Today is a wonderful day and a very sad day for me. 30 June is my brother Gerry’s birthday and so my mind is filled with sweet memories of him. Today is also heartbreaking because I remember how much I miss having him here.

Gerry died on July 6, 2003 after a three year battle with cancer. He was a good brother and a fine man. It is impossible to know the “WHY” in his death, but we bow before our sovereign God and say “I don’t understand Lord, but thy will be done.”

I am confident that we will be together again because of the saving grace of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

We lived through the deluge. I was awakened during the night by a relentless rumbling of thunder, and then dosed back off. One of the little boys woke me around 6:30 am. Shortly after that my brother Terry called and asked if we were flooded. I asked why. He told me that they had heard on the news that there was serious flooding in some parts of Sulphur.

I looked outside the front door and the water was up to the sidewalk. There was almost a foot of water in the street, but we were still high and dry.

I was supposed to fly to Washington D.C. this morning with Claude, our union president, but all the flights were canceled because of the weather. I am home and the next available flight that we could catch was an 8:55 am flight from Houston tomorrow, so I will be driving to Houston in the Morning.

I have never been to Washington before and I’m pretty excited about going there. The bad news is our main sight seeing time would have been tomorrow before things kicked off. If I can see the Constitution I will consider my sight seeing a great success.

I am also excited because Claude and I are supposed to meet with our congressman and at least one of our Senators (Mary Landrieu), but I have contacted Senator Vitter’s office and I hope we can meet with him as well.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Its Saturday here at work, and it’s been very busy for a weekend. The last two days (Thursday and Friday) were very busy as well, but that is expected for weekdays.

My days off were spent doing normal things. I cut grass, worked on the kitchen, took the little boys swimming. One of them had his birthday last Monday. We celebrated his birthday over the weekend. He had some friends spend the night Friday night. The little boy’s MK and his son and I went to see the movie Cars on Saturday and we had folks over on Sunday for BBQ and a birthday party.

I took the boy swimming at the pool (which at a park near the house) several times since school let out. They enjoy swimming and I have always loved swimming. This pool is pretty big and there is deep end with two diving boards.

The times we’ve gone there has not been a big crowd and I’ve been able to swim some laps. I need to exercise more often.

I’ve been reading the writings of Justin Martyr and have placed a couple of items about him on the As I See It blog.

Coram Deo,
Kenith
PS. My old friend (nemesis) A.R. Minian has struck again. You can read his latest blog comments by clicking HERE!!!

I finished my daylight shift last Wednesday. Thursday I did stuff around the house. That evening I had a group of friends over. We sat out on the porch, drank a few beers and talked. The group included TK, MK, Kevin, Gary, Ker, Josh, Pastor Mark, and me (It was a Presbyterian posse, except for Josh who is not “yet” convinced about infant baptism). It was a great time, I would like to be able to do this now and then.

Friday I meet Josh P. at DeAngelos for dinner (lunch). This is one of my favourite restaurants in Lake Charles. After that I went home and picked up the little boys, including MK’s son, who had spent the night, and the four of us took off for Longville.

In Longville the boys swam, while I visited with Pop. After they where finished swimming we headed for the pond to fish. We had only fished for a short while when it began to rain, so that was cut short and we return to my parents and visited some more.

After we returned home, Josh called; he had asked me earlier if I would be interested in going fishing in the gulf Saturday. I told him that I would be at his house a 4:30 am. I had never been fishing off shore in the Gulf before, so I was pretty excited.

I am a US Navy veteran, and have spent many days at sea. I’ve experienced two typhoons (both near the Philippines) while at sea. Every time I was on land for a few months between cruises, I always got sick the first day out at sea. After that first day I never got sick again, but no matter how calm the seas, I always through up the first day out.

I have not been on a boat in the ocean for many years, and so I was a bit concerned. Mk gave me a prescription for sea sick patches, and I put one behind my ear in hopes of not ruining the fishing trip.

Saturday morning, we put in at the Cameron jetties and headed out into the Gulf of Mexico. We went out about thirty-six miles out in to the gulf. We pulled up to an oil rig and hooked on to it. The fist time I dropped my hook in the water I caught a red snapper almost immediately. We caught sixteen snapper, and a couple of ling (cobia), in no time at all.

For the first hour we fished with frozen cigar minnows, the snapper had quit biting and so we decided to switch to artificial bate and try for more ling. Josh gave me a new rod and I began to thread the line through the eyes of the rod. That was a big mistake. I could feel the sickness coming on at a mad rush. I turned and throw up off the side of the boat. Josh saw me and was surprised, because I had done so well up until this point. I heaved a couple of times and set my eyes on the horizon and felt much better.

I never felt bad again after that. It was a great trip. We caught four dolphin (Mahi Mahi) and a Spanish Mackerel. I also hooked a small shark but we cut the line and let it go.

It was a great day. After we got back, cleaned the boat and the fish, I went home and grilled some of my portion of the fish. It was great. We ate red snapper, ling and mahi mahi for supper. I opened a good chardonnay to go with the fish. After that I bathed and crashed. I was really tired.

Sunday, we worshiped at Bethel. Monday evening I started back to work on graveyards.

Coram Deo,
Kenith