Bert's Blog

Being the best

At some time or another we have all strived to be the best at something. Maybe it was a school sport like football, track, basketball, maybe badminton! Maybe it was music; choir, playing the flute, beating on a drum or singing a solo.  Maybe it was hunting, or fishing, or jumping, or just being the best friend to someone who needs it.

There are thousands of athletes who are in Beijing right now to find out who is the best at their chosen sport. They have trained for years, maybe even their lifetime for this one chance at being the best.  Wow, talk about pressure! None of us can imagine what they are feeling with the knowledge that millions of people are watching their every move, their every twitch.

Have you ever performed in front of people? It's not easy I can tell you! I have sang in front of people for 30 years; in choruses, barbershop quartets, even solos, but never for crowds bigger than two or three thousand. As the eye count goes up, so does the stress level. Now add in judges, who know everything and can pick out a dust speck on a fly's butt, and you have a real pressure cooker!

  This doesn't mean that the judges should excuse the little mistakes, just that we should feel compassion for the athletes and be able to hold back our snap judgment on them. In 1 Corinthians 9: 24-25 Paul says "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." We need to remember that these races will soon pass and even though we can and should enjoy and be impressed with the excellence we are privileged to see, we should also know that these things will pass.  Next year, or maybe even next week we won't even remember what happened or who won.  Make sure to put your best efforts into things that are eternal.

Tractor Pulls!

Woo-Hoo!!!  Monday  evening was truck and tractor pulls at the Missouri state fair.  For those of you that have never been to one of these, I'll give you a quick rundown on what the heck a tractor pull is.

Kind of hard to start...well, the object of the competition is to pull a weighted sled the furthest, usually on a 300-350 ft track.  The competitors are put into classes based on weight of their tractor (or truck), type of engine(either diesel or gas) and in the case of trucks, either 2 or 4 wheel drive.  Tractors are only 2 wheel drive, due to the fact that 4WD tractors can basically stop the earth from turning....not really but you get my drift!

What is a "weighted sled" you ask?  Easier to show you, so here's a picture of one.

The weight steadily moves forward, putting a larger load on the front plate.  This causes more friction and makes it harder for the tractor to continue pulling, which eventually stops the tractor.  The one who pulls the sled the furthest wins!

There was a group of us from our church, along with a couple thousand others, watching all different kinds of vehicles.  There were modified 2 wheel drive trucks, 4wd trucks, both gas and diesel, super stock tractors, open class gas engine tractors and the unlimited 10,000lb open class tractors.  Quite a show and very entertaining.  The show lasted 3 hours and they kept it moving right along.

  If you get a chance to watch one of these, you won't be disappointed, especially if you like smoke, noise and flying dirt!  Want to know more? try http://www.ntpapull.com/default.htm  and find one near you! 

Back again

Well, here I am, back home in MO!  We took a trip up to Northern IL to see my Mom for her 82nd birthday. I continue to be amazed with her!  She has been blessed with good health that is even better than her grandson's.  Mom takes no prescription meds at all, only an Ibuprofen for her arthritis and an over the counter sleeping pill at bedtime! My boy Jacob has a bit of asthma, so he has an inhaler he takes at night, and an antihistamine in the morning...14 yrs old and worse off than Grandma!

We are blessed with a loving family, and it shows up on birthdays too.  All of my siblings and I went together and got Mom a digital picture frame and loaded it up with pic's of us.  Still need some from my younger brother and his family, but Mom was thrilled!  She just sat there later in the evening, staring at the images go by and remarked "This is great, you don't know how much this means to me!"   There couldn't have been a better present for her!   I thank my wife Deb, as she came up with the idea.  I am blessed to have her with me, walking this path of life together.

We continue to be amazed with how much buildup there is up where Mom lives! Forty miles west of Chicago in what used to be, just 5 yrs ago, cornfields now is right in the midst of suburbia.  Too bad it had to happen but people need places to live (and shop!) I guess.  In the cornfield across the street from her house there is even a full fledged water park! Hundred foot tall towers for slides and all the people that go along with a place like that.  The only saving grace is that it is a quarter mile away on the downhill side of the field.  All the traffic enters and leaves on the major highway, not at Mom's driveway so we continue to thank God for his blessings.

Speaking of blessings, we were blessed with a safe and uneventful trip, and 1000 miles (and 44 gallons of gas) later are home safe and sound.

Basement enjoyment

Well, the past few days I have been working in our basement on a new bathroom.  This has been an ongoing project when I am able to find some time to do it, and it has been fun!

  We built our house last year and had an unfinished basement which could have been used for a bowling alley (almost, only 65 ft long). We plan on having extra guests in the house, so the first thing to get done is the bathroom!  I have quite a few handyman skills developed over the years, so this isn't  too big a stretch for me at this time in my life.  The past few days have been a new one for me though, as I was putting down 13x13 tiles for the flooring.  In the past we have always had linoleum so I wanted to "move up" in the world.  I have put up tile for back splashes in our old house, and have helped my best friend tile his basement, so I have a little knowledge, but venturing out on my own is kind of exciting.

I got all the whole tiles(about 40) done in a couple of hours on Tuesday morning and then let them set and the adhesive dry.  Then I came back on Wednesday morning and cut all the perimeter tiles for each space left.  This took about 4 hours, and then after lunch (we all have to eat!) I set them all. Surprisingly this only took about 1 1/2 hours which I thought was pretty good for  approx 45 tiles!

Then this morning, My wife came up with a good idea for some tile to fill in a space in front of the shower, so I had to put up some backer board and glue up about seven 6" tiles.  Came out good and they complement the floor tile color. 

Next up was the grouting, so down on my knees I went and got to work. About 1 1/2 hours later, that was done!  Just a wipe off with a sponge, and wait for it to dry...Pretty nice job for a rookie!

Sunday Fun

Yes, it might seem like a strange title for a "religion" post, but it is the truth!  Around our house we look forward to Sundays, mainly because of our church.  My wife and I are deeply involved with the goings on of our small church and so is our son.  This week our pastor and his family are on vacation so my family "stepped up" and took on some added responsibilities.  My wife took over the adult Sunday school class, and my 14 yr old son took over the Children's Church!  Deb is always teaching my son and I already so this is a natural extension for her.  But my son Jacob is only a freshman and was pumped up to teach the little guys and girls!  The two of them worked on their lessons this week and then tried them out on me.  I couldn't be prouder of what the Lord is doing in our lives!  By the way,I am on the worship team, so don't think that I pawn off the work on the family.

This evening we will be going back to hear Brother Myron speak on "the honey"....should be good!

Don't give up!

This morning during my devotions, I realized again that God is good!  In Acts 26 when Paul was able to take the stand in his own defense we get a glimpse at how much he trusted God.  Paul was a Roman, Jew, Pharisee, but now a Christian. Even through this trial, he trusted in the Lord to watch over him and keep him safe. His main goal was to continue to lead others to Christ and he used every circumstance he was in to witness to many different groups.

God will give us the strength to persevere in all we do, as long as we go to Him first to seek his will, and then trust in Him even in the valleys!

God is good, all the time!

Another good day

So today was another good day to be with my family!  We took our son to the Dr. for his back to school physical, and the Dr said he is doing well.  Needed his shots and took them just fine, which is good because he has been known in the past to be scared.  I guess getting older, now 14, is a good thing!

We came back and helped the neighbor finish digging a trench for runing electric to his new garage...not fun down here in rocky Missouri!  Also finished painting a new/old trellis that I built for a new wysteria tree.  Looks good and the wife is happy.  Took the boy to guitar practice and when we got home we had dinner and then played Scrabble for the first time in ages! Quite a fun night. 

Thank the Lord for a family that enjoys being together!

The first one!

Hey there!

This is the first time I have blogged in my life! I am a retired engineer and business owner, and am waiting to determine what my third  career will be.  As this progresses, I hope to be able to learn the do's and don'ts of this new (to me) way to communicate.  Should be a trip!!