The death of a friend

This weekend has been a rough one....I lost a friend....my car. To give you a little history...I have had my car for about 10 year or so and thought it would last a bit longer with all the money I sunk into it as of late.
Saturday was a busy day for me. I traveled to Camp Bountiful to test a fixed sound board we got back from the shop. The drive was fine and ended up staying about four hours. The sound board tested to be fine. The majority of the speakers that were primarily used for the Shelter House have gone bad and was not putting out the sound it needed to.
Got back to town and realized one of my tires was in dire need of replacement. So went to my tire shop and they were out of gently used tires...So I bought a new tire is the range of about $60.
After that, went home had lunch stopped and got gas. Stopped at one last place and just about got out of the parking lot on my way to Columbus for a wedding that evening.
Well I did not make it to the wedding. My car died and did not wake back up.
After sitting in that parking lot for about 3 hours.....and still nothing. We had to call it a night because it was getting dark.
On Sunday we pull the car to my house and bought $100 in parts. It was determined that my car had jumped time. Which means it would be cheaper to scrap the car for its value in metal and begin the process of finding a new car.
Oh, and Sunday night I was in charge of services at Pleasant Valley, there were three people there including me. I ended up just showing some photos from my summer and all the camps I went to. They seemed to enjoy it.
So It has been a looooooooooooooog weekend. But there is some good news that's come out of this experience. I was able to make some good progress in the book I am reading and am almost finished with it. I also have a really good lead on a car that would be perfect for my needs. So fingers crossed and with a little bit of luck things will work out for the best.....

Thanks for reading....

I need to Vent.......

I have started this entry at least three times now and am sure I will start it a couple of more times before its done.
Do you every have one or more days when something happens that catches you completely off guard and puts you in a bad mood for the rest of the day.
Well my friends, today was one of those days. I've been planing to attend this event with a certain someone for a while now. Today I learn that she has to work and can no longer attend. Oh, and I've been telling people that we would be attending.
Not that that's a big deal, for some reasion it just seemed to rub me the wrong way. So as a result I will be attending this event alone and will likely get some questions as to why she is not with me.
To top it all off a couple of the non-profits I work with on a regular basis are going through some issues that need a lot of attention.
Please do not get me wrong I love every minute of my life and all the fun and excitement that comes my way every single day. I would not trade it for the world. So if you have anything that needs to be done or a situation that you need to have taken care of....I am your man.....

Thanks for letting me vent for a little bit....and thanks for reading.

A testament to community...

I am a firm believe in Community! To me the concept of community has a lot to offer the world. It is something that can happen very easily and it is something that can fall apart just as easy. I am in the very beginning stages of studding this idea and how it works.
I believe I experienced true community last weekend. Below you will find a story I wrote in response to a truly God lead experience. I was bless because I was able to experience this.

slideshow

Bidders poured out their hearts and their pocketbooks Saturday afternoon in honor of the memory of Kile (Andy) Hayden, who died in a car crash in July. Hayden’s hog fetched $34,000, which is reportedly $3,000 more than the previous state record for a county auction.

“This is something even the toughest of cowboys hate to talk about. You all are very aware of what happened to Andy Hayden. I cannot start to tell you what their family has been through. In a perfect world a guy like me would never have to talk about stuff like this,” said auctioneer Dean Brown to those in attendance. “We can show them that they are not alone in their hurt and their grief. Today, we can prove to them and to the rest of the world that we are going to try to take care of them.”

Throughout the day, 4-H’ers donated portions of their auction money to the Andy Hayden 4-H fund, collecting $2,770, which was added to the total.

The opening bid of $10,000 shattered the previous Scioto County Fair record of $7,800.

As the bids came in the crowd rose to their feet, and many had tears in their eyes.

Area business owners, who had not planned to bid on the animal, came forward near the end of the bidding and decided to give some more.

“I’ve sold from one end of this country to the other. This is the highlight of 25 years of doing auctioneering for me,” Brown said.

Typically, when a champion animal is sold at the livestock sale a photo is taken with the owner of the animal and the buyers. In this case, those who were able posed for the photo with the hog. It was a community that bought the animal, and it was that community that paid tribute to a young man who was taken before his time.

What I've been working on...

Here are some of the things that have taken up my time...I took 3,500 photos the week of spec and here are some of the edited photos. There are MANY more that I did not post, if you want to see them check out my facebook. There are many more photos from other events that will be posted soon.

My Friends, the day has come....

My Friends, the day has come we will be leaving for SPEC in the morning......How exciting is that....Wish up luck.....I will be doing daily photo updates on my facebook

Twitter stats

From Twitters Blog...

Halfway through 2011, users on Twitter are now sending 200 million Tweets per day. For context on the speed of Twitter’s growth, in January of 2009, users sent two million Tweets a day, and one year ago they posted 65 million a day.

For perspective, every day, the world writes the equivalent of a 10 million-page book in Tweets or 8,163 copies of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Reading this much text would take more than 31 years and stacking this many copies of War and Peace would reach the height of about 1,470 feet, nearly the ground-to-roof height of Taiwan’s Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world.

A billion Tweets are sent every five days. What’s in them? Everything about every topic imaginable – whether it’s a unique bird’s-eye view of the Shuttle launch as seen from an airplane window or cheers of support for soccer teams in this year’s Champions League tournament. Using Twitter helped a homeless man reunite with his daughter, sent two Cincinnati Reds fans to spring training on a player’s dime, and even helped residents of a small city in Korea find fresh water after its supply was cut off.

Something To consider......

Have you ever wondered sometimes why we can't live in true community? We all live in communities of our family, friends and neighbors. What would it mean if we were in true community?
I have been doing some reading in this concept/idea and find it fascinating. How it applys to everyday like and particularly when it comes to camp.
This week I kind of attended Reunion at Camp Bountiful. I had to go back and forth to work everyday, so I would get up in the early morning and drive the hour it takes to get from camp to my office. The drives to and from were not supper bad any day. I just turned on some music and sailed along. Then I would return in the evening and get to spend a few hours with everyone before lights out.
On Thursday night there was a talent show. After the talent show, the song "One Tribe" came on and those that attended Sr. High camp gathered in a corner and did the Sr. High dance that was set to that song. It was really cool to see them get together and do that.
During Sr. High Camp we became a community and last night that community was revisited.
That showed me, even though the community of Sr. High Camp 2011 is no more, it is still very much alive and well within the hearts and minds of the participants.
It was sweet. ......