Leaving Las Vegas

I'm always amazed
that I can have breakfast in Pahrump, Nevada and dinner in Asheville, N.C. 6 hours later. The whole family made it to the South West Command Center; which is conveniently located next to Area-51. It was great to be able to breath the fresh desert air and explore the road less traveled. We had ten entrees plus 4 different desserts. There were only 5 dogs attending. After dinner we relaxed around the open pit fire in the courtyard next to the adjoining casida where CP and I stayed. CP and LG spent hours shucking a couple of hundred chestnuts for the stuffing. MP made her world famous cheesecake. We spotted these wild donkeys that were out on the open range. Pahrump International airport is lacking in security, judging by how close to the tower these two shady people got. The evenings were climaxed by the Colin Firth aka Mr.Darcy Film Festival. We had nice weather, beautiful sunsets and plenty of "poof-dirt". We never got to see the cougar that keeps killing all the coyotes. We took the mandatory sticks and sidearms when we went for walks. I forgot all about Asheville, until I was approached by a pan-handling cowboy. I guess this is the new west.

First Church of the Single Digits

Church attendance was down a bit this week. I counted nine of the faithful. It's true that the threat of a snow flurry on Monday has kept a few away. We have lost two important families. One was the associate pastor, education director, school principle and treasurer; the other family was the band. I like to think that the band is on the road and sometime between gigs they will reappear. It's to the point that when one family had a family emergency they didn't call for prayer; instead they called to tell the pastor why they weren't there on Sunday, just in case he thought another family left and was about to commit seppuku. Because of my social anxiety disorder I really don't like mega-churches. However, if the present trend continues our church may become a prayer closet. We visited a charismatic baptist church of about 600 people. I sat near the fire exit because I was worried about the combination of "big hair" and pyro-tecnics.

I may be called to teach Sunday School, since our present teacher winters in Florida. I've already assumed the position of "sound guy" and power point screw up. We are currently using a Nazarene book that no one likes so we are doing 3 chapters a week to get through it quicker. While visiting a Christian Book Store I discovered a book by John Eldredge called Waking The Dead. Being the cheap guy that I am I got it out of the library. On Amazon it got 4.5 stars and had 77 reviews. Seventy people loved it and gave it 5 stars and seven people thought it was straight from the PIT and gave it one star. So I read it and really liked it. Carol has started it and she really likes it so far. I have started reading his earlier book Wild At Heart and think it's even better than the later one. Most of the Christian Literature I consider tripe so I am really surprised how much I like this author. Maybe it helps that he agrees with me a lot. Anyway I found a good book to use for Sunday School while CP was looking for accompaniment CD's. I also came across a remarkable painting that depicts the "Foot Prints" poem. If you tilted your head at the correct angle you could see Jesus carrying Jimmy Buffet down the beach.

For now we will continue at our micro-fellowship. CP is singing in the Hendersonville Chorale and we are looking for a Weds. night Bible study; our Weds. night service is on hold till the new year. Membership has it's privileges. I hope we don't get the privilege of being the last ones to turn the lights off.

Asheville Film Festival or Net-Flix Revisited

I decided to go the Asheville Film Festival today. I found one movie I wanted to see and paid the $8 to see this new independant masterpiece from Australia. The theatre was filled with the usual slice of Asheville's "Art & Croissant" crowd. The same people who vote for Al Gore every November whether he is running or not. It was the typical bar scene from "Star Wars". Like a Grateful Dead concert sponsored by the AARP.

About 20 minutes into the movie (just about the time I'm starting to get mildly interested in the characters) the DVD freezes up. They try to clean it up but somehow it won't play past the scratch. They didn't have a back up DVD. So there are about 200 vintage hippies staring at the same blue screen I can easily recreate in my living room. Now all the Traveling Willoughby's have to schlep four blocks down to the Fine Arts Museum for a refund.

I wonder if this happens at Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival? Now if I got this DVD from Net-Flix I could spend a few minutes trying to fix the disc with alcohol and tooth paste. If that didn't work they would rush me out another copy. I'd receive the movie a week later because my local rural sub-contracting mail deliverer in her 1969 Mercedes diesel always previews my movies first; but I would eventually see how movie ended.

You can visit the site of the festival at www.ashevillefilmfestival.com and puruse all the movies you may be able to see. Just note that the cost of a 10 movie pass equals a year of Net-Flix. But alas you would miss out on the ambience of the Freakers Ball, which would be an award winning short in itself.