[the first of the month]

#UDFjunkies

Vacation is over, so it's back to being a surrogate father. Jason hadn't seen me for more than a week, and when he got off his bus from program he ran up to me and gave me a great big bear-hug. I told Lisa the Great Carpenter how I've been looking for other jobs, and I told her that if I get a ministry gig full-time, I won't be working at the House anymore. "Ben and Jason are going to lose their minds," she said. Jason likes to say I'm his favorite, but that may be because I trick him into thinking I give him extra ice cream every night I'm with him. As you can tell, I love taking pictures with the guys. My kids are going to hate how often I'll want pictures with them; it'll be like now, except on steroids.

Now that autumn has officially arrived, it's boot season!
I'll be wearing my cowboy boots until summer of 2015 hits.
I even went to the store and bought a new pair!
I've also decorated my Hobbit Hole with gourds and Indian corn.
Blake posted something on Facebook about being tired of pumpkins.
My Facebook app glitched, and my response went onto someone else's wall:

I decided just to leave it there.

September turned out being pretty good: lots of exploring in local parks, a night down at the Gorge, and vacation in Pennsylvania. I've got a few plans for October as well: hiking at East Fork Lake, bouldering at Clifton Gorge in Yellow Springs, and stargazing in northern Kentucky at a lonely pioneer graveyard I happened to stumble across while in college. I'm sure I'll be invited to a few Halloween parties, but I tend to not want to go to those. Oh, and let's not forget The Walking Dead! Season Five should be pretty epic. I'm also trying to be more regimented in my exercise; though I've been eating fairly well, I've been skimping on the exercise. I haven't been running as much as I should, and I've been doing weight lifting only about 2-3 times a week. I'm not too concerned about it, but I want to be more disciplined. At least I can now fit into my Callahan Auto t-shirt Sarah H. got me! Whenever I wear it, people start quoting Tommy Boy:

"Did I catch a niner in there? Were you calling  from a Walkie-Talkie?"

Each night while around the campfire after Dad went to bed I meditated on Psalm 107, recommended to me by my mentor. It's a great psalm, and here are some snippets (it's a long one, so I won't post all of it):

O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever.

Some sat in darkness and in gloom,

prisoners in misery and in irons,

for they had rebelled against the words of God,

and spurned the counsel of the Most High.

Their hearts were bowed down with hard labor;

they fell down, with no one to help.

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble;

he brought them out of darkness and gloom,

and broke their bonds asunder.

Some were sick through their sinful ways,

and because of their iniquities endured affliction;

they loathed any kind of food, 

and they drew near to the gates of death.

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,

and he saved them from their distress;

he sent out his word and healed them,

and delivered them from destruction.

[The LORD] turns rivers into a desert,

springs of water into thirsty ground,

a fruitful land into a salty waste,

because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.

He turns a desert into pools of water,

a parched land into springs of water.

And there he lets the hungry live,

and they establish a town to live in;

they sow fields, and plant vineyards,

and get a fruitful yield.

Let those who are wise give heed to these things,

and consider the steadfast love of the LORD.