The House on Hybiscus: November 2008

Sunday, November 30, 2008

HANGING CHRISTMAS LIGHTS WITHOUT A LADDER

I don’t like climbing ladders anymore. I have two good reasons. The summer before last, I fell off my ladder. Twice.

The first time I fell, I was trimming a hedge in the backyard. I thought my foot was on the bottom rung when I stepped to the ground. I was wrong. My foot was on the second rung from the bottom. At the precise moment in time when I fully expected my foot to make contact with planet earth, it just kept descending. So did the rest of my body. I fell flat on my back. Fortunately, I had just rototilled the dirt where I completed my landing, so it was relatively soft. But I quickly learned what it felt like to be a pole-vaulter back in the days when they finished their 18-foot flights by landing on a pile of sawdust instead of landing on the airbags of today.

The other fall happened while attaching steel roofing panels to a shade structure that I was building over our patio. I slipped. Instead of plopping to the patio, however, I was able to catch myself on one of the 2x6 beams supporting the roof. But the ladder slipped away. I hung to the beam while trying to hook my toe around the ladder and pull it back to me so I could climb down. I lost my toehold on the ladder and eventually had to release my grip on the 2x6 beam and jump to the patio. At least I landed on my feet this time.

So, I don’t like climbing ladders anymore.

But last Christmas we decided to hang outdoor lights along our roofline. I had to take the risk once again and climb the ladder to install hooks under the eaves. Debra held the ladder for me this time while I drilled holes and twisted cup hooks into place. Some of those hooks reached an altitude of 15 feet. Once the hooks were in place, I stored the ladder in the garage.

But the string of lights still needed to be strung along the newly installed hooks.

Last year was the first time I hung the Christmas lights without a ladder. The second time was just this morning. Instead of climbing to unsafe heights, I now use a pole with a hook on the end. The pole is a ten-foot PVC pipe, the same kind I used for our underground sprinkler system. The hook is a simple bracket bent with pliers to guide the string of Christmas lights.

Although I no longer risk falling off a ladder when hanging Christmas lights, there is another risk to consider. I just spent more than an hour today looking straight up into the air while hanging lights over cup hooks. I now have a kink in my neck.

I don’t like climbing ladders anymore.

It is much safer, when near a ladder, to always keep both feet on the ground.

The first time I fell off the ladder, I was trimming the top of this hedge and fell onto the freshly rototilled earth beneath me.

The next time I fell off the ladder, I was attaching steel roofing panels to this freestanding shade structure.

I hung on to this 2x6 beam when the ladder tried to escape from under my feet before this project was finished. I was installing the panels from left to right at the time.

The Christmas lights hang 15 feet above ground at the highest point.

They hang 12 feet above ground at the second-highest point.

The Christmas-light-hanging pole is 10 feet long.

A makeshift hook is attached at one end.

This is how it works. I am looking straight up.

This is the highest point. I am looking straight up.

This is near the end of the string of lights. I am looking straight up.

This is a bottle of Ibuprofen. It helps when you have a kink in your neck.

Nighttime at the house on Hybiscus.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

ME TUBE

I rarely access YouTube.

But recently I not only accessed YouTube, I actually took the next step and created an account on YouTube and posted a video!

Here’s the story:

Nine years ago, I put together a medley of Christmas Carols and arranged them as if they had been written and sung by Bob Dylan. Then I stood in front of my church and presented that medley to those who were there. About 150 attended that evening. When I finished, they politely laughed and clapped.

Then, four years ago, I performed the same medley again, this time in front of several hundred employees at the hospital where I work, during their annual Christmas party. When I finished, they politely laughed and clapped.

So last month, just for the fun of trying something new, I placed my laptop computer on the dining table, faced the web cam toward the dining room wall, sat on a chair in front of the camera, and created this five minute video.

And now that December is upon us, I am hoping this brief video helps you get into the Christmas spirit.

This video can be viewed by going directly to the YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0hGjgsbfa4

Or, you can view it here:

Saturday, November 22, 2008

CACTUS JACK'S PLAYHOUSE

Outside it is cloudy, gray, wet and cold. So, what are a Papa and Nana to do?

Answer: Go to Cactus Jack's Playhouse.

Baylee climbs to the top of the playhouse

Rylie makes her way to a clear section of the tube
.

Ascending to the top of the slide

Descending to the bottom of the slide

Sisters behind plexiglas

Rehydrating

Nana and Papa looking on

Dinosaurs

Saturday, November 15, 2008

NGO HI LO FAHN, NGOM MENG BAH TONG WAH

Today, Debra and I attended a Thanksgiving Dinner for our church group. I was asked a few days ago to be the speaker at the event.

When asked if I would be the speaker, the above sentence almost immediately came to my mind. “Gno hi lo fahn, ngom meng bah tong wah.”

Translation:

“I’m a white guy, I don’t understand Chinese”.

So, today I shared my story:

During the summer between my junior and senior year in college, I took a summer school class in public speaking. While taking that class, I met a friend who invited me to church. My new friend was Chinese. The church was also Chinese.

The night I first visited Chinese Grace Bible Church in Sacramento, a guest evangelist spoke about a guy named Nicodemus. After he finished his sermon, he had the audience bow their heads and close their eyes while he asked for a show of hands: “Is there anyone in this room who does not know for sure that he would spend eternity in heaven if he were to die tonight?”

I was not even persuaded such a place existed. So, I certainly could not be sure I was going there.

My hand went up.

Before I left that building that evening, I had talked to the evangelist, to another college student and to the pastor. And, going against my strong sense of agnosticism, I had also agreed to read the Gospel of John three times and to pray to a god who might or might not exist and to ask him, if he were real, to somehow show me.

I read. I prayed. He showed me.

Within the next few days, several “coincidental” things occurred. First, I heard a speech from a fellow student in that college public speaking class. That speech made me doubt everything I had ever believed about the theory of evolution. Then two ladies knocked at my door and gave me some literature that supported everything the evangelist had said. Then a guy picked me up at a freeway entrance where I stood waiting with an upturned thumb hoping to hitch a ride to my parent’s house a few miles away.

I stepped into his car, saw a sign on the dash proclaiming “Jesus is Lord”, then heard the first words coming out of his mouth in the form of a question: “Do you believe in the Lord?” It puzzled me that I answered “Yes”. We talked together for about twenty minutes before he dropped me off in my parent’s driveway. When I stepped from his car, I stood on the driveway and watched him pull away. That’s when it hit me! In answer to my skeptical prayers, He had shown me.

I was a believer!

I continued with that church for several years. Often, when I would call friends in the church, their non-English-speaking parents would answer the phone. Eventually, I learned to tell them, "Gno hi lo fahn, gnom meng bah tong wah."