Major Mike’s Musings

Mrs. Major is feeling better today. Still very tired and still has some cramping. I think she is on the mend.

The weather gave us a break. The rain abated for our 1.5 hour drive to Sanford, the 3.0 hour cruise¹, and the 1.5 hour return drive.

The cruise turned out to be fun. The first deck of the boat was the dining room, filled with red leather booths that tightly fit six or four people. The food was pretty good, not outstanding, but not bad. The company was good. We sat at a six-top where the other two BILs had served in the Navy…not career like I did…and had several sea stories.² The ladies at our table, including Mrs. Major, were outgoing, lively, funny, and lovely.

The second deck had a bar and small lounge area, another lounge-dance area with a guy singing lots of dance songs, and an outside observation deck. If it weren’t so cold, the outside would have been the place to gather after dinner. The poor smokers had to go out on deck to smoke…no smoking inside.

We got home at around 12:30 am.

The only unfortunate thing about the whole trip is that today Mrs. Major is suffering pretty bad cramps. We’re speculating that he had food poisoning. We’ll have to find other PEOs who had the chicken breast to see if they had any ill effects. Mrs. Major said the chicken was dry, so it was probably cooked properly. Perhaps the contamination was from the sauce or from the handling. She’s still in bed.

My pork tenderloin was very good and, so far, I’m fine.

1. Do I hear a cheesy song in the background? [↩]
2. By the way, the difference between a sea story and a fairy tale is: One starts out, “Once upon a time…” and the other starts out “This is no s**t…” [↩]

In a few hours, Mrs. Major and I are scheduled to join some of her PEO sisters in Sanford, Florida, for a riverboat cruise dinner-dance, presumably for Valentine’s Day. This is a BIL¹ event. It’s been on the books for several months.

The problem is, it’s been raining buckets² for hours and is forecast to be the same with temps around 40 degrees at launch time. Fortunately, I think the meal is served inside. At least I hope it is.

1. BILs are the husbands of the PEOs. I’m not sure what BIL stands for, if anything; except I’m sure it doesn’t stand for “brothers in lingerie”. At least I hope it doesn’t. [↩]
2. Cats and dogs [↩]

With the passing of Robert B. Parker last week, the community of his fans grieved. I count myself as a member of that community. His Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sonny Randall novels entertained us for over 50 years. I’m sad when I realize that, if I don’t discover some more of Robert B. Parker’s titles, I have only 16 more to go until I have no more new ones to read.

Should I read them all this year or savor them over several years?

Our discipleship/small groups moved from Wednesday night to Saturday night. Wednesday is the night Mrs. Major has cards, so now I have Wednesday night free to read. Yea!

Mrs. Major and I had a great weekend (Thursday – Saturday) in St. Augustine celebrating our 44th wedding anniversary. We walked on the beach, ate lavishly, shopped in Old Town, toured the fort, drove around, and visited the World Golf Hall of Fame. All-in-all a relaxing, romantic get-away.

At 5am – 7am we had thunderstorms, a tornado,  and rain totaling 1/2 inch and and hour and a half later we were out playing golf. Gotta love Florida.

The 1.8 year old TiVo HD finally started to look like it was recording, but actually dropping programs around the 1 minute to 11 minute recorded mark. I wasn’t sure whether it was the hard disk in the TiVo, the external hard disk, or Comcast signals. Not wanting to spend a bunch of money to find out, we switched from Comcast to Dish. Since the DVR service with Dish is less than the TiVo service, and the actual Dish service is cheaper than Comcast, we’ll be saving the big bucks.

I also switched our high-speed Internet service from Comcast to CenturyLink. It’s no longer required that  you subscribe to local phone service in order to get DSL. Good deal. The DSL will be about the same as cable after the discounted price expires after a year.

So far things are working superbly and we’re learning the new system.

I’m officially retiring the static page titled “Comcast Saga” effective immediately.

I finished reading The Shack a few days ago. I’m still reeling from its reading. I’m not even sure how to review it.

From the jacket:

Mackenzie Allen Philips’s youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for the weekend.

Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack’s world forever.

I think it has changed my world, too. I’ve always wondered and imagined what the encounter with God will be like.¹ I pray that mine will be as wondrous and transformative as Mack’s. In fact, I suspect that Mack’s encounter, as he describes it, is only remotely as wondrous as an actual encounter will be.

When you read this book, you will ask yourself, “Is this really true? Is it factual?” I don’t know if it’s factual², but I believe it’s true. It left me craving to be with God on a minute-to-minute basis. I want to be more gracious with those around me. And I yearn for the time when God will reveal himself to me more fully.

I agree with Wynonna Judd when she says, “Reading THE SHACK…has blown the door wide open to my soul.”

1. Yes, I believe we will all encounter God eventually [↩]
2. You’ll understand when you finish the book [↩]