Black Friday

Many thanks to friend and colleague, David Weber, for his great quote about today, "Black Friday."

It's worth meditating on for a while....

"Americans stopped for awhile yesterday to give thanks for what they have, then rose this morning, early, and left the house, praying 'But it's not enough.' "

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Home Repairs

As if real life wasn't busy enough right now, we're having some pretty major home repairs done in the house where we live.

The house is actually a "parsonage," owned by the church. We moved in when I came to Northaven in 2001. I believe the church bought in the early 1990s, and there really haven't been any major repairs done since then....there was new carpet in one room when we moved it, and some nice tile-work in the bathroom...a little paint.

But, over time, stuff mounts up...the carpets are pretty bad now (at least 15 years old...) ...there is some significant wood rot outside...a leak in the roof...and IVY...ivy that grows EVERYWHERE. It was all over the backyard, and had crept its way across the front of the house too.

Uusually, I think ivy *looks* nice, except that this stuff always had poison oak and poison ivy mixed in with the good stuff. Which really caused everyone (me included) to not be too keen on keeping it up. Sensing our human hesitation, the ivy had taken over.

So, the Trustees of the church have decided to do some major upgrading, for which we are deeply grateful. Painting everywhere. Fixing the leaky roof, sagging soffit, rotted wood on the backporch (which probably means a new sliding door in one room, painting and new carpet/flooring throughout. And, finally, a general clean up of the outside.

They've hired Northaven's own Tom Kargas to do the work or, for stuff he can't do, work with contractors to get it done.

Let me say here, Tom is a home repair genius. He's got a great visual sense for things and there are so many little things he notices that we just don't.

(We've known this for years at Northaven, as he is the guy who does the flower each Sunday, and often the one who creates our "visual" look on the chancel area...)

So far, the biggest changes visible are outside. They dug up much of the landscaping that was there, and cleaned up the whole "look" of the front of the house....much simpler and cleaner. (Also new gutters and some drainage ditches to move the water away from the house...)

It wasn't until after they'd taken all the old foliage out that it struck me "Hey...we shoulda taken a "before" picture..."

For better or worse, I suppose that's where Google "Street View" comes in. So, thanks to Google, here's their lastest image which serves as a pretty decent "before" shot:



Note all the ivy and general overgrown junk in front.

Here's what it looks like now:



Here's a flowerbed closeup:





Obviously, the newly planted stuff will grow in and fill out a little. And, next Spring, the grass will grow back where the bushes and ivy were before.

But, we love it. It's sooooo much cleaner and neater.

I really, really wish I'd taken a "before" pictures of the backyard...because it's even *more* dramatic. Alas, Google Street View doesn't take pics of your backyard (actually, now that I think of it, this is a really GOOD thing...)

Tom's also been doing a lot of work inside too. Mostly painting so far inside. He's done all the bedrooms except for the Master Bedroom, and the "study/studio" (where I'm writing from now...). But he's also replaced some fixtures and just done a lot of other little repairs that, as I said, we often miss but are deeply appreciative of.

This has meant that, for the last few weeks, we've been moving crap out of one room and into another...so that he could paint...only to move it back once he was ready to move to the next room. Pretty tedious and tiring. We've just spent the morning putting a lot of stuff back where it goes, and it's looking really great inside. It's nice to have new paint and cleaner, more open, windows everywhere. (especially in winter...)

Obviously, we'll have to do all this again when it's time to do the carpets/flooring.

So, although you probably won't hear me mention it every day, sufficed to say there's a *lot* going on behind the scenes here.

We're VERY grateful to Tom for his creativity and home decor genius, and to the Trustees for being willing to do have all this done.

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Dear Yankee Fans: Yes, we hate you. Yes, we hate your team.

Dear Yankee Fans:

So, you won again. Goody for you.

You do understand that some of us really hate your team, right?

We can even admire the franchise, its history and tradition, and all of what it means to our American cultural heritage. But we still hate the Yankees. And, yes, we hate Yankee fans.

And, no, we're not just "jealous." We genuinely hate you.

I've only been to NYC once as an adult. But on that trip I did go to Yankee Stadium, out of respect for the history and tradition. Saw the Yankees play the Red Sox there (the last series at the old Yankee stadium...). Sat on the 20th row, right behind home plate.

And, with great pride, I wore the Red Sox cap that I'd bought at Fenway Park the week before.



Now, please understand, I'm not that big Red Sox fan. They count as only my second-favorite American League team. In fact, my favorite National League team is the Reds, which means I spent a good bit of childhood rooting *against* the Red Sox.

But I know that the Yankees hate the Red Sox, and so on that July afternoon it gave me GREAT pleasure to be a Red Sox fan.

Today, I've been listening to the Ticket guys talk about their feelings on all this, so what follows sort of mirrors what they are saying...

No, Yankee fans, we're not just jealous.

Oh sure, we definitely are jealous. I mean, you've won 27-freakin' championships. That's something approaching one out of every four. We're totally jealous.

But that's not why we hate you.

We hate you because last night, and today, both you and the national media are acting like there's been some long and unbearable "Yankee-drought" that last night rectified. I heard players and pundits alike saying this.

"It's been nine long years..."

"At long last the wait is over..."

Boo Hoo.

You want to know what a long time to wait is? How about "NEVER?" Can I interest you in "never?"

As a Ranger fan, I think I can safely argue that "never" is slightly longer than nine years. "Never" is definitely longer than one out of every four championships.

So...
...when you bloviate on and on about how "long" it's been...
...about what a "drought" it's been...

THAT, Yankee fans, is why we hate you.

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