Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Author: Garry

  • God is Good

    God is Good

    I’ve heard and read a lot of God’s attributes and characteristics like God is love, merciful, a refuge, a strong tower, great, glorious, faithful and many many more things. I’m sure you’ve heard many of these things too. But what if you were to narrow it down to just one word? God is…?

    Just recently I finished reading The Rational Bible – Exodus by Dennis Prager which I found to be a very enjoyable and enlightening commentary on this section of the bible. There are many explanations and essays on virtually every verse and generally very thought provoking, a worth while read.

    While much of the book was quite profound and revelatory one particular essay stood out to me in a special way. “Is God Good or is God Love?

    At this point I’m going to excerpt the book a fair bit but I’d recommend reading the entire thing.

    The essay comes from Exodus 33:18 where Mosses is on the mountain with God and

    Ex 33:18 “He said, “O, let me behold Your Presence!”

    Even with all the intimate interactions he’s had with God since the burning bush, Moses yearns to better know God.

    Ex 33:19 And He answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before you,”

    When Moses asks God to allow him to behold God’s presence – to reveal His essence – what is it that God reveals?

    His goodness.

    God’s essence is goodness.

    Many people say, “God is love.” However, while goodness and love are often related, they can be very different from one another.

    Dennis Prager

    Good people, by definition, do good – whether or not they happen to have loving feelings.

    Dennis Prager

    There is quite a bit more to the essay expounding on these thoughts and citing example of why we can believe God is good. Excellent stuff. Now when I hear that phrase “God is good all the time and all the time God is good” I have a much better understanding of that fact.

  • Once Upon a Time …

    Once Upon a Time …

    February 2014

    Currently 202 and hoping to build it back up more by May 2021 for the outdoor riding season. I was a little younger then and the body hadn’t been through so much but, time for a comeback.

  • 2020 Strava Stats

    2020 Strava Stats

    Well, 2020 wasn’t exactly a banner year on the bike. Things were looking good in January & February as I was on a training plan with some pretty lofty goals and then the journey continued.

    My 2020 Strava Stats

    I did get back on the road in late summer with some easier and shorter rides as I recovered. Into the late fall I was feeling good on the bike and starting to handle some longer and faster rides. A big surprise was a late season road ride for 103km on Dec 9, 2020.

    I’m still riding year round and typically outside on Wednesdays in the winter with some diehard buddies on fat bikes in the snow and cold.

    Fatboy Trail at The Lake

    For the rest of the winter season it’s indoors on the trainer, typically with Zwift doing a workout, or a group ride, or the occasional race.

  • The Christmas Wreath

    The Christmas Wreath

    Problem Child

    This is the problem child. He came to our house for Christmas in 2019 and was perfectly well behaved. This year it seems he’s in a “terrible twos” phase.

    Shortly after taking up residence along side our front door we found him down on the ground propped up along side the car!

    The fine wire that I used to hang him up and to be virtually invisible had broken. It seems that in a strong south wind he gets a little excited and flys around banging against the house. Being a little slow, me not him, I re-hung him using the same wire but with a new safety improvement. I attached his power cord to a screw that hold the facia on. This way if he slips off his perch at least he wouldn’t hit the ground, or so I thought.

    The other night both Shirley and I were woken up at 4 a.m. by our problem child banging around in the wind. As I stood at the front window he decided he’d had enough and jumped off the house. Sure enough the safety system worked and he was now dangling around suspended from the edge of the roof. Well, I couldn’t just leave him there so I got dressed and headed out to rescue him.

    However, in the 2-3 minutes it took me to get out there he’d completed his escape and was lying on the ground in the flower bed. Not only that but he took some of his friends with him! A section of aluminium facia was also on the ground with him and about 20′ of Christmas lights were also ripped from the roof and flapping around in the breeze. Well, at 4 a.m. it’s still dark and things couldn’t get much worse so I left him there until after sunrise.

    At 9 a.m. I’m out there with a new plan to rescue the boy. The facia is hammered back into it’s original shape without looking too much the worse for wear and easily re-attached. A new 1/16″ stainless steel cable is used to secure him from above and a 150lb test line is used to secure him from below, hopefully to eliminate the flapping around in a breeze. Christmas lights are re-positioned and everything is re-connected and it seems all good.

    But we’re not done yet! This morning he’s banging around again! Pretty sure he can’t jump off the wall this time but the string holding him down has some slack in it now allowing the flapping around. So, I teach my self the Trucker’s Hitch knot, the gold standard in securing a load and keeping the string tight. So far, so good.

  • Highlighter

    I’ve had some interesting times experiencing the lowly highlighter. Let me explain.

    Remember your school days when you might have used one of those yellow highlighter pens to markup your notes with things you though we’re important to learn or remember? Perhaps you used a pencil to underline stuff for the same reason.

    Skip forward a few years, quite a few years in my case, or perhaps you’re a digital native, and you’re used to highlighting electronically in an app. My most recent experience with highlighting is with the awesome youversion. Go ahead check out the app right now, I’ll wait ?

    So, for a while now I’ve been reading the Bible and doing devotions with associated bible verse readings using youveraion. When I hit a verse that was especially impactful I’ve used the tool to highlight the text like this.

    Over the last few days some of the devotions had reading to support the devotion writers message with the truth of God’s Word. As I’m doing the reading some of the verses pop up with highlights that I added months or years ago. This has been surprisingly helpful and encouraging as I’ll take extra time to reflect back on why I highlighted this particular verse.

    I used to think marking up the Bible was just a so-so thing to do, not anymore! Give it a try! You’ll like it. Give it some time, at least a few months, long enough to have the highlighted verses pop up. Or, alternatively you can choose to review your highlights at anytime. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

  • Grading

    Well, I’ve graduated to the 6th Kyu and have a shiny new yelow belt.

      

    The grading session was pretty interesting. All I really knew going in was which Katas i’d need to be able to performs and a handful of questions that I might get asked. The session started as usual at the GWL dojo at 4:30pm with the typical line drills and a few calestenics. However, I was very aware I was the center of attention. Sensai was watching quite closely and correcting my technique.

    Then things started to get interesting! Kakomi kumite sparing where 5 karateka participate. One in the center and the other four around in a circle. A sequence techniques are called out and the peson in the middle executes the techniques in an “H” pattern, facing each of the four outside “attackers” in turn. Did I mention that all my fellow karateka are black belts of various levels? I’m in the center, repeatedly, for i think 4 or perhaps 5 rounds. Then it’s 3 or 4 rounds of Renzoku kumite, a face to face straight line kata. I’m always involved and other balck belt students get substituted in. It’s a very fast pace with no breakes in between, apparently quite intentional to see how you preform under a bit of pressure and exhaustion.

    Next are my required 4 katas. Each is performed 3 times. The first two times it’s the whole class together with me in the centre of the line, first facing one way then facing the other way for the second. The third, I’m alone and everyone is watching. Things go well for the first 2 katas which I feel are pretty solid. Did I mention I’m getting tired at this point? 

    On the 3rd, the one I lovingly refered to as “rookie yuckie” when I was fisrt learning it falls apart a bit on one of the turns. I’d practiceds the heck out of those turns, but hey, stuff happens. I carry on and the second half of the kata goes fairly well. 

    Somewhere in the whole process we also did Sanchin a couple of times, complete with getting smacked at various times (Shime testing). 

    Suddenly it’s over. After 90 minutes of non-stop work, we’re done. I get my review and feedback which was quite positive along with some areas for improvements. Hey, at this level, there is a lot of room for improvement. But, given a November start apparently, I’ve progressed very well. 

    After the review it’s the presentation of my certificate and yellow belt and time for a few photos.

      
    Right after this there are about 20 minutes left in the class and it’s right into “Here is the next kata you need to learn for orange belt”. 

    Let the journey continue. 

  • Swim platform

    One of the challenges of the fluctuating  water levels on Lake of the Woods is how far below the top of a fixed dock the water level can be. This makes diving off the dock or getting into the boat a little difficult. 

    Many years ago Gord resolved this issue by building what has become known as the “swim platform”. A few feet below the top of the dock this little platform makes a nice spot to dangle your feet in the water, access the boat or dive in. 

    Of course when water levels are high the platform is under water. Over the years this in and out of the water has taken its toll. Last weekend, two people on the platform got a surprise as it collapsed and dumped them into the quite chilly early summer temperature (12°C) lake. 

    This weekend’s maintenance activity is the replacement of the much loved swim platform. This time with pressure treated wood and some beefed up construction. 

     
    Saturday was opening up the deck, removing the remains of the old platform and designing the new replacement. After sizing things up its time for a run to the lumber yard. Late afternoon rain brings a halt to the project. Most likely to get it completed tomorrow. 

  • Family Birthdays

    It seems to be hard to get everyone together on someone’s birthday so it’s quite the occasion when the family gathers these days with all the Grandkids. With Des’s birthday passed and Scott’s coming up we managed a combined dinner celebration.

    Of course for us, the best part is spending time with everyone, especially the newest additions Dane & Clark .

    Nana with an arm full of Dane & Clark

    Granddad with Dane

    The Cake
    Prepping the candles on the cake

    An of course no birthday celebration would be complete with out a fancy Birthday Cake or two!

     

     

    Getting some assistance with the candles.
    Getting some assistance with the candles.

    With all those candles (somebody was having a “big” birthday”) you need a little help in blowing them all out.

    Good food, good times, and having everyone together made for a memorable evening. Super busy with two 2 3/4 year olds and two babies, such a blessing to have such a happy and health family.

     

  • It started off so innocently

    It started off so innocently

    I invited the guys to the boat show. We saw some impressive water craft. Drooled over some ridiculously expensive fiberglass. Went out for wings and a beverage and talked about stuff.

     

    And then, the next day, it started.

    There were a few more discussions and then today we’re in a store looking around. Parker saw lots of cool stuff and had to get into, or on to most of them.

    But we really knew what we were looking for and after some discussions about the colour we close a deal on one of these bad boys.

    With a trailer and a few accessories. Now somebody is shopping for some more add on gear.

    Going to be some fun times at the lake this summer.

  • Family Time

    Between services at church today I got the privilege of spending a few special moments with Scott, Mandy, Easton  and Clark.

     

    So nice to touch base and connect even for a few moments. Shared a cookie with Easton and had a nice cuddle with Clark who was so relaxed and looking around checking out all the action.

    So great to have family at church together