08.05.2010 - Thursday

Well, I guess I decided to take a break from journaling.

I'm not sure I remember much of the weekend. I know that a team building a church out by George and Carol Ann Truelove's place came by here on their way to the beach and visited with us for a while. It was led by Doug Fritz, a College of the Ozarks alumni and a Sedalia, MO, resident. Small world. I wonder if the T-s know him. A nephew of Faith's was also on the team. He hadn't told the Leach's he was coming because he wanted to surprise them. I guess he accomplished that. :)

I believe I was fairly grumpy on Saturday evening, so I went and laid down about 6:30 in the evening, skipping a movie (part of the John Adams' series) and dessert. I didn't fall asleep until 8:00 or so and woke up feeling somewhat better around 6:30.

I have been studying/meditating/puzzling through/memorizing/writing on Romans 8. Romans is one of my favorite books of the Bible, due largely in part to the intellectual writing that it contains. The end of Romans 8 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. “Nay, in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, or height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So far I've filled 2.25 sheets of paper front and back with my thoughts and meanderings on chapter 8, and I'm only in verse 17. I should have roughly 5 sheets of paper completely filled by the time I'm done if I keep it up. Sadly, it's been a rather long time since I've really studied the Bible. I find myself drawn to it, though.

One thing that I was never too awfully interested in was history. . . until this trip. I am studying American History for the CLEP test, and am finding it absolutely fascinating. Steve is an excellent resource to turn to if I have a question that needs answering. If he doesn't have the answer off the top of his head, he can usually find a book that contains some reference to my question. I have made it through the American Revolution and through the presidencies of Washington and Adams into the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. As I go through this CLEP book, I am making slides in powerpoint so that I might be more easily able to study the important things. I'm not sure that I will ever actually go back through the slides in any in depth manner, but actually making them requires a good deal of involvement and understanding of the text. I basically summarize sections of the text in my own words, and doing so means that I'm given the passage more then a cursory glance.

Basically, all this week has been nearly the same. I study History in the morning and for several hours of the afternoon. Sometime during the day I'll spend a while working on organizing the library/office. That's pretty much the gist of what I've been doing. :) Went to Madame Kamouest’s house yesterday on the 4-wheeler with Grace to get coke for pizza night (which is tonight). I finally drove the 4-wheeler, which was pretty fun. :) Played basketball last night and finally met my match on the courts. Everybody I've played with so far has apparently not had much experience playing ball, although they all understand the concept and the rules quite well. With my height, I've been able to either intimidate or dominate when playing. Can't do much against someone that can hold the ball in his hand higher then you can jump. :) Well, yesterday a fellow came over that nobody had ever seen. He was fairly well built (meaning his arms were twice the size of mine) and he knew how to play. I don't really know how to play, I just have a height advantage that I use as much as I can. I could easily out jump this fellow, but he knew how to shoot above my jumps and how to control the ball very well. While he was cocky in his ability to play ball, and rightly so, he was also very gracious and apologized profusely for any foul or silly mistake he made. He was also the first Haitian I've seen that enforced double dribbling and traveling rules, even to his own detriment. Basically, even though he was cocky and showy in his game, he was also a good sportsman. I enjoyed playing with him.

I did hurt myself somewhat while playing ball though. My ankle wasn't hurting anymore so I thought I'd play on it. It started to hurt again about half way through my last game. Also, at one point I jumped to slap a ball away from the good ballplayer and managed to slip as I came down. I landed on my side and scraped up my thigh and calf pretty bad. Guess that's the cost of having a good time. :)

Tuesday night, we watched the last installment of the John Adams' series. It's okay, and having been studying that time period, it is interesting. Not quite enough action for me though. :) Speaking of action, Monday night we found a tarantula in the bathtub and one in the kitchen. With their leg span factored in, they were about 4-5 inches across. Pretty awesome and thoroughly disgusting. We killed both. Last night, sitting on the porch on the van bench, Betsy discovered that she had two tarantulas on her – one on her leg and the other on her shoulder. Seeing her go into hysterics was quite humorous, although I know if the same thing was to happen to me I would do the same thing. They were about 3 inches across each.

Okay, I should probably start studying. I just wanted to get caught up before it went longer then a week between journal entries and I started forgetting things. Oh! Speaking of forgetting stuff. . . The night sky right now is pretty cool. About a week ago, Mars and Saturn were the closest they would be in the night sky for the year of 2010. They appeared to be about an inch apart, if that somehow makes sense. Mars and Saturn are right next to each other, and then several inches below them is the very bright planet Venus. About the time those planets are setting, Jupiter rises from the opposite direction. Mars, Saturn, and Venus are in the west and Jupiter rises in the east. Okay, now I'm done. :)