The pain will never end...

I've been chewing on this for a bit now. As you probably know by following my site, the past 7 months have seen the loss of both of my parents. Particularly hard for me is seeing pictures of mom & dad at the birth of our oldest, Olivia, two years ago. I was so proud to introduce them to her, to see them hold their granddaughter. This past May brought the birth of our second daughter, Hattie, only 2 weeks following my dad's death. Just the thought of them not being there still brings tears to my eyes. There are times that I fear, if I dwell too long on their loss, I may be swallowed by the grief.

I grieve deeply because I loved and was loved deeply...

I will always miss my parents. The void they left will never truly be filled. I'll never get to email mom the latest pictures of the girls for her work computer desktop...I'll never share another breakfast at McDonald's with my dad.

But I will go on...I can go on!

It's only because of Christ, and the love of others in my life.The blessed truth is that I will see my parents again someday, and in the meantime I have a wife & daughters that I love, brothers, a sister, and relatives that are here for me to love & enjoy. The sadness doesn't stand much of a chance when my Olivia jumps on the bed in the morning, a big smile on her face as she gets to "snuggle daddy", or I get that look from my wife that expresses a wellspring of love & support. Hattie pretty much just lies around at this point. I swear she smiles at me sometimes, but the accompanying farting sounds reminds me it's probably just gas.

Life without my parents will never be "ok," but God sees every tear, and promises to supply all my needs. God has blessed me with life & it's my responsibility to honor Him by treating each day I remain on this earth as a gift, and be an instrument of His love to those around me.

Zagg "Invisible Shield"

Looking for the ultimate in protection for your valuable gadgets? I tried one of their screen protectors for one of my GPS units & I'm sold. The installation process is a bit more involved than a simple stick-on sheet, but the extra labor is well worth it.

The invisible shield product uses a kind of activator spray that allows the military-grade film to conform to the surface. Over a 24hr period, any air bubbles are eliminated, resulting in a flawless-looking installation.

Since buying my iPhone the other day, I've ordered a full "skin" that protects the entire unit from scratches. Watching the video of the guy "keying" an iPhone with & without their product sold me.

Severe weather

A few days after the fact, I thought I'd post a little concerning our sever weather we had last week (yes, that's an actual radar image from the storms last friday.)

As usual, the Timber-lee "bubble" prevailed, so not much happened here besides some good thunderstorms, gusty winds, and lots of rain.

A little excitement - I got to hear what turned out to be a weak tornado that passed just north of camp. It's funny how Jen & I stood outside, debating exactly what a freight train sounds like for a few minutes before deciding it might be a good idea to go inside.

And you wonder why the world hates us!

Over the last few days I've read news accounts that, as a follower of Christ, have made me cringe.

Now, it seems like I'm always reading. My wife Jen pokes fun at me. She'll start telling me about something she heard, will stop mid sentence, and say, "of course you've already heard about this." I'm a bit of an information junkie.

The first, involving the recent crash of an Air France flight, is indeed a tragedy. Still under investigation, over 200 people lost their lives as their plane crashed into the Atlantic. Just days later, an older couple who missed being on that fateful flight were involved in a devastating automobile crash, killing the wife & seriously injuring her husband.

As I read about the couple's crash, I scrolled down to the "Comments" portion of the page. I get a kick of how even small news articles can generate hundreds of opinions. Some are obviously thoughtfully written, but it's amazing how, given a soapbox, the "nuts" come out. Instead of recognizing the pain suffered by this man, spared a plane crash only to have his wife taken days later, self-proclaimed "Christians" were trying to explain away the unexplainable, and tact or any sense of compassion was sadly absent.

"This is why I hate you Christians!" replied one of the readers, and his sentiment was not alone.

Example #2 - A former Baptist big wig was recently interviewed in a major news outlet. When asked about the current administration in Washington, he stated (and repeated when asked to clarify) that he was praying for the death of our president. When asked why, he answered that it wasn't wrong to "pray for something that God wants."

You should've read the comments posted below that article! Even worse were the multitude of folks who wrote how this only confirmed why they'd never want to become a Christian. Literally hundreds of lives potentially lost for eternity.

God, through His word, tells us to expect hatred & persecution for the sake of Christ. The American Church has escaped much of this while our brothers & sisters in other countries are persecuted, imprisoned, or killed because of their faith. I read another article (really? :-) that stated that Christians in the United States might see strong persecution for their beliefs within the next 20 years. The author of the article added that Christians are becoming perceived more and more as being ignorant, fanatical, and even dangerous.

4th Century Christian apologist Lactantius wrote, "God commands us to wait patiently for the day of heavenly judgement when He Himself will honor or punish all according to what they deserve...but let us work hard so that people will punish nothing in us but our righteousness. Let us strive with all our might so that we can deserve the avenging of our suffering and a reward at the hands of God."

A new car

Well, we're the proud owners of a 2005 Pontiac Vibe. Jen & I had seen this car at a dealer in Mukwonago for a few weeks now & even stopped to look at it a couple of times. Being a one-vehicle family has been a bit of a stretch, plus the Xterra only got 18mpg on the highway. Not exactly an economy vehicle, especially considering the $3/gal I paid tonight for gas!

The original price was reasonable, but it was marked at a sale price a couple weeks ago. We were prepared to ask for the reduced sale price, when the salesman pulled out a new sale tag from between the seats, due to be posted the following day, for $4000 below the original price. With our substantial cash down payment, the amount we had to finance was pretty reasonable & we drove away this morning with our new car...seating for all of us, and 35mpg to boot!

More Mac thoughts...

I'm not going to write a long, massive essay on why I like my new Mac, but I did find myself realizing exactly why I like it...

You'll have to bear with me here. It's kinda like enjoying vanilla ice cream all your life, then suddenly being introduced to Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby...where have you been?!

I've worked with Windows computers for as long as they've existed. Shoot, our first family business computer was an old MS DOS machine, didn't even have a hard drive, and that was high tech back then.

All along, I've enjoyed what I could do with a computer. It was a tool that allowed me to express myself through writing, web & graphic design, digital photography, etc. New computers simply meant more storage space, more memory, faster processors, etc.

Working on a Mac allows me to not only enjoy the end product, but the "journey" to get there as well. It's almost a pleasure to work with. I can focus on my creativity, versus the occasional hung up program, long load times, etc.

Like Apple's advertising says, "it just works."

Ok, that's my last Mac post...maybe?