How Long Will This Last?

The Portland Oregonian reports:

An image of a very pregnant Mary, the mother of Jesus, looks down on Old Town from a billboard on West Burnside Street and Northwest Third Avenue. In the weeks before Christmas, she is a reminder of the approaching celebration of her son’s birth.

Here’s a photo of the billboard:

Pregnant Mary

It’s good to be reminded of the shame Joseph and Mary were willing to endure.

Oh, and if anyone in my Portland fan club can take a picture of the billboard for me, I’d really appreciate it. Then I won’t have to mooch the Oregonian’s for very long. 😯

My APU Did Its Job!

We live so far out of town that we can’t get DSL or cable Internet.

That doesn’t pertain to this post except to help explain this: We seem to have frequent power outages, interruptions, and/or disruptions — especially in the winter time.

Over the years, that has translated into lots of time lost due to the power failing and the computers going dead. Even when the power merely winks off and on, it means lost work and/or corrupted files. For certain, it means having to reboot and start over.

Well, two or three months ago I decided that was enough of that. So I purchased and installed an APC Battery Backup unit.

Yesterday morning during computing time, the power winked. The printer shut off and restarted. The answering machine went through its routine. My ThinkPad beeped its way from AC to battery to AC.

But our desktop Dell just kept right on as though nothing had happened.

Because my APU did its job — it kept delivering uninterrupted power to the desktop.

Hey! Maybe that’s why they call it a UPS sometimes! (You know, Uninterrupted Power Supply.)

Anyway, that’s the first time the thing earned its purchase price.

That was fun to experience.

And I’m thankful.

(PS: I bought mine from Circuit City’s website. You could buy it from Amazon.)

Two of My Friends

As I mentioned on November 22, two of my friends got married that day in Ahome, Sinaloa, Mexico.

(Congratulations, Philip and Perla, and God bless you in unending abundance!)

Our daughter-in-law Shari sent us a picture CD. We got it last night via my folks who just returned from Mexico. Here are extractions from three of those photos:

Philip and Perla Strubhar on their wedding day in Ahome, Sinaloa, Mexico

Philip and Perla and their parents

Philip Strubhar and Russell Roth prior to the former's wedding

Sorry, I decided not to post larger versions of these.

Oh, and the young fellow on the right on the last picture is husband of the above-mentioned photographer, our son Russell.

Terror Strike: India

Reuters reports: Mumbai hit by deadly attacks

At least 10 people were killed and 26 wounded in a series of shootings around India’s financial capital Mumbai on Wednesday night, with two five-star hotels among the targets in what police called a terror attack.

Maharahstra state police chief A.N. Roy said attackers had fired automatic weapons indiscriminately, and used grenades, adding that they were still holed up in some buildings.

“These are terrorist strikes in at least seven places,” he told the NDTV news channel.

“Unknown terrorists have gone with automatic weapons and opened fire indiscriminately. At a few places they even used grenades.

Police said targets included the luxury Taj and Oberoi hotels, with television stations showing the lobby of both hotels on fire and people being evacuated from the Oberoi with their hands on their heads.

But the Times of India reports at least 80 dead:

Terror struck the country’s financial capital late on Wednesday night as coordinate serial explosions and indiscriminate firing rocked eight areas across Mumbai including the crowded CST railway station, two five star hotels–Oberoi and Taj.

At least 80 people were dead and 250 injured in the terror attacks, hospital sources said.

Two terrorists were still inside the Oberoi Hotel and commando operation was on.

Is this an effort to further destabilize the global economy?

Does it portend attacks on other financial centers?

Who knows. Maybe Al Qaeda. Certainly God.

There’s also this headline out there: Report of Terror Threat on Subways

The New York Police Department deployed extra officers and stepped up security measures in the subways and other mass-transit stations on Wednesday after learning of al Qaeda discussions to coordinate a wave of explosions in the subway system over the holidays, the authorities announced.

Well, whatever’s going on, we need to pray for those in authority and in law enforcement and in emergency services.

And for those suffering in India.

And for God’s people, that they may rise to represent His love and compassion and helpfulness.

Thanksgiving Day

Yeah, I know — Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow in the United States.

But why can’t it be every day in my part of the world (which is normally in the United States)?!

Huh, now?

So I purpose to generate a Thankfulness Post once a day. Furthermore, I’ve added a Thankful category and a Gratefulness tag.

(I know, I know — this blog is top-heavy with tags. I need to do some drastic housecleaning and see if I can trim the count down from > 600 to < 30.)

So…for what do I want to say thanks right now?

WordPress and plugins and themes — they drive my six blogs.

Six? 😯

Six 😀

November 22

This afternoon my friend Philip Strubhar married his girl Pearl (Perla, actually) in Ahome, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Two or three hours later I learned that some dear friends from some twenty years ago divorced. That’s really hard on me, even though we haven’t seen them in years.

And less important than either of those two events, I added four brand new books to our bookstore. Among the authors releasing new books: John Coblentz and Pablo Yoder.

Historically, what happened on this day?

498 – After the death of Pope Anastasius II, Symmachus was elected Pope in the Lateran Palace, while Laurentius was elected Pope in Santa Maria Maggiore. 😯

1718 — English pirate Edward Teach (aka Blackbeard) was killed in battle off the coast of North Carolina.

1935 — The first trans-Pacific airmail flight began.

1954 — The Humane Society of the United States was founded.

1963 — US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by WhoKnowsWho. (In an unrelated event, C. S. Lewis also died.)

1967 — The UN Security Council approved Resolution 242, calling on Israel to withdraw from territories it had captured in 1967 as well as calling on her adversaries to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

1974 — The UN General Assembly gave the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status.

1993 — Mexico’s Senate overwhelmingly approved the North American Free Trade Agreement.

2005 — Microsoft’s XBOX 360 went on sale.

Above all, love God!

since November 9, 2005
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