Unofficial End of Summer

It's amazing how fast this summer went by. The pool is down and packed away for the year and the yard has a scattering of dead leaves. Before long, the leaves will start to turn.

Today was the first day of school. Unfortunately, I didn't plan well so I didn't get a chance to film anything for another first-day-of-school video. However, I'm looking forward to getting home this afternoon to see how the first day of school went. I talked to Angie and she said it feels strange not having the older two boys there. I'm sure she'll adjust to it after a few outings with only Sam. And of course, the alone time she'll have when he's down for his afternoon nap.

With the rain we're getting today, I'm sure I'll be mowing the lawn this week. Also in my I.P.I.T. for the next couple of weeks are replacing my passenger-side axle, checking the noise in my driver-side front wheel, and checking the brakes on the van. And as always, I've got a mile-long list of things to do around the house.

Wide Eyed Wonder

While I was heading out the door for work this morning, I had an old Choir song in my head so I grabbed my old Wide Eyed Wonder CD by The Choir and listened to it on my way to work. Like so much of the Choir's music, it is moody and haunting at times, but also very thought-provoking.

Wide Eyed Wonder is the first Choir album I ever owned. I first bought the tape, but I now have the CD (although I don't remember where I got it). It was released almost 20 years ago now (1989), which makes me feel pretty old! In terms of the music, it's some of the best alternative ("Christian" or not) you can get from that era. I am definitely biased since it's what I grew up on. Still, I would reccommend it to anyone. There is a copy available on eBay right now.

Busy Week

This week has been not a little bit out of the ordinary. Angie was out of town from Friday, August 1st until last Friday. She went up to Sup. for her cousin Kelly's baby shower, and then ended up staying because her Mom had major surgery. The van also broke down so she would have had a hard time coming back w/o a car.

I was here with Alec and Zach until Wednesday, when they went up with their Grandma to visit with Phil and Eva and baby Avery. Thursday I managed to get the lawn mowed and tried vacuuming out the scum from the pool because of my previous neglect of it.

Unfortunately, it looks like we might have to drain it out for the year. I'm going to have one more shot at cleaning it out tonight.

Angie's Mom is in ICU from her colon surgery. We're hoping and praying she will be though the worst by later this week.

The van is working now that the head gasket has been replaced (to the tune of $1500!!! - that would have been a nice flat screen TV...)

Alec is off his Seraquel and doing great!!! This is a huge relief for both Angie and I. We were really not keen on having him on anti-psychotic meds since he's just a kid. We're thanking God and continuing to pray for him in this regard.

Angie's Grandma Shoe and Aunt Wendy are down for a buying show. They stayed over last night and might stay again tonight.

First Day of School 2007 - Video

I made this video last year and I figured I should post it since it would otherwise not see the light of day. This was Zach's first day of kindergarten and Alec's first day of second grade.

Amp

I was out at American Guitar and Band a few weeks ago with my friend Tom and got a chance to play an Orange Tiny Terror. When these came out, I was very interested in getting one because of their size (very small) and because they are all tube and made by Orange. Up until playing the Tiny Terror at AGB, I had never played an Orange (tube or otherwise) and like any guitar player would tell you, you should never buy an amp (or guitar for that matter) without playing it first.

Well, I'm hooked! The thing sounds great! I plugged in a standard American Telecaster, which is what I have, and tried the clean and gain on it and they both sounded amazing. The TT was hooked up to a Mesa Boogie cabinet. I think it was probably a 1x12", so the entire set up was very compact. But it really rocks - even on the 7 watt setting it can get really loud - so I'm sure it would do fine in a church setting.

Now I just need to sell my Classic 30 and raise some funds to make the purchase. The TT sells for around $500. The Mesa cab they had it set up with was another $400, I believe. So...yeah...that's getting up into the difficult-to-explain-to-Angie-why-I-need-to-buy-it price range :0)

What can I say? If you want tone, you have to pay for it.


Orange Amps

Short Grass, Tall Pool

Between Angie and I, we managed to get the entire lawn mowed and weed-trimmed on Saturday. Friday after I got home from work, we ate and then took the boys over to Sam's Club to pick up the new pool. This one is HUGE compared to our other one. It's 16 feet by 48 inches deep. According to the front of the box, it should have been "ready for water in 45 minutes!"...yeah, right! How about 2 hours or so! It's got metal poles that connect together to form the perimeter and legs that attach. After finally getting that all assembled, we had to put the ladder together so I could get in and flatten the bottom out. Finally got the water going at about 8. It took about 12 hours to fill the thing up (it holds about 5000 gallons of water). We've been running the filter non-stop to try to get the iron out of the water. After running the filter for two days and cleaning it out twice a day or so, you can still only see about 4 inches down into the water. (our water has a LOT of iron in it).

It is definitely going to be fun once the water gets cleaned up and warmed up. Then we'll just need some warmer weather.

The Weekend is Starting

I've been fairly tired over the past few days. Angie took the boys to the doctor yesterday, because they have been seeming tired, too. The dr. suggested that they could have allergies. So we're getting prescriptions for nasal spray (the same stuff I normally take in the fall). I hope this makes a difference for them. Alec has been having minor nosebleeds at night, too, which could be related.

I've been waking up early the last couple of days. It's interesting...I really like getting up early - not that it's easy, I usually hit snooze at least once on my alarm. But the last couple of days, I've actually waken up before my alarm. I'm trying to get on more of a schedule, and I've been reading through the N.T. and am following a reading track to get me through the entire Bible by next June. I'm looking forward to being able to say I've actually read through the entire Bible. In the past I've listened through the entire N.T. probably three times using the tapes I have. But the challenge for me has been getting through some of the O.T. books. I have a while before I get there because the reading track I'm doing is N.T first, then O.T. So I think maybe I will have more success because I'll have been sticking to the reading for quite some time before I get to some of the more laborious volumes :0)

I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend (as always). The lawn needs to be mowed, very badly, and I think we're going to go out and buy a new pool, since our old one is full of mouse holes from being left out in the shed...