Ripple

Things continue rolling along. Business as usual. I suppose that's why I forget to add the latest and greatest information. But a few items of note have popped up recently.

After six months of exhausted hydraulics and a sore back I finally got a new office chair! Actually it's more of a throne. I'm ready to become a workaholic in all it's faux leathery goodness. Although I'm really trying to find ways to be more involved with work that takes place outside the office. That's where I can be a storyteller.

Speaking of stories, the our first issue of The Flame, our conference magazine is out. Finally. It's been quite a hit already. I just got off the phone with the editor of 3ABN's magazine. They're planning to pick up one of the stories I did. The fact that my story made 3ABN look great may have influenced him, but it sure feels good to have your work praised under any circumstance!


I'm continuing to pound the treadmill. When I started running regularly this year I decided to try and run 200 miles in 2010. At the rate I'm going it looks like I might get there by my birthday.

I thought there was something else I was going to share, but it escapes me now. Plus, it's quitting time and the start of my weekend. As Fred Flintstone so brilliantly put it, "Yabba Dabba Dooo!"

Summertime

As long as your a/c doesn't go out on a Friday evening the nights down here are pretty fantastic in the summer. Luckily, if your apartment maintenance man can get things taken care of the next day, you can survive a single night where your apartment is 85.

But anyways. If you can train your body not to sweat buckets the evening light is wonderful down here. I've always heard that about New Mexico, but I'm finding it similar here.

Coasting

So I had a very eventful weekend. Somewhat on a whim (if you can call four days advance a whim) I decided to get outta town in honor of my 4-day 4th of July weekend. I was definitely ready for a change of scenery from Dallas. I was feeling the urge to finally see the gulf coast. Plus, since I moved down here I've had a standing appointment to meet up with an online friend and quite possibly destroy the universe with our common initials/nicknames and outstanding like-mindedness. What a great way to kill two birds with one stone!

Rather than overwhelm you with many huge images I'll just paste a slideshow of images from the trip. If you want to see them in a larger size and/or download some to print out poster size for me to autograph when I come to visit YOU just go to my Flickr stream and knock yourself out. :P





I have so many stories/thoughts from the trip, but the 10 hour drive on Monday and an 18 hour workday on Tuesday have left me a bit fried. I'll try to get to it when I can.

-isms

So I keep noticing random things that are different in Texas/the south. Some of them are more obvious, like brand names. Best Foods mayonnaise is called Hellmans, Safeway is called Tom Thumb. Sonic, a fast food joint that's a fringe/niche place at best in the northwest is literally on every corner down here. There's an unreal concentration of fast food in general. Fast food places/Waffle Houses and donut shops are concentrated about as densely as coffee shops/stands/kiosks in downtown Portland.

But it's the more subtle things that catch my attention. Usually when I'm driving, hence why I forget to write them down. Down here road construction is done by "Work Convoys." More interesting, I think many of these convoys are private businesses contracted to maintain certain stretches of the highway.

Life flight is called Care Flight down here. I keep seeing signs advertising to "sign up" for care flight. I'm not sure if that means they won't come and get you unless you have signed up, but it seems like another example of privatizing things we're used to just getting in the northwest. It makes me wonder if the services are better or worse with this system.

In the grocery store brand names aren't the only difference. Maybe the high number of donut shops is to blame but the typical grocery store bakery has a slim selection of donuts. Most stores have Krispy Kreme donuts for sale (I have resisted thus far). Bottled water is called bottle water and I seem to recall seeing both Ketchup and Catsup.

That's all I can think of at the moment, though I'm sure there are more things that are slipping my mind.

Grab Bag

Lest I forget to keep the information flowing I suppose it's time to add another update. The days are starting to stack end to end like train cars. Each one is sunny and hot. Some are windy others are calm and humid. I get up, head to work come home and either golf or hit the treadmill.

As a result I don't usually eat dinner until 8 or so, which means I keep it light. LOTS of fruit. Which is good, since the watermelons down here are like 30% bigger than any we get in the northwest. Not EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas (apples for example, coffee shops, the sweater section of stores etc.) but the watermelons do seem to be on the large side.

I've also discovered why short-sleeved dress shirts exist. When temperatures flirt with triple-digits on a regular basis they become a fact of life. Very glad that the dress shirt and tie or sports jacket is not required here as it was at NPUC.

It's been nice to enjoy the pool as well. Although I kinda overdid it the first time I was out there so I've been trying to be extra careful to make sure I don't peel.

Let's see... anything else to report? I didn't get the French Bulldog I applied for from the rescue. Probably a good thing. A dog is a pretty hefty expense up front. Even if I get a free puppy out of a box I have to pay a $250 pet deposit at my apartment. It might be better to get more settled in before I go that route, even thought that might be less fun.

I think that's about it for now. We'll see if anything else develops.

Weekend

At long last, a very long and photo-heavy update of all sorts of things.

I don't even really remember what I did on Friday. I think I just relaxed around the homestead. I had grand ambitions to get up really early and golf before it was hot/crowded, but I couldn't drag myself out of bed in time. So I indulged in air conditioning, did my usual grocery run, got my car washed and sipped some iced coffee.

Oh yah! Right before sundown I drove out to downtown Cleburne. I had seen it a while before and it looked like a pretty cool place to shoot some pictures. Turns out I was right since I saw like 3 photo studios and 2 senior portrait shoots in a 3 block radius. It kinda reminded me of Oshkosh, WI and a few other midwest towns I stumbled through. It's always amazing how much older things are than what I'm used to. Plus I think the climate down here just ages things really hard:












Random aside: It's kinda funny but I've really been enjoying fried egg sandwiches lately. I think I had maybe had 2 in my life before I moved down here,and over the last month or so I've had at least one a week. It's a good breakfast, a light lunch or a solid breakfast for dinner option. Same with breakfast burritos, but those are more substantial.

On Sabbath I went to church and then decided to finally get out to the pool. It was packed and I felt very hairy and pale. Turns out my self-consciousness was a good thing since I was actually hairy and PINK. Aloe baths here I come. After some time inside I decided to go run on the treadmill. I thought I was just 3 miles away from reaching the next level on Nike+ (155 miles total) so I decided to do a 5k. I know the exercise room is colder than it is outside but I was sweating buckets by the time I got done. And it turned out I needed like 3.9 miles to reach the green level. What a mean trick!

I was determined to seize the day today so I took a Tylenol PM at 8pm and was in bed by 9:30. I set three different alarms, starting at 7am and still didn't managed to get up until 9:30. Boo! The last time I checked the poll the Farmers Market was in the lead so that was my plan for today. If I had known what it was all about I would not have bought any produce on Friday. Onward we go:


It's not as much arts and crafts as it is just four buildings of solid produce.


Fresh produce...


Fresh local produce...


Fresh colorful local produce...


Fresh juicy colorful local produce...


Disgusting gag-reflex-inducing local produce lol


I thought this was the greatest find of the day... and then I found the $1 cantaloupes!


I didn't find out until I actually parked that each of the buildings is a big covered parking lot with stands all around the outside. It's a pretty slick setup, but it looked like a zoo getting in and out. (avoids going into a tangential commentary on Texas drivers...)

And even though nobody voted for it I decided to visit the JFK Memorial, since it was like a mile from the Farmers Market. I didn't go to the museum, or buy any of the conspiracy newspapers that like 50 guys there were selling. I did find it funny that people seemed more interested in the grassy knoll than the book depository.


The spot


The trees may have been shorter back then, but it honestly doesn't look like a very difficult shot for a decent marksman


The grassy knoll


A very cool old building nearby.

So when I got done wandering around Downtown Dallas (in the upper 90's) I decided it would be a good idea to run 2 miles on the treadmill. THEN I decided it would be a good idea to play 9 holes of golf (walking). After all that the pool could barely bring me back. We're only in the second week of June and the water is already almost too warm to be refreshing. As of right now I have eaten 1/3 of a 18-20 pound watermelon, two oranges and washed it down with a half a gallon of water.

Carpe Diem

As always, more photos on Flickr (click on any of the pictures to go there) if you haven't already been overloaded. :P

On Tour

A weekend is nearly upon me. It's going to be a hot one, but I'm determined to get out and do something active. That's where you come in. I'm inviting you to get touristy with me this weekend. What DFW attraction shall we hit up?

Thermostat

Someone has turned up the heat and the humidity. Even on the warm days in April the wind seemed to keep the humidity at bay. Not the case anymore. Temperatures flirting with 90 degrees, humidity approaching 70% and winds at 20-25 mph with gusts well beyond that. Apparently this is still considered "spring" and this weather is more consistent with what's normal than the "mild" April we had. On the plus side I can walk from my apartment to Wal Mart at 10pm in shorts and a t-shirt. Not only that, but it feels downright balmy. The humidity is actually kinda nice at night, until I try to sleep.

Work keeps rolling along. I'm still struggling a bit with punctuality to the daily staff worships at 8am. My heart remains determined to operate on pacific time. I'm headed back to Austin next week to reconfigure our a/v equipment at Nameless Valley Ranch for the upcoming summer camp program. Apparently the staff puts on quite a pageant. They'll be using 13-15 wireless lapel mics. Each will need its own dedicated channel... and this is an area I know very little about. So I guess I'll be learning quickly.

Lately I've been excited about the opportunity this experience will provide me to see a different part of the country. Dallas is so centrally located. I can reach the east coast just as easily as home, which is a pretty cool thought. I'm looking for opportunities when I could hit the road for some sort of interstate adventure. Perhaps it will depend on the location of a dog I'm rescuing. We'll see...

Oops

It's been a busy two weeks. So busy that I forgot to report in. April 22-25 found me headed (further) south. The conference has sold their old summer camp, but it leasing it until the new one is built. So I made my way to Nameless Valley Ranch for Latino Youth Fest. As I pulled into the hotel parking lot on Thursday night I was treated to the sound of air escaping from my tire. Of course it was too late to do anything about it so I got to get up extra early in the morning and head to a tire shop as soon as it opened. They ended up selling me three new tires to match the one I had to replace a couple weeks ago when I had a nail in the sidewall. I was getting close to needing new tires anyways and this way they'll all match and I didn't have to pay for flat repair.

Youth fest was good. I ran lights and made sure videos/powerpoint shows appeared on the screens at the right time. An interesting challenge for me since the program was about 90% Spanish. I could understand the gist of most praise songs, but the rapid-fire sermons left me a bit glassy-eyed.

Following the busy weekend and a quick week of work I jumped aboard a plane for home on Wednesday night. Thursday was about making the rounds and taking in Game 6 of Blazer/Suns at the Rose Garden with nine other rowdies. Though the game didn't turn out the way I had hoped it was still a blast. My voice is still recovering.

Friday we hit the golf course and then the boys and I enjoyed some wonderful Thai food. I haven't found many good oriental places in Burleson so Mali Thai was well appreciated. Sabbath I went to church, had family lunch and family dinner. Lots of great catching up and drinking in the familiarity of home. It was kinda funny. I was looking around and random things. Stretches of road, trees, the skyline. Objects and places I remember seeing out the window while sitting in my car seat. There's a unique and individual depth to the landscapes I call home. Others may look around north Texas and see things that way, but I don't.

Now it's back to business somewhat as usual. Summer must start in May down here. Already flirting with 90 degrees. Yikes.

I wish I could find a better copy of this, but I have to share this hilarious local commercial:


I guess some parts of this culture make sense to the people here but just seem completely absurd to an outsider.

Maybe I'm living in a more densely populated area than I realize, but it sure seems like there's an abundance of fast food restaurants down here. Walking out door of my office I can almost always catch the oily smell of Dairy Queen, or is it McDonalds... or Sonic Burger? Despite all that I've been eating pretty well. I think I can count on one hand the number of fast food meals I've had since I got here.

Last week I spent a day at Nameless Vally Ranch, the summer camp the Texas Conference sold, but is still leasing until the new camp is finished. We spent the day setting up for several upcoming events. Outdoor school this week, youth festival this weekend and camp throughout the summer. It's a very nice facility in the hills just outside of Austin. The new camp has the advantage of being located on a lake, but in one afternoon I could see the nostalgic attraction to this came. I'll be back down there this weekend and maybe snap a few pictures if I have some time.

I'm kinda toying with the idea of getting a dog. Seeing all the pooches at the art festival put the idea in my mind and then on the way back from the summer camp everyone started passing around cell phone pictures of their dogs. One of my co workers even has Great Pyrenees puppies, but those are a little excessive for an apartment. Strangely, when I looked up apartment friendly dogs Mastiffs and Great Danes both make the cut. I thinking more along the lines of a dog that is not mistaken for a horse. One of the leading apartment-friendly candidates more closely resembles a frog:


We'll see what ends up happening. I'm going to do a bit more homework before I make any decision.

Fort Worth

Finally a full weekend without any work obligations. It was great! Not to mention the fact that the weather was glorious. Lots of time outside. Much of it at the Fort Worth Arts Festival:













They could also name it the Fort Worth Dog Festival:






I'm only a little bit jealous...

Watch Out

Life keeps rolling along and keep rolling along with it. It continues to surprise me how abrupt the weather can be here. It seriously seems like it only took about two days to transition from winter to spring. I could literally see the landscape turning green by the hour. Temperatures soared well above 70 degrees and when the wind finally stopped

I discovered a thick blanket of humidity settles over north Texas when the air stops moving. On Thursday night I cracked up a couple of my co-workers on the way to the Dallas town hall meeting. I said the weather kind of reminded me of Hawaii, pretty much the only other humid place I've ever been. Maybe it was just my naive optimism talking, but they found it funny at any rate.

I'm not enjoying having to wake up in the dark again, but it is nice to have a considerable amount of daylight after work. Not quite enough for nine holes yet, but enough for a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood:



Regardless of the risk:



So far I haven't seen anything too dangerous. One Armadillo, dead on the road. A roadrunner and a turtle, alive on the road and not appearing to be engaged in any sort of race.

Last Sabbath I took my inaugural trip to Lake Whitney Ranch, the new summer camp the conference is developing, for the inaugural Pathfinder Camporee there. It's a very impressive site. More than 900 acres, with two miles of lakefront property, most of which is made up of impressive cliffs. I have pictures, but they're on the conference camera and not online at the moment. I'll share eventually.

Sunday I enjoyed immense amounts of leisure. I wandered around Fort Worth, wished I had shorts on and tried to figure out the formula of which stores were open on Easter and which were closed. I didn't find any pattern. I also went to a park near the Fort Worth Botanic (not to be confused with Botanical) Garden. I didn't go into the actual garden because you had to pay and I didn't know how interesting it would be by myself. I had fully intended to spend some time downtown, but I got too warm and had to head home for some shorts. By that time laundry and dinner were calling my name.

This week looks to be a bit on the relaxing side... hopefully. Then it's two very busy weeks before I trip back to the northwest. Yah... I can deal with that.

Early

So today has been interesting to say the least. After worship this morning they announced that, to keep the budget balanced in these economic times, we are now going to be a self-cleaning office. A list of assignments was emailed out and, of course, yours truly in on the first quarter bathroom team. Just before lunch we had an orientation to learn about exactly what would be expected of us.

After dividing into groups and picking our custodial days we were assigned to watch a horribly 1990's technical video about how to scrub toilets and empty trash cans.

The whole production ended with a shot of our office social committee announcing: "APRIL FOOLS!"

Yah... they got us good.

Boys Will be Boys

Before I get to this weekend I'll recap my Thursday. I was on the road for another town hall meeting. This one in San Antonio. I ended up going to the office in the morning to finish up a couple things and it was a good thing I did because several people had changes to their parts of the presentation. I ended up leaving just after lunch for the four hour drive to San Antonio... or so I thought. The drive ended up taking more than five hours thanks to rush hour traffic in Austin and San Antonio. Apparently there's a bypass for Austin, but I didn't know it at the time.

The presentation went as well as any of them so far. We got most of the wrinkles ironed out and this town hall was the best attended. Folks in San Antonio seemed very concerned about getting more schools in their area. They have two schools that I believe go up to 9th grade, but the conference itself is so spread out that it's not entirely uncommon for the nearest school to be a considerable distance away, even in metro areas. Part of the challenge is that opening more schools requires money. The conference can help to some degree but a school requires a dedicated base of financial support by the local community. This reminded me that it's probably time to start giving back to those who shaped my education.

While all this was going on Matt and Micah were flying into Dallas. So as soon as the meeting was done I jumped in the car for a late night marathon drive to kick of the weekend of bros. I picked them up in Keene just after 1 am and I think we finally got settled in for bed by about 2:30. That made for a late start on Friday. We pretty much just relaxed at my apartment for most of the day and then went to dinner at Babes Chicken in Burleson. Homestyle fried southern food with all you can eat veggies and biscuts. It was a glorious evening, still well into the 70's on the way home from dinner.

Still recovering from finals, the boys ended up sleeping well beyond church time. When we finally did get up and around we decided to go check out the Ft. Worth Stockyards. It was then that we discovered that the temperature had dropped by about 40 degrees overnight. In addition, there was a robust wind, which added to the chill factor. When we pulled into the stockyards a few wispy snowflakes were being added to the mix. But we persevered, because that's what the situation called for. Ducking into every available building we made our way along the historic streets, not really sure what we were supposed to be seeing. It was a lot of tourist stuff, and a lot of bundled up tourists.


Words cannot express how cold we were.

Finally we did find the cattle and they were very impressive:


A couple times a day they do a cattle drive down the street, but we were far too cold to wait for that to happen. It was time to head back to the apartment for warm drinks and some college basketball highlights.

Sunday I had to do an interview for a work project, so we hit the road for Lewisville and I whipped out my reporters notebook to gather information about Fisherman Ministries. It's an evangelism program that centers on one-on-one Bible study, as opposed to large-scale group meetings. Participants work with people who are interested in Bible study and take them through a systematic program of study that culminates in an invitation for baptism. The program has been transplanted to several other churches and is even in use in Africa. One of keys to this program's success is the one-on-one interaction helps people who are interested in spiritual things develop personal connections with people in the church, which makes the far more likely to stay connected for the long term. It should be a good article.

The next event on our schedule was a Dallas Stars hockey game. We had about 4 hours to kill so we decided to opt for another warm option, the Bass Pro Shop in Dallas. It was everything a massive sporting goods store should be. Guns, fishing poles, rubber worms, camouflage hunting suits, stuffed animals and an indoor pond stocked with massive fish. Even after we wandered to our hearts content there was still time to kill. We decided to go find the JFK memorial and maybe see about getting some lunch nearby. This proved to teach us two things. 1) Even when the temperature has risen to the mid 40's if the wind increases to 30-40 mph it is still terrifyingly cold outside. 2)In big cities like Dallas most restaurants in the business districts are closed on weekends. We ended up finding a place finally and just headed to the hockey game 90 minutes early. The game was exciting, even though the Stars lost in a shootout. Next trip we'll have to see about taking in a football game in Dallas...

Since I've been logging some serious hours with work projects over the last week and I had to take the boys to the airport I worked from home today, getting the next month's batch of stories ready for the union magazine and putting some of my notes together for the stories I'm working on for the conference magazine. Then it was off to deposit the boys at DFW and home to clean up and get ready for the next stretch of work. A couple more local town hall meetings are coming up in the next couple weeks and a pathfinder camporee at Lake Whitney Ranch, the new summer camp the conference is developing. Those events are sure to keep me plenty busy in the short term. Hopefully the'll be a nice long weekend somewhere along the way when I can make my way north. I'll be ready.

Zoom

And then another week goes by...

There's less time for reflecting/recording when you are staying busy with work-related activities. It seems like church institutions are always busy in the spring, and down here spring comes early.

I meant to write about last weekend sooner. Friday night Kristina and I shot some footage for a video project about a Brazilian church plant in north(?) Dallas. I assume it was north because it was a long way from where I live, but I'm still getting my bearings. It was a very amazing story though, about these three siblings whose parents are Catholic evangelists in Brazil. The daughter came here to go to school and didn't know a soul. When she finally met another Brazilian the woman happened to be Adventist so she started going to an Adventist church. It didn't really do a lot for her, but then she started attending this church plant. Something about it clicked with her so she stared participating (not changing her beliefs or anything, just being part of the group). Eventually she started doing Bible studies and warming up to the church.

When her family found out they sent her brother up to "get her straightened out." He told her they were going to go to Catholic church. She agreed, but only if he attended Adventist services with her. Eventually he started taking Bible studies so he would have ammunition against her in their theological arguments. By this time she was considering baptism and that drove a wedge between them. The week before her baptism they were riding in the car and her brother finally broke the silence by asking her if she really understood the gravity of her decision. She was going against everything their family stood for. She explained her conviction to him and he replied, "Well, if you are going to get baptized then I will too."

When the older siblings suggested their parents send their younger brother up for school... you can guess where the story goes. The parents made them vow not to convert him. And they didn't. The church did that without their help. So now the three children of those Catholic evangelists are leading out in this Brazilian church plant. Amazing stuff.

On Sabbath I went to the Terrell Church, which is about 75 miles east of Dallas. I was supposed to meet and interview a guy there who was converted by 3ABN programming. He ended up going to a different church that week, but I talked with the pastor and arranged a follow up and got a couple leads on other stories. The church was so tiny. Maybe 20 members tops. But everyone was highly involved. One of the three kids under 20 was their greeter and nearly everyone else was involved in either music, collecting offering or sharing a testimony as part of the service. I managed to get through it without feeling like the only unfamiliar face in the room, though I no doubt was.

On Sunday I boarded a plane for Houston. It was time for the first batch of Town Hall meetings. From what I can gather these events are an opportunity for conference leadership to give reports to members of the conference and take some time to hear questions or concerns. Since this conference is so huge it pretty much requires the conference leaders going to several different regions and giving the same reports. The first two stops were Houston on Sunday and McAllen (for they very southern region of Texas, known as The Valley) on Monday.



Tuesday we flew back to Dallas. I was so glad I was able to fly for the trip. If the churches we were going to didn't have the proper a/v equipment I would have had to drive my car and bring a projector and screen to run the Power Point presentation. That would have added up to nearly 9 hours of driving instead of a 2 hour flight.

Somewhere along the way I also managed to run on the treadmill five days in a row. I've already run nearly 30 miles this month. I wonder if I could sniff 50? That would be pretty amazing. I might have to do more 5ks and fewer 2 mile runs.

Drizzle and Sizzle

I continue to battle mightily against this pesky cold/throat bug. Hopefully the end is in sight. It's mostly just when I first wake up in the morning. Thursday I came home from work early because I was also kinda feeling feverish, and for some reason the decongestants I took that day didn't seem to do anything. Friday I laid low in the morning, but it was just too nice of a day to stay inside. So after getting groceries I decided to golf. Apparently everyone else in Texas shared my views on the weather because the course was packed. It took almost four hours to play 9 holes, but since twilight golf is 17 dollars I really didn't mind.

On Sabbath I went to Arlington church again. I went to the late (traditional)service. After church I was feeling a bit better so I decided to hit the treadmill. On some of my better running days two miles hasn't seemed like much of a challenge. I get through it at a pretty good pace and by the time I'm done with my cool down I feel like I could just about go for it again. So I decided to try running a 5k. That transfers to just over 3 miles. It was definitely a mental test to push through, and I still wasn't feeling great, but I made to the end without slowing down or stopping the treadmill. I think I averaged just under 8 minute/miles for the run, so that gives me a baseline to work off of. I think I'm going to start alternating between 2 mile and 5k runs.

After that I headed out to explore Burleson some more. Down in an oder section of town I found this historical marker thing with information about Burleson, including this beauty:


I also like these older farm/industrial structures:

I'm always reminded when I get out of the northwest that much of America is so much older than what I'm used to. It's cool to think about all the history in a given place. I don't really imagine people in other places thinking about the northwest a lot in a historical context. Maybe the Oregon Trail, but that's about it.

I forgot to mention that I had put beans in the crock pot to cook. When I got back I learned two valuable things. No matter how slow it may seem the low setting on the crock pot will probably get things cooked in time, and it is in fact possible to burn something in a slow cooker. Luckily a good portion of the beans were salvageable and I had some pretty decent burritos for dinner.

Today I woke up with minimal throat irritation so I celebrated with a bountiful feast of carbs:


Plenty of rain, and soreness from running, kept golf off the agenda. So after a little house cleaning I decided to go to the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth. They currently have an exhibit of Andy Warhol's late work. I wasn't supposed to use cell phones or cameras in the gallery but I did manage to sneak this:


Andy was one crazy fellow. They only had a couple of his crazy drip/splatter paintings. I guess those were earlier works. But they did have this massive Last Supper treatment that he did. A huge screen print of the Di Vinci work, and then elements of the scene repurposed in some pop art pieces.

The other exhibits at the museum were pretty interesting as well. For example, a GIANT pile of teal colored hard candies. Somehow that constitutes art I guess. Then there was a collection of silver candlesticks, trays, bowls etc. that had been crushed by an industrial press and were suspended about six inches off the floor by wires. I'm not totally sure what it all means, but it sure was something.

After that I headed to a nearby mall. I was really hoping the rain would let up so I could walk around and take pictures, but it just wasn't happening. So I busied myself in Banana Republic, Pottery Barn and Barnes and Noble.

When I got back to my apartment I felt compelled to run again. I knew I didn't have much gas left in the tank but I decided to go for it. I plodded through and brought my weekend total to seven miles. Two on Friday, Three on Sabbath and Two more today. All solidly under an 8-minute mile. That feels good.

Now it's time for a busy couple of weeks. We are putting together the content for the next issue of our conference magazine. In the midst of that we have conference "Town Hall" meetings in Houston, McAllen and San Antonio. That requires us/me being on site to run power point slideshows for the different conference departments as they present their material. As soon as that's over the next batch of content is due for the union magazine.

Lots of writing, lots of travel, hopefully some photoshoots.

Checkpoints

From what I gather March is truly a spring month around here. Folks are expecting warmer temperatures and sunshine. Other than the first day we seem to be headed in that direction. It's nice to see high temperatures staying above 45 degrees for the foreseeable future.

Work continues to go well. We are starting to gather materials for the spring/summer issue of the quarterly conference magazine. I've got a couple stories on my plate, the event calendar and possibly a couple other things. Also this month we have Town Hall meetings in several cities. I'll be getting to see a big chunk of the state since I have to drive the projector/screen to these events. Checkpoints on the docket include Houston, McAllen and San Antinio.

Last weekend got sort of blown out when I decided to brave the 40 degree drizzle and golf on Friday. Since then I've been fighting a cold bug as a result. Hopefully I'll be back at full capacity by this weekend. I'd like to check out Fort Worth some more. The Museum of Modern Art interests me, with a Warhol feature... and of course there's the stockyards and just downtown in general.

It's really kind of funny. I'm a pretty shy person... ok, at times I'm a cripplingly shy person... yet I find myself really enjoying intense urban settings. I oscillate between feeling terrifyingly conspicuous and blissfully invisible. I'm starting to define my comfort bubble here. The areas where I frequently go as part of my regular routines. But it's also exciting to know just how unfamiliar and unknown pretty much everything is around me.

Wroking for the Weekend

Another week in the books and another set of random adventures. I started the week by getting another batch of stories off to the union for the April issue of their magazine, the Record. Other than the editorial (each conference does a brief editorial at the begging of their section every month)that I'm still waiting on, everything is in on time. Which was good because we had another snow adventure on Tuesday.

I learned on the news that morning that this has been the foruth-snowiest winter on record for Dallas. Much like our last two winters in the Northwest. If this is the exception to the rule I can probably deal with business as usual.

Today I had my first field assignment: photographing a 7th/8th grade music festival at Southwestern Adventist University. It was a lot of trying to be inconspicuous with a very conspicuous camera and an even more conspicuous lens... but I did manage to get some good shots I think. Any shortcomings with the shots have nothing to do with the equipment. We are so spoiled here. Canon 5D Mark II, 2.8 glass from 28-200 and a FISHEYE lens (forgive me, but any photo-geeks reading this are going nuts right now).

Tuesday I hit the treadmill despite the snow. It was a rough run. I fought valiantly, but my pace was almost a minute off my last run. Curious to say the least. Tonight I figured out why. One of the treadmills in the workout area is stuck on an incline even though it says it's at zero. Guess which one I used Tuesday and didn't use tonight? MUCH BETTER.

To be fair, I'm sure I got a much better workout on Tuesday. But it's just so nice when my Nike+ adapter in my ipod tells me, "Congratulations! You just recorded your fastest mile." That's happened twice in the last week. Last Friday I averaged 7:20/mile for my two-mile run and tonight I knocked it down to 7:10. Before tonight the fastest time I had ever recorded for one mile was 7:13.

It's funny to me... normally I find myself in a funk this time of year. I don't know if I would always go so far as to say "seasonal depression," but it's definitely something like that. This year I've felt close to getting down a couple times, but then I find myself making pad thai, getting paired up to golf with three Adventists or slaying the treadmill with a merciless onslaught of unrelenting strides... and suddenly there's all this optimistic momentum that just carries me over the potential valleys.

In my devotional this morning there was a quote from Tom Landry (how fitting for Dallas) saying, "A coaches job is to teach grown men how to do what they don't want to do in order to become what they've always wanted to become." I have to smile to myself when I think of the list of "I'll nevers" that I find myself tossing aside. Things like "I'll never put onions in something I'm cooking just for me," or "I'll never be a good runner outside of just sprinting 100 yards or so." Listening to a coach you trust can lead to some pretty amazing results.

We don't begin to test the resources of God until we attempt the impossible.

Week 2

I realized I haven't updated in a bit. That's partially because life is getting more routine and regular. Last week I sent my first batch of conference news stories to the Southwestern Union for publication in their magazine. I also attended my first Executive Committee meeting. It's not something our department is required to attend, but it helps us to know what's going on and sometimes gives us leads for other stories to cover.

I'm going to be developing web news stories for the conference site. Luckily I have some experience in this area. We're also going to be helping put together an video tour of Lake Whitney Ranch, the new summer camp/campmeeting and events center the conference is developing. Luckily, video editing is one of Kristina's area of strength, but hopefully I'll find ways to be helpful. The Pathfinders, Adventurers and Master Guides are all having their camporees at Lake Whitney this year so we'll be busy reporting and documenting those events as well.

Friday I hit the golf course again. Things were a little bit greener. But that was mostly because they had sprayed green fertilizer on the greens. What else did I do after that... I forget. Oh yah, got some groceries so I could make a crock pot stew for Sabbath lunch, and then hit the treadmill at the apartment.

On Sabbath I went to the Arlington church again. This week I attended the YG (Younger Generation) service, which is sandwiched between the traditional services. It was pretty good. Having spent my entire life attending one church it's kind of hard to figure out what's going to be a good fit for me. But I'll get there.

After church and lunch I headed out and did some exploring in downtown Fort Worth. The rain ended up kinda putting a damper on that, but I still managed to see a piece of things. Looks like there's lots more to get into there, but for now here's a couple quick looks:





Today I headed back to the golf course in the morning. It had rained overnight so it wasn't too crowded. The starters offered to let me play the back 9 first since a couple groups had just gone off on the front. They said I might have to join another group when I came around to play the front, but I figured I would take my chances. As I played the weather got steadily better and by the time I was finishing my first 9 there was a decent crowd of people getting ready to head out. The starter told me to join a group of three that was getting ready to tee off.

Usually playing with strangers is one of my least favorite things. Especially if it's joining a group of three. They usually have their own established routines and procedures and it makes me feel like a tag along. But helps when three holes in you figure out that all three guys are Adventist and one of them is a County Commissioner running for re-election. I really appreciate it when God does little things like this. Just random, unnecessary little things to let me know that He knows me and what I enjoy. That He's supportive of things that I enjoy and want to be a part of them with me. And even though my score didn't exactly reflect it, after I joined up with those guys I felt like I played better.

After golf I grabbed some lunch, washed my car and tried to go to this coffee shop in an older part of Burleson. Turns out they're closed on Sundays but I wandered around there for a bit and scouted out some restaurants for later.

All in all it's been a pretty productive second week and a pretty enjoyable third weekend. Glad I got to enjoy some sunshine today because rumor has it that snow may be back in the forecast by Tuesday. How the weather does change down here!

Official Stuff

I'm not usually one to self-promote, but hosts of inquiring minds lead me to believe that it's important for me to share things like these. So here you go:

The holiday weekend

There's positives and negatives to a long weekend. Especially one made longer still by weather-related factors. On the one hand it's nice to have lots of free time. On the other hand, if you're not properly motivated/proactive there can be such a thing as too much free time. This may sound impossible to some of you, but by Monday afternoon I was actually looking forward to getting back to work. What I was I thinking?!?!

Thursday afternoon I was pretty much snowbound and you already read/saw some of my Friday adventures. On Sabbath I decided to visit the Arlington Church, which came with high praises by the associate youth director. Since my internal clock continues to tick on west coast time I opted for the latest of the three services, starting at 11:15. It was a pretty positive experience. They didn't bring me up to the front, ask for my life story and demand an explanation as to why I'm still singe so that's pretty good in my book.

Because of the first holiday this weekend the sermon was on love, and Song of Solomon in particular. He did bring up an excellent point about love. It's not just about hoarding the feelings/emotions you and a significant other share. It's about seeing and affirming love around you. As I think about the relationships in my life, the couples that make up my understanding of what it means to unite in a shared love,

I see great variety. I used to think all relationships/marriages were pretty much the same, and all perfect. I'm under no such illusions anymore. But I'm glad. I feel like there's something to be learned from each example around me. Not only that, but I have the absolute freedom to go completely off the map. To do things in a completely different way than any example around me. Anyways... I could continue this introspective tangent for a few thousand more words but I'll spare you for now.

After church I went exploring. This vast urban sprawl in north Texas is referred to as The Metroplex. It incorporates Dallas, Ft. Worth, Arlington and a host of other suburbs/smaller cities that have been swallowed up by the ever expanding development. Even DFW Airport seems bigger than most of Vancouver. Dallas and Ft. Worth each have their own distinct skyline, and on a day when it's not 27 degrees out I will look forward to photographing them. North Dallas also has some very upscale urban settings that I will probably shoot as well.

Saturday night I found my way to IKEA. My change of address packed from the post office contained a coupon and I couldn't wait to spend it... and then some. This post is going to get very long now. Onto the spoils of victory:










Click on any of the photos to see more on Flickr.

I actually ended up making another Ikea trip on Sunday. Mostly because there was still too much snow to golf and I wanted to get a shelving unit that I didn't think would fit into my car with all the other stuff. I should have taken a picture of that beast. It took over an hour and a whopping 76 wood pegs to assemble. But it's glorious.

Yesterday I headed out at around 10 to golf. The sun was blazing, but packing zero punch. The wind didn't help this either.

I've said before that it's brown here, but here's exactly what I mean:




Once I got past the color, the course actually played pretty well. I was fighting a pretty bad hook, and the wind didn't help that, but managed to score decently and survived a couple tough tests.

While thawing out from the round I did some more unpacking and a little laundry. It was Monday afternoon/evening when I literally ran out of things to do. Having a three-day weekend every week is certainly a blessing, but a four-day weekend is a bit excessive.

Wrap

Another positive to working in the Adventist system is having Fridays off from work. Ever since I found myself in this schedule I have really appreciated Fridays, especially Friday mornings. It's a chance to sleep in a bit, make myself a mighty breakfast and take the opportunity to indulge my passions. Some Fridays this means finding a quiet coffee shop and a good book. Other weeks it's getting caught up on laundry or household chores. Sometimes it's just watching TV or a movie.

This week was a bit of everything. Pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns and a latte. Vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms. Then I remembered the four inches of snow on the ground. Another Friday activity is the photo mission. When I jump in my car with my camera and search for moments, object, ideas and inspirations. Apparently snow in Texas is kind of a big deal so it seemed appropriate to document it.

It's truly remarkable to see how a society reacts when presented with a "once in 3-4 decades" quantity of snow. The average age descends to approximately 8 for one. I have never seen such a high concentration of snowmen in the Pacific Northwest. The slightest change in elevation is swarmed with cardboard squares, plastic pieces and any object which might facilitate a first-ever sledding experience.

But the image that stood out to me was the one that I didn't expect. Stopping at a Catholic church to get shots of snow-covered oak trees I noticed a small thinking garden with a snow covered statue of Christ.



And that was just my morning! Then it was off to the store. I've been looking for crock pot recipes and in the process also decided to find a recipe for pad thai. That expanded my grocery list to include a potpourri of items I had never purchased, let alone seen in the grocery store, before. But with a little determination I was able to find everything except one elusive asian sauce. However, I did manage to come up with a reasonable substitute.

After an afternoon of unloading bags and an early evening of frantic scuttling around the kitchen I emerged with an enormous mess and a fairly satisfactory first attempt at pad thai. More than I could possibly eat in one sitting, and fairly delicious. With a few tweaks I think I can get it down.

We'll see what happens when I try my hand at spring rolls.

This is still Texas right?

So I woke up this morning to a bit of this going on:



It's pretty hilarious that I was worried I wouldn't be able to wear sweaters/coats that often down here. So pretty much that's been the story of today. Freezing my bare feet off to run out on the balcony and take a picture before the snow melted.

Yah... about that. It's done nothing but snow more since then. Everyone at the office is positively giddy, a sign that this doesn't happen very often. This morning we were doing some training on how to edit information on the conference's web site (fun for me since I just access the content management system for the first time yesterday). It's tough to get 10 people all working through adding events to the calendar, let alone when phones keep chirping with the latest school closure information.

We were also supposed to have a baby shower for someone in the office, but that got cancelled since she couldn't make it here. However we still had pizza and cake so we had a nice lunch feast. That's when administration announced that we get to leave at 2 because the snow is supposed to continue through the night. However, it's supposed to be 50 tomorrow. Crazy. At this point all bets are off, but I'm glad I got a decent amount of groceries earlier this week. If I have to I can just hunker down and play Xbox all weekend.

Someday I'll get to golf in Texas... but probably not today.

Stride

Perhaps I've just been too busy feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and sluggish over the last couple days, but today I feel like I'm actually getting things done. In the midst of all the random chaos this week I've made a few tiny steps on work-related things and today I'm feeling like they're all coming together. There's still a lot to figure out, but I'm not feeling completely useless.

Even though I'm a completely disorganized Type-B personality I throughly enjoy filling out expense reports. Maybe that's because it represents reimbursement checks that are oh so enjoyable. There's going to be some big ones from this whole process. House hunting trip. Moving truck rental and gas. Moving mileage, hotel and per diem.

It will definitely be nice for this job to start being fiscally responsible. Having a job in Texas is certainly more cost-effective than having no job in Washington, but thus far it's cost me a lot of money to be here. I haven't minded that one bit. Furnishing my apartment was/is a blast. But it will be nice to have some affirmation that this move makes sound financial sense. And if my calculations are correct the check I'll get on the 18th should do that and then some!

Day 2

Well I must feel comfortable with this job because it took me only one day to lose that jittery adrenaline-charged sense that keeps a person from oversleeping and causes them to show up to work 20 minutes early. Or perhaps it was the 27 degree temperature when I left this morning (which somehow felt warmer because it was not accompanied by a steady drizzle of rain). At any rate, things are seeming far more "business as usual" than "a drastic departure from anything and everything familiar."

Driving here is pretty crazy. On the main arterial that goes through town the speed limit is 50. On the freeways the signs say 65, but from what I gather that's the suggested minimal speed limit for great-grandmothers on their Sunday afternoon drives. I can deal with that. And hopefully my out of state license plate will help me play dumb should an authority figure bring a different interpretation of the speed limit to my attention.

In addition the freeway on ramps are a bit different than in the Northwest. They just sort of amble out of roads that parallel the freeway and if that road happens to be a two-lane road the person going the direction of the freeway just bombs across the traffic and into the on-ramp. If you're going the opposite way you're expected to yield for them. I suspect turn signals are fairly important in Texas...

I'm not sure if it's a week of prayer this week or if the conference office has a staff worship every morning. That's one thing I really appreciate about working in an Adventist institution. Even if it's just one day a week it's nice to take that moment to refocus our purpose and invite God to be the center of what we are doing.

Also of note, despite oversleeping this morning I made one of my very best mocha's ever. It was cold and a little weak, but I didn't burn the espresso shot and I had just the right ratio of chocolate. This gives me hope that I can import some Pacific Northwest class and sophistication to the new frontier. And no matter how early I have to go to bed, I'm determined to give myself enough time to eat a solid breakfast every morning. It helps when you put the water on the stove the night before and leave the oatmeal out on the counter. That way cooking the food only takes a little longer than cleaning it all up would.

Begin

Day one is in the books. As with most first days it was a lot of housekeeping and orientation. It was kind of nice though, to not have a huge fuss made over me. When I was little my least favorite part of visiting a different church was a dozen pairs of eyes turning toward me and the seemingly forced welcome, "AND WHERE ARE YOU FROM???" It's nice to just show up and start working. Not that people weren't friendly and welcoming, it just didn't seem like they were trying.

It was very cold and very rainy today. If I didn't know any better I would have thought I was working in Centralia. We get an hour for lunch, which turns out to be enough time to run home and eat lunch if I want to.

I was tempted to hit the treadmill tonight, but I'm very tired from going to bed late last night. I'm pushing that plan back until tomorrow and enjoying a little relaxing time before getting after it again tomorrow.

And so it begins...

Tomorrow I head in for my first day of work (not counting the three-odd days I was down here at the beginning of January for some pastors meetings). It's been a good relaxing weekend of settling in, visiting the Burleson Church, not golfing(because of unusual cold/moisture)and joining my friends for some Xbox Live gaming.

It's kind of funny that moving 2,000 miles away (but getting a broadband internet connection) is actually giving me more opportunities to hang out with my friends... in some sense. We play video games, talk, joke around and pretty much do the things we would be doing if we were all in one place. Instead we're doing it in some digital living room that doesn't really exist.

It's a charmed age we live in.

I'm excited to finally get started with this job. To find out what it's going to be like. To have clearer answers, instead of assumptions and best guesses. It's also pretty nice that I'll be working Monday-Thursday, like my last job... and that this weekend has a Monday holiday, so I'll follow four days of work with four days off work. The perks of Adventist employment can't be overlooked.

So hopefully I'll have more things to report, and I'll be better at remembering to jot them down here. I know you're all just dying to know all the random things that are happening in my life. Feel free to fire away your questions if you have any. I'm not always sure or aware of what's going on that might be noteworthy.

But now I must sleep. Morning comes earlier in the Central Time Zone and I'm still coming to grips with that.

The Tour

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past couple days. The lack of movement I experienced while driving/riding in the UHaul truck was replaced with a state of perpetual movement this week. By Tuesday afternoon everything was out of the truck, and by Thursday night all but three partial boxes were totally unpacked.

Things are coming together nicely. Especially when I splurged on a slightly larger than 40 inch box at Costco. I'm still figuring out exactly where I want a few random things to go, but it's definitely a livable situation.

In fact, take a look if you like:

Day 4/5

I forgot to jot anything down yesterday. After four states, three time zones and 800 miles I was running on fumes by the time we stopped in Van Horn, Texas, to spend the night. It was a day spent amid some of America's most mind-numbingly flat terrain. However, this did have the benefit of 65-80 mph (yes I said EIGHTY MILES PER HOUR) speed limits so we were able to give the U-Haul all it could handle and chase the horizon with fierce determination.

At one of our bathroom stops it sounded like Godzilla was using the men's room. Much hysterical reflection has lead to the conclusion that it was, in fact, an vomiting man and what we heard was the mixture of that function with some accidental child of a cough and a scream. On second thought, maybe it was a Terradactyl...

We hit the road just after 7 am today, determined to eat up the final 500 or so miles to Burleson in time for a relaxing evening before moving in tomorrow. As we drove straight into the sun it became apparent that we might be able to do even better. The GPS said we should arrive by shortly after 3 pm. Could that possibly be right?

Iron bladders and cooperative speed limits kept stoppages to a minimum and by early afternoon we were closing on the western edge of Fort Worth. We skirted south and merged onto Highway 35 West, the true home stretch. A stop at Target for some cleaning supplies and about 90 seconds in the apartment office and I was cleared to move in by 4.

The apartment complex has a pretty small parking area so the truck/trailer combination wasn't going to cut it. Luckily there's a U Haul leasing facility just a couple blocks up the road and they were willing to take the trailer back early and the truck on time. My car purred sweetly as it backed down onto the Texas pavement. The car was built and originally sold here, so this was a homecoming of sorts.

The conference budgeted for professional movers to help me so we just took out the bare essentials tonight. Mattresses, bedding (which required bringing in a few poorly labeled boxes to find sheets), the TV, Xbox... ok so maybe some not so bare essentials too. One more trip to various stores was also required to collect additional food/hygene items for the next 48 hours.

Now I'm getting ready to sleep. This room echoes much like the room I left at home. But that won't last for long. Soon it will be brimming with a fusion of my past and future, becoming increasingly familiar with each box opened and each routine task carried out.

A quick chapter is ending, but another chapter is set to begin in a few short hours, and another in a matter of days. Life just keeps coming so you better be ready.

Day 3

A relaxing day off in Palm Desert. Church was enjoyable. A very timely Sabbath School lesson discussion on patience. Hopefully I'll remember some of it during the two marathon drives left on this trip.

It's been great to just be out of the truck. To be able to walk around and enjoy some sun. I took a jaunt around the neighborhood and took a few pictures. I intentionally kept myself awake so I'd be able to sleep tonight and wake up early tomorrow.

It's crazy to realize that by tomorrow night we'll be in Texas. Tomorrow we'll pass through Arizona and New Mexico (hopefully). A lot of miles, a lot of America in rapid succession.

It's really pretty crazy how much of the country I've been to in the last couple years. Two years ago I hadn't even been to Idaho before. Now I've added Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Texas to my list. And Dallas in centrally located to a lot of other places. Oklahoma is right there, and it's a quick flight (or moderate drive) to much of America's heartland. But that's all discussion for the future. For now it's time for some sleep and more pounding the pavement.

Day 2

Pushing on late into the night yesterday made for a merciful second day on the road. The 400-odd miles to Palm Desert seemed like a walk in the park. Yet it still took fair amount of time to get here. Some parts, with high concentrations of dairy animals, seemed like pure torture and climbing over the grapevine was a bit sluggish. But we made it through the fringes of LA and into Palm Springs at about 3:30. This turned out to be just enough time to get in 12 holes of golf before dark. I'm now contemplating the feasibility of retiring right now.



It's gonna be good to take a day off and recover. The next two legs of the journey will probably be pretty brutal. We're just short of the halfway point.1,200 miles in two days and moving in on the next day. Like I said, its going to be great to have a day off.

Day 1

14 hours, 723 miles, three tanks of gas and two cups of coffee later we're bunking down in Santa Nella, CA for the night.

It's been a pretty smooth drive. The truck handles nicely for its size and traffic hasn't been too terrible. That will probably end tomorrow when we brush against LA on the way to Palm Springs.

It's comforting to know that today will probably be one of the longest days in terms of driving. If I put in two more days like today I would make it to Burleson. Instead we're talking a break in Palm Springs and adding a couple more manageable days.

Exhaustion time. The late night is worthwhile since I got to have ice cream with my best gf Lilli:



More later.