2012, one for the books

Where do I begin with a look back at the year that was 2012.  Crazy crazy year.  Lot’s of good and lot’s of not so good.

The architectural opportunities for my firm continued, but most seemed to start and then go on indefinite hold, while money could be raised.  A couple of them however proceeded but on a smaller scale than first envisioned.  Mission Hills Church outgrew their children’s ministry wing, so we designed a large expansion.  The church had hoped that it would also include the Chapel that they wanted in the first phase and an expanded lobby, but both of those had to be postponed until funds could be raised in a future phase.  The children’s expansion though is currently under construction.

Flatirons Community Church also outgrew their children’s ministry space, so we designed an expansion internally into a portion of the building that had been set aside originally as warehouse space.  Both MHC and FCC outgrew their original space within a year.  Amazing.

Resurrection Fellowship in Loveland asked us to look at their existing facility and find a way to enlarge (guess what) their children’s ministry spaces; consolidate them into one area of the building for better security; and give the Worship Center a facelift.  They also desired to somehow create a multi-use enlarged Lobby space that could serve as fellowship and overflow Worship Center seating.  What a fun challenge that was.

 

We’re designing a new facility for Calvary Bible Church 2nd campus in Erie, Colorado and several others, some out of state.

In late Spring, after Tim Tebow had pulled out an amazing second half of last year’s football season, the Denver Broncos decided to roll the dice and obtain Peyton Manning as the Bronco’s quarterback.  Wow.  He’s been phenomenal for the Broncos this year, but I hated to see Tebow go to the Jets.  I don’t think Tebow has been given much of a chance in NY, but it’s hard to argue (now that the Broncos are 12-3 with one game left in the season) that it was not a good move for the Broncos.  What a great and exciting season they’re having.

The 2012 presidential election was one that I wish I could forget.  It was hotly contested and fiercely debated by the nation.  In the end, as happens more often than not, the incumbent won.

Gun Tragedies seemed to dominate the news when middle-east Islamic revolutions, international terrorism, and political bickering wasn’t.  Sorrow, accusation, selfishness and pure evil seems to be the norm in this time of our nation’s history.  It makes one wonder how we’ll be able to come out of it.  Jesus is the only answer I know of but in our “politically correct” world, it seems that the only answer that will really change us for the better is the only answer that is not allowed to be genuinely presented or expressed in the public arena.

In November, a personal shock came to our home in the form of a health crisis for me.  Cancer, that disease that you always think happens to someone else proved that none of us are necessarily immune.  It’s been a physical and emotional roller-coaster ride for us the last 6 weeks of the year and promises to continue through February with treatment.  But as of the end of the year, we have reason to be encouraged.  Whatever the future may hold health wise, we intend to place it in the hands of a loving God who will work all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

But to end on a truly happy note, 2012 saw our grandchildren count expand from 5 to 7.  Wyatt Ezra Cartier was born to Eric and Amber on June 15.  For now at least, he’s the only boy in their family  with 3 older sisters.  He’ll have to grow up tough!  Ha!

Edith Mae Lundgren was born to Kenny and Kelly on August 7.  Her older brother Leeland loves her to pieces.

All in all, Cathy and I are hugely blessed and look forward to 2013.

Another year gone by

Now that it’s time to post a 2012 memoir, I discovered that I never posted my 2011 memoir a year ago.  Found it in the drafts section of my editor.  Oh well.  Here it is (or “was”).

2011 is almost history.  Considering how crazy 2010 was, 2011 has seemed like early retirement.  No new grandbabies, no major vacation trips, no huge projects with impossible deadlines, no major purchases, no moves, no elections, no sports breakthroughs (although Tim Tebow did provide some excitement for a little while in the middle of an otherwise dreary Broncos season).

A couple things of note did happen though.  Both Mission Hills Church and Flatirons Community Church won awards.  That was exciting and for an architect, always gratifying.

I did cross over to the dark side and made my first ever Apple product purchase.  I picked up one of those fancy shmancy iPad thingies and am having a blast with it.

Next year may be a return to the craziness of 2010.  Both Amber and Kelly are expecting additions to the family.  Amber is due in June and Kelly in August.

Give us Obabbas

After Tuesday, November 6, 2012 the shout: "Give us Barabbas" has an oddly familiar sound to it.  No, I'm NOT saying our elected leader is a criminal and I'm NOT comparing Mitt Romney to Jesus.  I AM saying we had a clear choice between two very different candidates, and we made that choice.  Just what we based our choice on I have no idea, but it was definitely not a rational choice based on evidence, qualifications or achievements.  Give us Obabbas!

E-V-E-N in the case of…

Sometimes I’m convinced that the pro-choice element of our society are a bunch of completely brainwashed parrots who can’t come up with a single thought of their own without having it first recited to them a thousand times and then they regurgitate it back ad nauseam forever.

Every advertisement put out by every liberal political candidate, local, state, or national who wants to demean their conservative opponent on the abortion argument will state verbatim the following:  “so-and-so is opposed to abortion, EVEN in the case of rape or incest.”  VERBATIM.  The implication is that the compassionate Democrats would never be so uncompromisingly rigid.  Do you really believe that it’s just the conservatives who are stubborn?

It’s as if those 8 words spoken in identical order and with identical intonation are some kind of magical incantation intended to cast a voodoo spell on the opponent insuring that not only will they not get elected, but their pet dog will stop loving them too!

Does anyone really believe that if tomorrow the Republican party announced “Let’s compromise. Abortion in the case of rape and incest should be allowed” then the Democrats would respond and say “Great, we have an understanding.  All other pre-born Americans who were NOT conceived as a result of rape or incest will be protected.”

I’m convinced that there are a large number of Republicans who in fact would agree to that compromise.  But I’m also CONVINCED that there’s not a chance that the Democrat party will EVER compromise when it comes to pre-birth infanticide.  It’s an all-out war not just on pre-born WOMEN, but on mankind.  The sanctioned murder in our nation alone of over 50 million (and counting) children is in my opinion the most despicable atrocity ever to be perpetrated by society.

The Juicy Details

Again, Kansas gets a bad rap. I drive all the way across Kansas yet can count the bug splats on my windshield. I cross the Colorado state line and within a couple miles, BLAM! Buckets and buckets of bug guts! Disgusting! At one point I was sure that little droplets of egg whites were falling from the sky. There were even bug splats on the side windows. What’s up with that?! All I can figure is that the bugs were so thick they were ricocheting off the passing cars!

Now I ask you, is that any way to welcome visitors to our lovely state? I say NAY!

I was hoping to pass a biker to compare my now opaque windshield with his helmet visor, but didn’t see a single Harley for hundreds of miles. Those guys are pretty smart you know.

So I get to Limon and stop at the first gas station I can find. All around are cars lined up buying one gallon of gas, just so they can use the windshield cleaner thingies. What are those things called anyway....oh squeegees (apparently bug scrapers in eastern Colorado).

I get out of the car, and the bugs and mosquitoes are zeroing in on me in attack formation, wave after wave. Unbelievable! It was like a coordinated assault. First the kamikazes on the highway, then the hand to hand combat on the ground. I did my best to fend them off, got the bulk of the bug mucus wiped off the car and jumped back in to safety.

Get this, the entire rest of the way to Denver, nary a knat splat on the windshield. But there was one little rascal that managed to sneak in through the open door as I was getting in and kept whizzing past my ear to guess where? The WINDSHIELD!

“HEL-LOW” I yelled at the little flying mucus bag. “That’s a windshield!” He didn’t care. Seemed he knew that as long as he and the windshield were both moving at the same 75 mph, he had nothing to fear. Try as I may, I could not reach the pest to swat him. I swear I saw him sticking his tongue out at me.

Or maybe he was just distraught at the carnage that had occurred at that very spot just minutes before and was trying to come to grips with it by hanging out at the scene of the crime. I mean, after all, I had dispatched millions of his little cousins to heaven just a few miles back. Randy Alcorn says all God’s little critters go to heaven, so I decided maybe I should make peace with this little guy. He may be the only one of his kind not holding a grudge against me when we meet again in the hereafter. (tongue firmly in cheek).

Anyway, I lost track of him somewhere near the airport. Good riddance I thought.

I get home and as I’m unpacking I notice a little itchy bump on my arm.  I look down and sure enough, one lonely mosquito bite. Somewhere I heard a faint buzzing that sounded an awful lot like laughter. Touche my little winged adversary. Next time you’re mine!

Guns

I apologize in advance for offending a few folks. I know that what I'm about to write cuts across the grain of what many of my conservative friends whom I deeply respect believe in. I have no illusion that my words will change anyone's mind about this subject, but I just have to get this off my chest.  Some say that it's not right to talk about this topic when emotions are still raw from the carnage that took place that terrible night in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.  If not now, then when?


I am about as conservative and committed a Republican as I can be. But there is one policy issue that almost all my Republican friends share that I do not. Most support and will without any hesitation what-so-ever defend vigorously the right to own and carry guns. For most of those, that even means that any gun of any kind should be with very few restrictions available to any and every law-abiding citizen. News flash! Up until the moment James Holmes pulled the trigger, he was a law-abiding citizen. Every weapon, every bullet, and every piece of protective armor he put on his body the night he shot over 70 innocent people, killing a dozen of them as of this writing, was obtained legally. The laws that are supposedly sufficient to ensure that bad guys don't get guns were all followed. They aren't working folks.


Despite the opinion I'm about to write, I recognize that the right to bear arms is in fact a right granted by the 2nd amendment to the constitution. So, my friends who disagree with me have all the "ammunition" they need (pun intended) to win the argument.  But I have to wonder if the founding fathers had any imagination even in their worst nightmares, about how violent this country would become in a couple hundred years. I wonder if they really "loved" guns, or simply recognized that it was a necessity to arm themselves in order to establish the free and independent country that was so young and fragile it could easily be overrun and destroyed if its people were not able to defend themselves?


Why do I have a reservation about guns? At the root is this question: What is the most basic and fundamental purpose for which the first gun was invented? I know it's neither as simple nor black and white as this, but I contend that the reason the first gun was invented was NOT for recreational nor noble purposes.


I'm so tired of the cliché "Guns don't kill people. People kill people". Well duh! Until we can figure out a way to turn all these sick-os  into saints, the only thing we can do to control their aberrant behaviors short of pre-emptively incarcerating everyone we even remotely think might commit a deadly or threatening crime with a gun is to try our best to make sure that they don't have one to begin with. I think we need to try harder.


The alternative is to make sure everyone has a gun at all times and in all places. As crazy as that sounds, people actually advocate that. I don't want to live in that place where everyone is packing a lethal weapon at all times.


I contend that there is no other weapon as devastatingly efficient, easy and deadly to use as a gun. Any gun. I don't care how big or how small. Guns do in fact, kill people. Why? Because that is what they are meant to do. That is what they were conceived to do. That is the sole purpose for which they were invented. They were invented to kill or maim. They were invented to give one person the advantage over another who had to depend on his strength or agility alone. That could be said about the evolution of every weapon from sharpened sticks to stones, to knives to whatever. But all those other things also have other purposes. Dare I say "legitimate" purposes? A gun has no legitimate purpose other than to kill or maim. You can say defensive killing or maiming is legitimate. I concede that point, but I maintain that defensive killing is still killing and that is the point I'm trying to make. Guns are made to kill.


Can they be used for hunting? Sure. Can they be used for recreational target shooting? Sure. But that is evidence of how decent human beings can take something bad and use it for good or at least benign purposes. What guns were invented for is killing and maiming. Isn't it peculiar that even recreational targets are often times silhouettes of human bodies? Connect the dots people.


Let's say that we compromise and agree that rifles have a good purpose, hunting for food. Okay. Granted. I don't think it's necessary in this day and age, nor do I personally understand the thrill that people get when they kill an animal, even if for the very good and acceptable purpose of providing food.


Let's say that handguns have a good and righteous purpose. I can't think of one that doesn't involve killing or maiming or make-believe killing or maiming or honing one's skills so that one can...kill or maim better than another. But let's say even handguns are in fact necessary things for self-defense.


What on earth or heaven could possibly be a legitimate purpose for a non-military person to have or use a military grade automatic or semi-automatic assault weapon? I'm sure the reasons will all be defensive or recreational in nature.  Forgive me; I just don't get it.