Monday, January 22, 2007
Carpet Igloo
Well, we survived the ice storm of 2007. After going over 200 hours without power I have learned the following:
Electricity makes life easier. The more you have (generally) the better off you are. When you have full power, life steams along at a normal pace. When you have none, life consists of a slow crawl back and forth between getting wood and stoking the fire. When you have a little (generator) you can crawl back and forth with a lamp on and pump all the water out of the basement at the same time.
Not having electricity makes life better. Nothing has been more clear to me over the last 9 days than the fact that I have great friends. Never did I have to ask anyone for help, on the contrary, I was turning away offers to help many times per day. It has also been interesting to hear the stories of others' experiences through this disaster.
Not having electricity makes life worse. My wife and child have been away for days and even before then I was gone so long during the day I saw them very little before I fell asleep each night.
Ice is powerful. This is undisputed by anyone within 100 miles of me right now.
Ice is beautiful. (story time) I decided that it was neccessary to obtain a generator to pump the water out of my flooded basement (different story). Supplies in the Springfield area were scarce and when you could find them they were overpriced and you had to wait in the freezing cold for hours to get one. So I decided to have one shipped from Memphis via DadEx. I met my father in Hardy, Arkansas to pick up the generator I had purchased from Home Depot in Bartlett, TN (thanks Dad). So on my way back I was looking around as I drove (I find the road a bit boring to watch). As I got closer to home, I noticed a drastic change in the scenery. It quickly morphed from a scene of leafless trees to a beautiful ice covered wonderland. I felt like I was in a giant crysal snowglobe or something. I looked around as the sun shone off the branches of thousands of trees (the glare did nearly blind me). Something came to mind that we had discussed on my last trip to Guatemala. Natural phenomena, when taking place outside the boundaries of our habitation, are considered to be beautiful, wonderous, and amazing. However, when these same phenomena occur within the boarders of our cities, we find them destructive and awful. The problem is not nature, it's that we feel that nature should not take its course in our back yards.
Doesn't it seem that people have this same view of God? God is nice to look at from afar but we don't want him playing in our yards for fear he might mess up what we have put in the way?
There will be more stories as I have time (there are plenty) but for now I will leave you with a shout out to all those who helped out during our time of need. Todd, Andy, and Tully: thanks for helping me create my new yard sculpture. Andy and Carlye: much love for the warm bed, coffee, food, and fellowship (oh and letting me hold Jack). My co-worker TJ for helping me get the generator up and running. My dad for taking his day off and spending it driving to get that generator to me. Andy and his dad for lending me space heaters. And to the dozens of people who called just to check in and offer assistance or a place to stay... you are all dear friends and Angela, Braden, and I are proud to have such a great group of people around us.
Praise God.
Electricity makes life easier. The more you have (generally) the better off you are. When you have full power, life steams along at a normal pace. When you have none, life consists of a slow crawl back and forth between getting wood and stoking the fire. When you have a little (generator) you can crawl back and forth with a lamp on and pump all the water out of the basement at the same time.
Not having electricity makes life better. Nothing has been more clear to me over the last 9 days than the fact that I have great friends. Never did I have to ask anyone for help, on the contrary, I was turning away offers to help many times per day. It has also been interesting to hear the stories of others' experiences through this disaster.
Not having electricity makes life worse. My wife and child have been away for days and even before then I was gone so long during the day I saw them very little before I fell asleep each night.
Ice is powerful. This is undisputed by anyone within 100 miles of me right now.
Ice is beautiful. (story time) I decided that it was neccessary to obtain a generator to pump the water out of my flooded basement (different story). Supplies in the Springfield area were scarce and when you could find them they were overpriced and you had to wait in the freezing cold for hours to get one. So I decided to have one shipped from Memphis via DadEx. I met my father in Hardy, Arkansas to pick up the generator I had purchased from Home Depot in Bartlett, TN (thanks Dad). So on my way back I was looking around as I drove (I find the road a bit boring to watch). As I got closer to home, I noticed a drastic change in the scenery. It quickly morphed from a scene of leafless trees to a beautiful ice covered wonderland. I felt like I was in a giant crysal snowglobe or something. I looked around as the sun shone off the branches of thousands of trees (the glare did nearly blind me). Something came to mind that we had discussed on my last trip to Guatemala. Natural phenomena, when taking place outside the boundaries of our habitation, are considered to be beautiful, wonderous, and amazing. However, when these same phenomena occur within the boarders of our cities, we find them destructive and awful. The problem is not nature, it's that we feel that nature should not take its course in our back yards.
Doesn't it seem that people have this same view of God? God is nice to look at from afar but we don't want him playing in our yards for fear he might mess up what we have put in the way?
There will be more stories as I have time (there are plenty) but for now I will leave you with a shout out to all those who helped out during our time of need. Todd, Andy, and Tully: thanks for helping me create my new yard sculpture. Andy and Carlye: much love for the warm bed, coffee, food, and fellowship (oh and letting me hold Jack). My co-worker TJ for helping me get the generator up and running. My dad for taking his day off and spending it driving to get that generator to me. Andy and his dad for lending me space heaters. And to the dozens of people who called just to check in and offer assistance or a place to stay... you are all dear friends and Angela, Braden, and I are proud to have such a great group of people around us.
Praise God.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
New for 2007
Today was the beginning of a new endeavor in my life. I created a Limited Liability Company called Bluefish Properties LLC. This is exciting for me as I have been interested in the real estate buisness for quite some time now. For at least the last 8 years I have been developing ideas for my own real estate investment company and more recently I have been reading up on the subject. Today I not only created my company but also made it's first successful offer on a house... it's been a good day for Bluefish. The plan is to renovate and rent this house. My offer was accepted and buisness is underway. This is going to be a side buisness, I'm not planning on leaving my regular job any time real soon. However, it would be nice to eventually generate enough income so that Angela wouldn't have to work. So now I would like to generate some free advertising for myself...
If anyone knows somebody (or some somebodies) that need to lease a 2-3 bed 1 bath house for about $525/mo. then send them my way for more details.
On to more important matters. Braden is doing well. He has times were he will sleep 5 hours at night and other times he won't sleep more than 2.5. Generally he sleeps about 3 and wakes up to eat. We haven't had as many 12-3am shrieking sessions lately, this is good (very good). He is much cooler to hang out with now, he babbles a little, makes more eye contact, and can follow you with his eyes to some degree. To be honest he was pretty boring before! Angela doesn't really want him to get any bigger but at the same time enjoys his development too. As is evident by my severe drop-off in number of posts, I am much more busy now than in previous months. Angela and I have been keeping a pretty busy schedule. We're trying to keep pretty mobile despite the fact that it takes litterally 3 times longer to do anything with the extra 10 pounds we're lugging around. It's definately an adventure.
To Andy: Oh the sweet yet pungent odor of a newborn's seedy yellow poo! Hope things are going well for y'all (or y'uns).
To Shaun: Dude..........Good luck........... (for more information just try to understand what it would be like to have 3 children under the age of 2 years old, then figure out the math)
To Wyatt (or actually to Wyatt through Christina): There's nothing you can really do to prepare, but trying is still fun!
To Michael....Nevermind, he never reads this blog... and he already had a kid.... perhaps he should be writing comments to me.... oh yeah, he never reads this blog.
To the rest of the Big daddys out there: Never, NEVER, shake a baby!
Praise God.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Without a dope beat to step to
Yeah, I know, it's been a while since there was any action on my blog. My longest blogging break to date. However, I feel that my reason is justified... I have a newborn. Braden has been doing very well. He wakes up every three hours at night to eat and only screams til 3 am a couple times a week. We're still working on trying to get him to do his screaming a bit earlier in the day. Overall, it has not been as bad as I thought it would be. I thought that once I went back to work I would be like the walking dead. Angela has done a good job dealing with him on nights I have to work. It helps that I've only been working 3 days a week. This will probably be the last week for that. I will then either go back full time or take one day off a week. It's difficult to be away all day but we're dealing with it. Braden has a new friend in the world. Michaela Elizabeth Barr was born Dec. 27th to our good friends Michael and Amanda. Soon little Jack will join the ranks of the "infant invasion." A variety of other babies will be born this summer. In an attempt to expand the utility of this blog, I am opening up the opportunity for other new fathers to submit e-mails to me and I will copy them on to my blog. You can e-mail me at harshman1@hotmail.com.
Braden's first Christmas went well. We went to Competition, MO to Angela's Grandmother's farm. Braden got passed around and everyone got to love him. Of course, he had no idea what was going on. Next year will be an exciting Christmas for him.
My dad, step-mother, and step-sisters came to visit us at home Christmas weekend. My mother and Grandmother came up the weekend before to visit also. We tried (and succeeded) to limit the amount of holiday driving we had to do. We still have a few folks to see but overall it was very nice to have some people come to us instead of spending the whole weekend driving (we have a powerful motivator now).
Last night Braden hit the party scene for New Years Eve. He joined our Bible school class party here at La Casa de Harshman.
Otherwise our days consist of holding the baby, feeding the baby, watching the baby sleep, and praying for the baby to sleep.
I hope everyone had a wonderful end to 2006 and may you have a prosperous and happy new year!
Hope you enjoy the picture!
Praise God.
