Malibu's Aftermath

Well, I survived my final on Tuesday night and flew to LA on Wednesday morning for a 3-day business trip. From LAX, I drove up PCH through Malibu on the way to my destination and had a chance to see first-hand a charred and scorched Malibu. Two things really struck me as I drove and looked up at the blackened hillsides from the fires last month.

First, I was amazed at how many homes appeared undamaged in these burned areas. I know a lot of people lost homes, and I don't want to minimize those losses. But, all I can say is that the firefighters did a tremendous job at protecting as many homes as they did.

Second, I was also amazed at how close the fire came to Pepperdine. The campus is beautiful, sitting just up from PCH in rolling green hills. It looks like the fire burned right down to the road going into the campus from PCH. Perhaps the road was used as a fireline, but thankfully the campus itself appeared untouched. I also passed a couple of spots where the fire jumped PCH and burned on the beach side of the highway.

I drive back to LAX tomorrow afternoon, so I'll have a chance to see Malibu from the other direction as well. In general, I think the people of Malibu were very lucky that the winds died down when they did. And, they are even more fortunate to have firefighters who will do anything they can to save homes. I know this isn't the first fire Malibu has seen, and it won't be the last. But I think they dodged a bullet big time...

Greek final tonight

So tonight ends the first quarter of Greek for me. One down, two to go. As I've been reviewing and getting ready for the test, it's really amazing what we've covered. According to our grammar book, Basics of Biblical Greek by William Mounce, we have learned 169 vocabulary words, and considering their frequency of occurrence in the New Testament, we now know 66.52% of the words in the NT! I just hope I know the ones on the test tonight...

Thankful for those ordinary moments

• Thanksgiving Day: family, old friends, new friends, turkey, ham, wontons, taco dip, exploding flour tubs, mashed potatoes, a first pumpkin pie, apple pie, wine, Sam Adams Winter Lager, a rising moon, flash pictures at night on the new camera, God in the midst of it all...

• Black Friday: Bob and Candi at Target at 5:15am, buying Christmas presents at Sam's, finally a cool breeze and temps below 80, deep-fried Turkey and Long Island Iced Teas next door (delicious!), remembering 9/11 with New York natives, the moon through a telescope, God in the midst of it all...

• Saturday after Thanksgiving: Bob's new Ipod Touch, Greek, Carolyn putting up the tree and decorating with Kathy, grumpy dad putting on the star, more Greek, God in the midst of it all...

Catching up - maybe

These last few weeks have been just too busy, but I may have turned the corner. I've finished the major website stuff for aldea, so now it should be more of a maintenance thing. I'm happy with the way it's turned out, but it has taken up almost every extra hour I've had recently.

Only two more classes of Greek - for this quarter. Then the month of December off, and back to quarter #2 in early January.

My day job (the one that pays all the bills) has been going pretty well. My next trip to LA will be right after my Greek final, the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. But I'll be back Friday night.

This was a roller-coaster week for football. We all went to see Arizona play Oregon this past Thursday night. I was hoping the Wildcats would score, and they ended up upsetting #2 Oregon! That was a lot of fun - a much needed break from the computer. Coming off of that excitement, we were all ready to watch Ironwood Ridge High School win their second playoff game last night against Sunnyside. But after a hard-fought game, the Nighthawks just couldn't pull it off and ended up losing 21-14. They had a great season, and Robert loved being a tuba player in the band! Maybe next year...

And today is a beautiful November Saturday (finally the heat is letting up), even though I can hear the 3rd-person personal pronouns of Greek calling to me...

I'm not dead yet!

Yes, the title of this post is one of my favorite lines from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And yes, it's been a while since my last post. I've been just a little overwhelmed with life lately, between trying to learn Greek, working at Raytheon and aldea, taking over the design/maintenance of our church web site, and the fact that it's still hot. Yes, I'm whining. But I'm tired and a little grumpy. It must be time for a vacation...