Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 149

A Dog's Life

Well, hello, everyone, it is me Dino. I know you haven't heard from me for a while, so I thought I would slap the old paws on the keyboard and type up something for Mom. She has been down the last few days - a headache, not sleeping, hurting all over. I heard her tell Dad that she thought she had Lyme's. Of course, she won't get checked for it. Dad says she is bull-headed. Her head doesn't look anything like a bull's to me.

So, what have I been up to? Not too much, sleeping all day, pacing half the night, getting Mom and Dad up early in the morning. Mom still goes for a run a couple times a week. She always takes me with, but we haven't gone as far as we used to go last year. There are a few new houses on our road and she doesn't like running past them because their dogs or their people are usually in the yard. We usually end up running on the highway. where there aren't many houses, there aren't any trees and a lot of cars go by. But the highway is wide enough that the cars don't even get close to us. So that is good.

Oh, one other thing that I have been thinking about. Do you all know how to pronounce my name? Coz sometimes I have heard it said so that it sounds like you are about to say "dynomite". Which would be ok if you were that skinny black guy from that old TV show. (Once in a while they let me watch TV Land.) And also since my name is short for dinosaur because it comes from the TV show The Flintstones (Mom and Dad used to watch way too much TV), where their pet dog was a a dinosaur. But really my name sounds like Beano. I know, it's weird, but that's how it is and that's my name.

Oh, one other thing, I went to the vet last week. Mom said I was really naughty. I don't know, there are just too many things to smell at the vet's office and then two labs came in and all I wanted to do was be friends. Honest. I wasn't trying to be naughty. But the vet did give Mom treats to give me once a month to keep off the fleas and ticks. She told them how much I hated the smelly stuff she used to put on my back. And this year she bought a collar but it wasn't kept off any ticks coz Mom pulled off five of them just while we were waiting for the vet. I hope the treats work better. If Mom does have Lyme's I sure don't want to get it.

I't's a rough life. But I hope everything is going well for all of you.

Are You a Servant?

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17New International Version  I was taking a walk around my town this week and had to take a picture of this door. It used to be the main entrance to Grace Lutheran Church, before they put on an addition, changing the narthex to the other side of the building. Now, this door is titled the “servant’s entrance”.
I think we all have a good idea what is meant by a “servant’s entrance, but I still had to google it. Most websites led me to a movie from the 1930s by the same name.
Free Dictionary however says it is “an entrance intended for the use of servants or for delivery of goods and removal of refuse.”
A website, “Scouting NY” had this to say when the writer of that site found a similar sign in New York: “Servants? Tradesmen? I imagine it’s been quite a number of years since this sign has had any applicability for the building’s tenants, but I love that it still exists as a fading relic of a bygone era.”
“A fading relic of a bygone era”? Is that saying that such signage is no longer around, that either there are no servants or they use the same entrance as everybody else?
I think that in this day and age such verbiage is totally in vogue when used on any house of worship. Shouldn’t we all be servants? Shouldn’t we all be welcomed into the house of the Lord as servants? Shouldn’t we all serve God and man?
Make me a servantHumble and meekLord let me lift up those who are weakAnd may the prayers of my heart always beMake me a servant today.
(Words and Music by Kelly Willard)

Only Clouds - a personal photo challenge

This month's personal photo challenge was stormy weather. That sounded like fun. I have a few stormy weather pictures in my files, but I thought that surely the weather would cooperate and create the necessary storminess. Alas, most of our June days have been sunny or have produced only the white fluffy clouds. Such as these - they don't look so stormy, do they?  Finally yesterday, my luck changed. All afternoon, from the window at work, I watched threatening clouds roll across the sky. "Just hold out until I get out of here," I kept whispering. As soon as I had my chance, I bolted from work and drove to the best place in town with a great view of the sky. And I stood on that dock patiently waiting for these clouds to do more than tumble to the east. 
 Looks like rain in the distance. It should be heading straight for me.
 Rain circling to the north. The clouds keep moving.
 A few splashes of rain on my arm. That's a good sign. Now we just need some lightening.
But alas, the clouds gave way to the early evening sun.

Walking the Streets of Hatchet Creek - official Day 1

I seem to be getting off to a very slow start with this “WalkingEvery Street of my hometown” thing.  Last night was my first actual, official walk. I only went a few blocks, or ten blocks, it depends on how you count them.
 I had a writer’s group at the Library at six, so I got there early, parked the car and headed up the street. On this walk, I ran into not just one, but two people I know, who I stopped to visit with. Of course it is a good thing to run into people and to stop to visit, but do you suppose this is going to be a trend? I will never finish by the end of the summer if that is the case.
I have another issue going on right now. I haven’t figured out how to post a map with my route highlighted. I tried pulling one off of the internet, and when that failed I thought I would just scan my city map, highlight each day and scan it as I go along. But for the last two days, my scanner hasn’t worked. Seems like the stars are just not lining up for me.
But, you aren’t here to read about my woes, you are here to hear about what I encounter out on the street.

When I was a kid this was an actual service station and the place where the Greyhound bus stopped. A few times I took the bus to Wausau to see my sister. I can’t even believe I typed those words. Wausau is currently forty miles away. My geography skills continue to be fair to mediocre so how did Wausau get so much closer to Tomahawk in the last 35 years? When I was a kid, it was a major planned trip to go to Wausau. My sister and her family would come up for the weekend and spend the night because it was too far to drive here and back in a day. We didn’t just jump in the car and run to Wausau to buy cereal at Sam’s. Times have changed, haven’t they? Whatever happened to Greyhound?

Fast forward all the way up to my senior year in high school. The Beking Chinese Restaurant was the A&W then. I worked at Tomahawk Drug after school a few days a week and would stop at the A&W for a milk shake and fries on my way to work.

I always thought this garage was cool. I don’t know why. My imagination pictures it being filled with mysterious old gadgets and mildewy antiques.


The Fit Factory used to be a church. Maybe if you can’t get in shape, you can at least pray about it. 

Do Something

I sprang out of bed at 5:30 this morning. The hubby had just left for work and I could have laid around for another hour before getting up. Instead I threw a load of clothes in the wash, went out and picked some rhubarb, baked a rhubarb cake for my coworkers, showered, hung those clothes out on the line, finished getting ready for work. Hmm? I thought there was something else? Besides taking out four pieces of rhubarb cake and putting them in a dish for the hubby to take to his mom’s after work.
Driving to work, I decided, having no better ideas, that I would post my mom’s rhubarb cake recipe as my blog tonight.  Then the following lyrics on the radio caught my ear:
Did I change their lives? Yes, if only for the
day I was able to visit them. If not us, then whoIf not me and youRight now, it’s time for us to do somethingIf not now, then whenWill we see an endTo all this painIt’s not enough to do nothingIt’s time for us to do something.(from “Do Something” by Matthew West)


Ok, maybe everything I accomplished in that extra hour this morning didn’t change the world for anyone else (except for those who ate my rhubarb cake), but it just got me thinking, that yes, we can all do something. Anything is better than nothing. I continue to be the proponent for “make a difference”. Anyone can do something. Anyone can change a life. 

What good things has God given you?

So in this way the Lord gave to Israel all the land he had promised to their ancestors, and they went in and conquered it and lived there. And the Lord gave them peace, just as he had promised, and no one could stand against them; the Lord helped them destroy all their enemies. Every good thing the Lord had promised them came true. Joshua 21: 43-45(The Living Bible)
I seem to gravitate to the New Testament for my inspiration on this blog. There are so many passages in the New Testament that speak to our modern lives, passages which could have been written last week, instead of two thousand years ago.
In general, the New Testament, for me at least, is just plain easier to read.
Two years ago, I started working my way through the Bible for the second time. I will read a few Old Testament books, then throw in some chapters from Psalms or Proverbs, or a whole book from the New Testament so that I can keep moving.
I just finished the Old Testament book of Joshua this week. Now there is a book with a story and lots of action which keeps a person’s interest. Only a few chapters are monotonous. Lots of verses can be applied today. My favorite would be “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
Then I read this passage. “Every good thing the Lord had promised them came true.” What a great verse. That is me. I maybe don’t have it all, but I have everything which God has promised me – family, friends, a home, a steady job. As much as I complain some days, every day I want for nothing.
What about you?

Lord, God, thank you for everything, thank you for keeping your promise, thank you for satisfying my every need. Amen  Good times with the family back in 1996. Ok, everyone was having a good time, except Val. 

Bonus Blog - what's in your yard?

I was re-reading a few chapters of "A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven" and came across this section. We maybe complain about our flying friends filling our backyards and filling themselves with our blood, but I guess it could be worse. 
The World’s Most Deadly Life FormWe also taught the Maasai about Hepatitis B, tuberculosis, typhoid, and malaria. Looking across the wide savannah, I could picture the many animals that lived there and killed there. Lions, rhinos, hippos, and crocodiles all have reputations as man killers. Our active imaginations added poisonous snakes to that category. In reality, a much smaller creature claims the title of the one that kills the most people anywhere in any given year.Two to three million people worldwide die yearly from diseases caused by the bite of the ordinary mosquito. In addition to malaria, this insect causes elephantiasis, yellow fever, dengue fever, and West Nile virus.People traveling to countries where malaria is prevalent are usually prescribed a simple preventive medication to take daily the entire time they are away, and to take for an additional week after returning home. An immunization against malaria also shows promise. One of the speakers at Lifest shared a tragic malaria story. A young girl had gone to Africa on a mission trip and had taken the full course of the prescribed anti-malaria medication. After she returned home, she became ill with fever, chills, headaches, and body aches. Initial testing was negative for malaria; this wasn’t questioned because she had taken her medication. As her condition continued to deteriorate, the doctors ran more tests. This time the results showed a rare and drug-resistant strain of malaria. Before enough of the proper treatment could be administered, the previously healthy girl passed away. “What were we getting ourselves into?” I asked myself at the time. Why would God send us into a country where a simple mosquito bite could kill you?Sitting on a stone in the shade of the sturdy trees at Mosiro, I studied the dark faces of the Maasai. I thought I knew the answer.
If you haven't gotten your copy of "A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven", shoot me a message and I can mail you a signed copy. Through the end of June, I will donate $8 to Tumaini Volunteers for every book of mine that is sold. Help to bring hope to Kenya.  

Documenting my Run

All week, I have been earnestly meaning to start walking the streets of my hometown but finding just that one hour in my hectic schedule seems to be a challenge. With the fulltime job, housework, a garden, my blogs, my other writing, my bumming, and my quest to run a 5K, I am left a few hours to sleep and eat. Oh, it’s not that bad. But I did decide last night that until I get it together I could combine a few things. When I went for a two-mile run, I took my camera with and documented my very own road. That felt like a reasonable commitment to the “walk every street”  dare.
First of all, though, the mosquitoes have been horrendous for the last week. I thought that since I would dawdle on this run, I might need protection.

Bad idea. The first thing I did was spray some in my eye. I am a danger to myself.
I somehow managed to get under way, Dino leading the way.

Isn’t this tree a beauty? I should have parked Dino in front of him, so you could see how big he is. The woods all around here were once filled with mammoth white pines. But logging them all off is what most of our towns were built on, Tomahawk wouldn’t be a town today if it hadn’t been for these trees.
I don’t know what these trees were up to once upon a time. The one guy must have been lonely or maybe he was jealous and thought he should butt in between the others.
 This used to be part of a billboard, back in the day when the highway ran past our road. I should have taken another picture to put it in perspective, but you will have to take my word for it.
I think this used to be a no-trespassing sign, but it has been hanging like this for many years.  I was trying to get a picture of the ferns on the side of the road, but like our shadows better. Doesn’t Dino’s look more like I made his with my hand? 

And I need GPS, why?

I have another challenge for all of you out there who are smarter than I am. Who can convince me of the advantages of using GPS on a road trip? I cannot think of a single time when I said to myself, “Shoot, if only I had GPS I wouldn’t have driven down the wrong road and gotten myself lost again.”
I do say, very often, “Yes, I’m lost again.” But even my husband is ok with that, as his most common traveling phrase is, “You’re never lost if you can turn around.”
Oh, sure, maybe I have been late for a few meetings or have had people in my car get annoyed with me. But honestly, life is way too short to take the shortest path.
On my most recent road trip just last week, I think I did start to annoy my sister. Every time I went down a side road and didn’t know where I was, the first thing out of her mouth was, “Pull over and I’ll directions.” She even was willing to holler out the window and ask directions of the driver next to us stopped at a stop sign.
I do however hang my head in shame, thinking that maybe if I wouldn’t have horsed around so much, my sister wouldn’t have hit that deer after she left my house the night we got home. Sorry. I really am.

But look at some of the stuff we would have missed if I hadn’t strayed all those times.  The Kid's Kingdom in Van Cleve Park, Gladstone, Michigan An old church on some side street in Saginaw I don't know what this is, some kind of maintenance building for the city water works, I think. Or a place to put prisoners on a hot summer day. This was next to Lake Michigan in Mackinaw City.  This was in Lakeview Cemetery in Mackinaw City. We stumbled upon this while trying to find a good view of the Mackinac Bridge.  I took this just as I was about to go on a morning run. The public library was right across the street from our hotel. As we were leaving the hotel a few hours later, they were changing the sign, so this had been a once in a lifetime photo op.  This was walking too. Went across the covered bridge in Frankenmuth and found this beauty in an aviary in the middle of the grassy knoll. 

So, for all of you who swear by your GPS, tell me about some of the cool stuff you stumbled upon in a two-day road-trip? 

What's your minor inconvenience?

When Moses spoke, the flies and other insects swarmed in vast clouds from one end of Egypt to the other. Psalm 105:31 Living Bible

When I took off for Michigan’s UP this week, I forgot it was black fly season. I’ve written about it before. I always think of these pesky insects as infesting only the area around Lake Superior, I forgot that the entire Upper Peninsula is fair-game. What a pretty picture of Mackinac Bridge. Too bad something was on the lens of my camera. Nope, those are the black flies.  How helpful that a gas station in Escanaba offered this service.  My car when I got home, after I had washed it off already earlier in the trip.   Even though these flies must feel like a plague every May and June, it is truly only a minor inconvenience. Other minor inconveniences we encounter daily might include a flat tire, a rainy day when you had outdoor plans, hitting a deer with your car, coming down with a cold. These things might ruin your day but they shouldn’t ruin your life.  

Take a look around you, check the news sometime, see what people in other parts of the world consider a minor inconvenience. Then thank God that a few flies, a few mosquitoes, whatever you encounter today, are all things that you can handle. And when you encounter things you cannot handle, turn it over to God.