A Snowy Friday

It snowed. School's were closed.
At first I was bummed out because it is my day off and I had errands to run.
But the snow fall was really pretty. The flakes were fluffy and laid in the branches and on the wires. I settled in for the morning. I read. Played with the dog. Caught up with family email. Then ventured out to shovel. We had about three inches. I timed it well as the sun was just beginning to warm the snow, making it wet and heavier. The only nasty bit was getting the car out as the borough plow had humped snow up off the middle of the street.
Done shoveling, I went to the grocery store and made the classic mistake of food shopping when I was hungry. So this afternoon, I made oatmeal raisin cookies. Now there is a 5 pound stuffed chicken roasting in the oven. Smells good. And it looks good when I baste it. Looking forward to dinner with a glass of Pinot Grigio.
That’s the east coast.
On the west coast, both my daughter’s car and her roommate’s car were hit during the night by a drunk driver. Her day has been very frustrating as the drunk had a suspended license for a previous DUI and was driving his girl friend’s father’s car...of course, unknown to the father. So far there is no insurance company ready to step up.
So how’s your day been?
Coasting? Frustrating?

Beyond "Twelve Bags Full"

Well, this is one for the books.
Actually, it is from a novel I'm reading.
Last Known Victim by Erica Spindler

Spindler has a continuing series of books about Detectives Stacy Killian and Spencer Malone which are set in New Orleans. This most recent story is a post- Katrina look at New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I'm about 100 pages into it and what a great start!

Tracking a serial killer, the detectives have to go to the "Refrigerator Graveyards".
When residents evacuated for the hurricane, they left behind stocked refrigerators and freezers. When they came home, these applicances had been without power for weeks. Most people just strapped the doors shut and put them out on the curb for the city to collect. Many people didn't even take the magnets and photos and drawings off them.
There were ten thousand units already in the city compounds where they were emptied, pressure washed out and given over to the EPA to dispose of the freon in the coils and compressors, when the detectives were called to the scene.

Spindler writes that the expectation is that over a 1/4 million applicances will have to be dealt with before the city is done with this one piece of clean-up. This huge undertaking continues on today. Estimates are that the trash and debris from this one storm is going to match 34 years of regular New Orleans debris. One hundred million cubic yards. Enough stuff, dead stuff, to fill the Superdome twenty-two times over.

This gave me pause.
I remembered the coffee table photo book published in 1994 by the Sierra Club entitled Material World: A Global Family Portrait, by Peter Menzel, Charles C. Mann and Paul Kennedy. Households were asked to bring their possessions outside to have them photographed. People put their pots and pans on a blanket. There might be a table and chairs. Some bedding and some clothing might be added as the people enjoyed more prosperity.
Until the photographers got to the first world nations like England, France and the USA!

Can you image all your stuff outside your home?
Piles and piles.

Somehow I just don't think this is the "abundant life" that Jesus brings. Trying hard not to sound like a preacher here, wink, wink...the abundant life is about the quality of our relationships and the actions we take for the commonwealth.

Laissez les bon temps rouler!