Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Ahhhhhhh...

For those of you sports fans in big baseball cities with teams in the pennant race, I can only say this: I've endured the worst team in baseball for far too long. Yes, the Kansas City Royals, once again, are living in the MLB basement, apparently accustomed to the darkness and moldy smell. Change is certainly not a part of the dank air down there, either.

But alas, there is hope for us Kansas City fans... A time of year that brings a smile to our faces and a smell of tailgating barbecue to our noses. Yes, the Chiefs football season is merely a few short weeks away. And with New York newcomers Herm Edwards and Ty Law on board along with most of the same players that brought us a winning season last year, we in Cowtown are ready for another one. Bring it on!

Friday, July 21, 2006

Missouri Weather

Mark Twain once said that if you don't like the weather in Missouri, wait 5 minutes. Well, the last 5 days were 100+ degrees with all the humidity that we in Missouri have come to love. Wednesday and Thursday were particularly fun with temps around 105 and a heat index of 120. I now know what a rotisserie chicken feels like. Today, however, is a high of 71 degrees. The low temperatures of the last 5 days didn't even get that low. Gotta love it...

Monday, July 17, 2006

Global Warming and Disc Golf

So I'm sitting here with my legs itching all day. I got poison ivy while looking for a disc in a patch of vines and trees after a terrible throw on the hardest hole on our hardest local disc golf course here in KC. This is only my second major infection with poison ivy, so I'm not as psychologically annoyed or worried about it as my first one in March (also due to disc golf). I read somewhere that global warming is causing the poison ivy to be really bad this year, but I also heard that on MSNBC... The average article there reads something to the effect of "Bush Rejects Global Warming Caused By Bush".

In the news lately, global warming is taking the blame for all sorts of things: melting ice caps, rising seas, flooding, disease, hurricanes, and now poison ivy. Global warming is something that I thought was made up by scientists trying to get more money from the government. But with each new report supported by more leading experts, the data seems to suggest otherwise. I wonder now about how much of these trends are a natural occurrence that's cyclical and how much is caused by man. My guess is somewhat of both, but I have a theory. (DISCLAIMER: my theories are thought experiments in my head. I may or may not believe them fully, but I don't necessarily hold on to them as definite, as I'm somewhat willing to be proven wrong. Some of you are laughing hysterically.)

Since most of you reading this blog believe that God made the universe, created the laws and balance within it, and even foretold of a time of complete disorder and chaos near the end of the existence due to man's sins, why would He not make the cause of our own destruction our sins? So when we act selfishly and stupidly, things get out of balance in the world. The more we screw up, the more things get worse. So every selfish act is counter-balanced not only by some quick or eventual punishment to ourselves, but to others, to other creatures, plants, trees, soil, and finally the sky, oceans and weather. This makes sense as we become more industrialized so we can be less dependent on the soil, animals and weather for our needs. We make artificial versions of everything natural so they are less biodegradable. We put the waste from making these products in the air and water or bury it. God's design in nature makes everything break down nicely, yet another incredible feature of His work. Ours just slowly destroys everything. Wow, 10 years ago, I would have called myself a tree-hugger for writing this.

The cyclical side could be just as interesting... Scientists note all sorts of cycles, including cycles for El NiƱo, 11-year cycles of solar activity, 17- and 13-year cicada and locust spawnings, the Atlantic Heat Conveyer (see the movie Day After Tomorrow), ice ages, etc. They have statistical data supporting average time frames between volcanic eruptions, meteor strikes, earthquakes, tsunamis and on and on. Wouldn't it be interesting if a lot of these cycles, some every few years, some every few centuries or millennia, all managed to converge in, say, a time period of less than 3-10 years?

This would be a very natural means to explain a very dramatic turn of events in the near future. Worldly thinkers would still try to blame nature and avoid any need to obey some god. Some will know better and turn to the Creator.

All of this from a poison ivy allergy...

Stupid itching.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Thanks Karl!

For those of you who were referred from Karl's Korner, welcome! Take a look around, make yourself at home. Thanks, Karl! You'll notice that so far, I tend to split time between writing goofy entries and the occasional rant based on trends that I see. Karl noted that I'm halfway interesting, but I'm only feeling about an eighth interesting lately. So enjoy and I look forward hearing from you if/when you feel like commenting. (And no, I'm not French...)

Mike

Friday, July 07, 2006

One Down, One to Go

It was on the way home from Dallas on Wednesday afternoon, somewhere around Joplin, MO ("God's country", according to Mr. Meredith, Mr. Smith, not Texas) that Peder asked when we were planning on leaving on our camping trip Friday. Yikes... One long, and good, weekend followed immediately by another. So Rachel and I didn't feel the need to unpack, we just shuffled some clothes around and kept most everything in the car for our next trip. That said, let's dive into the previous weekend's activities...

So we took the "short route" to Dallas, which took roughly 7 hours, much better than the usual 8-1/2 going I-35 through Oklahoma City. And this way, we get to drive through Chekotah, Oklahoma, home to Carrie Underwear, or whatever her name was that won American Idol (Jesus didn't take MY wheel). Of course, every town in southern Missouri or Oklahoma has a "Home of..." sign for some astronaut, country singer or founder of some Follies thingy. Not that anybody but me was paying any attention to that in the car...

So we get down to Marshall's expanse around midnightish and the female-deprived boys came out and gave us what I called "explosive hugging". The first round of explosive hugging only cost Charlie a toenail, which naturally went unnoticed as he bled all over the carpet. This was some few seconds after Rachel uttered something to the effect of: "So how long do you think you'll be able to keep this carpet clean?" This was the beginning of the calamity that befell (befalled? befulled???) us.

Fortunately for us, church is now at 2:00 in the afternoon which allowed us to sleep in a bit. The boys made breakfast for the girls and afterwards we all took off to church. Emily and Myra sang for us just after Mr. Chrisman got ordained as an elder, and Mr. Bryce topped off the services with a sermon on "Personalities in Prophecy". Here's an excerpt from my notes: Beast, Anti-Christ, King of the North and King of the South, bad; two witnesses and Jesus Christ, good. It was excellent insight to the end-times, I'm not trying to be a smart aleck. That night, there was much card-, board game- and video game-playing, something that would be a major theme throughout the weekend. Marshall and I went to pick up Leigh from the airport and got back close to 1am. Apparently, there was another round of explosive hugging that caused one of Marshall's Hard Rock cafe glasses to gloriously explode on the floor. But wait, there's more...

Sunday was frisbee day. We played a giant round of disc golf in the early afternoon after eating burgers and dogs on the grill. Well, not on the grill. That would take a real man. Disc golf was followed by more card playing at Marshall's somewhat emptied apartment, the lone source of internetiness (I'm creating all sorts of new terminology with this post... Quote me, Mr. Bush!). This allowed Marshall to research the float trip the next day. It really started to present all sorts of logistical issues, but we pushed through. We had our short bus reserved and had to get up at 6am to head to the airport in morning Dallas rush hour to get it. That wore us out just thinking about it, so naturally, we went and played ultimate frisbee. I, being the fat, winded slob that I am, was traded from Marshall's team for David so the other team "could be more athletic". This, naturally, led to many long throws from David to Marshall, Marshall to David, Dashall to Marvid, etc. In essence, they won, but only by one or two goals. Yes, Karl, Peder and I stayed winded on "defense" while Lacey and Emily ran the field trying to score. Later that night, after a perfect 10 dive (on the Scale of Hilarity) from Peder onto the couch, which made an eerie cracking sound, we avidly discussed the next day's road trip after Marshall declared that the estimated distance to New Braunfels was approximately eleventy billion miles away. Some didn't care about the distance, others preferred renting a pontoon boat on a nearby lake. So that night, after much fanfare, it was decided to stay nearby... Until Marshall declared we were floating. So I went to bed hoping to get 4+ hours of sleep, after which, the "awake ones" decided to stay put. I was awake at 5:45am wondering why nobody was as ready to go as I was.

Monday was a lazy day in the morning and afternoon. Cards were again dealt and controller buttons clicked furiously while color marbles were shot at other colored marbles which were destroyed as tiny gear-turning dragons cheered and a small chick tried to fly. I'll never understand the Japanese... We got around to reserving a pontoon boat in the early afternoon. After leaving, we noticed that all of Dallas appeared to be heading toward the same lake we were. So it took roughly an hour to drive 20 miles or so. But boating was fun after we kicked off Lacey, Diana and Jessica. Apparently, boats have this silly Max Persons Allowed law. So we drove over to a nearby sandy area and swam around the boat. Bets were jokingly hedged on what part of the boat would be damaged first. I had 10-to-one odds and came out on top when the ladder mysteriously disappeared on our second swimming session. That was one competition I wish I hadn't won (there was no grand prize, let me tell you). But we had an enjoyable time on the lake and finally departed for home around 9:00 for pizza and margaritas.

Tuesday was recovery day. A small group went and played disc golf (frolf) again. Then the afternoon came and we ate at Chili's while the stage-3 drought that was affecting the Dallas area was swept over by an impressive downpour. After that, Leigh had to leave us (sniff). That afternoon is when the random singing of the Star Mangled Banner began, but I'll leave that story to Karl's blog. That evening's theme was Cards and Casablanca. Old movies are strange to us modern folk. See, they have this thing called "dialogue" and it generally extends well into periods longer than, say, 20 seconds. This may bore some people (see my post two down), but it certainly takes some getting used to when you're expecting an explosion or some sex scene to come out of nowhere. Overall, I thought it was a good movie. I loved Humphrey Bogart's repeated line to Ingrid Bergman: "Here's looking at you, kid." What exactly does that mean, anyway? I mean, I guess he WAS looking right at her when he said it. That crazy 40s lingo, I tell ya.

Overall, it was a great weekend. We enjoyed staying at the Marshall Mansion, and I highly recommend the rooms and service if you are traveling through the Dallas metropolis in the near future.