Tree of the Week (3.31.09)

Calebology

A combination of the Hebrew name, 'Caleb,' and the suffix '-ology' stemming from the Greek 'logos,' Calebology is one of those tell-us-lame-stuff-about-yourself-on-Facebook-and-tag-all-of-your-friends-in-it things. I think I will try it.

1) What is your salad dressing of choice?
Blue Cheese

2) What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
Chili's

3) What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it?
Oreos

4) What are your pizza toppings of choice?
Sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, onions, black olives, green peppers, mushrooms, and lots of cheese.

6) How many televisions are in your house?
One

7) What color cell phone do you have?
Silver

8) Are you right-handed or left-handed?
Right

9) Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A couple of moles. Hair. I was circumcised.

10) What is the last heavy item you lifted?
Sandbags

11) Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
Yes

12) If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
No

13) If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
If I could change my name, I wouldn't.

14) Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000?
Psh, yeah.

15) How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
One

16) What’s your goal for the year?
Finish my novel.

17) Last person you talked to?
Wanda, my supervisor

18) Last person you hugged?
Rebekah

19) Favorite Season?
Fall

20) Favorite Holiday?
Thanksgiving

21) Favorite day of the week?
Sunday

22) Favorite Month?
September

23) First place you went this morning?
The bathroom

24) What's the last movie you saw?
The Happening

25) Do you smile often?
That's a relative question.

26) Do you always answer your phone?
Yes

28) If you could change your eye color what would it be?
Red

29) What flavor drink do you get at Sonic?
There are no Sonics in Fargo

30) Have you ever had a pet fish?
Yes

31) Favorite Christmas song?
Come Thou Fount

32) What's on your wish list for your birthday?
Louisville, Kentucky

33) Can you do push ups?
Yes

34) Can you do a chin up?
Yes

35) Does the future make you more nervous or excited?
Excited

36) Do you have any saved texts?
No

37) Ever been in a car wreck?
No

38) Do you have an accent?
Everyone has an accent according to somebody. So yes.

39) What is the last song to make you cry?
In Christ Alone

40) Plans tonight?
Reading, working on my novel

41) Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom?
Yes

42) Name 3 things you bought yesterday.
A whole lot of nothing.

43) Have you ever been given roses?
No

44) Current hate right now?
Rising rivers

45) Met someone who changed your life?
Yes... these questions are becoming more and more fragmented.

46) How did you bring in the New Year?
Kissing my wife.

47) What song represents you?
"Southbound Train" by Jon Foreman

48) Name three people who might complete this?
I hope I don't know any people who would complete this.

49) What were you doing 12 AM last night?
Sleeping

50) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
AIG (it was what they were talking about on NPR)

I feel like I was just interviewed by a twelve-year-old girl.

I Wish I Could Cook Like This

Why a Sumo Suit is a Good Investment

Waiting for the Crest

Things got dark on Thursday in the Fargo/Moorhead community.

Some mandatory evacuations were issued. Some homeowners surrendered to the might Red. There were giant lulls between sandbagging efforts. The predicted Saturday crest level went up again from forty-one to an estimated forty-two, potentially forty-three, feet. A home in the Oakport area, on the Minnesota side, caught fire and burned, unable to be reached by any fire department. The community was drained and deflated, close to giving in.

But Friday was a new day.

Sandbagging continued. Reserve sandbags were made. Dikes were raised in most locations. New strength was found as the bad news that broke so regularly the day before now was just a bump in the road. For the first time it seemed hopeful that the river may be held at bay.

Friday night the crest day was moved back to Sunday granting a few precious hours before the final push. Overnight the river actually dropped a tenth of a foot.

Even considering the lack of bad news on Friday, Saturday will be the most difficult day. With much of the preparation done, the community must wait for the crest tomorrow, a crest that will last up to seven days. And the uncertainty of waiting often times can be more difficult that filling, throwing, or placing sandbags.

The State of Fargo

It has been snowing all day in Fargo. The city awoke to approximately seven inches of accumulation and the snowfall has continued throughout the day.

But the citizens of Fargo/Moorhead do not care.

Rain fell from Sunday night until early Tuesday. Monday night brought a substantial thunderstorm with heavy rain lasting into the morning.

But the citizens of Fargo/Moorhead do not care.

The United States economy is in disarray. Barack Obama unveiled his $3.6 trillion budget proposal. AIG is recording massive losses despite billions of dollars in federal relief and yet is paying out bonuses.

But the citizens of Fargo/Moorhead do not care.

There is one thing that the citizens of Fargo care about:

The mighty Red River is rising quickly and threatening the Fargo/Moorhead community in it's entirety.

The most recent numbers tweeted by @redriveratfargo read,

Current height of the Red River at Fargo is 36.39 feet. 18.39 feet above flood stage. 3.21 feet below 1997 crest.

The Red River is predicted to crest at forty-one feet on Saturday morning. That is the highest in recorded history.

Volunteers are showing up in the thousands to fill sandbags and build dikes in attempts to stave off the river, but the Red is rising fast. Twenty-four hours ago the river was at 31.75 feet. A view of the stages of the progression has been compiled by the Minnesota Public Radio website.

The Fargodome has been transformed into a sandbag-filling hive where hundreds of volunteers shovel, hold, tie, and move the sandbags to be distrubuted throughout the city by police-escorted semi-trucks. Some 2.5 to 3 million sandbags are needed. The most recent number reflect somewhere around 1.3 million.

Homeowners along the river hope against hope that they will not suffer the same fate of those living in Oxbow, where the Wild Rice River meets the mighty Red just minutes south of Fargo. Some Oxbow residents lost their battles and had to be rescued this morning.

Whispers of city-wide evacuation echo down the sandbag line. No one wants to leave their livelihood behind, but if the river levels rise above the predicted value, it will most likely become necessary.

Overall, uncertainty is in the air. Volunteers continue to pour their efforts into sandbagging; however, no one can truly conceive of what will unfold in the next few days.

Tree of the Week (3.24.09)

Blogger's Block

This past week I have been on vacation with Rebekah, my parents, and my sister. I was hoping that the time away would help clear up the small strain of blogger's block that I seem to have come down with in the month of March. Unfortunately, it was not the cure to my condition. So, this is the best I can do right now. Maybe after a few days in my natural habitat I will have something to blog about.

In other news, I have started writing a novel.

Tree of the Week (3.17.09)

Sanctification Speed

Sometimes I get frustrated with the speed of my sanctification. I should just be able to be more disciplined and speed up the sloth-like pace, right?

And then I remember that it is not contingent on how disciplined I am. Or on me at all.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

-1 Corinthians 6:11

And when I am reminded that it is by the name of Jesus that I am sanctified, I realize that what I consider a sloth-like pace is exactly the pace that God has planned.

I'll Try Twitter

So, I started tweeting on Twitter. I don't know if I'll keep up with it, but you can check it out and follow me if you'd like.

If you'd rather not go through all that clicking, you can just glance at the sidebar in my blog. I have fed my tweets in there. Of course if you are reading this on Facebook or a feedreader, you'll have to click through to the actual blog.

A Productive Snow Day

Fargo had a snow day today. Yeah, the whole city. On March 10. I went to work this morning, but they declared hazardous conditions, so I came home.

Then I drank some hot chocolate.



So did Rebekah.



Rebekah worked from bed.



We Skyped Katie. (Actually this was a different day, but it seems like a good snow day activity.)



And we made this video.

It was a productive snow day.

Tree of the Week (3.10.09)

A Cloudy Future

How foolish are those men who wish to pry into the future; the telescope is ready, and they are looking through; but they are so anxious to see, that they breathe on the glass with their hot breath and they dim it, so that they can discern nothing but clouds and darkness.

-Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Below the Belt

The idiom "below the belt" is not enhanced by saying "way below the belt."

Getting hit way below the belt is much less underhanded than getting hit only slightly below the belt.

Tree of the Week (3.3.09)

Topical Preaching

Last night I had a dream. It was Sunday morning and I was at an unfamiliar church. As the worship set was ending I was informed that I would be preaching the sermon. I was scared, but confident that the Lord would guide me through a text.

But then I was given a topic: repentance.

I got to the pulpit and fumbled through Scripture, trying to find something on repentance. For the longest time I just stood there, looking at my Bible. Then I decided to go to Nehemiah. I guess it kind of works, but preaching a sermon on repentance using Nehemiah as your supporting text seems like a stretch, or at least is not my first choice in consciousness.

I think I just had a nightmare about topical preaching.