Thursday, September 27, 2007

The blog is still alive!


I'm a bit tired, I'll confess. A day of work, followed by an evening of work (rehearsal for an upcoming stage event), leaves me a bit ready for bed. But in spite of that fact, I wanted to take a brief moment to say that the blog is still alive, and I've not forgotten about it. Oh, I don't pretend that there are any of you out there that draw their life's levity and brevity out of reading the paltry news of our lives, but just in case there is one or two of you out there that like to know what's going on here and there - I don't want you to think I've given up, because I haven't. Life has a way of catapulting along and leaving you thinking "This is Thursday already?" "It's already September?" "Is this already 2007?" "How many grandkids do we have?" And so it has gotten away from me a bit and I realize that I haven't written any fascinating news in a while. (Stop it! I know what you're thinking!) Anyway, everything is still ticking, just so you know.

--Nick

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Excuse me, are there any first-class seats open?

Yes, yes, I realize that I haven't updated the blog in a whole week, but all of you rabid fans out there had probably just better get used to it. Once or twice a week will probably be the norm; it's a bit difficult to update it every time you turn around.

Well it's the weekend again, and that brings to mind all the wonderful things about weekends that I've been dwelling on for the last couple of weeks. It's a beautiful, lazy Sunday afternoon, and the weather is so nice we have all the windows in the apartment open - an unusual occurrence I assure you. Speaking of beautiful weather, we breathed some lovely mid-western air in Colorado this weekend; and let me just announce to the world: the Rocky Mountains posses a beauty all their own.

I've been having some health struggles of late, and decided that it would be prudent to go back to Colorado and visit my naturopath (think nutritionist and vitamin person) in Denver. I am a firm believer in health and healing the natural way (having had personal success in the past), so after consideration and consultation with my lovely wife, I found reasonable air fare and booked the trip. Since the trip itself was so short (we left town at 6:55 pm on Friday and returned at 8:30 pm on Saturday), and since it was a task-oriented jaunt (no long and random socializing sessions with old friends and family), we didn't really think about it too much in advance, and it sneaked right up on us. We found ourselves regarding it with a bit of surprise, "Oh yeah, we're leaving town tomorrow." But it was a short trip and didn't really require lots of advance preparation, so everything was fine.

We packed everything in one carry-on bag between the two of us and Jackie drove us to the airport Friday evening. I was rushing about the house moments before we left attempting to get the appropriate maps printed off, making sure I had the necessary phone numbers, etc., but once we got in the car everything was smooth sailing from there. A flight to Dallas, Texas and then a flight to Denver, Colorado left us ready and happy to deplane and not be sitting around any more. And soon as we stepped off the plane, making our way up the jetway, we were given a little insight into the climate of a Colorado night. It was cool, very cool. As we stood outside in our short-sleeve shirts waiting for the rental car shuttle, we wondered at our lack of foresight in not realizing that the rest of the world does not share Florida's climate. I felt especially foolish, having spent a good portion of my life growing up in Colorado. It wasn't tortuously chilly to me, but Teri had a pretty rough time of it.

The rental car company had run out of economy cars, so they bumped us up to a Jeep Liberty for no charge. It was a small thing, but it really added to the pleasure of the trip - the next day as we drove about our business we rolled the windows down and breathed in the fresh Colorado air, reveling in the beauty of the Rocky Mountains which you can see from almost anywhere in Denver. It seemed more fitting in a Jeep, somehow.

We stayed with some old friends of mine, a young married couple with a baby girl. It was wonderful to visit with Ben and Marlene and introduce them to Teri. They put us up in a very comfortable little guest room, and we slept like a couple of slabs of Rocky Mountain granite. I felt bad the next day when I checked my voicemail on my cell phone and found a message from Ben from the night before. He said they were going to go ahead and go to bed (who could blame them?) and left instructions on where to find the housekey and let ourselves in. I didn't even check my phone after we got off the plane, however, so we pulled confidently up and knocked happily on the door in the middle of the night. Marlene graciously let us in and didn't say a word about our clod-like behavior. The next morning at breakfast we played a little bit with their baby girl, Cassie. It's such a different phase of life now, with many of our friends raising children. Cassie is the cutest and friendliest child, and I have to admit, while playing with her the idea of having children didn't seem quite as intimidating.

After a fond farewell we went to see Brenda, our Naturopath. It was an excellent and enlightening visit. We both have some health issues to work through, and we've chosen to do it naturally, through dietary and lifestyle changes; but I think it's very exciting. The next several months should produce some exciting results.

Then it was back to the airport. After puttering about we settled in for two more flights, and arrived back in Florida at 8:30. We've never traveled that much that quickly before, and it felt as though we'd been away a long time. We were both pretty weary, and slept pretty solidly that night.

This whole globe-trotting thing is kind of fun. I've never been in a position where I've needed to travel great distances for short amounts of time before. I've never been an important executive with need to travel hither and yon to check on the status of the company (like my father-in-law), and I've never been a wealthy gad-about, flitting here and there to try out the various golf courses of the world (also like my father-in-law - no, just kidding). This little trip felt something like that, a little exotic. "Oh, we thought we'd go to Colorado for the weekend." Of course, it wasn't really like that, but it was fun. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Rocky Mountains, breathing in the fresh Colorado air, getting away for a short bit, spending time with old friends, and spending time with each other.

Colorado, you haven't seen the last of us.

--Nick

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Oh for a week of weekends


A truly wonderful weekend this has been. I feel as though we haven't had a weekend like this in quite some time: one of those that helps you relax, get a couple of things done, recharges you for the week to come, reminds you to focus your life where your heart is - enabling your daily existence to energize you, instead of drain you.
We went out to eat with a large group of friends on Friday night, a farewell party of sorts for a dear teacher who is moving on. Our eating destination of choice was about 30 minutes outside of town, and our little caravan managed to get stuck in backed-up highway traffic, so we spent about an hour trying to entertain ourselves and ravenously searching our vehicles for edibles.

I feel as though I am supremely wealthy. I'm not, of course, lest any of you start forming ideas in your minds, but I feel as though I'm living the life of some sort of lower nobility. I've been thinking about that this week - how much we have - and it's something we take for granted all the time. People in third-world countries tend to view Americans as all being wealthy, and we Americans tend to scoff at that view - because we are aware of large numbers of society that possess many more things and lead much more luxurious lives than we do. But really, if I step back and look at the life that I lead, it's much more luxurious than I give it credit for. I get up in the morning, I choose what I want to eat for breakfast, I go to work where I work with technology, I come home to an apartment complete with carpet and (some) furniture, I eat a delicious meal prepared by my lovely and skilled wife, I conduct business on the Internet or read from an engaging author or listen to music or whatever: I lead a very blessed and "wealthy" life. It's no wonder that most third-world countries consider us all obscenely wealthy. May we never take it for granted, may we seek to glorify God with that we do have.

Teri and I did a little furniture shopping yesterday, speaking of adding to our possessions. We've been spending our nights on a trusty Simmons Beautyrest air mattress, and it's not been a bad experience, but it would be nice to have a real bed - so we went mattress shopping. There's really no good way to shop for a mattress other than to lie down on it, but as lying down is something you don't usually do with tons of other people about, it feels a bit odd to flop around from mattress to mattress with salespeople and other shoppers passing by. It is kind of fun though, randomly lying down on whatever looks comfortable, tossing and turning to simulate your various dormant positions. We haven't actually made our purchase yet, but we're getting close.

I've been learning Blender lately (an open-source 3d modeling and animation program). Not much, mind you, but I've started. I'm actually rather excited about it, and spend various moments throughout the day thinking about what I would create if I were a skilled Blender user. The wedge at right is my first render - the epitome of simpleness, anyone could make this, but we all have to start somewhere. Remember this wedge, and one day you'll be able to say "He's come a long way."
Either that or "I wonder if he's still learning 3d anymore?"

May Jehovah bless you all,

--Nick

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Movin' up and movin' on!


She's here! The new setup has arrived! "What new setup?" you ask. "By new setup are you referring to that pair of matched 22-inch flat panel LCDs sitting in your office? And perhaps also to the quad-core Intel Mac sitting beside it (not pictured)?" Yes my friend, that is exactly what I'm referring to. I won't spend a long time forcing you to skip over technical blather about all the fancy specs of my new computer, but you will have to have a little patience with me for being excited about the situation. You see, I work with computers on a daily basis. And, like any other tool, computers have nasty little quirks and issues that they insist on plaguing you with - my old computer being an example of this. So, the wheels of resolution sometimes grind slowly, but they have nevertheless ground, and I am excited about it! My nasty quirks (or should I say, those of my old computer) should be gone, and I should be happily editing video in the land of new technology!
Enough of me. Classes start tomorrow! Teri is, of course, busy (even as I write this) gearing up for her first classes tomorrow. Ah her poor, poor students. Little do they know that they are about to be transformed from faltering tongues to golden orators - well, maybe not every single one, it kind of depends on the student, but good things will happen - just you wait and see.
We're buying a bookcase on Saturday, so we'll have a reason to start unpacking some of our books. That's actually a big part of the unpacking quandary right now - we just don't have anywhere to put things once we get them out of the boxes.
Well, I don't think I succeeded in "penning" thoughts of great wit and wisdom, managing to engage the reader while relating the mundane - my apologies, but there you have the update.

--Nick

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Saturdays are nice


Saturdays are a wonderful invention. I am rather a big fan of them, actually, but I suppose it is the five days before which make a Saturday that much more enjoyable.
Life continues on here, as it always does. New students are arriving all over the place at the college, so I've been running sound for Parents of New Students meetings over the weekend. We also had a double taping yesterday, which means we recorded both the morning and evening service for broadcast - so I've worked more this last weekend than I really would've liked, but that is the name of the game. The upside of that is I now have eight hours to take out of the rest of my workweek, at my discretion (more or less). I'm afraid I'm in the process of already blowing four of them; I was soooo tired last night and this morning, so I spent the morning sleeping in and being lazy.
Jackie came over on Saturday! This makes us very happy, of course, because we don't get to see her much, and soon we shall see her even less. She is responsible for the pan of brownies you see in the first picture. Everyone's a little unsure how to take my camera-wielding and cries of "It all must go on the blog!" but I'm sure we'll settle into a happy medium before long.
I'm afraid we've lost our moving inertia. When we were in the Time of Great Change there was much busyness and energy being expended on getting things done: suitcases being packed, rooms being cleaned, items packed in storage, vows being said, honeymoons being traveled on, furniture being moved (up to the 3rd floor - with no elevator), groceries being purchased, etc. But now that we're in, the energy and drive has abated somewhat. My open suitcase with strewn-about contents still taunts us every time we walk into the bedroom, our intimidating Mound of Boxes periodically shouts messages of doom from the other room, the furniture is not quite how it should be just yet - but it's all ok. I rather assumed that we would attack the settling in with just as much ferocity as the moving in, but that's not the way things have turned out. Of course, it's not like we've been lounging around our home for weeks on end thinking "We really should unpack sometime." There's been plenty to do with both of us working and other things being accomplished. Mind you, I'm not saying the settling in has stopped, merely slowed down.
Until next time.

--Nick