Street People

This evening St. John's Lutheran Church, my congregation, had our second outing of the "summer" season as we ventured into some of the local neighborhoods.  We sent out 4 teams of 2 between 6:00 and 8:00pm.  I told each team to cease and desist by 8:00pm because after that point the little kids are heading to bed and let's face it, it's kind of creepy when a stranger rings your doorbell after 8:00pm.  So far we have visited about 350 homes and it seems to me to be about half and half...at half the homes there is someone there to talk to and the other half there is nobody home.  In my experience this evening I was a big hit with the neighborhood dogs.  I was licked so much I may not have to bathe for a week.

This brings me to a close of another very busy week.  The Seminary class that I am currently enrolled in, "The Epistles of Paul" features about 4 hours of lectures this week and an even greater amount of reading.  The text that we are primarily using now has about the teeniest tiniest print that I have ever seen, and weighs in at over 600 pages...ouch!  We also had a funeral on Wednesday late in the morning.  We said good-bye to a long time member and friend who died at the age of 80.  In light of all of the people that have passed onto eternal glory in the past two months, that are connected to St. John's, if you are looking to get to heaven in a hurry you might want to start hanging around with me.

In the midst of all of this I am still able to find time to stroll out onto the tennis court.  Today was one of those interesting experiences in which you find that you have played fairly well but the results done end up in your favor.  I guess I'll just blame it on bad lighting.

HoopFest is the main event here in Spokane this weekend.  Unlike years past I will not be officially involved.  I had been a court monitor in charge of keeping early high school (incoming freshmen) boys from using guns during the games, and after for that matter.  This year I will be on the sidelines as a spectator, feeling empathy for all of the folks who are out there as court monitors and marshals trying to keep the peace.

Drying Out

I'm back from Portland. The weather there is pretty crummmy (54 degrees and steady rain when I left at noon) and pretty nice here. The Coleman Campfire Grill is about to catch fire. I had to make a speech before the convention this morning, and the issue that I was supporting passed. I must carry a lot of wieght...well, I guess that's rather obvious from the appearance of things.

Rip City

Well, here I sit early on a Friday morning just outside the Starbucks next to the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. I am actually here for a convention so that makes a bit of sense. The Friday morning session starts in about 45 minutes so I have a bit of time to kill. I wouldn't have gotten up so early but my bunkmate had to rise at 6:00am to make a flight back to Spokane. I think that he had quite a convention experience in that due to personal flight delays he didn't make it until last evening to enjoy the experience of a full hour and a half of the activities. The gathering here is the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synods Northwest District convention. It happens only once every three years. If the frequency were do increase it's likely that more pastors and lay delegates might die of boredom. There have been some interesting aspects since the gavel dropped yesterday...but the tedium is just beginning. We all get paroled tomorrow at noon. Man, the sacrifices that must be made to serve! I am missing my regular Friday morning session with the tennis posse, and with the weather yesterday in Spokane it would have been an evening gathered with my honey around the Coleman Campfire Grill. As it was dinner happened at the Burgerville, which is kind of a Portland tradition. The weather here yesterday was great, while today has dawned gray. Rain is headed in this direction. Some of the rain is headed your way too...at least if you are reading this in the Spokane area.

Was I a Little Too Harsh?

Since yesterday's post I have been wondering if I was a little too hard on a couple of the members of my posse. No...not really! Today was a big day for the members of St. John's Lutheran Church, at least a few. A total of 9 of us hit the streets to knock on the doors and ring the doorbells in the neighborhoods around the church in order to meet and greet those who live in the area. We handed out information about the church and directed people to our website; www.sjlspokane.org to learn even more about us. We hit about 200 homes and were generally cordially received. It turned out to be a lot of fun. I only ran into one cranky dude that didn't want me on his doorstep. It's amazing how many folks remember me from my TV days, and even more amazing how many think I still am on the air. It's been over 3 years since my farewell broadcast. Oh, by the way, if you are wondering why there are no paragraph breaks in some of my posts it's because when I blog from the Ipad they just don't seem to want to show up.

Dynamic Deerwood Duo?

I know that I shouldn't be writing so much about my tennis posse, but they make such good fodder! Today two members of the group...who just so happen to live on the same street (Deerwood Lane, or Court, or Drive, or some such thing) in the geezer colony known as Rockwood...arrived at the racquet club incensed at the posting that I had made in this space on Wednesday, after they had experienced a beatdown. They claimed that today would be the day that their combined forces would put a whoopin' on me and and an innocent bystander (Bill). Since I played last evening and was a little on the tired side I figured, oh let the old men have their way so I don't have to listen to them whine. These two malcontents are named John (the Happiest man that I have ever met) and Mark. Sometimes they refer to themselves as the Deerwood Dragons. Not much fire comin' out of those nostrils! Once we hit the court it quickly became obvious that this would NOT be their day as they succumbed to Bill and I to the tune of 6-2. From there I won't bore you with the details of the rest of the morning, just that as we all left John was still the Happiest man that I have ever met, but the margin over others was quite a bit thinner! From there it was time to come home and do the yard work. I trimmed and mowed the yard and cleaned out all of the pine needles that had collected in the gutters and downspouts in the storms that we had on Tuesday night and Wednesday. It was a beautiful day and the sun did wonders for my tan. Now it's time to fire up the Coleman Campfire Grill for an evening of outdoor enjoyment and a dinner of grilled turkey, yams and corn on the cob.

Bradyville

Our week with Brady has come to an end.  The sadness associated with that fact is overwhelming!  Fortunately...we have pictures

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Once again the cul-du-sac was alive...kids all over the place.  Even the varmints came out to play

Large aircraft are still the order of the day!

Might I Be Dead?

Could this be heaven?  I mean how could things be better?  We've had thunderstorms two days in a row now!  Real thunderstorms, not just the wimpy kind that produce three or four flashes of lightning and a rumble or two of thunder.  These guys have packed some real rain and some pretty nice booms.  That plus the fact that today's came in the afternoon when I could glue my face to the window gave a touch of Florida to the day.  Ahh...Florida.  Actually, it's been a pretty good day all around today, at least so far.  I'm back to being able to join my posse for tennis again on Wednesday mornings, and things were sort of rolling my way.  In the first set I was teamed with Wild Bill Safranek, against Mark and John (the Happiest man that I have ever met).  Mark and John had concocted some sort of deal with the devil and were sure that they would come out victorious.  You gotta be careful when you deal with ol' Satan since he's been a liar and murderer from the beginning (you'll find that in John 8:44).  I guess the devil double-crossed them as Bill and I breezed to a 6-3 victory.  In the second set it was Mark and I (the youngsters) who went up against the much crustier pair of Bill and John.  Us kids made an incredible comeback from a 4-1 deficit to prevail in a tie-breaker.  In he final tie breaker (which was all we had time for) I added to John's Happiness as the two of us came out on top.  In the end I was not only big today, but also the "big winner".

For the first two days of the week...that would be Monday and Tuesday...we hosted my little buddy Brady during the day.  Kay was doing most of the hosting but I pitched in when I could.  Monday morning we did a little snake hunting and were somewhat successful putting to death a couple of hoses and an old tire.  Brady and I put in a little time on the tennis court too, where he beat me in straight sets.  We alter the rules a little bit but the game is basically the same.  We each carry a racquet and have to hit a tennis ball, but beyond that you might be hard pressed to figure out the details of the game.  Brady gets it, so that's all that matters.

We found out yesterday that one of our neighbors was burglarized late Monday night.  Someone got into their garage and took a few things, but there was no major loss and no damage to anything.  In response to that what did I do?  Well, I left our garage door open all night...forgot to close it when we came in during the evening.  As proof that we have absolutely nothing that anyone would want nothing was missing or disturbed.