The good news – I have had two Sundays off in a row. The bad news – the rest of the “vacation” has not been very …um…vacation-y.
It’s just one of those things. Due to recent medical issues in the family and my wife’s work schedule having to be adjusted accordingly, and the RIDICULOUSLY early start to the school year for my son – who is attending a new school where he knows absolutely NO ONE, since Katrina ramifications caused his old school to drop its middle school completely -the time off for me has required me to stay in town. This is NOT a good idea.
I am supposed to be off all this week as well, but I am pretty convinced I will return to work tomorrow (Wednesday). There’s no sense wasting the precious off days if they are not doing for me what I need them to. Sigh.
On another note, my best friend on the Coast is leaving. It’s great news for him and his family, I am so excited for them. But it sucks for me, personally! It’s a fantastic opportunity for him, so I will just have to GET OVER IT. But I plan on throwing a pity party in the near future, anyway.

My daughter is feeling MUCH better. Not quite back to normal, but getting there. Thanks for those who have prayed. We are awaiting one repeat lab to get any final ideas on what’s going on, but truth is we may never know for sure.

It’s been another adventurous week in my household. Monday of last week, my middle child suffered shortness of breath (she’s 20!) while driving, alone, home from a weekend at her college (she is living at home this summer and working). She pulled over and began hyperventilating. She finally reached me on the phone, and I got her mom on the phone (a nurse, ya know), and we were able to get the sheriff’s office in that remote area to begin looking for her. Two ambulances were dispatched, my daughter passed out while talking to the dispatcher, but they finally found her. She was taken to a hospital about 30 minutes from where she was. The LW and I of course had already left, headed in that direction. I turned a 3 hour drive into about 2 hrs and 15 minutes, and had a friend meet the ambulance so she wouldn’t be all alone.
The ER ran some tests and eventually discharged her with no diagnosis. On Tuesday, it happened again, but I was home with her and got her breathing managed before it got too bad. Wednesday she went for a battery of tests, and Thursday her shallow breathing got MUCH worse. She could hardly talk or eat or walk. She was admitted to the local hospital Thursday night.
After running a multitude of tests, involving both cardiac and pulmonary stuff, as well as testing her for every known virus and infection, she didn’t fare real well over the weekend. She began having sharp chest pains and her breathing did not improve.
She did finally turn a corner Sunday, and was discharged to bed rest last night. Her breathing is improved but chest pain continues. They have mostly eliminated any “bad” cardiac reasons for this, but don’t really know still what is causing the shortness of breath. One lab test was not good and will be repeated soon, for auto-immune related stuff. So we are very concerned and she is struggling with the pain.
Please pray for Mackenzie and all our family, when you have a chance.

A couple of posts ago I talked about the sweltering heat we are experiencing (I know, it’s nothing new). But it is worse now for the Knight family – our home A/C died yesterday!
It was 85 degrees INSIDE when I got home from work yesterday. I kick started the compressor a couple of times but it wouldn’t stay on. We slept with windows open – it was miserable. Our temp yesterday was 92 but the humdity was 96%! Heat index over 100.
The other problem with sleeping in the heat was the memories it triggered. For my LW especially, it was a vivid reminder of all those days post Katrina with no electricity, no cool air, no fans, etc. She was STRESSED to the max. Sleep was difficult. When you are so acclimated to the A/C, missing it is hard. I know I am whining, but …… YUK.
On top of that my daughter’s car died on her way home from work, making a horrible noise. It’s a 99 Civic with over 100K miles. I expected the worst. Had it towed to the local repair shop, but got good news, a pulley had broken that supported the fan belt, fairly minor repair. WHEW.
My LW and middle child have headed to the Gulf Shores area where family is gathering for the 4th. I am staying here tonight, praying the repair dude shows up and it’s not a major effort to fix it. With the holiday tomorrow, this is going to be expensive no matter what!
On top of all that, my smoke alarms started giving off false alarms all day today, finally found the “offender” and yanked that baby out of the ceiling. I think it was dust from the windows being open and the fans blowing, so will put it back once the AC is running.
Pray I don’t have to sleep on the floor of my office trailer, which, by the way, was ROCKING during today’s thunderstorm. Isn’t life an adventure???

For the multitude of fans of this site, you will notice the blog posted last week has been removed. Here’s why:
In that post I was critical of comments posted on a certain website regarding the upcoming House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans. My post was an emotional response to the tone of SOME of the comments that were quite critical and even mean-spirited to the HoB. The emotional response was directly related to my current situation – Rector of a church recovering from Katrina. I am thrilled the Bishops will spend some of their time together helping relief crews and attending worship services on the coast of Mississippi and in New Orleans. This is a good thing – we need them to see and hear what life is like for us, and take that message home with them so volunteers keep coming.
However…..in writing those thoughts I fell into a trap that I am often very critical of in others. I called the commenters “mean people”, and said the “mean people” live at that particular web site. Naturally, those folks took offense – and they should have.
You see, one of the biggest problems in this whole Anglican mess is the way people, on all sides of each “issue”, tend to glom people together. We stereotype, we make assumptions about theology and beliefs, we lump people into convenient groups, and we do all this WITHOUT taking the effort to get to KNOW people. I hate that, I hate it when people, and they did this in DROVES on “that site” after my blog post was reported on there, make assumptions about me, my beliefs, my theology, when they really have no clue about me.
And yet, I did the exact same thing. I labeled posters / commenters of “that site” into one convenient category of “mean people”. That was wrong, very wrong.
Damage was done. I am sorry for that. In blasting my post, the owner of “that site” made some assumptions of his own that are also unfounded. He has since apologized for his tone as well, but the assumptions he made drove much of the comments on my post. Somehow people took my words to mean I was not understanding, not recognizing, not being grateful for, Katrina relief efforts done by people of all sides of the issues in our church. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I didn’t ever say that, although I can sorta see how you could get that impression from my post. That’s the main reason I took it down – not just because I spoke wrongly, which I did in my own stereotyping, but also that anyone could misunderstand my point in that way would be terrible.
People have responded on the coast by the tens of thousands, pouring untold hours and millions of dollars into our recovery. I am eternally thankful for each and every one who has done so. As I said in my post, when you are doing this work you don’t first ask folks where they stand on any issues, and in that light this recovery effort has been one example of how our divided church can be united.
I am still glad the HoB will be joining us in that effort. And I have learned a valuable lesson. I hope those offended will accept my apology.
OH AND ONE MORE THING – one commenter on “that site” kept abusing me for the “pea green soup” background of my blog. LOL! He was right – it was awful. Hence, the new blue blog!