Monthly Archives: September 2005

Fri 30 Sep 05

There is a church for sale here in Grand Rapids. This seems an odd thing to me especially given the size of the place and how established it was. Usually if your church has a stately brick building on an acre an a half in the downtown area of a decent sized metropolis you’re doing alright.

I stumbled across this church listing while looking for real estate for my most recent ambition. Surf Shop. Or I suppose it could be any shop. It just would be awfully liberating to have no boss and have complete creative control over something. Mary and I checked out an old costume shop a couple of days ago that was huge (3000 sq ft) but badly in need of updating, that also had living space above it. I’ve already mentally cleared out all the goofy styrofoam heads and monster posters off the wall and replaced them with clean paint and refinished floors.

I know. I know. This is exactly what we did with the Brookview property. Quick impulse buy after getting an idea a few days prior. It certainly would be easier to just lay back a while with fewer bills to worry about. But that of course would be less interesting then, wouldn’t it?

Thu 22 Sep 05

At the gym last night I watched the bit of drama with Jet Blue flight 292 last night. My initial thoughts were, this is oh so wrong. Why would anyone show a potential human tragedy live? Why does this have to be on TV? And really the only reason it was on CNN and was a “breaking news story” was just in case it did explode on landing, killing the 145 people on board. Without the flames and loss of life it really is not a story at all and tomorrow would only be a footnote about some emergency landing in LAX.

But then, of course, I couldn’t pull myself away. I raced back to the TV between sets to see if anything had changed. And that’s the reason it’s on TV. Even as I’m mildly upset about the morality of maybe watching people die, I’m still riveted. The smoking tires, then the brief burst of flames only added to that effect in the end. I’m sure CNN was pleased by the special effects. Anyway, everyone made it, so no blood, no foul. I’m curious now what kind of compensation the passengers get from Jet Blue after all the excitement they had to put up with. Personally I’d be shooting for a lifetime of free flights.

Sun 18 Sep 05

All things squirrel. I’m convinced Taylor has a squirrel obsession. She spends hours in the house running from window to window as the squirrels run by, bouncing up and down and yipping frantically. Lately she’s also has taken to eating acorns that drop onto our lawn. I’ve never seen a dog do that before. Evidentally she taught Trammell the joys of a squirrel diet as he’s joined in on the buffet. Weird.

Thu 15 Sep 05

The movies I always enjoy the most and tend to come back to for repeat viewings, I think, are those where I can see myself in the role of the lead character, a ridiculously cool lead character, of course. I suppose this is normal. I’m a big fan of the Bourne series. I liked the original Matrix when it first came out. Right now my movie of the moment is Layer Cake, an awfully slick British gangster movie. Daniel Craig oozes coolness like nobody’s business. By far the best movie I’ve seen all year.