“UFO’s: the pinnacle of human ignorance.” What a great quote. Thanks to a recommendation from the Twitterverse, I came across this video on the website Mens Agitat Molem.

I love the psychology phrase “argument from ignorance” describing a part of the frailty of the human mind. Also, listen to Neil Tyson’s recommendation for renaming the term optical illusions to “brain failures.” Classic.

I think Jimmy Fallon is pretty funny. With this skit is he did a great job doing impressions of his favorite comedians. I think he really nailed Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Robin Williams, and Adam Sandler

This post is for my mom. She lives a great distance away and we thought she might appreciate this video of Becs laughing and “talking.” For the rest of you out there, this is just a bonus… isn’t she cute.

Becs Smiling from Leo on Vimeo.

This is a great post talking about Joseph’s resisting temptation and the metaphor of having an orchard, but still wanting the one apple we do not have.

Making Horrible Trades

When we get heavy rains around downtown Charlotte, a lot of times Doral Apartments will flood. Briar Creek flows right behind the apartments and the ground they sit on is low enough to consistently cause problems.

Apparently, downtown Charlotte got hit hard last night by a series of thunderstorms. Because of this, we were asked to go check some of the creeks and low-lying areas for flooding.

Here are a couple of pictures of Briar Creek. At this point, the creek is about five to ten feet away from the pavement. I doubt it will overflow, though, unless we get hit by another round of strong storms. Even so, the creek is still running high.

This is a good video that shows the danger of simply throwing away rags soaked in linseed oil. I have actually been to a couple of fires that were started by linseed-oil soaked rags.

Here is the ABC report.

Ashe, who cannot quite read, decided to help Becs check out the latest in early children’s literature. It actually looks like she is completely engrossed in the book… classic picture.

This past week Michele and I spent quite a bit of time outside making the yard look better in preparation for an appraisal of our home. Admittedly, there was a bit of stress over how much the house would appraise for. Probably, and more importantly, we were concerned with what issues the appraiser might find as s/he looked over our home.

In my opinion, there was a little too much time and effort placed into concern/stress and preparation, but we wanted to present the best house possible to get the best appraisal we could.

Finally, the appraiser came and went. We were able to calm down. And a couple of hours later I took off for the fire station to work a half shift. Working at the fire station that night helped me. It helped me to regain perspective.

The first call we had after I arrived for duty was a general illness. There ended up not being anyone sick, but we came upon a homeless village of about thirty people. The roof over their heads was the overpass (pictured below).

Seeing this helped remind me that the possessions I have are not the things I will take with me through eternity. The homeless village also helped me to remember how incredibly blessed Michele and I are and that we are called to use some of those blessings to help others.

In a time when obsession over the house was beginning to take over, this reminder was perfect timing.

This video is great. As an added bonus, the guy with the goatee looks like my brother-in-law, Tim (see the photo below the picture).

I know “mommy blogging” is blowing up all over the place, which is awesome. And, now, after about two years of poking and prodding, my mom has also started blogging. Mom is probably not in the aforementioned category because she is a grandmother (to our two children). So I will place her in the category of “grandmother blogging.”

Mom got her degree in English and she has wanted to write a book for a long time. The new blog gives Mom an outlet to begin writing on a more consistent basis until she feels ready to write her thoughts out in a more full-length manner. You can tell that Mom has an English degree. While my posts are more ramblings about the things that are on my heart, her posts are more well-written and in story format. A good example is her post titled “An Idyllic Evening.”

Please go by and check out her blog. Please also throw a comment her way. She is new to blogging and I know she could use the support.

As an added trivia bonus, the title Geriatric Thoughts came from my sister. Alicia thought it would be a funny name for Mom’s blog and it just stuck.