Random Sunday Afternoon Thoughts

-- We have finally had a break from the cold here after the longest consistent cold stretch I remember in a long, long time here in Middle Tennessee. I mean we're talking lots of single digits, teens and twenties from about mid-November. Not used to that kind of thing. This weekend, however, hope has sprung eternal as the thermometer is nearing 70 degrees. Took a long walk yesterday morning to try and decide if I am up for another half-marathon in April (I think I am), then played HORSE with the boys yesterday afternoon. We played about five games and Older Son obnoxiously won each one. Was great to be outside with them.

-- I will say one thing positive and one thing negative about President Obama. The positive is I really liked the way he took responsibilty for the appointees who had to step aside because of their tax problems. Obviously something went awry in the vetting process but he took his lumps and said "I screwed up." Yes he did. But he took responsiblity for it. I like that.

The negative I must call him on, however, has to do with the stimulus bill that sailed through the House but is having a tougher time in the Senate. He is completely undone that it has not passed, claiming all kinds of calamities that will befall us if Congress doesn't hurry up and approve the spending of nearly ONE TRILLION DOLLARS! He allowed this past week as to how the American people elected him for change and it was time to get on with it. Sorry, Mr. President, and pardon us if we might swallow a bit before we sign onto this massive bill that includes ever so much spending that for the life of me I find hard to believe will stimulate the economy. I appreciate all of the Senators who are giving this a good, hard once-over before agreeing to mortage the futures of our children.

-- Wife and I are each reading the Bible through this year. We started January 1 and we're following a plan that each day gives you an Old and New Testamanet reading as well as portions from Psalms and Proverbs. I have had the privilege of sitting under some great Bible teachers in my time and have had some great resources for studying the Bible. In all of that, however -- and this is noone's fault but my own -- I think I largely lost sight of the fact that the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is an incredible story, and a really cool one at that. Hardly a day passes now that Wife or I don't say to the other something like, "Did you realize . . . " or "Did you remember. . . " and then we have some great discussions.

It is imperative, of course, when doing something like this, that you keep up. The readings are not short. If you fall a day behind, it's manageable but more than that and I think the likelihood of staying with it gets slim. I've had to do "catch-up" about three times so far and I sure don't want to fall more than one day behind.

-- Next Saturday is Valentine's Day and I expect I'll write a little more about it when the times come. Wife and I got engaged 25 years ago this Valentine's Day. As I said, more to come on that but will say for now that I proposed to Wife with a poem called an "acrostic" which means the first letter of each line spells out a message. The background on this is that as Wife and I got to know each other we realized we both loved to read but she wasn't much on poetry. I was always reading her poems and trying to tell her how cool it was. And here is how I proposed:

Poems are fun, as I've tried to convince you.
Love, faith and honor they often promote.
Even a personal message they will send
And the reader, quite flattered, might tend to gloat.
Surely you realize that would be my delight
Even though the message herein is remote.

Meaning is ryhme is often hidden
And sometimes the reader must take great care.
Read every line, search every prase.
Realize there's some revelation there
You want to understand.

Make sure you go back to the first of each line.
Enlist just the first letter; see what you find!

It took her a couple of readings to put it all together, but she "got it," she said "OK." She's still not that much on poetry but she likes this one.