Holiday Time, and my interests/passions

Well, it's time to travel! We'll be leaving tomorrow to dri ve to Ellicott City, MD - about 12 hours of driving. Ugh. But it will be good to be with Natalie's family. We'll be celebrating "Thanksmas" with them, as well as a niece's birthday. Should be great fun, except for the driving.

I wanted to talk a little bit about my interests/passions (how you would categorize them depends on how deeply you "get into" the things you get into).

Here is the list of "hobbies" that I move between:
1. Guitar and music
2. Woodworking and wood finishing, especially learning to make guitars
3. Guitar amps - tube amps only, please!
4. Computers (vocation as well as avocation)
5. Cars and car care
6. Exercise, nutrition, and fitness

I am currently in a car & car care phase. I find myself thinking about it a lot. I guess you could say that I can identify with the homeschool approach called "unit study." I dive DEEP into whatever my current subject (obsession, some would say) is. I come up for air after a while and will generally dive back into another of that list.

Here are some products that I am using right now that I can recommend highly.

1. Auto-Rx. This product (auto-rx.com) is designed to gently clean the inside of your engine. I'm here to say that it works! Follow the application instructions on the web and you'll be rewarded with a better running, more efficient car.
2. Lube Control and Fuel Power - http://www.lubecontrol.com/ - Lube Control is an oil additive designed to extend the useful life of your oil and keep your engine internals clean. Fuel Power is a gasoline additive that stabilizes the fuel and improves combustion, as well as keeping the fuel system and injectors clean. These products work also. So many fuel and oil treatments are "snake oil" but these products are the real deal.

My car is a 1989 Mazda MX-6 GT (2.2L Turbo engine) with 195K miles. I love my car. It has been faithful and fun. Our other vehicle is a 2003 Honda Odyssey. We love this vehicle, it is SO practical.

If you're a motor oil nut you should check out http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/ - you will find an entire Web community of oil nuts like yourself.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! Thanks and praise be to God for all his blessings. Glory to God in our lives for his provision and salvation!

A beautiful artificial world

My family and I just returned from a 7-day cruise. We stopped in Key West, Belize, Cozumel, and Progreso. The weather was wonderful. Our excursions were (for the most part) excellent. My older daughter has decided that she wants us to live in Cozumel, where the beach is beyond words.

My wife and I were touched, however, by what I'm calling cognitive dissonance. The opulence and decadence of "cruise life" compared with the abject poverty that we saw (especially in Belize) was jarring and unsettling. We in America have been SO blessed! I take so many things for granted.

To state it again, I'm wrestling with my lifestyle addiction. What I mean is this - I fear that I am addicted to my lifestyle, and to take any kind of significant pay cut (perhaps to enter minstry full-time...?) would cause me such pain and heartache specifically due to the lifestyle change that it would require. Anyone out there been down this road? Any guidance?

The longer I live, the more sure I am of this - It's ALL a test of faith. All of it.

Wow!

Well, it's (apparently) official. W gets a second term. I actually respect John Kerry more now because he decided to concede rather than string out what seemed to be an inevitable conclusion. I believe W would have done the same thing had the situation been reversed.

Several things of note for me personally. We enjoyed a visit from my parents over the Halloween weekend. I did some car maintenance for them and repaired (it seems) my long-standing oil leak in my Mazda. Hooray! We leave this weekend for our Mayan Ruins cruise (Key West, Cozumel, Belize). It should be a blast.

Our church is still in an uncomfortable place - waiting for some announcement from our eldership regarding their positions on some "controversial and divisive" issues within "the brotherhood". (You may interpret from the quotes arourd both of those things that I do not hold either phrase in high regard.) Sadly, it seems that several members are witholding their contributions (commitments) until they heard which "side" the eldership will fall on. I believe that this attitude is from Satan. Oh, well...

When you boil it all down, everything is a test of faith. The good, the bad, the in-between. All of it.

Lord, please help me to trust in You no matter what. Please help me to live to Your glory in every situation. Please help me get over myself. My trust, my hope, my joy is in You, Lord.

Happy November!

p.s. Holly, thanks for the contact info. It is my old friend Jan Meyer. We're emailing back and forth now.