Hair Cut

I went in for my monthly hair cut during a free moment yesterday. I always feel better, light headed as it were, after. Don't know if I look any better but that's beside the point! I have had the same hair cut for probably 20 years or so. It's getting a bit late for changes now! (I tried a change once and the results were a bit disastrous, not to mention hideous for more than a month. Not going there again) As I'm sitting in the chair it struck me how easy this was. Come. Sit. Let someone else do the work. Go away happy (hopefully) I wish it worked that way with losing weight. Go. Sit. Cut off a pound on my thighs. The back end. The hips. Go away and wear that size 12 pants again. Man. That would be wonderful. Then I could go out and eat what I wanted and once a month I could just get it chopped off and start from where I was at the beginning. Or spiritually. That would even be better. Go. Sit. Get self cut away from the heart. Sin would fall away and Voila! New self shine through. A once a month shine would work nicely. (maybe make that daily) Whoa, I sense a whole long blog coming here as I think about how sin and forgiveness works. How the Holy spirit works in a heart, and how important to be sensitive to His voice in the heart...."By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you"(2Tim 1:14).

Super Novas, Comets and Stars

"The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out spech and night to night reveals knowledge... in them he has set a tent for the sun" Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?..Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? can you establish their rule on the earth?"

Scripture is filled with references to stargazing! It is one thing that I really enjoy!I could stand with my head tilted back looking at the stars for quite awhile. Nothing really compares to a summer night in the north woods and the incredible, massive overhead display of stars. I'm sure I've talked about this before, that early morning walk when stars are shining so gloriously they can hardly be ignored. Venus is still out every morning and Orion, Sirius have been so easy to view, too. The moon was full mid month and still is hanging out in the mornings. It's like God watching us through the holes in heaven! And, if you go out tonight, you can see a comet: Comet Holmes. Look in the NE sky near the Pleiades . It will be a bit bigger than Jupiter is in the morning sky (nothing too extraordinary except for the fact that it's a comet!!)

A long way in a short amount of Time!

I have been working in libraries for 15 years now. And believe it or not, I've been here long enough to know how they "used to do it" before computers. When I started internet and computer use was just glimmer. It's amazing how much they have invaded in such a short amount of time! When I started library work we had a real 'card' card catalog. Every time we put a book in at least 3 cards were put in the catalog. (same when we took a book out) We had an 'accession' book that listed every single book in the collection, date purchased, from whom, amt paid and where it was. We had books dating back to the turn of the century. Wow did I love looking at those old books! If we wanted to do an interlibrary loan we had to make a phone call to the regional library after we checked 'books in print'. Shortly after that they got disks that we could use in our one computer that would tell us what was available in other libraries. The speed and ease that computers have given us is pretty astounding. It's hard to even think of how it was done before they were around. Not to mention how much we rely on them to answer reference questions. What am I talking about? People don't ask reference questions anymore. They go to their own computers and 'google' it. Back then.... we hunted in books like the New York Public library reference book, or the World Almanac, or telephone directories for questions like "Where's the closest place to get a cow inseminated?" or "What was Nigeria's gross national income last year?" My favorite was "I need to read a book by an American Author written in the 19th century". So when I gave her Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, the student came back the next day and told me her teacher said Alcott wasn't American. ARGH! But, I digress. I knew from the first day that working in a library was going to be the best job I ever had. But it was going to be Waaaaay more than just checking out books. 15 years isn't really that long in a job, but it's sure seen huge changes. I can't wait to see what the next 15 hold!

The Anti-Halloween Day!

I am thinking that there must be an easy way for me to join in the candy hunt tonight. (that's right, tonight is trick or treat night here in OC-tomorrow night is church night and we couldn't possibly do it then!!) The easiest way would be for me to go up to the store and by a bag of candy, but that smacks of over indulgence. My kids would probably be aghast that I am even considering this. What has come over me. I am so anti-halloween everyone should ordinalrily fle in the other direction, but lets face it....I need a good peanut butter cup! The library is serving up treats.... my neighbors have promised them if I can come up with a good trick....

Back to my roots

I do live in Iowa after all. My first 20 years here was all about farming. I couldn't have gotten any closer to farming without actually being one if I'd tried. But these last 15 years of living in town have reallly taken me away from those roots. I'd forgotten how beautiful the harvest is. How frantic, (frentic) and crazy it really is. So today we did the Sunday afternoon drive to check it out. (those days are almost a thing of the past, gas prices being what they are!!) So here's what we saw: