Some of you will know what I’m about to say just from reading the title of this entry. 

Thankfully, the swelling is gone and all should be well. The bees are all gone too. Hail to the victors!

Yes, I did have surgery yesterday.No, I hadn’t mentioned it on here beforehand. A complete heart, lung, kidney, spleen, spine and brain transplant is nothing to be taken lightly. Fortunately, they were able to do it arthroscopically and so I only have three stitches on my bicep.

Ok, everything except the three stitches on my bicep is a lie.  I had a sebaceous cyst removed from my arm. Nothing major. I’ve had them removed from my scalp before, but this was the first time I was able to watch the doctor do it.

What’s funny is that we inadvertently scheduled Kaitie to have the same thing removed from her scalp at almost the same time in a different doctor’s office. She had four taken out (she’s an overachiever). We have all five of the cysts at home in jars. I guess we’ll start a collection.

Then in the evening we had to pick Tara up at the airport in Philly. Quite a busy day!

Seeing my wife enjoying Facebook so much, I finally succumbed to the pressure and set up an account. If you’re on Facebook, add me as a friend (Brian Volpone). I’ve only messed around on there for a few minutes, but it seems pretty well done and simple to keep in touch with people.

We’ll see how this goes. Xanga still seems the best site for us blogging purists. (Actually, I haven’t really checked out that many blogging sites, but Xanga is way better than MySpace anyway.)

Every notable advance in the saving work of God among men will, if
examined, be found to have two factors present: several converging
lines of providential circumstances and a person.

Let My People Go: The Life of Robert A. Jaffray, 50.

A. W. Tozer

Evangelism: The Desperate Personal Search

The average person in the world today, without faith and without God
and without hope, is engaged in a desperate personal search throughout
his lifetime. He does not really know where he has been. He does not
really know what he is doing here and now. He does not know where he is
going.

The sad commentary is that he is doing it all on borrowed time and
borrowed money and borrowed strength–and he already knows that in the
end he will surely die! It boils down to the bewildered confession of
many that “we have lost God somewhere along the way.”…

Man, made more like God than any other creature, has become less like
God than any other creature. Created to reflect the glory of God, he
has retreated sullenly into his cave–reflecting only his own
sinfulness.

Certainly it is a tragedy above all tragedies in this world that man,
made with a soul to worship and praise and sing to God’s glory, now
sulks silently in his cave. Love has gone from his heart. Light has
gone from his mind. Having lost God, he blindly stumbles on through
this dark world to find only a grave at the end. Whatever Happened to
Worship?, 65-66.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Jim Croce was a genius. It’s a shame he died so young and right in his prime.

Eggnog, Christmas cookies, Thanksgiving meals (but mostly eggnog) – a few years ago these conspired together to pack about 20 extra pounds on my body, taking me to about 200 pounds. Since my body leveled out as an adult, I was consistently 180. The charts say that’s high, but it seems to be my natural weight.

I got sick of being fat and started trying to casually lose some of this extra mass. Eat less at lunch, add just a little extra exercise. Going to the beach last month actually helped since we skipped about a meal each day. So does walking Ellie each evening.

Anyway, I’ve been monitoring the loss and today I stepped on the scale to find myself at 188 pounds! That’s the first I’ve been south of 190 in years.

So that makes me happy.

Here’s a rundown of my life as it is right now:

• This week has been Vacation Bible School. I always enjoy that. It was a rather hyperactive group this year, more than any other year I’ve seen. Our theme this year was SonCanyon Adventure, a theme we’d used before. Lots of fun, good skits, good songs. We had several new and unchurched kids, so Lord willing we can follow up on them. VBS makes our already busy lives very hectic; therefore, the following happened:
• I’m supposed to be at work at 8:30. One day this week, I forgot to set an alarm, and awoke at 9:24. My very understanding boss said I was right on time – if I lived in the Central Time Zone!
• The other week our church had a free car wash as an outreach/community service. It’s amazing how many people will not stop because they don’t have money for a free car wash! Hello, the sign says “FREE” along with “No money accepted”! Sheesh. I think I got the slightest idea how Jesus must feel all the time. He’s offering eternal life for free and everyone keeps going on by. Either they think they need to pay for it with good works (they don’t and can’t), or they think they don’t need it (“I’m clean enough on my own.” No you’re not.”), or they’re too busy or whatever. We would have probably had more cars if we charged a dollar a car. Sigh.
• During the car wash, I held a sign by the road – jumped up and down, yelled to people trying to get them in, waved my signs like a wild man. Great fun. This lady walked by with a scruffy looking dog on a leash. Ever the pet person, I knelt down and held out my hand – and the dog lunged at me and bit me! I don’t think I’ve ever been bitten by a dog! The lady’s response: “Did he bite you? Oh, he didn’t know who you were.” and then she keeps on walking! I was so taken aback I didn’t know what to say (that doesn’t happen often).
• I had my public debut playing guitar during VBS. I’ve never played in any sort of public setting before, other than at my dying mother’s bedside. It went ok, I guess. At least it broke the ice so now I’ll be a little more willing to do it again. It’s hard not to feel inadequate when the only people you ever see playing publicly are really good. Kaitie and I have decided that we need a local person who plays guitar that wouldn’t mind hanging out with us every so often and playing. If you’re local and want to have some jam sessions, let me know.

I think that will do it for now. Hope everything is going ok for you in Xangaland.

Life_by_us has been blogging about how much she’s into Batman. I stumbled across this article today talking about what it would take to become Batman. Hmmm, I could probably do this. 

I get into this mode where I update my blog all the time, but I only do it in my mind. Hence, I disappear from Xanga for a while. Usually it’s when I’m very busy.

Someday, I hope to blog on these topics:

1. Trish tagged me for a tell-me-about-yourself post
2. Why do we blog?
3. General updates (like, I was actually bitten by a strange dog for the first time that I can remember!)
4. Two Truths and a Lie (we haven’t done this in a while)

Are there any other topics you’d like me to talk about? You know, if you lie awake at night thinking, “Man, I really wish Spiderdad would talk about ____________________” then tell me what that blank is.

Ok, at least you know I’m not dead nor have I fallen off the Xanga wagon.