Still no photos.

Timbers
How can I take pride in these ashen hands?
But I am full of joy for the honor that You build for yourself in these fragile timbers.
You are making magnificence in these deep waters with your very hands. They stir me into delicate pains to shine out this glory that You have kindled in these ragged garments.
It is not mine, but I bear it to where 'ere I go, to where 'ere you take me.
And it causes me to paint my soul upon these wall, these rocks, that those who might pass by may see your works of passion and praise your hand, your heart, your face.
-BY

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The Last Pill.

Yet another photo that is totally irrelevant. I'm waiting for my roommate to scan some of my negatives for me at the lab so I can post some more recent ones. Until then, it's the random scraps left over from stories I never told.

Now on to my monologue! I'm down to my final day's supply of Vicodin. EEK! The general pain from the pressure of the swelling has subsided to reveal the deeper, throbbing ache that goes all the way down the nerve and up behind my eyes. The empty rattling sound of the bottle in my pocket makes me nervous, but I still have a ready supply of Ibuprofun handy to mop things up. I'm not really worried. Besides, I get to go back to the clinic tomorrow for a follow up, and I'll see that cute nurse again. Just kidding. I've been informed by my niece, Victoria, that I have to 'be careful what you put in there about girls! I read this you know. (and so does your mother!)' Don't worry Victoria, gentlemen NEVER kiss and tell. Especially not to their 12 year old nieces. And if they're smart, they won't tell their mothers either.

Memory
One had a lovely face,
And two or three had charm,
But charm and face were in vain
Because the mountain grass
Cannot but keep the form
Where the mountain hare has lain.
-W.B. Yeats

Narcolepsy

Yeah, this photo has nothing to do with anything.

I actually went to class today, but the Vicodin is making things fuzzy. I remember something about Romans killing some people.... Guess that was a redundant statement. I keep getting these surprised and puzzled looks from people. First they see me and think, "That is one ugly monkey. It must have escaped from the zoo." Then they realize that they know me and wonder, "How many branches did he hit falling out of the ugly tree?" By this time they realize that it's all over their face, but they try to act like nothing is wrong and they manage to eek out a feeble "Hi, Bart. How's it going?" Of course I'm cracking up as I watch the comedy unfold on everyone's face. It serves them right for mistaking me for a monkey! Haha.

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Minus the Teeth

Well it's finally done. The wisdom teeth are gone. I am now void of wisdom.

They just let me go from the clinic. I was doing one of those medical studies where they pay you to cut you up and then test a new drug on you. I'm not sure it was worth the compensation. Things went fine until I had a little problem forming blood clots. Apparently, I over-salivate when I taste blood, so my mouth was continuously full. The cotton was saturated with saliva and didn't help the blood clot. I nearly fainted before they got me fixed up. And of course the anesthesia had worn off by this time, but they won't give you anything until the bleeding stops. That first 3 hours was a nightmare. Fortunately I didn't get the placebo, so things were manageable after that. Again fortunately the nurse was really nice and the fact that she was a hottie made the 15 bloods samples a little easier to tolerate. At one point, three different people tried to hit a particular vein. When no one was able to get it, I told them that there wasn't anymore blood, they had already taken it all.
I can't really open my mouth right now, so I'll be eating tomato soup for another day or so. I guess this is all just sudden. I called the clinic at 12 noon on Friday to "inquire" about the procedure. By 8 AM the next morning I was already in surgery. Maybe I should call the parents and let them know...

The ole hang out.

I'm job hunting, although there don't seem to be many jobs to be hunted in this coffee shop. I have a pile of about 20 job application to fill out.

Some are for places that I would pay money to work at, like REI. Talk about a cornucopia of toys and things that could save ones life if one was ever lost in some remote corner of the Yukon Territory! The turn over there is about nil. But I can dream right?

Some are from places a bit closer to the realm of lesser mortals, like Barnes and Nobles and Star Bucks. I figure, why not get paid for hanging out where I'm going to anyway. Again, very little turn over. Blah.

But there is this trendy sports wear store on the Drag that seemed promising. I talked to the owner by chance. My hair was a mess, but I think I impressed him with my debonaire and underplayed disregard for my general appearance. You know... I was cool. Yeah, I thought you would think that was funny, Dad.
I know I'll probably end up shoveling...dirt, but I figure that has to be at least some chance that somebody would want to hire me to do nothing. I mean politicians get hired all the time, right? Man, I think I went into the wrong major...

On a more serious note, there is no serious note for today. Hasta luego.

Simply Put...

Yet another late night blog when I should be in bed. After being cornered outside of the Walgreens by a girl scout, I'm now munching on some cookies and trying to actually get to bed in the near future. These are from a B-52 on display in Colorado Springs at the Airforce Academy. We had to take a few minutes to "pay homage".

Jet engines.


My sis.


Truly awesome machines, both in size and purpose.

Close Encounters of the Random Kind

The mountain is calling me. "Bart, come to me. Broken bones don't hurt that bad!"


Weird story from last night. I'm sitting in Star Bucks in Breckenridge, CO, minding my own business. In walks about 15 people in one group being rather distracting. Three of them sit down right next to me and continue to be talk loudly. Conceding that I'm not going to do much more reading, I put down my book and start a conversation with the three ladies. Honest! No ulterior motive there! Turns out they are all from A&M (sadly), and one of them was from Austin. After about 5 minutes, we realize we know each other. Her dad is a deacon at my church and she goes thee when she's at home. Just one of those bizarre situations. Kind of like the time my sister and I were staying in Antigua, Guatemala and walked into the travel agency. There, standing with his back to us, was her next door neighbor from New Orleans talking to the receptionist. Just bizarre.

Cuisine in the condo.

Winter Mountians

Me and the mountains.


We of finite flesh, how little we understand.
We who pride ourselves in the gears and oil of the machine,
yet are scarcely aware of its purpose.

The grand sum of all of our beautiful wisdom and wise learning,
our deep insight and far distant vision is merely the pots and pans banging in the kitchen.
There is a glorious feast prepared, but we investigate the new Teflon frying pan.
In the presence of the God Almighty, we are children drawing pictures of ourselves in crayolas.
We are fascinated by the chemical content of the paint while being unaware that we are staring into Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.

How do you explain how the sunlight through the trees and the blue sky can lift the spirit?
Who can understand what the winter mountains were can do to a man's heart?

-BY

Did I mention that I love the mountians?

Breckenrigde, Colorado

I don't usually recomend back-to-back trips, but I'll have to make an exception on this one. Comming to Colorado was definately a good idea. There's just something about the mountains that allows me to unwind and breath, something in my heart that lives again. My family all skis, but I've been boarding for the past 6 years or so. At 1-2 trips a year, that's a grand total of 6 trips trying to board. I'm getting better. Someday, maybe I'll figure out how to keep my balance in the air and actually land. Then you'll see me on Mtv in the X-games. I'll be the guy with my head firmly planted into the side of the mountain and my legs dangling about.
I'm a bit bumbed about not getting to see an old friend of mine here. He was suppose to head over from England and do a little skiing here this week, but alas it was not to be. Hey, Johnny, if your reading this, cheers mate! Have a pint in my name when you do get here and break a leg you lousy muppet. And say hello to the whole gang when you see them.
More pictures to come, to be accompanied by poetry, about as good in quality as the rubbish photos I've been forcing all of you to look at.

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Unusual Posting

Yeah, I realize that i usually only make one posting per day, but I decided to make an exception for this one. I freely and with no reservation admit that I swiped this from Coqui's blog and that she swiped it from some one elses. But it was so susinct that I jus had to post it.

The Greater Love
By Soren Kierkegaard
(Edited)Worldly wisdom would have us believe that love is a relationship between one person and another. Christ’s life teaches that love is a relationship between three: person-God-person. However beautiful a love-relationship is between two or more people, however complete all their enjoyment and all their bliss in mutual devotion and affection are for them, and even if all people praise this relationship—if God and the relationship to God is left out, then this is not love, but a mutual and enchanting illusion. For only in love for God can one love in truth. To help another human being to love God is to love another person. And to be helped by another human being to love God is to be loved.

Love is by no means merely a human bond, no matter how faithful and tender it is. As soon as you leave God out, the power of human judgement becomes highest. Such judgement loses sight of love altogether. As soon as a love-relationship does not lead me to God, and as soon as I do not lead another person to God, this love—even if it were the most blissful and joyous attachment, even if it were the highest good in the lover’s earthly life—nevertheless is not true love.

Not only should the celibate belong solely to God, so should the person who in love is bound to a woman or a man. He shall not first seek to please his wife, but shall strive first that his love may please God. Consequently, it is not the wife who shall teach the husband how he should love her, or the husband his wife, or a friend his friend, or associates their associates, but it is God who shall teach each individual how he or she should love. Only when the God-relationship determines what constitutes love is love prevented from being some illusion or self-deception.

Love that does not lead to God, love that does not have the single goal of leading us to love God, such love eventually comes to a stand-still . Moreover it escapes the ultimate and most terrible collision: in the love-relationship there is an infinite difference between God’s conception of love and ours. A purely human conception of love can never comprehend that anyone, through being loved as completely as possible by another person, would be able to stand in the other person’s way. And yet, Christianly understood, this very thing is possible, for to be loved thus can be a hindrance to one’s God-relationship.

For the Christian view means this: to truly love oneself is to love God; to truly love another person is, though it mean being hated, to help the other person love God.

The World cannot seem to get it through its head that apart from God, love is a chimera. For God alone is love. Where love is, God not only becomes the third party but essentially becomes the only loved object, so that it is not the husband who is the wife’s beloved, but it is God, and it is the wife who is helped by the husband to love God, and conversely. The love-relationship is a triangular relationship of the lover, the beloved, and love-not love by itself, but love in God. For ultimately is it is God who has placed love in us humans, and it is God who shall finally decide what is love.

In matters of love it takes no time at all to become deceived. It is so easy to get a quick, fanciful picture of what love is and then be satisfied with the fancy. It is still easier to get a few people to be associated together in self-love, to be sought after and admired by them till the end. But if your ultimate and highest purpose is to have an easy and sociable life, then don’t have anything to do with Christ or his love. Flee from him for he will do the very opposite. He will make your life difficult and do this precisely by making you stand alone before God.

How many have been corrupted – divinely understood – by...friendship, or by a woman’s love, simply because, defrauded out of his God-relationship, he became far too attached to her while she in turn was inexhaustible in her praise of his love? How many relatives and friends corrupted by their love because they got him to forget his God-relationship and changed it to something people could shout about, admire, without being sensitive to any admonition about higher things?

Do not appeal, therefore, to the judgement of others in order to prove your love. Human judgement has validity only as far as it agrees with God’s demand. No love between one person and another can, in and of itself, ever be perfectly happy, ever perfectly secure. Even the happiest love between two people has still one danger, the danger that earthly love can become too intense, too important, so that the God-relationship is hindered.

You must always watch apprehensively, lest this danger overtake you, lest you too should forget God, or that the beloved might do so. Such apprehension may mean being hated by the beloved. But only God, who is the one true source of love, is the continuously happy, the continuously blessed object of love. You should thus not watch too apprehensively; watch only in adoration.

Recovery

It's been nice to do nothing for two days. It's been a good recharge on the social batteries. I can't wait to hit the slopes this week. Actually, my favorite part of skiing/boarding is the part right after you get off the lift. Your at the top of the mountain looking out, you find a nice trail with no one else on it, and you just pause for a second. And there's nothing. Everything is super still and quite because of the snow. And then you shatter that by flying down the mountain leaving a trail of flames behind you. Yeah, that's my favorite part.


But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

William Butler Yeats
[He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven]

Miles to Go

I just got in. I got up at 6:00AM Chilean time. It's now 4:00Am Chilean time. I've been up for 22 hours traveling and all I've got to show for it is a suite case of dirty clothes and no passport. I hate airports.

No walkie, no talkie

Well, I seem to have left a bag of stuff somewhere. Or atleast that is what I presume, because I'm suddenly missing one radio, a pair of sunglasses, a pen, and two pairs of socks. The only problem is that I can't think of any reason that I would have put all of these things into one bag. (don't worry dad, I didn't lose your camera)
I managed to be the only gringo in Chile not to get sunburned on the beach yesterday. I guess my momma raised me right. Poor Rocky has to walk around on his burned feet in cowboy boots. We had driven 2 hours down a road very similar to highway 1 California to a nice beach. Problem: I forgot my bathing suite and all I see in the shop windows are bikinis. Preassuming that I had already desided that improvising some sort of speedo was a VERY BAD IDEA, I was going to be stuck sweating in myt pants. Now here's the thing. Normally pants would have been ideal since the previous days were breezy and cool and the water is about 40 degrees. But as it turns out, there had been a southerly wind from the Antartic blowing for the past few days, making it cold. And of course that day, a warm northly wind was blowing. Hey People! I'd only been in country for a week! I didn't know the intricacies of southern hemesphere weather! Anyway, once of my chileana friends found a store that had some suites way in the back, so all was well. Except for the rumor started that Bart was trying on bikinis.


Gary may never live down being seen in public wearing those shorts. But I will say that there was an unusaul number of ladies watching the football match from the sidelines! :)

Those shorts justs keep stealing the show! You are looking at a team that is about to get their butts handed to them on a silver platter by a bunch of 40 year old men. I think the score was 12-3.

This is just a random shot during luch. I like the effect of the yellow wall and the black and white movie still.

This is one of the guys from the church we were playing football with. We were out in one of the apartment blocks doing some productions and talking to people.
Someone peeking out the window to see what we were up to.

This is a flat tire. Aparently no one else in the van had seen one before. I refused to change it because my "buddies" said that I didn't look like the "tire changing type". Watching them trying to figure it out was hilarious!
View from the Freeway.


Well, things are winding down now. We've got one more day of 'real work' to do and then it's a day of sight-seeing and the like. Then we're home. I'll be sad to leave honestly.

Chile, Coffee, and the Lumberjack

Gasp! Sorry for the large gap in the monologue, but I've had no time to catch up since I left for Chile. I've only been here five days and I already feel at home. The people here are so amazing and the country is so full of life. Time is scarce, so here is a short run down.
This is Adrian and me running through the terminal in Mexico City. We had about an hour to claim our luggage, run through passport control and customs, run across the airport and recheck our luggage for the trip to Chile. Madness!

This is us waiting around to be picked up. It was 4:00 AM for us, but 7:00 for los chilenos. Blah!

Here is a shot of the vineyard country at 80 miles an hour. What's that in Km/Hr?

The 1st night in Vina del Mar (that's with an enya) was New Years Eve. We went down to the beach (rocks) to watch the fireworks. It was somewhat mysterious to see the Pacific Ocean for the first time at night. Mysterious in a captivating way.

Then there was the Casino all lit up. Adrian is a goof ball.

Here's the path we take to get from our hotel to Karen's House. It's about a 15 minute walk. It is rather interesting architecturally speaking, but the druggies hang out there at night.

I've made fast friends with the people here. We're working with several churches, so I've met about 150 people in the past few days. Try keeping up with that many names. By the way, it took me several hours, but we finally figured out that Betsabe (accent on the last e) is Spanish for Bathseba. Guess it's another one of those names we would consider a bit presumptuous in English, like Jesus.



Well, it's all quite a blur here. Karen keeps our days packed full. Between driving all over creation, the churches, and the beach, we don't seem to have much time for silly things such as updating blogs and the like. Also, there hasn't been much sleep on account of the time change and Jimmy snoring like a lumberjack. We've all gone out and bought earplugs to remedy that. Coffee seems to be the best remedy for the lack of sleep. As a student, I'm a professional at that. Happy belated New Year to all of you and God bless.