Church

Our internet access has been slow the last few days.

I remember the first time someone moved to high speed.  He was a computer technician.  He knew about clock speeds, modems and ISP’s.

His firsts comment the next day — “I’d never go back to dial up!”

In my stubbornness, I figured I would stick with dial up.  And even if I moved to high speed, I wouldn’t be caught up in trying to keep up!!

Guess again! 

This last week our “express light” high speed has been slower than usual.  You put up with, rationalize around, and generally try to be nice.  Today I phoned the ISP (internet service provider) and mentioned, in  a nice way, that I was getting half the speed of another ISP.

The supervisor was informed.  The reply was that someone in Kindersley was using a lot of the broadband.  The problem should be fixed tomorrow.

So, the high chair had it’s inauguration today.

After struggling with instructions and fabrications that sometimes eluded us, the chair was in place last night.  Today a two year old girl sat in the chair.

As our guest (along with her mother) she ate with fork and spoon.  She then used the God given utensils, her fingers.  A jelloed dessert spread over the tray as she completed her feast.  When they left we cleaned the chair with ease.

The chair was a success.  But the real measure of success is in the visiting and sharing together which such a high chair makes possible.

10:00 and we want to assemble a high chair for tomorrow’s dinner.  We have invited over a single mom with her 2 year old.

This is a Fisher Price chair – should be a breeze.  30 minutes in and we decide it will never fit together.  In a rather grumpy mood we repackage the whole thing. 

Behold, there is a piece that I hadn’t seen.  Somehow it had been taken out of the box and set aside.  Looks just like a piece that I had inserted and tried to fit other pieces to. 

New hope — or complete frustration.  This is the choice!  We decide to try again.  The first few steps are easy.  Then the misplaced piece is put into place.  The next piece fits — with some persuasion.  Now 35 more minutes later and we are finished.

Remember the good old saying — “It’ll only take a few minutes!” 

Wrong again!

Recently my wife, Jill, picked up a novel by John Fischer.  The title is “Saint Ben”.  Actually it was two novels rolled into one.  The main characters are pastor’s kids.  Some great humor and deep theological perception rolled into easily readable text.  In fact, Jill spent a good number of evenings reading it to me!

I was not surprised, then, to find his name crop up again when I was looking for some background on a sermon I was writing.  He has a website at www.fischtank.com that you might find interesting.  Here is one comment made in his “in the tank” section.

Hard Rock Mice –  Tuesday, January, 09, 2001

 “SUFFOLK, Va. (AP) – David Merrell, a Suffolk high school student, was so convinced that hard rock music is bad for the brain that he picked up 72 male lab mice, a stopwatch, a 5- by 3-foot maze and some CDs to prove his point. The 16-year-old from Nansemond River High School ended up winning top honors in regional and state science fairs.

David said a group of mice exposed to hard rock music took 30 minutes to bump through his maze. The same mice got through the maze in 10 minutes three weeks earlier.”

My conclusion? Play hard rock music in your house. Mice will have a harder time finding their way in.