Yeah, it's been really, really hot 'round these parts lately.
There, got that out of the way.
- I don't like humidity, just don't. It makes walking my dog an unpleasant experience no matter the time of day. We always come back the same; me REALLY sweaty and her with a tongue that droops out of her mouth and panting like nobody's business for 20 minutes after coming in. She always finds a random cool spot on the basement floor and crashes onto it.
- My friend Jeremiah is one of those souls who has to share their birthday with Jesus Christ so this year his lovely wife Stephanie decided to throw him a half-birthday party. A bunch of us gathered under a pavilion at the South City YMCA in south St. Louis (in the aforementioned heat and humidity of a sultry south St. Louis Saturday night) for a cookout and friendly kickball game. Yes, friends, I participated in a kickball game for possibly the first time since my amateur days at Beckwith Elementary School in Malden, MO under the watchful eye of the great Coach Orr. (I say "possibly" because that's the last time I remember doing it.) It was a fun night of food and frolic and the perfect way to spend a summer night. (Oh, I believe the game was called on account of darkness somewhere in the vicinity of a tie score. Oh, and one of the players may have been sat upon somewhere in the vicinity of first base by the first baseman to prevent said player from making it to first base, but I don't remember. It was hot. And humid. So my memory is a little fuzzy.) I am of the opinion, as I heard some of the others later were, that we shouldn't wait for someone's half-birthday to have these kinds of gatherings. My pastor is fond of saying, "life is best experienced together, in community" or something like that. Regardless, I agree with him.
- The Cardinals, eh, don't get me started. The preceding embarrassing weekend of baseball was sponsored by the Kansas City Royals and should not be re-broadcast, re-transmitted, or re-hashed with anybody's written consent.
- Looking forward to the new Innocence Mission record in a couple of weeks. I have heard a few of the new songs and they seem up to par with their previous output. Orgone has recently dropped a new disc and I need to get that in my hot little hands soon. What I would really like to see is Hem get their long-promised new album out. It's only been 4 YEARS since the last one, folks. I'm all for not rushing the creative process, but seriously.
- World Cup - U.S. vs. Ghana - OK, we lost. Can I go back to ignoring soccer now?
- I caught Junior Brown in concert at Beale On Broadway last Saturday night (the 19th) and he put on a great show. The outdoor patio stage was the size of a large postage stamp, unfortunately so there was no room for any monitors (speakers the musicians use to hear themselves and each other) so I'm pretty sure he couldn't hear himself or his bandmates (a fact he not so subtly alluded to after the first song). It didn't seem to make a difference. Wearhing his trademark dark suit and white cowboy hat, he attacked his signature "guit-steel" with demon-like ferocity and laid down bluesy honky-tonk in generous portions. His crack band (including his wife Tanya Rae on rhythm guitar and vocals) provided expert backup. They didn't get on stage until 10:40 p.m. and played until almost exactly midnight so it was a late night for this blogger. I did sleep in the next day but did also make it to church on time, thank you very much.
- Caught a little bit of a Peter Frampton concert on HDNet Saturday afternoon. The man is a master of the vocoder.
- Have been pulling up volunteer oak tree saplings all over my back yard. For some reason, my oak trees produced a bumper crop of acorns last year and I guess this is the fruit of their labors. Squirrels apparently buried them all over the place and the wet spring we had must have set them into growing motion.
- I appear to have new neighbors. The house next to me has been for sale for several months after the elderly residents moved out. The asking price was a wee bit high, to put it politely, and I didn't think it'd sell anytime soon. When I got home from work on Friday, the moving-in was well underway. Haven't seen much of the new folks but I'm sure we'll meet soon.
- Have been reading through a chapter of Proverbs each morning. My pastor issued a challenge to do that, as my church is traveling through Proverbs in our summer sermon series. Get wisdom. Two paths - one for the wise and one for the foolish. One leads up, the other, well, not up. I have been enjoying it so far.
- One last bit of goodness from Charles Spurgeon, in today's devotional - "Oh! let not your hopes or fears come between you and Jesus; follow hard after him, and he will never fail you."
Wise words.
