Yesterday's Jam

"Look at you! My IT Team. Team players each and every one of you...Team! Team, team, team, team, team! I even love saying the word "team"! You probably think that's a picture of my family. Uh uh. It's the A-Team!" Denholm, The IT Crowd, Series 1, Episode 1.

I am very proud of my team. I am writing this post while logged onto the web using the wireless cloud at The Woodlands of Columbia that is part of a CATV and Internet package we installed. Everyone played a part and it works beautifully.

This has been the largest, most complex project we have ever tackled. Along the way we have had many hardware disappointments where something didn't work as advertised and we've had to go back to the drawing board. Each time my team has come up with an alternative solution and here we are today. Official move in day and everything is working, 2 days ahead of schedule. Congratulations guys.

Now more about my new favorite TV Show, "The IT Crowd".

Why hasn't anyone told me about this TV series. It is probably one of the funniest shows on TV. I must admit that when the American version came out a couple of years ago, I never watched it because I thought it was called "The It Crowd" as in another "90210" or "The Hills". Anyone wanting to watch a show about the "it" crowd probably doesn't want anything to do with the IT crowd and so you can see why the show failed to produce a following.

Check it out on Netflix or buy it at Best Buy. It won't disappoint. It delivers, just like my team.

How Get Me To Cuss Like a Sailor, One Thing I Hate About Christmas,You Gotta Have the Right Tool for the Job

It takes a bit to get me rattled. I'm usually described as calm and even tempered. However, at the beginning of every Christmas season, my vocabulary is reduced to four letter words strung together in tirade of filth and foul. What, you ask, could possibly reduce this otherwise mild mannered father of 4 into a crazed hate spewing monster?

Simple, the lighting of the Christmas Tree.

Yes that time honored tradition of Daddy putting the lights on the tree while expectant children impatiently await their turn at decorating the tree.

It got so bad that a few years ago my wife decided to purchase a pre-lit tree.
This certainly would be the end to all despair and restore peace in our home at the beginning of the holiday.

The situation has only gotten worse. Now every year I wrestle this 200lb monster out of the attic and down the steps. When I get it set up and ready to plug in, I wait expectantly like Clark W. Griswold for the 1000 light extravaganza assembled by some penniless sweat shop worker who will never see the finished product in all its glory, and think to myself how smart I am to have authorized the purchase by my wife of such a holiday shortcut and then, drum roll please...

Nothing.

Now I've been told by countless thousands about how these days Christmas tree lights are now wired in parallel, not like the old days where if one bulb was out, then the whole strand was out. I remember as a boy helping my poor Dad unscrew and replace every bulb from our old school, over sized, C-9 1/4 colored lights. This method worked great as long as you only had one light out, but heaven forbid you have multiple failures on a single strand. You could be hours replacing bulbs.

Today it's supposed to be different, but you know that isn't true. We've all seen sections of lights out in an icicle strand. How is this possible.

Two years ago, I wore my fingers out while replacing each bulb in the broken part of the strand. Each socket has a little plastic lock and then the replacement bulbs have these little filaments that have to fit into little holes just so.

Generally, in today's economy with the aforementioned sweat shops pumping out strands of 100 lights for $2.99, it's just easier to traipse off to Walmart for another set.

This was my plan last year. Angela and I just purchased a couple of additional strands to replace the sections that would not light. We discovered, however, that the sweat shop employees were diligent workers and had secured the wires to the prickly branches with a dexterity unmatched by soft American computer user hands. Six man hours later and looking like a couple of first year marrieds had wired their first Christmas tree, we had replaced the two burned out sections.

This year I was determined to outsmart the Christmas Tree Light Grinch and I Googled for possible solutions on how to fix Christmas tree lights.

Could it be true? Could it be possible? The Light Keeper Pro was the answer to all my holiday problems. God bless Google and God bless Rich Frederick.

I ran down to my neighborhood Ace Hardware store so I could pay full retail price for this tool. Not to be tricked by some snake oil salesman, I took the top of my tree with me and I planed to test the Light Keeper Pro on site at Ace and return it if I was disappointed.

The nice ladies at Ace made wonderful suggestions, "Honey, why don't you just buy another strand?" and "You could just wrap some new ones in with the old ones." but I was undeterred.

I bought the Light Keeper Pro, found the nearest outlet and proceeded to follow the instructions to a "T". Surrounded by Ace hardware staff and customers, I was prepared to pull the trigger the maximum of 20 times in order to get my lights working but with one unclimatic pull of the trigger all the lights came to life. It has worked as advertised. Christmas is saved.

Most miniature Holiday Light set failures occur when an individual bulb "shunt" fails to energize. These shunts are energized when a filament burns out. This causes a section of lights, usually 35 or 50, to go out instead of just one light bulb. This is because miniature light sets are wired in "series" and electricity must flow through each bulb, to the next, for them to light. The LightKeeper Pro Quick Fix Trigger sends a shaped, electrical pulse through the defective bulb, clearing the shunt. This allows it to operate properly. The current can then flow through the light set completing the circuit and illuminating the other bulbs.

I completely endorse this product and recommend it for every pre-lit tree or lawn ornament user.

You Gotta Love These Kids

What more can I say?

Wisdom at Waffle House

I met a man last weekend who gave me some unsolicited advice but I haven't been able to shake it.

He was a working man in blue coveralls with his name embroidered on the pocket. He was an older, local fellow with some teeth missing and askew. He noticed me waiting for a table and stopped to comment on my children. He mentioned that he had raised 3 girls in his lifetime. And then proceeded to give me some advice. I leave you with his own words as best as I can remember them:

"People say raising girls is harder than boys, but I say it's easy. You just gotta be right there for them when they need Daddy. When I'm at work and I get a call from home, I just close up my tool box and head on home. My friends ask me, 'Don't you have a job?' but I tell'em my wife has 3 kids to raise and she can't do it alone."

I've reflected on his words all week and they strike a chord within me. You can find morsels of wisdom anywhere you go.

There's Something Happening @ Fusion

I'm not exactly sure what is going on, but something is happening at Fusion Church.

We took a few weeks off after having the baby and when we came back, wow, the place is jumping.

Let's break it down:

1. There are people I don't recognise and I wonder from where they came?
2. The energy is really high. It seems expectant that God is going to do something.
3. Scott Stewart is leading like a Fortune 500 CEO and working like dog.
4. Stephen Lowe, who has my dream job, is doing an excellent job getting the church to run on all 8.
5. The worship has been great. Seth is doing a great job. It is so nice when there is a full sound with 6 musicians.
6. Chad's announcements and closing are hitting a stride that is very natural and upbeat.
7. And the Preaching -

Let's talk about preaching for a minute.

My primary reason for going to church is to worship God. I do that through song and prayer and giving and the hearing of the Word.

If you are going to make the effort to get up on Sunday morning and attend church, you want the preaching to be life changing. It's not the preaching solely that changes your life, it's the application of the Word into your life.

You don't spend the time and money to go to the doctor and then not do what he says. Why then would you go to church, listen to the pastor unpack the Word, give you lessons for life and then go home without giving it another thought.

I'm telling you there is no way you could have attended Fusion Church today and walk away unchanged and a large part of that was the preaching. Pastor Tony was giving it everything (insert link to video when available here) he had to get the message across. Well it worked.

I'm not here to lift up one man. I know it is the Holy Spirit working through him, but he has to be yielded to it and do his due dilligence in preparation. I really appreciate what a gem we have in Pastor Tony. I have attended many churches and listened to countless pastors preach and very few are as good at communicating as Pastor Tony.

If the One Prayer series was indicitative of the best of the best preaching in America, then we really don't realize how blessed we are. And literally, thank God for One Prayer. Pastor Tony got a study break and look what it did for him. We should support him and make sure we give him the appropriate time off on a regular basis.

All in all, I could not wait to get home and post about this amazing experience. More importantly, I can't wait to apply all that I am learning into my everyday life. I am looking forward to the rest of the series and seeing the changes in my life as well as those around me.

Great job guys!

Skills

This young man has skills.

Not only karate skills, but intellectual and people skills. He is continually on some type of Dean's list and was recently awarded the Star Citizen Award at his school.

Now he has graduated to the level of Black Belt which to me shows dedication to personal fitness, discipline of the mind and body and commitment to a higher set of values than most young men his age.

I know that his whole family is very proud of him, especially his mother and father. I just wanted to publicly announce that I am one very proud uncle. I can't wait to see the great things you will accomplish in your lifetime.

Congratulations, Nick!

I Dream in Stress

This is typical of the types of dreams I have. I'm usually in some series of situations that require me to solve some problems, sometimes the same one over and over in a groundhog day fashion. Although this one does not repeat exactly, I can't seem to get back to the hospital after my wife has a baby and I continue to go through a series of challenges.

As many of you know, my wife is 8 1/2 months pregnant. Remember, it's a dream, not a Hollywood script. It doesn't really flow or make sense all the time.

It's time. So we're at the hospital. My wife decides to leave the birthing room with all of it accoutrements and have the baby somewhere else in the hospital, away from the doctors in another room. It's some new "program", offering a more natural birth experience with just the husband and wife present. I worried sick about her and the baby.

As the time grows closer, somehow I'm momentarily distracted by my 1 1/2 year old son who has decided to show up in my dream, in the delivery room which has no doctors. (In case you are unaware, both of my daughters, then ages 4 and 2, ended up in the delivery room during his delivery, but that is just my everyday stressful real life that I can recount in another post.)

As I mentally rejoin the game, my wife is handing me the new baby that she had by herself while I was distracted. Everything seems okay. She has cleared the mouth and the midwives begin to gather and start some care. My wife charges me with getting the word out.

Next scene, I'm at my parents house informing them but I don't have all the details of the birth. Since there was no doctor present to call the birth time and weight, I don't have the freaking stats. What good is a new father, getting the word out, without the stats? So I call my wife in the hospital but she has so many visitors and calls, I'm having trouble getting through. Finally, I get the birth time and weight.

I'm trying to write it down and tell my mom at the same time. She's halfway out the door because she wants to go up to the hospital before gallivanting off on some plans she had previously made. I'm there with my dad and for some reason, we have to take the bus back to the hospital. The distance required to walk to the bus stop is putting a visible strain on him and I'm worried for his health. Along the way, I'm not sure I've got $1.25 cash for the ticket. Check my pocket, yes, a wad of 1's and 5's.

We arrive at the bus stop to find everyone from "the door" assembled to ride down to the hospital as well. (I'm talking about the whole "vagabond door troupe" here. About 20 people.) Well, the bus is taking forever to arrive at the stop. I'm looking at my watch and trying to calculate, from the birth time that I just recently found out, how long I've been gone from the hospital. About 4-5 hours. I've got to get back to the hospital.

Some bus like thing comes but it is the wrong one. I get on it to find out what the deal is and while I'm on the thing, the real bus comes. As I emerge from the fake bus, I start running for the real bus. Everyone is yelling and cheering for me and they somehow get the bus to slow down and I'm able to get on.

Well if you have ever ridden the bus, you know it does not take you to your destination, but to a hub. This hub is Colony Square Hotel in downtown Atlanta. I meet up with a few more of my personal friends who are on their way down to the hospital and are waiting on the bus.

I can't take it anymore. I've got to get back to the hospital. So in typical me fashion, I grab the concierge and tell him I need a cab. He directs me to an older guy who supposedly is a cab driver who will take me to his car. I'm taking all my people with me (the door troupe is waiting for the next bus). I better check that wad of 1's and 5's to see if I have enough. Some 10's and 20's are there. The old guy starts leading us away from the bus depot down some stairs, as the buses are rolling in.

We proceed down what seams like an unending spiral staircase to the bottom level ground transportation garage. He has a limousine waiting for us since we are a bigger crowd. I check my pocket again, there's a 100. Now he tells us to wait there while he finds the driver. I thought he was the driver. I've got to get back to the hospital.

While waiting on the driver, I can look up from the garage and see the bus stop. I notice one of my people is still over there and we begin to yell and motion to him to hurry up and come on down.

I finally wake up. Seriously people, I would have rather not gone to sleep. When you sleep in stress, how do you function during the day?

Your interpretations welcome.