One of our family goals this year is to visit at least three Texas historical sites.  The Battle of San Jacinto was fought in modern day La Porte, Texas, just east of Houston.  Even though the weather was rainy and blustery, we were determined to enjoy each other’s company and further our goal despite what the skies were saying.  From our house, it takes about an hour to get to the location of this final battle where Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836.  From that underdog and unconventional victory, Texas was instantly transformed from being a underrepresented and under-appreciated territory of a dictatorship to its own sovereign nation.

Before visiting the battlefield, we stopped and visited the nearby USS Texas, a WW I battleship docked in a dedicated slip off of Buffalo Bayou and the Houston Ship Channel (video). The ship’s restoration was commissioned in 1990 under Governor Clements and is still underway today.  Several of the compartments are fully restored and underscore the inherent requirements of the ship’s self-sufficiency (i.e., the barber shop, the dentist, the surgical ward, a soda fountain).  Another observation was the location and accommodations of ranks on the ship. The officers ate, slept and worked toward the bow (front) of the ship where it was quieter.  As we made our way aft (rearward) on the ship, we noticed that the ranks became lower and lower.  The common shipmen class worked, ate and slept in much more modest conditions aft, toward the stern, where living and working in close proximity of the engine rooms meant putting up with the constant noise and incessant vibration.  In my opinion, the lowest job on the ship had to be the shoveling of coal into the boilers. We could, even now, sense the dank, still air down on the third deck.  It must have been miserable.

From the ship, it was a short drive within the same state park to the San Jacinto Monument, a look-alike of the Washington Mall and Monument. Leave it to Texans to make the San Jacinto Monument not only the world’s tallest war memorial, but also 15-foot taller that the Washington Monument in Washington DC.  The memorial sits precisely on the ridge that separated the Mexican and Texas armies prior to the final battle April 21st, 1836.  Inside the memorial is a museum of Texas artifacts dating back to Nuevo España times (1535).  Massive acrylic paintings, depicting milestones in Tejas history, line chamber walls crowned by ornate twenty foot ceilings.  We took an elevator up to the observation deck overseeing the landscape and surrounding areas.  It was there that I finally understood the position of the armies on that fateful day.  The battle was won decisively in less than twenty minutes.  General Santa Anna surrendered.  The Texas victory not only paved the way for Texas independence and annexation to the US, but led to the inevitable US-Mexican War in which Mexico ceded over a half-million square miles of land to the US (becoming California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico).

All the pictures in the album below are courtesy of Rebecca (except for the pictures she is in, of course).  Enjoy!

-D

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I’m enjoying the idea of being away from the office for a week, so much so that I’ve already made the mental shift to “vacation status.”  The  feeling that leads you to say careless responses like, “Whatever.  I’m on vacation,” and “Oh sure, dear.  Whatever you want to do.”  Usually it takes me more than a weekend for me to make this shift.  And three-day weekends are usually not enough either; by the time I ascend to my personal sabbatical stratus, it’s time to descend like those short commuter flights that don’t even have time to pass out peanuts.

Well so far, this state of blissful tranquility has led only to my demise (and I have seven days to go):

• I practiced my guitar a ton. Now my fingers are blistered.
• I offered to shop for groceries this weekend, and then proceeded to completely blow our cash budget by, um, $100.  I guess I don’t have a good feel for that.  Lisa thinks I just need more practice.  (Why doesn’t somebody add price scanners to shopping carts?)
• Later that morning a family friend, leaving for vacation, brought over a box of fresh vegetables from the farmers coop.  Now it turns out I shouldn’t have bought so much at the grocery store.
• My lack of planning for the evening has led Rebecca to share a movie she picked out at the video rental store – a total teeny chick flick.  It was cute, but entirely predictable.

Really, this weekend was full to the rim with thankfulness and gratitude.

• My family has already had several family meals together in a row.
• Although not quite as enjoyable for Justus, I helped him with his math homework.
• In church yesterday morning I shared a testimony of Lisa’s conquering of cancer.  Thank God! Next April will be her ten-year anniversary being cancer free.
• Lisa’s parents, Nancy and Warren, treated my family to more food for the refrigerator and a dinner out (which is always enjoyable).

While I’m vacationing, this week will be “normal” for everyone else in the family.  I look forward to getting some things done around the house, likely leading to more blisters. The kids have their schooling and activities.  As a slight change of pace, we’ve planned an outing Tuesday afternoon to the San Jacinto Monument and Battleship Texas together.  That should be fun.

-D

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At times life brings us a crisis that is quite simply unavoidable. Certain events come, often out of nowhere, most of them unfortunate, from places we least expect to collide with our space-time continuum. Sometimes, the seemingly random occurrence manifests itself like a spaceship being pulled towards us by an overwhelming tractor-beam. There is no way of avoiding it. There is insufficient time to react. Time is not on our side – there is no time for judgement, risk assessment, and certainly no time for a “pros and cons” list. We must simply close our eyes, brace ourselves and prepare for impact. This is the life of a…

trashcan.

-D

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We continue to collect random and silly photos. It seems that we simply crack ourselves up using digital photography – instant gratification to our silliness. Back in the day we were silly too, but we would have never wasted perfectly good film on such antics. Nowadays, it’s become cheap family entertainment. Enjoy!

-D

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We have an old German wall clock in our dining room now. It’s old, dating back to the 1880’s (so says an appraiser). Some would call its idiosyncrasies “character” – a dent in the broad pendulum, timid gongs marking every hour, and an unsteady tick-tock that plods along somehow managing to keep time. It’s amazing really, having somehow defied all odds.

When Lisa inherited it from her Great Aunt Elizabeth Sisson, it didn’t work. It was, well, dead. But we noticed its intrinsic beauty – a large porcelain face with Roman numbers, a well-preserved wooden case with subtle floral inlays, and all the large original antique glass panes. No matter its superficial loveliness, it was still incapable of carrying out its intended purpose: to tell time.

Enter the clockmaker. He, too, appreciated the clock’s outer beauty and uniqueness. But, the clockmaker knew more. He was the master of his trade – carefully and lovingly reconditioning and restoring the clock to its original operating condition. Now the clock is alive and brings a special feeling in our home.

The clock’s story reminds me of our story. Though we have intrinsic value, we are broken and unable to carry out our intended purpose without the touch of the Master’s hand. Through the loving restoration of our Father, we have new life and renewed purpose. The new life the Father grants us is the same power provided in Jesus’ resurrection.

Happy Easter!

– D

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