Fine Fine Fine... Grant says I need a new blog post, so here it is!


Kids are growing up way too fast these days, and I don't mean it in a physical way. There seems to be some weird expectation that kids have to be little adults. I sort of understand the idea of getting a young kid a cell phone. You can keep a better eye on them that way. There there is far too much emphasis on kids dressing like their semi-pornographic idols from music videos. I am repeatedly astonished by the number of parents who apparently agree to their children dressing in incredibly revealing clothes. I know that I probably sound like everyones parents now, but hey, did you ever stop to think that they might be right?

Think about it

See ya

Geoff

Wow!

We went to the Maritime Christian Youth Conference this past weekend, and it was great! The downside to it was that there were too many people there. And the only reason that was a downside was that most of the guys had to sleep on the floor in the gym.

Now I don't know about you, but sharing a gym floor with 50 or so guys is not my idea of a great time. Especially when many of them snore. A buddy of mine was there and we set up our bedrolls beside each other. Had a good chat, calmed our guys down, then went to sleep.

Well at least he went to sleep. And snored.

We made two very important discoveries this weekend. 1 is that my friend has sleep apnea ( http://www.cpapman.com/disorder.htm ) which means that he snores TERRIBLY and also that he stops breathing while he is a sleep. That is pretty scary.

The second discovery was that people who are near people who have sleep apnea may never get to sleep.

He is my friend....but I could have cheerfully done him in by 4 am. Of course to be fair, he could have done me in because I kept poking him to stop the snoring.

I think I finally understand my wife poking me all these years.


Anyway, the rest on the conference was great, the kids had a good time, saw old friends and made some new ones, and best of all God was glorified!

See ya

Geoff

For those of you who know me well, you will be shocked by what I say next.....



Curse You Coca-Cola!!!

Last night my wife and I watched LOST. Its just about the only show I make an effort to watch. We had a bag of chips to share and I had purchased a 2 litre bottle of Lime Coke as well.

The show starts at 9 and runs 1 hour. In that time I drank approx 1 litre of Coke. Thus I have been awake since 7 am yesterday morning....sigh.

Now here is the thing. I know its not really Coke's fault, I know that I am the one that poured it into the glass and then drank it. Its very easy to blame someone or something else for our problems. I need to stop doing that.

Well... at least I will sleep well tonight.

See ya later

Geoff

Today I am my dog's hero.

Its garbage day here, and so our garbage cans were by the side of the road. They had already been picked clean by the garbage collectors and their dissicated corpses were rolling in the chill wind.

Jack (the beagle in question) was put out on his tether, and discovered this macabre scene. Thereupon he set up a racket, baying with all his might to alert us (and the entire neighbourhood) of the fate consigned upon our poor garbage cans. This was the scene as I came out to investigate:

Jack was crouched almost at the end of the line, barking furiously, and baying occasionally at the garbage can remains. The wind was blowing one of the cans back and forth, and when it would edge towards Jack, his bark would change to a bay and he would edge back towards the house until the can in question rolled back a bit.

I brought Jack into the house. He immediately lept to the window as I went out, and moved the garbage cans to their accustomed places.

When I came into the house Jack greeted me with honour and praise, rejoicing in the restoration of all things.

Today, I am my dogs hero :-)

See ya later

Geoff

Same day, not too much later. Did you ever wonder if beagles really know that when they give you that sad-eye'd look that it has an emotional effect? My beagle seems to do it on purpose. He also wanted out (he was bored)(its true...beagles get bored) and my wife did'nt want to get up and let him out so she said no. He looked at her a minute or two and then deciding that she was serious, he walked over to my desk, took a pen, went to the door and lay down with it. Here is the thing....

He pretended to chew it so that she would come over. When my wife got to him it was obvious that he hadn't chewed the pen (he also knows that he gets in trouble for that) and he hopped to his feet and looked eagerly at the door.

He got to go out.


See ya later

Geoff

Two days in a row. I personally am astounded and astonished. Today being Sunday we went to corporate worship. That just means church. But it bugs me to say church because then everybody pictures what they think church is . And ours isn't like that. Hammonds Plains Christian Church is a recent start up. There really aren't a lot of rules to starting a church except worship God. So we do.

I work with the kids and families. Thats why they call me the Family Minister I guess :-) We have the "Construction Zone for the kids pre-school to grade 4 and a class for the older kids too. This takes place after the main service starts. When I arrived I was both startled and impressed at the level of teaching that the children were recieving. One of the nice things about a new church is that people don't know what you aren't supposed to be able to do, so they go ahead and do it anyway. The grade 3 and 4 class was doing a comparison through the synoptic gospels of the torments of Jesus prior to the cruxifixion. The teacher sat and quietly worked while the kids did the research.

This place is SO cool!

Anyway see ya later!

Geoff

It has been a year and a half since I last posted something here. In fact I had forgotten about it entirely until I found an old link to it. Much has happened in that year and a half. We moved to a different province, I have a different job and we are now (trumpet music) in the process of buying a house!

Fear and trembling have become a part of my daily existace. The truth of the matter is that I am a financial coward. I have done some very dangerous things in my life, I have faced down armed attackers, I have fought fires (from inside the fire) in forests and homes. I have worked to rescucitate the dead and have intervened in suicide attempts. But nothing so far has caused me fear and anxiety as the idea of buying a house.

More on this later. Its good to be back.

See ya!