Nothing like a dark movie theater to rest in after a hard morning/afternoon of work. Renee and I went to see the Manchurian Candidate, as I never miss a Denzel Washington movie. I was warned to take notes during the movie since it has so many different things going on, but I seemed to follow it just fine (maybe it was due to the slow mental response I was experiencing). As usual, D.Washington picked a great script and was very in-tune to his character. While I won't provide any spoilers here, I will state that this will be one to rent on DVD, for all the extra parts, including the director's commentary!
Question: Why do the theaters have to play so many commercials prior to the movies? I'm not talking about movie previews ... as I understand the need for them. I am talking about the multiple cell-phone, "I want your bod" body spray, credit card and Calvin Klein commercials. Television stations use commercials to raise revenues, but I am paying to go to the movies. As such, I should only have to sit through the 10 minutes of previews and not the additional 15 minutes of commercials. Manchurian Candidate was scheduled to start at 4pm, but the first credit for it didn't show until 4:25!
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Saturday, July 31, 2004
Why did I take my shirt off? (or ... Daddy, your back is really red!)
Last month, while I was in Mexico on a missions trip, Stillwater experienced a little bad weather in way of really high winds. As a result of the winds, a few sections of our privacy fence decided to 'take a dive'. The fence is old, and in need of replacement, so that is in the works.
Upon hearing about the fallen fence, my pastor GT has been offering to provide labor during the replacement project. He called one morning this week to ask if this was going to be the weekend, but I told him no, due to the excessive rains we have been having. I thought the ground was going to be too muddy to work with. It turns out that today was a beautiful day and I decided to start the project without GT. The part I was going to do really didn't need his help, so out I went.
Point to remember: I haven't really done any excessive outside work since my accident in June 2001. I haven't even spent a great deal of time in the sun since then as well.
I got my work shorts on, and my cover for my socket (don't want to scratch the new socket's finish), grab some tools and headed to the back yard. Before a new fence can go up, the old one has to come down. Off to the west side of the house to drop the 9 feet worth (3 of which is a gate) first. After several swings of a hammer and some firm tugs on a crow bar, that section is down. Initial thoughts: this isn't going to be so bad (oh ye of little faith).
Off to the 80' worth of south fencing. With a beautiful day like it was, I thought I needed to get some sun, so off came the shirt, 'cause I thought I was only going to be about an hour and a half. Slowly but surely, down come 8' sections of fence. Some needed more coaxing than the section on the side of the house. Being that several sections were entertained with rose bushes, honeysuckles and other assorted vegetation, additional tools were brought out, including one very sharp hand saw. Two hours later (and several blisters as well), the 80' of fencing is stacked into a 8'w X 6'd X 2.5'h pile. Not only the fence was dropped, as Renee brought out a 32oz glass of ice water, that I refilled twice from the back hydrant.
I had originally told Sarah I didn't need any help, because I knew there were going to be nails all over the place. She came out after the south portion was done and told me it was time for lunch. I asked her to bring it out, instead of my going inside with the air conditioning. I said I would do one section of the east side (~54') and that I would stop when she got back. I didn't stop. During the south section, as I loosened a section, I would drag it to the pile. Not this time .... this time I would loosen all sections and then let Sarah (she was still asking to help) help me pile them. Since I had a method for dropping 8' sections, this side went quicker (sometimes sawing a 2x4 is quicker than breaking it free). As the last section was falling, Sarah calls out, "lunch is served".
While eating, Sarah remarks how I am getting some sun on my back, and that I am getting a little red. Since I think we will be going only a few more minutes since she will be helping me stack, I don't put my shirt on. Wrong answer! About an hour later, we are heaving the last section onto the new pile (no reason to lug these things all the way over to the original pile, that is too far away!). Somebody's back looks like it needs the letters STOP painted in white on it, however I am so tired I don't feel a thing, other than my stump throbbing in it's socket.
As a result of all the sweat, wood chips, mud and collection of vegetation all over my body, I am way to dirty to go into the house. I ask Sarah to bring me the hose so I can rinse off the top layers prior to going inside. After basking in the warm "been in hose" water, here comes the refreshing cold water. Ok, that was just a bit too cold, especially on a now sun-burned back, but it felt great!
Fence is down and I am so tired I can't think (or walk) straight. However, now I can rest before going out to remove the dozens of nails in the posts, and figure out how many posts need replacing. More about the fence as things happen.
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Upon hearing about the fallen fence, my pastor GT has been offering to provide labor during the replacement project. He called one morning this week to ask if this was going to be the weekend, but I told him no, due to the excessive rains we have been having. I thought the ground was going to be too muddy to work with. It turns out that today was a beautiful day and I decided to start the project without GT. The part I was going to do really didn't need his help, so out I went.
Point to remember: I haven't really done any excessive outside work since my accident in June 2001. I haven't even spent a great deal of time in the sun since then as well.
I got my work shorts on, and my cover for my socket (don't want to scratch the new socket's finish), grab some tools and headed to the back yard. Before a new fence can go up, the old one has to come down. Off to the west side of the house to drop the 9 feet worth (3 of which is a gate) first. After several swings of a hammer and some firm tugs on a crow bar, that section is down. Initial thoughts: this isn't going to be so bad (oh ye of little faith).
Off to the 80' worth of south fencing. With a beautiful day like it was, I thought I needed to get some sun, so off came the shirt, 'cause I thought I was only going to be about an hour and a half. Slowly but surely, down come 8' sections of fence. Some needed more coaxing than the section on the side of the house. Being that several sections were entertained with rose bushes, honeysuckles and other assorted vegetation, additional tools were brought out, including one very sharp hand saw. Two hours later (and several blisters as well), the 80' of fencing is stacked into a 8'w X 6'd X 2.5'h pile. Not only the fence was dropped, as Renee brought out a 32oz glass of ice water, that I refilled twice from the back hydrant.
I had originally told Sarah I didn't need any help, because I knew there were going to be nails all over the place. She came out after the south portion was done and told me it was time for lunch. I asked her to bring it out, instead of my going inside with the air conditioning. I said I would do one section of the east side (~54') and that I would stop when she got back. I didn't stop. During the south section, as I loosened a section, I would drag it to the pile. Not this time .... this time I would loosen all sections and then let Sarah (she was still asking to help) help me pile them. Since I had a method for dropping 8' sections, this side went quicker (sometimes sawing a 2x4 is quicker than breaking it free). As the last section was falling, Sarah calls out, "lunch is served".
While eating, Sarah remarks how I am getting some sun on my back, and that I am getting a little red. Since I think we will be going only a few more minutes since she will be helping me stack, I don't put my shirt on. Wrong answer! About an hour later, we are heaving the last section onto the new pile (no reason to lug these things all the way over to the original pile, that is too far away!). Somebody's back looks like it needs the letters STOP painted in white on it, however I am so tired I don't feel a thing, other than my stump throbbing in it's socket.
As a result of all the sweat, wood chips, mud and collection of vegetation all over my body, I am way to dirty to go into the house. I ask Sarah to bring me the hose so I can rinse off the top layers prior to going inside. After basking in the warm "been in hose" water, here comes the refreshing cold water. Ok, that was just a bit too cold, especially on a now sun-burned back, but it felt great!
Fence is down and I am so tired I can't think (or walk) straight. However, now I can rest before going out to remove the dozens of nails in the posts, and figure out how many posts need replacing. More about the fence as things happen.
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Friday, July 30, 2004
Thanks Joe!
Other than a subtle "Powered by BlogRolling" link on the sidebar, you really can't tell I have made any template changes to my blog. However, I have updated the comments option to use HaloScan and the Favorite Sites to use BlogRolling. A big thanks to Joe for pointing both of these very useful (and very free) options out to me.
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Thursday, July 29, 2004
Where has the summer gone?
From the title, you might think this post to be about the wasted days of summer or the ramblings of someone who is about to go back to school in the fall. Well, its not! I want to know where our 90+ (even 100+) degrees and sunny weather is hiding.
We are now in, what seems to be, our second week of rainy, cool weather. Unless my calendar is wrong, we are almost into August, but if feels like the middle of October right now. From my understanding, the upper northeast is having a very serious heatwave (temps around 100 degrees). How did we manage to get our weather switched?
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We are now in, what seems to be, our second week of rainy, cool weather. Unless my calendar is wrong, we are almost into August, but if feels like the middle of October right now. From my understanding, the upper northeast is having a very serious heatwave (temps around 100 degrees). How did we manage to get our weather switched?
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Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Tis Gar Plen - Ron King's Homepage
I have been trying to figure our what to write about today, but thought I would simply advise the arrival of a new website on the internet: Tis Gar Plen - Ron King's Homepage
Swing on by when you have a few minutes!
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Swing on by when you have a few minutes!
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Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Where have I been?
I doubt anyone is currently reading this, being that is has been over 7 months since my last post (not counting the one from a few days back).
As time allows, I will provide some updates as to what I have been able to do since the surgery. Some of the highlights include:
--Ride a bike
--Spend some time rock wall climbing
--Play some softball (both offense and defense, including running the bases)
--Be an adult leader on a short term youth missions trip to Mexico
More to follow........
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As time allows, I will provide some updates as to what I have been able to do since the surgery. Some of the highlights include:
--Ride a bike
--Spend some time rock wall climbing
--Play some softball (both offense and defense, including running the bases)
--Be an adult leader on a short term youth missions trip to Mexico
More to follow........
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Thursday, July 22, 2004
Back out of retirement
After a long break, I will start posting again. Stay tuned!
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