Our house is finally starting to come together. We had some of the cabinets installed and the island last week. Part of the ceiling sheet rock is installed and as soon as Lisa chooses the lights that will go over the Island, I will be able to finish installing most of the rock.

For my days off I mostly worked on the house. I also cut the grass a couple of times, because it is growing so fast do to all the rain we’ve been getting.

All the children are doing ok. One of our nieces has moved in with us. She sold her house (it is a sellers market right now) and will be living with us until her marriage next May.

MK returned from visiting his family in upstate New York. He brought back some wines from the Finger Lakes (Seneca Lake) wineries that he visited while he was up there. HE came over last night and brought one of the reds. It was a very light red wine. The reds up there have a good deal less tannins than do the California reds.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Since my last post I’ve gone to work at the refinery and I’ve worked around the house a good deal. We’ve finally turned the corner and are starting to put things back together in the kitchen. We are still held up by the cabinets. The cabinetmaker called today and said he should be able to install the cabinets this weekend. (Hooray)

This morning I woke with one of my all to frequent earaches. Still, I dressed and went to Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Maplewood for worship. They have a daily 8:30 AM service. I occasionally attend mass during the week. I do this on those weeks when I am unable to worship at Bethel or Covenant Presbyterian churches.

Theologically I am Reformed and have many doctrinal differences with the Church of Rome, but I am do regard the Catholic Church as a true Christian Church. And so I worship there when I cannot worship in a Reformed Church.

I recently finished reading the existing writings of Justin Martyr. Now I’ve started reading Irenaeus. A Roman Catholic friend at work, with whom I've had a number of discussions, asked me "So when are you going to become a Catholic [again]." This was after I had mentioned about what I'd read in the Early Church Fathers. I told him that it would not be before the Catholic Church formally rejected Unum Sanctum and Vatican I, neither of which it can do without gutting its doctrine of infallibility.

This was part of a very friendly, somewhat jocular, conversation.

I’ve also started reading Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America by Colin Calloway. I am on the second chapter and so far it is excellent.

The little boys and I are home and I need to get to work.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Recently I went to Washington DC for a convention of United Steal Workers Union, to which I belong. I was one of two members of our local who made the trip. The other member was Claude S. (our local president).

On the last evening Claude and I were joined by a fellow from Baton Rouge on a bus tour of the historic parts of the city. I am big on history and found was excited that I was finally going to see a few sights. The three of us had a number of interesting discussions about history during our tour.

That evening the three of us ate decided to eat at a Lebanese Restaurant that was near the hotel. While eating the gentleman from Baton Rouge said something to the effect that the United States were founded on people not bringing their religious beliefs into the political realm. Of course I had to strongly disagree with him.

In a polite and respectful discussion I pointed out some items that clearly demolished his position. He knew his statement was inaccurate and so he quickly retreated from his statement.

I have put a short article about this item on As I see It.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

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

Lisa called me and said that the couch see ordered for our bay window was delivered today. She was very excited.

I spent most of the Memorial Day weekend at work ( Here is information on Confederate Memorial Days). It was a mostly quite this weekend, but we did have a few gremlins to rundown and fix. Some of the fellows cooked this weekend. Mitch and Chuck cooked red beans and sausage on Sunday and then Big-dog (Marlon) cooked shepherd pie for us on Memorial Day.

I took down my Acadian Flag when I got home Sunday Evening, and hung the American flag for Memorial Day.

When I got home Memorial Day evening, I found Lisha and George, along with Woody and Elisabeth already sitting on the porch. Woody had the pit going and there was cold beer in the ice chest. We ate good food, with some good cold beer and sat of the porch and visited until about 10:30.

George provided some Fat Tire Amber Ale. It was a, but you can’t get it here in Louisiana; you have to go to Texas to get it. I think I will pick some up next time I go to Specks in Beaumont.

I finished reading A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, by Stephen Hawkins. I am a Christian theist and have a radically different worldview than Dr. Hawkins has, but I very much enjoyed the book and found it very interesting.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Last week I started back working on the house. I finished pulling up the old wood flooring in the new, expanded kitchen area and I then began laying the ceramic tiles, that Lisa had picked out. These are 18” tiles and they're going down fairly quickly. I started working my nights shift before I could get them finished, but do I plan to get finished with this section of floor after I work off early next week.

One evening last week TK, Kevin C. and Pastor Mark came over. We sat on the porch, chatted and had a good evening of conversation (mostly theological). TK and Kevin brought a couple of choice beers for us to enjoy. They brought a blue label Chimay and a La Fin Du Monde. Chimay is one of my favourite beers and I enjoyed the La Fin Du Monde as well.

Temple Sinai had its annual book sale last weekend, and I had to go to that. I only bought six books this year. Last year I mopped up, but this year I was a bit more frugal (besides I have purchased a lot of books in the last year or so and many of them remain un-read).

I did pick up a copy of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories. We already have a copy of this wonderful book (which I read to Morgan and Christian when they were small), but I could not pass this book up. I started reading it to the little boys. I’ve read three of the stories to them this week. They are really fun stories.

Mk and I took the boys to see Mission Impossible III last weekend and he took the boys to see Over the Hedge this weekend.

Our niece Elisabeth graduated from Mc Neese last weekend, so we spent all Saturday afternoon at Woody’s house celebrating (Woody and Elisabeth are engaged to be married). I was the designated cook (Bar-BQ). There was plenty of food, and refreshments. Sa far as I could tell everyonel had a good time .

Kenith

The refinery sent me and half of the Rescue team for our annual 40 hour training to Philadelphia, PA. Our hotel and the training were both just south of the airport. It was a great trip.

We left the refinery at 2 AM Saturday morning (April 29). We drove to Houston to catch our flight. There was a front coming through at the exact time we were to take off and so we spent an hour and a half setting on the plane out on the tarmac.

After we arrived in Philly and settled into the hotel, we piled into our two vans and headed for downtown. We walked around to get the feel of the city. The next morning Frank, Debra (Frank’s wife) Ben and I went to 10th Presbyterian Church for morning services. The Rev. Eric Alexander , of Scotland, was the guest pastor and he was finishing up their annual Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. It was a beautiful service, and a very good sermon on the Perseverance of the Saints.

After worship services we walked around for a while before returning to the hotel to pick up Bob. We got Bob on board and we headed back to town for lunch. We ate Philly Cheese Steaks at Geno’s Steaks. The food was good.

We then started looking around. We were able to tour Independence Hall. These was, for me, sacred grown. To know that I was standing where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written was an awesome experience for me.

Monday morning one group of the team headed for New York City and one group headed for Valley Forge and Gettysburg. Of course I was with the latter group. We took our time driving. Valley Forge was a beautiful. After touring it we headed west toward Gettysburg. We took the scenic route through Amish country, which was beautiful country and very picturesque.

At Gettysburg we took a three hour CD guided tour through the park. This too was an awesome experience. The Louisiana memorial in the park is beautiful and very moving. I looked out over the field of Pickett’s Charge. I could see it in my mind’s eye. WOW, so sad.

Tuesday we started our training. It was very good. The folks at S.T.A.R.T. Rescue did a fine job and I thoroughly enjoyed the training, even though we worked hard from Tuesday thru Friday.

Friday after noon I was sick and just hung around the hotel after training. Saturday morning I felt a little better and again our group divided up and one group headed for New York and the other (Frank, Debra, Bob, Ben and me) headed to some local wineries, Brandywine Battlefield and another tour of Amish country.

Sunday we headed for the airport and boarded our flight to Houston. We ate supper at the SaltGrass Steak House. Yummm.

Even though I had had a good time, I was so glad to get home to Lisa and the children.

Kenith

Last week I was on vacation, which means I worked around the house a good bit. I also made it to my youngest son's Easter party at school and I went fishing on the Sabine River one morning with my neighbour. We got skunked on the fishing, but I did see a pileated woodpecker and two ospreys. One osprey was flying with a fish in its talons and the other was sitting in a tree above the river. I hated not catching the fish, but I was very pleased with the bird sightings.

I also took my little boys and MK’s son fishing at my sister’s pond. We fished a bit and swam a in the pond as well. We caught a few bass and some bluegill as well. For lunch I broke out some of the MRE’s that I had saved from the hurricane aftermath. On this trip I got to visit with my sister and parents. All seem to be doing fine. The boys had a good time; they loved the fishing, swimming and they also got to chase my parents’ chickens.

I did grill two days (Fri & Sat last) The Seeps came over Saturday and Woody and Elisabeth came by the day before. On both days we had good food and drinks (beer and wine).

Easter Sunday we went to church at Bethel. Pastor Duncan filled the pulpit and delivered a very good sermon. After Church I took a nap, and then I got up and joined my family, along with most of Lisa’s family at Tracy and J’s (Lisa’s sister’s house). I was able to visit and watch the Easter egg hunt, before I had to go to work that night for some unwanted overtime.

I am now working my regular shift and have had two very busy days. I hope we have a quiet weekend at the plant. It would be nice to come to work and not have to jump through hoops for most of the day.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

My last day to not work was the night (Saturday before last) that I took off for my niece Recie’s wedding to Paul. I then worked Sunday night to Monday morning, slept until noonish. Worked around the house and spent time with the family. I was able to get back to sleep some time after one o’clock Tuesday morning and was up about 4:45 AM to start four days of overtime.

I finished my overtime on Friday afternoon and started my regular shift Saturday morning. This did give me as “seventh day” last week which means that Sunday I was paid double time. I hate not having my days off, but at least I will be well compensated this time around.

Recie and Paul had a nice wedding service at First Baptist Church in Longville. Brother Stewart did a great job. His comments about what marriage is all about were right on target. Both Morgan and Christian were in the wedding. Morgan was one of Recie’s bride’s maids and Christian was Paul’s best man.

I thing we all had a pretty good time at the reception afterwards. It was a Baptist wedding, but more a Presbyterian reception, with heavy Cajun influences, so we had music, dancing and a moderate amount of alcohol (a keg of beer and some stuff for mixed drinks) and plenty of food.

(NOTE: To find out what a good old Reformed wedding reception/celebration is really like I recommend you read Drinking With Calvin and Luther by Jim West. It is a fun and informative read. Even my Baptist co-worker "CC" Cudd says it is a great book.)

I think the South Louisiana custom of pinning cash to the bride’s vale in order to dance with her (women pin cash to the grooms coat to dance with him also) is a great tradition. I don’t know where the tradition comes from, but it does give the new couple a good bit of ready cash for the honeymoon.

The big event last week was Christian’s Labrador retriever had eight puppies (6 yellow, 2 black).

My evenings last week were fairly normal. I helped the little boys with their homework, they read to me, etc… We did go out to eat a few times, because the kitchen is gutted and we have no stove or oven.

Mk and Pastor Mark came over Friday night. We sat on the porch and talked and drank a little wine. Then Mk and I went to J. Priola’s to watch the LSU vs. UCLA game. The food was good as were the drinks, but LSU got hammered.

I work two more days and then I am on vacation.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Today was another workday around the house. I spent much of the morning crawling in the attic putting in insulation that I discovered “missing (it was never installed) after the hurricane.

I also visited with my bro-in-law Brian who stopped by for a while. He really helped me out with my plans to run gas to the kitchen. I was planning one thing but he pointed out a much better way.

After Brian left, and I finished the attic work I then installed ceiling fans, one in Christian’s room and one on the porch. I also visited with Morgan’s boyfriend (Danny) who came over with his new pet ferret. Morgan recently started working at Starbucks and tonight she brought a pound of freshly ground coffee home.

After I said prayers with the little boys and put them to bed, I went to Books-A-Million to spend a gft card that I received from there as an early birthday present. I purchased five books that I am excited about. Here are their titles:
Enemy at the Gate: The Battle For Stalingrad by William Craig
The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror by Bernard Lewis
The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
And last and certainly not least—
Beyond Good and Evil: A Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future by Friedrich Nietzsche

Oh, I also received Joseph Smith: A Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman from the History Book Club. It is a biography of the founder of Mormanism.

After returning home with my new treasure of books, I visited with Lisa for a while, kissed her goodnight, made a pot of coffee (the freshly ground starbucks coffee) and settled in on the couch, coffee in hand, and read the introductions to my newest books.

Now I will pour me a small bit of bourbon, go back to my reading and then sleep.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Friday after work, my youngest son and I went to the Duncan’s for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Lisa stayed home with our other minor son who was running a fever. There were a number of people from both Bethel and Covenant Churches. There was also good food and drink, Irish beer, Irish whiskey, grog and other refreshments.

Pastor Mark gave a talk on the life of Patrick, that was very good. I read Patrick’s Confessions a number of years ago and have loved this wonderful godly man ever since then.

Yesterday Lisa gave me a surprise for my birthday. We got up about eight and got ready and drove to south Lake Charles. I was trying to figure out what she had planned, but was not able to do so until we had past everything in town that I could think of. I said “the only thing left is the airport; are we going flying?”

That is what we did. Lisa had booked us a flight on a small Cessna plane. We went for a nice flight over Lake Charles and Sulphur. We flew over and around the house and could see some of the residual hurricane damage from the air. In some of the woods, it looked like more than half the trees were down. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yesterday evening Lisa and I meet Duke and Donna at the L'Auberge du Lac Casino. We had a dinner date at the Jack Daniel’s Grill. I was very disappointed in the food and the atmosphere. My steak was overdone and the waitresses’ outfits were trashy (I had heard this already) and a number of them were a bit hefty for the outfits to be attractive. We had wanted to check out the food, we have. It was way too pricey for the quality (or lack there of), so we will be going back to Mazen’s when we want an extra-special meal.

This morning I had planned to attend mass with my grandfather and St. Margaret’s Catholic Church (this is the church that I was baptised in) before going to Covenant with the family, but I did not get up in time. We did make it to Covenant in Sulphur and then came home for the continued ox in the ditch scenario. I did a little sheetrock work in the kitchen. I shut this down to visit with MK we he and his son came to visit. After that Elisabeth and Woody came over and we visited for a while.

Aas I write this blog Lisa is asleep in bed, one of the little boys is asleep as well and the other has not yet fallen asleep, Morgan and Christian are at work. I have been sitting here typing and sipping on some Irish whiskey. I will finish my drink and go to bed also.

It was a good day.
Coram Deo,
Kenith

Saturday night Lisa and I joined our niece Elisabeth, her fiancée Woody and their friends at Mazen’s Restaurant to celebrate Woody’s birthday. We had a great time and the food, as always, was great. I had two small filet mignons in a triple wine reduction sauce, topped with crabmeat and another awesome sauce on top of that.

Sunday we worshiped at Bethel PCA and then I took the little boys to hear BeauSoleil. They were great. Sunday evening MK came over and we sat on the porch and both waxed eloquently about theology and every other subject. We were far more brilliant after we had consumed a couple of glasses of wine each.

Monday evening my mom called me and informed me that my nonc (uncle) Allen LaFleur had died that morning. Nonc Allen was 81 and had lived a long life. I was able to get funeral leave and so Tuesday I chauffeured my Pawpaw and Mrs. Esther (my step grandmother) to Basile to pay their respects. I saw many family members that I had not seen for years, and I heard lots of Cajun French. It is the first language of Pawpaw, Nonc Allen and all my older Cajun kinfolk.

I always turn introspective when I am around the old Cajuns. I think of the language and culture that will soon disappear when they pass from the scene for good. I would do anything to save the language that is the Cajun culture.

Today, I once again made a pilgrimage to Basile to attend Nonc Allen’s funeral. Before the funeral, my cousin (Cuzan) Chris and I went to the cemetery and visited the graves of our grandmother, his dad, our great grand parents and other kinsmen.

I saw more cousins at the funeral home and visited with them, and then we attended the funeral mass at the Catholic Church. After mass we went to the gravesite and said our goodbyes and shed our tears. Our hope is in Christ.

After the funeral I drove to Eunice and bought a couple of small accordions for the little boys. Pawpaw plays the accordion and the fiddle. He is the last musician in the family. I would like to give the little boys the chance to learn music. We will see what happens.

Coram Deo,Kenith

I finally got a chance to shoot my new pistol a CZ-52. CC and I went out to his deer least to do some shooting. I took the CZ-52 an old 22 revolver and my SKS. CC took four pistols, his SKS and his Benelli 12 gauge.

We had a good time, shot several hundred rounds of ammunition and at the end of the trip I purchased the Benelli from. My son Christian really like the shotgun, so now it’s his and I will have to get me another one sometime in the future.

I worked off of daylight shift on Monday evening. I came home and got the porch ready. Tk, Pastor Mark and MK all came over and we spent a few hours on the porch talking next by the fire. We again discussed all the world’s problems, and especially those in the PCA. My little boys joined us the porch for a little while, but soon became bored and left us for more exciting adventures elsewhere.

Our youngest son woke me at about 3:30 in the morning complaining of and earache. I gave him medicine and got him back to bed. We got up a little after 7 on Mardi Gras morning and he still complained his ear hurting.

He did feel well enough by late morning to go to the first parade in Lake Charles. So the two little boys and I headed to town for the parade. We met up with CC and his two little ones and also with Lisa S. and her youngest son and a friend.

The children had a good time at the parade, but they weren’t overwhelmed with beads and trinkets. Some of the floats threw a fair amount of stuff and others seemed to just be there for the ride. Still, the kids had fun and that is what counts.

After the parade, the boys and I joined Lisa (my wife) and went to eat. I’ve ripped out the stove, oven and one wall (so far) in our kitchen, so we are not cooking a lot right now.

We came home, worked on the house for a while and then I got the BBQ grill ready to grill our supper. This is when our youngest son relapsed a bit and we found him to have a low fever.

The Seeps were going to come over for supper, but they cancelled because of illness there also.

That was our Mardi Gras.
Kenith

The last time I posted here I was suffering from a staph on my wrist that caused my whole left forearm and hand to swell and turn red. It was painful and then it spread to my nose, which also swelled way beyond its normal size and hurt like hell.

I am still taking antibiotics for the infections and they are much better. I still have some redness and a small sore on my wrist, but the rest of me is back to normal.

Last week, while well into my recovery I did get to an evening on the porch with Pastor Mark and MK. We enjoyed some fine wine and cigars, while we discussed what ails the PCA and the world. MK is my doctor, so this porch event was part of my healing process and part of a doctor’s house call.

Gary J. came over one afternoon, after I had recuperated enough to start working around the house again, this gave me an excuse to shut my work down and take a beer break on the porch. I did have to assure him the MK had given his "professional/medical" ok for such a break.

Last night we celebrated Lisa’s birthday. Lisa (the other Lisa) and MK, Donna and Duke and Lisa and me went to Mazen’s for Supper. The food, as always, was awesome, and MK brought a couple of very good wines (Midnight Cellars Syrah, 2002)) as well.

We had a great time. MK and Duke had not meet before, but they seemed to hit it off. It was lots of fun.

I also purchased a pistol since the last blog, but have not yet had the time to shoot it. I also tore out a wall in the kitchen (this is part of our hurricane repair/remodelling work combo). I will be tearing out another wall this coming set of days off, and (with Lisa’s permission) I hope to buy a 12 gauge Benelli shotgun from CC.

Gary is going on straight nights for the next 30 days or so, so I won’t have anyone to carpool with until after the turnaround in his unit is finished.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Today has been slow for me. I have a staph infection on my left wrist. It hurt like the dickens yesterday and is still sore today, but is getting better. I’m taking some heavy antibiotics to knock these things out.

Yesterday CC, Gary J. and I went to Beaumont, Tx. We made a trip to Gander Mountain and Spec’s Liquor Store. I picked up a new real and some tackle at Gander Mountain and some beer and a fifth of Knob Creek Bourbon.

Today I went to the bought a new pistol (CZ-52) from a friend’s pawnshop. Now I need to head to Longville so I can shoot it.

The boy’s and I went to the Seeps for a few minutes this morning and cane home to say good-bye to Lisa she and the Lisa Seep have gone to Houston for a class. They will be back sometime tomorrow.

MK and I hope to get together and sip on some wine this evening, if I feel better. It would be nice to sit on the porch, with a nice fire going in the fire pot, to visit and enjoy a good read wine.

My parents are in Arizona this week. They are “shopping” in southern Arizona and Mexico.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

I’m off today. It is a normal workday for me, but I took off because we were invited to a Mardi Gras Ball last night and, even more importantly, I so I could go to church today with my family.

We had a good time last night. It was not as much fun as the last ball because the music was more modern and I’m not much for modern dance music. They did play a few Cajun songs that we could jitterbug to and a number of older songs as well.

A group of us met at our niece Elisabeth’s house. One of the ladies, Cindy F., brought a 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Père de Famille from the Betz Family Winery. This was one of the best wines I have ever tasted. I told MK about it and we are going to purchase a bottle or two. It is a bit above my budget, but I think I its worth it for a special occasion.

We went to worship services a Covenant PCA this morning. We really need to move our membership from Bethel in Lake Charles to Covenant in Sulphur. We do live Covenant’s parish now. Pastor Mark is serving as Pastor of both Churches while Bethel is searching for a new pastor.

Personally, I would like to see the two congregations merge until our numbers grow and then we can re-establish Bethel once we have enough Reformed Christians to support two solid Reformed Churches in SW Louisiana.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post. I’ve been busy at home and I’m still doing hurricane repairs. Christian and I were roofing the garage yesterday. The east side is done and we are about halfway finished with the west side. I should be up there now, but I am taking a little break to read news, listen to C-Span and post on the blog.

Since my last post much has happened. I bought a tuxedo. Last year I rented one to go to a few Mardi Gras balls. We are going to a couple of them this year as well and it is almost cheaper to buy one.

We went to a ball two weekends ago. It was fun. There was a good band, and I danced most of the night. Lisa and I went with several friends, a couple them ladies with out their husbands, so I had to dance with Lisa and our lady friends. This kept me on the dance floor (lots of jitterbugging).

I didn't see anyone at the ball get drunk or act stupid. That's always good, because all it takes is one stupid drunk to ruin a party for lots of people.

We have another ball coming up this weekend (Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler). I hope we can again “pass a good time.”

I have a little less than 50 pages to go in Max Hastings’ book Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-1945. Wow! What a great work of history. I cannot recommend this book enough. It well written and gives pros and cons for all sides, and it moves from macro views of battles and then it zooms in on individuals -- military and civilian – Russian, German, British, American, Dutch, Pole, etc…

I have to get to work. I can only work until 3PM then I have to pick up the little boys from school and help with homework and supper.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

My fishing trip with Craig was cancelled today, because my youngest son was running a fever this morning and did not go to school. I stayed with him.

I worked out well for me. I only slept about three hours yesterday after my last night of graveyard and got to bed late last night. I was very tired. So when my son had to stay home. He and I both went back to bed and I slept to 10:30. That was some much needed rest.

Craig did call and tell me that the fishing was very good and he brought home ten white perch (sac-au-lait). Hopefully I will get to make a fishing trip before I go back to work again.

I did get some work on the garage done. I started culling the siding boards that were torn off by the tree falling on it. I replaced a number of those boards today. I will but as many as I can up, so I can determine how many I need to buy. It is cedar siding, so they are not cheap. I want to salvage as much as I can.

I’m now sitting in front of the computer with a glass of wine (pinot noir) and will start paying bills next.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

I am working my last night of graveyards and will be starting vacation. Craig Cudd and I are supposed to be going fishing for sac-au-lait (also known a white perch, or if your a Yankee, crappie) on Thursday.

After that I hope to spend most of the rest of the time I have off working on the house, garage and yard.

After getting to work and checking things out for this shift, I ate the meal I brought. I feasted on crackers and Richard’s (pronounced Ree-shardz) hog-head cheese. I love hog head cheese. My daughter called me and informed me (after I had already eaten the Hog Head cheese that It was hers (she and I are the only two in the family that eat it), so now I need to pick some up for her.

We had to inspect and replace outdated steam hoses last night. But over all things have been pretty quiet. Now I’m starting to get ready to get out of here. I will bring Gary home and have a beer with him before I come home and go to bed.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Ps: I got a care package yesterday from an old Navy buddy, Bret Hodges, who now lives in Alaska. I can't wait to try the stuff out.

I’m at work and hope to be heading home soon. It’s been a very quiet evening. I just came inside after making and round through my units. I had to get up and go outside because I was getting very sleepy.

After walking around, looking things over and picking up a little trash, I’ve gotten a second wind and should be fine for the rest of my 12 hour shift. I only have another hour to go.

I rode to work alone last night. My carpool buddy, Gary had to go the hospital to spend with his second grandbaby. I think I will go straight home and to sleep. Usually when I drive I stop at Gary’s for a drink and conversation (if he drives we do the same thing at my house). Yesterday morning we had a little bourbon and a some high dollar (smooth) tequila that he picked up in Texas.

I come back tonight for what should be my last shift for a couple of weeks. I’m taking time off to work on the house.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Ps. The picture is of the two ladies in my life. My wife and daughter.

I did not have many days of this week. I worked of Monday and was off work Tuesday and Wednesday. I came to work Thursday for eight hours board training for out new unit and Friday I had Rescue Team training. I did get a little more work done at the house during my time off, but not near as much as I planned to do or should have done.

Last night the Seeps and our family (all but Morgan) went to Chili’s for supper. We had a good visit there and at the house afterwards. Today I got up did a little work and took a nap so I could work tonight.

I’ve recently been trying to contact some of my old Navy buddies. I’ve managed to get in touch with several fellows that haven’t heard from in many years. One of them, Bret, lives in Alaska. He emailed me and said he was sending me a package. I’m pretty excited about that.

I got an email from another guy, Chief Bynoe. He sent me a couple of pictures from our detachment/cruise on board the USS Lockwood (1981). [BTW- Im the fellow in the yellow (plane Captian) shirt.]

Coram Deo.
Kenith

Today is the last of my days off. I start daylight shift tomorrow.

I ended last night standing on an extension ladder, replacing the ceiling fan in the foyer. The ceiling fan has not worked since Hurrican Rita. During the storm water poured through the ceiling, down into the fan and filled the center light globe full of water. I started today doing the same thing that I ended yesterday doing. I had to take down the new light fixture and re-hang it. It’s a large 9-bulb light that hangs on a five-foot chain. It is very nice. Of course Lisa picked it out.

Next I removed three other lights in the hall (Lisa and Morgan did not like them) and I “safed up” the wiring in the wall and covered the holes with sheetrock. I did other odd and ends, then Jeff Nordstrom picked up the little boys and me and we headed for Longville.

On his trailer, Jeff had a compound mitre saw that he sold to Terry; we took the saw to Terry and then we loaded up a cord of wood (or so) on the trailer for Jeff. After that we went into Mom and Dad’s house and visited while enjoying a cup of Dark Roast Community coffee.

When the boys and I got home we fond that Lisa and Morgan had gone to eat at Chile’s. They returned with lights for Morgan’s room. I just finished installing them.

The one other thing I did today today was stumble onto a website titled Military.com. I found my old Helicopter Squadron (HSL 33) at the site and then I found a few of my old Navy buddies that I have not heard from in years, some that I have not heard from since leaving the Navy in 1982. I'm pretty excited about contacting these guys.

now I am going to install another light in the upstairs hall; when that job is finished I plan to get a cold beer and head for the tub where I plan to soak for a nice long time with my beer and a book (Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945).

Coram Deo,
Kenith
Ps. BTW I finally finished JND Kelly's book Early Christian Doctrine. Turnarounds, hurricanes, and post hurricane home repair have caused me to take way too long to read this work. I found it very informative. I also finished Athenagoras' A Plea For the Christians (circa 177 AD) which he addressed to Emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus.

We had a very merry Lord’s Day Christmas. Our family opened gifts on Christmas Eve so we would not be rushed to get ready for Church on Christmas morning. We were rushed anyway because I forgot to set the alarm. We made it to worship services at Covenant (Sulphur) Church on time, but woke up to late to go to Bethel in Lake Charles.

Pastor Mark was filling both pulpits and he told me that we would have heard the same sermon no matter which service we attended. After Church we came home ate and got ready to go head for Longville and meet with my family (this was very unusual, we usually stay home on Christmas, and we like it that way, but the family could not get together earlier this year).

Monday after Christmas Lisa and I worked on storm damage (the saga continues ad nauseum). Pastor Mark came over as we were quitting for the day, so he and I went to the front porch where we each enjoyed a fine cigar, liquid refreshments, a nice fire and stimulating conversation (I enjoyed these things and I think he did also). It was a good end to a hard day's work.

Now I am off to say prayers with my young sons (who have been allowed to stay up extra late tonight). Then I hope to retire with a book.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Hopefully this is my last shift to work until after Christmas. I work off in the morning and (if no one calls in sick) I will not return to work until next Thursday on days.

I spent the last three hours of my shift last night outside in 35 degree weather. We had some minor problems because of the cold that kept us out there. It shouldn't be as cold tonight and we are doing things to avert the same problem on this shift.

After having a busy late shift, I had to stay over for a couple of hours this morning. I did not get home until eight o’clock this morning. That cut into my sleep time a good bit. When I woke I did some more painting in the living room. We are trying to get it put back together so we can have one good, undamaged room in the house for Christmas morning.

Matt brought a couple of deer roasts to cook for our supper tonight, so we are hoping to eat good this evening.

My throat is scratchy and my nose is starting to run. This does not bode well for my days off. Oh well. We will make the best of it.

Corem Deo,
Kenith

I finished my first of four graveyards yesterday morning. After work I listened to a discussion between R.C. Sproul and Abdul Saleeb titled The Dark Side of Islam as I drove home. After arriving at the house I popped open a can of Guinness Drought and drank it slowly while I finished listening to this section of the 5 part series.

After that I went inside and went to sleep. Lisa woke me at 1 PM. I worked on hurricane repairs until it was time to get ready for work again.

These are busy times. We're making slow progress repairing hurricane damage around the house. I have taken the come-a-long off of the garage. I had used it to square the garage back up (after a very large oak fell on in during the storm). The garage still needs a lot of work, but I have been mainly working in the house during my last set of days off.

I took a break Friday and MK and I took our boys to see The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I thought it was very good.

Saturday too, I did not get much work done. That morning Gary J, Toney B and I made a run to Specs Liquor store in Beaumont, TX. It is big and has a very large wine selection. I bought some wines.

Sunday we worshiped at Covenant PCA in Sulphur.

Today I cooked breakfast for the family. I made pain perdu (that’s the Cajun name for what most folks call French toast) for everyone. It’s a favourite for the kids and is always a special treat.

The rest of the day was spent working on the house, napping before coming to work and starting this set of graveyards.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Work, work and more work. I am now back on daylight shift. I worked of graveyards Monday morning. So my time off was only 24 hours and much of that was spent sleeping. When I was awake I was pretty useless due to a bad headache, which is unusual for me.

The only thing I did Monday that I would consider worthwhile was I to spend a little time with the family. That was good.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Ps. Remember Pearl Harbor (64 years ago today).

It is growing cold outside and it is very wet as well.

We have been fairly busy at work this evening, but that is ok because they are paying us a good wage to come here and do a job.

I work off in the morning, but have to come back to work on Tuesday days for overtime. I will have no days off this coming week. My next day off will be Thursday of the following week. Yuk.

I can use the money to get more work done on the house. I drove to night, so in the morning Gary and I will have beer (or Bourbon) at his place before I head home to sleep.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

I’m back working at the refinery. I worked on the garage and the house while on vacation for Thanksgiving week. I needed to come to work so I could have a break and let my body stop hurting.

During my days off I did get a new deck put on the garage and rebuilt its north gable. I also replaced a bunch of sheetrock in Morgan’s closet. I also got our insurance information to the mortgage company, so I am hoping they send us some of the money to continue house repairs.

We’ve spent about $10,000 on repairs thus far and have a lot more to do. I’m doing most of the work myself so we will have enough money to do the needed repairs, plus contractors are hard to come by. Most of the ones I’ve spoken with have said it would two or three months before they can even think about getting to our house. I can’t wait that long.

The vacation wasn’t all work. I did get to spend some time on our now cluttered porch with some friends on a number of evenings. Lisa and I spent some time on the Porch with, MK and Lisa, Pastor Mark and his lovely wife-Peggy, and Gary J. We had some good wines, beers, mixed drinks and even a cigar or two.

I read what I believe to be a VERY good article written by Pastor Mark. It’s titled The Westminster Standards vs. the Current Controversy (it is also here). I found it to be reasonable and refreshing to read on the current hoopla over so called “Federal Vision.”

I do hope reason well return to the Reformed Camp and these issue can be discussed without all the hyperbole and fireworks that been seen in the past.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Today was a big day. I got home this morning, poured me a Samuel Adams into an Ice cold mug and read some in F.F. Bruce's Commentary on John's Gospel. After finishing my beer I set down the book and went to sleep. The good/bad news for this morning was the roofers were coming today. They arrived early and started their work, which can be, and was, noisy. I knew they were coming so I put the box fan right next to my head and put in some earplugs when I went to bed. I hoped this would allow me to sleep. The roofers did wake me a couple of times, but I was able to go right back to sleep.

I got up at about 11:30, which is very early, to start getting ready for a wedding. Lisa and I went to Jared and Ashley’s wedding at Immaculate Conception Cathedral. Father Gilbeau conducted a beautiful wedding. After the wedding we went to Mazen’s (the best restaurant in SW Louisiana) for the reception. We ate some wonderful food and visited with friends for a while. I had to work tonight, so I only had one beer (New Castle Brown Ale) and we left the reception early.

When Lisa and I got home or roof was finished and looked good. The blue roof is gone!!!!

C. Cudd volunteered to cover me at work for a few hours so I did not have to go in at the normal time. I tried to sleep when I got home but was unable to so I watched the movie Troy (again) instead.

I got to work at about 7:30. I am tired. This is going to be a hard night’s work. The good news is I am on vacation when I leave here in the morning.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

After a very hard night at work (work was not hard –staying awake was hard) I went home and instead of going to sleep I spent two hours looking for our two missing Labrador Retrievers (a yellow and a black). They got out early last night. My wife and son both spent a good deal of time calling for them shortly after their escape from the yard.

Lisa and the little boys left early this morning, so they could run by Walmart before school. As she left the store, one of the boys saw the dogs sitting by the store entrance. We assume they saw Lisa and the boys go in and were waiting for them to come out. They were thrilled to see a familiar face and loaded up in the Jeep and came home.

With the dogs safe at home I finally went to bed. The dogs and I slept all day. I got up in time to pick up the boys, run an errand and I’m back at work.

We did have a delivery of roofing supplies in the yard when I woke up. They should start replacing our FEMA blue roof tomorrow. I had hoped to have the garage roof re-decked so it too could be re-roofed but all this overtime has killed that possibility.

I will do that work next week while on vacation.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

I just found out how to put pictures on my blog, so I thought I would start by putting a picture of the man who I think is the greatest man in American history: Robert E. Lee.

Lee was a great Christian man. He did his duty knowing that it would very likely cost him everything he had (and it did). In defeat he remained a humble Christian who sought to serve others and continue to do his duty.

Lee was a man who was gifted by God and he used those gifts to serve the Lord in his calling.

Now on to my own stuff. We have to Labrador Retirevers (a Black and a yellow). Tonight the gate was not closed well and they got out of the yard and are missing. Christian is very upset because he dearly loves Oakley (the black Lab). I'm hoping they're home in the morning.

I did not get enough sleep today. Christian needed my help to run a couple of important errands, so he got me up early and I never go back to sleep. I still feel good but when it gets to 3 or 4 in the morning it gets really rough.

Cram Deo,
Kenith

Tonight is my first night of 4 nights of overtime. I was hoping to have the next few days off so I could replace the decking on my garage roof. Roofers are supposed to be at the house Saturday. I was hoping to get the garage finished so they could get everything done at the same time. Since I won’t be able to get the garage finished they will have to come back another day or I will have to do the job myself.

Tonight is my sixth graveyard and I have three more after tonight, then I will be on vacation, which I will use to work on the garage, house and yard. I will have 48 hours of overtime this week. We're going to need the money for lots of Rita repairs.

I’ve started reading F.F. Bruce’s Commentary on the Gospel of John. He does a very good job on chapter one of the John’s Gospel.

Later,
Kenith

Things are still slogging along here in our post Hurricane Rita world. Our house and property are still looking bad, but we are all doing fine.

I’ve been putting in a lot of hours on my garage. I tore most of the deck (that was left) off. I removed all the facial boards off the front of the garage and I then hooked up a come-along and pulled it back to where it was square from east to west, but this through it off north to south. So let out on the come-along and then built a strong back for the north-south run.

It took a number of attempts, but it is now square. With Terry’s help, I’ve replaced the rafters that were destroyed and hope to but the deck on as soon as I get a day off.

At the age of 45 I finally own a new vehicle. We bought several for Lisa over the years but I finally bought one for me. We gave our old van to our niece Kimberlee and bought the bottom line Dodge pickup truck. I also signed for Christian to buy him one and we are looking at getting a vehicle for Morgan.

We went into the hurricane with four vehicles (3 of them were wrecks). After the storm we were down to one vehicle. Now we are up to three.

Rev. Mark Duncan, the new pastor of Covenant PCA here in Sulphur is now a near neighbour of ours. He was a lot of help to me after the hurricane and has stopped and visited with Lisa and me on the porch a few times now. I’m hoping we can soon get to know his wife soon too.

I’m working graveyard shift again. This week I’m driving and Gary is supplying the beer after work. It was exactly the opposite before I got the truck, but now that I have a dependable vehicle he can switch off. This morning Gary, Kevin C. and I all stopped at Gary’s and had a few Killians before heading home for bed. TK was supposed to join us but was unable to do so.

Lisa said that a FEMA rep was coming over to the house in the morning. (Sunday is not a good day for that, but folks with an ox in the ditch have to take these things as they come.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Things are starting to get back to normal. Everyone is back at work and/or school. I’ve started working on things around the house (as opposed to cutting up fallen trees and limbs).

I started removing the deck off the roof of the garage. On of the large oaks we had landed on the garage and my work van. The garage is tore up pretty bad, about 1/3 of the roof was crushed and the front of the garage is leaning to the west.

I hope I can straighten it out by taking of the roof and facial boards, and then put it all back together. The insurance is not enough to pay someone to do it, and even if it were it would take months just to be able to get a crew to do it.

The damage in the house will have to wait for me to finish in the garage. I will need to put down new floors and replace a ceiling (sheetrock) and some walls in several rooms. Lisa and I were already planning to renovate the kitchen (one place where we got some damage) so I will do all this inside work at one time.

I am going to hire someone to re-roof (shingle) the house and garage. I’ve been trying to get someone to come out and look at it and give me a bid. I’ve called a number of contractors and have only gotten one of them to come by. He was out of the ball park with his estimate. He quoted me $300 a square (mega price gauging). I have a 12 on 12 pitch so I will have to pay extra, but that is ridicules.

I broke down and bought a new truck to replace the old van the tree landed on. I looked at several used vehicles and decided to get the bottom line new Dodge. This is my first ever official new vehicle and I’m only 45 years old. (My wife has had several new ones, but that doesn’t count.)

I’ve decided that I don’t like hurricanes. Rita has torn this place up. It has been six weeks since the storm and we have a very, very long way to go to get this place cleaned up and looking good again. Even with our damages we are blessed to be able to live in our own house and we still have jobs. That’s better than many of the people around us.

Coram Deo,
Kenith
Ps. I have lots of work to do so my posting will continue to be slow for a while.

My posting has been none existant since Hurricane Rita blew through here. I was posting things on the Semper Reformanda section of Christian Forums during that time. I am going to place that stuff here and I am working on a Hurricane article andwill post it when complete.

Here is the Semper Reformanda stuff:
22 Sept. 2005 -- 6:33 AM:
Well folks, looks like Rita has taken a more northerly course and we are now looks like SE Texas and SW Louisiana are gonna take it on the chin.I live less than 25 miles from Texas and about thirty miles inland from the Gulf, but most of what lies between me and the gulf is marsh land.

Keep us in your prayers. I've gotta go. There is lots of work to do before Rita slams into us here.

In Christ,
Kenith
=============
22 Sept 2005 -- 4:54 PM

Well, it has been a very hot sunny day here. I've boarded up all the windows facing South and east. The roads out of here are clogged, and I am beginning to think it will be better to be in my home instead of stranded in my car when this gal hits.

We are under mandatory evacutation orders, but you can't get out. I am on fairly high ground for these parts (13 feet above sea level, but 30 miles from the coast.), and I think we will have to ride her out in our closet.

My dad made it through Audry (1957) which was a cateigory 4 storm also. Audry killed over six hundred people in Cameron Parish (we don't have counties), which is just south of where I am. But this area where I live, while it took a lot of wind damage, was far enough inland to escape the tidal surge (which is what klilled all the folks in Cameron).

Thats the bad thing, they tell you to get out but the roads can't handle the amount of traffik that such an order produces.I will update as I am able. When the power goes out, it will be out for several weeks (I do own a generator), so I will be off line for a while.Keep on praying for us. We are doing all we can to stay safe. We are in God's hands.

BTW: Jon, you have given me good advice. If the roads clear out I will take it.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Kenith
================
22 Sept. 2005 -- 10:32 PM
Thank You all.Here are is the latest info on Rita (there is good news. She has weakend from 175 MPH winds to now a bit over 140 MPH winds.)-- looking for a silver lining.

Here is the report: ...RITA IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 8 TO 12INCHES...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 15 INCHES OVERSOUTHEASTERN TEXAS AND SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA AS IT MOVES INLAND. SINCE RITA IS EXPECTED TO SLOW DOWN SIGNIFICANTLY AFTER MAKING LANDFALL...TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS IN EXCESS OF 25 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS OVER EASTERN TEXAS AND WESTERN LOUISIANA. IN ADDITION...RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE OVER SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA NCLUDING METROPOLITAN NEW ORLEANS.REPEATING THE 10 PM CDT POSITION...26.2 N... 90.3 W. MOVEMENTTOWARD...WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 10 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...140 MPH. MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE... 917 MB.AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER AT 1 AM CDT FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 4 AMCDT.+++++++++++++++++
BTW: Buy all the gasoline you can. The refinery I work at shutdown today . We are a 250,000 barrel a day ( BPD) refinary. The price is going to shoot up. There are more than a dozen otehr refineries that also shut down. If we loose power, which we expect, this means we can not restart the refinary until power comes back. These things take a long time to bring back up. If we could start tomorrow it would be a couple of weeks (at best -- and that is unusual) to get it back up to speed.

=======================
25 Sept. 2005 -- 5:29 PM

Hello,

Its me. We are alive and well, but I have Major property damage as do thousands of other people around here. I did manage to get a generator and I am shocked that I have phone line (land lines cell are dead). I have DSL so I can make a report.

This place is beat up badly. My own home had most the shingles ripped off the east side of my house and it is leaking like a lot all offer the house every time it rains. I had two large Oaks in my yard knocked down. One fell on my garage and a car. We have food and water to last a week or so. I only have a little gasoline so I will not be able to post often. It will only be on for a few hours every day to keep the Refridgerator cold. We will let the kids watch a dvd then as well.

Thanks for the prayers and please continue to do so.

The Lord bless y'all.
Kenith
===============
26 Sept 2005 -- 10:17 PM
Thanks. I have the generator on for a couple of hours. We are under lock down here. There are national guard and police at every entrance into this town and many others in east Texas and SW Louisiana. You can leave but it is very hard to get in, unless you are like me, and work at an oil refinery. The Gov. wants us here.

I SENT MY WIFE AND CHILDREN AWAY to friends who live about 70 miles east. They have electricity, etc...it is very HOT and MUGGY. but I have plenty of food and water. We are not New Orleans, so there are very few looters, but there are a few, so I am watching my place and my neighbours homes also. I am well armed (it is a Southern thing) so all should be ok. Looters are cowards and don't like to mess with others who have guns.

Keep us in your prayers. My widowed sister-in-law has a pine tree that fell through her house. Most of the heavy damage here is from uprooted or broken trees. It is unbelievable. It looks like a bomb went off in most neighbour hoods.

God has been good. Things could have been much worst; the storm lost 50 MPH of her winds before she hit. She had gotten to 175 mph winds but hit at 125 mph winds.

The damage from 125 is awesome. I don,t think my house would be here at all if Rita had stayed at 175.

Gotta go.
Thanks for the prayers.
Kenith
===================

26 Sept. 2005 -- 10:41 PM
I appreciate the concern. My generator is outside under my porch and I have extension cords running into the house. So it is running safely. Some folks have asphyxiated themselves? Unbelievable.

We are looking forward to a cool front coming through here in a few days. It is 95 deg. with a heat index of 105-110. 100% humidity. Yuck.

Food and water are available and there are workcrews from the power company out in force. It may be a couple of months in some areas before power is resatored.

In Christ our Saviour's name,
Kenith
====================
27 Sept. 2005 -- 4:41 PM
Everyone is OK. I am staying at the house trying to fix up and clean up. Mike [Seep] has been commuting between here and Arkansas. Mike's family is in Arkansas, but his house and property are fine. Mike is on his way back from Arkansas. He went there to pick up a couple of diesel generators for his inlaws. They live in Ragley and have no power, water or phones.

My property took a good hit. My garage is toast and I have major shingle damage, which allowed for some water damage inside, but it could have been much worse, and it was for a lot of people.

My wife and kids are staying with some friends (PCA elderand his wife) who live in Grand Couteau. She brought me ice and tarps today. I hope she can bring gasoline tomorrow.

How did your folks come out of this storm?

Coram Deo,
Kenith
==================
28 Sept. 2005 -- 9:10 PM
I am on generator backup power. The familyu is about 70 miles east. I'm still home guarding the homestead.

It is hot and muggy. The word today is it will be four weeks before we get power. I hope that is bad info. We will see.

The reports from here on will likely be pretty boring. "Worked hard and sweated all day will do same tomorrow" etc...

I have to give praise to the Southern Baptist relief folk. They are here in force declaring the love of Christ by their deeds. Most of them here are retired folk and they are feeding people (with food and Bibles), housing them, washing their (my) cloths, providing showers clearing downed trees. Most of the SBC folk working in my area are from Tennessee.

I praise God for them!!!

Coram Deo,
Kenith
==================
2 Oct. 2005 -- 9:17 PM
UPDATE:A lot of the same. No power here. There are a view places that now have power, but they are few and far between.

I went to Grand Couteau last night and spent the evening with my family. I spent the night and worshipped with the PCA folks at the Church in Lafayette.

I am supposed to go back to work tomorrow. The refinery doesn't yet have power, but they are working on it.

In Christ,
Kenith
=================
3 Oct. 2005 -- 9:35 PM
Update:I am back at work, but we have a long way to go to get things back up and running. I came to work this morning but volunteered for the night shift so I went home and came back this evening.

There is now electricity here and there in different neighbourhoods. It is not yet available in mine, so when we work off in the morning a number of us are going to a co-workers house that does have power so we can sleep in airconditioned rooms .

Looks like we will be working everyday for a good while.

The family is doing fine in Grand Couteau; I'm at work and things are moving forward.

In Christ,
Kenith
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4 Oct. 2005 -- 10:58 AM
Tell Sarah I said hello, and I hope she is feeling better.

Yes, my family is staying at Sarah's parents house. I joined them Saturday evening and we worshipped with the Lafayette PCA congregation Sunday morning.

Paster Stan delivered a very good message. He saw Rosalee, but Sarah did not come home for the weekend.

Dr. Mike is in town somewhere. I hope to get in touch with him today.

In Christ,
Kenith

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23 Oct 2005 -- 8:46 PM

Things are improving daily. Most stores are open. We did have a good bit of Christian support especially from the Southern Baptist. They did great work.

The PCA also sent some folks in to help with our widows and families really hard hit.

We are still waiting on insurance to come by the house. We will need a new roof and garage, but our roof is tarpped and secure from rain. We've had power for a little more than a week and that has gone a long way to making things normal again.

The local schools are supposed to start back Tuesday. They have been closed since before Rita hit a months ago.

We are well some folks here lost everything, especially those in the Parish (county for the rest of you) south of us. There is nothing left down there. The towns on the coast don't exist anymore. Some don't have one building left.We are about twenty five or thirty miles from the gulf and that makes a big difference.

This was our first direct hit from a major storm in 48 years. This time folks got out of the way and saved their lives, last time (1957) hundreds upon hundreds died.

Our refinery is limping back into production of gasoline (so we will see some savings at the pumps soon--I hope).

I am very thankful for your prayers.

In Christ,
Kenith

I hope to my article on the blog soon.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Tonight is hot and muggy even though the weather on the web shows that it is supposedly one degree cooler than it was last night. The humidity is way up from last night.

Gary and I did have a beer on the front porch yesterday. It was Abita Amber (which is a good beer) and we are planning on have another one when we knock off in the morning.

I slept pretty good yesterday. I got up a little after one in the afternoon, which is a little early for me but I am doing weell this evening. When I awoke, there was knowone home. I took the dogs out to do their business and then just vegitated until it was time to come to work. I did turn on Ben-Hur and whatched the first half of that great classic movie.

The only part of the family I saw today was Christian and that was only for a few minutes.

That is all for tonight,
Kenith

This is my first night of Graveyard shift. It is an awesome night. I think we turned the corner on the summer. It's started cooling off in the evenings. That's something that does not happen here in the mid summer period. The local whether on the web shows 79 deg outside, but it seems a little cooler than that. It must be the breeze.

I'm top operator on the unit tonight. I'm pumped up into that position, and have been for a couple of years. Officially I'm still a board man (he's the guy who sits in front of six or seven computer screens and runs these units. The top is kind of like a working foreman. I have two "board people" and three "outside people" that I work with.

I just came inside after making a round through our units. It is a beautiful night; the moon is full and brillant and I have about more than two hours left to go for my shift. I rode to work with Gary. When we work off in the morning we're gonna have a beer (Abita Amber) on the front porch before he heads home and I go to my graveyard room.

I should sleep until about 2 pm. That is pretty normal for me on graveyards. Lisa and all the kids (grown and not so grown) were doing well when I came to work.

I pick up a couple of movies at Walmart this evening. One for me, Ben Hur, and one for Lisa, Singing in the Rain.

Time to get back to work.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Yesterday I went with my dad to the VA hospital in Houston. He had to have an eye exam and needed somebody to drive back to Louisiana. It was great to spend a day with him, just visiting and discussing different subjects. We discussed theology a bit (which is not unusual), LSU football, family and lots of other items.

I brought lots of reading material because I assumed there would be a lot of waiting, and I was correct. The folks at the VA were running behind. They had lots of refugees from N.O. area to work in. I read a number of letters from John Calvin that I brought along.

I like reading correspondence from those in the past. Calvin’s Institutes are great, but you don’t get to see the humanity of the man who wrote them. You get to know people as people when you have the chance to read their personal letters.

I have work to do around the house (I don’t want to say “house work”) so this will be all the blogging for now.

In Christ,
Kenith

This summer my blogging has been sporadic at best. It’s been mid-August since my last instalment so let me see if I can catch things up a little bit. My Lisa and Lisa S. went to Utah for education a few weeks back. I took off from work to keep the kids going and maintain the house in some semblance of order. The children all did fine, but I don’t think my house keeping skills are the best in the world, but we did survive and Lisa returned home safely. She was awed by the beauty that she the country around where she was at.

I did not get as much reading done over the summer as I had hoped. I could not read in June because I was on turnaround and afterwards I was just burnt out and it took me a while to recoup and be in the mood to read a book (Though I did read short articles then.) Still I did get through FF Bruce and Bruce Metzger’s books on the Canon of Scripture. I also finished A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland by John Mack Faragher. This is a GREAT BOOK. I also managed to read the letters between St Jerome and St. Augustine (early 4th century). I enjoyed them. Some of the subject matter was very interesting. St. Jerome was pretty testy at the beginning of their correspondence but was not so in the latter letters.

I had to put Calvin’s Institutes aside, along J.N.D. Kelly’s Early Christian Doctrines aside for a time, but I am ready to pick both of them back up and get them (at least Kelly’s book) finished soon. I’ve also started reading Federal Vision, so I can get a handle on the issues involved in this current controversy.

I will try to do a better job blogging this next month.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

My training at work, on our new unit, went well last. I still have a lot to learn, but I was able to trace some things out. I still need to do a lot more of the same.

Wednesday TK invited Kevin Clopton and me over for suds and conversation. He splurged and provided us with Chimay bière, boudin, chips and dip. We had a great visit and a wonderful time discussing history (church and otherwise) and theology.

TK and I both got of work at 3 PM on Thursday, so he came over after work for a beer. My neighbour Stan joined us (Stan had water) on the porch. TK and Stan are old friends. They worshipped together at First Baptist Church of Sulphur for many years. Then the mailman stopped by. He too is an old FBC member, but he has become a Calvinist and is looking around for a church that is closer to where he is theologically.

My good friend and fellow rescue team member, Ted Allen’s father died, so I went and paid my respects on Friday. Mr. Allen was WWII veteran. He was awarded the Bronze Star, Silver Star and a Purple Heart during the war. He was a true American hero. (Ted has written some comments about his dad on his on blog here.)

Saturday I attended the wedding of my buddy Fred Slawson’s daughter, Shawna. It was a nice wedding.

Sunday Lisa, the little boys and I attended worship services at Covenant Presbyterian Church. Mark Duncan, their new pastor, was preaching and I wanted to hear him. I have heard Rev. Duncan preach a number of times before, but I thought it would be good to hear him again. The sermon was from Genesis, and it was excellent. Another bonus was we where able to celebrate the Lord’s Supper today.

Mark Duncan has a website. It can be found by clicking here.

After Church we came home, ate dinner and I went to bed, so that I could work tonight.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

Things around the house have been ok, but not great. Lisa has been sick for more than a week. Last week she came down with strep throat and an ear ache. She was very sick for several days and was on the starting to feel better by Sunday, has relapsed some since then. Today she is going to see MK. He is going to give her a shot to get her over this stuff.

At work, I’m training on our new unit at work this week. We will be commissioning it soon and I have lots yet to learn on it.

TK has transferred to the docks and since we are both training this week, he was able to come over after work on Monday. We sat on the front porch, drank a couple of Killians and visited. It was nice, because we have been on different shifts and have not been able to get together much in the last few years.

Yesterday, Gary J. came by with some New Castle Brown Ale’s on ice so we sat on the porch, drank a few beers and watched a beautiful downpour and lightening storm.

Gotta get to work.
Kenith

I had another good set of days off, after working off graveyard shift last Monday morning. Monday was a loss day. I slept until about two in the afternoon and then just vegetated around the house.

Wednesday the little boy’s and I went to Longville to fish. We visited with family for a little while, and then my brother Terry and I took the boys to Sandy’s to fish. The fish were not biting to good, but everyone caught a few fish (bluegill and small bass).

After a couple of hours of fishing we decided it was time to swim. So we swam the rest of the afternoon. We all had a great time including Oakley (Christian’s Labrador retriever) who had made the trip to Longville with us. Oakley and the kids had a great time in the pond. We even got Oakley to go off the diving board.

We were dog sitting this last weekend. Hammer, a 90 lbs American bulldog, was our houseguest from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon. He’s massive but very good dog. He is also much bigger than any dog I would ever want to have.

Saturday we spent much of the day at the Seep’s. It was their son’s birthday and so we went over with the little boys. They had a great time playing videogames and then swimming in the pool. Mike and I visited outside while our wives visited on the inside. While we were there Josh P. and his son came over. The boy soon joined the other kids in the pool and Josh joined Mike and me. We watched the children swim, enjoyed a couple of drinks and discussed off shore fishing (which Mike and Josh did that morning), books and theology.

Sunday we worshipped at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Sulphur. They had a guest pastor preaching. I have heard some very good things about him and I wanted to hear preach. Lisa, the little boys and I ate dinner at the church and visited with friends, before heading home.

Later that evening the folks at Covenant had a fellowship at the Church. Just after our dog owning friends picked up hammer, Gary J. called to see if Lisa and I were going to the fellowship. Lisa had started watching a movie with the little boys (at their request), so she was unwilling leave. Tommy K. (a.k.a. A.R. Minian) told Gary that he had brought a bottle of Terrazas Malbec. I spoke with Lisa and then headed out to Covenant. There was a good group gathered when I got there. Most of the young men were throwing a football around. Everyone else was sitting around talking. I found a chair and pulled up next to T.K. (i.e. A.R. Minian) and pour a glass of Malbec. That is a good wine.

I have enjoyed the Sunday afternoon Covenant fellowships every time I have been able to make one.