The search has started

Finally applied for my first position yesterday, and sent my resume to an old Air Force friend whose current company has several openings that I might fit with. As for that one, I don't really want to drive to Columbus every day, but I'll do it for the right offer.

I think I'm going to be resigning from a ministry soon . . .

And busy week

Four meetings on three nights so far this week, but at least we have a pretty good sense of what to do with our 401k and our severance package. And even though our conference in October will not have the author for whom we hoped - who is having back surgery - I'm convinced that the Lord wants to bring the gift of spiritual freedom to his people who have been spiritually bound for so long!

Busy weekend

Nice, long-overdue phone call with a friend. Meeting Saturday morning, with a potentially disappointing development for a major event we have scheduled for October. Keeping Neal Lozano in prayer for his impending back surgery. Got the inside back panel off of the van and the back opened so that I could replace a bulb, so it is safer to drive now. Prepared our dishes for our two picnics on Sunday, which we managed to attend both of even though our plans for the grandchildren to be attended to by the aunt and uncle who agreed to take them didn't exactly pan out. Nice company at both of them, though.

Now, to gear up a job search.

They said she'd become my most reliable friend

I've encountered a lot of things over recent years that have caused me to realize more often than ever how deeply I miss my sister.  They include "siblings' day" postings on FB, friends who have also lost a sibling, reconnecting with old friends who ask me about her, brief pangs of jealousy as my wife gets to be with her sisters and brothers, even an article about Karen and Richard Carpenter - since his Karen died just a few years before mine; there is such a wide variety of reminders, seemingly everywhere I turn.

While our relationship was never as screwed up as Dora and Sven's, today's QC nearly made me cry in my cube.

Today's words

isinglass \ˈī-zən-ˌglas, ˈī-ziŋ-\ - 1. a semitransparent whitish very pure gelatin prepared from the air bladders of fishes (as sturgeons) and used especially as a clarifying agent and in jellies and glue  2. mica especially when in thin transparent sheets; especially :  muscovite 2

I was marginally familiar with the second definition, having encountered it in a couple of period novels, except I didn't know that it was made of mica.

spelter \ˈspel-tər\ - zinc; especially :  zinc cast in slabs for commercial use

This one was new to me.

Cloudy vision

If I am primarily trying to see God's plan for me in this layoff in terms of the possible upside for our finances, I am probably missing the main thing.

In my life, Lord, be glorified today.