The month of July started with "fall-like" (60's) weather as I recorded on my "praise book". On Thursday (3rd), we had worship practice. I had to work July 4th weekend, so on Friday I took advantage of our "day off" by cleaning my attic . I also did my blogs for both April and May as I've been so busy (just like right now on September 13th-I'm finally doing this and hope to do August too). On Saturday (5th), I attended the "Real Ministries" worship time (1st Saturdays of every month), which our (Morris Community Church) local church family hosted this. For this being a holiday weekend, it was a pretty good turnout. Most importantly, we were there for God! Please pray for this particular ministry led by college students as their hearts are to see God's family come together in unity (John 17).
I was grateful for a friend (Tony F.) paying my lunch at Pizza Ranch after church on Sunday (6th). We would later attend the Spanish service (Nueva Vida Iglesia) that evening together, which another friend (Pat) would bring his co-worker. It was awesome to see "others" join this Spanish church service that I've been attending now for the past 3-4 years.
On July 8th (Tuesday), I started a side landscaping job for some friends. They knew I dug a trench for drain pipes in my backyard years ago and they needed someone to do a house they plan to sell. It was an area between a nearby house, so they couldn't get a backhoe. I decided to take on the job as a great workout, which I finished within a week. However, he asked me to do remedial jobs (e.g. landscaping), which I would work several hours after my full-time job throughout the month of July. It was a great side-job and workout (instead of going to the local fitness center)! In the end, I calculated close to 23 (10 hours digging) hours!
During the second weekend of the month, I went to do my annual once a weekend visit to the Twin Cities. I took advantage of MLB (baseball) All-Star Weekend as Minneapolis hosted this year's national event. Prior to heading to the cities, I stopped over at Hometown Bakery as it was it's last days (closed the next day), which I had to get at least some items (pie for friends and cinnamon bread) for the "last time". On Saturday, I hung out with some friends at Square Lake (Stillwater, Minnesota) for a picnic. It wasn't the best weather as it was cloudy and sometimes they had to close the beach due to a forecast storm (never happened). It was a fun time hanging out with my buddy's family that I haven't seen for a long time. The next day (Sunday), I went to MLB Fan Fest 2014, which was a great time to see the different booths and activities all under one roof (Minneapolis Convention Center). On my way to this event from where I parked (next to the Target Center), I had the opportunity to share God's love with a homeless man. This made my time for this event more meaningful and worthwhile! I then walked back to the area by Target Field and had another interesting encounter. This time, I was eating my lunch at Barnes & Noble along Nicollet Avenue when a guy got arrested in front of me. He was taken by handcuff inside a squad car and would later be released. It appeared that he had some issue inside one of the MTC buses and the cops had to talk with each other before letting him go. I then walked around Target Field for some outdoor events before going in when the doors open for the Futures Game...
"I got a pic of the field during batting practice prior to the Futures Game
I found some great seats (behind homeplate), which cost only $37 at a retail price of $100. Following the game, I saw part of the MLB Celebrity Softball Game 2014 that was played 30 minutes or so after the game prior. I had to work the overnight, so I had to leave after the introduction of the "celebrities".
I would watch the rest of the All-Star week activities from home in Morris. It was nice to see our state in the "national" spot light during this annual baseball celebration event. I did a little organizing of my garage on Monday (14th) prior to coming down in my basement to watch the Home Run Derby via online (Satelite Direct).
On Saturday (26th), I went to Moose Lake for my every other month visit of a friend that's sentence there for 7 years at the state prison. As I drove back to Morris, I stopped in Glenwood for their annual "Waterama Ski-Show". It was beautiful weather, as I wanted to soak the sun and enjoy the summer weather before I called it a day.
On Tuesday (29th), I attended my first and only softball game (Accelerated Chiopractic) of the season due to knee complications. I ended up scoring towards the end of the second game that night and I played catch with one of my teammate's kid. I wished I could've played :(!
I started the month with continuing my Metal Roof Project. We (Ed & Adnan) did the north side of the roof, which we got 2/3 of the shingles off. Fortunately, we get Fridays off, so the next day (2nd) I finished taking 1/3 of the shingles by myself early in the morning. I then clean-up the yard of shingles by throwing it in the rented dumpster. I took a break during noon lunch by going to the 1st "Community Meal" of the 2013-2014 academic UMM season. I then worked on the garage, which I was able to take all the shingles within 2 hours by myself. I then started putting black tarp, which I wished I bought more as I was able to patch some holes of the previous old tarp. Ed then came over around 4ish to help put the circular sky window in the north side of the roof. He would help me finish tarping the garage roof before calling it a day. I decided to clean as much of the scattered "old" shingles on the ground until sun set as I wanted to prepare for tomorrow. It was a long day, which I slept good (overnight) at my other job.
The following day (Saturday-3rd), I started early preparing the garage roof for the metal sheets. Ed would help me later in the morning, which I had a slight accident (fell from the unstable ladder, which I took the risk before climbing it. I landed hard on the concrete sidewalk with my right elbow. I found out later after an expensive $250 X-ray that it wasn't broken...thank God!). My housemate (Adnan) would help me do the east side of the roof. We did pretty good overall (wo/ Ed's help) despite a slant angle as we did our best placing the the first sheet, but didn't know how to use my balancer tool right. We did this within 1 hour and a half as we wanted to check out the annual "Flekkefest" parade 30 minutes north-Elbow Lake. We were running late, so I drove towards the end of the parade route to catch as much of it
On Tuesday, August 6th-We had another hail storm. Some parts of town had softball size. Ironically, I was doing my metal roof (1/2 of north side already done), which it was replacing the damaged roof shingles from last summer's storm. Well, this hail storm did some damage on my new metal roof. I decided to cancel my claim to my home insurance because it wasn't worth it. We would finish (I was trying to get it done after 2 rain storms and didn't want to tarp it again before another forecast rain the next day, which never happened) doing the last half the following day (7th) , which we had some challenges (Ed had a hard time seeing the screws, so I had my lamp light on-hand. He almost slid down the slippery newly "oiled" panel, but Adnan caught him as he was going down-thank God!) as it got dark (9:45pm). Once we got the last panel, we celebrated with pizza (Casey's). Hallelluah!
On the 8th (Thursday), I took Adnan to the Steven's County Fair, which was his 1st time. On our way there, I popped my bike by accidentally putting too much air from the gas station. Earlier, I thought of just using my regular pump, which I should've followed my gut earlier!
We live and learn! On Friday, we (Ed and Adnan) did some last finishing touches (put sides, which we ran out-short ordered. I would wait for another month or so to continue this as the parts took awhile to be delivered-due to custom order) of the metal roof for the "major paneling" part.
On the 10th (Saturday), I went to the cities and attended a couple of cultural ethnic events-Indian Fest & Irish Fest-both in St. Paul. It was great time hanging out with family. It was my dad's birthday on the 13th, so we did an early family celebration while I was in the cities.
On the 14th, Ed and Aisanne invited Adnan and I over for a BBQ with other friends (Elena & Plamen), We would do some Bollywood dancing! The next day (sorry-it was moved to the following Thursday, so the 22nd), I attended another BBQ, which my softball team hosted. Despite an "ok" season, it was a great way to end the season with a picnic. I had the 16th off, so I spend most of this day and part of the following morning to help Ed with his work as my gratitude for helping me with my metal roof project. Ed's been teaching me a lot about carpentry, gaining handi-work skills!
It was that time of the year-State Fair! I would go hangout with family on the 24th, which we decided this date because it would be the "less hottest" of the rest of the fair while I was in the cities. We went 9ish in the morning and stayed till 1ish in the afternoon. I'm glad we went because the rest of the fair the entire last week of August had temps around the 90's, which had low attendance. Good timing!
Even though I had 1+ week vacation from my full-time job, I had to go back to Morris on the 27th because of work (pt-job) the next evening and I was going to bring my newest housemate (Yuu-referred by my current housemate-Kazu-also from Japan) from MSP-International Airport to Morris. I would "last minute" bring another UMM International Student (Hannah-from S. Korea). I spent my less than a week of vacation (from my ft-job) doing some errands and community stuff (e.g. annual "Feed my Starving Children" & "Welcome UMM Community Picnic" on Thursday 29th).
I started the month with doing continuous house work. I cleaned and repaired my gutters that surround the north and south side of my roof. This is one of the key areas that has been giving water damage inside my house. I'll see what the results of how effective this work was next Spring. I had a good first week of the month in batting in softball, which I'll share more down below.
I played tennis for the 1st time in three years on Sunday, August 7th of 2011. What too so long? I don't know, probably been busy doing other sports (e.g. softball). I like the variety. I played tennis with some of my ESL students from Brazil because they never played before. I had to take it really easy at first until one of the students (Danillo) up his playing a bit. It was another great way to spend time outside in these beautiful summer days.
I was able to finally upload a video of a theatre performance from this past winter. I thought it was such a great performance I had to share it with everybody...
"Genesis The Story of Creation to the Call of Abram of Ur" Part 1
A cool thing happened at one of my work sites. We do some cleaning around the community and when we were doing our twice a week time at the local laundromat, it was a busy time because of the county fair in town. There were lots of "carnies" (carnival festival workers) doing their laundry. Well, the clients (developmentally challenged folks) love to talk and one of the workers seem to enjoy chatting with them (that's why I enjoy my job and been in this field since college graduation in 99')! This particular worker ended up giving my co-worker $40 dollar bill and specifically asked us to treat them. We thought this was so awesome that we ended up going to Dairy Queen after cleaning. Unfortunately, the DQ wasn't open early in the morning (not till 10:30am), so we ended up dividing the cash and gave it to the clients to spend whatever they freely want to. What a blessing! I tried to look for that guy when I went to the county fair, but never saw him to say THANK YOU again.
The big annual Stevens County Fair was during the 2nd week of the month, which I attended 3 of the 4 days it was going on. I was also involved with the 1st Annual Morris Soccer Invitational that occurred at the RFC Soccer Fields (by H20-Water Tower). I invited my 2 ESL students from Brazil, which they were only able to play 1 of the 3 days...
I ended-up playing the 3rd days because the team (UMM Team) didn't have enough players (Brazilian students chose to attend the Car Derby at the county fair). I tried to balance my time during the fun weekend by helping with my local church's fair booth. I had a great time meeting people there. I met this couple from Cannon Falls that was looking for a local church, which would be the same town our U.S. President Obama visited weeks later. I also had a great time meeting friends I haven't chatted for a long time despite we living in this same small rural town community. Also, I met several of the 80+ new international students from China that are attending the local university. The funny thing was that they asked if I was Chinese too? I had to laugh as I've never been speculated to be this particular nationality. I've been called all sorts of others (e.g. Italian, African-American, Indian, Native-American, and even a "terrorist" a couple of times). On the 2nd day I tabled, I spent some quality time with a young friend from church, which we haven't done for quite awhile. The second weekend of August was a fun-filled time!
This same weekend, I had to also share that I went to a co-worker's family's funeral. Like all funerals, I start reflecting what I've done all my life so far and want to "live it to the fullest". At this particular funeral service, they shared about how she positively impacted the people around her life until the age of 90 or so. Wow, that's long! This challenged me to live my fullest for my Heavenly Father and to make a "positive' impact as much as possible while He has me on earth as we have only 1 life! *see GoodnewsEverybody.com: Death- Grieving, Mourning, Reflection, etc..
I spent part of the mid-month cleaning and painting (special paint against mold) my basement. It was a very wet spring-summer, so I finally had a chance get my hasement dry for the first time since a long time. This was also due to some plumbing problems, which I finally got fixed by a local plumber. I thank God the amount was less than he estimated, which was a blessing financially when it came to some bills mid-month!
On Tuesday, August 16th I was able to play golf for the first time all summer. Geez, what took so long again for this too! Well, I'm not retired and old yet, so I don't play the 9 or 18-hole. I like going on the driving range. I did a small bucket ($5) at the local golf place here in Morris with a buddy of mine, which was a great time to chat one and one too in a nice summer afternoon after work.
Earlier this same week when I was playing soccer, I was playing defense (left) and tried to "head" a flying soccer ball. Well, I ended up getting my nose hit too, which hurt. This left a bruise in the upper part. Well, I would end-up getting hit in this area again playing softball..
..which caused a fracture after a homeplate "football-style" collision at home plate in attempting to just tag my opponent as I was playing catcher. Well, I'm still suffering the effects as I'm still getting over some occasional headaches. I'm praying there is no long-term damage. The best part of this is that I was able to hold on to the ball for the out and our team won to continue to advance in the playoffs. We would lose the 2nd game the following week, but it was our best finish as a softball team!
The third Sunday of the month, my local church celebrated the oldest and longest marriage (50 years) couple's Wedding Anniversary. I'm hoping to interview them and get some notes on how they've reach this successful feat sometime in the future.
My Heavenly Father answered one of my prayers right before I took a week vacation (my workplace takes 2 weeks off during the summer months-1st during July 4th-Independence Day and last week of August before Labor Day) to end the summer. My former housemate moved out mid-June and never advertised of the need of another housemate, except by word of mouth. My local church pastor even referred this guy from Alexandria, but that never worked out. I got a call from this UMM international student in a need of a place to stay. I don't even remember telling him of my rental basement as it hasn't been finished yet. However, he was open to move to the spare 2nd bedroom and "decided" to come move in (physically moved the following day) the same day he looked at it. I felt it was great timing as I was already planning to head to the cities several days later.
I spent the last week of the month in the Twin Cities. I was supposed to take my mom to the UofM-Twin Cities Campus' Dental Clinic for mouth surgery, but my mom wasn't able to get an appointment the week before the break. My younger brother invited me to go on a road-trip with his family to the East Coast (e.g. Washington D.C., North Carolina, etc..), so I was about to look up flights for a one-way back to Minnesota because I didn't want to be in North Carolina that whole last weekend. I wanted to spend some time in St. Paul before my week plus vacation ended before going back to Morris. Well, on my way to St. Paul from Morris, my mom calls and tells me "good news".."I was able to get a dental appointment on Monday". This was the original plan, so I decided to not for go the East Coast road trip as I thought was the "sign" to stay in St. Paul. I was hesitant going with the forecast hurricane (Irene->see weather) coming and recent rare earthquake. I was a little disappointed, but saw it was God's plan for me to spend quality time with my parents (e.g. River Boat Ride along the Mississippi River, State Fair, etc..) and sister (e.g. tennis). I would later find out it was a good reason to stay in St. Paul with my car problems (spent $500 on new tires because of poor brakes that I should've gotten fix long time ago. Then additional $400+ for wheel bearings. Could've spent $200 extra to fix the brakes and rotors, but watched a video online and had my friend oversee my work to fix it ourselves!=> see GoodnewsEverybody.com Financial: Automobiles, Auto, Cars, Trucks, Vehicles, etc...)). Isn't God good? We sometimes wonder why our plans don't work the way we planned or desire, but it's for our own good. During my last day of my vacation, I was driving to church and was running late. I love the praise and worship (music) part and it was in the beginning of the service. As I was just 2 blocks away, I got caught speeding..doh! :)...I was going 44 on a 30 when the police officer asked me if I knew how fast I was going. Well, he told me I was going 41..wew, I'll take that! Well, I had my mom with me and she was praying during the whole traffic stop (e.g. showing my license, registration, etc..). It seem the prayer worked as the police officer decided to just give me a warning because I had a "good' record (haven't been stopped or anything since 97'). Thank God! I told the officer then that I was in hurry to get to church and he lectured back to me-"Well, don't rush to God as God will wait for you". My mom then told the officer-"God bless you sir"-as we drove off to church "later". I arrived at church praising Him more! As I was heading back to Morris the day before Labor Day (Holiday), I had an opportunity to "share" with a "homeless guy" on the streets along an entry ramp to Interstate 94 (see "Another "Street Sign"- Homeless Guy Story: What can we do to help them?", Goodnewseverybodycom's Weblog)...
Sorry, it's over half way of July as I write my month of June reflections. I'll try to not to get the "busyness" of summer prevent me from keeping up with this. The first half of the summer has been productive for me as I've been dong "late" "Spring-cleaning" all over my house-indoor and outdoors. Since my housemate (Anthony) moved out after the 1st week of June, I've been cleaning madly bottom to top of the house and still! I also got a lot my yard-work project finish after my 2 month-long drain-pipe and sump pump installation project in my basement to control water seeping there too much (came in a good time after some parts of West-Central Minnesota got "rain surge" this past weekend!)! I'll share more about next month. I found out I love landscaping (was very into a show on cable yesterday at my workplace)! I was blessed by my "new" neighbor with some perennials and other plants to help beautify my house. Also, I was able to get my garage clean after storing stuff over stuff! I celebrated this work of progress by doing my first bonfire on Thursday, June 23rd with friends-including an ESL student from Kyrgyzstan.
I entered my 4th season with the American Eagle Softball team batting lead off and playing second base (despite telling my coach-manager that I didn't want to play infield after my "pinky" finger dislocation injury last summer)...so far, so good..for now! By the end of June after 5 games (2 games we couldn't finish playing and 1 game we never finished because of weather...lots of rain this summer!), I'm batting. 550 and we have a 2 Wins-3 Loses record!
I did my monthly visit with family and friends in St. Paul the 1st weekend of the month and visited Choo Choo Bob (see trains) in St. Paul with family (took my 3 year old nephew). On Sunday (June 5th), I learned more about my dad (e.g. he attended three different school during his high school years) after a family visit with my sister in a local hospital (battling depression) in St. Paul. When I came home, I was able to have a great dialogue with this "guy" through this social network site who has been opening-up about his "sexuality". After some dialogue for some time, he opened up about how he live a life of lies. Thus, he was planning to stop his "double life" as a transgender!
My work sent me to St. Cloud (1 1/2 hour west of here) Minnesota for a 2-day conference to equip me more on the way I serve the physically challenged clients at my workplace. I learned a lot of various topics, which I'm still trying to apply in my day to day work. It not only was just for the work environment, but outside in every day life too. I was indoors most of the conference, so I decided to check out St. Cloud's famous gardens that people from all over the world have come to visit. I practiced more of my photography...
Munsinger Clemens Gardens in St. Cloud, Minnesota-USA (June 16th 2011)
On Sunday the 17th, it was Father's Day, which I wasn't able to spend it with my dad. However, I did call him and sent a card with pictures. I'm very thankful for what he has done and still curious and wanting to learn more about the challenges (e.g. WWII) he faced growing-up. I'm hoping to share it someday.
I ended the last week with "hanging-out" -fellowshipping with many friends (e.g. former house mate's b-day party with close friends, annual Winkelfest at a nearby lake with my local church family, bonfires,etc..). Trying to enjoy the summer days after a long winter!
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