A Scottish-Irish-Canadian Elf: September 2005

Worpupsleeball

So...tired...must...sleep. The last three days have been consumed entirely by work, sleep, and volleyball, with the occaisional interuption of food. This weekend will be filled with much sleep and crashing and hopefully puppy-buying.

End Of An Era

Sweet, glorious Simon of Space has come to an end, and a most triumphant end it was. The last installment (#45) came and went this morning and I miss it already. But I have already placed my order for the print edition and am eagerly awaiting its arrival.

Release The Hounds!

In other news: I have a nasty rash on...oh, sorry, I mean Jeff and Matt and I went to the SPCA yesterday to look at dags ("Oh, you mean dogs!"). They had mostly medium to large dogs, which may not be ideal for a house with very little yard, and despite my strong desire to have a dog, I must wait. There were 3 border collies that I think would be quite good pets for The House, but only if everyone chipped in with the walking to ensure they don't get bored (the people and the dogs).

My mom told me about a rescue effort for animals trapped and stranded in New Orleans. A pet spa (yes…I know) in Calgary is donating space and services for pets, which have been rescued. They are giving people a month to claim them and then they go up for adoption. Apparently there has been a lot of backlash over this as many people feel that it is ridiculous to put money and time towards saving animals when people are dying, stranded, and living in their own filth. I would agree, but I don’t think it's a case of either/or. The people who are rescuing animals and putting them up are not likely to be as good at rescuing people. Can you imagine Hans and Franz from the local pet spa going to New Orleans to saving refugees? I have to do some more thinking, but I like the idea of adopting a dog in need and having one less Americanized pooch in the world can't be a bad thing…can it (no offense Deb)?

I am also taking suggestions for names. I think if it's a female Casa would be a terrific name (Casa - House, get it?). Feel free to contribute.

Sweet, Glorious Augustana-Trouncing

For those of you who don't know, I am coaching volleyball at Taylor again this year. I will be coaching both men's and women's teams, which will be quite a challenge. I do have some help, but it still takes a lot of time (and I am beginning to realize that I am no longer 20...or in shape). This past Saturday we were challenged to an exhibition game by Augustana University College (now a satallite campus of the UofA). I presume they meant to scope us out to see what kind of challenge we will pose to them in the upcoming season, as we were not in the league last year and will be somewhat of a wildcard this year.

Also for those of you who don't know, Augustana is by far the best team in our league (at least the men's team is) and they are looking at moving up to ACAC (one very small step below CIAU: Red Deer College, King's, etc.) next year. Back in the day (when I was actually 20) we got soundly trounced by the men's team every time. I think in my career of 3 years we took one set off of them (thus our record would have been something like 0-7 in wins and 1-21 in sets...ouch). The women did not fair much better, with victory always just out off reach.

Well, all that came to an end on Saturday as our women's team, comprised of only 3 returning players, who had not played in this calibre of league for 2 years and having had two practices (barely enough to figure out positions and lineup), were pitted against a team of veterans, who have been playing together for years and had started practices over the summer. And we won! Maybe trouncing is too strong a word (winning 3-2), but we did dictate the match after the first set and played exceptionally well for this point in the season. You have no idea what this means to me. Even though it was a preseaon game, we beat Augustana(!) and look really, really good for the season.

How did the men fair, you ask. Well, let's just say that I did enough venting last post to last a bit!

Vento Deluxo

Time to try the whole using-your-blog-as-a-vent thing. I am quite tired - in every way. My sleep schedule has been...spiradic. Getting up at 7:00 is not what Charlies do best, add to that some late nights and days of constant working and we have "one hungry king of the world" (name the movie). I am also coaching volleyball at Taylor again this year, but this time I am coaching both men's and women's teams. I do have two assisstants, but it will still be quite taxing. We started practices this week, thus adding physical exhaustion to my list of tiredities. I had forgotten how hard v-ball is on your quads, but they "taste like burning" (name the movie...aha, trick question!) and I'm the one who gets to make everyone else work.

Tuesday was supposed to be my day off, but turned into non-stop fun for the whole family. One of the fine employees of Dabar, who shall remain Sam, needed me to rescue him from his morning shift, so off I go at 7:00 (it's early for me ok! Back off!) coming home only to clean the gutters and then skip off to volleyball practice and the fiery quads of the hurting and the flaven! But there is the promise of a case of beer from said Sam.

I declare this venting to be good. In fact, I will no longer include philosophical mumbo-jumbo or anything of value in these posts; only good old venting, yay! Actually things are quite well other than the tiretudinocity.

Ex-Communication

We came this close to having our first excommunication last night. Not really, but Matt and Jeremy and I stayed up 'til the wee hours "discussing" the place of the Scripture in our faith. It was quite interesting if not a bit testy at times. But I think this is the beautiful thing about what we are trying to do. We have talked about the reality that there will be differing viewpoints, opinions, understandings (if there weren't, there would be no need for faith). Instead of trying to quell these differences or avoid the confrontations we want to welcome them and create a place where they can be expressed, discussed, and then crushed under the mighty wisdom of Matt and Chuck (kidding!).

Well, the rubber hit the road and I think it went well. The trickiest part is learning the ways in which people communicate, argue, debate, express. It's hard to ensure that everyone is heard when each person has different styles or aptitudes towards communication. Some people hate confrontation, others like it too much. As a side note, I think there are very few people these days who are good at debate. It seems to be a lost art. When you read Plato, where Socrates engages in debate, there is something there that we don't have much of these days. Debates exist to uncover truth, solve problems, resolve issues, not to defend ones point at all costs. When a proponent of a different view makes a good point Socrates is the first to congratulate him.

And so I think one key to opening up discussion and the flow of ideas is to recapture the positive aspects of true debate.

Belated Pictures

Here are some much belated pics of our holiday in August. These are from our backpacking trip in Willmore Wilderness Park (just north of Jasper) with Charity and MacKenzie. More pics of our trip out west to come.