Rainey Days

I have been to Grandfather Mountain many times in my life, but I have never seen as beautiful a day as this one. After days of rain, this morning's skies were a perfect blue. We decided to skip our plans to go to a children's theme park in favor of going to nature. We simply had to be outside in the gorgeous weather. Up on Grandfather's rocky crags, we enjoyed 70 degree sunshine, taking pictures of each other on the mile high bridge and the massive rock formations. Then we went a little further down the mountain to the game preserve. We knew that Olivia would find the animals in their habitats the best part of this vacation, and we were not disappointed. In the bear enclosure, we caught all four bears out by the fake pond, clowning around for the visitors. Livvy loved all the bears instantly and chattered the whole time. She wanted them to get into the pond; once the tourists started throwing peanuts into the pond, they did "take a bath" as Livvy kept saying. We ...

I wasn't born in the mountains . . . but I got here as soon as I could. If you're lucky enough to live in the mountains, then you're lucky enough. You never know how many friends you have, until you have a mountain house. These are just some of the slogans you can find here on tee-shirts, afghans, and tote bags. I thought you would appreciate the humor of this area, full of smug pride that they live in a location as beautiful as this. I wanted to buy one of these tees, but I couldn't get my size, so I was left with a plain "Boone, NC" tee shirt instead. Wednesday we visited the Mast General Store in Boone, full of candy in old-fashioned barrels and stuffed animals that Livvy loved. I'm posting a picture of her on life-sized dog (I think she misses her half-sisters, Taffy and Khaki).

Yesterday I felt like Noah in the ark with all the rain and gusting winds. We stayed in the house once we got our supplies in Boone. Today it is raining again, but it's a more manageable, normal rain. We came to Boone to do the Mast General Store, with its candy barrels to amuse Olivia, but she had eyes only for the stuffed bears and life-size stuffed dogs for her to "ride" on. She sang Happy Birthday to Sydney, Eric, Grammy, and even the dogs back home while we drove around town. The plan was to let her play at the Chick-fil-a, like yesterday, but due to the rain, they shut down their playarea. So, I guess its back to the house for us again. Fortunately, for Livvy, the mountain house where we're staying is so new to her, she has fun playing there. It's the adults that are stir-crazy! The house has a giant bowl of fake fruit, that is truly the most realistic fake fruit you will evr see. Livvy loves it! The rain is supposed to start moving out of the area tomorrow,...

If Carl Sandberg’s fog came into San Francisco on little cat’s feet, here in the mountains of North Carolina, it lumbers in a like a bear, slowly but powerfully filling every small cove and valley. With the same color and thickness as the local grits, the fog obscures the magnificent vistas of the Blue Ridge mountains. As I write, the mists have turned suddenly into a drenching downpour. Tropical Storm Fay has reached the high country. The forecast is rain and more rain over the next several days, and the locals couldn’t be happier. They’re five inches below normal rainfall this year, so the hurricane season is welcomed with typcial Southern hospitality. For the vacationers, however, the rain is not so pleasant. Most of the activities here are outdoors, showcasing the unique attributes of the mountains: white-water rafting, ziplines, and mile-high scenic overlooks. I can’t see past the driveway of our vacation house, and the two-year old I’m vacationing with is whipping into a tiny hur...

For the next week, I'll be in North Carolina, vacationing with my sister and her family. I'll try to post, but at this point, I'm expecting to have dial-up access to the internet, so my time may be limited. I hope that everyone enjoys their last week of summer before school starts and life changes into a more rigid schedule for many of you.

Watching the Olympics has been both exciting and informative. I watched just about all of the American swimming events in primetime. Obviously, Michael Phelps being my hometown hero had something to do with that! I enjoy all the background information almost as much as the actual events. It helps explain the details of the sport, while also giving some perspective about the athletes. I heard several times that some of the swimmers have an entire team of support staff that perform various tasks, like massages and cool down training, for the athletes. As many as ten people helped prepare (and even repair) Dara Torres for her events. It got me to thinking recently . . . if I could travel around with a support staff of people, who would I pick to be my "team?" In truth, there are many people who do help support me in ways little and large but they just don't follow me around. But, in a literal sense, what kind of people would make a good support staff? I would want so...

Two days ago, I received my new Dell laptop in the mail. After much research and weighing pros and cons, I finally decided to continue in the world of PC's, rather than get a Mac. Once I made that decision, I just needed to find my perfect laptop, and Dell has served me well for about 8 years now. My new laptop has Windows Vista on it, and I am going through a bit of a learning curve to make the small adjustments to a new operating system. I'm happy with my new computer so far, in spite of confusion at times. I've been spending hours every day loading all my favorite applications on the new one, transferring all my data from the old one--all that fun stuff. I don't consider myself a computer nerd. I know how to fix/adjust some stuff, maybe more than some of you, maybe less than others. I try to find the information I need on the 'net so that I can keep everything running smoothly on my computer. With Windows Vista, I've found over the last few days, that ...

Today I opened some mail that had been piled up for a few days and found a newsletter from the Assemblies of God national office. In briefly glancing through it, I found an interesting article by Dary Northrop, pastor of Timberline Church. Churches that welcome prodigals was his subject, and he made the introductory point that if the elder brother in the "Prodigal Son" parable had been the one to answer the door on the day that the prodigal came home, the entire story would be different. No doubt the older brother would have rejected his younger brother, even remarking how much he stank of pigs. He would have been annoyed at the unkempt appearance, the worldly influence still evident in his habits; there is no way he would have killed a fatted calf and ran weeping to embrace him the way the Father did! Too often, the church finds itself in the place of the older brother (the more "religious") who expect people to be cleaned up before the enter church doors. D...

After spending two days with my friend Cindy, I'm spending the day with my cousins from Frederick today. We're planning to see Annapolis for a little bit of history and a lot of shopping. I haven't had a vacation yet this summer, so these little day breaks have been fun for me to reconnect with people without having to stop my itineration schedule. Yesterday I was in Mt. Airy, MD, and I had a great service with the folks there. It was a gorgeous day, and I applauded those to came to church rather than going boating or to the park. I got the chance to eat at the Greene Turtle in Mt. Airy--I managed to live in MD all my life without ever eating in one!--and it was really good. The associate pastor and his youth pastor wife are also VFCC grads, so we had a lot to chat about. Extra fun for me: one of the men in the church is Syrian, so I got the chance to talk to him in Arabic for a bit after the service!

Over the next few days, I have a good friend and former roommate (in Israel) visiting me: Cindy. She and I have had a lot of great experiences over the years, and I've been really looking forward to her visit. I haven't seen her since Christmas of 2005, when she flew to France to help me move into my apartment in Bordeaux. I spent the day cleaning, in anticipation of her visit, and I feel totally wiped out right now!