a coherent collection of random statements regarding God, words and tunes

Where Was I?... oh yeah, life....

Now that I'm caught up on the musical front for awhile...  (No, wait...

• for a non-narcotic mindbending experience from the Slav-punk-ska-pop-bluegrass band from Santa Cruz that MADE me invent the term "transportational device," find Camper Van Beethoven's Cigarettes & Carrot Juice box set and hit Play; or...

• for a morality play that's like a punch in the gut (or several), go for Pedro the Lion's Winners Never Quit instead; or... 

• for something totally other, containing some incredibly beautiful instrumental music bordering on the classical, the spoken-word intro that sounds like Tom Waits auditioning for Slingblade notwithstanding (and which nonetheless fits the atmosphere well), track down Godspeed You! Black Emperor's f#a#(infinity)....

...OK, now I'm done....)

....it's time for the annual review, both professionally and personally....

1) Yep, two years here now. Go figure. Some interesting work stuff coming down the pike, which is meant to come to fruition in a hurry (i.e., in all likelihood, hire authors in the next couple weeks, and get it all online by the beginning of the year). That's about all I can divulge, but it's ambitious to be sure.

2) The latest in a series of family members to consider moving here arrives Friday, in the form of my wife's sister & brother-in-law, who sold their house in Jersey and've been touring the country in an RV to figure out where to retire to. Said brother-in-law needs to work a few more years and he was a developer/ contractor, so there's plenty to do here. And as my other brother-in-law arrived here last October) who knows? I'm betting elsewhere (i.e., closer to their oldest son in Portland -- their youngest is back in Jersey, and that clearly AIN'T happenin' -- or possibly by his brother in AZ), but who knows? But we'll show them a good time while they're here....

3) ...especially as they timed their trip to see our girls before they take off for their respective missions trips to Portugal and Uganda early next week. Yeah, you read that right. Nervous? Yeah, especially as the youngest daughter will be about 15 miles from where some of the fighting still goes on in northern Uganda, and has never been overseas. (Our oldest has been to Eastern Europe twice, so the Azores should be easy in comparison, especially having bricks thrown at her crew in Romania two years ago. ) But the backstory to that assures me that God's in control; it's pretty clear she's meant to go. (If you haven't heard of Invisible Children, go look it up & do the math. And Gulu does appear to be a pretty well-established humanitarian outpost, as not only missions groups but UNESCO are stationed there.) Speaking of God in control....

4) We appear to have landed on a new church pretty quickly, thankfully. It's based in the small town directly south of us but will begin having additional services at a high school two miles south of us in August (as most of the congregation is actually from up here), so the timing's good, as "staying local" has been a big consideration since arriving here. We've also had the benefit of sitting down with another family, who I've been pumping with every question I can think of, because it was not fun agonizing over whether to walk out on a church for the first time in 15 years & I don't care to revisit it. And as said family was a significant player in our former church (before we arrived) and left for similar reasons (and actually, have a very similar background -- in fact, he's a co-worker here, albeit in a different department).... well, let's just he has some unique insights into where I'm coming from, that I trust his judgment, and that he's been very straight about both the plusses & minuses. (Said church also has an interesting history, as they were of a VERY different denomination, did a Bible study with their leadership about 10 years ago, collectively discovered a little thing called grace and equally collectively went "Crap, we've got it all wrong!" and cut ties.) On that note, it's been the most solid teaching I've heard on a weekly basis in... well, since leaving our mother church and planting 10 years ago back in Jersey. (And said plant just finally closed on a church building after meeting in a high school themselves the last 7 years, so that was good to hear too. I can't count the elder meetings where we agonized over location and/or potential deals elsewhere where we got jerked around by a certain Newark diocese [Blast you, Spong, you can't let them DIE! ], so I know they gotta be pumped.) Anyway, we're moving forward, and it feels that way too.

5) And in a different type of moving forward, while our girls are gone for a month, we'll be taking our first vacation since coming out here (as Year 1 was spent moving here and Year 2 was spent working on my mother's estate back in Jersey... fun stuff ). Anyway, Santa Fe looks cool; and this will be going on while we're there. (I've mentioned my wife's an artist, right?) Anyway, I'm ready.

6) So, this might be the last post of length for the next month. A couple shameless posts will be coming down the pike in the next couple weeks, but I'm'a gonna try powering down for awhile (hey, three significant-length posts in a week is pretty good, you know), 'cause fall should be VERY interesting and/or busy. Anyway, time to go get that annual review workwise (and I hit my goals, so that should be a pleasant lunch with my supervisor).... Peace out for now....

Posted by: burninglight at 17:03 | link | comments