So here's a slice of life at the glass plant . . .
Sitting in my office chair, catching up on a blog after helping with the waist cooler swap-out. The green jacket is off, the yellow sleeves are off, the heat hood is off, and still the drops keep rolling, rolling down. Head, back, arms.. it's like I jumped into a swimming pool.
I have to watch where I rest my elbows as I type this, 'cause my shirt'll soak any papers on my desk. In fact, I just moved the stria print-out, which is considerably.. eh.. softer, than when Steve dropped it off this morning. The knees of my green pants are soaked through, and goodness knows how saturated the jeans are underneath them.
But still, when you're standing in front of the big hole looking in at the pool of syrupy glass, you wish for more layers, as the heat marches through the fabric and smacks you.
Let's just say that work is the only place I've ever actually used Gatorade for its intended purpose.
--Clear Ambassador
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
999.8
Let us peer together into the mists of time past, shall we? Far back, at the dawn of the new age [i.e. January 2007], we see . . . Steph Schaefer talking to Justin and John about a crazy idea. An idea that would change the future. How 'bout the three of them buy tickets to see Dispatch play in New York City . . in July?! Sure, why not!
For those of you--like me at the time--who don't really know who "Dispatch" is, they are a chill, backbeat college band that was huge about 10 years ago, broke up, and has a highly devoted fan base. They played three nights at Madison Square Garden to raise money for Zimbabwe, and we bought 3 tickets to the Saturday show way back in January, right before they sold out. As the months rolled by I got a job, but we still figured we'd make it work. And we did! It turned July 13th - 15th into quite the weekend: Pgh to Stone Harbor (where Steph spends the summer with her Mom), to New York City, to Philly (to crash at the Harveys and hit church), and then back home. And yes, 999.8 was the odometer reading when I pulled into our driveway at the end of it all :-)
This trip was a lot of fun. It was amazing! It sticks in my mind as one of the funnest things I've done in a year or two. Memories of riding in the car, eating snacks, and listening to music (no subwoofer! :-( ) are prominent. Pretty much anytime we went anywhere, we stopped and got snacks, which was hellaciously unthrifty, but a lot of fun. Eastern PA and NJ still have Cherry Vanilla Dr.Pepper around, so I hit that up as often as possible, and didn't worry about the caffeine. We probably supported 4 Wawa employees with our patronage during the trip :-) [Wawa = Eastern Sheetz]
At some point in the weekend I realized, quite abruptly, that I was in the middle of a movie-like road trip -- a classic good times craziness expedition, here in the midst of my work-constricted life. I think it was on the road somewhere in New Jersey, to or from New York City, rolling down the sweet highway in the sweet car with sweet people.
I also realized Saturday, as I sat back in the booth across from Steph and relished my exquisite frozen Heath mocha, that God was answering our prayers for good times during the trip, even though we didn't have much time in any one place. He abundantly multiplied our time in Stone Harbor, making our 12 hours there feel like 2 days: Night beach walk, good amount of sleep, Wawa breakfast (where else?), seeing where Steph spends her days at Tee Time Mini Golf, lolling about on the deck, going back to Tee Time and walking around the cool shops of Stone Harbor, and just soaking in the eminent beachiness of the entire place.
God even richly blessed the concert, which honestly, I didn't really care about. Dispatch's music doesn't mean that much to me, and I find its genera slightly annoying for some reason. But we listened to a bunch on the way up, which was good preparation. Our seats were really really terrible (way up behind the stage with abominable sound quality and pot smokers in the row ahead of us), so we scooted out after a few songs and walked further down and around till we found some unused seats, and sorta hovered there, off the prowling security guards' radar. Nobody ever came back to those seats, so we had them the rest of the night. And they were sweet :-) Spread out before us was the living, lit-up bowl of Madison Square Garden - dipping down and stretching out, across and up. The stage was a little left of us, and the sound was beautiful - crisp highs, pronounced mids, and--even in that huge place--floor-shaking bass. Ahhh, it was a moment of heaven-anticipation. I even found a cheap, filling and NEW food thing to fill my raging stomach (Knish. Basically a big potato pancake.). Standing there, great sound, enjoying the songs, great view, perfect food.. it was amazing! And I even liked the music. Quite a bit. A live setting almost always brings out a more rockin', energetic quality in music, compared to when it's recorded in a studio. With that perspective, I've found most of Dispatch's stuff pretty enjoyable. Their (sloshed/drugged, but still dedicated) fans filled the place with their singing. Everyone seemed to know the words to every song!
So yeah, even the concert was a blast, let alone the glorious weekend surrounding it!
[ I did have a rather dark spell on the way in to New York. Let's just say.. we were using a GPS navigation thingey.. we had the wrong destination at first.. we crossed a $9 toll bridge three times.. and only paid once.. and I succumbed to anger, which is never a pretty thing, for myself or others. We did get in OK, though late, though the show started late so it was OK, and I have rarely been as happy to park a car as I was when we rolled between the lines in the parking garage and I pulled out the key. Oy. But despite the aggravating entrance, our little view of NYC was amazing, and I'd definitely like to see more of it. ]
Church Sunday was nice, and we enjoyed the sleep-innage possible with an 11:30 service (though we had to budget time for a Wawa stop, of course). Then it was lunch with a couple church folks (getting to know Philly people! Yay! Riding in a Celica convertible! YAAAAY!), good-bye to Steph, and hello to Longdrivehome. We did some shifts, did a little sleeping, and wound up rockin' the Mazda to old favorites as we rolled up 51 into the Pittsburgh area.
I think Nick stayed with us that night, but I hit bed pretty quick, 'cause I had to be at work at 6 the next morning to start . . .
TRANSITION!
[dun dun dun]
And that's another post :-)
Yay weekend!
--Clear Ambassador
P.S. Good times = Justin and me driving away from Sheetz and leaving Daniel and Nick there and turning off our cell phones and nto coming back for half an hour :-D
P.P.S. I forgot the tickets, so we had to back home. heheh.
P.P.P.S. That frozen Heath mocha was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my entire life. I can only hope someday to go back to Stone Harbor, back to Coffee Talk, and order another (and pray it's not a let-down :-P).
For those of you--like me at the time--who don't really know who "Dispatch" is, they are a chill, backbeat college band that was huge about 10 years ago, broke up, and has a highly devoted fan base. They played three nights at Madison Square Garden to raise money for Zimbabwe, and we bought 3 tickets to the Saturday show way back in January, right before they sold out. As the months rolled by I got a job, but we still figured we'd make it work. And we did! It turned July 13th - 15th into quite the weekend: Pgh to Stone Harbor (where Steph spends the summer with her Mom), to New York City, to Philly (to crash at the Harveys and hit church), and then back home. And yes, 999.8 was the odometer reading when I pulled into our driveway at the end of it all :-)
This trip was a lot of fun. It was amazing! It sticks in my mind as one of the funnest things I've done in a year or two. Memories of riding in the car, eating snacks, and listening to music (no subwoofer! :-( ) are prominent. Pretty much anytime we went anywhere, we stopped and got snacks, which was hellaciously unthrifty, but a lot of fun. Eastern PA and NJ still have Cherry Vanilla Dr.Pepper around, so I hit that up as often as possible, and didn't worry about the caffeine. We probably supported 4 Wawa employees with our patronage during the trip :-) [Wawa = Eastern Sheetz]
At some point in the weekend I realized, quite abruptly, that I was in the middle of a movie-like road trip -- a classic good times craziness expedition, here in the midst of my work-constricted life. I think it was on the road somewhere in New Jersey, to or from New York City, rolling down the sweet highway in the sweet car with sweet people.
I also realized Saturday, as I sat back in the booth across from Steph and relished my exquisite frozen Heath mocha, that God was answering our prayers for good times during the trip, even though we didn't have much time in any one place. He abundantly multiplied our time in Stone Harbor, making our 12 hours there feel like 2 days: Night beach walk, good amount of sleep, Wawa breakfast (where else?), seeing where Steph spends her days at Tee Time Mini Golf, lolling about on the deck, going back to Tee Time and walking around the cool shops of Stone Harbor, and just soaking in the eminent beachiness of the entire place.
God even richly blessed the concert, which honestly, I didn't really care about. Dispatch's music doesn't mean that much to me, and I find its genera slightly annoying for some reason. But we listened to a bunch on the way up, which was good preparation. Our seats were really really terrible (way up behind the stage with abominable sound quality and pot smokers in the row ahead of us), so we scooted out after a few songs and walked further down and around till we found some unused seats, and sorta hovered there, off the prowling security guards' radar. Nobody ever came back to those seats, so we had them the rest of the night. And they were sweet :-) Spread out before us was the living, lit-up bowl of Madison Square Garden - dipping down and stretching out, across and up. The stage was a little left of us, and the sound was beautiful - crisp highs, pronounced mids, and--even in that huge place--floor-shaking bass. Ahhh, it was a moment of heaven-anticipation. I even found a cheap, filling and NEW food thing to fill my raging stomach (Knish. Basically a big potato pancake.). Standing there, great sound, enjoying the songs, great view, perfect food.. it was amazing! And I even liked the music. Quite a bit. A live setting almost always brings out a more rockin', energetic quality in music, compared to when it's recorded in a studio. With that perspective, I've found most of Dispatch's stuff pretty enjoyable. Their (sloshed/drugged, but still dedicated) fans filled the place with their singing. Everyone seemed to know the words to every song!
So yeah, even the concert was a blast, let alone the glorious weekend surrounding it!
[ I did have a rather dark spell on the way in to New York. Let's just say.. we were using a GPS navigation thingey.. we had the wrong destination at first.. we crossed a $9 toll bridge three times.. and only paid once.. and I succumbed to anger, which is never a pretty thing, for myself or others. We did get in OK, though late, though the show started late so it was OK, and I have rarely been as happy to park a car as I was when we rolled between the lines in the parking garage and I pulled out the key. Oy. But despite the aggravating entrance, our little view of NYC was amazing, and I'd definitely like to see more of it. ]
Church Sunday was nice, and we enjoyed the sleep-innage possible with an 11:30 service (though we had to budget time for a Wawa stop, of course). Then it was lunch with a couple church folks (getting to know Philly people! Yay! Riding in a Celica convertible! YAAAAY!), good-bye to Steph, and hello to Longdrivehome. We did some shifts, did a little sleeping, and wound up rockin' the Mazda to old favorites as we rolled up 51 into the Pittsburgh area.
I think Nick stayed with us that night, but I hit bed pretty quick, 'cause I had to be at work at 6 the next morning to start . . .
TRANSITION!
[dun dun dun]
And that's another post :-)
Yay weekend!
--Clear Ambassador
P.S. Good times = Justin and me driving away from Sheetz and leaving Daniel and Nick there and turning off our cell phones and nto coming back for half an hour :-D
P.P.S. I forgot the tickets, so we had to back home. heheh.
P.P.P.S. That frozen Heath mocha was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my entire life. I can only hope someday to go back to Stone Harbor, back to Coffee Talk, and order another (and pray it's not a let-down :-P).
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Diary of a Czar
Who would have thought, three months ago when I fished around for a funny signature and ended up ending my email with "--The Czar", that it would become such a big deal. And as kids searched for a hidden 2-liter bottle of Dr.Pepper, or chugged odious water from 2-oz. Dixie Cups and ran around holding hands, Mr. Pierson began to refer to me as "The Bizarre Czar" :-) Hey, I'll take that moniker and wear it with pride.
Well, youth camp. Let's see . . .
Sheetz on the way in with Katie, Daniel and Nick.
Katie making custom Yickiepickie T-shirts, and thereby being amazing.
Czar sash!! Ahhhhhhh, me likey.
Frenetic beginning, 'till Greg C took charge of Capture the Flag/Frisbee and I was freed.
Czarship has its perks: private room, morning espresso, Autumnobile access, radio, and knowledge to answer questions.
Czarship has its lows: when there's nobody to make the fire with which marshmallows are to be roasted, it's your fault. And you don't get to hear much of the messages, even when you're leading worship.
3-4 cans per day.
Canker sore the size of Manhattan = pain that never leaves you nor forsakes you.
Leading worship = doable, especially with a room full of people who want to sing.
Leading worship practice = very hard and humbling.
Skit about me and Dr.Pepper. Made my month :-)
Watching the campers run around carrying out YCAmoeba, by brain child. Seemed to go well!
Amazing, extended ministry after Monday and Tuesday nights' sessions.
The hardest part of running YC is the announcments. Timing; what to say; who to say it; when to do seconds; etc.Thanks dragged on too long, and I pretty much didn't think at all about the end of camp, so it got pretty hectic again.
The Meadows for ice-cream with PChOP people.. staving off the end of YC :-)
Steve-O came home with us, which pretty much made that day and the next.
As Monday rolled by, I was amazed at the experience of having other people take on tasks that I assigned them, and doing them as well, and with as much care and concern, as I would (or more). It's hard to describe what it was like watching Greg take CTF/F and make it happen, or walking into my office and seeing Wes Taylor hunkered over, drawing multiple maps of the Amoeba game to give to each of his refs. The wonder of this feeling is somehow tied to the fact that I could never make someone do things that well. I found quite clearly that comments/instructions from myself can't create a sense of ownership in anybody. So to see someone caring and working and *feeling* their task - doing what I could never ask or force them to do - . . well, it was indescribable! [I think this feeling relates to that which arises when we see God's grace at work. Could never ask or demand...]
Ultimately, I remained profoundly unaffected by nearly everything that went on at Youth Camp, even as I cried while people shared, and played my heart out when I led worship. So I didn't come home with a glowing ember to cherish, but I think with an armful of logs to fuel faith down the road.
YC08? Barring the providentially unexpected, I'm in 100% baby! We'll see how the post-YC meetings go in August.
For all of you who were affected at Youth Camp, who saw God there, who felt the Holy Spirit in you and around you . . cherish that! Thank God for that! I am far more aware now than I ever was before that all our youth camp stuff, all the food, games, plans, bunks, buildings, bandanas.. they are all fundamentally different from God coming. I didn't send Him an email telling him to show up Monday and Tuesday nights at 7pm. All my plans and labors, though not meaningless, felt like popsicle sticks in my hands before the great weight of God that deigned to settle on those little buildings out in the rolling green of Clymer, PA.
--Clear Ambassador/Czar
I want to remember the skits, so here they are:
- Blue Barf: "THE Infomercial" - predominantly featuring Minus 1, starring Akash Negi :-D
- Peeps: "Dancing with the Peeps" - featuring the Czar on guitar. Cowboy country, Picnic Table Polka, Spaced-Out robot hip-hop, and Blue Barf Ballet.
- Picnic Table - I forget the title. It was a rollicking, random ride of scattered, semi-indecipherable yet entertaining Biblical references and trippy vignettes. Killing the fatted calf was a highlight
- Cowboys - "Cowboy Memories" - sittin' round a campfire, recalling vignettes. Let us not forget the mooing cows or meeting the Man in Black.
- Flaming Cheetos - "Wheel of Fortune" - Took the cake for 2007. Human spinner, hand-made letters to be flipped over, and people doing the voices for other people. Good times.
- Spaced Out - "Dr.Pepper Obsession" - Nick Schuch = me (beardtee, Czar sash and radio, can of Dr.P), Mike P = psychiatrist. Rest of team = vignettes. Shannon as our Mom back in the homeschooling days (She's gone! We can eat ice-cream and drink Dr.Pepper!). Steve Shuch shaved the top of his head to play the old John B, hobbling on a cane and still clutching the can. Ahhh, amazing!
Well, youth camp. Let's see . . .
Sheetz on the way in with Katie, Daniel and Nick.
Katie making custom Yickiepickie T-shirts, and thereby being amazing.
Czar sash!! Ahhhhhhh, me likey.
Frenetic beginning, 'till Greg C took charge of Capture the Flag/Frisbee and I was freed.
Czarship has its perks: private room, morning espresso, Autumnobile access, radio, and knowledge to answer questions.
Czarship has its lows: when there's nobody to make the fire with which marshmallows are to be roasted, it's your fault. And you don't get to hear much of the messages, even when you're leading worship.
3-4 cans per day.
Canker sore the size of Manhattan = pain that never leaves you nor forsakes you.
Leading worship = doable, especially with a room full of people who want to sing.
Leading worship practice = very hard and humbling.
Skit about me and Dr.Pepper. Made my month :-)
Watching the campers run around carrying out YCAmoeba, by brain child. Seemed to go well!
Amazing, extended ministry after Monday and Tuesday nights' sessions.
The hardest part of running YC is the announcments. Timing; what to say; who to say it; when to do seconds; etc.Thanks dragged on too long, and I pretty much didn't think at all about the end of camp, so it got pretty hectic again.
The Meadows for ice-cream with PChOP people.. staving off the end of YC :-)
Steve-O came home with us, which pretty much made that day and the next.
As Monday rolled by, I was amazed at the experience of having other people take on tasks that I assigned them, and doing them as well, and with as much care and concern, as I would (or more). It's hard to describe what it was like watching Greg take CTF/F and make it happen, or walking into my office and seeing Wes Taylor hunkered over, drawing multiple maps of the Amoeba game to give to each of his refs. The wonder of this feeling is somehow tied to the fact that I could never make someone do things that well. I found quite clearly that comments/instructions from myself can't create a sense of ownership in anybody. So to see someone caring and working and *feeling* their task - doing what I could never ask or force them to do - . . well, it was indescribable! [I think this feeling relates to that which arises when we see God's grace at work. Could never ask or demand...]
Ultimately, I remained profoundly unaffected by nearly everything that went on at Youth Camp, even as I cried while people shared, and played my heart out when I led worship. So I didn't come home with a glowing ember to cherish, but I think with an armful of logs to fuel faith down the road.
YC08? Barring the providentially unexpected, I'm in 100% baby! We'll see how the post-YC meetings go in August.
For all of you who were affected at Youth Camp, who saw God there, who felt the Holy Spirit in you and around you . . cherish that! Thank God for that! I am far more aware now than I ever was before that all our youth camp stuff, all the food, games, plans, bunks, buildings, bandanas.. they are all fundamentally different from God coming. I didn't send Him an email telling him to show up Monday and Tuesday nights at 7pm. All my plans and labors, though not meaningless, felt like popsicle sticks in my hands before the great weight of God that deigned to settle on those little buildings out in the rolling green of Clymer, PA.
--Clear Ambassador/Czar
I want to remember the skits, so here they are:
- Blue Barf: "THE Infomercial" - predominantly featuring Minus 1, starring Akash Negi :-D
- Peeps: "Dancing with the Peeps" - featuring the Czar on guitar. Cowboy country, Picnic Table Polka, Spaced-Out robot hip-hop, and Blue Barf Ballet.
- Picnic Table - I forget the title. It was a rollicking, random ride of scattered, semi-indecipherable yet entertaining Biblical references and trippy vignettes. Killing the fatted calf was a highlight
- Cowboys - "Cowboy Memories" - sittin' round a campfire, recalling vignettes. Let us not forget the mooing cows or meeting the Man in Black.
- Flaming Cheetos - "Wheel of Fortune" - Took the cake for 2007. Human spinner, hand-made letters to be flipped over, and people doing the voices for other people. Good times.
- Spaced Out - "Dr.Pepper Obsession" - Nick Schuch = me (beardtee, Czar sash and radio, can of Dr.P), Mike P = psychiatrist. Rest of team = vignettes. Shannon as our Mom back in the homeschooling days (She's gone! We can eat ice-cream and drink Dr.Pepper!). Steve Shuch shaved the top of his head to play the old John B, hobbling on a cane and still clutching the can. Ahhh, amazing!
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