Monday, April 26

Food Fest

---
Thirty thousand pounds of asparagus,
freshly cut in Stockton, the spear capital
of the world.

Deep fried, pastaed, cheesed, dunked,
sauteed, barbequed, you name it.
They ran out of the stuff a little after
6:00 p.m. on Sunday. About 150,000
ticket holders braved the heat, long
lines and each other to get a mouthful.

I watched the hordes on the local cable
channel live. Like ants in an ant farm.
Liz and Hillary were there. Two little ants
on the screen. They didn't want to stand
in line for an hour. A kid thing. You can
see a picture here:
http://www.softcom.net/users/wordydave/asparagusfestival-04-small.jpg

Guess I'm a kid, too. I just watched the
tube and ate a hot dog

Saturday, April 17

Sum It Up

---
"Sum up at night what thou hast done by day,
and in the morning what thou hast to do; dress
and undress thy soul; mark the decay and growth
of it. If with thy watch, that too be down, then wind
up both. Since thou shalt be most surely judged, make
thine accounts agree." ---- George Herbert

Sunday, April 11

Still Minding the Score

---
God has given us this thing called memory. Words, sounds,
sights, thoughts --- most are fleeting, but a few take up per-
petual residence. We're great 'replayers.' We can sing the same
song or melody or few notes all day long --- even when we don't
want to. In our worried way we chew on the 'what if?' and 'why?'
scenarios like uncontented cows in a rainstorm.

What if we could replace those broken records with a new song
that doesn't get old? God's Word will satisfy when everything else
won't.

"Oh, how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day . . .
How sweet are Your words to my taste,
Sweeter than honey to my mouth!" --- Psalm 119:97,103

Friday, April 9

Paso - Paradise Lost

---
It just wasn't the dramatic horror show I somewhat
expected. Rubbled remnants had been removed. Most
businesses were bustling. Traffic was trafficking. And
spring's mind-blowing symphony of color and warmth
was mesmerizing.

Sanitized --- except for the tourist attractions: the
aquatic sulfur pit, demolished corners, red-tag graffiti,
and warning signs posted here and there.

Normalized --- except for the at-your-wit's-end drivers
who are cursing the day they moved or landed a job
east of the Salinas River. We drove into town on a nearly
deserted Union Road from Hwy. 46, waited at the bottom
of the hill for a loaded truck leaving a new development
with its graded dirt. The flagman didn't smile. Clue number
one.

Mobilized --- Then we tried to merge onto the 13th Street bridge
at the bottom of Creston Road. It was about 2:30 and
the cars were backed up a quarter mile up the hill. The
car in front of me made a mad dash at the traffic, trying
to squeeze into the flow. Unfortunately, he picked the
wrong van to squeeze in front of. The van driver wasn't
impressed. In fact, he was SSSSSSOOOOOOO unimpressed
that he almost rear-ended that poor little car in front of
him. Got right up on the other guy's bumper like he was
going to kick him in the pants. The man in front had to open
his door to see if there was enough room to keep
going without getting hit! Thankfully, neither one of them
had a gun. Unbelievable! At least to me. But
what do I know? I'm a foreigner now. A bona fide alien who
lives 235 miles away and only visits a few times a year.

Thursday, April 1

Free at Last

---
"It is a fearful thing to lead this great
peaceful people into war, into the most
terrible and disastrous of all wars,
civilization itself seeming to be in the
balance. But the right is more precious
than peace, and we shall fight for the
things which we have always carried
nearest our hearts---for democracy, for
the right of those who submit to authority
to have a voice in their own governments,
for the rights and liberties of small nations,
for a universal dominion of right by such
a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace
and safety to all nations and make the world
itself at last free."

Woodrow Wilson

(American President during
World War I, for those of you who didn't
learn about him)