o-bli-vee-uts: n., persons who are oblivious to their surroundings, and oblivious to the fact they are oblivious; usually accompanied by sense of being the center, and sole occupant, of the entire universe. Very similar to Darwin Award Candidate.

I was at the first major intersection I traverse on my commute this morning, headed south, waiting for the light to change. The north and south turn lanes got their arrow, and the cars in those lanes moved out, in a surprisingly organized manner (considering I am in Phoenix, Arizona). At this point, the obliviot makes her appearance. She started crossing the street from east to west on the south side of the intersection.

The lights turned green for the north-south traffic. Since there was an obstruction, the northbound cars did not move. The southbound lanes (remember, we are in Phoenix, where nothing stops the green light drag race) took off like a shot, crossing the five lanes on the crossroad. Obliviot suddenly stopped walking, in the northbound turn lane, because she sensed impending doom.

Having started her illegal foray across the street, she stood in the crosswalk at the turn lane (I will give her credit for using the crosswalk) watching in amazement as the southbound drivers flew past her. Obviously, we were supposed to stop, and allow her to finish crossing unimpeded. None of us did. I watched in the rear view mirror as she waited for the last of the southbound traffic to clear, and she sprinted across the remaining lanes, only to start sprinting across the eastbound lanes, crossing the street to the north, just as the east/west traffic got their green lights. At that point, I was too far down the street to be able to pick her out in the mirror without loosing concentration on my task at hand; that is, driving in Phoenix.

I do not know if she survived her street crossing foray, but she needs to learn that the people here do not stop for random street crossers like they do in her country of origin. At least, I am assuming they do that in her country of origin; otherwise why would she cross like that? It’s not a natural action, that’s for sure – very much against the whole “survival” circuit that kicks on in the brain. Well, for some people it does.

God bless you all, please drive safely, and look both ways before crossing the street when you have the appropriate clearance/light/walk sign.

Ten tons of gravel in the backyard – done. Surprisingly enough, I am not nearly as sore as I was last week, with only three tons moved. Maybe I should be physically active more often…

Saturday night’s rehearsal went pretty well – I was handed a new piece of music, and did not mess it up too badly. TMBWitW and her best friend and their “Momma” were cracking up because I apparently had a perplexed/lost look on my face most of the time. Yeah, thanks for the moral support, honey. Nothing more helpful than your lifemate rolling in the aisle as you are trying to play…

Friday night, TMBWitW and our adopted parents (T&S) went to a concert at Celebrity Theatre. It’s a “theatre in the round” type of set up, only the stage rotates, ever so slowly and gently, as the artist is performing. The opening act was Mark Schultz, who was worth the cost of admission alone, in my opinion. He did a lot of his best stuff, including “Remember Me” and “Letters From War” – a song which I love and cannot listen to at the same time. When the stage started rotating, Mark stopped playing and said “Do we have to do that?” Turns out he gets motion sickness. He was adapting pretty well, until after three rotations the stage started going the other way. He stopped again, in the middle of the song, and said “Wow. That’s fantastic.” I don’t think he meant it.

The main act was Phillips, Craig, and Dean. I hadn’t been to one of their concerts in some time; actually, since a Christmas program that the choir I was in at the time sponsored and they sang the front. They’ve been together for 16 years, and still harmonize like nobody’s business. About halfway through the concert, TMBWitW (she’s pregnant, you know…) said she wasn’t feeling well, so we bid T&S good night and went on home.

Sunday was very relaxing. After church, I sat down and watched the race, and enjoyed watching Matt Kenseth pretty much dominate the race after Dale Jr. had a bobble in the pits. Jeff Gordon was charging, but just didn’t have enough for Matt.

That was my weekend. How was yours? Sorry I don’t write much anymore. I miss the interaction, and can only get on the home computer when TMBWitW doesn’t have homework or a paper to write. Did I mention she is working on her Bachelor’s in Accounting? Yup, full time job, full time student, and soon to be a mommy. Quite the dedication, I tell you.

Mom update: Early this morning, she had a cardiac arrest. The medical types (I’m losing faith in doctors right at the moment, bear with me) finally read the notes sent to them (two weeks ago, when she arrived in Vegas), and started treating the lesions on her liver. Oh, and to “reduce the stress” they sedated her – the stress is what triggered the CA, and the only reason she is still with us is because her husband didn’t want to leave her alone – so at 3:00 this morning, she spasmed and started bleeding form her mouth. He hollered for the nurse, she came running in, started CPR (or whatever they’re calling it now) and the nurse called a Code 99, resulting in a roomful of medical staff doing their best to keep her alive. Now that she is stabilized and in the ICU again, they are treating her problems. Thank you all for your prayers, and if you could continue, we would appreciate it.

God bless you all, and stay safe. Gawfer, I hope you and Mrs. Gawfer had a very boring flight home.

You know what that means:

Go here and tell Sue I sent you. While you are at it, grab the logo above and freely spread it around while pointing people to the web site.

Thank you, God bless, and Thank You to our troops!

I’m sorry, but I’ve been moving gravel all day and I am tired. I will try to post more interesting stuff, but with the limited access at work now I don’t have the option of posting at break or at lunch anymore. I’ve got more gravel to move tomorrow, but this evening I am going to dinner with friends and TMBWitW and then we are going to see Phillips, Craig, and Dean in concert. With Mark Schultz. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

I am going to leave the political aspirations of certain ill-bred whiny women out of this post. I’ll leave that to people who have more time and desire to commit to tracking those sorts of things, like the Old Ranter.

Me? I’m into the whole “home improvement” thing – you’ve seen pictures, right? – and this last weekend was no exception.

TMBWitW has decided that the landscape bark didn’t really fit what she had envisioned – so it’s now composting at the new church property, waiting for the right moment to be used over there. Instead, we are now installing “fish-eye” gravel in most of the backyard. There will also be a patch of grass, with any luck; and a sandbox and playhouse for TMBLGitW when she shows up. OK, I know, I don’t have to have the playhouse built quite yet, but I am a project oriented type of guy…

So – do you know how many trips with a wheelbarraow you need to move three tons of 3/8 gravel from the street to the backyard? I quit counting at twenty five – and they weren’t light loads, either. Every muscle in my body was screaming at me yesterday morning; today wasn’t much better. I’ll be doing this again, with a ten ton load, in the near future. Someone miscalculated the area to be covered, by a factor of three, and how deep, by a factor of 2, so the first load wasn’t nearly enough. I’ll have to fire my project manager or hire a quality control inspector. Anyone willing to help me out next time? Drop me an e-mail…

Some serious news – TMBWitW’s mother had a stroke last week, and is still in the hospital. Any prayers anyone would care to offer for the grace of God to be with Grace as she recovers would be appreciated.

I am co-teaching a small group on Thursdays, and we are going through a wonderful series found at the Boston Christian Bible Study Resource web site. Drop me a line if you would like to study along, I will let you know what we are covering each week.

There has been a change of policy at my work regarding Internet access – it is now only for work related purposes, including break and lunch time. That means I’ll start getting caught up on my reading, but I’m going to fall behind on my surfing. If I don’t visit your site for a while, I have not forgotten about you – I just haven’t made it there.

I appreciate every single one of my readers; I treasure those of you who stop by even if it’s only once, and I cannot place a value on those who are regular readers here. I love all of you, and pray God’s blessings on your lives and in your everyday walk. Yearn to grow closer to Him, and know that you were made to worship Him.

God bless, and take care.

You know what that means:

Go here and tell Sue I sent you. While you are at it, grab the logo above and freely spread it around while pointing people to the web site.

Thank you, God bless, and Thank You to our troops!