24:15 How Do I Know?

“Jesus loves me, how do I know? Because my oil cap tells me so.”

Well, those might not be the exact lyrics of the Sunday school song, but that’s how I’m singing it this week. The difference between a grade-school ditty and a man’s life comes down to experience. 

One of the characteristics that Catholicism shares with our progenitor in Judaism is a practical earthiness, a visceral experience, a faith rooted in the created yet elevated all the way to the foot of the Throne of Heaven. Grace builds on nature, it does not pass it by. By the same token, we apprehend the realities of our soul through the window of our bodily senses.

In short, life happens; God is near. 

Jesus loves me, how do I know? Because when my engine light came on, I stopped at the gas station to check the oil instead of driving all the way downtown.  Imagine my surprise when I popped the hood of my car and discovered my oil cap missing. The underside of the hood was covered with a black, tarry goo and the engine was steaming with heat.


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Great Span

There is tons of construction going on the Interstate I drive to work every day. (Yes, sadly, I've been going downtown again for the last several months.)

The other day I passed by this 18-wheeler with a 30-foot (40? 50?) steel span for a bridge or overpass on its bed. Don't try to pass this guy in a narrow spot!

Amazing DIY Dams Around Mississippi Homes

You just have to see it to believe it. I admire the ingenuity of these people who went to extraordinary lengths to save their homes.

Running Ragged

Things have been hectic for about 7 weeks now. There were a lot of things I wanted to talk about, but can't seem to find time -- and then when I find time, I haven't the energy.

I've been working hard to "relax", both physically and mentally because the body doesn't take well to burning the candle at both ends. Psychological stress is worse than physical labor.

Things that should have been blog posts but are now mere blurbs:

• Mrs. Nod is recovering nicely from her bout of Shingles; as of Tuesday we will be "officially" outside of the window for the Nodlings catching the Chickenpox since half of them aren't vaccinated against that specific thing. I can't tell you how hugely relieved I am at that.

• Baby Dab's baptism -- I love a good death and resurrection!  Dab wore his "Cradle Catholic" onesie underneath the baptismal gown that I got from the blogger Alliance. Woot! you guys rock!

• Nod-girl's first holy communion -- "say, who is that highly over-trained girl?" Someone who is beautiful and radiant at receiving Our Lord for herself. Big shout out to Aunt K-Lo for doing up Nod-girl's hair first thing in the morning in record time. It looked awesome and she was sooo happy! Does that airplane get good gas mileage?

And on it goes ... hope your week is great!

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival #108

This week on Sunday Snippets, WBN presents: Lay It Down.

• Something In The Water
• 24:15 Lay It Down

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Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival is a weekly opportunity to share your best posts with the wider Catholic blogging community.
To participate, create a post highlighting posts that would be of interest to Catholics and link to the host blog at http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/. Go to the host blog and leave a comment giving a link to your post.

24:15 Lay It Down

Our eyes met over the fender as he suddenly appeared from behind the semi, merging into my lane; I knew one of us was going down.

There was a screech of brakes, an oath of surprise and anger, and a loud crunch of heavy metal meeting asphalt.  The guy laid his motorcycle down right in front of my car’s wheels and himself with it. 

I thought: Oh, no, this is it! Someone’s gonna die!

It could happen at any moment; any time could be the last, when we’re called to lay our lives down and stand before the Father.

Motorcycles are somewhat dangerous because there is no superstructure to protect you in an accident.

Bikers will tell you there are two kinds of riders: those who have laid their bike down in an accident and those who will lay their bike down.

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Something In The Water

They always tell you when you travel: Don't drink the water.

That's because when you do, the Unexpected can occur. Different microbes, different locale, the result can be unpredictable.

When a rash of people start having babies, they say there's Something in the water. In this case, if you let Love have its way, the Expected occurs. That is, you become the one who is Expecting.

First there was our Nodling #6, Dab. Then there is aka the Mom's impending #7.  

Now the newlyweds, my brother Shoe and Girl Friday, have joined the ranks of the newly expecting. 

Congratulations!

Having babies is fun, natural, exciting, terrifying, and fulfilling. It's what's Expected of the people God commanded to "be fruitful and multiply".

It's the people who choose to be purposefully Unexpecting that are actually completely predictable, dull, and unappealing -- cut off from our most interesting attributes.

But for "people like us", the Expecting, life is a bit unpredictable yet oh-so-exciting. There IS something in the water -- life.

More water, please.

Sopwith Camel

I followed a guy on my way home the other day who had this picture on the back of his car. Made me laugh, made my day. I'm so getting one of these for my "Sopwith Camel".

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival #107

This week on Sunday Snippets, WBN presents: Life's A Sigh Sometimes.

• Blessed JPII, the Awesome
• The Sheep and the Goats 
• And Then There Were Shingles

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival is a weekly opportunity to share your best posts with the wider Catholic blogging community.
To participate, create a post highlighting posts that would be of interest to Catholics and link to the host blog at http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/. Go to the host blog and leave a comment giving a link to your post

Fight Of The Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two

All the interest I have in Economic Theory can be found on the back of a cereal box.

However, this clever video pits the two most influential economists of our times against one another in an entertaining movie-boxing-rap-throw-down.

In one corner, John "Top-down" Keynes advocating more government spending and circular money flow. In the other corner, F.A. "Bottom-up" Hayek supporting less government spending and demand-based economy.

Not sure who's the winner, but Econ 101 would have stuck with me better with a video like this.

h/t Thoughts of a Regular Guy

And Then There Were Shingles

My project has had me working long hours, including overtime.

The volunteering I've been doing for Wynken's Boy Scout troop had me burning the candle at both ends. As my stress level goes up, my muscles get tighter and tighter and my exercise quotient drops near zero making the problem ten times worse.

Now I have knots in my neck, shoulders, hamstrings, and lower back. Even my knots have little knot buddies that multiply. Now my neck is pulled and I can't turn my head to the left or hold the baby in my left arm.

In the midst of my pity party, Mrs. Nod came down with a case of Shingles. Because when I'm not available, the full weight of running the household falls on her, stress rises, sickness ensues.

[WebMD] What is shingles?

Shingles (herpes zoster) is a viral infection of the nerve roots. It causes pain and often causes a rash on one side of the body, the left or right. The rash appears in a band, a strip, or a small area. Shingles is most common in older adults and people who have weak immune systems because of stress, injury, certain medicines, or other reasons. Most people who get shingles will get better and will not get it again.

What causes shingles?

Shingles occurs when the virus that causes chickenpox starts up again in your body. After you get better from chickenpox, the virus "sleeps" (is dormant) in your nerve roots. In some people, it stays dormant forever. In others, the virus "wakes up" when disease, stress, or aging weakens the immune system. It is not clear why this happens. But after the virus becomes active again, it can only cause shingles, not chickenpox.

You can't catch shingles from someone else who has shingles. But a person with a shingles rash can spread chickenpox to another person who hasn't had chickenpox and who hasn't gotten the chickenpox vaccine.

So, yeah, she's got that bad movie sequel: The Return of Chickenpox.  Her eye is swollen half-shut with blisters and itching and general oozing nastiness. (But only on the left side -- shingles is like that.) So if it doesn't get into her actual eye/optic nerve, then she won't go blind. (How's that for the sunny side?)

For complicated reasons, the girl Nodlings only lack the vaccine against ... Chickenpox. Worse yet, baby Dab spends 95% of his time glued to Mrs. Nod's side. If he gets it, he could get very, very sick.

We'll know how bad it's going to be after the incubation period in about 2 weeks (just in time for Nod-girl's First Communion).


Oy! Ora pro nobis.

The Sheep and the Goats

The Sheep and the Goats. Lest you think this is a reflection on Matthew 25:31-46, worthy though that be, let me assure you this is about cuisine.

I've eaten many sheep: mutton, lamb chops, doner kebab, rogan josh and so on. Lamb is scrumptiously delicious with garlic, curry, or even mint jelly. Sheep may be dumb, but they are tasty, tasty.


This weekend I ate goat curry. Yup, you read that right: goat. The sole reason for eating it was simply because I could. I've also tried deer, elk, rattlesnake, buffalo, pheasant, and foie gras, just to name a few.

Goats will eat anything, including tin cans and have a reputation for being rather ornery. The meat is darker and tougher than lamb (I hesitate to call it stringy), slightly gamy but not bad. I had it in a stewed curry dish from an Indian restaurant. The curry was nice and spicy.  My chief complaint was that the goat meat was stewed bone-in, so there are a number of small bones that you have to eat around and pick out.


I'm glad I tried it, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to order it again. However, to be fair, I do like goat cheese quite a bit.


So to sum up: lamb is king; goat is second rate.

The Irony Is Huge

An important event happened today...

I don't believe in any coordinated conspiracy by human agents, but I find it hugely ironic that the death of Osama Bin Laden was announced on the beatification of Pope John Paul II.

You need news of this magnitude in order to deflect the attention away from JP II. The same thing happened on the death of Mother Teresa which was eclipsed by the death of Princess Diana.

Just sayin' ...

Blessed JPII, the Awesome

Everybody is waxing eloquent today on the Beatification of Bl. Pope John Paul II,  purposefully coincident with Divine Mercy Sunday.

Nothing I can say can add to his stature, but for me his papacy was always very personal. I saw him first with my own eyes as a child when I was 8 years old in Ephesus, Turkey near Selcuk at the House of the Virgin Mary (Meryemana). I sat on my father's shoulders to see him.

Having reined as Pope for 26 years and most of my adult life, he will always be in my mind, The Pope.
We have prayed for the repose of his soul every day since his death. On the occasion of his beatification by Pope Benedict XVI and the Church we offer thanks to Almighty God.

We have only one thing left to pray for: Santo Subito!

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival #106

This week on Sunday Snippets, WBN presents: Hard, Easy, & Hard Answers.

• Senomyx Soylent Green Update
• 24:15 More Joe Six-Pack Answers 
• Liberalism, Intolerance, and Despotism

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival is a weekly opportunity to share your best posts with the wider Catholic blogging community.
To participate, create a post highlighting posts that would be of interest to Catholics and link to the host blog at http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/. Go to the host blog and leave a comment giving a link to your post