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WOW

So, Houston is pretty much spared. I never lost power. I have my tv hooked to the cable outlet to use as an antenna, and I lost most of the channels (only local broadcast, of course). Phones, water, power—I have it all.

Thank you, God.

Please continue your prayers for the people in Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Lake Charles.

Signing Off

Well, before I lose power tonight, I thought I'd post once more. Fortunately for Houston, Rita has moved to the east and downgraded to a Category 3 storm. It's going in at Port Arthur, so keep those people in your prayers. Not that we're out of the woods; we're still expecting hurricane force winds, but the amount of damage from under-100 mph winds is far less than 125+ mph. I'm very thankful to God that we'll be spared the full fury of this storm, and even those that are getting it will be spared what it could have been.

I think our local and state leaders have done the best job they can under the circumstances in evacuating people and calling a state of emergency early enough. However, we still have room to improve. The highways became parking lots (literally). So far, 33 people have died in their cars because they couldn't go anywhere. That's not including the bus that caught fire just south of Dallas. This is unacceptable. I'm not blaming the officials for these deaths, but there has to be a better way. There just has to be.

Houston is a ghost town. If I could afford the gasoline (both price and its actual use), I would have gone around just to see how empty the city is. I'll trust the pictures on the news, though, that showed empty streets. No birds chirping. And as I went to my car to get my last supplies (cereal and pudding), that was an eery, ominous stillness, the so-called calm before the storm.

Again, I appreciate and covet your prayers.

Rita

So, I left work at 3:45 this morning. WIthout eating dinner. I was hot, tired, and not nearly as hungry as you would imagine for not eating since 1:00 pm. No snack, just water. And then I got two hours of sleep. I'm a tired puppy.

Part of my lack of sleep is due to watching coverage of the major storm, Rita. I'm planning on staying through the storm. Unless I'm forced to leave or something. I won't be stupid about it. I ask for your prayers for everyone down here in the southeast Texas area.

Because of Katrina (imagine, barely three weeks ago, we had a "K" storm, and now we're down to "R" — that's eight storms within a one month time span, assuming that we had "P" and "Q" storms — I don't recall hearing about anything after Ophelia)... anyway, because of Katrina, people are panicing here big time. It seems they're expecting a New Orleans-style catastrophe with this storm. The biggest difference is that we're (slightly) above sea level, and we're not surrounded by levees.

Anyway, again, I ask your prayers.

So Needy

I wanted to post this last night, but I worked until 11:30 and didn't much feel like writing then (though I did start watching a movie).

I've been listening to Shawn McDonald's (one of the five CD's I bought recently) live album on repeat in the car, and the passion this man has for God and the knowledge that he's not where he wants to be yet are very touching to me. I want to be so much more, and I'm so frustrated that I'm not there yet, that I still look at myself as such a loser and has-been. I know that's not how God sees me, and it's certainly not the way He wants me to see myself. Anyway, something along these lines came running through my head:

God, I need You
Every minute of the day.
WIthout you, I can do nothing
and be nothing.
Every breath a gift,
Every blessing an excess.
I'm grateful for my life
Even while I despise myself at times.
God, You are my reason
And my existence.

(c) 2005, 42 Penguin Productions

A new cartoon

I love animation. Possibly because I've never grown up. Or maybe because it is a legitimate art form which I recognize as such. Sadly, people dismiss cartoons as "just for children", and they miss out on some quite funny things (or more serious, as with some anime).

I tend to prefer the funny side of things with a slight edge to them (and this goes for many, many areas in my life), or at least some kind of smartness about them. It's somewhat ironic that most situation comedies don't float my boat. A certain morality or belief system comes into play that a show cannot violate, and far too many sit-coms cross that line. But sit-coms are a discussion for another day. (I'll just say I count "The Dick Van Dyke Show", "Mary Tyler Moore", "The Bob Newhart Show", "Newhart", "The Andy Griffith Show", and "I Love Lucy" among my favorites.)

Back to cartoons, since that is the subject of this post, the Looney Tunes series of cartoons is classic. Great characters, extremely humorous, and something for both children and adults to enjoy. These characters do not need a makeover or an updating, though I'm not such a purist that I won't give an attempt at "re-imagining" a chance. I saw Space Jam, and "blech" is all that comes to mind; I didn't bother with the sequel due to how bad the first was.

And so it was when I heard about "Loonatics: Unleashed", a modernized version of the classic characters from Looney Tunes, that my first thought was, "Why?", then, "but, hey, I'll give it a chance". Yesterday, I saw a sneak peek of it, a 1-2 minute snippet. If this is what they show to entice children (and adults) to watch, this show is doomed from the start. Yes, the characters look very modern; in particular, I like the image of the new Road Runner. The clip, however, was everything bad about bad sit-coms (and SNL, for that matter): Predictable, dragging on too long to extend the humor for your viewing displeasure, and just plain stupid. Yes, I realize there was a certain stupidity about the original Looney Tunes, but it was handled smartly.

Of course I will watch the first few episodes to see if it's any better than this small clip, but I'm not holding my breath.

Parent Update

In case you're wondering, my parents are doing okay. I was able to talk to my mother last Friday (9/2) and again tonight (Thursday, 9/8). They got power back Wednesday afternoon just before 2pm. No telephone at my parents house. My father can call out on his cell, and I can call my grandmother. No mail delivery yet. One poor woman's house was destroyed, and then she was in a car wreck and broke her neck and back. Please pray for her.

My parents and grandmother count themselves extremely blessed through all of this. Why were they spared significant damage in the midst of the devastation? I don't know, but I thank God (seriously) that it was so.

Many people will ask why, but I think that's the wrong question. It's probably not the wrong question for those that never acknowledge God as the author of anything good in their life. He is the Grand Tyrant waiting to smash people with His Grand Thumb. Instead, sometimes, things happen, and we must trust that God knows what He's doing, and that He's sovereign.

Instead of "Why?", perhaps a better question is "How?" How is God seeing people through these trying times? How is God able to work through these people's lives now? How is He speaking to them? These people who have lost everything must now be dependent upon others to help them. No pride can stand in their way. All they can do is accept the love poured out to them.

And believe me, here in Houston, people are pouring time, money, and supplies, opening their housing up, donating cars (a handful anyway), providing jobs, etc. One large church has 17,000 trained volunteers mobilized for serving in the Astrodome, which is more people than are being housed there. The demonstration of love here is absolutely amazing and stunning. I would never have expected it to be like it is. Crime has gone down in Houston the past couple of weeks, even as its population has increased by over 200,000 people, an increase of roughly 10% (and that's just Houston city limits, not including surrounding areas).

Unimaginable

So, about three or four weeks ago, I realized—after giving myself a break and looking at reality—that I had lost 9 pounds since March. I've since lost an additional five pounds and am now ½-pound lighter than when I went to work a little over two years ago. Realizing I had lost weight inspired me to continue on doing so. The first nine pounds kind of just disappeared. I didn't exercise, and I didn't really change my eating significantly; I just cut out french fries.

Of course, six more pounds will make it an even 20. Maybe then, it will start actually looking like I've lost some weight as I lose some weight. My clothes fit better, but not enough to really notice. My chest is down from 52" to 50½"; now to get to that 48" chest and wear my really cool suits and jackets again, especially the royal blue one—I admit I look hot in that jacket. I can wear shirts now that I haven't been able to wear for quite some time, and some shirts that I've bought because I liked I'll soon be able to wear if I continue on the downward spiral (for once, a downward spiral associated with me is a good thing).

We won't talk about the waist until I'm at leastmost a 36". Maybe, perhaps, I'll post pictures when I've made more significant progress.