Catching up and Stuff

At long last I'm posting again. Life has been keeping me rather busy. An emergency surgery in the family, a family camping trip and time spent sailing into the sea of mortgages have kept me on my toes. So much has transpired since my last post that I would normally write about that I shall try to catch up with an "Impromptus"-style post (with apologies to Jay Nordlinger at National Review). A stream-of-consciousness post mixing personal, political, and sports news of interest to me (and hopefully you as well):

It's interesting to note, when I signed on to Blogger yesterday I found an unfinished post from about 4 or 5 weeks ago in which I set out to illustrate that the times we live in aren't nearly as bad or unique as they seem. Our country just isn't THAT old and each previous generation has dealt with challenges that certainly seemed to be worst the country had faced. However... given the events of the last few weeks, I'm beginning to wonder if that post is still valid. Particularly in regard to the nearly unprecedented government involvement in the banking/investment/mortgage business and the subsequent reaction and instability in the markets.

Speaking of big-government, for you Illinois folks, our own Dick Durbin is up for re-election this year. So make sure and get out on election day and vote for Steve Sauerberg. Frankly, I'd just about vote for Mickey Mouse if he was running against Durbin. We're not supposed to question politician's patriotism (couldn't tell you why not), in Durbin's case I guess you can't question what you can't see.

Since my last post we've had two debates between McCain/Obama and one between Biden/Palin. I can't really bring myself to care enough about the debates to write much by way of analysis. Suffice to say, it's too bad Fred Thompson never made it past the primaries.

On to sports. The baseball season has come to an end for our regional teams. My own St. Louis Cardinals sputtered out and finished in an entirely unspectacular fashion. Their finish not withstanding, it was a great year for the Cardinals as they outperformed all expectations and chased the first place Cubs and held off the Brewers for most of the season.

Speaking of the Cubs... "unspectacular" is about the last word you'd use for their end of season. After setting some kind of team record for back to back appearances in the post season, they proceeded to AGAIN fail to win a single game. I wonder what the record is for postseason appearances without a win? A few words from Buzz Bissenger,

"...The inevitable implosion of the Cubs – the sad fury of their futility – only gave the rivalry an added extra, with nothing more fun for a Cards fan than to watch the Cubs self-destruct with their own special brand of pathos..."

I really did think this year might be the exception.

Harvest is now in full swing. This my absolute favorite time of every year. I know, every season has it's special moments, but Autumn is far and away dearest to me. The sweltering humidity of August breaks and is replaced by 65-70 degree days and 45 degree nights. The trees go out it a blaze of glory, the fields of corn are shining and golden, the sunsets shining through the cumulative dust of hundreds of thousands of acres being harvested are spectacular.

I'm not sure what it is, exactly, but there's a certain intangible quality about this time of year. Maybe it's the romanticism of harvest. Maybe it's the bittersweet nature of Fall; beautiful in its own right, but ultimately all the beauty is a collection of endings, harbingers of winter. Maybe it's nothing more than hot apple cider on a cool evening. Whatever the reason, this time of year speaks to me in ways I can't always explain, I hope it does for you too.

I look forward to fitting in a few more posts in the near future that are currently half-written in my mind. By request I'm also planning on doing a review of "To Train up a Child" by Michael and Debbie Pearl sometime this fall. I'm still debating what sort of format to do it in, it's a rather time-consuming process to do a good job. As always, feel free to leave comments or ask questions. I'm trying out the "Live Chat" box on the right side of the screen. If it says I'm available for chat, I really am. Feel free to try it out or to leave a message for me through it.

~Gabriel