FBEP Winter Term 2009

I applied for all 5 weeks of Faith Builders Winter Term 2009. I feel somewhat insane about this venture, but I believe God has been leading me to this for a while. Frightening, it is.

New Conspiracy Theory

I guess it was last week that an older guy came in with his dog. I gave the dog a vaccine, both patient and client were very nice. When the fellow went out to pay his bill, he commented that the church was taking over now.
When asked what he meant, he commented that "you have another one of them here."

I had seen his dog on a previous occasion, and I guess he thought the me he saw last week was a different person.

If the fellow saw this broadcast, he might really be concerned:




The church is taking over...

Tomorrow I will dress up as a clinic sabotageur for Halloween. Which is to say I will do nothing for Halloween except keep the lights down in my house to deter tricktreaters.

Empire Mine SHP Pictures

Must post a few pics from Oct 18.

1) The main shaft of the Empire Mine. This part of the mine was bolstered by tram car rails from San Francisco, obtained by the mine's owner after the SF Earthquake in the early 20th century.


2a) The Empire Mine "Cottage", where the mine's owner stayed when visiting the Grass Valley area. That's my brother by the door.


2b) Backside of the "Cottage"


3a) The reflecting pool down the hill from the front of the "Cottage"


3b) The water source for the reflecting pool.


3c) The brother reflecting in the reflecting pool.


4) Stamp mill on the premises

Things Thought Impossible

In Bible study this week we studied the way that God works through "impossible" situations. The base topic was Moses, the Israelites, and how God moved them out of Egypt toward the promised land.
I thought of the parting of the Red Sea story in a different way than ever before. For some reason I never realized that God actually plotted, schemed to get the Israelites into what looked like a humanly impossible situation... in order to demonstrate his glory before the Egyptions/Israelites. God actually brought the Israelites up to the Sea, to a place from which they could not, theoretically, easily escape. Instead of immediately opening a pathway through the Sea, God had them wait as the Egyptians came toward them. Then, of course, the Israelites complained, and God started blowing the waters back with a wind. In the meantime, it seems that a dark cloud kept the Egyptians from realizing that this was going on, and kept the Egyptians from attacking the Israelites. And you know the rest of the story.

Well, I saw God's hand at work this week... and it made me excited. Almost jumping up and down excited. I guess the story actually goes back a couple weeks.
My friend VS's dad (ES) is in Vancouver, WA for chemo/rad treatments. He's been kind of alone up there, away from the Winston Menno. Church people, away from his daughter, etc. That's got to be hard, to stay encouraged and all. VS spent the weekend with me about a month ago, and we went to see ES. But once a month isn't often enough to keep someone encouraged. So I prayed for ES, and hoped there would be some way others could visit.
I mentioned him at Hopewell MC a few weeks back, asking for prayer/visiting of VS's dad. I suppose I didn't have much faith that anyone would follow through on the visiting part... too much to ask, of course. No one at Hopewell even knows ES. The praying I suspected would happen.
But it so happens that MZ lives in Vancouver... got ES's info... and has been visiting him weekly, to the great encouragement and blessing of ES. And he even brought ES to Hopewell MC for church on Sunday. It is, in reality, more than I asked for. Definitely more than I had faith for... And God once again has shown his love for each of his children, by working out the details.

He also reminds me to have more faith. I almost didn't mention ES at church that Sunday.

God also worked another miracle for me over the weekend, in a situation that I pray he will continue to move in and give me wisdom for.

Singing, Sewing, Maggots... and Footage

I just returned from practice with the Roseburg Concert Chorale. I felt good about this session, unlike some others. Perhaps it helped that we stood for most of the singing, and we sang as a group the whole night instead of in sectionals. Some of the songs are really going well.
It also helps that I am singing alto instead of tenor this term. Last spring I "sang" tenor and it did not go very well. I'm not used to reading notes down that low, and my voice always felt tightened and stiff after practice. Alto is much more within my range -- I actually feel like I can belt it out, and contribute some degree of note reading to the group.

It's late, I haven't eaten dinner, so don't mind my ramblings. I shall make only small attempt to write in proper, well-balanced sentences with adequate but not excessive punctuation.

This past week has been out of the ordinary, I must say.

It started 10/20/08 with an emergency call -- cat with maggots crawling inside a couple maggot-produced holes in the skin which had urine scald. Nasty. Bring out the gloves (which I rarely use even for abscesses -- hand washing works fine most of the time), the shaver, the spray nozzle -- and the sedation (for cat), of course. Last I heard, the cat was doing well. The owner is very devoted, but the cat is partly wild which made it hard for owner to take good care of the cat.
I was on call 10/21-23 of last week, but did not see any other emergencies.

I spent a couple evenings sewing a dress for my friend VS, a sophomore at a local highschool. The dress was intended for homecoming -- we decided to make a dress instead of buy one, after browsing through at least 3 Ross Dress for Less's and finding nothing suitable. Whoever designs dresses these days doesn't apply much knowledge of aesthetics, much less modesty. On 10/23 I drove to L. Roth's house to try the dress on VS. I made appropriate adjustments, finishing on 10/23 by about 10 pm. I still had to buy white ribbon for a waist-band... so my Wally World got my patronage, unfortunately, in order to purchase this item. (I prefer to boycott WalMart, but am sometimes weak or find that nothing else is open at 10:30 pm. Sigh.) I dropped the dress off at LR's house. Who knows if VS wore it.

Rats, I was interviewed twice last week about pigeon fever. The first time, simply over the phone. The second time... video taped.

It was on Friday (10/24). I tried to get out of it. I told the reporter that I had never seen, never treated a case of pigeon fever. I didn't know the juicy details about the cases currently going on in Douglas County. Dr H would be a much better subject. Yes, I will call Dr H and see if he can do it.... But, alas, Dr H was unavailable until the afternoon and the reporter wanted the interview in the a.m. Welllllll.... okay. And thusly I agreed to be the subject.

It really wasn't all that bad. I guess. I assured the guy that I wouldn't be watching so I wouldn't know if he used the footage of me or not. I would not know, so I would not be offended.
But they used a small blurb of me... little did I know that this was not solely for local stations... it was broadcast in Eugene, too. The positive thing is that most of my friends don't watch TV... so at least I was spared their viewing of the atrocity. Oh, but here you can see it. I think it's probably bad. It talk too fast breathe deeply between statements. It is merciful that the computer I am using does not have sound.

See week discussion continued on next post...

October Trip Installment 2

Saturday (10/18) -- the day of the Great Anniversary Surprise. But this was not to occur until the evening, which left Matt and me time to pursue other attractions in the mean time.

We visited with Grandma V for a bit over an hour. We then traveled to Grass Valley, CA, which is the town nearest Nevada City where the GrAnSu was to take place.

Matt and I spent three ('89-'92) of our formative years in Nevada City, an historic mining town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. I am very partial to this place -- would classify it as the best place I've lived so far. It's always fun and sadly nostalgic to revisit NC and GV, roam the streets, see the houses we used to live in, the schools we used to go to, the libraries we frequented. See also this posting regarding the area.

When we were young and Dad worked at Hennessy Elementary School, we used to pick up pasties for dinner and go meet him at his office. We always went to King Richards Pasties which was next door to the school. This shop now being out of business, we went to Marshall's Pasties in downtown Grass Valley for the true pasty experience.

It turns out that Marshall's Pasties is more authentic than King Richards was, having had the same owners for 40 years. There was a long-standing rivalry between the two businesses. We had a great time talking to the server and her brother (who stopped by for lunch during his work day), both members of the owning family. A very scintillating discussion was had about the Amish, Catholics, Christianity, pasties, and politics.

Brother and I then went to the Empire Mine State Historic Park (pictures to follow), which is next door to Calvary Bible Church. It seems I was there some time in the last 11 years, but my brother opines that he has not been there since 1992. Both potential facts may be true. If I haven't been there since 1992 then my memory serves me better than I woulda thought and it is possible that I have dreamt of the place which may have made my experiences there seem more recent. If I was there in 1997 then my memory is worse than perhaps it should be.

On this occasion, we took a look at the historic mining equipment; wandered into the mine itself (which extends almost a mile below the ground surface, making it over 2000 feet below sea level at the lowest part! obviously we didn't go very far inside); evaluated the reflecting pool (which is full of black moss but which reflects nonetheless), the "cottage" (a very nice stone structure where the owner of the mine lived on vacations from San Francisco or something; people should make more houses like it today) and the surrounding gardens; and took a walk near the cyanide-impregnated land. This land seems to contain a new shaft leading down to a branch off the main mine shaft. The new shaft was developed for a train car ride which is to bear people deep into the mine, but they have not yet opened this ride to the public. We conjecture this may be due to new opposition because of the cyanide soil. If we had been bad we would have entered the central construction zone and have found the tunnel... but we did not.

Part of the reason for visiting this park was to rack up steps on my brother's pedometer. He is in a competition at work, and aiming for some thousands of steps per day. Friday we fell far short of his desired amount, so we had to make up for it. We hiked the Osborne Hill trail, which led us to the back of Calvary Bible Church property, and then headed for the NCNGRR Museum where set-up was occuring for the GrAnSu.

October's Trip Installment 1

I've been to California four times in the last year. I like California. I don't like the way people drive in Cali's "big cities," but 'tis the state of my nativity and a sunnier place than Oregon.

Last Thursday (10/16), Matt drove down to my place where we had a good time eating garden burgers and listening to Coast to Coast AM (there are some somewhat wacky people exhibited on this show -- I would highly recommend it). I was on call but not called that evening, which made for appropriate levels of sleep in preparation for the trip the following day.

We set off Friday morning. I stopped in at my clinic to tie off some loose ends, then continued south to Canyonville where I went to the casino (Seven Feathers).
That's right, to the casino. Please, no panicking readers. In reality, the casino makes me ill. A bunch of mature adults grubbing for money and wasting money in the process. It so happens that I had for the place a $75 gift certificate which needed cashing. Not desiring to eat there or spend the night there (!!), I spent the certificate at the gift gallery. Now, is it hypocritical to even do that? My thought is I'd be supporting the casino more by not cashing in on the gift certificate... I don't think the casino people like having me there. They tend to glare at me as if they think I'm there to condemn the establishment (which I do) or to plant a bomb (which I do not do). Gift certificate produced: pancake mix for grandparents, hacky sacks (x2), socks for mom/me/my young cousin, Oregon hiking book, etc.

We blasted through northern California -- not so much with regard to speed as with regard to not stopping much. We did no hiking that day.

We saw my paternal grandmother Friday night/Saturday morning. She appreciated this, but it is always stressful for her when we visit because she wants to do stuff for and give stuff to us and she does not have it in her power to do so. It is testimony to her giving personality, which in the past produced two rather spoiled grandchildren (tennis lessons, horse back riding lessons, toys, crafts stuff, Marriott's Great America, etc.).

Friday night was amusing, in hindsight.
Matt got some hotel phone numbers from Mom, who got them off Google. He made a reservation at a Days Inn, presumably in Novato, CA. We had some difficulty finding the place -- could not find the required exit. We drove past a Days Inn, and then went to it -- it had the address listed online. Lo, they had not a reservation for us. Hmmm.... turns out the Novato Days Inn is listed on Google with the phone number of a Days Inn near Cupertino, at which place Matt had made the reservation. Reservation canceled, reservation made, and we were set. There was a wedding party going on in the hotel lounge, bashing, crashing music and all. Be thankful for curfews and thick walls! There were six (!) pillows on the bed, so I stole 4 of them to accompany me on the floor while the brother made use of the bed.
On Saturday... see installment 2, coming soon.

Book Worm -- Wormy Books

I went to the friends of the library book-sale yesterday at the Douglas County Library, in spite of previous worries that I would be unable to do so due to my schedule. I squeezed it in after an alpaca cria check -- yay!

A bag of books for $2 -- hard to beat. Among numerous less worthwhile books I got Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (same one my parents had as I grew up), Robinson Crusoe, Twice Told Tales (Nathaniel Hawthorne), and Hamlet. This summer I finished the other books obtained last year at the same sale.