Auntie 'Em, It's a Twister! It's a Twister!

For those not living in the Lima area, last Thursday the community suffered a fair amount of damage due to a natural phenonmeon known as "Sheer Winds". While the damage incurred looked like something a tornado would accomplish (uprooted trees, removed roofs, and the like), apparently it was straight winds traveling at a high rate of speed that accomplished the destruction.

While the church sustained no damage, we haven't haven't had power since last Thursday. The reason for this was that the sheer winds destroyed about a mile's worth of power poles on Shawnee Road, right out our front door. The picture above is a view of Shawnee Road last Friday morning, looking south from Ft. Amanda Road, toward Shawnee UMC.

To compound matters, the Bucher family was without power for two full days. The loan of a couple of generators (from my parents and Jason & Josie Belton) saved our (and our neighbor, Clem's) refridgerated items, and sanity (the boys played a little X-Box), but keeping a generator going necessitates many trips out the door with a gas can.... which must have caused some anxiety, because on night two, I found myself in the driveway, in my underwear, checking on the generator without the aid of flashlight, in my sleep. I was also carrying an umbrella, as apparently in my dream, it was raining (although in real life, it was not). Thank goodness it was 2:45am, and not pm, or yours truly would be asking for donations toward making bail.

Anyhow, while we manged life without power here at the house, we also had to move a wedding, complete with a distraught bride, to another church (thank you South Side Christian Church), and a worship service to Hugh Downs Auditorium at Shawnee High School. As an aside, in order to entice a custodian from the High School to work on a day off, I promised him that I'd bless his bike (a nice 1999 Yamaha V-Max), complete with an official "2006 Blessing of the Bikes" patch, which I had to coerce out of a layperson because I couldn't find any left in the building.

Oh, and all of my wife's relatives were in town to celebrate my Father-in-law's (Bryant) retirement/70th birthday party. Needless to say, the weekend was completely insane.

Now, as we piece the house back together, we've started packing for our move to Asbury this Friday. I'm finishing up the "one or two books" (har har) I have to read, while Aimee makes lists, and checks them twice. Boxes are appearing in the garage in order to be loaded, as I speak for loading on Thursday, and the adventure which will be the next 11 months.

So, there are no "10 things" this week, here are a few stray comments that will have to tide you over until I can behind my new laptop next week...

• People have asked it I'll keep up the fight against a local casino while at school, and the answer is "yes", but of course, it will largely be conducted via email and prayer. If you haven't yet done so, please go to www.nolimacasino.org, and join over 350 others from the community in stating that you'd like to see local economic development money and land go to another form of commerce.
• Yes, I lost a pound of coffee to my brother because he took the Heat in the NBA finals. Another good reminder why gambling isn't a good thing. It's bad enough my little brother whipped me in our NBA Fantasy League. Now I've got listen to him remind me that he wants a pound of "Samba Blend - Whole Bean" from Dean's Beans, pretty much everytime we speak. Apparently, the student has passed the teacher.
• Buster Baker, a young man from our church who failed to get into college, and thus now attends the University of Toledo, will be watching our house for us this summer. If you happen by and see that all is in good order, thank him on our behalf. And if you stop by to find some huge out-of-control party, please call the police and his mama.
• Keep my mother and father-in-law in your prayers. Both had surgery on their feet in the last five days.

See you in Kentucky!