Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Category: Life

  • level ground

    I was keeping up with a friend’s blog, which put me on to this post and I’m glad I followed some of the  links and arrived here. The whole post had a lot to think about, but the one line that really grabbed my heart was “we stand with him on level ground before the cross”. I read it over several times to let that profound truth settle deep within me. It made me reflect on the sin in my life and my need of the grace of God and the need to consider more deeply my response to news like this.

    Leadership Blog: Out of Ur: The Haggard Truth

    There is nothing any one has ever done that we –each of us—is not capable of doing. So when we pray for our brother, Ted Haggard, we pray not out of pity or self-righteousness but with a humble spirit because we stand with him on level ground before the cross.

  • In the basement

    saw
    Saw by s2photography
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    This weekend the renovations focused mainly on the basement.

    During the week Eric & Dez finished the upstairs drywall and started mudding the walls. Currently there are a couple of coats in most areas and sanding should start during the week.

    On the weekend about 3/4 of the exterior basement walls have been studded and the utility room framed up. The perimeter wiring is in place and some insulation and vapor barrier is up on some walls.

    Several bits of plumbing have been capped off or moved, and some of the reconnections are proving to be a challenge. About eight 8′ lengths of framing for enclosing the heating ducts were assembled and are ready to attach to the joists. So, quite a bit of progress in the basement and it’s starting to look quite good.

  • Bathroom Wiring


    Bathroom Wiring
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    This afternoon, after church, I was helping Dez and Eric with their house renovations. Today, I was the electrician. We wired up a bathroom ceiling fan, replaced a bunch of wire, re-routes lights to different switches and roughed in the bathroom light fixture and a GFI outlet.

    Len, Darlene and Jared were there as well. Len and Jared completed the basement tile removal project and then demolished some storage cabinets at one end of the basement. Darlene had the job that everybody has done some of and hates, removing floor tiles. Ones that really didn’t want to come off at all.

    Doing the electrical work with Eric made me thing about doing the wiring at the cottage. I really enjoy electrical work, so it was lots of fun to help out. Next time, I think it’s back to drywallling.


  • katsup

    Actually, that would be catch up on reading my personal
    emails. More specifically, The daily devotion emails from John Fisher at the
    Purpose Driven Life.  Some of the thoughts that challenged me were:

    • To be more aware of and think about being eager to do good (1 Peter 3:13).
      looking for opportunities to serve others
    • To see my work as worship to God, doing what I was created to do, my very life as a gift from God
    • Am I using my uniqueness, the things that God put in me and the experiences I’ve had to benefit others?
    • What will we do in Heaven? Sit around or continue to grow and server? If there is a purpose on earth, that there will be an even more significant purpose in Heaven.
    • The challenge of many different points of view and diversity while yet being in unity with
      Christ.
    • What is worship? The areas of worship that are outside of a church service, and the fact that worship is so much more.
    • What is character and how do we get it? (Romans 5:3-4 and it’s not generally a good time at the time)

    I shouldn’t get so far behind, this is certainly a lot to consider all at once but I’m glad I spent some quite time this morning to read these devotions and think about what they mean to my life. I’m thankful that John makes these devotions available and that they cause me to stop and think about these things.

    Even during this quiet time, life happens, I hear the 3 thumps on the floor above, our family signal to come upstairs and see what’s happening. I have a fair idea what’s happening as I heard some stomach turning sounds from one of the bathrooms a few seconds earlier. Scott’s not feeling too good, perhaps some bad pizza from last night. There’s not too much to be done as generally you just need to ride these things out. I took him a cup of water.

    Technorati Tags: family, devotional, purpose, life

  • Building

    Today,I send a good portion of the day with Eric and Doug at Eric’s new house doing renovations. He’s only two weeks into the project and major work has taken place. I was the drywall guy today and did the inside of the new front room closet and about half the kitchen. Doug & Eric focused on the plumbing and hooked up the tub drain, connected the shower control, filled in the cuts in the basement floor with concrete where they moved the entire stack and ran a new drain line to re-locate the washer closer to the furnace to create a consolidated utility area.A little drywaller’s confession. As I was working on a small panel that had a light switch on it, I noticed that if I cut the hole for the switch box the way it was, that there would be no where for the switch tabs to rest on the drywall, because the opening would be too big. I then noticed that there were some extra tabs on the box that we didn’t need in this application and that they should be removed first and then everything would be good. Well, after that I went back to a larger panel and noticed that I’d made that mistake there. Also, Eric came along and asked if I’d taped up, the vapor barrier behind that panel, which I’d forgotten to do. So, not being one to leave things messed up, I pried off the panel and set about to make it right. Well, that was a good thing because I’d total overlooked cutting opening for the electrical outlet for the refrigerator! I kind of wondered why the panel didn’t sit quite right when I was screwing it on in that area. Oh well, it’s all better now & drywall is fairly cheap.

    So much has happened in such a short time. The first week focused mainly on demolition, taking the entire kitchen and bathroom back to bare studs, and opening several doorways to create a more open concept feel. The place was a real mess! But now you can feel that the corner has been turned as the building and restoring phase has begun in earnest. Fresh drywall really makes you see the progress and that things are on the up swing. Soon there will be paint etc. and then moving it. Yahoo!

  • In Vancouver and lovin’ it!

    I flew in to Vancouver this morning for some professional development and a western regional team meeting for work and I’m having a great time. Vancouver is my favorite Canadian city and any time here is a good time. After the meetings the team was out for dinner and then I headed back to the hotel.

    This trip I’m staying at the Delta Vancouver Suites, and to date this is the best ever hotel that I’ve stayed and and I’d highly recommend it to anyone. The service and experience has been exceptional. Upon arrival I pulled up in front of one of the hotel doors in what seemed to be a loading zone on the street. I was just going to run in and register, drop off the bag and head on out to the office. As I’m checking in they asked if I had a car and where it was. When I told them, one of the staff offered to take it around the block and into the hotel valet holding area as where I left it, I was likely to get a ticket. Checking was quick and with a cookie to boot! The room is fabulous. A corner suite with floor to ceiling glass, a new and modern decor, and a great view of the downtown skyline.

    When I return from dinner later that day, there is a personalized welcome note on the work table with my name printed on the envelope and the note in side. A small fruit plate has also shown up with an apple, two large strawberries and some grapes. A few moments after I enter the room the phone rings. It’s the hotel staff welcoming me to the hotel and ensuring that everything is OK. A nice touch except for the spook feeling that came with know the call was triggered by me using my access card to enter the room. This was no random call, Big Brother is watching.

    I head out for a walk down Robson to pick up a Starbucks drink, (Tazo chai latte, extra hot) and on the way I stop to watch a scene being shot for a movie and wild and crazy crowd of mainly scantily clad young girls in what seem to be Halloween themed costumes waiting to get into some club. Talk about night life.

    Great city, great hotel. Now if they’d only stop hosing you $9.95 a day for Internet access. Oh yeah, wireless would be nice too.

  • Closing up


    Dock Shot #2
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    This photo says it all. The leaves are turning and falling. It’s the Thanksgiving weekend and we’re at the lake to close up for the season.

    The weather is very nice on Saturday, hitting 21C with a light overcast. After a couple of cups of coffee on the dock, we’re having breakfast with Scott & Mandi who are down for the weekend with Shirley & I. After breakfast we head back down to the dock to deal with the two new floating docks. In the end we decide to put the good one, the one that got renovated, in between to docks and leave the other one tied up parallel to the dock, pretty much where it’s spent the summer. Only time will tell if this was a good way to store them for the winter. They are just too heavy to get on shore.

    With the boat & dock work completed, we take the rest of the day off and head into town. Scott & Mandi do a little shopping and Shirley & I take a walk on the Tunnel Island trails. We rendezvous back at Ho-Jos for some Kenora Mist’s. After a great steak dinner, we play Tile Rummy and Mandi & I clean up.

    Sunday it’s all about putting the cottage to bed for the winter. Scott & I handle the outside chores and Mandi & Shirley pack up the kitchen & clean the cottage. By 1:15, we’re done and heading home. It was quite windy all last night and into the day. Thankfully, there was no rain we were sheltered from the west wind.

    Farewell to Kenora was celebrated by a stop at the Chip Truck and the Dairy Queen. It was a great summer at the lake.

  • Maah Daah Hey – not this year

    Well, this is the weekend where I should be in North Dakota on the Maah Daah Hey trail biking with the boys. But, it’s not happening. We had a great run for 5 years of making the annual trips with a bunch of guys for some great mountain bike riding. The trips were always fun, and resulted in some great stories, guys getting lost in +100 degree weather, crashing and landing on a cactus and other guys (me) crashing and getting a 3rd degree separated shoulder in 2005.

    But this year, thing just seemed to work against getting enough riders to make the trip. Some had weddings to attend, some were moving, some were over worked and needed some home time. Gee, where are your priorities? This would have been easier to take if the weather was really bad because the trail is un-ridable when wet. But at 8:45am in Medora it’s 56F and sunny and the forecast high is 81F and the same for Sunday!

    What are we doing here in Winnipeg? Ugggg.

    Technorati Tags: Maah Daah Hey, Mountain Biking, cycling

  • End of the season

    It’s been quite a while since I posted on the original theme of Tempus Fugit and that is “Time Flies”. It seems appropriate at this moment as the summer season is winding down and I’m sitting at the dining room table at the lake looking out over the bay. It’s a little overcast, a little cool and there will only be one more weekend at the lake this season. Where did the time go?

    On Thanksgiving weekend in two weeks we’ll be back to shut down the water system and put everything away for the winter. While we might make two or three visits between then an May long weekend 2007, this is just about it for the year.

    It’s been a good summer for being at the lake. We made some extra effort to spend more weekends, created a few extra long weekends, and schedule vacation time to enjoy the season which was very warm and bug free this year.

    At the start of the summer everything seems so long and there is the sense that there will be plenty of time for everthing. Then somehow, at the end of the summer, there are still things left un-done, and you wonder how the time slipped by. However, I’m not feeling too much of that this year as we really tried to get around and do some different things as well as just relax and enjoy the doing nothing times. Of course, I wish there had been more family times at the lake but distances and work schedules conspired to limit the opportunities. There were some great family times, but I could go for a few more. Well, with a long life ahead there is still time for more of everything.

    The best is yet to come.

  • Last day on the road

    I think everyone is very ready to be home now. We’re driving from Billings to Winnipeg, a 12 hour drive, if you don’t stop for anything. Well, we’re stopping for a few things, rest stops, gas, lunch and any Starbucks we come across.

    One of the may joys of traveling in a group is making decisions. This is something that is never talked about in advance it seems, but sort of happens on the fly. Everyone want’s to be so agreeable and get along with everyone and accommodate everyone that sometimes getting the information you need to make a decision is hard to come by. In Billings, it was somehow a fore gone collusion that we’d eat at the Outback. This was great, immediate consensus and the food is good with lots of choices.

    More challenging decisions  happen on the way home when everyone is tired, tired of being in the car and not looking forward to more hours in the car until we’re home. Also, cruising by Interstate exit trying to assess the likelihood of finding an acceptable restaurant’s is fun. By the time anyone says anything the exit has flown by. Finally, an exit is taken and the choices are listed out and are greeted by silence. What is the driver to do? You don’t want to arbitrarily make a choice but nobody want’s to offend anybody, so not much gets said. Perhaps in this situation the choice comes down to the lowest common denominator. A known restaurant’s with a wide variety of stuff on the menu, and it’s Perkins or Denny’s. Yummy.

    I’ve got the laptop plugged into an inverter in the back seat and I’ve totaled up our trip cost and prepared my list for Canada Customs. Even with the van repair we’re well under the $750 limit for the week. I wonder when there will be coast to coast high speed wireless Internet access available? I read in Wired once about an organization who arranged Internet access for a very large portion of Idaho. In one case a farmer uses this access from his tractor to send real-time potato reports to McDonalds. Hook me up baby!