Eph 5:20 "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;" (KJVA)
If you’re reading this Thanksgiving Day, I was scheduled to work today, but flexibility being the watchword, that has changed, YEAH!!.
I had originally planned to be off this week and was considering making the trek to be with my parents and siblings this day, that or spend the week working on a failed shower pan.
Well, things didn’t work out where I would be able to work on and complete the shower, but neither was I able to make the pilgrimage north. One of our employee’s heart problems revisited and for the second time in 3 weeks he had to undergo a cardiac stent procedure.
With the downsizing the Postal Service is undergoing, we no longer have the redundancy of employees for which the service was once legitimately criticized. That redundancy is no longer the case and the reductions continue with voluntary early retirements taking effect in January ’09.
Two strong healthy people can distribute mail in our office for a short period of time, I know because I did it the first time this employee went into the hospital. But now, if I were to take the time off, the two people left are both near or past retirement and neither are in the best of health themselves. Attempting to run the office for a week would most likely, for them, result in their needing to take sick leave to recover from the physical damage they’d incur.
So, I find myself working this week, the first time I would have had Thanksgiving week off in 20 years of working for the Postal Service. Additionally, the little known secret is that even though there is no window service or mail delivery on a holiday, many larger offices still must staff to one degree or another otherwise the mail the following day would be overwhelming and most likely delays would occur.
However, with the overwhelming changes occurring in the Postal Service, we are downsizing our staffing across the board and extending dependency on automation processes to increase productivity and further reduce staffing.
The Postal Service is not immune to the shrinking economy. Our business depends on mail volume and that volume is dropping. Many factors come into play, the rise of the Internet and electronic billing and remittance being primary.
We learned Wednesday that except in the major processing centers, there will no transportation running to delivery offices on Thanksgiving Day and thus no need to provide even minimal staffing in those office. I have no doubt that this seeming minor change will save millions of dollars in avoided costs on this holiday.
And with that additional bit of knowledge, I no longer am required to work this Thanksgiving Day, and that's a good thing.
So, with all this change and uncertainty am I complaining, Nope. I’m thankful. Thankful for so many things. Thankful for my job. It’s been a source of income security for 20 years and provided for my family in many ways.
I’m thankful for my family. For their love and patience with me, even in those times when I challenge their patience.
For my parents, for their nurture, their provision, their guidance, their love. For being an example to follow and a source of strength in times of trial. For their expression of love and in doing so were an example of God’s love to me.
For my brother and sister. I left home before we developed those close relationships so often depicted in film and book. But then, I’m a different kind of independent individual and those kind of relationships would be difficult for me to maintain for any length of time. Still, I know their love is secure and when I have needed their support, they have been there for me, without fail.
For my wife, Karen. For the same reasons listed above, I’m not an easy person to live with. I can often be distant, quite, uncommunicative, and stubborn and sometimes exhibit unloving behavior. Still, she is patient and continues to love me, even after these past 8 years of ups and downs. She really deserves a medal.
I’m thankful for my health. The past two years has really brought this home with the cycling accident I had in February ’06 and the subsequent two surgeries. The long rehabilitation and just in the past few weeks returning to my bike. It’s a joy to be able to physically challenge myself. Many my age are unable to do so, their bodies failing them either due to genetics or abuse.
I’m thankful for my home. Yes, even with the damaged shower. Our home is a blessing and a refuge. In the six years since we built we’ve realized it is probably too small for this time in our lives and there are things I miss, like a two-car garage. But many have no garage, live in an overcrowded home with several generations under one roof and, recently, a significant percentage of homeowners are losing their home. Some due to imprudent financial decisions, some simply victims, oh how I hate those words, of our present economy.
I’m thankful for our grandchildren. Don’t see ‘em often enough, and frankly, when we do I’m often ready for their parents to pick ‘em up before their parents are ready to do so. Still, Camron and Katie are great kids, healthy, active, energetic, imaginative, inquisitive and intelligent. What more could you ask for.
I’m thankful for technology, though sometimes I’d like to take that technology and toss it out the window. Technology helps keep us closer. Families that would barely know each other develop cyber-relationships when there would have been little contact otherwise. Some of you are reading this on Facebook where I have recently had the pleasure to reconnect with friends thought lost years ago.
Speaking of those friends, I’m thankful for each of you. The imprint you’ve had on my life is indelible and while some more than others, each friendship and relationship has served to mold and shape me in ways that has made me the person I am.
Most of all I’m thankful for the love, grace and mercy of a loving God who really does love me. Some folks think of God as a stern, judgmental, unforgiving master who seeks their obedience, respect and fear. The God I know loves me; he really does, and seeks his best for my life. It’s my duty to seek out his will and conform my life to it, not out of fear but out of love and devotion to him.
So on this Thanksgiving Day, as I work, I will do so with thanksgiving in my heart and a song on my lips. For I truly have much to be thankful for.
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
In the Shadow of the Moon
I’ve always had an interest in space and space exploration. The idea of what lies beyond planet Earth, what wonders exist in the heavens above has occupied my thoughts in varying degrees since childhood.
I remember as a child watching TV while the Gemini and Apollo space capsules blasted off into that great unknown, then returning in a fiery reentry and splashdown, Navy ships, helicopters, rafts and divers rushing to the scene to secure the capsule and extract the astronauts before their craft was claimed by the waters.
Living in Florida these past 20 years I’ve had opportunity to exercise that interest to a greater degree than otherwise possible, and with the coming of the Internet, the availability of information and imagery is like manna, or perhaps a needed “fix” for this addiction that oft runs hot and cold. The Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral are located on the central Atlantic Florida coast, a short drive from our home, and excite the imaginations of children and adults, myself included.
One of the cool things about living here, for me, is that under the right atmospheric conditions I can view launches from my home. They vary in degrees of visibility; some day launches are a mere contrail arching through the sky with a faint orange flame at its head.
Night launches are the best, recently on November 14 STS-126 (that’s Space Transport System number 126) launched at 7:55pm into partly cloudy skies of an early evening. As the shuttle accelerated in speed and altitude she suddenly appeared over the trees between the clouds suspended in the air on a tail of flame quickly rising on her rendezvous with space and the International Space Station.
The most amazing and beautiful night launch I viewed was STS-33 in November 1989. At the time I lived in a semi-rural area and that evening our overhead skies were clear but there was high altitude overcast at the launch pad. As the shuttle engines ignited the fireball lit the undersides of those clouds and with them the whole horizon. It was an indescribable sight of beauty and power.
No matter how many times they launch there’s always a crowd of people of all ages lining our streets and staring into the heavens hoping for a glimpse of the start of this most recent of adventures. Perhaps some of it is the spectacle syndrome, hoping against hope to be there if another shuttle launch fails in the manner of STS-51L, Challenger, which, with her crew, was lost 73 seconds into the launch in a huge fireball seen across the state.
No one wants to see that ever again. But space is a harsh mistress and space exploration is, at its essence, a process of discovery that is built on taking high risk. Each shuttle and launch vehicle contains millions of components, each critical to the mission. Failure of even the seemingly most innocuous of parts could have disastrous consequences.
One of the most awesome of experiences you can have is to be at KSC when the shuttle launches. I’ve viewed it twice, once from Titusville with my nephew and a second time from across the Banana River at the Merritt Island launch viewing spot for the general public. Even though it’s 8 miles away, when the shuttle launches the roar and blast of the engines rolls across the water and physically shakes your body. (Google Map)
I’ve said all this to introduce these few words about the 2007 documentary “In the Shadow of the Moon” directed by David Sington and introduced by Ronnie Howard. This film follows the space program of the 1960’s from the lofty goal set by President Kennedy in 1961 through the achievement of that goal in 1969 and beyond.
While this is not a scientific overview of the race to the Moon, it succinctly captures the mood, challenges, achievements and failures of the space program during this time.
With overwhelming odds and technology that by today’s standards was less than primitive, this nation set its collective eye on the goal and through determination, unrelenting effort, innovation and even dumb luck achieved that target in a manner that was acclaimed around the world.
The film is based on interviews with the men who risked their lives to attain that objective. Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Mike Collins, Ed Mitchell, John Young and many more of these adventurous risk takers tell the story in their own words, in the process providing wonderful insights to the space program and the men behind it.
If you have any interest in science, history, space exploration, technology or human nature, this is an important study that you simply must see. It’s available on DVD and if you subscribe to Netflix you can add it to your queue. You’ll thank yourself for doing so.
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
I remember as a child watching TV while the Gemini and Apollo space capsules blasted off into that great unknown, then returning in a fiery reentry and splashdown, Navy ships, helicopters, rafts and divers rushing to the scene to secure the capsule and extract the astronauts before their craft was claimed by the waters.
Living in Florida these past 20 years I’ve had opportunity to exercise that interest to a greater degree than otherwise possible, and with the coming of the Internet, the availability of information and imagery is like manna, or perhaps a needed “fix” for this addiction that oft runs hot and cold. The Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral are located on the central Atlantic Florida coast, a short drive from our home, and excite the imaginations of children and adults, myself included.
One of the cool things about living here, for me, is that under the right atmospheric conditions I can view launches from my home. They vary in degrees of visibility; some day launches are a mere contrail arching through the sky with a faint orange flame at its head.
Night launches are the best, recently on November 14 STS-126 (that’s Space Transport System number 126) launched at 7:55pm into partly cloudy skies of an early evening. As the shuttle accelerated in speed and altitude she suddenly appeared over the trees between the clouds suspended in the air on a tail of flame quickly rising on her rendezvous with space and the International Space Station.
The most amazing and beautiful night launch I viewed was STS-33 in November 1989. At the time I lived in a semi-rural area and that evening our overhead skies were clear but there was high altitude overcast at the launch pad. As the shuttle engines ignited the fireball lit the undersides of those clouds and with them the whole horizon. It was an indescribable sight of beauty and power.
No matter how many times they launch there’s always a crowd of people of all ages lining our streets and staring into the heavens hoping for a glimpse of the start of this most recent of adventures. Perhaps some of it is the spectacle syndrome, hoping against hope to be there if another shuttle launch fails in the manner of STS-51L, Challenger, which, with her crew, was lost 73 seconds into the launch in a huge fireball seen across the state.
No one wants to see that ever again. But space is a harsh mistress and space exploration is, at its essence, a process of discovery that is built on taking high risk. Each shuttle and launch vehicle contains millions of components, each critical to the mission. Failure of even the seemingly most innocuous of parts could have disastrous consequences.
One of the most awesome of experiences you can have is to be at KSC when the shuttle launches. I’ve viewed it twice, once from Titusville with my nephew and a second time from across the Banana River at the Merritt Island launch viewing spot for the general public. Even though it’s 8 miles away, when the shuttle launches the roar and blast of the engines rolls across the water and physically shakes your body. (Google Map)I’ve said all this to introduce these few words about the 2007 documentary “In the Shadow of the Moon” directed by David Sington and introduced by Ronnie Howard. This film follows the space program of the 1960’s from the lofty goal set by President Kennedy in 1961 through the achievement of that goal in 1969 and beyond.
While this is not a scientific overview of the race to the Moon, it succinctly captures the mood, challenges, achievements and failures of the space program during this time.
With overwhelming odds and technology that by today’s standards was less than primitive, this nation set its collective eye on the goal and through determination, unrelenting effort, innovation and even dumb luck achieved that target in a manner that was acclaimed around the world.
The film is based on interviews with the men who risked their lives to attain that objective. Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Mike Collins, Ed Mitchell, John Young and many more of these adventurous risk takers tell the story in their own words, in the process providing wonderful insights to the space program and the men behind it.
If you have any interest in science, history, space exploration, technology or human nature, this is an important study that you simply must see. It’s available on DVD and if you subscribe to Netflix you can add it to your queue. You’ll thank yourself for doing so.
"We are all in the same boat on a stormy sea and
we owe each other a terrible loyalty." - G. K. Chesterson
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