Thirsty

Two weeks ago, Cathy & I drove up Greenlawn Ave heading toward my house, and when we took the left turn onto Cedar, I accelerated out of the turn in hope of fishtailing a little bit on the snow before straightening out, which I enjoy and feel like a race car driver when I do it. This time, instead of straightening out, my Explorer continued to rotate and turn on the ice, eventually sliding perpendicular to path of the road. We were slowing down, but not enough to avoid hopping the curb and giving a tree a little tap. It didn't sound too bad, but when I got out and looked, I saw a bumper bent in, headlights on one side cracked open, and the impact bending a side fender, contorting the wheel well. My heart dropped a little bit, I grimaced, and asked myself and Cathy why I had decided to do that. Approaching the holidays and the wedding, we did not need any new complications. We had a full day planned, so I put it out of my mind and decided I would get a quote on the repairs

My life for the last 6 months and the next 2 months consists largely in planning this: Cathy & Justin's Wedding

Today I got to have lunch with Cathy out on her front porch at the Connolly's. As we were finishing up, we watched a large blue van pull into the Gilbert men's house across the street, and Kim DeCelles walked up to the house to drop something off. The van windows were down so it was easy to hear talking and laughter coming from it. A few seconds later the side door swung open, a girl got out and ran out into the yard. Another few seconds and the door swung open again, releasing a younger girl. Next the door produced a boy, as they all spread out on the Greenlawn property, unbeckoned by their mother. Knowing the Decelles, there was probably still another child in the van. A minute or so later Kim returned, calling them all back into the van, and pulled the bus out of the driveway. As she turned down the road and saw Cathy & I sitting there waving, she paused long enough to yell to us, " Hey do ya wanna poke your heads in here and take a look at what your life wi

I still can't believe it. That's all it takes for it to be a miracle, right? Another video from the same moment, and a photo of us shortly thereafter. Now then, onto a new awesome phase of life. Wedding planning! :) p.s. I love Cathy Grill!

A couple nights ago I went to Theology on Tap to hear John O'Callaghan speak about "The Church & Science and Technology - Are Science and Technology the Enemy?" He didn't refer directly to the Catholic Church at all throughout it, but referred more implicitly to the body of Christ which the Church consists of. I'd like to summarize my experience of it rather than a comprehensive overview of all of it. Regarding the ethical dilemma of creating technologies that may be used for evil, there are two things to consider: We need to remain concerned about the big picture and not just the work on our desk. I work in a small division currently which forces me to be aware of the business opportunities and risks rather than just the programming that has been assigned to me. This needs to be equally true of our moral ethics. The relationships we experience in our work are quite possibly more important than our work may be. We struggle with whether the variety of e

Yesterday a man died on Silver Beach in St Joe, Michigan. Here is my experience of it. I was on the beach with a group of friends, it was close to 90 degrees and sunny, and the sand was scalding hot. So hot that despite the dense sprawl of people enjoying the day and the cold water, the multiple volleyball courts - usually packed - were empty. Mike & Sarah left to go for a walk in town, and when they got close to one of the entrances to the sand, they found a man laying face down in the sand. Other people noticed him too, and somebody rolled him over and discovered that his bowels had vacated. Pete G and Liz, both nurses, began assisting another nearby nurse in assessing his vital signs. As Dan B and I became aware of the situation, Dan suggested that perhaps our umbrella would help with what we presumed was some degree of sun stroke. I took the umbrella over and held it angled to shade the mans face and chest, and I remained there until the later-arriving paramedics took him