OPA!

Opa
1:

a word that greek people use for no apparent reason at all

greeak dude #1:wanna dance
greek dude #2 : OPA!

2:

a Greek word used to describe a jubilant emotion of/during 'celebration'.

Examples:
"hooray!"
"He-- yeah!"
"Yeehaw!"
"Come on, be a man, take another shot of Ouzo... OPA!"

Diane and I went out and tried this little Greek Restaurant called OPA! tonight We were going to try the ZinBurger place at River and Campbell, but it was much too crowded, so we gave this joint a shot. I wouldn't have thought of it, but we saw it as we drove down Campbell.

It is a Greek place, I am not a Greek food aficionado, but I found the atmosphere pleasant, the food tasty and the staff helpful. Many of the people there seemed to be regulars, which to me is a good sign.

The lowlight of the dinner was when they brought out our flaming cheese appetizer. It was good, but they didn't warn us that the flaming cheese would draw the attention of the entire place and everyone would shout "OPA!" as it was served. Oh well, it was kinda fun.

We also grabbed a Starbucks and cruised the bookstore, which is fun for us until we realize that we probably aren't going to buy any of the books there and really don't have time to read any of them at the store. At that point, it just makes your back hurt and we went back home.

Opa!

There's Bats in The Belfry

According to some around here, I left out one of the best parts of our Holiday weekend. I got four days off for the Christmas holiday, from Saturday thru Tuesday evening. On Saturday, we spent the day doing some last minute holiday shopping stuff. When we got home, I was sent out to the store to pick up something for a pie baking marathon the girls were involved in.

When I walked in the door, the dogs began to go a little crazy. Diane then put them away and let me know that I let a bat into the house. I am typically a fairly brave guy, with the exception of when I am faced with rodents. Once I opened the barbecue grill and was faced down by some nasty little swamp rat. I am surprised the neighbors didn't not call the police. Then there was that mouse in our kitchen when we lived in Safford. Fortunately, it could not get up on the counter.

Back to Saturday night: After I let out a couple of shrieks, I started looking for a broom. I had seen a boss of mine chase around a bat in his furniture store one time, so figured this was the best thing to use to deal with wayward bats. But, I had to settle for the collapsible dog crate to swat at the foul thing with. You see, many people may not know this, but rodents are trying to touch you. Those rat things want to jump on you, mice want to run up your leg and this bat wanted to land on me. I was not about to let it. I continued to swat at it furiously until Diane told me that, if I did hit it, she would be so mad at me. But I still wasn't about to let that thing land on or touch anyone.

Finally, it landed on the wall and Diane put a box over it and took it outside. She thought it was very cute, so I had to run to get the camera. Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera, the thing had flown off to terrorize someone else. That is why the picture is of a similar bat, but not the same one that tried to land on us. I do have some good spider pictures I got at Sabino Canyon. Spiders are mostly harmless, unless you sit on them or something like that.

In any case, there are those who thought that it should be shared that we had a bat in the house. There are also those that thought it was funny to ask my daughter who screamed the most and to see her point at me. But, history will vindicate me when my children face the world with the knowledge that their Dad kept a bat from landing on them.

Our Christmas

Our Christmas Celebration this year was at Diane's Aunt and Uncle's house on Sunday. They live in Saddlebrook, which is actually in the next county up, so it was about an hour drive to get there. We watched It's a Wonderful Life while we were there. It's kind of an annual tradition for us to watchIt's a Wonderful Life.

Joining us was Diane's Grandpa (pictured here when he was younger). He is the one who celebrated his 100th birthday this year.


The other pictures are a hike we all took together at Sabino Canyon on Christmas Eve. We didn't have any invites for Christmas Day, not did we invite anyone over, other than Diane parents, who brought us some cinnamon roles for breakfast.

Emily and I also made some Runza's, which are a food of midwestern/German origins. It consists of a roll with meat and other stuff inside. It took us about 3 hours to make them, so that took up most of our day. The neighbor's son also brought us a new soccer ball and a frisbee, so we went to the park to try it out. That was about it. Hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas.

It should be fun, but it isn't...and no, neither one of those people are me, I swear it.

Diane and I went and did Christmas shopping today. As we were out, we began to wonder why people felt the need to do this. Yes, we had most of our Christmas shopping done, but the few things we hadn't gotten just had to be purchased before Christmas. I didn't really mind the crowds so much and we were able to provide entertainment for several people in the lines, but the whole experience was kind of draining.

Along those lines, I think the retail stores that want to go the extra mile should provide some jugglers or live musicians or something to entertain people in lines at Christmas. Or in the return lines after Christmas.

But, not everyone has a bad time......

Emily and I were at Costco the other day. After we were done shopping, we took a ride on our cart down the slope in the parking lot. The thing actually got going pretty good. When we got into our car, we saw an older gentleman with a balding top and in a suit taking the same ride. It is good to know that some people can still drag some fun out of everyday tasks.

The Old To Do list

There have been some things I have been meaning to get around to. I, for all the usual reasons, don't like the idea of New Year's resolutions. However, here are some things that I need to get on top of in the coming year:

I am working on a Master's in Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth. The whole idea of the degree is that it is a self-paced, distance Education sort of thing. In my opinion, not as good as the old learn and discuss with cohorts in a classroom, but it is still beneficial and I am learning new ideas and reinforcing some other ideas. The problem is, it is a self-paced sort of thing. So, I need to get myself to work on the stuff more diligently and get it done.

Diane says we need to re-do the roof soon. It has one of those 3 year elastomeric white sort of roofs and it hasn't been redone for 4 years or so.

I want to paint the trim on the house. It is not only getting faded, but it is brown. I don't like brown. I prefer green. I wonder when the best time of the year is to do this.

I would also like to learn some Spanish. I know a few words, Like "I am the police!" "Don't Move!", "Sit Down!", "Open the Door!", "Hands Up". But, I would like to get a little beyond this for my job. Frankly, Spanish hasn't been my first choice in languages to learn, but I think it might be helpful. Another problem with this. Some of the words are close to French, which I learned before. Many words are not. But, when I try to learn, my brain keeps throwing French words in to the mix.

Of course, I need to make sure I do not do all this at the expense of work, family, Church stuff (where I am helping get the small group thing rolling) and my whole philosophy of not rushing around and not being in a constant state of panic and we have to go now like so many seem to be. We also have a wedding, a reunion and who knows what else to go to. Should be a fun year.

I Am Legend

I went to see this show with some guys from the church.

The movie is based on a book of the same name where the main character is the last known survivor in a world that has become infested by vampires.

In the movie, Will Smith plays a guy who is the last known survivor of a virus that has turned everyone else into rabid animals that can't come out during the day. He is desperately trying to develop a cure as he is conveniently a military immunologist ala Dustin Hoffman's character in Outbreak.

The movie has some great edge of your seat action and some startling make you jump scenes that are worth going for. I did not care for the ending that I thought fell kind of flat, but I overall thought it was very cool.

I know some people don't care for Will Smith. I am not one of those people but, even for those who are not big fans of his because you accidentally heard some of his music or watched too many episodes of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I think his performance was still good enough that you might just find the movie as riveting as I did. At least until the movies end.

Besides, the images of an abandoned and overgrown New York City are absolutely stunning.

Red Light Camera

Traffic tickets generated by cameras come with a string

Here is an article on the new Red Light / Speed cameras they are putting in in town. The article relates how, according to Arizona Law, civil citations must be delivered in person. The red light camera tickets, of course, do not provide for this. They simply are sent in the mail with the hopes that people will just pay the ticket.

The remedy for this is, if you don't respond with in a certain period of time, a civil process server sends you the ticket and you are charged an extra $25 dollars if you are found responsible. Hmmmmmmmm.

My Story:

In Sacramento, I opened the mail box one day and found a ticket. Also included was a picture of Diane and I driving through some intersection in town somewhere. I went to the courthouse on the anointed and appointed day and spoke with a representative from the County Attorney's office. He told me that I may as well enter a plea of not responsible, since the ticket was for about $500 and it was Christmastime. Worst case, he said, I would merely have to pay the same amount a few months later.

I had a good defense for the ticket. You see I was behind this big old SUV and not entirely sureI could even see the light.

So, a few months later, I showed up before the judge and he asked the policeman to talk. The policeman said he was not prepared to testify that I was the one driving. So the judge said the case was dismissed, unless I had anything to say. I, of course, did not and I left a little wiser and just as wealthy.

So, if you get one of these tickets, you can pay it. Or...................

Who's Who

Agent Pipes
This is my friend Dale. He goes to our Church and is an Air Traffic Controller. He also wanted me to take the most recent position I have so I could have some stories for him. Apparently he is tired of Air Traffic Controller Stories.

Bald Head Bruce
This is my friend Bruce. He started to work with the alternative Denomination (not that kind of alternative) the same time I did and had the same troubles I did and ended up back with his old denomination just like I did. The grass is always greener, I suppose.

Beginnings Church
This is the blog for the Church I am a part of now.

Isaiah O
This is the son of a friend from the Sacramento area. The friend is a Pastor and Church Planter, who spoke at our Church there a couple of times. Isaiah was diagnosed with Luekemia over the summer and this blog is a journal of his life.

Josh Reich
Josh is the Pastor of Beginnings Church and has some great thoughts on his life and what it means to be a Missional Church.

Steve Hockensmith
Steve is an author who wrote some really cool western books. I have corresponded with him once or twice and the third release of the really cool western series is out in February....The Black Dove.

Let's see if I can do the books a bit of justice. The protagonist and the first person voice in the story has a brother who is very much into Sherlock Holmes stories, which in the book are being published as fact in the contemporary papers. So, the brother decided that he too wants to deducify. The stories are about how the two cowboys end up running into crime scenes and...well, in any case, pick up one of his current books Holmes on the Range or On the Wrong Track.

I really like this place

Well, I haven't been there since they re-opened in the new location, but I really liked the other one.

Education and the Starbucks Experience

Just ran through this book. This guy was the Superintendent of the Miami-Dade public schools. He defined three priorities for the school district: eliminating low-performing schools, increasing academic achievement for all students and bringing cost-efficiency to the district's construction and business practices.

In the book, he presented a compelling vision for schools that are a focal point of community life. He describes how public schools can be vital and effective and defines the roles of government, parents, teachers, philanthropists, the arts community, the faith community, post-secondary educational venues and school administration in making this happen.

If you want a great overview without reading his book, go to Dr. Rudy Crew's website. Go to the Take Action page to see the roles of the different sectors.

In the book, Dr. Crew mentions that he is totally against school vouchers and not a big fan of charter schools. I was on the fence on this issue, but his comments were a catalyst for my thought.

He mentions that he is opposed to school choice vouchers because they will starve the schools that are doing poorly and "...take the dollars needed to do the work of rethinking our public schools and redistribute them (the dollars)...".

After some thought, I am thinking that, rather than just starving failing schools, which doesn't necessarily seem so terrible to me, the vouchers would force the schools that want to do well to rethink how they do school. Possibly ala the Dr. Crew plan. I think public schools have some great resources that the private schools don't and could do very well if they were to grab hold of some of the actions Dr. Crew defines.

However, like any institution, most of them will not change without a compelling reason to do so. Typically, speaking from my limited organizational experience, the compelling reason comes from either great pain (the frustration of not being what was desperately wanted or expected), great fear (the threat that we will cease to exist if we do not change) or a great vision (a clear picture of a future that we can really buy into).

Rather than killing the public schools, I think vouchers could help redefine the public schools. For instance, consider the Starbucks phenomenon. They are a monolithic corporate concern that everyone was sure would squash all other coffee shops. Much to the contrary, the advent of the Starbucks era has seen the rise of local coffee shops that probably may not have existed and did not thrive prior to Starbucks not only taking a huge market share, but creating a larger than ever market for this type of business. For example, my favorite coffee shop, the True Love Coffee House in Sacramento.

In any case, the book was very thought provoking. If you have any interest in education, at least take a peek at the action steps.

the Kid's were in the downtown Christmas Parade and the Church Singy Thingy

And I included a picture of my friend Adam and some geeks that have really cool Star Wars Costumes.

Ethan had to be moved during the singy thingy. For some ridiculous reason, the kids were all supposed to sway. The kid on his left and his right were swaying in oposite directions, so he got squished between them when they swayed together. It made him mad, so he sat down and started to cry and then they moved him.

I know these Christmas singy thingy's are a neccessary part of the Holidays. I just can't figure out why.

I Did It!

I just wasted 40 minutes playing this game:

LAST STAND

On the other hand, I just held off a zombie horde for 20 days and led a small group of survivors to safety.

Because Your Mine

Here's a book I picked up at the library, because I am a fan of Johnny Cash music.

So, the first part is just a ton of his love letters to Vivian. I mostly skipped that. What follows is her story. a little different than what I understood happened in the movie, Walk the Line.

For instance, Vivian thought that Johhny left her because of his drug abuse and because June Carter chased him down relentlessly. Johnny's parents let Vivian know that he was running around with June.

So, I think the whole thing is kinda sad. Vivian was his wife, mother of his children and, I think, was better looking than June. Not only that, but he wrote the song, I Walk the Line, for Vivian. So, if your a fan and kinda interested, check out The Book.

If your a fan and don't want to hear about all that, just listen to some Johnny Music on Rhapsody.

Here is something not to do

Note: I made the language less colorful than the language that was actually used, so the story may have lost some of it's flair. I also omitted the names. If you know any of the parties involved, this story never really happened. I made it all up. If you don't know any of them, it is a true story.

I was sitting at the office at work talking with a couple of the guys. One of them has a girlfriend that is in training to work our job and I was asking about how she was doing and what she thought of the whole process.

As we were talking, the other guy says, "Do you know so and so who is in training now? I can't stand her. She is (colorful metaphors omitted)".

The first friend says, "Yeah, I know her, she is my girlfriend."

After apologizing profusely, then running out of the room for a few minutes while the guy with the girlfriend and I laughed, the conversation resumed. Anyway, I guess it is best to know who knows who before you start talking bad about them.

Random Pics from Ajo and a visit from Diane and the Kid's

Christmas Time and the Open Pit is Closed

I just got back from a two week work assignment in Ajo. It is a bleak little town that was originally a mining town. In 1984, the mine was shut down and since then the town has gone downhill. It's current population of around 4,000 (down from 10,000) is primarily made of retirees who came for the cheap housing and people who couldn't scrape up the money to leave when the mine closed down and now the primary industries seem to be social security, stealing, selling their prescription meds.

I stood alongside the Ajo mine on Saturday, which is a large open pit copper mine. Phelps Dodge continues to maintain a skeleton staff and maintain the barest elements of the mine. This is not so they can reopen it in the future. They are currently opening a new mine in the Safford area and the equipment and infrastructure in Ajo is so dated and the copper is a type that costs more to produce that is not considered profitable to open it. The mine is staffed so it can be considered "open" and "operational". Otherwise, P.D. would have to spend a fortune in environmental clean up and waste removal. It is simply easier to keep up the facade than it is to face the reality that the mine is closed.

As I stood gaping into this huge open pit, I thought, "How easy it is to mirror this in my life."

It often seems so much easier to simply maintain a facade of spirituality, relationships and even life itself. It is so much easier to pretend that I have it all going on than to really take a look at my life and see the areas that need to be torn down, cleaned up , re-done and even closed down.

Hopefully, as we come to Christmas this year, you will take some time to face the open pits in your life, get them cleaned up and find something to really celebrate.

Have a Little Fun, Make Believe it's An Affair of the Heart

So, I spent a boring day in Ajo. A boring day in Ajo is like three boring days in most other places or two boring days in Tucson.

However, just at the end of the shift, the tones that warn us that we will have to drive fast came over the radio. An unknown problem. This particular one involved a man with a gun in a house that was reportedly waving it around or some such thing.

One hundred and fifteen miles per hour and a few minutes later, we found the guy sobbing in his pickup truck. Of course it was a pickup truck....and of course it was primer gray in color. Anyways, he recently discovered his wife was "with" some other guy. And no, he did not actually say "with". And yes, I can end this sentence with the word "with".

So, he left her on Wednesday. Today he had to come get his gun and she happened home at the same time and he put it (the gun, not the day or the home) in his mouth and said he would shoot himself.

The upshot of the whole thing was that I got to drive him to Tucson to the nut house and then spend the night here and you got to hear from me again before next week. Lucky.

Turning Around

Several have asked me about my plans for future ministry.

If you don't know, I was the Pastor of a small church in Safford Arizona for a few years. After that, we moved to Sacramento, where I planted the SouthPort Community Church in West Sacramento. After a enjoyable and successful 5 years there, we transitioned the Church to another Pastor and I decided to come plant a Church in Tucson. The project in Tucson did not work out at all, which is another story in and of itself. So, I took a position with the Sheriff's Department.

After the troubles with the Church here in Tucson (once again, a story for another post), I decided not to pursue another ministry position for a time. I felt that I had pushed to get the position with the Church Plant in Tucson and I didn't want the next situation to be something I pushed to have come about. Rather, I would wait until an opportunity presented itself. The thought was that I would rather it be God's plan and timing than my plan and my timing.

So, I have been at the crossroad for a couple of years now. I am on "staff" at our Church now as the Pastor of Community Life, but it is a limited role. My friend who is a pastor in Bosie Idaho has recently presented an opportunity for me in his neck of the woods, so I will talk with people in that area about a possibility. We will see what happens with all that.

We have actually went to Boise last year to visit and it is a very nice place, so I would not feel too bad about going there. But, if we did go there, some things would have to fall into place. We would have to unload our house, get a living salary and ensure that the new project and area would be a good fit for us. So, for now, I will keep doing the best I can at the job I have and enjoying my family and friends here.

So, I am off to Ajo and probably will not post for another week.

Loose Ends and Old Men

Ok, we did the Thanksgiving thing. It turned out good. Now, all the same people who were at Aunt Mary's...40-50, will be at the 100th B-day party for Diane's Grandpa. The color gaurd from Border Patrol is supposed to show up too. Should be quite a shindig.

After the feastings, T.J. and I went to see "No Country for Old Men". Started out interesting, with a hunter happening upon the scene of a drug deal gone bad out in the wilderness. Ok, it was full of gratuitous violence and a wacked out killer, but we were getting into it until the end.

The end was just horrible. I won't give it away and I know there is a trend away from tying up all the loose ends and making a neat package at the end of a movie, but this was awful. Aw heck, I will give it away. Everyone dies and the very end has Tommy Lee Jones' character reciting a dream he had. Then it just goes to black and the credits roll. I know I make it sound dumb, but it really was dumb.

So, go check it out when you have two hours and 9 bucks to spare. You'll be angry and sorry you did.

Hope you had a great holiday!

Unrewarded?

Martin Van Buren, our eighth president, wrote an autobiography in which he laboriously laid out the details of his life. Unfortunately, the commander-in-chief wrote all those pages without once mentioning his wife.

So, in the spirit of not wanting to duplicate his faux pas, I have to mention Diane's service while I am in Ajo.

I am back for three days and will head back out that way on Friday evening. While I have been gone, she has been preparing the house for company. Her sister's family......husband, 6 kids, plus someone's fiance....so that is 9 altogether.....are going to join us for the holiday. We are also celebrating Great Grandpa Russell's 100th B-day. He is also the oldest retired border patrol agent ever.
Anyways, she has been working tirelessly to get stuff ready for that as well as keeping tabs on the kids.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

In the wilderness

I will be in Ajo for the next two weeks. I volunteered to head out in that direction so I could do some different stuff and ...well, mainly for the extra pay and overtime.

Oh, and good news for me. I will be assigned to the new Border Crimes Unit when I return. I don't know what that will mean for my schedule and stuff yet, but I am really looking forward to being a part of this unit.

Here is a link that has a short segment on our Border Crimes Unit...or BCU (affectionately referred to as the Big Caucasian Unit).

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/15/cbsnews_investigates/main3369830.shtml

Oh, I only put this picture on here because someone complained about the other one being too small......

the bubble bursts

I recently read Pop!: Why Bubbles Are Great For The Economy by Daniel Gross. In it, he talks about various bubbles in the past....like the dot.com bubble, the current sub-prime lending bubble, etc. Here is an interesting one:

The Tulip Craze During the 17th century, the Dutch went nuts for the tulip bulbs that had been first imported from Constantinople in 1559. By 1634, a single tulip bulb was being sold for the equivalent of $35,000 in today’s dollars. Four tulip bulbs would get you a handsome little house on one of the canals of Amsterdam. In a dizzying six-week period, tulip prices dropped to the equivalent of $1.00 and the Dutch economy took years to recover.

The book discusses how we buy into things, contrary to common sense and the pop is usually a correction that leads to a more healthy way of doing things. The unfortunate part is, the deeper you are invested in the bubble, the longer and more difficult the recovery.

Here is a bubble that my generation has "bought into":

We tend to think that in order to be successful, happy, healthy and on par with the world, we have to begin at the same level materially as previous generations and other peers are at. For instance, if our house, car, home theater is not as nice or better than our parents was and our what our friends have we are somehow missing out on life. Or if we aren't doing as many "productive" activities as everyone else and our kids aren't involved in everything that comes along, we are somehow missing out on life.

I think this sort of attitude helped lead to the sub-prime lending bubble and creates a difficult financial/emotional/spiritual bubble in our own lives. Eventually the thing will pop when we realize that some things are just not as important as others, we can't keep paying for things with money we don't have and we can't invest all our time in activities and still have time for meaningful relationships.

Hopefully, the bubble in your life willpop sooner rather than later, so your recovery will be quicker and smoother and you can do things at a healthier, more enjoyable and more meaningful pace.

Working Woes

I was starting to really enjoy my job. I worked wednesday through sunday from 6pm to 2am. I know, it is kinda of wierd hours, but I really enjoyed it. And, it is during these hours that most everything happens. Not only that, but they always assigned me as an at large unit. Basically, to be at large means I could go anywhere in the district where I felt I was needed. This is a good sized responsibility for someone who has only been on the job for two years.

Unfortunately, one of the guys from the midnight shift transferred to be a detective. Since the midnight shift was short on manpower, my squad of 2 is considered extra bodies and I am the low man on my squad of 2 (the other guy has been on for 7 years), I was sent to the midnight shift. 10pm to 6am with friday and saturday nights off.

I should be grateful that I got the weekends off and that I was chosen because I am a solid street guy. I should be grateful. But, the weekends are when most things happen on the late shift and I really like to stay busy. Not to mention that I enjoy sleeping at night. I neither stay busy nor get to sleep at night working the late shift.

So, I volunteered to go to a small town in our county called Ajo for two weeks. It is about 2 hours from here and is considered a hole in the ....ummm...state. Several guys that are permanently assigned out there have quit, because it it a nasty place to live and they need some guys to fill the holes. They are offering some extra pay, some extra overtime hours and something different to do. I am all over that and will leave Sunday morning for the land of garlic (Ajo is espanol for garlic).

So, hopefully, I won't have to work the midnight shift too much longer and maybe I will get to chase some undocumented aliens and drug loads and the like in Ajo. And, thankfully, I do still have an income.

Emily is Turning 12

Friday is Emily's 12th birthday. She and I are gonna go hit a movie and hang out. I am really looking forward to spending this time with her and I think she is really looking forward to it too.

Here is part of a tribute I am putting together for her birthday. She is an amazing young lady and I am gonna remind her of her accomplishments this past year and let her know how much we appreciate her. Anyways, here is the part that lists what she has done this past year:

Traveled to Idaho and Colorado to visit family and friends (well, that one was just over a year ago).
Traveled to Texas to reconnect with some good friends and to Oklahoma to see T.J. graduate from Army Basic
Worked on several books, including a retelling of the story of Esther for kids.....complete with questions for reflection and study
Continued to care for and show those little guinea pig things
Diligently working in the garden. It didn't turn out quite as we had hoped, but it still yielded some nice pumpkins and watermelon
Completed the Red Cross Babysitters course
Hiked with me to Seven Falls, the Falls at Douglas Springs trail, Blacketts ridge trail. This year, we have to try to make it up to the top of FingerRock.
Taught herself to play some sweet tunes on the piano
Sang for an official audience for the first time
Earned a regular income by cleaning Grandma's house
Helped with the teaching of her brother and sister
Read dozens of boks. Probably more like scores of books
Finished this years math lessons...that was grueling, but she did it
Generally brought us joy and love.

So this is only a partial list, but I am sharing to show you how proud we are of our little lady. Hope you remember how precious of a gift your family is to you.