Peter -n- Melodye

I've always had this thing for nautical-themed decorations: old fashioned ships wheels, compasses, ship models, pictures with ships and lighthouses - it just feels like "me." Most of my life I've been prancing around the globe and so, necessarily, these decorations have been left in attics and storage boxes and often sent to thrift stores or (sniff) the dump, but I really do enjoy collecting these things and decorating my "man cave" with them. (a similar crystal ship, but not as intricate) I remember one year for a birthday in my 20s my parents brought me a beautiful crystalline ship, crafted in exquisite detail despite its tiny size. They traveled for my birthday and brought it from Pennsylvania to South Carolina (about 12 hours in the car) in a very carefully packed box. When I opened it at my grandparents' home it was perfect in every detail - incredibly fine glass forming each line and railing and porthole. I lived just over a mile away and so when t

I WILL NOT BE CHEATED! I WILL NOT BE MADE A FOOL OF! I WILL NOT BE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF! I WILL NOT LET ANYONE TAKE WHAT IS MINE! (including my rights!) A peak into the soul of a controlling man... A recipe for bitterness and a brittle heart... I wasn't always this way. I remember as a teenager working on a repair job with my uncle. He stepped off the ladder next to where I was working on the floor and stepped squarely on my fingers with his workboots. It hurt! But my response was reflexive - I apologized for getting in his way and almost making him fall... The other people in the room laughed at me (who apologizes when it is their fingers that got stepped on?!) but it seemed quite natural to me... I remember maybe the day (?) when this attitude took root in my heart. I was in seminary but visiting at a relative's home. I had just had my car repaired and the mechanic had really hung me out to dry, overcharging and then not doing the job. I had worked myself up into a bit of a tiz

The exci tement of the trip, buying new items, thinking through what might be needed, arriving early to avoid the traffic, carrying suitcases and boxes and crates, watching and talking while he organizes things. And then the excitement ends. Not slowly and gently but suddenly and loudly, like the sound of a guillotine slamming home. A last meal. A last prayer with a tight voice and a quavering chin. And then there were four. A long, quiet drive home, a growing pile of tissues on the floorboards of the car. Periodic conversation gambits fumbled in the haze of sorrow. This morning I got up as usual before the rest of the family. Usually I have to be careful which light I turn on because Christopher's room is a little day-room that looks into the kitchen. This morning I didn't have to be careful. No snarled sheets, no bed-head on that pillow. Oops. Not "Christopher's room is" but "Christopher's room was"... Words hurt. Even the tense of a

I was going to post this on FB, but I realized I would have trouble finding it later and this is definitely a keeper... My wife has gone off with some of her girlfriends for the weekend leaving me and the boys to fend for ourselves. Fortunately this is the week after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately Melodye decided to put the leftover turkey in the freezer for soup and I didn't know about it until it was frozen hard-hard-hard. But we do have lots of mashed potatoes. (Thanks, Lori!) And carrots and carrot casserole (tastes like sweet potato casserole - if you've never had Melodye's carrot casserole then you are missing out on a thing of beauty and wonder!) and all those other good things. But to properly enjoy mashed potatoes you need gravy. "No problem," I thought, "Jen told me how to make gravy a while back." [Madly searches through viber, whatsapp, email, etc. and comes up with squat.] "No problem," I thought, "if Jen can make gravy

IF YOU USE AIRBNB OUTSIDE THE USA YOU WILL WANT TO READ THIS! --- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Every time you use airbnb to rent a place where the price is given in a currency other than your "home currency" Airbnb will take more than 3% that, by agreement with Visa, they are not allowed to take. I'd like to get a bunch of people contacting Visa and Airbnb to get pressure on airbnb to allow the option (which is already required by the agreement with visa) of charging in the currency of the customer's choice. Here's a link to a form you can fill out and send to vcf@visa.com --- Have you ever found a great deal on airbnb, saw just the price you were looking for, and then been dismayed that airbnb charged you in a different currency, at THEIR (worse) currency exchange rate, and (to add insult to injury) added a 3% exchange fee on top of that? In my personal experience I just lost over $50 making reservations for a conference - lost it by airbnb charging m

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was and is and is to come.   What is it with this whole "holy" thing?! For all of eternity we're going to hear that word, repeated 3x over and over and over again, describing God. Doesn't it seem a little over done? And what does it mean, anyway?! We so often take it to mean "without sin". That does describe God, but is that what holy means? Or is that one of the "symptoms" or by-product or *results* from being holy? My neighbor's cat is a mammal. By definition that means Happy is warm blooded and gives birth to live young. Happy is also a fierce predator, regularly leaving (largely unappreciated) "gifts" of dead lizards & birds & mice outside our door or under our neighbor's bed. Happy's mammalian nature contributes to her speed & strength as a predator, but being a predator is not part of what it means to be a mammal. (Just ask this couch potato sit