Mush brain off impact

My brain is in full vacation mode. I hope I can switch it back on at some point, but it's kinda nice for right now.

Thursday night I made a swing over to Findlay, Ohio and spent the night at daughter Carrie's apartment (interestingly enough, she was staying at our house). It's a nice enough place, but she has no television, no telephone, and no internet connection. So it was a quiet night. Friday I got up and went to the last Impact of my life. Impact is a conference/camp sorta thing for people of all ages in our denomination. I have attended it sporadically from time to time, and apparently they are not going to have it anymore after this year. I hear it sucks a lot of money, and I'm not surprised. So it's kinda sad.

The main reason I dropped by Impact (which is held at daughter Carrie's current place of employment, btw) was to see old friends - most notably the person who runs the show, who is also going to do the premarital counseling for me with Drew Carrie. I was going to pay him, but I actually never even saw him in my 5 hours on campus. So I'll send you a check, Lance.

I spend some time walking around my old alma mater, and did run into many friends while there. I also took in a couple of breakout sessions led by good friends Brian and Bill. I felt bad attending the sessions, since I didn't pay to attend the conference. But what can they do - ban me from future Impacts? Besides, I was given unofficial clearance by several people, so... whatever. I was originally just going to attend the 11-12 session, but ended up staying for lunch and attending the 2-3 session also. The one's I attended were on Reggie McNeal's book Missional Renaissance. I am currently reading said book, and have already heard much of the material contained in it. I always think I can perhaps add to conversations like this, but I pretty much just listened. The first session was good; the second one... not so much. I know I am hard to please, and it's really hard to keep my attention, but I really, really, really get tired of having to sit through the same old conversations time and time again. That kinda happened in the second session. It digressed into the exact same conversation that was had in the very same room last year. I know I should be more patient, and I know it's good that there are new people joining the conversation and whatnot, but... geez. I dunno... I guess I just have too little patience. So I made a paper airplane. I was surprised to see our denominational director in these breakouts, even though I was once again snubbed by him. In fact, he almost ran into me on the stairs and still didn't speak to me. It doesn't piss me off anymore, but discourages the hell out of me. Whatever.

Interestingly I had lunch with some guys who... let me see if I can tell this story... When I got done with seminary this church was looking for a pastor. The one they had (one of the guys at lunch) was leaving, and they contacted me to candidate there. I agreed, but never got the letter telling me what day I was to preach. So the day came, and there was no one there to preach. So they ended up hiring a friend of mine (the other guy at lunch) instead, and I ended up in Indiana. So it seemed odd to me that the three of us ended up eating lunch together. Kinda funny. I think things worked out ok though.

I am probably leaving out some important details from this brief trip (like the fact that I ran Carrie's air conditioner all night long - and didn't realize I hadn't closed the windows. Sorry), but anyway, I came home last night and lady Jane and I went on our date. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants and then went to the $3 theater and saw the new Star Trek movie. It was actually better than I was expecting. I'm not a big "Trekky" or anything, but I did grow up watching it on tv (with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy). I like it better than Star Wars. So it was good.

Now it's Saturday. I was going to put the carpet down on the new patio, but it's raining. And our garage is full of bedroom furniture - as Drew Carrie are painting our old bedroom set (that's been in the spare room), and they will use it when they get a place of their own. It was actually handed down to us from my parents, and is the good old kind of furniture. Solid. Jane is busy painting the guest room at the moment. She painted over the black stripes, and it will no longer be black and gray, but will now be yellow and white (I think). I try to avoid any type of painting. I do everyone a favor by just staying out of the way.

So... that's about it. I think.