Why am I Tweeting, Facebooking, Myspacing and still texting?

They tell me that Facebook now has over 300 million users. They also tell me that if it were a country, it would be the 5th largest in the world, population-wise.

What they can’t tell me is how I got sucked into this Social Media world of ours. I have a blog because… well, I dunno. There are like a zillion bloggers out there. I guess it’s better than talking to myself while I drive. Although I still do that, too.

If you're quiet enough, you can hear your life ticking by

I am ashamed to say that it's been months since I even looked at my blog. Life goes by so fast that I can't keep up.

Halloween has come and gone and I was out of town for it. Weekend trip to Santa Fe, NM. Cold, but no snow.

The boys are now one year older. Matt is in 5th grade now and Isaiah is in 3rd. They are both still liking school, although Isaiah's teacher keeps loading him down with a LOT of homework every night...over an hour's worth.

Work is good, family is fine, we're all healthy and trying to stay off the radar.

I have avoided FaceBook, since I was sure I didn't know anybody online. And then I tried it out and found that most of my family is on there. So now I am catching up. It's going to take a lot of catching up though.

Another Year Along

Yesterday our two boys returned from Summer vacation in Mexico, and 
tomorrow they go back to school.

Matthew is in 5th grade this year, and Isaiah in 3rd. I can still 
remember when Matt started Kindergarten, and now he’s almost halfway to 
graduation.

Time seems to go by so fast sometimes.

God bless

Goodbye Flickr

Back in July of last year I purchased the Pro option on Flickr. This allowed me to accumulate over 2,500 pictures online in a year's time.

Unfortunately, when the subscription expires, it'll only show 200 of them. Since I was not really happy with Flickr, I started looking around at other sites.

I am now with a site called SmugMug.com. It's not as socially oriented as Flickr. You can't link the same photo to various groups like Flickr, but it is a more professional looking operation.

And it's not operated by Yahoo.com. That's the biggest plus.

So, I am in the process of updating the links on my webpages....or, just leaving the website graphics on Flickr and moving the good stuff to SmugMug.

Father, into your hands we commend their souls...

While returning from our vacation in Guadalajara, we drove past the scene of the horrifying day care center fire in Hermosillo, Mexico. There were police officers and crime scene tape everywhere. 40 children perished in the fire, including two who's little bodies could not take it anymore, and died in hospital.

Initially, Spanish language CNN and FOX News reported that several children had been airlifted to Phoenix area hospitals, but English language reports state one child was flown to the Shriner's Pediatric burn unit in Sacramento.

We throw around the words "tragedy", "horrific", "horrible", etc so much that they lose their meaning. Driving past the building on Monday brought such a sense of pain and sorrow down on me that it was all I could do to not cry while I was driving.

Somehow I could sense and feel the fear that those children must have felt, to some degree. It weighs down my heart and hurts. No parent should have to bury their child. And to lose so many dear hearts in such a way is too horrible to find adequate words to describe.

Even though I was in no way directly touched by this incident, I am grieving as a parent to another parent who has lost a child.

I will never know the parents of the children that went home to God through this event. But I grieve for them and pray for them. God has a plan. While we are walking through the fire, we may not see a path or know the reason, but God is there with us, by our side. These 40 children are free from the pain and in a better place.

Let us walk beside those who have survived and now must live with burns and pain. A child of that age has no understanding of burn recovery, and the pain to come. God, please be with them on their road to recovery. And please let their parents know that parents around the world grieve with them, and stand with them for the long recovery process to come.

To the parents who lost children in this fire...know that God is with you. The jagged hole in your heart will never go away, but in time, God will heal the tattered edges and you will be able to continue on your journey through life. Remember the joys, and the sorrows, of your child, and pray that you are reunited with them again in Heaven, after your journey here is finished.

As for me, I am going to go dry my eyes, blow my nose, wash my face and pray for my children. I am in agreement with St John, when he writes in the last chapter of Revelation, "'Surely I come quickly.' Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Rev 22:20b.

Vacation 2009 - Day Whatever

Help! I'm being held prisoner in a small room in a foreign country.

Actually, it's not that bad. We stayed in Mazatlan the first night and then traveled on to Puerto Vallarta area where we shacked up in an all-inclusive for the night, our beachfront plans having changed at the last minute.

Then, we packed up and drove to Guadalajara, where we've been since Sunday afternoon. Staying with family is always fun, but it is cheap. Good food and lots of Mexican city traffic. So far the count is me 1 - taxi drivers 0.

Sunday we're headed back north again to do it all in reverse (minus the Puerto Vallarto sidetrip).

Next year, I'm going to San Diego. Whew.

I'm posting pictures online as often as I can get high-speed internet access that's worth a darn. The rest of them will have to wait until we get home.

Our 2009 Vacation Photos. Updated as we get them cataloged and remember where we took them at.

Vacation 2009 - Day 1

Yesterday morning, the alarm went off at 1:45am! By 3am we were header out of Maricopa and enroute to Mexico. We crossed over the border into Mexico at Nogales and headed on south from there.

First snag! We stopped at the 21 Km immigration checkpoint to pick up our tourist visas and temporary vehicle importation permit. Back in 2002 we had driven down to Guadalajara and back. When we returned to the US, we had turned in our vehicle permit. Unfortunately the government official did not cancel it...so I had an overdue permit attached to my name! Since you can only have one permit at a time, this caused a problem.

We had to post a cash deposit to guarantee we would return our current vehicle to the US. This caused a bit of a panic, but since we get the money back upon departure, we were able to move money around in the bank and "use" some for the week we are gone.

After eating up almost an hour of our travel time in customs/immigration, we were back on the road...destination Mazatlan, and a hotel downtown on the beach, for the night.

It was an uneventful trip down. No nasties or anything. To watch the US news, one would expect to see armed thugs wandering the streets looking for people to kill or maim. We did pass through one military checkpoint when we entered Sinaloa. They were armed with Uzis and M-16s so we didn't say anything out of place and eventually carried on our way.

With the one hour time change (for Daylight savings time)we arrived in Mazatlan about 8:30pm, after 17 hours on the road. This includes stops for food and gas.

Right now I am sitting on the patio of my hotel room, looking at the surf across the street. The sun is coming up, but the sky is too cloudy to see it. Hopefully it will burn off. The temperature is in the upper 70s with just a bit of humidity at the moment. We are REALLY suffering on this vacation.