kids today…

what are you made for?

I found this encouraging. Toby Mac talking about the encouragement he finds in realizing what he was made for.

is this anti-gay?

I spotted something on Yahoo news. The title of the news article is “Firm’s anti-gay e-mail sparks online fury.”

The story tells of a landscape company that sent an email to a potential customer stating: “I need to tell you that we cannot meet with you because we choose not to work for homosexuals.” The potential customer then forwarded that email and it has become a bit of a news story. Now, take a second and go read it again. It says “we choose not to work for homosexuals” [emphasis mine]. I don’t read anything that says anything negative, threatening, or derogatory towards homosexuals.

Yet the Reuters title of the article calls it: “anti-gay e-mail.” I don’t see anything in that email that is anti-gay. You may not like it one bit, but all the company said is, in effect, we don’t want to work for you. Now, that’s clearly discrimination. But does that make “anti?”

Now, one interesting aspect to consider is whether the company has a right to do what they did. In the article, the co-owner stated, “We felt that it was our right as an American small business to choose who we do business with.” We’re not talking about a fast food restaurant refusing to serve someone or a fire department refusing to save someone’s burning building. Admittedly, it’s a proverbial slippery slope. I’m all for individual rights and less governmental involvement. I’d say that discrimination on base of race or sex is definitely wrong. But discrimination in other cases is not wrong/bad (despite the culture telling us that it is.)

How about if the potential customer has a huge pentagram in the front yard, or every other word out of their mouth was cursing, or wore a t-shirt with naked people on it. Would you fault this company from refusing to work with that person? I dare say not. So, how about this case? I guess in this case it comes down to whether you believe homosexuality is a choice or not. Society would tell us that it’s not a choice and we’re being intolerant for discrimination in that case. But, the Bible tells us differently. I think I’ll side with the Bible on this one.

To be honest, I’m surprised that the company was this direct about it. I am a person that appreciates and respects honesty. I’ve found contractors like this simply choose not to bid on work or bid 2x or 3x what the job is worth to reduce the chance of getting the job. I’d rather be told that they don’t want to work for me rather than get an inflated estimate from them.

In closing, one thing I found sad was that the company co-owner stated that her family had also received verbal attacks and murder threats. Murder threats?!? Now, I thought that one of the of gay rights tenants was “tolerance.” But, there are kooks blowing up abortion clinics, so I guess I there are always going to be extremists on both sides of any issue.

800 daffodil bulbs

Ever wonder what 800 Daffodil bulbs looks like? Now I know:

Actually that’s 850 bulbs. They accidentally threw in 50 tulip bulbs. I couldn’t believe how heavy the boxes were–they are densely packed. The three boxes weighed in at 68 pounds.

Several people have expressed how they think I’m nuts for ordering so many. But, I have a very large flowerbed to fill up. How am I going to plant all of them? Similarly to what I posted back when I created the flowerbed (elephant tasks) I’ll plant them one at a time…

I ordered them from Netherland Bulb Company. They’re only about 90 miles away, so I went and picked them up this morning (to save the shipping on 68 pounds). The folks there were really nice and helpful. I look forward to ordering more from them next year. Oh, and I did call them to tell them about the tulips they put in by mistake and they told me to just keep them as a bonus. I love freebies.

packed with facts

A posting today from a nearby freecycle group.

Offer: 1957 set of Collier's encyclopedias
1957 set of Collier's encyclopedias. Very good condition and packed with facts.

Now, most “facts” from 1957 are most likely still “facts” in 2006. The world was known to be round in 1957 and the Earth was known to revolve around the Sun. But, just image how the world has changed since 1957. Technology, nations, science, nature, etc. Let’s think of some things that would be missing:

• Man has walked on the moon
• Satellite technology
• Presidents: Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush
• Minor geographical re-org of the U.S.S.R., Germany, etc.
• Hippies, Generation X, Generation Y…
• A few medical things like artificial hearts, cloning, stem cells
• Cassette tapes, CDs, MP3, etc.
• and most importantly, Star Trek

As much as I like keeping stuff out of a landfill (the foundational purpose of freecycle), I can’t imagine the value of these encyclopedias except for a good laugh at how outdated they really are.

What really makes me laugh is that just last night, a person I know who is in her early 60s said, “oh that (item) isn’t that old… wait… Dad bought that, and he’s been gone over 15 years.” Why is it that once you hit about 60, you seem to lose perspective on when stuff is “old” or not? I watched my grandparents do it. Recently, I’ve seen my parents start to do that now that they’re 60+.

what I don’t get about the voting process

Okay. There’s one thing I’ve never understood about our voting process.

You walk in, they check your name on the voter records. That’s fine. But, then they hand you a ballot and write down your ballot number next to your name.

So, if our voting is supposed to be private, why are they writing down your ballot number so that someone (with a lot of free time on their hands) could later match your name with your votes?

How does that make any sense? Or, is Pennsylvania just weird in the way it handles the polls?

foolish victim

Normally, I’m amused at news stories about stupid criminals. Well, there’s one in this story. However, I think you have to wonder about the victim here. The news story is about a man being accused of biting a man. Odd, weird, disturbing–yeah. But, he’s being accused of biting the same man for the second time.

Yeah, it’s sad/disturbing that someone is arrested for biting someone a second time. But, I have to wonder about the victim here. If someone bit you, do you really think it’s a good idea to be around that person? Definitely not real smart.

harvest party 2006

My wife and I host a harvest party each fall. We usually call it the “pumpkin harvest party” but this year our pumpkins all rotted well before the party. Normally we have the guests pick and carve pumpkins. So, that didn’t happen this year. But, we had more people than ever (27 kids and 51 adults) attend.

Instead of pumpkin carving, we had cookies cut in the shape of pumpkins with icing and toppings for decorating, pumpkin coloring pages, and a craft for the kids. Given that we had winds gusting to 40 mph, we had to close up the garage and keep the event “inside.”

It was quite a blessing to see so many neighbors, friends, co-workers, and family. It’s fun to watch the kids playing with other kids that they’ve never met before. How easily they can make friends. How come so many people lose that ability as they get older?

what does 39 cups of butternut squash look like?

And now you know. It looks about like this.

After cutting the squash, I steam them until soft. Then, I press them through the food mill (lower right). That took about 4 hours to do.

Just to put that into perspective, that’s enough squash to make 19 pumpkin pies. mmmmm pumpkin pie. I took 10 cups and made 5 pies for our harvest party. The rest are in the freezer for future pie-making.

silly woodpecker

My sister asked for help from me and my dad. Her husband was out of town on a business trip. She found a bunch of insulation from her attic on her driveway. When she looked up, she could see a small hole in the side of the house.

So, Dad and I went over tonight to take a look. We went up to the attic and found where we thought the hole should be. I went in for a closer look while he held a flashlight where I could see. I moved some of the insulation and soon could see light from the outside spotlights shining in. So, I started to move all the insulation from around the area (so we’d be able to put some sort of patch there to seal the hole) and as I swept my hand along there, I hit something solid. And then it moved.

I can’t even come up with the metaphor (maybe two-sheds gomer will come up with one for me) to describe how quickly my hand shot out of that spot. I was sure it was a squirrel, rat, or some sort of rodent. But, it quickly started hopping and flapping and soon was flying around the attic. It looked just like this pic over on wikipedia.

I was able to find a small empty box in my sister’s attic and after chasing the bird all over the attic for 20-30 minutes, I finally got it safely (and gently) closed in the box. A quick patch to the side of the house and we were done with our repair mission.

We took the bird for a little ride and released it a few miles away. Hopefully this little experience will teach it not to drill holes in anyone else’s house.

Oh, and an hour later, I think my heart rate has returned to normal.