Have you ever wondered what happens to all those single socks that get lost in your washer? Well, according to a hilarious spoof I saw on TV years ago, they go to the "land of lost socks," a kind of warehouse of socks.
Now there are more things than socks that mysteriously disappear. You've probably experienced it yourself - no matter how hard you look or how irrational it seems, the thing simply has vanished.
That's where the fifth dimension comes in. I have this hypothesis that there is this fifth dimensions full of strange beings. Every once in a while the fifth dimension opens up and breaks into our space-time continuum and grabs something silly like a sock, a key, or a book. Reversely, but much less often, every once in a great while it opens up and drops the item back into your realm, just when you despaired of ever seeing it again. (Now my more spiritual friends would probably say it's the second heavens, not the fifth dimenension - let the reader understand - but what demons would do with all those socks is beyond me.)
Never does this fifth dimension have a greater field day than when you move. In a previous move I lost a perfectly good pair of shorts and a lovely T-shirt, though the shirt reappeared after three years (just to confuse me, as I said). This time it's more random. There is the mystery of the vanished toe-nail clipper. Never mind that we keep all our nail scissors and clippers in a special box, which was tightly wrapped with rubber bands and then packed in a larger box. Upon unpacking it all the nail scissors were there - except for the toe-nail clipper, the most expensive of the bunch. (At least we know now that these alien beings not only have a foot fetish, judging from all the socks they steal, but real thick, ugly toenails as well. I'm not sure I want to see them in my shorts after all.)
It wasn't a single box that was missing, but little things from different boxes - a small whisk, a Christian book by Rick Joyner ("The Torch"), a banner proclaiming "Jesus is Lord." Well, He is still Lord, even if it's gone.
The strangest thing though is about what the fifth dimension has been releasing this time around. You'll never guess it, but box after box contained socks, until I filled three drawers with them where I had had only one. I am convinced I have more socks now than ever! I guess it's time for laundry!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Finally - a word from North Carolina!
My apologies to all who may have been wondering what happened to me since I left town at the beginning of July. The main reason you haven't been hearing anything was that I didn't get internet access until yesterday. The local phone company - which shall remain nameless - had lost my order that I had placed three weeks in advance, and so I had to start all over again.
So where to begin? The trip down here was uneventful, except for getting alternatively stuck in traffic and lost on the back roads of Indiana for a whole day. Then we had to camp out in a motel in Hendersonville for almost a week while we were waiting for our furniture to arrive. It came on July 14. Not having any distractions through the computer or TV, we have unpacked everything and are already pretty well settled in, as far as the furniture is concerned. Of course, there are the odd things that seem to be missing - just this morning I'm wondering whether a box of my books has been lost.
Our house is in a gated community where everyone pretty much knows each other, especially right in our neighborhood. There are directories, for example, that list all the residents by street addresses, which is very handy. Most of the people in our neighborhood are retired and older than we are, though there are some young families in rental housing nearby. We all share certain amenities, most notably a heated outdoor swimming pool, clubhouse, and walking trails. It sure is nice to go swimming after a day working on the house - it's like mixing work with vacation. We take out the trash as we drive by a giant dumpster near the exit, and retrieve our mail as we come into the compound - either by car, or else a ten-minute walk from the house. There are social activities, committees, etc. and we are planning to get involved in order to really get to know our neighbors. Altogether, there are about 300 units, so it's pretty sizeable.
Hendersonville is a "little, big city" of 12,000, but with surrounding communities the county has about 100,000 people. We are living close to the interstate and the "strip" with grocery stores, restaurants, Walmart, Lowes and Homedepot, etc. A five minute drive to the other side, and we are in the next little town, where a Mexican family runs a large fruit and vegetable stand open 7 days a week. Our favorite place to shop for fresh produce at bargain prices.
One thing is the traffic, which I find a bit intimidating. People drive faster, more aggressively. Speed limits are higher, too. No wonder that insurance rates for the same coverage are about 50% higher! Next week we are planning to apply for our NC drivers licences, for which we have to pass a test and provide about 5 forms of IDs - I'm not kidding!
The weather has been nice ever since we moved in - at first it was rainy, but now the sun is shining almost every day and the humidity tends to be low. This makes it seem more like a vacation spot. It's kind of a weird feeling, moving to a place where people go to vacation and planning on staying - and working - here. I'll get used to it, I'm sure.
Dwight and I have been going to church twice - first to First Baptist, which is "the" church (membership 1200), then to Family Christian Center, a Pentecostal Holiness Church. I/we are going to try another one this Sunday. There are tons of Baptist churches, but very few charismatic churches - most seem to bristle when I ask them whether they are charismatic.
Well, that's all for now.
So where to begin? The trip down here was uneventful, except for getting alternatively stuck in traffic and lost on the back roads of Indiana for a whole day. Then we had to camp out in a motel in Hendersonville for almost a week while we were waiting for our furniture to arrive. It came on July 14. Not having any distractions through the computer or TV, we have unpacked everything and are already pretty well settled in, as far as the furniture is concerned. Of course, there are the odd things that seem to be missing - just this morning I'm wondering whether a box of my books has been lost.
Our house is in a gated community where everyone pretty much knows each other, especially right in our neighborhood. There are directories, for example, that list all the residents by street addresses, which is very handy. Most of the people in our neighborhood are retired and older than we are, though there are some young families in rental housing nearby. We all share certain amenities, most notably a heated outdoor swimming pool, clubhouse, and walking trails. It sure is nice to go swimming after a day working on the house - it's like mixing work with vacation. We take out the trash as we drive by a giant dumpster near the exit, and retrieve our mail as we come into the compound - either by car, or else a ten-minute walk from the house. There are social activities, committees, etc. and we are planning to get involved in order to really get to know our neighbors. Altogether, there are about 300 units, so it's pretty sizeable.
Hendersonville is a "little, big city" of 12,000, but with surrounding communities the county has about 100,000 people. We are living close to the interstate and the "strip" with grocery stores, restaurants, Walmart, Lowes and Homedepot, etc. A five minute drive to the other side, and we are in the next little town, where a Mexican family runs a large fruit and vegetable stand open 7 days a week. Our favorite place to shop for fresh produce at bargain prices.
One thing is the traffic, which I find a bit intimidating. People drive faster, more aggressively. Speed limits are higher, too. No wonder that insurance rates for the same coverage are about 50% higher! Next week we are planning to apply for our NC drivers licences, for which we have to pass a test and provide about 5 forms of IDs - I'm not kidding!
The weather has been nice ever since we moved in - at first it was rainy, but now the sun is shining almost every day and the humidity tends to be low. This makes it seem more like a vacation spot. It's kind of a weird feeling, moving to a place where people go to vacation and planning on staying - and working - here. I'll get used to it, I'm sure.
Dwight and I have been going to church twice - first to First Baptist, which is "the" church (membership 1200), then to Family Christian Center, a Pentecostal Holiness Church. I/we are going to try another one this Sunday. There are tons of Baptist churches, but very few charismatic churches - most seem to bristle when I ask them whether they are charismatic.
Well, that's all for now.
Friday, July 3, 2009
It's (almost) time!
The moving date has been moved ahead to Sunday, much to my dismay. I don't like missing church - I believe Sunday is the day of the Lord, and a day of rest. But in the moving business they are working seven days a week, especially in the summer, I guess.
Packing-wise we are doing o.k.. Since I surrendered everything into the hand of the Lord, this may well be His design . Perhaps He knows better than I that saying good-bye after 19 years in the congregation would have been really hard. When I joined that church, I said to the Lord that I wanted to put down roots and not move until He clearly moved me out of it. Now He has done it, and it's a Sunday earlier than I thought, and I'm quietly slipping out, having said all my good-byes earlier.
Still, it's hard - especially not knowing what's waiting at the other end, church-wise. I wonder whether this is what Abraham felt like when he left Ur to go to the land the Lord was going to show him?
Packing-wise we are doing o.k.. Since I surrendered everything into the hand of the Lord, this may well be His design . Perhaps He knows better than I that saying good-bye after 19 years in the congregation would have been really hard. When I joined that church, I said to the Lord that I wanted to put down roots and not move until He clearly moved me out of it. Now He has done it, and it's a Sunday earlier than I thought, and I'm quietly slipping out, having said all my good-byes earlier.
Still, it's hard - especially not knowing what's waiting at the other end, church-wise. I wonder whether this is what Abraham felt like when he left Ur to go to the land the Lord was going to show him?
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Countdown to moving
The countdown is on - 4 days until the movers come, 5 days until we pull out of here. We got a call today from our moving coordinator down in Asheville, a sweet lady named Patricia, reminding us that we are scheduled to move next week. As if we could forget!
The TV is being dismantled, the guy from the satellite company is coming tomorrow to take the dish off the roof. How will we survive without TV? Next will be the computer and access to the Internet, though we are taking a laptop. Our only connection to the news will be the radio, just like in the good/bad old days...
We were already told that the earliest the furniture will arrive is the 11th, which is the date I prayed for 2 months ago. We shall see. We assembled quite a list of chores we can take care of while waiting, from starting to study for our driver's licence test to getting insurance on our new place to buying cleaning supplies and food for our home, since we're leaving all this behind.
Countdown - 4 days to go!
The TV is being dismantled, the guy from the satellite company is coming tomorrow to take the dish off the roof. How will we survive without TV? Next will be the computer and access to the Internet, though we are taking a laptop. Our only connection to the news will be the radio, just like in the good/bad old days...
We were already told that the earliest the furniture will arrive is the 11th, which is the date I prayed for 2 months ago. We shall see. We assembled quite a list of chores we can take care of while waiting, from starting to study for our driver's licence test to getting insurance on our new place to buying cleaning supplies and food for our home, since we're leaving all this behind.
Countdown - 4 days to go!
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