There's Something about Lilacs ...

We have had crazy weather this year.  Spring was very wet - wetter than usual.  The river was high and flooded in some areas. 

As a result of the heavy rains, flowers and plants in the garden seemed to be a month behind their usual blooming or sprouting schedule.

Behind our house, lilac bushes line the irrigation ditch. They, too, were late bloomers, just opening up the first weeks of June.

The second week of June the lilacs peaked in their glory. And they were worth the wait. They were pleasantly fragrant and the purple hues were most intense, especially  in the light of the setting sun.

My elderly mother-in-law, also, anticipated the blooming of the lilacs after a rainy season.

Second Saturday in June, we picked mother up at her residence for many errands. Across the street from her in an alley was a luscious clump of lilac bushes. From her place in the front car seat, I was able to pull down the branches so she could touch the bouquet of purple lilacs, see them up close, and smell them without plucking them from the bush. They were wonderful and lifted her spirits.

As made our way home that afternoon, I saw a sign for a wedding in a our neighborhood. It was June. It was Saturday. Very popular time for weddings.

Then we saw an unfamiliar SUV was parked near our driveway. Some unexpected visitors?

Behind our house by the long row of blossoming lilacs was the newlywed couple - the groom in his three-piece suit, the bride in a lovely long white dress. The photographer was busily snapping pictures of the newlyweds in front of our gorgeous lilac greenery and blossoms of various purple shades and white blooms.

We waved and wished them well. They had been celebrating their wedding just up the block from us when the lilacs behind our house got their attention. And the photographer immortalized this great event in their lives with the backdrop of these late bloomers.

Whether newlywed or in your nineties ...


There's something about lilacs.






Can't you just smell them?

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

Genesis 1:31 (NIV)


Photo from Wiki commons: Lilacs

Kittens in my bushes!

First week of May, I was finishing breakfast, sipping my coffee.  A lovely day.

The curtain was drawn to a view of the our mini-forest near the front door.

Three Douglas firs, one blue spruce, three juniper bushes all with low hanging branches - the perfect environs for the black birds to make their nests and for the bunnies to live.

Some fuzzy blobs on the ground near the low lying branches got my attention. Some birds bouncing around perhaps? No. I looked closer.

Kittens.

Three of the them. What were they doing there? They had just slipped out of my mini-forest. 

I hollered to my dear husband.

There's kittens in our bushes!

We watched them, wondering how they got there. The little ones looked lost. Two kittens stuck together and were off exploring the strange world out there. One was shy and lagged behind in the cover of the trees. Then the two brave ones wandered into the street. Not good.  These kittens knew nothing about the perils of cars.

The two made it across the road. It had little traffic since it was a dead end. At least the kittens did not try to cross the road in front. I have seen hockey moms driving their SUVs while talking on cell phones imperilling the pesky mule deer sassily meandering into the road.

Across the street, the kittens upset some of the birds, then they returned to their sibling and their familiar home in the bushes. We saw no momma cat around that day. Undoubtedly, the little ones were hungry and were looking for their next meal. So we left out some water and beat up an egg, setting the bowls near the bushes and low hanging branches.

A brave one came out sniffing.  What's this?  Food!

Her other two litter mates got the idea.  Later, that day we got them some wet cat food.  They took an instant liking to it. We had them hooked - on the path from feral to domesticated. Within a few days, the three little kittens were eating on the porch and moved their sleeping quarters from the bushes to the safety of our garage.

Their personalities were evident from the get go. 

The brave and most obnoxious one.  This one soon dashed into the house when I opened the door  as if it were some game.  She had no qualms seeing me as a tree - climbing up my leg (good thing I wore pants) and jumping onto my shoulder.

The cautious and sweet one. This one was wary, more polite, and would allow us to handle her, but never imposed herself on you.

The scaredy one.  This one did not like to be touched. When I did catch him, he growled and squirmed. But he came around - just out of reach - and joined his siblings in the eating and the sleeping.

Though different, the three stuck together. As they napped, they all piled on each other for warmth as well as giving each other moral support in this big strange world.

But we could not keep them.

My dear husband is quite allergic to cats. None of our neighbors wanted them. The local shelter was full. Yet, these kittens were so vulnerable and to turn them out into the street would be the death of them.

What to do with three little kittens? The answer came in a flyer from a drug store.

Our local spay and neuter task force and cat rescue sponsored an event at the county fairgrounds to fix pets, barn cats, and feral cats and help place them through adoption. So we took care of the tiny fur balls for two and half weeks before the event. They got used to humans, hooked on Kitten Chow, and began to learn the concept of a litter box.

The day came to roundup the kittens. It was tough, for I'm sure they felt betrayed as we had snatched them from the dinner bowl - only way we could get the scaredy one. They were all very quiet during our ride into town.  They entered the queue of many other kitties waiting in their carriers to be fixed. We filled out much paperwork, left a donation, and left the kittens in the hands of cat rescue.

The story had a happy ending.

Cat rescue followed up with a phone call. They found the three little kittens a home. A lady, who had just lost her cat, took in all three. May they live long and be spoiled rotten!

Thanks be to the kind hearted people who offered their helping hand and continue to do so in the rescue of God's creatures. You made a difference in the lives of these little ones.

I love these words from Francis of Assisi:

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.


Photo from everystockphoto:  gray kittens

What a Ham I am (Part 2) - When lightening strikes

In the first post of this series, I blogged that after more than 25 years as Tech, I moved up to General:  Part 1 - moving on up

During the previous 25 years,  I had my moments on the air, especially when living out in the country.  OM had been very into designing and putting up antennas.    Outside the city, OM put up a tower, many antennas, in a ham friendly environment with no covenants and little RF interference.

Loss of jobs, new jobs took us cross country and back.  In the silent years, we dwelt in densely populated areas. Covenants.  Transmission lines all about.  Much RF interference. Tight spaces.  Definitely not ham friendly. OM, the dedicated ham and antenna engineer he is, made due and was clever with some of his urban camouflage (fodder for another post?).

Finally, we took an early retirement in a small town in fly-over country. Little RF interference, much more elbow room, ham friendly. OM's first antenna went up last summer in 2010. It was like the good old days.  We were in a more rural environs with a beautiful view of the mountains.

Yet, that summer of 2010 had its share of thunderstorms. One in particular was brewing over the mountains in the west. I sat watching the light show from my dining room window. The thunder was getting louder. The lightening flashes closer. Oh my gosh!  It was coming right for us!

Crash!

Lightening struck. It vaporized the wires of my OM's antenna. The flood of current surged into the house - taking out random appliances.

Goodbye - TV, DVD, toaster, garage door openers, pellet stove motor, electric lights, an ether net port. It spared the refrig, stove, microwave, fans. (At least I had the sense to unplug my computer. It was OK.)  Most ironically, our Dirt Devil hand vacuum - which had been on its last legs - as it was recharging on the wall got a rejuvenating jolt.  Now, our Dirt Devil has new life and holds a charge much better, sucking with more "oomph" than it has in a long time.

When all the damage was assessed and we settled with insurance, the final outcome was not so bad. We did get new stuff.  New garage door openers.  A better TV and DVD player.   But OM was antenna-less.  At least for a while.

This year, OM has erected a non-resonating dipole  with a lightening rod on the very top. Since May, in our part of the country, the weather has been stormy - high winds, thunder rumblings - the wires on the antenna pole are down. In calmer weather, the wires should be up in the air and we should be on the air.
 
Meanwhile, OM has been fiddling with radio. Well, .... Field Day is coming.

Yikes!  As I have been typing this another thunderstorm is coming in.  Time to unplug the computer ...

Question: Any lightening stories you wish to share?

----------------------------------------

Glossary for hamspeak:

Ham - Amateur Radio Operator
RF - radio frequency
OM - "Old Man" - A guy, no matter what his age - much like the British term - "old boy"  (In my case, my dear husband)

More references: hamspeak

----------------------------------

Animated gif from Wiki Commons: Lightening Sequence

eReaders (Part 1) - Nook

For years, I've been reading from a computer- whether for work on a desktop and for pleasure on my laptop. Daily, I infosnack on various blogs, news, fun stuff, serious stuff, just stuff. And no doubt will continue to do so. I have software to read PDFs, ePub formats, and the Kindle format.

Yet, I did want a compact reader dedicated to reading .  Also, I won't have to haul about hard cover books, paperback, magazine - it's all contained and organized in a small eReader.

Michael Hyatt, the Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, has a very good post on this: The Kindle, Nook, iPad, and Reader Compared.  He has a spread sheet which he breaks it out various features and catalogues them.

The iPads and the like look very cool and do so many things in addition to eReader. Yet , it would be another computer to maintain. For me, it was between Kindle and Nooks.

The Kindle is very appealing, easy on the eyes, light weight, good buy for the money. Comments indicate owners love it.

Yet, I have some friends, bibliophiles, who are into gadget and they were sold of the Nook. The wide range of formats it supports, the color features, the large number of eBooks at Barnes and Noble. Though one downside is that the Nook does not take Kindle, the ePub format, which is far more pervasive.

I chose the Nook. Here is their blurb:



My dear husband got the regular Nook - as shown below.



So far, so good. Between the two of us - regular, color - we got it covered.

FYI: I have no financial interest in promoting Nooks, just the desire to spread the info around.

Question: What, if any, eReaders have won you over?

Photo from Wikipedia Commons: Nook

A Royal Inspiration

An estimated two billion people were expected to see the royal wedding, April 29, 2011. Some have questioned those figures (pbs.com). But maybe they are not so far off if you factor in the record breaking online audience (pcmag.com). It was quite a show! A real life fairy tale played out on the world stage as a commoner, Kate Middleton, married a prince, Prince William, second in-line to the British throne.

In the preceding days and after, much has been written and commented about this wedding. Some have made a profit from it. Some were most fascinated and watched to vicariously experience a royal event. Some have "dissed" the wedding with snarkiness. Who cares about an anachronistic monarchy? Wasn't it thirty years ago that Prince William's father, Prince Charles, married Lady Diana Spencer - only this fairy tale ended in disillusion and tragedy?

As Americans, should we care about the royals and Great Britain? (Especially considering our history with a not-so-well-liked monarch, King George III.)

Yes.  
(In my humble opinion.)

Great Britain has been one of the best American allies. What is good for Great Britain is good for the United States. Frankly, I'm still inspired by their great leaders - William Wilberforce and William Pitt, the younger (whose story of abolishing slavery is told in Amazing Grace (2006) ), Sir Winston Churchill during World War II, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during the Cold War.

This May 8, we come up to the 66th anniversary of VE day, Victory in Europe (life.com), the beginning of the end of World War II. And recently, in theaters was the story of an inspirational British monarch, King George VI - The King's Speech (2010) - who reigned during this time.

Prince William's great grandfather,  the second son of George V, had a speech impediment, which he worked hard to overcome. He unexpectedly ascended to the throne when his older brother, Edward VIII, abdicated. The climax and most moving scene came when the King gave his first wartime speech to his subjects as they entered into World War II in September of 1939. (Below is the real speech from George VI taken from americanrhetoric.com which also has its transcript.)
 




During those dark days, Londoners in particular felt the fury of Hitler's Luftwaffe - as the capital city was bombed mercilessly to demoralize the population in the terror known as the London Blitz. King George VI, his wife Queen Elizabeth, and the princesses (Elizabeth and Margaret) stayed in the Buckingham Palace (which was also bombed) and chose not to flee to safer environs of the countryside where many of the kingdom's children were urged to go.

The King and Queen walked through London during the Blitz (bridgemanart.com). The future Queen Elizabeth II also put on the uniform and got her hands dirty during the war. She served as a driver and mechanic as shown here in this Life photo.

So why should I care about the British Royal family and their recent wedding?

Much like our presidents, (one of the best in recent times was Ronald Reagan, in my humble opinion), they can inspire people to do not only extraordinary things, but most important - the right thing.

King George VI's speeches to his people during the Second World War were backed up by his actions. He stood with his people as they experienced attacks by the enemy on native soil.  The most intense were from September 1940 to May 1941, the first attacks lasting for 57 consecutive days. The King gave the people the courage to stand up to Hitler and his "supermen."  And ultimately, the people of Great Britain and their allies did prevail.

My thoughts and prayers are that Prince William follow the steps of his great grandfather. George VI's words are still relevant today in the War on Terror and our uncertain times as they were during the events leading up to World War Two.

" There may be dark days ahead, and war can no longer be confined to the battlefield. But we can only do the right as we see the right, and reverently commit our cause to God.
 
"If one and all we keep resolutely faithful to it, ready for whateverer service or sacrifice it may demand, then, with God's help, we shall prevail."

George VI - September 3, 1939

This coming National Day of Prayer on May 5, 2011 is held at a time which may portend that dark day are ahead. May our leaders point (as George VI) that our help is in God and that we reverently commit our cause to Him. And with God's help we shall prevail.



Photo from Wikipedia:  The royal family on the balcony

What a Ham I am (Part 1) - moving on up!

I'm not sure what the occasion was. I believe it was in the year 2000 and we were selling our house. One of the lookie loos meandered into our loft above our living room area.

My dear husband had claimed the loft as his space, marking it with his computer, plaques, books, etc. The lookie loo - a guy - pointed to our framed set of Ham radio licenses, his and hers, on the wall. He grinned at me.

"I did that to my wife, too."

That told me I was not alone. Men, who are avid Hams, often like to get their wives or significant others involved with their hobby. And I was one of them - one of the fraternity (and sorority) of Hams.

And what really are Hams in the context of geekdom? Ham is slang for amateur radio operators. Here is an introduction from a really, really old video:



Back in the 1980s, when my husband "did that to me, too" - talked me into getting a Ham radio license - there had been five levels of Hams as defined by the FCC: Novice, Tech, General, Advanced, Extra. Later a sixth was added - Tech Plus.  All had required some level of code proficiently.

That is Morse code, such as : Di di di dah dah dah dit di dit  .... (That is the universal HELP signal - SOS)  At this time, most us Novices had to bang out code on a paddle or key. For the entire alphabet check out the video below:



As a Novice, we only had air privileges with Morse code and limited band frequencies on which to broadcast. I recall, in the early 1980s, listening to a cassette tape to practice up on code to pass at the 5 words per minute requirement for Novices. And in that tape was this gem:

"Jonathan Livingston Buzzard keeps quiet except when flying over my shack."

This was special in that it used every letter in the English alphabet.  And it was cute, in that the novella, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which had been a big hit in the 1970s, was still fresh in our memories. But when I started to copy "Jonathan ..." I knew the rest of this old buzzard was coming right for me, which kind of defeated the point of the code practice.

A few years later, with much encouragement from my husband - who would go on to get his Extra class license, I moved up to Tech Plus. That meant that I had passed the test on the written level for General class (the class above Tech), but did not take the code test to pass for General.

Then the code requirement for General was 13 words per minute. And I just was not ready for it. So I sat fat and happy for the next 25 years as a Tech Plus, which was good enough for normal purposes. And though my dear husband reminded me I had opportunities to convert to General, I just did not do it.

I am a very bad Ham.

The amateur radio licensing rules had evolved much in the last 30 years. Now, there are only three levels: Tech, General, Extra. Novice was dropped. So was Advanced. Yet, Novice, Tech Plus, and Advanced are still grandfathered in. No code is required. Yippee!

Finally, this April 16, 2011, I studied up and passed the General level!

Will I be on the air soon?

That will be a subject for another post. And Field Day is coming.

73s

and for you non-hams that means - best wishes.

Photo from Wikipedia Commons: International amateur radio symbol

Easter - The Sign of the Prophet Jonah

What a big fish story!

How often do to we hear that - especially when we think someone is exaggerating, really telling a whopper - and that ain't no Burger King (R) hamburger.

One of the biggest fish stories ever - as some may consider - is the story of Jonah.

This prodigal prophet ran when the Lord told him to preach those hated Ninevites. I don't blame him. Those Ninevites were not very nice.  And that was an understatement.

While Jonah took the next boat for Tarshish - the opposite direction of Nineveh, a big storm hit. The sailors cast lots, and the lots pointed to Jonah as the cause of their distress.

Jonah confessed and to save the ship cast himself into the sea. The sea calmed. The sailors feared the Lord and offered sacrifices.

Meanwhile,the Lord prepared a big fish to swallow up Jonah. And he was in the belly of that fish for three days and three night. (Jonah 1)

Was God through with him? The Good Lord gave him a second chance.

And now for the rest of the story. ...

Inside the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed "from deep in the realm of the dead" (it seems he died in the fish) and the Lord commanded the fish to vomit Jonah out on dry land. (Jonah 2)

Then, the Lord came to Jonah (very much alive) the second time and called him, again, to preach to the Ninevites. This time Jonah obeyed - sparking the biggest revival recorded in the Old Testament. All of the Ninevites from the king on down believed God and repented in sackcloth and ashes. And the Good Lord spared them. (Jonah 3)

Instead of rejoicing, Jonah was quite bummed out about it all and sulked. He revealed the real reason that he had run from the Lord: He knew the Good Lord was compassionate and merciful and would forgive the Ninevites if they repented after hearing his message.

But the Lord had a good talk with him. The God of Israel was also the God of the Gentiles, and He was concerned for the Ninevites, the little children, and the animals. (Jonah 4)

As echoed by the Prophet Ezekiel:

As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD,
I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but rather that they turn from their ways and live.

Ezekiel 33:11
(NIV)

That is quite a fish story!

What does that have to do with Easter?

Everything.

The Lord Jesus believed the big fish story. When His critics were hounding for a sign, He said these words:

A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign!
But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish,
so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here. ...

Matthew 12: 39 - 41
(NIV)

Jonah did not survived in the fish. He died. The belly of the fish was "the realm of the dead" (Jonah 2:1-2). Yet, Jonah was spit out very much alive (Jonah 2:10) on the third day (Jonah 1:17).

Likewise, Jesus died and was buried and - like Jonah - rose from the dead on the third day.

The Book of Jonah is a critical book in the Old Testament in that it teaches the Resurrection.

By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.
Otherwise,  you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried,
that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ...

1 Corinthians 15:2-4
(NIV)

According to the Scriptures, dying and rising on the third day is the Sign of the Prophet Jonah.

The Resurrection is the Crux of Easter and the Gospel.

And what does the Lord requires of us in the 21st century AD? The same as the Ninevites in the 7th century BC. He asks that we believe Him. God is rich in mercy. (Ephesian 2:4)

To all my readers - have a Blessed Easter, this anno Domini (in the year of our Lord) 2011.

Question: Do you have any unusual Easter stories?

Photo from Wikipedia: Jonah and the Whale