Mart)
and talked to Rob about getting a new PC
for connecting to work and doing other things.
He printed out two pieces of paper of information.
I just need to read them.
$580 just for the
Compaq Presario SR1550NX
desktop tower.
A quick check of the Internet and
you can get a better price than that.
AMD Athion 64 3400+ Processor
2.4 GHz
512 MB memory.
200 GB hard drive.
4x DVD +- RW.
24x CD RW.
"You are the light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Men do not light a lamp
and put it under a bushel basket.
They set it on a stand
where it gives light to all in the house.
In the same way,
your light must shine before men
so that they may see goodness in your acts
and give praise to your heavenly Father."
Matthew 5:13-16
It is a scary place to be right now.
Would you do something?
I want you to shine.
Light up your world.
That is why you are here.
Shine on, brother/sister.
(September 3, 2005 6:38 AM CDT)
I have to write fast.
"My God in turn will supply your needs fully,
You have been blessed.
I am at home connected to my work computer.
It is a VPN connection.
VPN frees up my phone line at home.
And it is faster than my dialup connection.
Cool...very cool.
I got it working last night at 11 PM.
I had to buy a new hard drive to accomplish this.
I went to Sams Club on 132nd and L Streets
at about 8 PM last night.
I got a Western Digital 160 GB drive,
but in real life this turns out to be only 127 GB.
It cost about $85 including tax.
That is under a $1 per gigabyte.
I was driving a 2005 Lexus ES300 to get there.
It is dark purple.
I don't like the color...it's too dark.
Anne at Lexus gave me this car
last evening at 5:38 PM.
It is sitting in my garage right now.
It is a nice car.
Well, that is all I can write for the moment.
I have to take that car for a spin.
...
Continued at 9:34 AM
...
They said at church this morning that one of the kids at
Girls and Boys Town lost their parents in the hurricane.
Pray for that family.
Some of the locations they have are in
San Antonio, Texas
and New Orleans, Louisiana.
I have to take the car back at 1 PM today.
I don't want to get too attached to it.
I think that is a trick they use on you.
You get the "I have to have a new car" feeling,
just driving it around town for a day.
My 8 year old car is fine, if I ever get it back.
Yesterday was real stressful without a car.
I felt stranded.
Then I thought about the people that were without
a house or apartment in Louisiana or wherever they are.
Some are even coming to Omaha to continue in school.
The mirror in the car tells you what direction you are going.
That would be useful when you travel, but I fly to places.
The doors automatically lock when you put it in drive.
That is an improvement.
It has a CD player which I tested out with
Michael Jackson and Thriller.
The music sounds great.
I used that same CD before I bought my Lexus
on January 30, 2001.
Anne says they fixed the brake light.
It was on almost constantly yesterday morning.
She said that once she lost her brakes on Saddle Creek.
She went through some traffic lights,
but thankfully no one was there.
She wears contacts.
I told her that I tried contacts, but they bother my eyes.
I never got used to them.
That car has/had 5511 miles on it.
I'm putting on a bunch more with my errands this morning.
It is parked in the driveway now.
The garage door opener is in the other car.
I wonder if I could do Anne's job.
I will be retiring in a few years.
I am looking around for possibilities.
And I did not look at the clock all night long.
I waited for the clock/radio to wake me at 4:59 AM
with the strange/different music of 98.5 FM.
Every once in a while I recognize the song,
but usually not.
Why 98.5 FM?
I have to get up and turn it off.
Harry was real nice this morning and gave me a brochure
for a 2006 Camry.
Maybe in 3 years I will buy a 2006 Camry.
I told him he was up very early to be selling cars
before 8 in the morning.
He gave me his card.
He handwrote his name on this card
and crossed out someone else's name (Scott).
I'm not too impressed.
You wonder what happened to Scott.
Did he get fired or quit or what?
He asked me what I drive and I said a Lexus.
I mentioned it was the lowest car for consumer complaints.
He said Lexus is made by Toyota also.
Yes, I knew that.
We are "in the family."
Hey, I've got iTunes working on my new hard drive.
Little by little I am copying things over.
When I get everything copied I will reformat
the 80 GB hard drive that I have and
try to load Windows XP Professional on that,
just like I did with the 160 GB drive.
There is a lot to copy and it will take weeks.
I loaded Google Toolbar and Google Desktop.
It is indexing what little there is on the new hard drive.
From page 1390 of my Bible it says...
in a way worthy of his magnificent riches
in Christ Jesus.
All glory to our God and Father
for unending ages!
Amen."
Philippians 4:19-20
Over and over you have been blessed.
Share with those who are hurting now.
Be the hands and feet of Jesus in 2005.
Do what the Lord calls you to do.
And give the glory to God.
(September 2, 2005 6:13 AM CDT)
What am I listening to this morning?
Jesus said,
I tell you the answer is Jesus.
"Alive and Kicking"
by Simple Minds.
You can hear 29 seconds of the song
on Track 4 on this link.
I heard it on the radio at work yesterday.
Yes, I have a radio/CD/tape player at work now.
You can pre-set 20 radio stations on it.
Do we even have 20 in Omaha?
I only have 10 stations set.
That is how I scan.
And all the stations don't come in very well.
Anyway...this song was playing over and over
in my (simple) mind this morning.
I downloaded it on iTunes.
The
bridge
(a music theory term)
at 3:37 in the song is awesome.
It gives me goose bumps.
The lyrics ask very interesting questions:
"What you gonna do when things go wrong?"
"Who's gonna save you?"
"I am the way,
and the truth,
and the life..."
John 14:6
He will save you.
He is the one to turn to when things go wrong.
He is alive.
He is there for you.
Time to go (6:47 AM).
Off on a new adventure.
I'm taking my car to the Lexus dealer today...
within the hour.
(September 1, 2005 6:11 AM CDT)
(Update at 8:21 PM:
I'm late today.
Here is that gas station in Springfield
that I told you about.
I drove way out there this morning to get
a picture of the $2.55 gas station.
Well, it did not exist.
Look at these pictures from about 8 AM this morning.
I guess that teaches you that you can't always
believe everything you read on the Internet.
See.
It cost me at least $2.55 to get these pictures.
My car only gets 20 miles per gallon.
I easily put 20 miles on the car getting there and
back to civilization...I mean back to work.
No, I did not see any of the Julies today,
but I did see Dr. Watts and he checked me all over
and said there is no sign of the skin cancer returning.
(Here is a flashback:
I had surgery on my left ear
on Thursday, February 13th, 2003.
He removed a spot of skin cancer.
I remember it very well.
I remember being outside 5 minutes at a time
shoveling the snow a few days after the surgery.
It took many trips outside.
I was crazy.
But somehow I survived.
I recall people at work maybe that next Monday
looking at all the bandages on my ear.
What a sight.)
Dr. Watts said come back in 6 months and see Julie.
He did.
I was not to see him I was to see Julie.
He was not interested in the topic of Corona Del Mar
or trips to California.
He was all business this morning.
I could not joke or kid around with him at all.
I told him about getting sunburned at Universal Studios
and he was not too concerned.
He checked under my chin and under my arms.
That was different.
I don't think he's ever done that before.
He was feeling around for something that,
thank the Lord, is not there.
)
Sorry.
This morning I flipped the page on my 3 calendars
around the house (kitchen, south bedroom, computer room).
September.
One of my favorite months.
When I was a teenage I used to think about
getting married in September.
Yesterday the price of gas in my neighborhood was $3.29
to start the day and ended at $2.99 when I got home.
It is just like the Stock Market.
There was talk on the radio yesterday of web sites
that tell you where to buy gas at.
Here's a web site I just found...
www.omahagasprices.com
.
$2.55 is the lowest I see at the Conoco at
Platteview Road and US 50.
Is that in Springfield???
I think so.
Remember on July 2nd I wrote about Platteview Road.
That guy was lost and trying to find it.
But the prices change during the course of the day.
The calendar in my south bedroom says I have an
appointment with Dr. Watts and the 3 Julies this morning.
He did save my life one day.
I think I'm going to give him this picture I printed of
Corona Del Mar on August 18th at Kinkos.
It is just sitting around my house here on the floor
of my computer room.
I should frame it for him.
I have to go now.
Pray for Dr. Watts and all the people in his office.
