Wow. Almost a week went by and I didn't make a single post. It's been incredibly nuts around here, but what is new. Wednesday, I had to leave work early because we were taking the youth group out to rake leaves at several of our church members homes right after school let out. We only got one yard done before we ran out of time. I had a level bed load of very packed, wet leaves and a van load of tired, hungry teens when we were done. I couldn't figure out why the yard was in such bad shape, then I remember that we never got over to her house last fall to rake. Bottom line is that we will need to schedule at least one more raking day. I got home at a reasonable time Wednesday, which is unusual. I needed the sleep.

Thursday was fairly typical, except I forgot that I had a truck full of leaves. The kids did a great job of packing them in there, so it took me a half hour to get them out of the truck. Other than that, it was the usual long drive to college, meet with my study group, sit through four hours of class, long drive home, and fall into bed around 1:30 am Friday.

I took Friday off work to get ready for an overnight trip we were doing with the youth group. We took them down to Comstock Park to watch the Whitecaps play. The weather looked horrible and we were sure we were going to get washed out, but other than a few sprinkles, we stayed dry and the Whitecaps even won! I had heard that minor league ballgames had a lot of goofy stuff going on other than the game. This was my first, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but they were right. The game almost takes second place to all the crazy races and contests between every half inning. The other part of the game that no one told me about was the need for a hard-hat. Minor league hitters hit a lot of foul balls over the backstop. There was a steady rain of baseballs dropping 30 or 40 feet into the crowd. How we got through the game without someone getting killed can only be described as a miracle. We were close enough to the net that it wasn't much of a problem for us, but there were a couple close calls in the rows behind us. After the game, we headed to one of the other youth leader's parents place nearby for a bonfire, s'mores, hot dogs, and other health food. We spent the night there then just vegged Saturday morning until time to load up the van and head back home. Everyone seemed to have a good time, so I'm sure it's something we will do again.

Saturday night was home work and lesson prep for Sunday. Sunday was normal; morning Bible study, morning service, home for a short nap and lunch, back to church for the first installment of a 13-week series on financial management, evening service, then home. I spent several hours sorting through the mountain of junk mail that I had been ignoring for over a week. I hate junk mail almost as much as I hate spam. I hate trying to find the important stuff buried in it; I hate having to separate all the credit card applications (several a day) for shredding; I hate hauling the grocery sack a week to the recycle bin. You would think companies would get the hint; if I haven't bought anything from you in the last 10 years, sending me 20 catalogs in one week with "URGENT You must order from this catalog, or we will stop sending you catalogs" on the cover is a sure way to guarantee you will not be on my preferred vendor list.

Anyway, that brings you up to date on our lives. Oh, Debbie made it back from Las Vegas Thursday. I saw her for about five minutes before I had to head out Friday. She had a good time with her Mom; but they only saw Tom Jones once. I think that is some sort of record.

Now you are up to date.

Today is going to be uneventful: work, Sam's Club, some sort of card shop, then home for some serious heads-down writing until the wee hours.

Politics:

If you want to know what should be happening in Iraq, ask Jerry Pournelle. I only wish someone in the Bush White House was listening.

And our schools continue down the road to utter stupidity. I have to wonder how much longer the institution called "public schools" will be tolerated by anyone other than the least intelligent in our country.

Fred Reed's latest article touches on this same subject. We are breeding a permanently stupid underclass. Things could get interesting.

John Derbyshire has something to say on the subject that is worth reading.

And Fred Reed again on American soldiers torturing Iraqies.

Well, that ought to cheer everyone up.