Kandel Dips His Wick

Atlas Shrugs at liberals

"The goal of the 'liberals' —as it emerges from the record of the past decades—was to smuggle this country into welfare statism by means of single, concrete, specific measures, enlarging the power of the government a step at a time, never permitting these steps to be summed up into principles, never permitting their direction to be identified or the basic issue to be named. Thus, statism was to come, not by vote or by violence, but by slow rot—by a long process of evasion and epistemological corruption, leading to a fait accompli."

—Ayn Rand

GI Saves Iraqi Boy in Long-Shot Adoption

The story linked to in the title servers as a reminder of what the Christmas season is about. This man, a Christian serving in the military, gave one little boy a gift that is almost without compare. As we celebrate this Christmas season and spend time with our families and friends, let's remember the men and women serving in the military who are away from their families. The prayers and encouragement from people back home are one gift we can give them this Holiday season.

Islam, the religion of peace and tolerance

Muslims in Sudan demonstrate once again how peaceful and tolerant Islam is. This is only weeks after a rape victim in Saudi Arabia had her sentence of lashes doubled for drawing media attention to the case. Clearly, a peaceful and tolerant religion. No cause for concern here, the true villain, the rape victim, has been adequately punished. She'll probably think twice before she allows herself to be raped in the future.

The thing that kills me about these stories is the complete lack of outcry. Where are Amnesty Internation, NOW and other human rights organizations? I guess these "crimes" aren't as serious as waterboarding terrorists or alleged mishandling of the Koran. Those are true crimes worthy of international attention.

Time flies

It has been almost five months to the day since I posted last and a lot has gone on since then. Caedon turned 1 in July and didn't seem quite sure what he was supposed to do with his cake. I'm sure he'll make up for it next year. Trying to match the boundless energy and insatiable curiosity of a 16 month old child is well nigh impossible. Caedon started walking everywhere while we were celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary in Colorado while staying with the in-laws. Since then, nothing is safe. He knows where his snacks are and how to get into the cupboards, he pounds on the TV, he takes Daddy's books off the shelf (a definate no-no), he drags his toys all over the house. Sometimes it seems like he can be in multiple places at once. I doubt that I will ever tire of seeing him smile or playing hide and seek with him or watching him "read" his books. There are times when he will go into his room and pull every book off his bookshelf and page through them one at a time. In that regard, he is definitely his father's son.

Softball came to an early end this year. I pulled my hamstring at a tournament two weeks before Labor Day and as a result, I wasn't able to go with the team to Ft. Wayne. This was a miserable experience, not only because it hurt, but because it was yet another indicator that I'm getting older. 30 is just around the corner. You're only as old as you feel though, and by that token I'm not much more than 20.

About a month ago, we found out that Melissa was pregnant again. Unfortunately, we went through the heartache of a miscarriage two weeks ago. In the midst of that heartache though, our church was right there with flowers and cards and visits to the hospital. We are truly blessed to belong to such a caring body. Despite the disappointment and sorrow, God is good and Melissa is physically fine. So, Lord willing, there will be more Hershbergers running around before too long.

Work has been pretty busy the last couple of months. There's a big project due at the end of the year that is taking up most of my time. It's nice to be so busy again that the days fly by. Hopefully, I won't be so busy that five months pass before another post appears. As we move farther into the 2008 election cycle, I'm sure I'll have plenty to post about.

Caedon

Long Overdue

It's been a long time coming, so here is an update on what's going on in the universe of the Baltic Parallel.

Marriage - Last Thursday, Melissa and I celebrated our fifth anniversary. Sometimes it's hard to believe we've been married that long. Other times, it seems like we've been married far longer. We went out for supper sans Caedon, and were able to eat in peace. As an anniversary present, we ordered a new bed--the first piece of new furniture we've ever had. It is of course a quality crafter piece of Amish furniture and I'm looking forward to getting it in a month or so.

Caedon - He's been crawling for about a month now and gets into anything that isn't nailed down. He walks along the couch and other furniture and will be walking on his own before long. The little monkey puts just about everything he can get his hands on in his mouth. The other night Melissa had some Doritos too close, so he grabbed one and ate it. Luckily, he has plenty of teeth and had no trouble chewing it. He's eating some real food in addition to baby food. He also likes Mt. Dew, although I don't let Melissa see me give it too him. His first birthday is coming up a month from tomorrow and Melissa is already working on the party. If she ever brings the camera home from work, I'll post some new pictures of Caedon. We need to get the whole group, kids and all together soon.

Summer - Barring any rain, we'll have our first softball game tonight. I already have that nervous/excited feeling in the pit of my stomach. If the day ever comes I don't feel that anticipation before a game, I'll call it quits. I'm guardedly optimistic about the rest of the Indians' season. Given that the AL central is the toughest division in baseball, anything can happen, but I'm confident that there will be a post season appearance for the Tribe. The Cavs seem to want to just hand the championship to San Antonio. At this point, I'm just looking for one win.

Cross culture - Despite having grown up in the middle of Amish country and having a plethora of Amish relatives, I have never been to an Amish funeral until last Saturday. Melissa's cousin was killed in a motorcycle accident. Even though he had not joined the Amish church, he had not joined a regular church either. Thus, since his parents are Amish, he was given an Amish burial. We were seated about 8:30, earlier than other attendees since we were family. The funeral took place in the garage/shop of Melissa's uncle. The seats were hard benches with no backs and rows about 12 inches wide. We didn't move off the benches until around 11, when the second bishop was finished with his sermon and my ass was completely numb. The only Dutch I really know are the swear words the Amish kids taught the rest of us in elementary school, so I basically sat there for two and half hours trying to look interested while my mind was a thousand miles away. Between this funeral the semi-Catholic wedding I was in last month, this year has been full of new cultural experiences.

Reading - Facing a seeming drought of good new fantasy, I picked of the first book in the Wheel of Time and started reading the series again. There are eleven books out right now and the final book is due out in early 2009. I've been toying with the idea of starting a small group at church that is focused on reading and discussing what is read. C.S. Lewis and other Christian authors would be the material covered. It would be refreshing to be able to discuss books with other people who enjoy reading.

What's the horsepower on that thing?

I'm guessing he'll never go this fast on that wheelchair again.

Pay attention Kobe, class is in session

Kobe could learn a thing or two from LeBron. It's refreshing to finally see someone out Kobe for what he is--a spoiled child.

Epiphany

So many things to say, so little time.

Friday night, my brother-in-law and nieces were over. I was in the living room and the oldest of our two nieces came walking into the room carrying Caedon and bouncing him. He is much too big for her to be doing this and I told her to stop. She didn't listen and two second later she dropped him. He landed on his head. I'm pretty sure my heart stopped and I felt a feeling of gut-wrenching fear that I have never come close to feeling before. I shouted at her and practically threw her out of the way to pick Caedon up. He was screaming and my heart, after it started beating again, was pounding. It turned out he was more scared than hurt, he just had a small bump on his head. When I realized he was ok, I went from being scared out of my wits to blindingly angry in a microsecond. My niece disobeyed and my son suffered for it. I barely resisted the urge to slam her head into the wall until she understood what could have happened. It was later when I was lying in bed that it hit me that it is my disobedience that put Jesus on the cross. Instead of wanting to slam my head into the wall until I understood the consequences of my actions, God wanted to love me. That was a pretty heavy thought for 1:00 in the morning. Being a father changes ones' outlook on a lot of things. There isn't anything I wouldn't do to keep Caedon safe. By the same token, there isn't anything God didn't do to save us.

Caedon continues to grow, he'll be nine months old on Thursday. He's almost walking, although he refuses to spend any time on his stomach learning to crawl. His personality seems to expand every day. A year ago, I couldn't imagined what life with a baby would be like. Now, I can't imagine what it would be like without him. I've found that the Disney channel is about the best thing ever on Sunday mornings. Caedon will sit enraptured watching Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse Club while we get ready for church.

Softball is fast approaching and I'm so excited I can taste it. Oh for the long summer days and the smell of pine tar. I was quite happy with the way the Indians started the season. It will be nice to finally see their home opener tonight from Milwaukee. Does anyone else see the stupidity of how the first series or two of the season was scheduled? Teams with a dome playing teams without one in the frozen north? Give me a break.

I'm sick of the posturing and strutting by the Presidential hopefuls already, and the election is a year and half away! Politicians are mostly scum, regardless of party.

If you haven't seen 300, do so. It was fantastic. I just finished House by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. It was also fantastic. Musically, I've been listening to a lot of mid 80's to mid 90's country. I'm not sure why.

Indians over the Mets in six. I can feel it.

Superman

This is funny shit.

The Day the Music Died

It was on this date in 1959 that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed in a plane crash on their way to a show in North Dakota.

That's not body-suit man

How truly Seinfeldian. And right here in good old Ohio to boot.

Sadness

A friend of mine lost his job today through no fault of his own. He was laid off. Small consolation. When you are the one being laid off, there probably doesn't feel like there's much difference between that and being fired. A lot of times I take for granted the fantastic job that God has provided for me. I work with great people and get to do something I really enjoy. But I often forget that there are those who aren't as blessed as I am. This serves as a reminder that, even though I sometimes get frustrated with how things go at my job, I at least have one. One that I enjoy at that. That's a lot more than many can say. The lesson here is to be grateful for what you have. You never know when the winds of change will blow.

Dieting is for losers...

...or at least for people who want to lose weight. I am no longer blessed with the metabolism I had in college. By the same token, I don't get nearly as much exercise. I've got a pretty sedentary lifestyle. With softball several months over, there isn't much to keep me active. Thus, I have started a diet...of sorts. I get Men's Health magazine and they always have ads for books and what not. Any way, a year or so ago, I ordered the Abs Diet book. It been sitting on my shelf collecting dust ever since I got it. After our biannual fitness screenings at work a few weeks ago, I found myself weighing in at over 200 pounds, the most I've weighed in my entire 28 1/2 years. Suddenly, I found myself reaching for the Abs Diet book. It actually isn't much of a diet. It more of a change in what one eats--more protein, fruits and vegetables and that sort of thing. There's also a workout plan that goes with it. According to the testimonials, the average weight loss following the plan is 10-12 lbs in the first six weeks. We'll see where I'm at come the beginning of March.

This picture was not staged. Oddly enough, he seems to like carrots. Caedon turned six months old on Friday. Time seems to have flown by. He's not crawling yet, but that doesn't appear to be far off. He weighs almost eighteen pounds and feels like he's getting bigger every day. I think we're going to have our hands full once he starts to be mobile.

Memory is a funny thing. I was on my way to work the other day after seeing my aunt on Sunday at lunch. She is the mother of my cousins who live overseas. Anyway, out of the blue, I remembered something Dominic (Germany) said the last time I saw them when they visited the US when I was eight. He was bemoaning the fact that the next time they saw all of us, he would be fourteen and we (the rest of us cousins) would all be between ten and thirteen. We all agreed that would be really old. Now we're all married and all but two have children. For one brief minute, a wrinkle of time unfolded and the past was alive. One has to wonder where memories come from. What triggers them? In this case, it was no doubt seeing my aunt. But many times, some seemingly innocuous stimuli is what turns back the clock and brings the past to life. Fearfully and wonderfully made indeed.

We finally got high speed internet access last week. The cable guy was here and installed it on Friday. No more five minute waits to load email or the blog. My connection at home is faster than our connection at work. I'm loving it.

Season's Greetings

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting these greetings, you are accepting the aforementioned terms as stated. This greeting is not subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself/himself/others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wishor.

For everyone who isn't a loon, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Respect

The longer I teach Sunday school, the more my respect for pastors, youth pastors, et al grows. I teach one out of every three months and sometimes it feels like a real burden. How pastors continually find new meaning and new ways of presenting God's message is a remarkable thing. I know they get plenty of guidence from God, but still, it's an impressive bit of work. Some Sundays when I teach, people seem to be really into the lesson and are actively participating. Other mornings, they just sit there like bumps on a log. On those mornings you can almost here the crickets chirping. I know God directed me to be a teacher because of how things fell into place for it to happen. As time goes on though, I think it was more for my benefit than anything else, cause quite frankly, I don't think I'm a very good teacher. For tomorrow I prepared a lesson on David and his courage and it's ultimate source--God. I'm hoping people will take to it and there will be lively discussion. Sitting in from of twenty or more people waiting for a single answer to a simple question because no one feels like talking sucks. Sometimes I think the biggest thing God wants me to learn from all of this is patience.

To steal an idea from Brad, the Christmas season allows for the singing of some of my favorite hymns at church. I like the standard holiday fair--Joy to the World, Silent Night, etc--but my two favorite Christmas/Advent songs are One Small Child and O Come, O Come Emanuel. The music and the words for both songs strike a chord for me.

The silence is broken

Work the last month or so has been absolutely ridiculous. Our development deadline was this past Friday and I've been working frantically to get everything done by then. Happily, I was able to and can now take the next three weeks and get caught up on the smaller trivial items that could wait.

Now that I finally have some time to update the blog, there is much to be discussed. Most importantly is Caedon.




Is that the orneriest look you've ever seen or what? He is doing really well. He rolled over for the first time yesterday. I would have been more excited if it hadn't been in his crib at 5:30 in the morning. Once he rolled, he refused to go back to sleep. Daddy was less than thrilled. He's five months old today and seems like he's growing bigger every day. It's amazing how fast things have gone since he was born. He's playing with toys and eating baby food from a jar instead of just taking a bottle. The only problem he's had is that the transition to semi-solid foods has made him a little constipated. I won't get into graphic details, but let me just say that using a thermometer to help "movements" move is one of the less appealing duties of fatherhood.



You're eyes do not deceive you. That is soon-to-be-father Shaun holding Caedon. Kinser was up in our neck of the woods this weekend visiting Amy's family. Happily, he had Saturday night free and him, Nick and me were able to spend the evening together playing Halo and reminiscing about college. That was the first time in a long time that I have really missed MVNC. It has been far too long since we all got together.

I was watching ESPN last night and heard that Prince is slated to perform during the Superbowl halftime show. Are they kidding? About the last thing that comes to my mind when I think about football is Prince. It seems like they're still gun shy about getting any kind of decent halftime performer since the whole Janet Jackson nipple incident. Not that Janet and Justin Timberlake make for a decent performance. What they really need to do is book a traveling midget circus to perform acrobatic tricks to wow and amaze the crowd.

GO BUCKS!

On a tour of Florida, the Pope took a couple of days off to visit the coast for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the beach in his car when there was a frantic commotion just off the shore.
A helpless man, wearing a maize and blue Michigan jersey, was struggling frantically to free himself from the jaws of a 25-foot shark. As the Pope watched, horrified, a speedboat came racing up with three men wearing scarlet and gray Ohio State jerseys. One quickly fired a harpoon into the shark`s side. The other two reached out and pulled the bleeding, semiconscious Wolverine from the water. Then using long clubs, the three beat the shark to death and hauled it, too, into the boat.
Immediately the Pope shouted and summoned them to the beach. "I give you my blessing for your brave actions," he told them. "I heard that there were some bitter hatreds between Wolverines and Buckeyes, but now I have seen with my own eyes that is not true."
As the Pope drove off, the harpooner asked his buddies "Who was that?"
"It was the Pope", one replied. "He is in direct contact with God and has access to all of God's wisdom.”
"Well," the harpooner said "he may have access to God`s wisdom but he doesn't know anything about shark fishing. Is the bait holding up OK or do we need to get another one?”


Little Johnny is in first grade at a school in Michigan. The day before the big game, the teacher asks who is a Michigan fan. Every student in the class except little Johnny raises their hand. "Johnny, aren't you a Michigan fan?" the teacher asks him.
"No. I'm an Ohio State fan."
The teacher is somewhat puzzled. "How can you live in Michigan and be an Ohio State fan?"
"Well," he says, "my mom is an Ohio State fan and my dad is an Ohio State fan, so that makes me an Ohio State fan."
Now the teacher is annoyed. "Well what if I told you that your mom is a moron and your dad is an idiot?"
Little Johnny doesn't miss a beat. "If that were the case, then they'ld be Michigan fans."

It's so refreshing...

that the election is finally over. No more Sunday afternoon campaign calls. No more mud slinging he-did-this-she-did-that-no-I-didn't commercials. The air smells a little sweeter now that the political posturing is done for a while. While I am disappointed that the Democrats now control the Senate and House, I'm not surprised. The Republican controlled Congress we've had the last two years has been lackadaisical at best. Coupled with that, the Chicken Little national media has apparently been able to convince the sheep that we are losing the war in Iraq. "Vietnam", they cry with much handwringing. Just yesterday, I heard the newly minted Speaker of the House talk about sending more troops in. This from the party that has repeatedly called for withdrawl from Iraq. She also promised a new era of bipartisan cooperation and honesty in Congress. I remain skeptical of both claims. The last several years have seen some of the most partisan wrangling ever. And honesty from a politician? Is there really anyone naive enough to believe that. On the upside of the turn around in the House and Senate, the Democrats now have two years to so totally screw things up that there is no way they'll be able to get their candidate elected president. It's all about the silver lining.