More photos, this time from our visit this summer to see the kids' grandparents (ie, our parents) in Texas. Includes about 40 photos of fishing with Grandpa Scott, the day at Six Flags, and fun with the Carsons in Tyler.
Again, direct link to AOL photos.
We finally found the long-lost memory card from Caroline's camera, which contained most of our photos from the spring break trip to Holden Beach. I'm going to try something new here, using the AOL photo album. In case it doesn't work, you can try our family website or this direct link.
We just completed our almost-annual drive to visit family in Texas and Oklahoma. First, some stats from the driving...
· Just over 3000 miles
· About 175 gallons of gas (translation, $700)
· Averaged 17.5 mpg
· Averaged just over 55 mph
· 53 hours in the car!
We had a great visit. I think the shorter timeframe - 3 daysat each set of parents vs. the more-normal week at each - helped everyone focus and ensured that wekept busy. We were also pleased that the kids got to spend so much time with their cousins, on both sides. They all had a great time together.
A highlight for everyone, except David who didn't get to go, was our trip to Six Flags Over Texas with my siblings and their kids. It was my first time there in about 20 years, and the first time ever for our kids. It was a bit hot, but the crowds were pleasantly sparse (recession at work?), so we didn't waste much time standing in hot lines.
In Tyler, the kids had a blast at Jumpin' Jacks and learning to shoot a bb gun. David, of all people, got the only bullseye (but i think his Papa might have helped a little). Emily was probably the best shot overall.
In Terrell, the kids enjoyed an evening of fishing, with Jackson and Caroline nabbing a couple. And they had fun with the new pool slide.
Elsewhere, we had a very nice visit in Flower Mound, kicking back until the wee hours, chasing the big puppy (David called him the "big snappy puppy") down the street after midnight, as he took off after a stray cat. And we were happy to visit Julie's Grandma Walker and aunts/uncles/cousins up in Oklahoma.
Certainly glad to be home, but certainly glad we made the trek.
Caroline's school started a new girls softball program this year. When they started, Caroline was the only junior, and there were no seniors. About half the team was still in middle school. I fully expected it to be one long, dismal season. Building a foundation may be ultimately rewarding, but it's no fun while you're doing it. Generally. We saw that around here when a new high school (Reagan) opened up with just underclassmen. I don't think they won a football game for 3 years. I worried about the same thing happening to the Calvary girls.
When they lost their first game badly, something like 20-1, i figured my fears were confirmed. But then they WON their next game almost as easily. And then the next. Turned out we weren't all that bad. Anchored by a stellar freshman pitcher, and supplemented by another junior whom Caroline recruited to join the team, who became the catcher and clean-up hitter, the girls logged a nice 10-5 regular season record, and the #2 spot in their district. Coach was named coach of the year. Well deserved.
Caroline started off at 3B, but the coach moved her to CF. She wasn't thrilled about it, because when they're playing a weaker team, she hardly gets any action in the outfield. But she's fast to the ball, and her defense becomes much more important when they play the good teams. In their final game, she threw out a runner at 3B with a perfect peg. I told her "that's why the coach moved you."
He also altered her batting style. Before, she swung almost totally with her arms. She has a quick bat and a decent eye. The coach taught her this walk-forward approach, similar to a Japanese professional style, where she takes a couple of steps toward the pitcher as the pitch arrives, which gives her a moving, running start toward first base. Since she bats lefty and is a fast runner, this allows her to get on base pretty much as long as she makes contact. It's termed slap hitting, and is apparently all the rage in softball (didn't know until searching for a link just now).
Anyhow, congrats to the Cougar girls team! Hopefully, everyone can return next season to take the district championship.
"Don't Kiss Daddy!"
That's David's new favorite thing to say. He gets very jealous of his mommy, and says this whenever i kiss her goodbye in the morning as i leave for work, or when i get home in the afternoon.
This morning, he immediately reached over and wiped my kiss off his mom's cheek.
A slew of tornados blew through our area on Thursday night. Worst spate of windstorms that i remember in our 8+ years here in Winston Salem. Getting it out of the way upfront - our family, our house was not damaged or ever in harm's way. But others in the area weren't so lucky.
Started late Thursday evening, as we were wrapping up Caroline's softball game near downtown Winston. The PA lady said that there was a "tornado warning" and that we should all start to leave (the game had ended already). I was sure she meant "tornado watch", not warning, and i was right. We drove home to not a hint of a storm.
But once home, we turned on the weather, and found that a line of storms was heading in from the west, and had likely already spawned one tornado just across the Virginia border. The radar-hooks were blooming in adjacent Davie county, the far-eastern edge of which is a burgeoning bedroom community for Winston commuters. Several of my co-workers, including my two closest work friends, live there in Advance.
The weather folks on tv drew arrows on their maps to predict the path of the storm, and most of them would initially be coming right for us. But all the bad wind stayed south of us. Besides Advance, there was damage in the south part of Clemmons, down near the Davidson county line. And then later, the funnel dropped down again in Greensboro near the airport. That's when the one fatality occurred.
At home, we tracked the radar in the living room. I had sent Jackson to bed, telling him that there would be rain and lightning, but not to worry. I would wake him up if we needed to go to the basement. A little after 10pm, after yet another large cell arose in Advance, looking very likely to take a more northern track our way, i decided to get the boys and shepherded everyone into the basement. I just didn't want to have to rush if that time came. Jack woke with a panicked look, knowing exactly whyi roused him.
We watched the tv reports from the basement. Walked outside to marvel at the heavy rain (about 3 inches total), but the wind never got bad. Caroline soon got text messages from her old boyfriend who also lives in Advance. He reported that their neighbor had their roof blown off, and big oak trees were down everywhere. Turned out, as we learned the next morning, that their neighborhood was one of the hardest hit.
About 1130pm, i decided that the danger was past, and we all went upstairs to our beds. It was exciting, in a way, though. And it was one of the rare times when all 6 of us were together in the same room.
Last Saturday, Caroline was a passenger in a car accident. She and the driver are fine, just a little sore. The car, however, was totaled. That car was my old Sebring.
So we reach the end of an era. July 1997, from the Carmax dealership in Norcross, Georgia. Back when Carmax had just started selling new Chryslers. Only had about 65,000 miles on it, too, after almost 11 years.
I know from the insurance business that there is an extremely high probability that a parent of a teenager will get "that call" at some point. IIRC, something like 80% of American teenagers will be in a wreck between the ages of 16 and 18. So we are very grateful that our call brought news so benign. No real injuries, news delivered by Caroline herself and not some police officer.
She had been at prom that night with a friend from church. They took the Sebring, because the other kid was grounded from driving his Accord. They had come home, changed clothes, and were heading out to a parent-sponsored after-party. The boy knew the destination, so Caroline let him drive. Just past the school, someone pulled out in front of them, the boy swerved and lost control. The Sebring did a 360, they crossed the road and struck a brick wall on the other side of the road. Like i said, quite fortunate.
My claims adjuster tried to keep it from being totaled, but there was extensive undercarriage damage, and it wasn't close. So now i'm back in that dilemma of trying to figure out what vehicle, if any, to get for Caroline. Safety is paramount, and i want something with side airbags. But try to find something with side airbags for a reasonable low price. For the cost of a good used car, i can get a new vehicle through my GM employee price. But i struggle (mightily) with the thought of a teenager driving a brand new vehicle.
I think a period of carlessness could be healthy, despite the attendant burden on the rest of us, especially Julie.
Here's a photo of some of the damage...
At long last, we come to #1, my favorite album of the decade (so far). I don’t really need the parenthetical thought, as i am confident that nothing in the next 20 months will top this one.
1. A Collision or (3 + 4 = 7) – David Crowder Band
When our depravity meets His divinity, it’s a beautiful collision. – David Crowder
When this group of guys from Baylor University – my fellow Bears – hit the modern worship scene in the early 00s, i kept an eye on them & bought their debut album (Can You Hear Us?) out of collegiate solidarity, but didn’t really get into their music. So when my good friend Shane from Atlanta started hyping this album, before it was even released, i was intrigued but unmoved. Shane had heard several pre-released tracks and was convinced that this was the big one, the F5 CD. He was right.
Read this review at CT. I would be even more effusive. I couldn’t believe my ears. I had never heard anything like this record. Like the F5, i was blown away (sorry for the strained metaphor). I now consider this the finest album i’ve heard since 1987’s The Joshua Tree by U2.
I rate 3 tracks as 5-stars: the perfectly CCM-sensible Wholly Yours, the title track, and the fun rocker We Win! (a song the kids & i blasted on the car stereo when i drove them to school). And a whole bevy of other outstanding tracks, including Here Is Our King, Do Not Move, and Rescue is Coming. The song Our Happy Home concludes with a marvelous bit of sonic trickery (read about itin the link).
But like any top-notch album, it works best as a whole, in sequence. DCB starts off with a call to worship in Come & Listen, then segues into pure CCM territory, and then (after a detour into a section we’ll call “let’s show off all the musical styles we like and can play”) into modern rock worship. All in all, it adds up to masterpiece. Plain & simple.
Other links:
· DCB on myspace
· DCB page at Christianity Today
· Interview about the album and the tragedy of Pastor Lake’s electrocution
· DCB at wiki
· David on New Song Café, doing Here Is Our King and Wholly Yours
· I Saw the Light (yes, it’s on this album)
· Everybody Wants to go to Heaven (this is for my dad, and yes, it too is on this album, briefly)
· BBC Orchestra plays The Lark Ascending (DCB covers this, fugues it into a modern worship tune, and adds lyrics, closing the album)
2. Come On Feel the Illinoise! – Sufjan Stevens
I waffled a long time between this and the album i ultimately selected as #1 for the top spot. I almost listed this one as 1b, but thought that was cheating. Whatever the label, this is one incredible album. If you’re not familiar with the music of Sufjan Stevens, you’re really missing out on a musical prodigy, a genius at interweaving odd and simple instruments and sounds into his multi-layered, beautiful songs. He may be a bit of an acquired taste for some, but if you “get it”, you’ll love it.
Start with Illinoise, which is for me clearly his best work. As one reviewer put it, the music is “strange and lush… excessive and challenging.” The conceit of the album is a tribute to the state of Illinois, the 2nd installment in Sufjan’s hyperbolic quest to create an album for each of the 50 states. The lyrics are sprinkled with obvious and obscure references to all-things Illinois, but you don’t need a connection to that state to understand it or enjoy it.
This is another album sequenced to listen through from start to finish, with a number of sub-one-minutes sonic intermissions, palette cleansers perhaps. Of the 22 tracks, there are only 13 or so full songs, but oh what great songs they are. My two favorites are “Casimir Pulaski Day” and “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” (a haunting song which will be off-putting for some – it’s not an ode to a serial killer, but Sufjan does draw parallels to our own sins, hidden beneath our metaphorical floorboards), probably the two barest (musically) tracks, but the two with the most story-like lyrics (eg, “Tuesday night at the Bible study we lift our hands and pray over your body but nothing ever happens”).
The title track, the one about Chicago, and the one about Superman are also stellar. I love Jacksonville.
And the Night Zombies with a cool funky groove. Tallest Man, Broadest Shoulders. I could listen to this album over and over again. It’s one for the ages.
Other links
· Decidedly odd-duck bio of Sufjan from his record label
· Myspace – if you dig that sort of thing
· Review of Illinoise at Pitchfork
· The Predatory Wasp
· Another version of the Zombies song (with strings)
Next up: my favorite album of the decade. Sic ‘em bears!
Recap of the Top 10 (so far)…
4. Home – Dixie Chicks
5. Glo – Delirious?
6. All That You Can’t Leave Behind – U2
7. All Right Here – Sara Groves
8. The Beautiful Letdown – Switchfoot
9. Remedy – David Crowder Band
10. Divine Discontent – Sixpence None the Richer
3. Ohio – Over the Rhine
This prolific band – the husband & wife duo of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist – crafted their magnum opus with this 2003 double-album named after their home state (the band name itself is taken from a neighborhood in their hometown of Cincinnati).
The Phantom Tollbooth review in that first link above captures it all pretty well. This is one to just put on and let it run through, with one great song after another. Just absolutely beautiful music. A work of art.
My favorite tracks are:
· Ohio (title track)
· B.F.D
· How Long Have You Been Stoned?
Other links:
Next up: what do you get when you mix banjos, musical genius, a serial killer, Superman, and a million other odds and ends?
