Here are my top five favorite album releases of 2009 in no particular order.
David Crowder*Band – Church Music
Favorite Song: How He Loves
Needtobreathe – The Outsiders
Favorite Song: Garden
Jars of Clay – The Long Fall Back to Earth
Favorite Song: Closer
Creed – Full Circle
Favorite Song: Bread of Shame
Switchfoot – Hello Hurricane
Favorite Song: The Sound (John M. Perkins’ Blues)
I know that taking pictures in a bathroom is pretty taboo, bit this was too good to pass up. Why are mats necessary in front of each urinals. Only two situations come to mind, one ridiculous and one not quite as ridiculous. I’d like to share them with you.
The ridiculous situation:
We have a problem with people slipping while they were taking care of business. It got so bad that something had to be done. I mean you can’t have people slipping and falling all over the place. You’d have quite a mess, not to mention the irate employees you’d have on your hands. So we decided to install non-slip urinal mats over the non-slip tile that is already in place, which obviously wasn’t doing it’s job.
The not quite as ridiculous situation:
They are to catch overspray. Someone I this office has very acidic urine. The overspray was eating at the tile floor and something had to be done before we had a hole in front of each urinal. So we decided to put acid resistant mats in front of each urinal because asking this person to aim properly would be discrimination. Then we’d have a huge lawsuit on our hands.
Regardless of the reason, these mats must have been the most viable option. I just think it’s weird.
Given:
The average red light cycle is 25 seconds
The range of turn signal cycles is 0.5-1.0 seconds.
A turn signal can be started at any time during the red light cycle.
What is the probability that 2 turn signals will blink at the same time? What is the average number of times these turn signals will blink at the same time in an average red light cycle? What is the probability that 3 (4, 5, 6, 7…) turn signals will blink at the same time?
They say the sense of smell is the greatest memory trigger. Its amazing to me how a scent can take you back to a different time and place. I experienced just that this past week on a drive out to Canonsburg, PA for work. Jason and I stopped at Sheetz for a little pick-me-up and I bought a Red Bull energy drink. By the way, in case you didn’t know, Red Bull is my favorite form of liquid sustenance, but that is neither here nor there. The reason I mention the Red Bull is because the top had a distinct smell. It smelled like a house, my grandfather, J. R. Renno’s house.
Intellectually, my grandfather was a mountain of a man. If there was anything you wanted to know about God or the bible, anything, he had most likely written something about it. I used to work on his computer and he would have word documents 600 pages long. No thats not a typo… 600 pages. There are times when I wish I had taken advantage of the wealth of information stored in his head. I was no more that 2 hours away from him at any given point in my life and i barely knew him. Its sad… very sad… and its one of my biggest regrets.
Socially, he was a bit awkward, but no more than any typical man raised Amish, then transplanted into secular society. He would sing songs in German anywhere and everywhere he went. I went on a train ride with him to see Johnstown, PA. He sang to himself most of the way out. Later in his life he would come down to our house for a few days. He would walk around our neighborhood and sing songs to himself. It was his way of worshipping his creator. My sister really got a kick out of his singing. One time she asked him to sing to her and her friends in German, and so he did. After, one of them complimented him on his singing and said it was beautiful. She asked, “what was it that you sang?” With a smile he replied, “how much is that doggy in the window.”
What I remember most about him is his smell. I can’t describe it, but i know what it came from. He loved to use oils. Oils of what I am not sure, but they were very fragrant. The whole house smelled of these oils. You could have blindfolded me as a kid and i could have told you where we were as soon as we were in nose-shot of the house.
You want to know what is the saddest part about all of this. I didn’t realize how much I loved my grandfather until I smelled that Red Bull can. I didn’t realize how much I had missed out on. How much I could have learned from him.
There is so much more I could write about him, but I could never do his memory justice. He was a great man, and he is and will be missed. My only consolation? I’ll see him again someday, in the presence of our Creator.
He is worshipping Him with all his might right now, and probably in German.
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