I'm currently working days. One think about the group on my shift is we eat really good on most evenings and weekends. Today, Kratzer cooked a great meal. We had deer roast, pork roast and deer and pork sausage, with rice, corn and green beans. It was so good.

I brought drinks for today's meal, a twelve pack of Cokes, diet Cokes, Dr. Pepper and A&W Root beer. I also brought grapes for a snack.

We had a quiet day yesterday and today.

Since I worked this Sunday and missed worship service, I read St. Paul's epistle to the Philippians, and I plan to attend the Wednesday morning Eucharistic service at St. Michael's Episcopal Church.

I've started reading a short biography of Blaise Pascal.

Now, I plan to get a beer and then get cleaned up and ready for bed.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

We had an awesome thunderstorm roll through here about lunch time today. I had just fed the boys and so I took my hot cup of tea and went outside on the porch, sat on a bench and enjoyed the cool breese, the intense rain and the incredible lightning and thunder. AWESOME!!

I love storms, as long as I have a nice shelter over my head.

Later,
Kenith

On Sunday morning, Lisa was not feeling well, so I let her sleep. I let the boys sleep in also, but I got dressed and went to worship services. I went to St. Michael's Episcopal Church, so that I could get home more quickly than I could from Bethel. The minister at St. Michael's was a visiting pastor, because Rev. Cook was on vacation. I the service was nice, but I found the homily to be rather weak.

Sunday evening MK and his son came over. MK and I enjoyed a nice Zinfandel (not a "white" or "cafe" but a true red wine) and sat on the nearly completed porch and visited. Lisa did say hello, but our niece Kim and her daughter came over so the ladies talked inside, Mike and I did the same on the porch and the boys played all over.

On monday morning, my yongest son and I drove up to Longville. We fished in Sandy's pond for a little. We caught some perch and a bass, but it was getting hot so we went for a swim. After our swim we went to visit my parents. Mom had cooked some sausage and red gravyand my brother Terry had baked some flounder that he had caught the day before, so we feasted with them. Afterwards we drank coffee and talked. Before heading for home my son, dad and I picked blue berries (we picked two gallons). We ate a ton of them while picking them. They are so good.

Mark came over yesterday evening and we worked on the porch some more. Now all that is left to do is to install the new posts, wich he is making. When we finished our labour we ooled off on the porch with a couple of Sam Adam's Summer Ale. It is a very refreshing beer.

I little later Woody and Elisabeth walked over with their baby and joined us on the porch. Mark left shortly after and we moved the visit inside.

This morning, Lisa was up before the alarm went off and I got up shortly there after. She got ready for work and I came out on the porch with my French Press full of cofee, a cup (from Café Du Monde) and St Augustine's City of God. I have sat here on the porch, drank coffee, and read from the City of God. I also listend to part of a discussion betwen Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath on my iPod.

Now that I have recorded all this on the blog, I need to get moving and start today's work.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Thursday morning I finished this weeks set of nightshift. I got home a little before six AM. I let the dog out and played with her for a few minutes. Soon after I arrived Kevin and John came by for a beer (I had invited them). We sat on the porch, enjoyed a couple of Killians and talked.

After that they headed home and and I came in and got ready for bed. I woke up about noon. I had my typical graveyard groog but I did pull out my saw's all and cut the handrails of the porch.

On Friday I had a meeting (8:00 AM to 4:00PM) but I had to make 12 hours so I got to work at four in the morning. I used the extra time to get ready for the meeting. That evening Lisa and I went to Club 90 in Iowa, Louisana for a surprise retirement part for my good friend Bird (Wayne Partin).

This morning Mark came over. He got here about 8. Lisa had picked up donuts and I made coffee. She then left for work. Mark and I started taking the front porch apart. After demolishing it, we spen the rest of the day building a new one. We got about 90% of the work done and should finish it next week. The new porch is much stronger and looks a lot better than the old one. Lisa is very happy with it.

I took a little time from the porch to grill some steaks for lunch. This after noon Lisa took the boys to see Get Smart and I cleanup from our work.

Later,
Kenith

Last Saturday Lisa, her sister Rhonda and I went to Lafayette for the wedding of Rosalie Hays and 1st Lieutenant Alec Moyer. Lisa and I have been good friends with the Jon-Ella and David Hays for many years. The were members of Bethel when they lived in Lake Charles. In the aftermath of Hurricane Rita, Lisa, our boys and Lisa's sister Rhonda all stayed with the Hays for a number of weeks.

I've been working graveyards this week. I woke early on Wednesday (12:30 PM) and instead of going back to sleep, I took the boys swimming at the community pool, where we were joined by several of their friends. We stayed at the pool for an hour and a half. We then came home and they got ready to go to McNeese for a leisure learning art class that they are taking. The class is being taught by my son-in-law, Danny.

I then returned home, got ready for work, ran to the store to pick up a few items that we were low on. I brought the items home came to work. As I am writing this, it is now just after midnight and I'm starting to feel tired because I did not get my normal amount of sleep and swam instead. It is going to be a long night.

In the reading department I finished reading The Life of Philip Melanchthon by Frances Augustus Cox. The book was published in 1817 and proved to be a very good book.

Christian is in San Diego and will begin S.E.R.E. school soon. His drive to California proved interesting. His water pump went out on him about 5 or so miles after Junction, Texas. He called me and I was able to get in touch with the Sheriff's department. They gave me a number to the only tow truck in town.

So Christian was towed back into Junction, spent the night at the Lazy-T Motel, which is owned by a Navy retiree, who gave him a room for half price. The man who towed him in was also the mechanic, and he had Christian back on the road by mid morning on Monday. I spoke with him at 5 AM (our time) on Tuesday and he was in San Diego looking for a hotel to crash at for a few hours.

Today is our middle son's birthday. He turned twelve we went swimming for most of the afternoon and had a small party this evening.

31 May to 8 June 2008

I recently inherited, from my wife, her iPod. I bought her a new one for Mother’s Day. I was never very interested in having an iPod, but I now realize how much use I could make of one of these things.

Mine has eight gigs. I have downloaded numerous lectures from the web, I purchased C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce and The Abolition of Man from the iPod store and I also have Virgil’s Aeneid, which I got from the library. I am now very excited about my iPod.

I have finished several books. Lord of the Flies by William Golding and C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce and The Abolition of Man on audio book and I finally finished reading Three Empires of the Nile: The Victorian Jihad, 1869-1899 by Dominic Greene. I have started reading City of God by Saint Augustine and on audio book I’m listening to Virgil’s Aeneid. I checked the audio book out from the library and have up loaded onto my iPod. I’m now in book six.

Saturday before last I flew to Albuquerque, NM for our annual rescue school. I had an early flight and flew out from Lake Charles at 6:10 AM had a two hour layover in Houston and landed in Albuquerque about 10:30 AM. I took a cab to the Embassy Suites put up my stuff. The rest of the crew arrived just in time for happy hour, so we met down stairs for drinks (which are free from 5:30-7:30 PM).

I did not make it to worship services on Sunday. All eight members of the team went to the Sandia Peak Tramway and took it up the mountain. We looked around and then went down the other side of the mountain and back up on a ski lift. It is a beautiful place. I would like to take Lisa and the boys there some day.

Our training was a Roco Rescue one course. We have two members of the team who had not yet taken the rescue-one course, and we like to train as a team so eight of us (half the team) went to this course with our new members. It was a good refresher for the rest of us.

I loved the weather in Albuquerque. It never got very hot because the humidity was so low. When it did get hot, if you could get into the shade it became much cooler. The other great thing was at night it cooled of substantially. It cooled off into at least the 60’s at night and on one night the temperature dropped into the upper 40’s. It was great.

Our training involved a lot of physical work, but you never broke out into a sweat, because of the low humidity. I sweated more under the awning while waiting for my baggage at the Lake Charles’ Airport than I did the whole time I was working in New Mexico.

I returned home yesterday (Saturday). Christian was in town, he is driving out to San Diego for more training and stopped here for a few days. Lisa, Christian, the boys and I went to our community pool and swam for a while. After that we went to Outback for supper. Morgan and Danny joined us for supper, as did Eric. We had a good meal and a great visit.

This morning I cooked bacon and pain perdu (i.e. French toast) for breakfast and then we to Worship services as Bethel PCA. On the way to Bethel we stopped a Starbucks to see Morgan, who had to work. I got a cup of coffee (black) and one of the boys got some kind of lemonade. Morgan was able to take a break, so we visited for a few minutes then we went on to Bethel.

Pastor Wright has started preaching a series on the Apostles’ Creed. This morning’s sermon was excellent.

After church, Christian got his stuff together and headed out for San Diego. Lisa is on her way to Welch, LA to pick up Duke and Donna’s kids. Donna had surgery last week so we are going to keep their children tonight so that she can get some rest.

I am sitting on the front porch writing this. I have a fan going and it is a very nice (though humid) afternoon. After I post this on my blog I intend to open City of God and do a little reading.

Later,
Kenith