Midnight Red Cells

It's after eleven p.m.. I am the only one awake at the Orangehouse. It has started to rain very hard. Flashes of lightning illuminate all my windows, previously dark. Cracks of thunder shake the entire house. (And yet the boys sleep on!) The shades are up and the windows are still open; I can smell the ozone in the air, and the moisture. The wind chime is clanging in the gusts like a worriesome old woman.

I love this weather. It excites me, especially in the middle of the night. This is what the weather radar for central Texas looks like right now:

Canoe Canoe?

Despite the unrest of The M leaving town, we are going camping this weekend. Canoe camping, in fact. The boy scouts have a canoe trip weekend once a year and this weekend is it. Since The M is out of town, I will have to bring Jono with us. Since he is not a registered Boy Scout (he is a cub scout in a different pack) he is not covered by the scout insurance. This has created some problems and I have only tonight received the final word that he may come.

Although Jono won't be able to get in the water, he and I will hang out at the camp site, do some fishing, go hiking, and perhaps read books while the older boys go out in the canoes on Saturday. I'm glad we got this worked out, but there is still a lot more to do before we can leave.

D has been assigned the role of "grubmaster". At first I thought this meant he played the flute and coaxed grub worms out of the dirt or something. But apparently it means he plans the meals and is responsible for purchasing the groceries for the other boys. So after school tomorrow, we're headed to HEB, chop chop. No bugs please.

Early Morning Flight

I put The M on a plane to Ohio this morning. Her flight left at 6:10 a.m. from Austin. That meant we were up at 2:45 a.m. to get her there an hour and a half early the way she likes it. I'm going to have a nap this morning as soon as I get the boys off to school.

The M is going to visit her sister and father. He has Alzheimer's and has been degenerating rapidly in the last few months. He went up to Ohio to visit her and have a medical procedure to drain excessive fluid off his brain. It didn't seem to help much.

He can't remember his children's names now, and that has The M rather upset. She feels as if her ability to relate to him has already passed. He still has periods of lucidity, however, so she's trying to get to see him before he looses even that.

We looked into a local Alzheimer's care unit near the Orangehouse. It looks very nice and might be just what he needs. It would likely be a big adjustment for us to have him in town, but perhaps it is what is best for him. We're thinking about it and praying for wisdom.

Sorry I haven't been writing much lately, but this issue combined with the tenure problems, and so on, has left little time to blog.

Schematics by a Seven-Year-Old Engineer

The other day Jono came to me with this drawing. It was a schematic of sorts. He showed me where the water comes in at the top and goes down the slide, "shwoom!" and how it is supported by a truss of steel poles. He said, "Can we build this for them when we go to Africa?"

He has obviously been listening to me and watching me as I work and it really touched me. I love that I am his hero. I will try not to ruin that.

And every night when I put them to bed, I ask the boys to thank God for one thing. I am trying to cultivate a general sense of gratitude by this habit. That night, in response to the praise he received for his drawing, his prayer was "Thank you that I drew my picture and that I have a good mind, Amen."

Sniff.

Wind Turbine Project Part 4

Last Saturday three members of the Engineers with a Mission PIT Crew went out to the World Hunger Relief farm where we intend to erect our wind turbine. Jonathan, Brittany, David and Cole put in some sweat equity. They dug a hole and poured over 1600 pounds of concrete to form the foundation of our wind turbine. Frankly, I am impressed and delighted at their progress. I am really quite proud of them. Here are some pics. Early on a Saturday morning, these committed students get to work (while I sleep late).

Kenya dig it?

Those crazy college kids!

Twenty-ish bags of cement at 80 pounds each!

And next week we can cap it off with another block of cement and a base plate to mount the tower. The tower will be about 42 feet tall and be made of spaghetti.