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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

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Three feet of snow! That was a weather record I didn't really want to participate in. But, sure enough, we woke up that cold New Jersey morning to three feet of snow that had literally buried the metropolitan New York area. Even New York, the city that never sleeps, had been effectively shut down by the storm. There were cross country skiers in Times Square! Our little guy really wanted to go out in the snow that blanketed our backyard. So we bundled him up and we watched as he ventured into that white stuff. And he promptly disappeared! I went out after him - and, as short as I am, I just about disappeared myself. I almost became the Abdominal - I mean, what's that? Abominable Snowman. It took quite a while for that snow to become manageable and for life to return to normal. And it wasn't the last snow dump of the winter. But for those of us who have lived through some pretty long and tough winters, there is this one word that sustains us through it all. You know the word - spring.

Monday, November 12, 2007

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When I was a kid, "Nautilus" was Captain Nemo's submarine in a Jules Verne novel. I knew that because Walt Disney put it on TV. Then "Nautilus" became the name of an early nuclear submarine launched by the United States. But I just recently saw a nautilus when we were at Ocean City, New Jersey. No, it wasn't a submarine. It was the original nautilus - the little sea creature with the fascinating shell. We actually saw a lot of nautilus shells in little shops. We bought one for our living room. It's real smooth on the outside with stripes on it, and it's bigger than my hand. To me, the nautilus shell is shaped sort of like a big, shiny human ear, or maybe like an unborn child in the womb, if you can picture that. The original inhabitant is gone, but his fascinating shell-house remains. When you cut a nautilus shell in half, it reveals the life story of the one-time inhabitant. At the center is this circular chamber with a wall around it. That was the original home of a little bitty nautilus. There are circular chambers all the way to the outer edge of the shell, and each chamber is a little larger than the previous one. That little sea creature kept outgrowing his shell, so he left it behind and moved on to the next chamber - and chapter - of his life.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

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It's a very impressive new bridge. We saw it recently as we traveled near the Ohio River. As you look at it from the city where we were staying, it appears to be complete. But when you go a few blocks and you look at it from downriver, some additional information becomes apparent - important information. It's only partly completed. It will get you part way there - but then it will drop you in the river.

Friday, November 2, 2007

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When I'm on the road - which is a lot of the time - I really need my cell phone. For all the dropped calls and dead spots and interruptions, a cell phone really can be a tool to keep vital communication going. So every night I go into a motel, I faithfully take my cell phone and the power cord to recharge it from an AC outlet. Most days that little guy gets a workout and, just like the guy who uses him, he's pretty exhausted by the end of the day. Wouldn't be interesting if people had bars registering how much power they have left like a cell phone does? Not long ago, I got up and I turned on my phone, anticipating another day of needing it a lot. And it was virtually dead. OK, what's the deal? A power outage in the night? Nope. An owner who's a "dufus." Oh, I had the cord plugged into my phone, but I forgot to plug it into the wall!

Monday, October 29, 2007

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Usually, the only way we know a musical artist we like is through listening to their CD or maybe watching their music video or DVD. We've come a long way from Grandma's old 78 RPM records. In fact, someone's listening and saying, "What's a 78 RPM?" Or maybe even, "What's a record!" But there's something much better than either the audio or video recording of a great musician. It's called going to their concert where you can actually see and hear them, live and in person. There's nothing like the live concert.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

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There's this two-lane highway that's a main link between communities. And when they had to close one lane for a short-term road project, it created some delays for all of us tremendously patient people. It was one of those projects where one flagger stops the traffic in one lane while another flagger allows the traffic for the other lane to proceed. All day long, open your lane, close your lane - open your lane, close your lane. They had a car with a "pilot car" sign on it that led the proceeding traffic to the end of the one-lane area. Then the pilot of the pilot car got to turn around and drive back with the traffic following him from the other side. That's got to be exciting work. One lady apparently was short on patience that day. Oh, she waited until her lane was open and the pilot car came. She happened to be first in line. But her patience ended as soon as she started to follow the pilot car. She decided to floor it and pass the pilot car. Bad idea! She crashed right into their heavy equipment.

Friday, October 19, 2007

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It was a race against time. The last ferry boat to the island where we had a hotel reservation left at 8:30. We did everything the speed limit would allow. When we stopped for gas, we did one of my infamous Hutchcraft drills where you fill the car, empty yourself, and grab a meal in just minutes. All that's missing is the stopwatch. We knew it was going to be close so we didn't waste a minute. We roared into town and up to the dock at 8:40. We got there too late. We missed the boat - the last boat.

Friday, October 12, 2007

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Rwanda. That's a word many Americans never knew until that little African nation was all over our TV and newspaper a few years ago. Tens of thousands of Rwandans were slaughtered in this bloody civil war. Billy Graham's son, Franklin Graham, took a medical team to try to help them, and I heard him tell about one little girl that he could never forget, and I don't think I ever will forget this. He was in this rebel camp, and he was walking by an army truck, and he noticed this one little girl sitting in the back of it, and she was just rocking back and forth. And she was singing something very softly, but in a language Franklin couldn't understand. There was a soldier standing by and he was paying no attention to the girl, but Franklin said, "What happened to this little girl?" And he said, "Ah, same as all the others. She's got nobody left." Franklin said, "Well, would you do me one more favor? Would you tell me what she's singing?" The soldier seemed a little annoyed, but he listened for a minute, and he said, "Yeah, it's, uh, uh..." And then he went on to translate it. And when he translated the song, it was clear this little Rwandan orphan hadn't lost everyone.

Monday, October 8, 2007

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Our friend, Cathy, has walked to get around most of her life, but recently she started floating. She's got this glow. She's got a new bounce in her voice when she answers the phone. She's got a new confidence. Cathy's more alive than we've ever seen her. Now what magic could bring about all these wonders? If you haven't guessed by now, you have been away too long. She's in love! She's in her twenties, and this is her first really big romance. It might be her life-long romance, and it's pretty exciting to watch.

Friday, October 5, 2007

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Think about you in seventh grade. You say, "I'd rather not." Well, think about you. I mean, what a hunk, right? Miss America! Probably not. Our daughter had a funny experience in her senior French class in high school. There was some down time, and some girls were comparing their wallet pictures, including our daughter. She had out her senior picture and her seventh grade picture, and she put them right next to each other. The teacher asked what everybody was laughing at. Well, our daughter's always had a beautiful smile, but I have to tell you, in seventh grade it was decorated with braces, she had glasses, her hair was kind of kinky and curly and all pulled back, and she looked like a seventh grader. Well, her French teacher looked at that particular picture of our daughter, the seventh grade version that is, and then to the very beautiful senior in her graduation picture: no glasses, long hair, carefully curled hair, big blue eyes unconcealed by glasses. That teacher had a simple two-word reaction, (French teacher, of course) "La Miracle!" Well, "The miracle?" Our daughter could laugh with her friends; she could laugh with her teacher at that old seventh grade picture. Hey, it wasn't her anymore.

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