Dogs are so great. I really mean it. But then, of course, ya know there was that time when...
Yeah. I'm learning that I wish I had learned to take care of animals a long time ago. It teaches responsibility, patience, resourcefulness,(awfully big words, I know) and a few other valuable character qualities.
For real, I'm house/dog-sitting for a family from my church here in Germany while they are on leave in the states. Their "nice big house" comes with: a yard to take care of, dishes to clean, a Springer Spaniel, and a bath tub. Ya know, normal every day life kind of stuff. Oh, and a case of schwarzbier (black beer). Doesn't taste too bad, really. I aughta put it in a mug, though. Tomorrow I plan on raking the leaves before I take Isaak for a walk. Isaak's the dog's name. I haven't exactly been given the task of doing yard work, but I might as well try to keep my friends in the good graces of their neighbors. Around here they tend to form opinions based on what your yard looks like. Worse than in Lynden. Oh, well.
Life in the Air Force is going OK. I'm learning my job, which is a good thing. But more exciting, I get to volunteer for fun stuff, like what I just got back from last week. You know that Combat Readyness Course/mobility school I was going to attend a while ago? Well, I finished that class and recently got the opportunity to be part of OPFOR(opposing force) for this most recent class, which included several people from my shop. Fun stuff all through. We help train the students through enacting a wide variety of senarios. We played the part of protestors, terrorist victims, terrorists, drunks, starving farmers, and all to train the students how to react and deal with whatever they might encounter wherever they might be deployed. I had a great time, as did everyone else. We all learned a ton.
But I'm glad to be back "home". I never like missing a church service, especially one where the Word is faithfully preached, and where the people are so much like family to me. God has been so gracious to me. Praise the Lord. I'm listening to Handel's Messiah at the moment. I do believe that it will never cease to be, at least in my mind, the most marvelous piece of music ever written by a mortal man on this earth.
Well, until next time.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Greutzi, Quark, and a beard
I went on a church retreat to Beatenberg, Switzerland this past June. Beatenberg is in the German-speaking region of the country, directly above Interlochen, which is a pretty big vacation spot. I say German-speaking, but similar to Bavaria, Germany, the language is somewhat different. One example, "Greutzi", is a greeting, in place of "hallo".
The food was great, although there are those who would disagree regarding the tunafish pizza. As some of you may know, quark is a german thing. Especially on bread and jam in the morning for breakfast. Which is how I ate it, mostly. Y'all should try it. Appel Farms makes it. Haggen sells it. My Grandma makes some great homemade bread.
Anyway, it was indeed a blessed time to spend with my church family. The morning and evening messages on Job were given by Dr. Derek Thomas from Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. The man himself is originally from Wales, while his wife is from Dublin, Ireland.
Of course there were alot of things to do during the day. In fact, there was too much to do and not enough time. We went hiking; some white-water rafted; one went paragliding; we went to see Trummelbach Falls; I grew a beard... One evening, there was a local, small-town, open air type of concert involving a brass band, a drum group(?), alphorns, and of course, yodelling. I got the opportunity to try the alphorn, and yes, I did get pictures of alot of stuff.
The ride home was somewhat of an adventure. Except an extremely tedious one. There were STAUs. For those of you who don't know, a stau is the european form of a traffic jam. They can stretch for upwards of 5-10 kilometers. Fun stuff. Sometimes it takes up to half the day to clear.
Even so, everything happened way too fast...except for my beard. Although it was an 8-9 day beard, it really wasn't that impressive.
I'll try to post some pictures soon.
Oh, and thanks for the addition, Mark. I like it.
The food was great, although there are those who would disagree regarding the tunafish pizza. As some of you may know, quark is a german thing. Especially on bread and jam in the morning for breakfast. Which is how I ate it, mostly. Y'all should try it. Appel Farms makes it. Haggen sells it. My Grandma makes some great homemade bread.
Anyway, it was indeed a blessed time to spend with my church family. The morning and evening messages on Job were given by Dr. Derek Thomas from Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. The man himself is originally from Wales, while his wife is from Dublin, Ireland.
Of course there were alot of things to do during the day. In fact, there was too much to do and not enough time. We went hiking; some white-water rafted; one went paragliding; we went to see Trummelbach Falls; I grew a beard... One evening, there was a local, small-town, open air type of concert involving a brass band, a drum group(?), alphorns, and of course, yodelling. I got the opportunity to try the alphorn, and yes, I did get pictures of alot of stuff.
The ride home was somewhat of an adventure. Except an extremely tedious one. There were STAUs. For those of you who don't know, a stau is the european form of a traffic jam. They can stretch for upwards of 5-10 kilometers. Fun stuff. Sometimes it takes up to half the day to clear.
Even so, everything happened way too fast...except for my beard. Although it was an 8-9 day beard, it really wasn't that impressive.
I'll try to post some pictures soon.
Oh, and thanks for the addition, Mark. I like it.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Post from "other place" #4
Friday, July 29, 2005
Well, starting on Monday, for two weeks, I will be semi-unavailable for contact. You see, I'll be attending a Combat Readiness Course(CRC), which is basically a field exercise meant to train us how to deploy, show us what it's like, and what to do in situations. Should be pretty fun...after you get past the first bout of nerves, that is. It's something I have to go through before I am deployed to various places. Like, say, Iraq. Or maybe Afghanistan. Might write about it afterward. Your prayers would be very much appreciated. Huaah!
Oh, I almost forgot. Another prayer request: I'm having oral surgery in a few weeks. In order to put a crown on one of my teeth, they have to "trim" a little bit of bone on either side of the tooth. Should be fun. I decided against the sedative pills and I.V. anesthetic, opting for just the local shots. But I'll probably get a day or two off of work, which will be nice. As always. And don't worry. You're not the only one paying for it. The President and I are chipping in, as well.
Somewhat off the subject: Congress is beginning to get rid of the death tax! Here's Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in his July 25, 2005 "Washington Update":
(edited)
"According to a study cited by Congress's Joint Economic Committee in 2002, eliminating the death tax outright would, within seven years, create 240,000 jobs and increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by more than $33 billion."
Pretty cool, huh?
Please let me know if I need to edit this post to avoid plagiarism.
(edited) How're the changes, Mark?
Well, starting on Monday, for two weeks, I will be semi-unavailable for contact. You see, I'll be attending a Combat Readiness Course(CRC), which is basically a field exercise meant to train us how to deploy, show us what it's like, and what to do in situations. Should be pretty fun...after you get past the first bout of nerves, that is. It's something I have to go through before I am deployed to various places. Like, say, Iraq. Or maybe Afghanistan. Might write about it afterward. Your prayers would be very much appreciated. Huaah!
Oh, I almost forgot. Another prayer request: I'm having oral surgery in a few weeks. In order to put a crown on one of my teeth, they have to "trim" a little bit of bone on either side of the tooth. Should be fun. I decided against the sedative pills and I.V. anesthetic, opting for just the local shots. But I'll probably get a day or two off of work, which will be nice. As always. And don't worry. You're not the only one paying for it. The President and I are chipping in, as well.
Somewhat off the subject: Congress is beginning to get rid of the death tax! Here's Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in his July 25, 2005 "Washington Update":
(edited)
"According to a study cited by Congress's Joint Economic Committee in 2002, eliminating the death tax outright would, within seven years, create 240,000 jobs and increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by more than $33 billion."
Pretty cool, huh?
Please let me know if I need to edit this post to avoid plagiarism.
(edited) How're the changes, Mark?
Post from "other place" #3
Monday, July 25, 2005
Have you ever been kept up till 2 in the morning by drunken partiers right outside your dorm room? It's happened a couple times already. At first you notice the music which is about 5 times as loud as it aughta be. Then you're jolted out of your nearly-asleep stupor by extremely loud cursing outside your window. It's kind of interesting. I used to avoid all contact with my neighbors, but now that I've gotten to know them a little bit, they're somewhat respectful of the excessive sound issue. They even invite me to join in their party. But that would mean being too tired to be of much use at work the next day. Plus, I can't think of much Christain good I would be able to do at a party like that.
Unfortunately, I will most likely have to wait until Nov of '06 before I move out of the dorms. The new regulations call for 3 years time-in-service and a pay grade of E-4 before they allow single airmen to move out. But, God's plan is the best.
Have you ever been kept up till 2 in the morning by drunken partiers right outside your dorm room? It's happened a couple times already. At first you notice the music which is about 5 times as loud as it aughta be. Then you're jolted out of your nearly-asleep stupor by extremely loud cursing outside your window. It's kind of interesting. I used to avoid all contact with my neighbors, but now that I've gotten to know them a little bit, they're somewhat respectful of the excessive sound issue. They even invite me to join in their party. But that would mean being too tired to be of much use at work the next day. Plus, I can't think of much Christain good I would be able to do at a party like that.
Unfortunately, I will most likely have to wait until Nov of '06 before I move out of the dorms. The new regulations call for 3 years time-in-service and a pay grade of E-4 before they allow single airmen to move out. But, God's plan is the best.
Post form "other place" #2
Friday, July 15, 2005
I was gonna write something, but I took too much time doing other things here at the internet cafe. So I'll have to wait till later. C'ya.
I was gonna write something, but I took too much time doing other things here at the internet cafe. So I'll have to wait till later. C'ya.
Post from "other place" #1
Monday, July 11, 2005
My brother, who just happens to be quite gifted in writing, just suggested from 9 times zones away that I aughta take this blog thing at least somewhat seriously. I was actually a bit shocked at first, but then I got to thinking, "Well, here I go. I hope I don't regret this." Then I started to think about what to write. Everyday happenings? What I ate for lunch? 'Course, I can't really rely on everybody else for suggestions. So it might take a bit of thought, but it just might be do-able.
That's all for now. I gotta get my computer fixed so I don't have to come here to the cyber-cafe to do all this editting. And it would be nice to get a digital camera, so family and friends could keep better track of my doin's.
My brother, who just happens to be quite gifted in writing, just suggested from 9 times zones away that I aughta take this blog thing at least somewhat seriously. I was actually a bit shocked at first, but then I got to thinking, "Well, here I go. I hope I don't regret this." Then I started to think about what to write. Everyday happenings? What I ate for lunch? 'Course, I can't really rely on everybody else for suggestions. So it might take a bit of thought, but it just might be do-able.
That's all for now. I gotta get my computer fixed so I don't have to come here to the cyber-cafe to do all this editting. And it would be nice to get a digital camera, so family and friends could keep better track of my doin's.
The Dwarrowdelf Rides Again
Well, here I am, back from a short stint on Xanga. It was useful for while, I guess. But I'll be here on this site primarily from now on. Good thing, say ye? Say so, if thou willst. I shall not grudge thee.
Fare thee well, 'til my return.
Fare thee well, 'til my return.
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