Monday, December 31, 2007

Last Day in California


Yesterday was our last day in California. We went here for church. After church, I went out to lunch with the Pastor and his wife at the Mission Inn. The rest of my family also went to the Mission Inn, but to a different restaurant that is located in the Inn. Afterwards, my family and I went shopping for a winter coat for my brother. He is traveling to Minneapolis, MN next month and needed a winter coat for the trip. Our shopping travels too us to the Burlington Coat Factory at the Ontario Mills Mall. We also visited the Rainforest Cafe. I had never been to a Rainforest Cafe. It was a lot of fun. I couldn't resist sitting on one of the animal chairs and play with its tail; picture above. The day was completed by going back to my brother's house and just hanging out.


My mom and I boarded a plane at 12:30 AM PST and flew home today. I got about 2.5 hours of sleep. This is why I'm signing off now - sleep. I'm glad to be home and am looking forward to getting back to my routine.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Adventures in Santa Barbara

Our travels yesterday took us to the Santa Barbara area. Our first stop was at the Cold Spring Tavern for lunch. This is one of those places that you wouldn't expect to find in southern California, but here it is. It reminded me of a rustic restaurant that I would find in the Adirondacks. We walked in and it was cold. I mean so cold that we all kept our jackets on and I even asked my brother to get the blanket out of the car for me. I've come learned that places in southern California don't heat their businesses even when the temperatures are in the 40's. Yes, I wrote right, the 40's. I'm surprised that it gets this cold too. The food was great and we had a wonderful time at the Cold Spring Tavern.

Our next adventure took us to places north of Santa Barbara. It is pretty countryside with lots of rolling hills and mountains. We stopped at several shops and just enjoyed our time walking around. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Mom and me outside the Cold Spring Tavern.


I couldn't refuse this picture because of the sign.

A red peppercorn tree. I never knew peppercorns came from a tree.

Red peppercorns on the ground. They are slippery to walk on.

A gigantic Christmas tree. Mom and Irene are standing next it.

They do have cows in California.


A nice prickly pear cactus plant.


A prickly pear cactus. You can eat them.


Can you see the object of interest in this photo?

Thursday, December 27, 2007

A Visit to the Huntington Library


Our travels yesterday took us the Huntington Library. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Mom & Adam


Pictures from the Japanese Garden

My brother (Wayne) and my nephew's wife (Cami)


Cami in action.




A beautiful flower in the rose garden



Adam & Cami

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas in CA

I must admit that spending Christmas in CA was nice. I like the weather - sunny and highs in the 60's. Jiwon and I treated ourselves to a late night visit to the outdoor hot tub on Christmas Eve since it was so beautiful out.



I spent the afternoon outside participating in a new Christmas family tradition. This new tradition is throwing knifes into a pumpkin. I never have thrown a knife before, but it was fun and I actually hit the pumpkin several times. We had a tournament with the girls challenging the guys. There were Jiwon, Cami (my nephew's wife), and me against my nephew (Adam), brother (Wayne) and Jong. It came down to sudden death and the guys beat the girls by 2 points.



We also spent time singing Christmas carols around the piano. Jiwon played for us and we all sang. Everyone truly enjoyed Jiwon's musical gift and she truly blessed us.



The evening was ended by making a ginger bread house. When I left my brother's house to return to Jong and Jiwon's, the glue on the house was drying. It will be interesting to see the finish product when I return tomorrow.



Tonight is my last night at Jong & Jiwon's. I have truly enjoyed staying with them and their company. They are great hosts if you ever want to visit southern CA.



Here are some pictures.









My nephew (Adam) & sister-in-law (Irene)

Sunday, December 23, 2007

California - Here We Come

I'll be leaving in about an hour. My final destination is Los Angeles, CA. In route, I'll be stopping by my mom's house since she is going with me too.

We are both excited to be spending Christmas with my brother and his family, in addition to leaving the snow and cold of NNY. The forecast for the LA area is sunny and temperatures in the 60's. I can handle that.

For the family of CFC, I will also be spending time with Jong & Jiwon during my visit. I'm actually staying at their place for a few days since there is no room at my brother's house. In addition to mom and me, one of my nephews and his wife are visiting too. My options for sleeping were a nice room and bed at Jong & Jiwon's or an air mattress in the middle of the living room floor at my brother's. I opted for the nice room with a bed. Jong & Jiwon live about 30 minutes from my brother's house. Jong & Jiwon will be spending Christmas with us too.

Jiwon and I are looking forward to having nice long talks over many cups of coffee. When she lived in Potsdam, we would spend hours at Scoops drinking coffee and talking. I really miss Jiwon and am looking forward to seeing her.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Because He Loves Me

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. (Luke 2:8-12)

As I reflect about the birth of Jesus this Christmas Season, I realize more and more of His love for me. Yes, Jesus was born because God so loved me that He sent Jesus so that I may not parish and have eternal life with God (John 3:16). Spending eternity with God is something that will occur when I die. But, what about now...here and now as I walk through the journey of my life? There must be more about the birth of Jesus than just spending eternity with God after I die.

Isaiah 61 describes the year of the Lord's favor. Throughout this chapter, I read about an exchange process that God wants me to experience: instead of ashes..bestow a crown of beauty; instead of mourning... give me the oil of gladness; instead of a spirit of despair..give me a garment of praise; instead of shame..give me a double portion; instead of disgrace...give me my inheritance so that I will inherit a double portion and everlasting joy will be mine.
God has taken me through many trials and tribulations this year. Through it all, I have come to realize and experience more of God's love for me. I also recognize that God took me through these experiences because He loves me too much to have allowed me to remain captive to the prison chains that bound me. In some cases, I didn't even know that I was being held captive, but God in His ever gentle way, revealed truth to me and I was set free (John 8:32). I experienced God's exchange process as described in Isaiah 61.
This Christmas season I will not only celebrate the birth of Jesus as it relates to my eternal destiny, but also as it relates to my journey in my life. Thank you Lord for loving me so much that I can experience the very riches of You on this side of heaven.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Snow Bound

This Sunday has been unusual since a winter storm blew in last night and has dumped about 14 inches of snow. Church was cancelled and I've had the day to myself. What does one do when snow bound? Here is a list of things that I did:

  • watched football - this is the first time all year that I watched a game
  • ate some good food
  • caught up on sleep by taking two naps
  • paid my bills
  • completed some paperwork that I've been avoiding to do
  • prayed and spend time reading my Bible
  • made chicken soup, which I'll definitely enjoy throughout the week

It is nice to be snow bound every once in awhile, but I am looking forward to venturing out tomorrow. Of course, this is after I shovel all the snow off my porch and my plow man comes to clear my driveway.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Traveling Observations

I have a habit when I travel - I watch people in the airport and on the airplane. I don't know why I do this, but I do chuckle at some of the observations that I see.



On my flight home on Monday, I was amused by this couple that traveled on the same plane as me. The flight was delayed by about 30 minutes. When the call came to begin boarding the plane, I observe this couple, probably in their 40's, begin to approach the gate. The man ran as quickly as he could to the front of the line while leaving the woman behind. When he got to the front, I might add by barging in, he looked back at the woman. He motioned her to get in line with him. She did. Before I knew it, they were walking down the Jetway and they were gone. I didn't really think too much about them until I boarded the plane and realized that I would be sitting across the isle from them. I cozy up in my seat for the 2 hour plane ride home.



The gentleman was reading a newspaper the whole flight. He would flip through the pages and ripped some ads out and place them into his pant side leg pocket. He must have done this more than 20 times. I began to wonder what the ads were and how many could he fit in his pocket. I also wondered what he was going to do with all those ads.

The plane landed and everyone was waiting to deboard. I was standing in the isle minding my own business when the gentleman began rising from his seat in front of me. Without a word, he nudged himself into the isle and I had to step back or he would have been standing on top of my toes. He opened up the overhead compartment and took another newspaper out. I thought "oh, no he is going to rip out more ads and stuff them in his pocket." He didn't, though. The couple ran off the plane as quickly as they ran on. I didn't see them again. I do wonder what he did with all those ads. Do you have any ideas of what he did with them?

Thursday, December 06, 2007

I'm Traveling

I'm sitting at the Syracuse Airport waiting to board a plane to Dallas, TX. This is a personal trip to visit friends and to help them plan for future expansion with their ministry.

I'm excited about this trip. The last time I checked the weather will be sunny and in the 70's. This is a far cry from the -2 temperature that occurred in NNY last night and the blinding snow storm (lake effect) that I drove through 2 hours earlier. I'm also excited since God is leading me to help out with the ministry in Texas. This is one of my dreams to come true - to be able to use my administrative gifts to help expand God's work through a ministry.

I'm typing this post on my new laptop that I just picked up this morning. So far, so good. I like the feel of the keys and the smooth operation of the system. I was brave and am using Windows Vista. I use it at the office and like it. All my coworkers think I'm nuts because I like Vista.

Okay that is all for now from the airport.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Its Not a Good Day

Yesterday started out as a normal day at the office, but ended very differently.

My driver called me shortly after lunch and I could tell that something was drastically wrong. He proclaimed "it is not a good day!!" I said "why, what is up?" He then proceeded to tell me that the tire studs came off. "Tire studs," I thought, "we don't have studded snow tires." I then realized he was talking about the studs that hold the tires to the truck. I now understood why it wasn't a good day. After making sure that he wasn't in accident and that he was okay, we began to make plans of how to handle this situation. He was okay and fortunately he noticed that something wasn't right and pulled over before the wheels fell off. Yes, that is right. When the wheel studs shear off, the tires fall off. Not a good situation when the truck is moving down the highway.

Upon arriving at the scene, the driver had the right side rear wheels off and sure enough not one wheel stud was there. We then agreed that I would relieve the worker at the transfer station so that he could bring the new truck (wheels fell off our old truck) so that driver could finish his collection route and the other guy could stay with the old truck waiting for the tow truck.

I went to the transfer station and monitored the rescue operation via two-way radio communication. All was going well at the transfer station until I stepped outside to close our main gate at closing time. After hearing the door slammed behind me, I realized that my keys were inside and I was locked out. I went to the gate and the gate was frozen. I couldn't move it. My driver's comment "its not a good day" was coming back to me. I hoped that I hadn't locked the window to the scale house. Upon checking it, it was unlocked and I was able to open it from the outside and jump back in the office; this was only after I placed a couple of tires underneath the window to give me height to jump through the window. I called the guys at the truck and told them that I couldn't close the gate because it was frozen. One of them came to my rescue 15 minutes later. We closed up the facility and went back to the truck.

The truck was not looking good. They had just got it on the flatbed. It was sitting lopsided without rear wheels on the right side. They couldn't raise the flatbed to its horizontal position since it was too much weight for the hydraulic system; did I mention that the truck was full of garbage? They got another tow truck to help raise the flatbed. It took a few minutes, but they finally got it to the horizontal position.

The whole rescue mission took about 2 hours and occurred in a snow storm on Route 37. My driver and transfer station worker then had to finish the collection route with the new truck. They are dedicated since they worked until 6 PM.

Lesson learned: beware when your garbage truck driver calls and says "its not a good day." This means that it probably is not a good day in the wonderful world of garbage.