Happy Birthday Honey

Today I am grateful for my husband, Terry. Today just also happens to be his birthday. So, for my fourteenth day of my ‘Thirty Days of Thankfulness‘ series, I will take you on a walk down memory lane.

I met Terry in the fall of 1983, just a few weeks after leaving home in Leavenworth County to attend college at Wichita State University. My first room mate in my dorm was a valley girl; seriously, she was from that infamous valley in Southern California. We couldn’t have been more different, but we made the best of it. She invited me out one weekend and we tried one of the local clubs called Backstage. Remember all that horrible pop music from the 80s … everytime I hear Lover Boy or Duran Duran or Def Leppard, I flashback to that night.

I wandered around while Jill fit right in. I ended up in the balcony, watching the lighted dance floor. A guy approached me and asked my name. I told him it was Jon. His immediate reply was ‘Don’t give me that shit.’ I was a bit taken aback by his aggresive response, but I was also used to people’s unbelief in my name. I whipped out my driver’s license, which I had placed in my back pocket, having left my purse locked in Jill’s Volkswagon bug. After a somewhat rocky start, we spent the evening dancing and talking.

Over the next few months, I got to know Terry very well. He took me out on his dirt bike to the motocross courses carved out of the Big Ditch by him and his buddies. I listened to him play his Ibanez Artist (the same one he still owns and plays) and his trumpet. I’m still amazed at his musical abilities, which he seems to have passed on to our daughter, Rachelle.

Three years after meeting Terry, we had our first child, Derek. By that time, we had moved in with his father, whose health was beginning to decline after years of smoking. We purchased a house in Benton (about twelve or fifteen miles east of Wichita) and soon after Rachelle was born. We spent several good years in Benton, until we discovered Terry’s health took a nose dive. After months of test and inconclusive diagnoses, a hematologist determined Terry had sarcoidosis, but not of the ‘normal’ variety which attacks most people’s lungs; rather, his variant attacked his kidneys.

Faced with the prospect of a chronically ill spouse who would probably need my help to cope, I felt I needed a support network or safety net to help with raising Derek and Rachelle. With the passing of Terry’s father in 1991, that left only his sister living within an hour of us. I had no family living in or near Wichita. I also knew I could make quite a bit more income moving to a larger metropolitan area like Kansas City.

I found a new job without too much stress or effort, but selling our house became a problem. Terry and Derek stayed behind in Benton. Terry single-handedly remodeled our one hundred year old farm house as best he could, while still suffering from the effects of his disease. Rachelle moved in with my parents and I worked a ton of hours, sleeping in my brother’s attic and visit my parents (and Rachelle) on the weekends. Finally, in the fall of 1997, we were reunited, renting a house in Lansing so the kids could attend school in that school district. We also ended up renting the Benton, House, since we could not find a buyer before Terry and Derek migrated north.

Terry soon found a job working for H&R Block’s call center in Lenexa. He steadily moved up the chain of command, but suffered the axe during a reorganization and lay offs in the early 00s. We did manage to find a beautiful home to purchase in Lansing and some nice automobiles (including a luxurious Buick Park Avenue Ultra and a nearly new Firebird Formula). Terry joined the local SCCA and won F stock in Solo II and Rookie of the Year.

Terry found local judo and jujitsu instructors for both Derek and Rachelle on post. He fully supported Derek as he competed locally, regionally and nationally as a judoka and in wrestling at Lansing High School.

We also joined a local church and eventually became the inaugural members of the praise band for the expanded contemporary service of that church. That endeavor forged a lasting friendship between Terry and the bass player, Sean. Even though neither of them play for that particular praise band, they still play together in their band WolfGuard.

We’ve come full circle now, with the children grown, off on their own, either married or still pursuing a college education. We’re left with the Rotts and a nearly empty house. Thanks to Terry’s previous experience in construction and at least two other remodels (his father’s house and our other house in Benton), he is once again putting his expertise to good use as we update our home in Lansing.

For a guy the doctor’s almost gave up on over fifteen years ago, he’s still kicking and still looking good. I thank God every day he’s still with me.

Happy Birthday Honey!

God’s Gift

Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish!

Ephesians 2:8 (The Message)

I am eternally grateful for God’s gift of grace, today and every day. So I will pause and reflect on my thirteenth day of ‘Thirty Days of Thankfulness‘ upon faith and grace.

As I imparted a week ago in my post on John and Charles Wesley, I am a Methodist, born baptized and raised one. Yet until I studied to be a local Lay Speaker for my local church that I fully understood what it meant to be a Methodist and showed me the path of discipleship.

Grace can be defined as the love and mercy given to us by God because God wants us to have it, not because of anything we have done to earn it.

Our Wesleyan Theological Heritage, UMC.org

Grace centers nearly all Christian sects and denominations. To me, it boils down to love and compassion. Keep it simple, please. Less chance for me to mess up.

But Wesley, ever the scholar, took it one or two steps farther, defining grace in triplicate:

Previent Grace: God’s active presence in our lives; a gift always available, but that can be refused.
Justifying Grace: Reconciliation, pardon and restoration through the death of Jesus Christ.
Sanctifying Grace: The ongoing experience of God’s gracious presence transforming us into whom God intends us to be; we grow and mature in our ability to live as Jesus lived.

Excerpts from Our Wesleyan Theological Heritage via UMC.org

The journey, not the destination, and Wesley provided the map, charting a course that even I can follow, called the Means of Grace. He broke his method down into two broad categories: Works of Piety and Works of Mercy. The former flows naturally out of my upbringing, Sunday school classes and worship service attendance. The personal practices of prayer, Bible study, healthy living and fasting together with the communal ones of Holy Communion, Baptism and participation in the Christian community, flow and grow naturally with regular usage. The latter stresses the outpouring of service to the sick, the poor, the imprisoned and seeking justice for the oppressed.

Yes, there was and is a method to Wesley’s ‘madness’ or rather his enthusiasm to follow God’s will and His vision for all of us, as His disciples, to bring His kingdom of mercy, peace and love to fruition here on Earth.

So Long Samsung; Welcome Whirlpool!

On the twelfth day of my ‘Thirty Days of Thankfulness‘ I am very grateful for our brand new refrigerator.

We finally received our exchange from Sears for the Samsung we purchased back in May as a 25th anniversary shared gift. Six months of dealing with overseas customer service representatives, five damaged and defective Samsungs (including the first one and the last one which was an upgrade to the next better model), abuse from the automated telephone system at Sears for weeks on end and a lost or closed case file.

We had finally reached an agreement with Sears to switch brands (from Samsung to Whirlpool) when all communication ceased for several weeks. Out of the blue, in late October, Terry received a call from his case manager. We were in the queue to receive the exchange and should receive a call in the next few days to schedule the delivery. This past Monday we finally got the call and this morning the new Whirlpool refrigerator was delivered and installed on time and without blemishes or defects.

Second of Five Samsungs Delivered (and Returned)

With all the trouble we went through during the summer and early fall, we had decided to never ever buy anything from Sears again. In fact, Terry threatened the customer service representatives more than once with selling all of his Craftsmen tools (several thousand dollars worth) and replacing them with Snap-On tools. We had resigned ourselves to living with the defective and disappointing Samsung and leaving said refrigerator with the house when we sell it. However, we have rescinded our previous plans and will take the Whirlpool with us whenever we move.

To All Veterans: Thank You For Your Service and Courage

I wish to honor and humbly thank all our veterans, past, present and future, for their sacrifice, courage and service in the United States Armed Forces, securing freedom and justice for all.

I find it fitting to publish my eleventh post in my Thirty Days of Thankfulness series at exactly the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year of the twenty-first century also known as Veterans Day. As noted in an excellent post by a fellow blogger (ProSe), in less than three years we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, misnamed ‘the War to End All Wars.’ If you ever get a chance to visit the Liberty Memorial, a memorial to the fallen soldiers of WWI, in Kansas City, Missouri, I highly recommend you make a visit to the National World War I museum housed beneath the memorial. Our modern day Veterans Day grew out of Armistice Day which commemorated the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany, ending World War I, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918.

That Special Veteran in My Life

RonPromoted2Colonel — Ron promoted to Colonel during Desert Storm

I am especially thankful for my uncle and his service in the United States Air Force. Thanks to his various deployments around the United States (and the world), I got to see most of the lower forty-eight states before I turned sixteen. Nearly all our family vacations ventured to various Air Force bases in Montana, Arizona, Florida, Virginia and Colorado. I remember when he was deployed to Thailand during the Vietnam War. I caught pneumonia when we visited Ron in Panama City, Florida, because it actually snowed in Florida that year and was warmer back in Kansas and my mom didn’t think we would need any heavy winter clothes. I also remember corresponding electronically with him while at college in 1984 via the university’s Digital Equipment Corporation VAX while he was deployed to Aviano, Italy, years before most of the world even dreamed about the Internet or e-mail or instant messaging or text messaging. I received Christmas cards from all over the world, including Saudi Arabia before the first Gulf War. I worried about him then and during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. I attended his retirement celebration held at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Even though Ron wasn’t a pilot, I grew up wanting to be a jet fighter pilot or an astronaut. I didn’t find out until my teens that women weren’t allowed to do the former (because it involved combat) and the latter involved way more science than I wanted to tackle then, although the math would have appealed.

For the last dozen years, Ron has enjoyed his retirement as a watercolor artist, a writer and a grandfather to five grand children with a sixth on the way (two girls and twin boys recently born to his son Wendell and his wife Kristin; as well as a girl from his son Eric and his wife Cayla, who is expecting their second child early next year). When he’s not painting or writing or bouncing grandchildren on his knee, he reads much more than I do. We discuss and debate shared reads and flip books each other’s way either by media mail postal rate or electronically via our Nook Colors. When we actually get together for a family visit, I love to hear his stories about his father Ralph’s service during WWII and after as well as his own adventures around the world.

Yesterday, in his daily e-mail to family and friends, he remembered how much tougher military personnel have it today than when he was on active duty. Ron did two years of nastiness (amid eleven years of overseas duty) out of his thirty year military career. Soldiers today will spend half of their enlistment or career getting shot at.

Thank You Veterans!

Friday Jeans Day Charity: Epilepsy Foundation

November is National Epilepsy Awareness Month.

Epilepsy, which affects between two and three million people in the United States, is characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures.

Today, Friday, 11/11/11, my employer is accepting donations for the Epilepsy Foundation as our ‘jeans day’ fund raiser. This foundation works to ensure that people with seizures are able to participate in all life experiences; to improve how people with epilepsy are perceived, accepted and valued in society; and to promote research for a cure. The Epilepsy Foundation is funded primarily through individual donations from the general public and receives restricted grant support from the federal government, foundations and private industry.

Please join me in in supporting this charity, to help raise awareness and support those afflicted with epilepsy.

Home, Sweet Home

Thank God I have a roof over my head!

On the tenth day of my ‘Thirty Days of Thankfulness‘ I wish to express my gratitude for my home, my abode, my sanctuary, my castle. Since February of 1999, my family has lived in the house pictured at the left. For the last two years, only my husband and me and two Rottweilers rattle around inside.

For the past several months, we’ve been repairing and remodeling, mostly on the exterior, but we’re starting on the interior now. We initially had the roof replaced to fix a few leaks, but the major leak near the fireplace remained unresolved, even though every roofing contractor claimed they could tell right were the leak was and swore it was the roof that was leaking. We finally called a chimney expert who determined our cap was leaking as well as needing some cracked fire brick replaced and some of the brick tuck-pointed. After waiting nearly two months for a torrential downpour (which we received two days ago), we are very happy to report we are completely waterproof around the fireplace. The hole we’ve had in the great room ceiling for the last ten years can now be repaired in confidence.

I am blessed. My entire life, I have always had someplace to call home, shelter from the storms of nature and life. From a small farm house in rural Leavenworth County, to a dorm room at Wichita State University, to a duplex in south Wichita, to my husband’s family home in north Wichita, to another farm house in Benton, back to Leavenworth County, splitting my weekdays in my brother’s attic and my weekends either at my parents, where my daughter lived for a year, or back in Benton to visit Terry and Derek, to a rental house in Lansing and finally to our current home. I never left Kansas, except to travel. Depending on what the real estate market does in the next few years, that may change. I hope to follow my daughter to wherever she is accepted for graduate school so I can finally attend her vocal performances in person.

Helping the Homeless

The world’s population reached seven billion people recently. Seven billion people, many of whom do not have the assurance of a roof over their head or food to sustain them. In America, it is so easy to become complacent and blinded to the plight of the poor, the homeless, the huddled masses right under our noses. You don’t have to look farther than the street corner you just drive by to see the writing on the cardboard. And it’s only gotten worse during the ‘Great Recession’ despite all the political posturing in Washington that does little to provide relief for their suffering. But I’m not one to wait on the government to do what I should be doing in the first place.

What’s the biggest problem and solution facing the world today? I am. If I made more of an effort to support charities and volunteer my time, then surely I would make a difference, however small, in someone’s life. I encourage you to embrace that concept.

Here are a few of the charities I actively support as I am able (from local to international):

The Salvation Army (Leavenworth, Kansas)
City Union Mission (Kansas City, Missouri)
Habitat for Humanity (Kansas City metro area) – Their vision is a world where everyone has a decent place to live.
Heifer International‘s mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth. By giving families a hand-up, not just a hand-out, we empower them to turn lives of hunger and poverty into self-reliance and hope.
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
Samaritan’s Purse – Operation Christmas Child – You still have time to pack a shoebox and track it worldwide!

CQD

On the ninth day of my ‘Thirty Days of Thankfulness‘ I am grateful for the discovery of radio waves by James Clerk Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz way back in the mid 19th century, which I benefit from abundantly via multiple wireless communications arrays and devices. I personally use on a daily basis a cell phone, a Nook Color and a laptop, all of which connect me to the Internet and ultimately my family and friends all without wires. I subscribe to satellite television and I listen to local radio stations via my car stereo system. I setup my own wireless router with appropriate security and even added a guest wireless network for visiting family and friends. I am a licensed amateur radio operator who can communicate with other operators with the right radio equipment, antennas and atmospheric conditions (for some frequencies). Who you gonna call to get the word out during the next zombie apocalypse? Me and my amateur radio buddies, that’s who!

Amateur Radio

I followed my dad around as much as I could when I was little. Truth be told, there wasn’t much else to do way out in the country with no neighbors close enough to have any kids to play with. Poor Dad! Stuck with a daughter in tow while he visited friends, or did electrical wiring, or help raise an antenna tower, or change the light bulbs for the local baseball field, or … you get the picture. I earned the nickname ‘go-fer’ fairly early on. It came naturally that I would end up studying to take the test to become a licensed amateur radio operator. If I remember correctly, I earned that license before I got my permanent driver’s license. Back then, you still had to learn Morse code.

Emergency Communications

In the U.S., during an emergency, amateur radio operators can provide essential communication to help preserve the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available and may use any frequency including those of other radio services such as police and fire communications. Similarly, amateurs in the United States may apply to be registered with the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS). Once approved and trained, these amateurs also operate on US government military frequencies to provide contingency communications and morale message traffic support to the military services.

Which brings me to the top news story for today. For the first time ever in the United States the Emergency Alert System will conduct a nation-wide test. The test will occur at two o’clock Eastern time (that’s one o’clock for me and all my neighbors here in the Heart of America). EAS provides a national warning system, as well as local weather emergencies, and allows the President of the United States to speak to citizens within ten minutes in the event of a national emergency.

And in case you’re wondering what the title of this article means, CQD was one of the first adopted distress calls. CQ is familiar to most ham radio operators because it means ‘calling all hams’ but CQD expands on that and means ‘calling all distress.’

No, I’m not sending out a general SOS or mayday.

This was only a test.

I Keep Looking Up

MySkyDirectlyOverhead1230am08Nov2011 — View from my backyard, directly overhead, facing west/northwest at 12:30 am Tue 08 Nov 2011

The first thing I do when I exit a building is look up. The only time I don’t do this is during inclement weather (usually defined as rain or snow or just overcast, but even clouds can be interesting). I try to locate the moon, if it’s supposed to be visible. If I can hear a flying vehicle (helicopter or prop plane or jet), I search the skies for them as well. I’ve given myself a crick in my neck and no few twisted ankles gazing skywards instead of watching where I was going. And my family just thought I was klutzy growing up. I decided to feature astronomy and telescopes for my eighth day of ‘Thirty Days of Thankfulness‘ series. The graphic to the left displays the skies above my house as they should appear the moment this post is published. If you’re reading this soon after it’s published, you’re either an insomniac or living down under. I will be sound asleep.

Asteroid Close-Up

Best seen from North America, the little asteroid 2005 YU55 will race far across the constellations in just 11 hours. Sky & Telescope illustration

The big news for today is an asteroid visitor flying close to the Earth, inside the perimeter of the Moon’s orbit. The Sky & Telescope web page article includes a chart and instructions for observing the asteroid (best seen from North America and the instructions even mention Kansas and Kansas City by name!). Look for it late in the day (near sunset).

Sun, Moon, Planets, Stars, Comets, Meteors

I am still blessed with good eyesight, at least of the far-seeing variety. My ability to read without assistance ended about five years ago thanks to my aging lenses in my aging eyeballs. Growing up with the space race in the 60s and 70s gave me not so much the astronaut bug but the astronomy one. I remember the first moon landing in 1969 and the first space shuttle launch in 1981. I still have the National Geographic magazines that featured the stunning photographs of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Neptune and Uranus from the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM). My grandfather, Daniel, worked for NASA‘s Ames Research Center as a glass blower and some of his work now rests on Mars from either the Mariner or the Viking missions.

Telescopes

I received my first telescope in the mid 70s as a Christmas gift from my dad. It was a three inch refractor that allowed me to view the moon, the planets and even a solar eclipse (by use of a clip-on white metal plate to project the image of the sun onto and avoid any eye damage). My parents stored the telescope while I was at college and while I started my family. Eventually, they brought it down to our home in Benton, where it sat neglected for the most part thanks to raising kids and working full-time. Sometime during the 90s, or during the move back to Leavenworth County, the telescope was either damaged or lost or both.

Last year, as a birthday present, my father purchased a very nice Meade ETX-90 with several accessories and eyepieces, including an SLR digital camera (Pentax K100D – sans lenses). After a few months of fiddling and fine-tuning, I decided I could benefit from the wisdom of others and became a member of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City in the spring of this year. I tend to participate virtually and silently (for the most part) by following the group discussions and reading the monthly Cosmic Messenger newsletter I made it to two meetings this year and have not visited the Powell Observatory or tried the dark sky site, mostly because the cost of gasoline remained high and the weather for most of the summer did not cooperate by providing clear skies for optimal viewing opportunities.

Astro-Vacations

Provided the world does not end next year, I plan to take a vacation involving astronomical observing and camping. We might attend something like the Texas Star Party or just spend a week near Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. I even thought of finding a camp site in the Flint Hills, because when we drove back north through them in early October, the skies were crystal clear and very dark,, with few trees to obstruct the horizon.

Smile! You’re About to be Victimized by My Camera

My brother, me, my grandmother and my cousin (Photo taken by my father, developed and printed in his darkroom in the 70s)

On my seventh day of ‘Thirty Days of Thankfulness‘ I am thankful for cameras and photography. I was exposed to photographic equipment (in more ways the one) from an early age. My father had a dark room and quite a bit of photographic gear. He did weddings and local school functions (for Homecoming and the prom) and helped out the yearbook staff with snapshots from sporting events and music department concerts. I learned to take direction (how to tilt my head, where to focus my eyes) at an early age. Naturally, I inherited this fascination with capturing electromagnetic radiation.

Second Generation Shutterbug

I am a poor excuse for a photographer, even an amateur one. I like to think I have a good eye for spotting a great photograph, I just don’t always have the right equipment with me, or remember how to use said photographic equipment to it’s fullest potential. I really have no excuse, considering I am a second generation shutterbug. For years, I’ve heard stories from my dad and uncle about my grandfather’s photographic exploits before, during and after WWII. I sent them each an e-mail requesting more detailed information and they gladly provided the following tidbits:

My father told me my grandfather, Ralph, became a photographer while attending Leavenworth High School during the 1930s. He also worked and learned from a local Leavenworth camera shop and portrait studio called Star Studio. My uncle added that photography during the 30s was still an arcane, complicated and a very hands-on hobby/profession.

Even with film purchased from commercial sources, photographic developing and printing (separate processes) involved the precise mixing of chemicals and control of temperature and humidity to develop and fix the image on the film, and to develop and fix the image on the paper. Both processes—plus the actual exposure of the photo-sensitive paper to the projected image from the developed film—required rigorous control of environmental conditions. Ralph took pictures for the Leavenworth High School year book. In 1937, Ralph won statewide (Kansas) honors as the top (or one of the top) science students in public high schools.

Both my dad and uncle confirmed that after graduating, Ralph also worked for the local newspaper, the Leavenworth Times as well as continuing at Star Studio. Some of his work appeared in the paper.

WWII Army Photographer, Ralph Andrea — Ralph Andrea, WWII Army Photographer

My father remembers Ralph being stationed in the Pacific, specifically, New Guinea, during WWII as photo support of air corp operations. For a short time, Ralph stayed in Japan as part of the Occupation forces. During the Cold War, Ralph returned to active duty in the Air Force for Korea, but conducted his work from here in the U.S. Ralph stayed in the Air Force until retirement in 1968, being stationed to various sites around the world, working as tech and photo resource.

My dad remembered Ralph’s equipment best. Ralph had several cameras including a 4×5 Speed Graphic; an Argus C3, an early 35mm; and, he did some early color work during WWII, before the film was available to the public. Ralph held a patent on a modification to the old flash bulb to keep them from going off when in close proximity to radar equipment.

My uncle relates more detailed information regarding Ralph’s military service: With the onset of World War Two, Ralph volunteered for duty in the US Army Air Corps, enlisting at Sherman Field on Fort Leavenworth. Because of his experience with highly technical photography, he was elected for further training both as a photographer and as an officer (despite his not having a college education).

100_2023 — Ralph resting his arm on his Speed Graphic camera

During World War Two, photography units, such as Ralph’s in the Pacific theater of war, performed all the various functions of photography. They took the pictures: aerial photography was in its infancy, ground combat photography, plus the more traditional documenting of people and events. They developed the film and prints, and they also interpreted the aerial reconnaissance pictures. Ralph was the supply officer of his small unit, which included responsibility for maintaining the necessary chemicals as well as support for their mobile, air-conditioned dark room tents.

After World War Two, Ralph earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering at the University of Kansas, followed by a master’s in photographic engineering at Boston University. His Air Force work included collaboration with General George W. Goddard, the “father” of modern aerial reconnaissance, developing concepts and systems for both air-breathing and satellite reconnaissance.

In his later years with the United States Air Force, Ralph worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency, Headquarters USAF and HQ Air Force Systems Command to identify and procure future reconnaissance systems. During that time, Ralph was involved in the development of computerized systems to record and transmit photographic systems. He retired in 1968, before the advent of micro-computers which revolutionized the capture and processing of images but his work brought the USAF to the cusp of exploiting those digital systems as they developed.

I wish to express my deep gratitude to my father and uncle who provided, at the drop of a hat, the scanned photographs and commentary for this section.

Family Vacation Slideshows

My dad took us (mom, my brother and I) all over the continental United States, following his brother’s military migrations and also to visit my mother’s relatives in Montana and the Pacific Northwest. Consequently, before I had graduated from high school, I’d been to all but three of the lower 48 states and at least two Canadian provinces. We visited nearly every National Park, massive hydroelectric dams, a few nuclear power plants, a meteor crater, caves, mountains, deserts, a rain forest and historical sites from coast to coast. Once we returned home, and the slides were returned from the developer, we’d gather with local friends and family for a re-cap slideshow of our latest vacation adventure.

Annual Christmas Card Family Photo

Merry Christmas from the Andreas (1974) — My mom, me, my dad, and my brother (circa Christmas 1974)

Every fall, my dad would gather us together in the kitchen or the living, which he had converted temporarily to a portrait studio, complete with tripods, flash units, reflectors and light meters, to take that year’s family photo to be used as our family Christmas card. My cousin, Wendell, still follows this tradition, although with a Star Wars-ian twist some years. I prefer to create a Christmas letter or newsletter, similar to a blog post, where I can include more than one photo, and usually of a more casual nature (as I prefer candids to posed snapshots). At the risk of dating myself (more than I already have), to the left you’ll see the Andrea Family Christmas Card from 1974.

Recording My Own Family

Rachelle Climbing Storm Shelter — Rachelle 'climbing the mountain' that was our storm shelter.

Film still ruled the day when both my kids were born in the mid to late 80s, so photos of my fledgling family are scarcer but all the more precious. I used mostly disposable cameras, since I didn’t own a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera. Once my kids started participating in sports and music, I invested my limited funds in a camcorder and now I have boxes and boxes of VHS-C videotapes in my basement. Whether or not I ever get them converted to digital format remains to be seen. By the time my children reached high school, I made the leap to digital video and photography. Now, instead of magnetic tape storage, I’m archiving family memories to DVD. I upload some of these videos to my infrequently used YouTube channel.

Sunrise, Sunset

I always seem to be in my car or the van when a spectacular sunrise or sunset occurs. So I’m reduced to the capabilities of the embedded camera in my cell phone which has a lens smaller than the eraser on a pencil. Occasionally, though, I’m prepared (or I forgot and left all my photographic equipment in the trunk of my car) and I plan a session from a local park or cemetery. My library has an east facing window, so I can catch the sunrise in the late fall and winter while sipping on my freshly steeped tea. I captured the sunrise to the left from that room in early March of this year. Sunsets are more difficult from my home, because it sits lower than K-7/US-73 to my west and on the other side of the highway is a large hill. So sunsets usually mean packing up everything and hopping in the car to West Mary Street, near the new Elementary School, or to Mount Muncie or Mount Calvary Cemeteries.

Astrophotography – My Final Frontier

I hope to merge two of my favorite hobbies once I retire: Astronomy and Photography. By then, I also hope to have moved to a location with darker night skies, a higher altitude and minimal obstructions (no close large trees, streetlights or hills). For now, I make do with an occasionally moon shot using either my telescope or just the telephoto lens and a tripod. Someday I plan to photograph Jupiter, Saturn, a galaxy and a nebula.

John Wesley: “I look on all the world as my parish”

For the first Sunday of my ‘Thirty Days of Thankfulness‘ I wish to lift up the names of John Wesley, and his brother, Charles, and thank God for inspiring both of these great men. Yes, I’m biased. I was raised a Methodist and my great-grandfather, the Rev. John Hodge, was my first pastor. He baptized me and I learned discipleship at his knee. I sang Charles Wesley’s hymns Sunday mornings. Later in life, as a Lay Speaker, I studied grace (previent, justifying and sanctifying) for the journey of Christian perfection.

I won’t even attempt to summarize the lives of the Wesley brothers. Primary sources for both men are freely available via the Internet with a simple Google search. I will share my John Wesley favorite quotes and my favorite Charles Wesley poem/hymn.

John Wesley Quotes

“Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then give all you can.” —from a sermon in the Works of John Wesley

“Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.” —from a sermon in the Works of John Wesley

I look on all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty, to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation. — Journal (11 June 1739)

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as you ever can.

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put met to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by you or laid aside by you,
enabled for you or brought low by you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
you are mine, and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen. (Wesley Covenant Prayer)

Charles Wesley Poet

Charles wrote the lyrics to my favorite Christmas carol, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” and the familiar standards “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” and “Love Divine All Love Excelling.” But nestled near the center of the United Methodist Hymnal rests “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown.” Two weeks after his brother’s death, John Wesley tried to teach this hymn at Bolton, but broke down when he came to the lines “my company before is gone, and I am left alone with thee.”

Come, O thou Traveller unknown,
Whom still I hold, but cannot see!
My company before is gone,
And I am left alone with Thee;
With Thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day.

I need not tell Thee who I am,
My misery and sin declare;
Thyself hast called me by my name,
Look on Thy hands, and read it there;
But who, I ask Thee, who art Thou?
Tell me Thy name, and tell me now.

In vain Thou strugglest to get free,
I never will unloose my hold!
Art Thou the Man that died for me?
The secret of Thy love unfold;
Wrestling, I will not let Thee go,
Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

Wilt Thou not yet to me reveal
Thy new, unutterable Name?
Tell me, I still beseech Thee, tell;
To know it now resolved I am;
Wrestling, I will not let Thee go,
Till I Thy Name, Thy nature know.

’Tis all in vain to hold Thy tongue
Or touch the hollow of my thigh;
Though every sinew be unstrung,
Out of my arms Thou shalt not fly;
Wrestling I will not let Thee go
Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

What though my shrinking flesh complain,
And murmur to contend so long?
I rise superior to my pain,
When I am weak, then I am strong
And when my all of strength shall fail,
I shall with the God-man prevail.

Contented now upon my thigh
I halt, till life’s short journey end;
All helplessness, all weakness I
On Thee alone for strength depend;
Nor have I power from Thee to move:
Thy nature, and Thy name is Love.

My strength is gone, my nature dies,
I sink beneath Thy weighty hand,
Faint to revive, and fall to rise;
I fall, and yet by faith I stand;
I stand and will not let Thee go
Till I Thy Name, Thy nature know.

Yield to me now, for I am weak,
But confident in self-despair;
Speak to my heart, in blessings speak,
Be conquered by my instant prayer;
Speak, or Thou never hence shalt move,
And tell me if Thy Name is Love.

’Tis Love! ’tis Love! Thou diedst for me!
I hear Thy whisper in my heart;
The morning breaks, the shadows flee,
Pure, universal love Thou art;
To me, to all, Thy bowels move;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

My prayer hath power with God; the grace
Unspeakable I now receive;
Through faith I see Thee face to face,
I see Thee face to face, and live!
In vain I have not wept and strove;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

I know Thee, Saviour, who Thou art.
Jesus, the feeble sinner’s friend;
Nor wilt Thou with the night depart.
But stay and love me to the end,
Thy mercies never shall remove;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

The Sun of righteousness on me
Hath rose with healing in His wings,
Withered my nature’s strength; from Thee
My soul its life and succour brings;
My help is all laid up above;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

Lame as I am, I take the prey,
Hell, earth, and sin, with ease o’ercome;
I leap for joy, pursue my way,
And as a bounding hart fly home,
Through all eternity to prove
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

Methodist Character

In closing, I wish to share the seventeenth paragraph from John Wesley’s “The Character of a Methodist,” the reading of which often brings tears to my eyes:

These are the principles and practices of our sect; these are the marks of a true Methodist. By these alone do those who are in derision so called, desire to be distinguished from other men. If any man say, “Why, these are only the common fundamental principles of Christianity!” thou hast said; so I mean; this is the very truth; I know they are no other; and I would to God both thou and all men knew, that I, and all who follow my judgment, do vehemently refuse to be distinguished from other men, by any but the common principles of Christianity, — the plain, old Christianity that I teach, renouncing and detesting all other marks of distinction. And whosoever is what I preach, (let him be called what he will, for names change not the nature of things,) he is a Christian, not in name only, but in heart and in life. He is inwardly and outwardly conformed to the will of God, as revealed in the written word. He thinks, speaks, and lives, according to the method laid down in the revelation of Jesus Christ. His soul is renewed after the image of God, in righteousness and in all true holiness. And having the mind that was in Christ, he so walks as Christ also walked.

— From the Thomas Jackson edition of The Works of John Wesley, 1872.

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Author: Jon Moss