A bachelor's Thursday

My week as a bachelor is thankfully coming to an end. If you happen to read this post early in the day on Friday, please pray for my family as they make the long drive back from Pittsburgh.

Tonight I went bowling with some of the camp staff (Brandon, Danny & Maranda). It was fun, with just one exception.....the dude who bowled in the lane next to me.

Most people who bowl know that it is considered good bowling etiquette not to make your approach at the same time the person in the lane next to you is doing so. Well, it seemed that this evening, the guy in the next lane made his approach a split second before I did for just about every frame. So gladly, I waited for him. Unfortunately, it felt like he took about 30 minutes each time he prepared to swing his arm. When he finally did, he would hurl the ball down the lane and most often, it would either go into the gutter or hit the end pins.

I must admit, though I looked happy on the outside, this was a true test of my patience.

On another note, I was contacted yesterday by a publisher who is interested in publishing my book "Words that Sting" on a larger scale. I'm a little interested, but I'm waiting to see if I hear from a few other publishers first. This too will be a test of my patience, but no where near as bad as the bowling guy.

A bachelor's Monday

Last week, my sister-in-law, Mandie, had twins (Rebekah & Joey). My wife planned long ago to visit Mandie, who lives 5 hours away in Pittsburgh, once the twins came. She's staying there with the kids until Friday.

So for this week, I'm living the bachelor's life. How's it going you may be asking? Let me fill you in on the excitement.

I usually take Monday's off from work, so today was full of projects that only get accomplished on days off. Here's the rundown of my day.

7:30am: Replaced burned out turn signal bulb in minivan
8:10am: Was urinated on by my one-year-old son while holding him on my lap
8:12am: Changed son, changed clothes
8:15am: Sold son to family of gypsies
8:16am: Felt guilty and bought son back
8:30am: Ate breakfast with the kids
10:15am: Loaded luggage into minivan, kissed wife and kids goodbye
11:00am: Drove to PMBC to speak with contractor
12:50pm: Booked a musical group for an upcoming banquet
1:00pm: Unloaded tons of paper supplies from my truck
1:20pm: Mopped the Dining Hall and Kitchen
2:30pm: Returned broken heater to hardware store
3:00pm: Bought rolls, peanut butter and jelly at grocery store
3:25pm: Made myself a late lunch of pb&j sandwiches while sitting in my pickup. *(Note: peanut butter was spread with a disposable plastic spoon I "borrowed" from the deli)
3:40pm: Wasn't sure what to do with the rest of the day so I drove to East Stroudsburg and only ended up using a Wal-Mart bathroom and then turning around.
6:30pm: Ate two pieces of pizza at Mendicino's
8:00pm: Returned home and ended up fielding over an hour of phone calls
9:15pm: Vacuumed house
10:00pm: Signed online
10:56pm: Blogged

There you have it. A true bachelor's Monday. Welcome to my world.

Landscaper's challenge, Part 2

First of all, you will have to forgive me for not updating as frequently as I did when the weather was cold. Now that it's warm again, I haven't been making use of as much "computer time." But I'm sure you understand.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I am in the process of taking on my annual Spring landscaping projects. This year has been a busy one so far, but I'm enjoying the fruit of my labors.

This morning, I took a few hours and tackled a project I have wanted to do since September 2002. I planted 7 Colorado Spruce trees near the property line that runs along the side of my house. It has always bugged me that there was no real distinction between my yard and my neighbor's yard (other than the fact that their lawn is riddled with crabgrass and mine is no longer - observe picture above which was taken from my neighbors lawn). So today I took a shovel and seven trees and got to work. Incidentally, someone told me that today is Earth Day. Let me state for the record that if I had realized that, I would likely have waited until tomorrow to plant the trees.....but I digress.

I'm thankful that my soil isn't rocky, but the digging was tiring just the same. One of my neighbors, Rose, lent me a post hole digger when she realized what I was doing. I said "Thank you" and then pretended to use it because all it did was make the digging process take twice as long. Still I was thankful for the kind gesture. That was actually the first conversation I have ever had with Rose. It was nice to finally meet her.

Yesterday, I took the time to remove 3 azaleas that had died last year. The two that I removed from in front of my house I replaced with barbaries because I like their crimson color (observe the picture above of one of the barbaries).

I have also been adding a block perimeter around my house to keep the mulch from washing away. I'm using the same kind of block that I used to build the retaining wall around the gazebo. I'll update with a picture once that project is complete. Parts of it are visible in the two pictures above.

If you have made it this far into this entry without falling asleep, please let me know. I am passionate about lawnwork and I would love to instill that same "fire" in the hearts of each reader of "Stump the Pastor."

Landscaper's challenge, Part 1

In the spirit of redundancy, let me say again that I love Spring. One of my favorite things to do when the weather turns warm is to work in my yard, plant trees, shrubs (and even flowers). When we first bought our home in September 2002, our entire yard consisted of crab grass. Last year and early this year, I decided to work on that and I'm pleased to say that my efforts are paying off.

Pictured above is my fresh, green, crabgrass-free lawn. Special credit needs to be given to Tru-Green, Scott's and Vigaro for their assistance.

Several days ago I began building a small retaining wall around our gazebo. I finished that tonight and liked the blocks so much that I bought 122 more to place around the perimeter of my house. I may get to that tomorrow or possibly Thursday.

In addition to that, I am looking forward to planting 7 Colorado Spruce trees on my property line that runs through my side yard.

If you enjoy landscaping and lawn-care, keep visiting this blog over the coming days for regular updates and pictures. If you aren't into landscaping, please go hit your head against a newly built retaining wall over and over and over and over......until you come to your senses.

Hugs

Favorite thing I was told today:

"Your hugs keep me warm." -Hannah age 4

Old video

Every now and then, just for fun, I like to watch old family videos. Last evening I watched some tape from my first year in pastoral ministry, followed by an old video from when I was 16 and worked at PMBC.

I'm still feeling a little nostalgic.

My wife makes fun of me for frequently wearing a pair of old shorts that I have had since high school. The best part of the tape was seeing those shorts being worn when they were still brand new. My hope is to keep them in my wardrobe for every major stage of my life and then one day be buried in them.

I have no other legal will. Therefore each reader of this blog entry is legally bound to see to it that this wish is honored should I meet my demise. Please affix your signature in the comment area below.

Spring energy

I have noticed that when the warm weather of Spring comes, I get an added boost of energy that tends to last until mid-June. Yesterday I experienced the first dose of this year's Spring energy boost (I had less than two hours before I needed to be at Prayer Meeting, so I washed and waxed my car).

Today I decided to get together all the letters and packets of info. that need to be sent to all those who applied to work on the Summer Staff at PMBC. It's a big project, but I finished at about 3:35, which left me exactly 25 minutes to get all the envelopes to the post office before it closed. The funny thing was that the woman who waited on me at the counter used to work at PMBC with me when I was in college. How ironic.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I will be meeting an electrician to discuss how to fix several downed power lines on the camp property. I will also be finishing much of this weekend's paperwork for the church. Then I will be painting a hallway......all of which I'm strangely looking forward to.

Next week, I plan on carpeting my yard with high-traffic astro-turf (like the Brady's). Then I plan on starting my own neighborhood football league (3 kids live in my neighborhood, and they're all my children). I would say that the Stange household has a lock on this year's trophy.

Car wash

It’s a beautiful Spring day today. After several days of major rain and flooding, the sun is out and the water is receding. Our K-Mart is still under water. The dumpster behind Redner’s Grocery Store is literally floating in a lake of water behind their building. But the Susquehanna River is receding and all is well.

On my way home this afternoon, I decided to stop by the car wash and give the Miata a bath. Our local car wash is truly a convergence of cultures. At one end, you have the guys with their tricked out hot rods polishing every square inch with a diaper. On the other end you have truckers using the open roofed bay to spray off their rig. In every other bay, you have a literal United Nations of car washers.

As I left my bay and headed toward the exit, I realized that today must be hayseed day in the center bay. In addition to washing his car, some guy was also washing his boots. With the sprayer in his hand, he lifted each leg toward the wall and blasted each boot clean.

In a similar vein, this has helped me to understand why hayseeds are often missing teeth. I’m assuming they must also use the high pressure spray to brush.

Circus

When I was a child, my grandparents would take me to the circus each year. What do you suppose circus life is like? As I think about the day to day routine of a circus performer, I can't see any part of it that I envy (well, except for cleaning up elephant poop.....who wouldn't love that).

Our seats were pretty good, but we spent a considerable amount of time moving, standing, shuffling, passing snow cones and cotton candy. After a while, the kids got bored and asked if we could leave early. "Leave early from the circus?!!!," I exclaimed. "What brings a child to make such a request?" I wondered privately.

Then it became clear.

For quite a long period of time, we watched as one man tried unsuccessfully to sell a candy apple. Over and over he tried to pawn it off on us, but we weren't having it. I watched as he circled the crowd holding that apple high in the air. Who in their right mind would want to eat a sticky apple that has lingered in this man's hand while picking up particles of manure dust as they floated through the smelly circus air? Who could stomach the thought of savoring that thing?

Clearly this freaked my kids out, so we left early.

See you next year.