"...let all you loyal Iowans sing..."

"We have so much time and so little to do! Wait... strike that... reverse it."

Elizabeth and I (Lord willing) will be hittin' the road sometime Thursday afternoon to make our way to the eastern end of the great state of Iowa. We've got a friend's wedding on Saturday, and some hanging out with family for a few days after that.

We are REALLY excited about our trip. It's far too rare that we get to hang out with family, and we're really looking forward to it. (Another reason I'm excited is to drive our new Camry for an extended period of time. Go ahead, call me a nerd -- I love to drive.)

Unfortunately, we each have about ten gazillion (give or take a few) things we have to take care of before we leave, both job-related and home/life-related.

Here's to hoping we get everything done in time!

A (Toy) Story of Jealousy

So, I've been a fan of Toy Story since I was 11 years old. I love the movie. I love the sequel. And I love the third installment which was recently released in theaters.

Elizabeth and I went to see Toy Story 3 a few weeks ago with a movie theater gift card we had been given. We shared the theater with about a hundred elementary school kids. It was still summer, and it was a matinee, so I wasn't at all surprised. But I couldn't help thinking about the fact that most of these kids have no idea how great the original Toy Story was (is). They weren't even alive when it was made. They don't have a 15-year connection with Woody and Buzz. They've probably never even played with a Mr. Spell, or a Mr. Potato Head.

Now, I walk through the store and see some of the coolest Toy Story-related toys ever! Stuff that's way cooler than what they made when the original film came out. Of course, as much as I'd LOVE to have Toy Story-themed toys, it'd be kind of weird for a 26-year old with no kids to buy the Buzz Lightyear pillow cases and comforter.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that all these little kids today don't know the half of why Toy Story is a fantastic story (from the first film all the way through the end of the third), but they have access to all the greatest Toy Story toys, and I'm jealous.

(Elizabeth did let me buy a Buzz and Woody kite at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. We haven't had a chance to take it out for a spin yet.)

To tint or not to tint?

So, as I said in yesterday's post, I was supposed to take our new (used) car in to have the window tinting removed this morning, but after some people questioned that decision (and had good reasons to do so), Elizabeth and I started to wonder if that was the right decision. We held off on removing the tinting this morning. We're going to consider it for a couple more days.

I NEED YOU to read the rest of this post, which includes the pros and cons of tinted windows, and then VOTE in the poll to the left on my blog. Please leave comments on this post if you need to explain your opinion. We really need your input! (Clicking on the photos should make them bigger.)

First, let me point out that we don't know how much window tinting is legal.
Second, you may not be able to tell from the pictures, but the front two windows have one layer of tinting, and the back seat windows and the rear window have at least two layers -- they're very dark.

Arguments for Keeping the Tint
Keeping tinting on the windows helps guard against bright sun (of which there is a LOT in Colorado) which can cause the interior leather to fade.
It also keeps the interior of the car cooler in the summer so you don't burn your but when you sit on the hot leather.
As my brother pointed out, little kids in car seats in the back seat are protected from the heat and the brightness of the sun if the tint stays.
Others???

Arguments for getting rid of the tint
Tinted windows lower driver and passenger visibility. I think this is especially true in terms of looking in the rear-view mirror out the rear window. It's quite a bit harder to see, especially at night (all you can see are headlights of cars behind you... nothing else).
We're not crazy about how it looks.
It's not uncommon, in heavy traffic places like Denver, for it to be convenient if not necessary for other drivers to be able to see me when I'm driving (motioning to let a driver merge in ahead of you, or other similar instances). Having tint on the driver and front passenger windows makes it hard for other drivers to see me.
Others???

Other things to consider:
Our Camry has a nifty little feature. It has a black mesh screen that can be pulled up like a curtain from the inside on the rear window. It's somewhat transparent (so you can have it up while driving), but it would also provide some of the benefits of having the rear window tinted: It would shade the back seat some and keep it cooler.
Also, we could easily get one of those shades that you can buy that stretch across the car's front windshield in order to keep the car shaded and cooler inside. Those two items contribute a little bit to the "arguments for removing the tint," I guess.
This is our only shot to have anything done with the tint at no cost to us. When we bought the car we made the dealer promise to pay to have the tint removed. We need to get this done in the next few days (so please respond by Friday morning). If we decide NOT to have it removed, and then we later decide we want it removed, we'd have to pay for it. If we decide to remove it now, and then change our minds later, we'd have to pay for it. Anywho...

Our first step, then, is to make sure that the current tinting is legal. If it is, here are our options:

1. Remove all the tinting.
2. Remove tinting from the two front windows, but leave it on the back two and the rear window (this would look especially silly, in my opinion -- which is why this isn't an option in the poll to the left).
3. We're told that it should be possible to remove one of the layers of tinting in the back windows so that they're not quite so dark and so they match the front windows, so that's an option.
4. Leave all the tinting exactly how it is.
5. Other options we haven't thought of?

PLEASE VOTE IN THE POLL AND EXPLAIN/SHARE YOUR OPINIONS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION!!!! Thank you for your help in our decision-making.

New addition

That's right, we have a new member in our family! He doesn't have a name yet, but he arrived just this afternoon. Don't have his specific length or weight either.

This is our new (used) 2002 Toyota Camry. (We're having the tint on the windows removed in the morning.)

A lovely mountain trip

On Sunday we were able to take a drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park. This park has become one of my favorite places on the planet over the last couple of years. It's just gorgeous. It was a picture perfect day for the trip, too. It was about 80 degrees in Denver, 76 in Estes Park, and as you drove up Trail Ridge Road further into the park, the temp dropped quickly to about 62. Just beautiful.

We packed a picnic supper. Stopped at a lakeside picnic area to eat and enjoy the beauty.

This was the lake we were beside. How awesome is this?

We pulled over at about the highest point in elevation that the road hits (the road can be seen in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture). Then we hiked up the mountain a few hundred more feet. I think being above the treeline in a place like this really does make you feel like your on top of the world.

All in all, we had a very leisurely road-trip up to the park (we were still driving our very nice new-model Chevy Impala rental car at the time, and that's a comfy ride). Then we poked around the park for a little bit, mostly making our way through it on Trail Ridge Road. As I said before, the weather was perfect. The scenery was breathtaking. Our picnic supper was tasty. At one point we pulled over and saw a huge elk with antlers the size of most mini vans about 25 yards away, which was beautiful. Then, a little bit further down the road, we pulled over because we saw... a MOOSE!!! First time either of us had seen one of those. It was awesome. Those things are stinkin' HUGE. He was probably about 40 yards away, but then he made his way toward the road until he was about 15 yards away. He seemed a little nervous about the people looking at him, so he decided not to cross the road right there (good thing for drivers -- if you hit a moose, your car and possibly your life are in real trouble!) and meandered back into the woods.

If you continue on Trail Ridge Road it'll lead you out of the park on the opposite side, so then we had a longer road-trip home, but it was a path through the mountains we'd never gone before, and as the sun fell low in the sky and the shadows lengthened we were able to take in even more mountain beauty! This was pretty much a last-minute trip idea because my wonderful baby brother let me know about free National Park weekend, but it was so relaxed and beautiful that it really refreshed us both. We felt like we'd taken a whole vacation, even though it was only about an 8-hour trip from start to finish!

crash

Elizabeth got into a car accident yesterday. She's okay, but she has a lot of bumps and bruises, and she suffered a concussion. The car got pretty mangled too. In fact, today we said an emotional good-bye to the Grand Am. We'll probably never see it again. It was very sad. That car has served us quite well over our three years together, and it served Elizabeth for more than four years before that! Sad.

Turns out my wife is hilarious in her post-concussion hours (as many people are). She couldn't remember anything, so she asked me the same questions over and over and over and over and over again while we were at the hospital. She really focused in on a few things that got her really excited:

1. She was very upset that she had taken an ambulance ride and not been able to "witness" it (as she put it).
2. There was a hospital employee who called me to tell me Elizabeth was in the ER, and Elizabeth was just dying to know if the person who called me had used the ICE (In Case of Emergency) feature in her phone. She has me set up as an ICE contact in her phone's contacts list, and she asked me probably 15-20 times if that's how they'd tracked me down. I, of course, didn't know, but later we found that employee and she said that Elizabeth had given her my name, so she just found me in the "recent calls" list. Poor Elizabeth was quite disappointed. The care pastor at the church where we attend (and where I work) came to see her while she was in the ER, and before he left he prayed with and for us. As soon as he said, "Amen," Elizabeth excitedly questioned (again), "Did they use the ICE feature to call you!??!!?"
3. She was desperate to find out whether the accident was her fault (short answer for those wondering is, we don't really know).

Anyway, it's been a crazy 28+ hours. We're pretty sure we've lost the Grand Am for good, so we're in the market for a car! Our insurance company has been really great (at least so far). They've even hooked us up with a rental until we replace the Grand Am... so for probably at least a couple of weeks we're riding in style (it's a Chevy Impala... not sure what year but it's pretty new). I really wanted to take the Suburu Outback Sport that they were going to give us, but it turns out the plates on that car were expired so they couldn't let us take it. (Sad.)

She's doing pretty well now. Still doesn't remember much about yesterday, and she doesn't remember anything about the accident at all, but she's got some Percoset in her (I've been sneaking some of those too, SSSHHH!) so she's feeling okay.

Thanks for your prayers!

What does the Bible say about Social Justice?

I recently began to write a post on social justice and young evangelicals. Instead I'll summarize my point and save you some time. I think it's great that Christians of my generation have taken huge steps toward helping and caring for the poor and the oppressed in our world. On the other hand, it seems to me that too many of these Christians have turned helping the poor into the gospel itself. Many have come to believe (though they may not say it this way) that alleviating suffering by feeding the hungry is the end goal of Christianity, and I think that's a huge mistake.

Rather than writing a long post on this topic (which, as I said, I originally began to do), I've decided that it will be much more worth your while to read a much better writer and thinker than me. Kevin DeYoung recently finished up an 8-part series on poverty and social justice. In each post he focused on a single passage of Scripture that is commonly used in the social justice discussion (except the last post, which is a summary/wrap-up/conclusion).

I've linked to all 8 posts below and would strongly encourage you to check them out if you're at all interested in this topic (none of them is too long).

If you don't want to check them out, I'll give you my own SUPER brief summary of his 2 main conclusions in the final post:
1. Don't undersell what the Bible says about the poor and social justice (In other words, helping the poor is a very important thing for Christians to do).
2. Don't oversell what the Bible says about the poor and social justice (In other words, "the alleviation of poverty is simply not the main storyline of Scripture").

Passage #1 (Isaiah 1)
Passage #2 (Isaiah 58)
Passage #3 (Jeremiah 22)
Passage #4 (Matthew 25:31-46)
Passage #5 (Amos 5)
Passage #6 (Micah 6:8)
Passage #7 (Luke 4:16-21)
A Brief Wrap-up

(For those who just can't get enough, below are four more related posts that Kevin had written earlier and are not part of this series but deal with the same theme.)

Moral Proximity
Leviticus 19
Leviticus 25
The term "social justice"

Stolen cars

Here's a list of the 5 most frequently stolen vehicles on the road (according to some official agency that apparently has the authority to make these claims).

Since a "1996 Jetta with lots of cracks in the windshield and a sunroof that you have to manually roll open with an allen wrench" isn't on the list, I probably don't have to worry about my car being stolen.

In case you're wondering, Elizabeth, they also don't list "'99 Grand Am with a weird sporadic clicking noise," so your car should be fine too.

Off my chest

I know some people who feel terrible anytime they even consider ignoring a friend request on facebook.

I'm not one of those people.

If you ask to be my friend and I can't figure out who you are from your name, our mutual friends, your profile photo (or other photos you don't have "protected" from non-friends), or any of your networks, then we are NOT FRIENDS. I'm happy to become your friend, but we'll have to establish a relationship via some other medium.

I might feel bad about ignoring friend requests if it didn't really mean anything, but my facebook settings are set up so that pretty much everything on my profile is visible only if you are my friend. There'd be no sense in trying to protect some semblance of privacy by this measure if complete strangers were routinely added to my friend list.

That is all.