Change of Season

We got back from vacation and discovered that, like one plate sliding over another, much had changed while much remained the same.

A good friend from work was toodling along I-70 in his brand new (less than two weeks old) Ford pickup when a drunken man in the other lane clipped the guard rail, crossed three lanes, barrelled through the bushes in the median, flipped his vehicle and hit our friend head on. Fortunately, our friend had seen a flash of movement in his peripheral vision and swerved. The oncoming driver hit the passenger side of the front of the truck. Possibly as fortunate, inebriated people have a certain looseness about them that helps them survive some pretty stupid decisions. A little whiplash, a lot of thankfulness, and a full-on convert to the Ford way of building a truck have resulted. An abrupt change.

Coby? Still the same.

Two friends have lost a parent or grandparent in the past week. Unsettling change, though inevitable. But to know, and care, that those who remain hurt so is a rippling effect. By their actions, a single person creates a legacy that becomes even more pronounced in their leaving. It touches many lives as we feel so deeply for people in their loss but have no idea what to say. Jen and Ron, I love you both.

Both friends have blogs. Their words more than compensate for my inability to say anything meaningful at such a time. Both are well worth reading.

http://tactfullyblunt.typepad.com
http://hoosier1964.typepad.com

The weather is pretty much the same. It was cold in Las Vegas (for Las Vegans) and wet as well. When I was refueling Clifford last night it was cold in Elkridge (for damn near everybody) and wet as well. I can understand a chilling wind, but nothing cuts through me quite like cold and damp.

I've been eating more vegetables for a change. Not exclusively. My father raised me much better than that. There's really only one way to truly test animal husbandry. It is a test of fire. A test that leaves its mark. Several of them, in fact. Neat parallel lines that we admire as we politely ask in three syllables for something that looks like it ought to take four: Wurcheshur. That's right, Wor-ces-ter-shire. So this is an incomplete change. My carnivorous tendency dies as hard as the life forms that feed it. But I'm ingesting many more things that used to have leaves and roots.

Working out still hurts. "Conditioning" is the long form for the word "pain." Tuesday was legs. Today was upper body. I think Bennie takes particular joy in working me when he knows I will be standing up with a heavy piece of lumber strapped around my neck for the next 2-3 hours. We really need to move band practice. Curiously, if it's a pound of flesh he wants, that's precisely why I'm there. Take it now and we can both leave happy. I suppose it's actually 40-50 pounds of whatever is just behind the flesh that I'm trying to leave at the gym, but you get the point.

It is a new year. Last year was too, once. But this is supposedly different. It's a real change at work. We are quickly trying to come up to speed with all the new templates and forms we need to operate and administrate the contract for the next seven years. Soon there will be an influx of fresh faces. Many new college graduates have elected to make their mark in the world by joining our contract. They will be young, energetic, enthusiastic, and much less expensive than the subcontractors they are replacing. So we are preparing for a new paradigm. We are not old. We are mentors. That has a much nicer ring to it, don't you think?

We are doing a 40-day online devotional series at church. It's pretty cool. Go to www.surroundedonline.com. Don't forget to click on the cow. We're just beginning, but the discussion to date reinforces that there are some immutable things. Like the relationship between Creator and creation. Life's plates may be passing one another as this season, too, changes. It is reassuring to cling to the immutable as we participate in the passage.