It’s a Timeshifted Life

This is one of those topics that I have meant to blog about for a long, long time, but I never really got around to it. Kind of ironic once you read the rest of my post.

When I was younger, I remember a time when schedules meant something. For any of your entertainment needs, you needed to be ready to commit a timeslot to it. Then, as a nation, we participated together.

This often led to a cultural mindset around a common experience. We all watched Saturday Night Live at 10:30 PM (CST) on Saturday night. We all watched the Packer game at 12:00 PM on Sunday after church.

Occasionally you would meet someone who would record things on a VCR and it was almost a game to tell them a little about what they taped without giving away the entire show. It was cruel, but it was the way we did things.

Now things have changed. With the proliferation of Tivo and other similar DVR units, it is no longer a common experience that we rally around. Instead, it is the norm for everyone to “Tivo” their various shows and then watch them a day later with no commercials. While this is convenient, it has caused some interesting changes to the American entertainment psyche.

For example, it is now almost a sin to release a “spoiler” now. It used to be a great common experience to share what happened on the latest episode of your favorite show, but now if you even start to mention Lost or 24 in a crowded room, you will more than likely get stopped as if you are violating some sort of classified information restriction.

Also, while we are watching less commercials thanks to timeshifted viewing, I am willing to wager we watch more TV overall. Now that we can record multiple shows on multiple channels at any time of day, the inventory of “my shows” has increased for most people. My wife and I installed a 100 hour DVR two weeks ago. Do you know how long it took to fill it? Sadly, 1 week. Are we abnormal? Perhaps, but I’m sure we are not alone.

Finally, and perhaps the most obvious, the good part of the DVR. Thanks to watching shows we both care about, carving out time to simple watch TV is much more desirable for me and my wife. And for my marriage (and I’m sure countless others) this shared bonding time is pretty important. Even if it is in front of a TV.

My Bird Feeder Eats Birds

We had a nice day outside on Tuesday raking leaves and chasing Leah around the yard. Leah really enjoyed jumping in the leaf pile which was cute, but not very productive. Thankfully, cute wins out every time.

While we were raking, we heard a loud pecking sound. I assumed it was a misguided woodpecker, but I was surprised to see what was actually making the noise. I’m not really sure how this happened, but a bird ended up inside our bird feeder. I think it was trying to get the last few seeds in the feeder and eventually ended up in the plexiglass prison. Pretty funny. We released the bird with no problem and promptly refilled the feeder to prevent it from happening again.

This afternoon I went over the handle bars on my bike. Thankfully I was able to roll over to my shoulder to avoid landing on my head. I still have several cuts and road-rash all over my body. I’m sure I’ll be even more sore tomorrow.

As for the beard, it is coming along nicely…

Beard-A-Thon 2008

It’s that time of year again. As anyone who lives in an area with more trees than people, I am in the midst of my late season beard growth. Last year I made it to Thanksgiving before I decided to trim down to a sweet mustache (for five minutes). I’m hoping this year I can make it to Christmas, but I’m not making any promises. I’m clearly not a beard kind of guy with my lack of firearm skills and overall unwillingness to cutdown trees with an axe accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox.

I also apologize for my appearance being so similar to head coach of the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick, but some days you just need to look like an unkempt homeless person to feel comfortable.
I’ll try to give a bi-weekly update on the beard progress. This is why the internet exists.

Dear Teeth: I hate you.

Dear Teeth:
Hi Teeth! How are you? I’m doing pretty good. Wasn’t that a great meal tonight? Thanks for all the chewing and what not. You’re the best.
One thing though. You know those guys way in the back? No, not you molars, we’re cool. The one’s next to you. Yeah, those, uh, “wisdom teeth.” (Self-righteous jerks…) Well, it turns out they are causing some problems.
I know what you’re thinking, “Hey, wisdom teeth might have some problems, but they’re part of the team!” Well, guess what? It turns out we don’t even need them. Yeah, I don’t know if you noticed but there are 32 of you guys. Do you really think 28 is suddenly going to cause us to starve? Of course not.
With that said, I want to apologize for what is going to happen on Wednesday. It’s going to be crazy and probably a little scary for all involved, but it’ll be alright. I promise a steady diet of ice cream, pudding and apple sauce for at least a day. No work for you guys at all!
Please give my regards to gums, taste buds and hangey-down thing.

Sincerely-

Nick

Forwarding to the Divine

I lost a mother-in-law, a friend and a role-model today.

Click Here.

The Best Four Months of the Year

Today is September 1. Today is also the start of Badger football. Today is a great day.

I look forward to football season so much that it is almost like a little kid waiting for Christmas. I know what is coming, I can see it coming, and still I am excited to finally get to watch football again.

This year should be particularly exciting too since the Badgers start the year ranked 7th in the nation. While these preseason ranks should mean very little, they actually have a huge impact on the season. It is usually so difficult to move up the ranks that getting a start inside the top 10 actually makes winning a national championship possible.

While a few great players left after last year, the main star from last year remains; PJ Hill. I am really looking forward to seeing his career continue and the possibility of him winning a Heisman at some point in his career.

Today is going to be a long day of work knowing what is waiting for me at home. I have a feeling I’ll be leaving work a little early today.

Alone

It’s funny how appealing some alone time looks until you have it. I love my family immensely, but the extra time to do leisure activities (aka endless videogame marathon) is incredibly empty and unrewarding.

Jamie and Leah are in Appleton visiting Jamie’s mom and I am stuck here at camp since there are people here all week. Even with a slew of new games to distract me, the simple joy of conversation with my wife or wrestling and snuggling with my daughter can never really be substituted.

It’s amazing how quickly the struggle to stay busy becomes almost a chore. Without Leah running up to me and grabbing my hand to go do something or simply attacking me with hugs and kisses. Instead, here doing my best to get Mario to jump where I want him to. Not exactly the same personal connection.

I never thought I would say this on a day off, but I’m actually excited to go back to work tomorrow.

Welcome Back Cotter

Anytime I get work in a Welcome Back Cotter reference, I know it is going to be a good post. Especially when it is the title AND the picture.

After another summer here at camp, life is finally slowing down. I am still only getting one day off a week, but at least the stress levels are down. We had a great summer with extremely high numbers in July. So the work life is good.

The family life is pretty good too. Jamie is continuing to show the signs of pregnancy and the child is growing nicely. It has been great to here the heartbeat and see the ultrasound images. In a level of needed prayer, the ultrasound did show the baby had kidneys that are developing too quickly which may result in emergency surgery at the time of birth. Hopefully the rest of the baby’s body catches up to those kidneys.

We also continue to work through the process of Jamie’s mom’s failing health. It is amazing to me how a strong belief in God can change the outlook of so many in regards to this stage of life. The trust in the hereafter is worth so much right now. Knowing that we will all be rejoined one day gives my heart some comfort. I am eager for a big family dinner in heaven.

In less heavy news, I have found a new favorite internet service. Goozex is a videogame trading site that matches used videogame owners to make trades for only $1 per trade and postal fees. A pretty good deal. I’ve traded literally about 15 games at this point. Saving me a ton of money. If you want to sign up, use me as a referral and we both get some free points/trades! (Click here if you are interested.)

Other than that, not much going on. Hopefully this is the start of more consistently blogging from me again!

Happy 4th of July!

Just some photos of us celebrating the 4th of July!

It is hard to believe just how cute Leah is getting. She is learning words so quickly and the way she reasons through things is pretty amazing to watch.

We had a lot of friends come to watch fireworks with us. They were also generous in their popcorn donations to our child.

Beautiful sunset in Harrisville. I’m not sure the name of the lake, but it was pretty. There was also a rainbow as the sun went down.

Leah and I doing some pre-fireworks sparklers. I’m surprised how brave Leah was with them. Even with the sparks hitting her arms, she didn’t really flinch. And I only had to tell her not to touch the sparks once or twice.

Decent fireworks for smalltown America. I give it a B- considering their obviously limited budget. D- on the sulfur smoke coming across the lake into our lungs.

Leah did surprisingly well during the fireworks. She struggled at first with the very loud noise, but once we wrapped the blanket over her ears and held her, she watched in amazement. When it was over, I asked her if she like the fireworks and she replied with clapping and excited laughter. A great night for all of us.

The Wonderful Cross

A cross in an interesting symbol. For me, it is a sign of grace, joy, hope, and unconditional love. On a daily basis, I see the cross and I am relatively unaffected by the overall power of the message of the cross, there is one place that has always had a cross that has brought me to my knees; Pine Lake.

The old, rugged cross that overlooks the worship area has been an icon both figuratively and spiritually for many that have stayed here. Even for myself, it has been a place of profound spiritual commitment.

With this said, it is probably expected that I was nearly brought to tears the other day when I heard from one of our guests that the cross has fallen over.

I suppose it is an inevitability that a wooden cross in the outdoors will at some point collapse, but that doesn’t make it easy. As I collected the pieces of the fallen and broken cross, I realized that these pieces of wood represented much more to me than just a symbol. It was a monument of my original commitment to Jesus Christ.

As I found out about this news on Saturday, I really had no time to create a suitable replacement. We had a full camp with Grandparents/Grandkids running around and a majority of my staff taking a day off.

Thankfully, and probably by a bit of divine intervention, there was a man from the camp who had worked at Pine Lake in the late 80s. He too had made a commitment in front of the old cross and understood the importance of this symbol to our ministry work here.

After several hours of work, this man with the help of his 10 year-old son and a few others, a new cross was constructed. He had used the same dimensions as the old cross but used a pine tree for the wood. While this may not be the strongest wood (actually, probably the weakest found here), it does make sense that Pine Lake has a pine cross. And it does look very nice.

The remaining top piece of the old cross is now at our house. It will have a place in our home for as long as I live and will serve as a reminder of my commitment to follow Christ daily.