April 24, 2020

I purchased a cordless drill several years ago to help in the small construction projects I do around the house.  It came with a backup battery, so I have been careful to plug this in to charge while I use the other attached to the drill.  This has worked well and been a time saver on bigger projects as I have had to switch batteries.  Lately I have been using my drill for small jobs, things like drilling one or two screws in or out.  Since I am using the drill for such a short time, I have not been plugging the extra battery into the charger.

Melissa has been gathering pots to plant the new succulent garden.  One aspect of succulents is they need to be potted in well-drained soil.   The best way to assure draining is to drill holes in the bottom of our pots.  Melissa had been asking me to do this for several days and I finally got around to it.  I used my masonry bit and it was easy to punch holes in the plastic pots.  It also worked well on the small terra cotta pots, although I ran into a problem with the larger terra cottas.  I needed to apply pressure to drill through the pots and as the bit broke through the drill dropped onto the pot and broke the bottom out of one.

My negligence finally caught up with me.  I was trying to drill though a high-fired ceramic pot and was not having much luck.  I assumed my bit was dull, but I kept trying.  Then my drill ran out of juice.  No problem, I got my backup and plugged it into the drill.  Nothing.  Over the course of the last months this battery had gone dead as well.  I set up the charger and plugged in the battery.  When I checked several hours later the charge was complete.  I tried a couple of terra cottas and it worked well.  Then I tried the high fired pot again.  I could not drill through.  I guess this pot will not make the garden.

THOUGHTS:  My experience with drilling the pots reminded me of two good life lessons.  The first is that we need to take care of ourselves so we do not run out of juice.   This may be something you do regularly but in times of stress we need to remember to recharge.  The second is that no matter how hard we try; we cannot be all things for all people.   I have not mastered the technology or even social skills to stay ahead of the curve in the middle of the pandemic.  What I can do is my best and then not beat myself up because one of the pots will not make the garden.  If it is possible, Stay home. Stay safe.

April 23, 2020

Ever since I retired, I try to start my day with a routine.  I used to get up and have breakfast, but Melissa and I have been practicing a daily sixteen hour fast since last October.  I’m not sure if it has done anything for my diet but it is a good mental discipline.  Instead of eating I get up, go outside, and retrieve the newspaper and the mail.  Then I go through the mail (mostly junk and bills) and sit down to read my paper.  Actually, reading the paper is just a prelude to what I really want to do.  The last pages of the paper contain the comics and Dear Abby and then finally the crossword puzzle.  I have become good at doing the crossword.  I started completing crosswords to keep my mind sharp.  At first, I prided myself on how fast I could complete a puzzle.  Then I realized I was not getting smarter; I was just learning how to do crosswords.

As I read the comic pages today one of the strips, “Grand Ave”, hit a note.  Today’s strip is about a conversation between the boy and his mother.  “Check out these cool books I found in the basement.  They’re called ‘Encyclopedias.’  You can search them for all sorts of useful information.  So a book publisher has started copying internet search engines?  Something like that.”  This strip brought back memories of the encyclopedias we had when I was a child.   I am sure they were not cheap, and money was not something to spend frivolously in my family, but they were an essential item for us kids.  I recall many hours poring over the information these books contained.  Maybe we just had them so dad did not have to answer questions.  After all, whenever I asked, his first response was, “Look it up.”  This was a parenting skill I passed on to my own son.

When I started preaching in the 1970’s a retired friend of mine gave me her set of Interpreter’s Bible commentaries.  I took notes from these books and used them every Sunday to prepare my sermons.  After I graduated from seminary, I started using study bibles to do the same thing.  Taking notes is second nature for me after having spent so many years in school.  I find it helps me remember.  Once I had the notes, I did not want to throw them away, so I put them in a notebook.  Over the years this notebook became the eight volumes that now sit on my shelf.  They are my go-to when I prepare on Sunday night for next week’s sermon.  If I am preaching on a new text, I again go to my commentaries and take new notes.  I do admit, now I also go to the internet search engines for additional information.

THOUGHTS:  During the course of this pandemic I have been forced to develop new routines.  I spend a lot more time on the computer than I used to and not as much time playing games on my phone.  I hunger for the contact provided by Zoom calls where before I never knew they existed.  I have become purposeful in staying connected with family and friends.  Now that this is my new routine, I am hopeful it will continue when I am again able to go outside.  If it is possible, Stay home. Stay safe.

April 22, 2020

One of the tasks I had as director of Cross Wind Camp and Conference Center was oversight of the grounds.  The center was located on 61 acres on the outskirts of a rural Kansas town.  Prior to my arrival the camp had kept the grounds as lawn, a job that took all week and then began again the next.  I figured there had to be a better way.  While I was doing other on-line research, I came across an article on the Tall Grass Prairie.  Until the invention of the steel plow in 1837 the root systems of the grasses made plowing impossible.  The wooden plows broke, and the new iron plows caked up with the clumpy soil.  Deere’s steel plow sliced right through and the Great Plains were open for cultivation.

Over the next century the prairies rapidly disappeared and were replaced by fields of wheat.  In areas where rainfall or irrigation made wheat growing impractical, the natural grasses were replaced by hay.  The band of native grass that once stretched from Kansas to Colorado and from Canada to Texas was now the fastest disappearing ecosystem in the world.  Hoping to do my small part in preserving these prairies, and not wanting to spend days on a mower, I let the grass grow that first summer.  Then we inspected the growth and decided on three areas with about 12 acres where we could recreate the prairie.  This provided lawn for camp activities and nature trails for eco-visitors.

Prairie ecosystems are not just the big five grasses, they are also the abundant wildflowers.  Many states have begun to scatter native wildflower seeds along with native grasses in the medians after new road construction projects.  This means they are also following my lead and not mowing these areas, at least until after the spring bloom.  What I did not know was how hard it was to grow native grass and flowers.  I assumed you just throw out the seed and let nature take its course.  Native plants thrive because they spend a lot of early energy building a deep root system.  That is what allows these plants to survive in the dry summer months.  The existing grasses flourished the second season, but it took two years for the flowers to gain a foothold.  I guess I do like some flowers.

THOUGHTS:  There are many reasons to preserve the endangered ecosystems of the world.  One is like my unwillingness to mow; another is to preserve the natural beauty of our world.  Perhaps the best is the fact that these ecosystems are what allow humans to survive.  When we cut down the jungles of the Amazon or the old growth forests of the Northwest, we are depleting natures natural ability to remove carbon dioxide from the air.  One outcome of the pandemic has been a slowing of industry and fewer cars on the road.  Earlier this month satellite images from space revealed the lights of cities in central China, something pollution had blocked for decades.  The earth is good at repairing itself, we just need to give it a hand up.  If it is possible, Stay home. Stay safe.

April 21, 2020

Part of the new normal is cleaning out the garage.  I’ve got unopened boxes I unloaded from the trailer two years ago and haven’t touched since. I have sacks of recycling that have been piling up since the recycling center closed a month ago.  I also had cans of dog food and a variety of dried food we had tried to entice Bella to eat.  Even though the recycling could wait, I didn’t want to waste food.  Melissa called the vet to see if we could donate the opened food.  Even though they could not use it or enter it for resale, they knew of a nearby shelter that always needed food.  I pulled up to the side door and called to let them know I was outside.  As I waited several cars pulled up and called to have their pets examined.   The aides came out wearing masks to either take or return these loving animals.

Waiting got me again thinking about those who are on the front line of the pandemic.   We have three nieces and nephews who are nurses attending to patients in hospitals and another who serves his community as a veterinarian.   The come and go I saw is common for all health care workers.  Sometimes those they see wear masks.  Sometimes they don’t.   What the science tells us is even if you do wear a mask, the virus can live on other clothes and surfaces and it can survive longer and travel farther than first expected.   That means these workers are literally on the Front Lines.

It appears the number of new corona virus cases is declining across America.  What isn’t clear is whether this is a result of social distancing or due to the low percentage of people who are getting tested.   What I am hearing from Dr. Fauci is it’s probably a combination of both.  We have seen other countries who decided to reopen at the first signs of a decrease.  The result has been a spike of increased cases.  Nobody wants to stay home.  Everyone wants to see the economy booming again.  Then I think about my nieces and nephews.

THOUGHTS:  The health care workers around the world have voluntarily put themselves in precarious situations.  This was true before the pandemic but is now even more so.  Many hospitals are struggling to get protective gear and ventilators to stay ahead of the demand.   Others are scrambling to test and produce new vaccines or find new uses for existing ones.  Even knowing the statistics for the Flu, we are finding this new threat harder to gauge or even know how to treat.  What we do know is the best way to move forward is with everyone working together.  If it is possible, Stay home. Stay safe.

April 20, 2020

I miss watching sporting events on TV.  Most years I would have been glued to the TV during March watching college basketball.  Melissa is an avid Kansas fan (I graduated from K-State) and they ended the season as the overall number one seed.  April was time to begin watching Major League Baseball.  We are huge Royals fans and you never know, with Perez back in the lineup this could have been our year.  June features the College World Series.  The Razorbacks came within one dropped ball of winning it all last year and had gotten off to another good start this year.  This means a lot of potential sports that I’m leaving on the table.

ESPN is a station that exclusively features sporting events and talk shows about sports.  In the past I watched this channel to keep up on the breaking news around the world of sports.  They have been hit hard by the lack of events.  It’s not that they don’t try.  NASCAR has been running virtual races where actual drivers control the video game cars.  The NFL Draft is set for Thursday night through Saturday and will be covered live virtually.  The station has been airing greatest games from various sports. Rather than current baseball, football or basketball, they will play a close contest between teams from five to ten years ago.  The idea is I won’t remember the game even if I do remember the outcome.  I don’t watch much anymore.

The various leagues are scrambling to salvage any sort of gaming for public view.  They have talked of playing events before empty stadiums or quarantining the teems and support people so they could still hold the event.  This is a possibility for professional sports as their revenues are driven by TV contracts.  Most college programs don’t have this luxury.  Local communities are kept thriving by the fans who flock to town to see the teams play.  The fans support restaurants, stores, hotels, and even the vendors at the stadium.  For most athletic programs the revenues and the donor dollars are generated by the fall football programs.  Without football, most of the Title IX funded sports could not survive.  Maybe I’ll go watch the 2008 World Curling Championship.

THOUGHTS:  Times and circumstances dictate much of how I allot my time and it seems I am not the only one.  Television viewing across America has skyrocketed over the last six weeks.  Psychologists say it isn’t healthy to take in a steady diet of corona virus news, but the news channels seem to report nothing else.  Even the uplifting reports aired are related to the pandemic.  Watching sports used to be my get away from having to think about life.  When I talk with older people many say they haven’t seen much of a difference in their life.  They were confined even prior to the crisis, so this isn’t a big change.  Maybe I should take my lead from them and rather than surfing TV for something to do I could read a book, complete a puzzle or write a story.  What a novel idea.  If it is possible, Stay home. Stay safe.

Young boys arm reaches out and points at prickly pear cactus growing in blue mounds stats park in Minnesota.

April 18, 2020

I like cacti more than I ever liked flowers.  That hasn’t always been the case.  When I was growing up in Kansas the only cactus around was the prickly pear.  These hardy little plants were found mostly in the more arid parts of the state.  They had lobe like pads that kept low to the ground and spread out in patches.  I’d often come upon them while walking and if they were present, invariably step on or brush against one and get their spinney little thorns in me.  It seemed to take days before you could get them out of your skin.

When I moved to Utah, I encountered an entirely different set of Cacti.  The Sonoran Desert had many different varieties, and some like the saguaro cactus rose majestically into the air.  My little prickly pears were there as well yet transformed into large masses that lifted five or six feet above the ground.  The early missions of California gave me another perspective on cacti.  These groupings had been planted to keep livestock from roaming and had been growing in place for over 400 years.  It was in California that I began to cultivate my own cactus garden.  Since I was renting, I planted them in increasingly larger clay pots.  I brought six of my favorite pots with me when I moved to Kansas, including one I’d grown from about four inches to nearly two and a half feet tall (I annually decorated this as my Christmas tree).  Sadly, Kansas winters are much different than California.  They all died the first year.

Melissa knows of my love of cacti and their cousins the succulents.  She has heard stories of especially my Christmas tree cactus since we first met.  We have tried growing real Christmas cactus indoors several times but with little luck.  They all died.  Imagine my surprise when Melissa came home from a food run with a dozen small succulents.  Several days later more boxes of succulent starts showed up on the front porch.  Melissa surprised me by determining to create our own succulent garden in both clay pots (able to bring inside in the winter) and plantings in the ground.  I admit, I like succulents as much as I do cacti, and they don’t have thorns.

THOUGHTS:  There are many times in life where I find myself getting too close and end up catching the thorns.  This causes me to back away and I spend weeks trying to get the hurt out.  Other times I find exactly what I want and nurture it.  Then for some reason the circumstances change, and my joy is lost.  I can try and rebuild what I once had but that generally hasn’t worked well for me.  An alternative is move in a new direction.  Instead of recapturing the past I can create something entirely different.  That’s been my experience with cacti and now succulents.  It has also been true with experiences in life.  If it is possible, Stay home. Stay safe.

April 17, 2020

I have written several times over the last weeks how amazed I am by the new technology (at least to me!) we now use as common place to keep in touch.  We get together via Zoom or Skype to conduct our face-to-face meetings.  We gather to worship on-line in Zoom, Facebook and YouTube.   We hold studies, book clubs and small group socials on-line.  I have even heard of several conferences and teen weekends that are being held in a virtual format, including chat rooms and breakout groups within the same call.

I’ve also found the distancing we have undergone is resulting in an increased desire for contact.  I’ve found myself reaching out to my family through several different formats.  I’ve been part of a “cousins” group on Facebook and a “siblings’” group on Instagram for the last several years, but neither was greatly used until the last several months.   Now they are both in regular use.  Our siblings’ group has had several running dialogues lasting for longer periods of time, and with most of the families involved.  Even when I don’t comment I scroll through the comments by others and laugh.  It makes me wonder if our virtual connections are the new normal when we come out of the immediate crisis.

That’s when reality sets in.  As amazing as this is, even in America it’s not available for everyone.  There are still areas where internet access is either unavailable, unreliable, or band width is so weak it’s frustrating to try and use the technology.  I recall my first attempts at on-line streaming living in the Bay Area of San Francisco.  This was the birthplace of the internet, but my 300 baud modem meant it took 30 minutes to receive only a few minutes of content.  Even where access is available there are those unable to connect.   Someone needs to host the on-line formats and we need computers or smart phones for viewing.  These are high ticket items not everyone has or can afford, even if they know how to use them. Staying in touch is too critical to leave a large portion of the population behind.  I think I’ll make a phone call.

THOUGHTS:   It is increasingly clear moving forward needs to happen in a both/and fashion.  I am hopeful our technology formats will continue to keep us connected and even increase in the future.  Rather than putting all our efforts into new tech, we also need to remember those unwilling or unable to join the revolution.  A century ago, the Old School formats were the budding technology that brought our nation closer together.  Automobiles, mail, phone calls (and eventually visits), are still needed to embrace those isolated by distance.  These are not as convenient as sending a text, but they can be just as effective and for many just as needed.  If it is possible, Stay home. Stay safe.

April 16, 2020

I realize it is no longer Easter, but it is Eastertide, so this is still relevant.  While we were preparing for the different activities of Holy Week, Melissa let me know we also had to figure out what to eat.  Easter is a time we usually go out for brunch.  I like brunch, and especially on Easter.  There are different kinds of meats and side dishes.  There are entrees from both breakfast and lunch.  There is usually an entire table dedicated to a variety of deserts.  Even though I rarely eat desert, I love to stand at the table and think about how good each one would taste.  The only thing I don’t like about brunch, is I always eat too much.  I know in my mind I’m telling myself, “If I’m paying this much, I’m going to get my money’s worth.”  I usually regret it later even while at the time I enjoy it immensely.

We have family around us and having a big shared meal has been another option in the past.  Sadly, that was out of the question this year.  Melissa did hear of one of the local restaurants offering ham dinners with sides and desert for takeout only.  When we called, they had sold out of their pre-orders.   We asked if they could make an exception for us, but apparently that was not possible.  That left us with making our own dinner at home.  Lucky for me it was time to order supplies from the grocery and Melissa said she would get what we needed.

When Melissa got to the store, dutifully wearing her mask made by my sister, she found two types of ham were all that was left.  There was a 10-pound bone in ham and a small half ham lying in the cooler.  Knowing it would take the two of us weeks to finish the 10-pounder, Melissa opted for the small half ham.  This was served with steamed cauliflower and a low-fat scalloped potato dish that was truly excellent.  Did I mention the ham was small?  It was the tiniest ham I have ever seen!  I couldn’t image the size of the pig it came from, even with the other half.  As small as it was, it did taste good and as I cut the ham it was obvious this was not a “pressed” ham, just a really small pig.  We still have leftovers.

THOUGHTS:   The consequences of the pandemic came even closer this week when we learned of the pork processing plant in South Dakota closed due to virus among the workers.  While this didn’t affect the meat, there was no one left to process.  We have seen stories on milk being dumped and gathered vegetables rotting in the field, all while the food distribution lines grow daily.  Technology has found ways to manufacture masks and ventilators, but people are still needed to harvest, transport and stock our food.  In our high-tech world, we are still vulnerable to low-tech distribution.  Perhaps it is time for innovation in this area as well.  If it is possible, Stay home. Stay safe.

April 15, 2020

I’ve had several interesting experiences with planting onions during my life.  The first was told to me by my mother and happened when I was around 4 years of age.  We were living in a semi-rural town where we had to drive twenty miles to get necessities like food and gas.  Since we had limited money, dad would hunt for meat and mom would can fruits and vegetables to save for the winter.  I have fond memories of climbing into the peach trees to pick peaches and driving along the irrigation ditches to cut asparagus.   I don’t remember having a garden, but I do remember the large plot of land where our next-door neighbor planted his garden.  He was single and retired and took a liking to my brother and me.  I’m told he spent the whole morning preparing the soil and planting onion sets to grow onions for the coming months.  Dan and I must have missed the planting, but we did see the green tops of the onions poking up through the soil.  He came over to our house later that afternoon and told mom we had knocked on his door and proudly told him we had harvested all his onions for him.  He did not get mad but merely explained.  I hope he was able to replant his onions.

My second attempt at onions was when we decided to plant an urban container garden.  We were located on a main thoroughfare and this was a way to feed our neighbors as well as demonstrate how this could be done.  We set up the containers in a gated area and constructed a rain barrel watering system.  It worked well until the bunnies ate most of the early crop.  Melissa and I tried a similar approach at our house. We had small containers of various sizes and I again choose to raise onion sets.  I built another rain barrel watering system and conscientiously tended my baby onions throughout the summer.  They grew green tops and seemed to be doing well.  When I finally decided to harvest the onions, they hadn’t grown at all, but were still tiny sets.

This time I’m better prepared.  I planted the sets in a sunny plot of ground prepared and fortified with a bag of outdoor planting soil. This time I’m not going to be impatient for the harvest as I read on-line it takes 100-175 days for the dry bulbs to mature.   I also learned when to harvest and how to mature my onions for storage.  I’m hoping my onions will grow.  Now to get the potatoes into the ground.

THOUGHTS:   Much of what we do in life is a learning process.  This isn’t just going to K-12 or even graduating from some level of college.  After having spent most of my childhood and adult life in some form of schooling I am still amazed by what I do not know.  Life-long learning is important because we are constantly facing new challenges and situations.  The learning curve during our current crisis would have been unfathomable only two months ago.  Whether you are learning how to plant a garden or different way to stay connected, I encourage you to embrace your new task with the same wonder you had as a child.  If it is possible, Stay home. Stay safe.

April 14, 2020

We are in a position where we need to open a new bank account to receive direct deposits from a job.  We felt a little wary about going out since we have tried to practice stay at home.  Melissa found the bank had an app that allowed you to open an account virtually.  She logged on and entered the requested information for her, but since it was a joint account, she needed my input as well.  The way the computer verified I was me was by asking a series of security questions.  It asked what state I lived in in 1963, if I knew any of a series of people, and if I had resided at any of a number of addresses.  I relayed the answers to Melissa, and she typed them in.  The computer “waiting” spiral came on as my answers were verified.  Then a message popped up that said I answered incorrectly.  We would need to go to the bank and apply for the account in person.

There is a local branch near our home, but the lobby is closed by executive order.  That meant we would need to go to the drive through and fill out the needed information through the glass.  When we arrived, they had no problem verifying me but said Melissa was already in the system under a previous name.  We drove home, found our marriage license as verification and drove back to the bank.  This wasn’t a notarized copy, so they needed to call the corporate lawyers to see if it was acceptable.  We pulled out of line and parked.  They finally called and we got back in line for the third time.  Once we reached the window there was the usual mountain of paperwork and signatures transferred back and forth through the teller slot.  An hour and a half after first arriving at the bank we had our account.

I must admit.  It bothered me that I had failed the security questions about my life.  It reminded me of the time I stood before the clerk to obtain a visa after I lost my passport in Jordan.  He looked at the manifest of the flight when I entered the country and informed me, I was not listed.  In fact, he said, I wasn’t in the country.  This as I physically stood in front of him.  Once more I thought, “How can the computer know more about my life than I do?”  What really bothered me, was it didn’t tell me which questions I missed.

THOUGHTS:   I realize how important it is to apply security measures to keep my identity safe.  This is especially true in this time of financial scams and distancing.  I also know I have less patience than I used to have.  We were polite and realized the teller was only doing what was required of her, but as time ticked by, I found myself grating inside.  Earlier in the day I had attended an on-line call about coping with stress in the age corona virus.  The call seemed even more relevant as I sat and waited.  One key to overcoming the stress was advice to stay connected with family and friends.  I encourage you to do this in any way possible.  If it is possible, Stay home. Stay safe.