Compared to what?

A short time ago, I think it must have been February, I was having some issues with my throat. What the issues were is incidental to this little tale, so I will spare you the details of my malady, but it bothered me enough that it led to my first visit to the emergency room on my own behalf since I sliced a good part of my thumb nearly off in 1998.

The staff at the ER couldn't quite locate the problem and told me to go see a specialist. They ended the encounter with something along the lines of "You don't seem crazy..."

Last month, the issue had not resolved. Fearing that I was in the throes of stage 4 (on the scale of 1-3) malignant tracheal cancer or was soon to choke to death in my sleep, I decided I would go see an ENT. An ENT in this case is not the walking tree creature from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. An ENT is an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor, specializing in the aforementioned portions of one's anatomy.

His examination primarily consisted of an aide coming in and spraying some nasty stuff in my nose that she said would open up my sinus passages so the scope could go in easier. I steeled myself and was ready to go, until she aimed for my right nostril. For some reason, I was ready for things in the left nostril, but not the right.

Then she spritzed in something else that she said would not taste delicious but it would numb things up so I didn't feel the scope. It did not and it did not and I did.

It is hard to describe a feeling you really have no reference for. I am sure I have had things shoved up my nose before ( I specifically recall a frito when I was 3 or 4), but it didn't feel anything like a hose being inserted in and dragged along your nasal passage. The whole thing didn't hurt, it just felt weird.

After he was done, the doctor said, "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Compared to what?", I asked.

I guess the experiences we go through help prepare us for worse ones and the experiences we have avoided, like shoving things up our nasal passage, could have been used to better prepare us to face future challenges. I guess.

No One Cares

I just got this as a comment on a previous blog post I did:


There is a major error in the writing of this blog which must be corrected. Please note that Mrs. Thomas DID NOT occupy Allen's church facilities. The fact of the matter, Mrs. Thomas, nor anyone else associated with her group, ever controlled, possessed or occupied any of the A A Allen Revivals Inc property, all of which is located on the south side of Hwy 92. What Mrs. Thomas did occupy was property on the north side of Hwy 92, which was a small housing community, created by the Independent Development Co and owned by various people who resided on the property. It was not associated in any way with Allen's church facilities. Mrs. Thomas obtained the Valley View Restaurant and converted it into her church facilities. So why does the writer state that Mrs. Thomas occupied A A Allen's church facilities? No doubt to create sensationalism and create more of an interest in their blog? Let's get the facts correct before we start misinforming others.

I am not sure it was really a major error, since the property on the North side was originally owned by the Church, thus making it Church property. I think whoever posted this comment was concerned that the whole shootout thing gave the bible School facilities a bad name. I say that the shootout will always be associated with the Rev. Allen's Miracle Valley, since it was right across the street from the school.

The point of my post was not to make an issue of the school, but to highlight the events of the shootout. Not only that, how many people does the person who posted this comment (which was anonymous and disappeared quickly) think even read this blog....and especially the post that I put on in April of 2009.

With that that in mind, here is the original post:
Shootout at Miracle Valley

If you look at it, please keep in mind that the shootout was North of 92, not south of on A.A. Allen's campus.

What do you mean, "You People?'

It has been said that many Churchified people don't invite their friends to their Church, not because they are embarrassed of God, Jesus or the Bible, but because they are embarrassed of
their Church.

At our Church in Sacramento, one of the strategies we used to overcome this was by having pseudo-celebrity guests join our services. We had sort of well known attorneys, scientists, musicians, pastors from other countries, local pastors, politicians and the like join us from time to time.

Having these guests would do a few things:

- It provided a kind of focal point for regular attenders to invite their friends.

- It made it easier for those who don't usually go to Church come check out ours, which led to them seeing that we did have a few normal people there, it was a good place to be, we cared about them, etc., etc.

- It gave our regulars a chance to hear from others in the Christian community and get a perspective broader than just mine.

My model for this strategy came from my friend Jon. Jon had a much larger Church ( a couple of thousand, as opposed to the approx. 150 people that was our average attendance) so he got better known people.

Some of his guests included the Little Mermaid voice girl, Smokey Robinson and others that were well enough known that you might have heard of them, even if you didn't live in Northern California.

One of the more interesting guys (although it would be hard to call Smokey Robinson anything but interesting) was Gary Busey. During his talk, in a display of evangelistic fervor, he declared, "YOU PEOPLE NEED JESUS, DAMNIT!!!"

He might be crazed and a little rough around the edges, but you can't accuse him of not having passion.

Here are a few of the locals we corralled, for those that were there and want to remember.

Jonathan McKee

Wally Magdenal

Brad Dacus

Andy Allen

Lisa Daggs

Nathan Oates

Dennis Petersen

The Stock Brothers

Ted and Lee

That is all I can think of. If I missed your fave, lemme know.

Quietude

I know. It has been quiet here. I have been blog fasting.

Not really, but I thought someone might have been impressed.

But, stand by for upcoming info, to include:

The tale of the man who shoved a long flexible tube up my nose and how it could prepare you for the future of gas and gold.

Is Disneyland planning a "Homophobe" day?

The Number one rule in Church music.

See you soon.

Pests

We have gotten back in the swing of things with our "organic" gardening. Instead of gardening with the community garden we are putting our own garden area into use. We have plenty of space and that was one of the reasons we decided to buy this yard.

But, we have discovered an ant hill very near our sunken amended soil garden beds. The last time we planted a garden, without the benefit of all the knowledge we gained from a year of gardening at the community garden, ants came and ate the carrots and onions before they could gain a foothold on life. But those are not the worst pests we have had.

When I was in school, the family housing apartments we lived in were infested with cockroaches. Ick. They didn't bother me too much, but Diane always considered them dirty people pests. Well, she hadn't lived with me too much at that point. Who knows, maybe I was a dirty people. But, they seemed to be in all the apartments........

We had a mouse in one of the houses we lived in. We put out those sticky traps, which we promptly picked up when our friend Howard told us about actually catching a mouse in his sticky trap. It doesn't kill the things, so they screech until you do something about it. His something was to put it outside in the middle of the night, prompting all the neighborhood dogs to howl. The next something he did was to go smash it with a rock. Our sticky traps were replaced with poison, which seemed to take care of things.

At another house, we lived right by one of those community lake type things. This was nice, except that it made a perfect home for a large colony of rats. Usually, the only indication of this was a vague movement on the rocky banks from time to time. That is, until one of them was staring at me from inside my grill when I opened it up for a spring time cookout and a a pair of big eyes was staring up at me. It ran one way and I ran the other.

We have also had:
Bats
Carpenter Bees
Honey Bees
A dead cat, which wasn't ours. The people that picked up dead animals wouldn't come get it cause it was in our yard and not in the street. Hmmmmmm. We could fix that.

I suppose these sort of things are unavoidable.