After quite the recess! Too long, yes, the masses agree. I apologize, but alas, it just didn’t happen. Not for lack of material though, I assure you!
We had a wonderful time in Utopia from Christmas to New Year’s. All my in-laws came along too, they got a good dose of Utopia’s alternative to snow! It rained and rained and even flooded a little bit. I hadn’t drove over a water-overflowed road in quite some time, it felt good again. My in-laws were always making astonished comments like “It’s raining again! It’s still raining! The sun was shining a minute ago and now it’s raining again!! Does it ALWAYS rain here?!!!” Ha ha!
Mom threw a wedding reception for us Monday night, that was fun. Another day we went to the coast, and we also ate at my favorite Chinese restaurant that I have missed very much, Ping’s! (So far I haven’t found any decent non-buffet Chinese restaurants here in Hoosierville.) Visited my farm and warehouse, played a lot of games, got together with AHQ, opened some presents, had a lot of family time. A very good trip.
Oh yeah, and AHQ even gave somewhat of a program. We were impromptuitously asked on Friday if we wanted to have the sermon time Sunday morning, so we took it. I didn’t know if we could remember anything, but we did.
I was scrambling though! I have a propensity for forgetting words anyway, so there were some especially uncertain moments. I got all mixed up on the first verse of “Strong” (1.2MB) and used a phrase or two from the second verse in it. Hopefully no one noticed. When I sang the second verse and got to the phrase I had used in the first, I just made sure I wasn’t making eye contact with anyone. I felt foolish! But all in all it went well.
And now I’m back in the Den of Iniquity. How’s that for an inspiring thought.
So anyway, ITF is back. And Mark, you’re right, I’m not doing my part in helping you break the MD habit. I apologize, and I appreciate the offer for computer use. Same to you if you ever find yourself in Hoosierville!
And I’ll see what I can do about providing you a healthy alternative to help break those MD bonds.
7 Responses
January 6th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
oh tom. utopia just isnt quite the same without you and jewel around… any chances you’ll be moving BACK to Utopia anytime soon??? after all, why would you want to live in… HOOSIERVILLE… when you COULD live HERE???? it’s ok, i’ll wait a few days for the logic to set in and then i’ll be back. :)
January 7th, 2006 at 1:28 am
Oh qwerty dear, why live on the west coast when everything of significance happens on the east coast? It is beyond my comprehension. You do need to consider a move of your own.
Thomas, why you spend time, money, and energy on Chinese food I will never understand!
Ag
January 7th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Tom I understand your quest for delicious Chinese cousine. May I suggest that our town has the BEST, buffet even, that we’ve had? The owners are our neighbors and they actually serve FRIED SHRIMP and BAR-B-Q PORK on the buffet during week nights! Plus you can’t beat the price! (Sunday lunch is priced as “lunch”. $5.50 adult/$3.00 child.) Another thought on your return to work…..If there are/were no Christians employed in the “Den”, what chance would the “Den-o-mites” have of seeing or knowing of a Godly life? Your happy, smiling face and friendliness will draw them even more than your fortunate upbringing in the liquid sunshine state. You may have another purpose there yet to be discovered.:)If you ever think of DRIVING to Utopia I know of an on-the-way-place you could stop where you 2 are always welcome!
January 7th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
Tom, you can delete this if you’d rather it not be here, but I figured you bing at SMBI would want to know.
Today God Saw fit to take another of His gems home. We received word this afternoon that Krystal Yoder, wife of Val Yoder, was ushered into the presence of her beloved Savior.
She has had a long battle with her heart and today it gave out on her while attending a wedding in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Her brother who is a medical doctor was there with her and said that she could not have been revived even if she had been at the best hospital. It was her time to go.
Please pray for their family! Their oldest son is in Thailand doing prep work for the whole family to move there next year. This also happened at the same time that Val was attending a meeting to plan the development of a Bible school for Asians in Thailand. Pray for the family’s strength in all of this!!
January 7th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
I’m very sorry to hear this news, but thanks for letting me know Japheth. Though my contact with them has been relatively minimal, I think the world of Val and his family, my heart goes out to them.
January 8th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
I don’t comment much on people’s blogs, but being a little bit of a local “weather geek”, it’s always interesting to read on people’s blogs about Utopia’s rain. If one sees the “big picture” of Utopia’s weather, they know that the climate here cannot be described in just a few words, especially when considering the entire state. The western 1/3 of Utopia (where the majority of the population is) traditionally gets a lot of rain, mild temperatures, and relatively little sunshine in the winter months, with lots of snow in the higher mountains; however, summers are dry and warm, often with up to three months of very little or virtually no rainfall. Beautiful sunny skies, warm breezes, low humidity, and cool nights characterize our “world class” summers, as the state climatologist at a local university refers to them. Spring and fall can vary a lot but usually bring a mix of sunshine and rain. The eastern 2/3 of the state that lies in the rain shadow of the Cascade mountains has an arid climate,but also varies considerably depending on the area. A large portion of it is called “high desert” with some places receiving only 5 to 10 inches of precipitation each year. There are a lot of jokes out there about Utopia’s rain, most of them grossly distorted, but they do make good jokes!
This verse pretty much sums up, meteorologically, what it is like to live in western Utopia:
“For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.” –Song of Solomon 2:11
SG (As if no one could figure this out!)
January 8th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Ag wrote:
Oh qwerty dear, why live on the west coast when everything of significance happens on the east coast? It is beyond my comprehension. You do need to consider a move of your own.
Thomas, why you spend time, money, and energy on Chinese food I will never understand!
Ag, I agree with your first statement to qwerty, it is so right on. {:^)
However, I am saddened at your apparent dislike of Chinese food! Such a shame, surely you do not eat just PA Dutch food all the time, especially that stuff they call shoo fly pie!
Now I want some Lo Mein noodles with some beef and brocolli, General Tao’s Chicken, and some hot and spicy soup with the crunchy thingies! Yummy, good in the tummy! {;^)
(Notice that I placed the above quote in the best MD format possible on this blog. Tom, may I suggest that you institute the BB code Hans uses, much better in actual use than HTML brackets. Also, emoticons would be helpful too.){;^)