Sunday, December 31, 2006

My New Year's Eve Party

Everyone is gone.

The last of the kids flew out this morning. My wife and daughter are in Pampa, Texas for a few days (yes the Pampa that was on Dateline last Friday night, and yes that was my step daughter, the team athletic trainer, helping the injured players off the field).

So, I'm here by myself on New Year's Eve. TIME TO PARRRR-TAY!

So I bought a frozen pizza, some Dos Equis Amber, a Sarah Lee cheesecake, 5 feet of half inch copper tubing, a new shower valve, two shut off ball valves so I can shut the water off to the basement bathroom without shutting down the whole house, 6 elbows and splices, flux, solder, pipe dope, and a torch. Seven hours later and one extra trip to Home Depot for threaded fittings for the shower mixer assembly and a 45 degree coupler.... No more leaky faucet!


I think my pizza is done. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Friday, December 22, 2006

Death Cab for Cutie

For those who don't have teenagers in the house, yeah, you read it right. Death Cab for Cutie is a band my 13 (nearly 14 going on 26) year old daughter introduced me to. We pretty much have to listen to Hawthorne Heights, American Rejects and sundry "screamers". We have to listen because, even though people have to speak up for me to hear them now, I'm not yet quite deaf enough to not hear her stereo when she plays it loud enough in her bedroom so she can hear it while she takes a shower. But that's not the point. DCfC... they remind me of Sgt. Pepper/White Album era Beatles. In fact, the lead singer sounds like John Lennon on a couple songs. But the fact that I like their more mellow "sound" and orchestration isn't the point either. I like their lyrics. While no one yet touches Simon and Garfunkel for existential lyrics, these guys have a depth and eye on humanity that is worth paying attention to. This is one of my favorite songs, solo guitar, one voice. The video is here.

"I Will Follow You Into The Dark"

Love of mine some day you will die
But I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark

No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark
If Heaven and Hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule
I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black
And I held my tongue as she told me
"Son fear is the heart of love"
So I never went back

If Heaven and Hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now
It's nothing to cry about
Cause we'll hold each other soon
The blackest of rooms

If Heaven and Hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark
Then I'll follow you into the dark


Actually, the song touches what all the great love songs have in common: they are a reflection of the Divine Romance, the Gospel. This is why they continue, as the ones that have reached into my heart and soul for 40 years, to touch people who are alive to the possibility of love and eternal union with their beloved. We intuitively know that death divides, the darkness of Hades is the loss of unity, the obscuring of our faces to one another, the breaking of our hearts. But we also know that in love Hades is destroyed, death is overcome, and death itself becomes the way we are united forever to our beloved because beyond death there is only eternity. "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts our fear" St. John says in his epistle. If we love, we will follow our beloved into the dark because we know no fear, not even of hell itself. This is the Gospel: God knows we die. We are His beloved and He comes to our side, holds our hand in His, He follows us into the darkest places of our human experience and then into death. He died alone so we will not. When our soul embarks, He is there and follows us into Hades to raise us up eternally with Himself because of Love. We know deep inside us that what Solomon said is true, "Love is as strong as death..."

Death Cab for Cutie and countless poets before them have touched the gospel within us. We will die for the sake of our beloved if it means an eternity together in love. What more can we do for our beloved than what Christ has done for us?

Monday, December 11, 2006

Miscellaneous Stuff

Family, dogs and work. No deep theology tonight.

Coolie labor... me fooling around with a client's "decorator accessories".




Wifey and the dog she loves to hate, Duke.



Family portrait.





This is where we removed an octagonal recessed ceiling detail and framed a curved ceiling in a bathroom. A glass block shower wall went underneath it eventually.



This is a laundry room remodel. We removed one of those florescent lights behind the plastic lens square thingys and framed an octagonal recessed ceiling. We talked them out of a round ceiling. It will eventually get crown molding top and bottom and rope lighting behind the bottom crown, 4 recessed lights and a chandelier in the center. More pictures sure to follow when the job is done.