Baby Luke with some different folks.

Baby Luke is growing. And we love him, and like to show him off. Here he is with some different people:

Emma

Loyal gets a surprised look.

Elisha is happy

Vicki is just in love (again)

Grampam.

Relaxing with Annette

Some Strange things.

Camouflage is a strange thing. It is designed to confuse the eye and conceal something by breaking outlines or giving something the appearance of another thing. This is why I was very surprised to see a vulture lift off out of the ground, fly overhead and settle to the ground in a field by a curb. All without flapping its wings once. I was further amazed by the sight of a small bird, about the size of a robin fly off the vultures shoulder and away into the woods that surrounded the field. Had that small bird lifted the whole thing over the fence to where it sat now?

Curiosity is also a strange thing. It is one of the things that separate man from animal - not that animals aren't curious, but it seems to me they don't have the same degree of curiosity, or that they don't have the same level of ability to use what they discover. I suppose a third possibility is that the most curious of the animals die when investigating something dangerous. Anyhow, curiosity drove me to take a closer look at this vulture.

As I got nearer, I noticed its face wasn't quite right. Instead of a beak, there was something that looked more like a nose. Instead of a small face, the cheeks were quite round, and sagged into the neck. In the place of feathers, there was a body with the texture of an old wood post, sinking into the ground without feet. In all it looked more like a child's sketch of a vulture - enough to fool a person from a distance, but not good enough to escape closer examination. Although the eyes were open, they didn't move at all, as if totally absorbed into the impersonation.

I decided to leave the creature alone. Generally I am not someone who disturbs something for the sake of curiosity, usually I just figure out what is under the camouflage even if I cannot see exact what it is. But this was not the strangest thing that happened to me on the course of my walk. Seeing through the disguise of the one creature seemed to have opened my eyes to identify others like it.

I turned the corner of the street and found myself in a shaded avenue. The houses were set back a little way from the road, and the mature trees overhung the pathway, bringing a gloomy aspect to the scene. As I looked around in the shadows I noticed a tall white figure, with a round face similar to the vulture I had seen earlier. I suppose in another lifetime I may have mistaken her for a birch tree, or a beam of light standing against the side of a house.

I went and stood at the front of the garden she was in. I suppose because I had noticed her as an individual, rather than as something trying to hid, I was a little less hesitant about disturbing her. I say 'her' because there was something in the aspect an shape of the pale white body that suggested to me a female. Of course, I still don't know the truth of that statement, but it was a powerful enough suggestion that I am still using it in my descriptions of her. 

Another strange thing about humans is their desire to name. Columbus was interested in finding out the name of the islands he had discovered. He wanted to give them his own names. In the scriptures one of the first things God does with the man he created is to see what he names the creatures God made. There must be something very primitive about this desire, because as I looked at this creature, I wondered about her name.

And then it came to me - I don't know if it was some kind of telepathy, or just an inspiration of my own making. She was named after the road that she lived on, which in turn was named after a Ukrainian city. Donipodzerhyuz? Donitskprious? The shading of the road sign made it impossible to make out. I decided that I would call her Donny, or is it Donni for a girl? Donni.

As I came to the awareness of her name, I noticed two other pale, thin creatures standing by her, also looking at me. There was a sense of loneliness, of disconnection with the world, in their general aspect. Were they the last of their kind, living out their lives in a super camouflaged way? Was I the only person to have ever noticed them? Or did they live all around us, on every street and corner, unseen because of the hurried life we live in the constant glow of an iphone? I continued my walk wondering about the things I had seen.

Dreams are strange things. 

DSLR

I thought that my days of using my big camera were over. It's an Olympus E500, with (just) 8mp. My phone, on the other hand has 13mp, and I already carry it everywhere I go. Not only is it always available but it also posts things to the internet without having to be plugged into a computer. So my camera had been uncharged for ages. Until yesterday.

Wills Photography in Action

Yesterday Uncle Roger came over. He has his own photography business (http://www.willsphotography.net/) and came over with his portable studio to take some photos of Luke while he is still little. His passion for photography is wonderful to see, especially when it is in action around little kids. I showed my old camera to him and he encouraged me to leave it hanging around and take pictures with it again. So I did.

And then I remembered all the wonderful things about  a real camera compared with a phone camera. Things like a real flash that you can change the angle on for lighting. Focus and, more importantly of all, the reflex of pressing the button at the right moment. So I took some photos too. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Emma and Luke

Brothers together

Baby Face

Baby Foot

Changing lessons

Expressing an opinion.

Helpful sister!

Hospital Blogging

Going to hospital in the USA is like going to a motel. A little card greets you on the end of the bed telling you how and when your room was cleaned. You get offered a beverage, and if you are the actual patient, you get a special branded souvenir mug with a straw. The main differences are the amount of machines in the room and also that room service is provided by RNs.

So, sitting here in the hospital with Rachel getting ready to have a baby, I am learning all kinds of medical jargon.The doctor that came in to check that baby was the right way up told us "yup, he's noggin down". Rachel (poor dear) always has trouble giving blood samples, which makes her a 'hard stick". In order to facilitate a better blood draw, her arms were wrapped in warm blankets. Which was ok, until the nurse came in and said "Lets give your arms a break". Well, I guess that if your arms are going to have a break, the hospital is the best place for that to happen!

 Hospital visit Souvenir Mug!

The what and the why.

The 'why' is more important than the 'what', and usually is more interesting as well.  So when we see something interesting we are seeing 'what' is interesting. This can give us a clue about the 'why' behind it, and sometimes it's better to only have a clue than to have  the whole story. The whole story, especially in cities, is usually some boring decision made behind a boring desk in a boring office somewhere.

In the city of Minneapolis there is a cycle path that runs along a disused railway line called the midtown greenway. Here is a picture of it. But 'what' is that? Hidden by overgrowth is a road sign. It's behind a fence and there are no signs of it marking am old access road. Why on earth is it there? Interesting theories accepted below but if the truth is somewhat boring let's not stop that coming out too.

Many Thoughts

Yesterday I went on a cycle ride. My work recently moved from about half a mile away from where I live to 12 miles away, which was slightly annoying. I enjoyed walking in the winter and cycling in the summer on the $20 bike I got from Faustino, who was on my team at Lawn Ranger back when I was cutting grass and clearing snow. A $20 bike is good for about a mile but not much more - it is too small for me, and uncomfortable. So I purchased a newer, bigger bike with the savings projected from 6 months worth of reduced petrol spending, and planned to cycle to work.

This plan was put into action a few Fridays ago when I cycled to work to see how long it would take and if I thought I could handle it in addition to a full day of work cleaning carpet. The route is flat and only has a short stretch where the cycle path runs along a road. Minneapolis is considered one of the most cycle friendly cities in the USA.

I was so relaxed about the journey that the next day I cycled into work, worked my day, and cycled home. It takes me about an hour, and it is a nice time to meditate and unwind from anything happening before, or during the day. It gives time to think. To listen, not to anything coming through the earphones or speakers, but to what my mind is saying. To float gently on the currents of thought that jumble through my brain.

Those currents take me to different places. Topmost recently has been the death of my grandmother, Bobbie Walker. The death of my son, last year. Our current pregnancy, this year. The hospital we are visiting is the same one. Could I cycle to the hospital? Or could I have cycled to the hospice where my grandmother died to see her a little more often? I only saw her once in there, and she was asleep.

So, death dominates my thinking at the moment. But there is a crumble upstairs that I am waiting on. Which I think the time has come for now. But there are many more thoughts to come.

Questions and Answers part 4

We all live with the consequences of the answer other people find acceptable for the questions they have.  Right now the news is full of the story of a terrorist attack on a French magazine.  The acceptable answer to the men who carried out this raid was violence and death to those who had insulted their religion.  This insult was a consequence of the editors acceptable answer to the question "should I publish this material mocking the Islamic faith".  But why would someone ask this question and give this answer?

There are a whole tangle of reasons as to why this would happen.  Modern culture opposition to authority and tradition is one reason.  This is born out of the amazing amount of death and suffering that followed on from the unquestioning obedience to authority which lead to Europe being destroyed by war twice.  But like all answers we accept, it brings with it its own shocking consequences.

  The desire to prove freedom of speech by exercising it in the most shocking ways possible is another.  Sadly this leads to more and more unseemly content as what was shocking to the public 10 years ago gradually becomes the new normal, and more extreme content is needed to prove the point.  And again, what started out as a reasonable, acceptable answer to the question "do I really have freedom of speech?" turns into something that brings death and destruction.

It's hard to see how these two opposing sides can be brought together.  It is often said that the pen is mightier than the sword.  And this is true to a certain extent - winning the minds of the people you are fighting is far easier than killing them all.  But what can be done if there is no communication between the two sides?  If there is no communication, the pen - the spread of ideas - has no effect.  And so we devolve back down to the use of the sword as the only acceptable answer.

This idea has clearly taken root in the minds of the Islamic terroristic organisations.  The root of their power is the acceptable answer of their ideas.  The fruit of their power is in the barrel of a gun and the point of a knife.  So they impose their answer in two ways; firstly the pen - propagating their doctrines as an answer to the evil they see in the world.  Secondly imposing their answer on those who do not accept it.  How to tackle this problem?

Feel free to leave an answer in the comment section - we'll see if there are any acceptable ones!

Questions and Answers Pt 3

For every question there is more than one answer.  The answer that we choose is not necessarily the correct one, or the best one, but the one we find is most acceptable to us.  And this is why there are so many different answers to situations - everyone sees the question in a slightly different light and tries to convince others that their way of seeing things is the best.  Few things confirms our worth like someone agreeing that we have found the best way.

This is one reason why there are so many different political ideologies.  Each one has it's good and bad points.  Each one is the acceptable answer for it's followers.  And, or course, each one has it's downfalls - the problems that it creates as it tries to solve other problems.  Even those who fervently believe in the theory find themselves frustrated by what happens in practice.  Communism ends up making everyone poor.  Capitalism ends up making some extremely rich and some extremely poor.

All answers work for some people and fail others.  The same is true on an individual level.  Answers that work for someone else may or may not work for you.  Therefore we find many people who have been trapped into accepting an answer that does not work for them.

How does this happen?  It happens because we can be presented with a bad answer in a very acceptable way.  We can be persuaded into accepting all kinds of things that are detrimental to us because of good marketing.  Now, part of good marketing is creating dissatisfaction with your current situation and offering a way to improve.  The answer they offer for you to accept will clearly solve the problem that has been brought to your attention, but like all other answers there will also be the side effects that were not considered.

So, the long and the short of todays post?  Think.  Consider more than one answer before making a choice.  Consider more than one outcome of accepting a particular answer, because there will be bad as well as good consequences to almost any answer you accept.

Questions and Answers again

Finding answers verses accepting answers was the subject of the last post.  It's going to be the subject of this post too.  There are a few more things that I am going to share.  The first one is born out of a situation I had at work a few years back.

I was working as an assistant manager of a grounds maintenance company.  I had joint responsibility for 17 mowing crews, which worked out to about 50 people.  We had a computer system that spit out the jobs for the day and track them.  We would  upload the jobs in the morning and fire them out to the crew leaders phone.  We wouldn't do it in the evening because there was a risk that the idiots who worked for us would complete them or delete them.

Early one morning (6am) I opened up the shop all on my own and went to upload the jobs.  The system wasn't working.  The crews started to filter in and stood around waiting to go.  Each person is being payed hourly.  Each crew starts early to get to all the sites in the schedule without running into too much traffic.  And I can't get the computer working to give them the jobs.  What am I to do?

What should I do?  That is one of the biggest questions that we face all the time.  And unlike the question we looked at yesterday (1+1=?) there are a whole lot more answers.  Usually when we ask this question we have to have an answer pretty quickly.  Truth be told, in situations like this, not answering the question (by doing nothing) is a form of answer in itself.

I didn't do nothing.  What I did was send all the crews out to start the work.  The crew leaders knew the site they had to go to first as we were on a regular weekly schedule.  I knew that this would create a bit of a headache for the administrative staff - made up of just one person.  And sure enough went she got in she was seriously mad with me.  The president of the company called me into the office and warned me never to do that again.  But he never answered my question "what should I have done?"

I still think that I did the right thing.  The whole point of the company was to cut the grass of our clients in a timely manner.  Keeping the crews waiting until the computer problem was sorted out would have cost money.  Administrative tasks are there to support, not control the people carrying out the job.  But I learnt an important lesson there.  People will always see the problems that you cause, not the problems you avoid.

So, how does this relate to answers?  Because the choice that I had was between two answers.  Both had things to recommend them, both had problems they would cause.  I had to deal with the problems caused by the answer that I accepted as the best to act on.  Unfortunately those around me didnt react with understanding of the problem I was facing, but frustration at the problems I caused.  I got no credit for the problems I avoided.

Many times we are going to be in similar situations where we only see the bad fallout from the answer someone else has accepted as the best.  They may be very aware of the damage they are causing but often they are trying to avoid a different answer which has a different set of problems following.  Life is very rarely a purely positive/negative choice, or able to be resolved to a simple mathematical equation to tell right from wrong.

I guess the whole point of this is to show the difficulty of finding the right answer.  No-one is able to find the answer that doesn't have negative effects somewhere.  We all need to make the effort to be a little more understanding of things people have done to us that left a negative impact.  They were probably trying to do the right thing as best they saw how.