notinKansasanymore

Fellowshipper, it appears that your two miners have finally been rescued: God be thanked. Let's pray for the family and friends of their colleague who was lost. love, niKa

Hey, man. The semester's almost over, and it's at least to the point that I don't have to stay up at night grading any more. There could be a tornado hoeing my garden, and I wouldn't care. It's been such an intense semester that the relaxation for the past day and a half has been almost like a drug-induced state! We had some kind of electrical storm last night, but I slept really hard, right through it. Finals are next week. But all of the rest of the grading can be done during normal work hours. Aaaaaahhhhh. Woh, Shipper. Sorry about the banana thing. I'd like to suggest that you go on a banana diet, and buy your bride some opals, instead. The way it's going, the opals will be cheaper! I hope that the rebuilding is progressing.

Lib Smith did my colors at her home, near HQ. She was wonderful at it, and a great person. Blue-eyed Autumn here; weird combination. Contradictory - so, what else is new? I wear a lot of blues and reds. And dance.

Oh. Do you mean that he used to get "smeared?" Throw me a bone here.

Medic: What happened to the baby girl in the picture? The guy holding her looks like somebody I used to know from Oklahoma. Thanks for the address. niKa

Okay, Sorry! Even schoolteachers can have Beavis and Butthead moments. Wait, that wasn't any better.

I'd love to talk to you! I never really check chat, but if you'll let me know when you're there, I'll do my best!

Ooooh, pardon me for mentioning this, but every time you say "smear" in reference to that stuff, it reminds me of certain medical lab tests where only "a smear" is needed. I think that other stuff repels mosquitos, too.

Mozzie. Mozzie. I'm guessing what that means. Probably it DOESN'T mean "girls." Does it mean "mosquitoes?"

Yup; we've got the tub scoped out, as well. How many kids and cats can I fit in there, with a big sofa pad on top of us all? Some day, we'll likely find out. I was the one whose house was demolished by a tornado while I was on a three-day L.E.A.D. solo. We had a blizzard in Tinnie. Only when we were hitch-hiking home did I learn, because a trucker had a newspaper in his truck, that the blizzard had been the tail end of a system that had killed (I can't remember now; between 40 and 60) people in my home town. House was reduced to one wall that was about three feet high, in one section. Everything else was rubble. Everybody in my family survived. Craig, loving man of God that he was, refused to let me leave Emporia to go and help my family. I, being a completely idiotic, brainwashed cultist, stayed in Emporia, because he told me that I had to. One of our very sweet 9th Corps couples had even promised me the loan of their car, so that I could hop in it and go. I met with Craig, and he said "No." I didn't go. That's one of the things in my life of which I will always be most ashamed. Yes, he was a self-righteous foot. I was just as bad. The trouble, as he explained it, was that none of my family was "in the Word," and therefore, the tornado was just the Devil's way of distracting me from God's Work. Jerk could have sent a whole hoard of Way Builders down to Wichita Falls with me, if he was interested in God's Work. I am so thankful to God that He delivered me from the way. Any lurkers reading this? MAN, I hope so.

Speaking of which, the storms went right above us and right below us. Our town was right in the middle of two passing systems. I'm hoping that this kind of thing keeps happening, since we've sold the place that had the basement!

38. Mis-calculated it the first time, thought I was a 30, didn't understand. Made me take a closer look at the whole thing. Interesting way to start the day!

The Rockmeister has e-mailed me some privileged information for a special announcement: Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday Dear Fellowshipper, Happy Birthday to YOU!

No, the Wizard of Oz hasn't been on the site for about 5 days, according to his personal profile. But this place is like the Northern Star - it will keep drawing him, even if he has to climb over the Southern Cross to do it.

No, I think it was "make me roll up both of my sleeves." Anyway, nobody could sing it like she could. Happy Sunday, folks. Lost little cat followed the churchgoers up to the door, and tried to go to Sunday school. It was still wearing the collar from the local cat-and-dog-adoption agency. The vet is going to board the sweet little critter until the agency opens back up for the week. Little cat came to the right place. That's straight from the horse's mouth, which, I believe, is the North end.

Sssoooooo, I was waiting at a stop light the other day, and across the intersection in front of me flew a tiny little sportscar. Driving this sportscar was an fashionable-looking, thin Black woman with such short hair (really just a dark dusting on her scalp) that her main adornment was the elegant shape of her head. I thought to myself: "Whatever happened to Rita Smith?" "I walked into class, and sat in my place. But I forgot all about the smile on my face. Well, you can rattle me, shake me, smell my breath and make me take off both of my shoes; search me any way you please, but I'm clean. The only reason I'm happy is because I've got spirit inside."

Tom, is that the thing that I have to hang sheets on when my laundry equipment is broken?

I don't tithe, but we give in other ways. Not usually to churches, but usually to the needy. The way never really gave to the needy. I gave the way so much money over the years that I'm sure it'll take a long time for me to catch up on what I should have given to the needy! However, to answer the second part of your question, life got better for me when I stopped tithing. I do still believe that a person who doesn't give anything is like the Dead Sea. I just don't let anybody put legalism on me. Christ fulfilled the law, and that includes any percent of any kind. Fulfilled means fulfilled. It's not law. It's supposed to come from our hearts, not our calculators, else it's religious instead of spiritual. Anything else is private interpretation. Wierwille always jumped on other people for privately interpreting the Bible, but he never seemed to mind much doing it himself, whether about tithing, abortion, or sex outside of marriage. Go figure.

TomStrangerInTheNight: The "cool front" is on its way down to you. It came through here at about 7pm, while we were doing the garden-chair talk-about-our-day-with-a-refreshing-beverage thing. It felt great. Nice sleeping weather.

I think it was Dana Carvey. He was playing some "old guy." But give a cigar to Rhino; he got it. Happy Tuesday. I'm grading so hard that comma splices and fused sentences are oozing out of my ears. love, niKa

How in the heck could they ever boot Paula? They'd never find anyone as devoted. Paula, if you read this: you got me in the word.

Sunrise Easter Service, in the park. First time I've been able to get my stepdaughter to go with me to church. Now, this is a nice Methodist church; they usually have something insightful and intelligent to say, that blesses me spiritually, and makes me think. This morning, instead of a sermon, they did some kind of metaphysical private-interpretation dramatic reading that seemed like it came from the south end of a horse. :blink: Sheeeesh. Where did the good old days go, when everybody believed the exact same thing, and nobody complained, and we LIKED IT? (just kidding. Church was a load of (that bad stuff) this morning, but I'd rather listen to the south end of a horse than go back to the way.) That's my report from The Real World, where things don't always go as we'd like, and we don't pretend about it.

Mr. Strange, in the Back Forty, with a Snowcone. Or was that Professor Plum, in the library, with a candlestick? Unless . . . the butler did it. :)

I have heard the tying-a-chicken-around-the-neck thing, too. Molly Ivins wrote about it in a column, just after Bush was re-elected, and made an analogy between the second Bush administration and the neck-tyed chicken. Said it should cure the country of electing Republicans for awhile. Goey, no offense, if you're a Republican. I'm sad for your loss of your little chicken buddies. Raising them from babies, and loosing so many at once must have been very hard. Are your two shoulder-riders okay? niKa

We sat outside and talked while the garden sprinklers ran for 45 minutes. Then, of course, we decided to hoe. (Why we didn't do this when the rows were dry is beyond us.) Point is, after 45 minutes of watering, the ground was only wet down about half an inch. It's dry down there. Gonna be an interesting summer season. :blink: Happy Easter Weekend, everybody. Love to you all. To the Security Personnel responsible for monitoring the 9th Corps Thread, and to Still-In Lurkers: Happy Easter Weekend, believers! Love to you all. You could be out by this time next year, free, and still be bellieving. There are many, many better places to believe than where you are. But I hope that you have a fabulous Easter Weekend, and really enjoy being "wherever you are." Wow; that was a rambling post.