Rare moments of clarity

I some times have moments where I can see right into a problem and see a way out. It is usually at the most inconvenient of times. Like when I am in the car. I should carry a voice memo thing so that I can talk to myself about them, because usually by the time I get to somewhere where I can write notes about it I have forgotten it and it takes some time to recall it.

This morning I woke at 2:12 am with a clear solution to a number of problems running through my mind. So I got up and started jotting. I suspect I will be very tired in the morning because it took me ages to get to sleep last night, I had some kind of bug where I was shivering one moment and sweating the next. It was long after 11:30 when I went to sleep (late for me). I still have a pounding headache despite having taken some tablets as soon as I got up.

Perhaps now I have done my jotting I should go back to bed… but now my mind is racing.

An eventful Sunday

Sunday was quite eventful for me. Sunday morning was about the last recorded words of Jesus written in Matthews Gospel: “Go, Make disciples, Baptise them and I will be with you”. We worked the service out using a living parable. We showed a video (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5381243457844102397), and then sent Gill into the congregation to cut hair. She cut Alan’s hair, and did a good job of it. Then I paralleled the last words of Jesus with a hair salon and the church. Jesus said “go” but we stand at the door and shout “come”.

I realised it was going to be provocative, and it was. Thankfully most of the congregation enjoyed the service and took it as it was intended without taking umbrage. At times like this I try and remember that people always take offence. It is never given to them.

In the evening all was going well. It was obvious that one person in the congregation was drunk, but it didn’t seem to matter that much. The congregation were interacting with the passage well, asking lots of questions which was good. The drunk man asked a few. Eventually I began to wrap it up, and I took one last question. My inebriated friend wanted to ask one more question, and began to get a bit obnoxious.

I have never chucked anyone out of church before, but I felt I had no choice. He wouldn’t shut up and he wouldn’t sit down. So I took authority and bundled him to the door, where two big chaps took over and kicked him out.

I talked it over with him afterwards and we parted friends. I can’t help wondering if I did what Jesus would have done.

Blogging Policy

Terry Storch from bloggingchurch.com asked me the other day if I had ever made a post that I regret, or if I had learned from the reaction a particular post has caused.

I’ve thought about that a bit since and I am aware that anyone can read what I post so that does colour how I write. I sometimes make private posts which only I have access to (me and anyone clever enough to hack into the MySQL database). The last thing I want is for people to get upset or offended by me (though that does happen).

The nature of my blog has developed though. This blog is my own space, it is about me, my family and where I live. I have moved most of my religious posting into a subdirectory (bible.graham.doel.org) because it has a different kind of purpose and direction. I mentioned before that I am thinking of doing some further study, and I might make a further blog to house my notes and reflections from that.

Morecambe Bay Cockling Trial

Morecambe Bay Cockling Trial

The trial of those accused of manslaughter and other related charges after at least 21 people died while picking cockles in Morecambe Bay is continuing.

To be honest there has not been much new that has been reported in the press since I last wrote about it (on the 3rd of October).

The court has heard a transcript of one of the 999 calls read out. Several other incidents where the emergency services have been called to rescue people from the bay were also reported to the court.

There has been another major incident involving migrant workers which could have been as disastrous as the Morecambe Bay disaster. 13 Latvian workers had to be rescued when they were abandoned on an island off the coast of Dublin. You can read a little about it on the Ireland On-line website.

Flooding Basement (again)

We had last weekend off, and spent the weekend in a caravan on the Solway Firth (we booked the wrong weekend actually, it should have been this weekend, but thats another story, e.mail me to find out why). We had a great time, enjoyed the fireworks on the campsite and came back fairly relaxed.

We arrived back late afternoon, the rest of them went in and I carried on unloading the car. I was just getting some bags in when Isaac appeared over the garden wall shouting

“Daddy the pump alarm is going off, come quick”.

I thought he was winding me up but after he had given me his earnest look and insisted that I must come “QUCIK”, I decided that he wasn’t winding me up I ran into the house and downstairs. It was one of those moments. We have put loads of time and effort into our flooding basement. I remembered all that hard work, was I going to go down stairs and find it ruined. I just didn’t know quite what to expect.

Nothing appeared to be wrong, apart from the ear piercing sound of the high water alarm. First thing I checked was the fuse box to see if the power had gone. That appeared to be ok so I pulled the trapdoor up and opened the lid on the sump.

The float switch on the pump hadn’t operated and the sump was within millimeters of flooding the kitchen (again). I was both relived and gutted. I pulled the switch and the pump worked fine.

We didn’t sleep that well that night, Louise got up once to see if the sump was flooding. I spoke to the installation company, Robinsons Preservation Ltd, and they promised to sort it out. Which to their credit they did. There had been a problem with a number of pumps (the supplier had replaced 20 of them), they fitted it on Friday. In the mean time I taped a ball to the float switch to make it work in the interim. Good thing I did because it has done nothing but rain this week.

Unfortunately I dropped the high water alarm into the pump so until the new one arrives from Maplin, we will just have to trust that the pump works.

Subsidence

I have had a couple of e-mails asking me about the subsidence on the house.

I have been watching the cracks in the side of our house for some time now, convinced that they are getting worse. The other day I was outside examining a window that I am about to replace, and I noticed that the cracks on the inside corresponded to the cracks on the outside. I guess I should have put two and two together before now, but alas…

I guessed that the house was sinking in the corner by the front door. The surveyor said that the damage was moderate and probably caused by a willow tree in our neighbours garden. Which is closest to that corner.

The insurance company are having investigations done:

• digging holes in the ground
• testing the soil
• sending tree roots to a lab to identify them
• monitoring movement in the cracks

After they have completed all that and removed any offending trees or made any other rectifications they will re-plaster inside and redecorate. It should be finished by the end of the summer next year.

Isaac gets Married

Isaac got married last week. I didn’t go, not because I don’t like his new wife but because I thought I wasn’t allowed!

Louise took some excellent photo’s though.

His teachers are very creative. Isaac has learned more about weddings than can ever be explained by watching a video.