Bicycle Jump

It has been awhile since I have done an update here. Sorry. I will start with a video from our weekend at Hume Lake and the bicycle jump off the end of the pier. Nobody in the video is someone I know but it was fun to watch. I got a great seat near the landing and I was surprised how good of a seat it was. The first guy jumped and I almost got wet! I realized that must have been why nobody was sitting there! But none of the other jumpers got close to getting me wet.
( I added the music).




It was a great weekend to get away and enjoy the mountains. It was the first time that Patty and I have been there in the summer. We have been at many winter camps with the high school group and this was cool. The students are more serious about their walk and we were not there as staff. We were just like another college person.
The speaker was Josh Riebock from Austin Texas. He was new to Hume.
One of the sessions he was sharing from the story of Jesus turning the water to wine at a wedding. During the feast they ran out of wine. Jesus asked the servants to go fill up the jars with water and then draw some out and take it to the master. That is all they were asked to do. Nothing else. Fill the jars and then take what they thought was water to the master. Jesus would do the rest. Too often we try to do too much on our own power. We need to just hear and obey. Nothing else. Sometimes things are real simple what we are asked to do and we can't believe it. There has to be more. Nope. He does the work. We are just the servants. The hands and feet.

What we missed in Tanzania!

When we went on our Tanzanian safari at Mikumi Wildlife Preserve, we looked high and low for lions. A fellow from Florida who used our 10th group ticket was at this same preserve 3 or 4 days before us did see the lions. Here is a picture of the male!

National Night Out

Last night,Tuesday August 5, was National Night Out. It started 25 years ago in Philadelphia as a way to bring neighbors together with the police to talk about ways to combat gangs, violence and drugs. It has now spread nationwide and Target is involved as a partner too. With the help of Gary Johnson (friend that goes to our church) we put on one of the 25 or so local San Jose Night Out's. We invited lots of neighbors and came together to share food and got to know each other. Some of the police department came as well. Below are pictures of us enjoying a ton of food that neighbors brought to share. We also had some people from Hillside which help out at Farm Drive come by and help out.

Gary brought his popcorn maker. It was a big hit!

We had 3 people from the Crime Stoppers organization come by. It is a non-profit group that helps communities and police fight crime. Also 2 of our local beat officers came by. Here is Rudy talking to some of the kids.

The other officer here is talking to some of the older kids. It was great that they could connect with the kids in a very casual atmosphere.

One of the captains of this area stopped by. It was a great evening to get to know everyone!

Giants Game

Patty and I had 4 tickets to a recent San Franscico Giants game. When we got up in the morning Patty wasn't feeling to good. Reuben (on left) and Leroy went with just me. We took the Caltrain from San Jose right up to 1 block from the stadium. Self portrait.

Our view from the upper deck. It was fun to go and be there. Game was boring and the Giants lost again. Neither of them had been to a MLB game before and they had a lot of fun. Leroy is scared of heights so this location took him a little while to get comfortable with. (especially after I stopped pushing him!)

Have you ever heard Patty scream?

Ok, So this was at Gil and Amy's house in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Amy's father, Kim, found a frog in their yard and decided to have a little fun with it.

Safari Trip

While we were in Tanzania, we were able to go on a safari to a local wildlife preserve called Mikumi. We were able to get landcruisers that the tops opened up and we drove 6 hours to the park and spent Saturday afternoon there. We spent the night in a hotel nearby and got up early the next day looking for lions. Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

Here is Ian using Stacy's camera taking some pictures.

We were in two vehicles and this is the other vehicle coming up on some zebra's.

Here is a picture of a mom and her baby. We looked all day for lions and did not find any. The grass was pretty high so the chances were slim.

We're Back!

Hi all,
We are back from our trip to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was a wonderful time and I might add some notes here as I see fit later (also pictures of course!) Above in the title is a picture I took at the Mikumi Wildlife Preserve at sunset near the hippo pool.

On Monday of this week we woke up to our Golden Retriever Cosmo not being able to get up from his lying down position. He eventually was able to get up on all 4's but hobble around on 3 of them. After taking him downstairs to relieve himself he could not climb back up the stairs. Patty and Jessica took him to the Vet to see what was up. (That was a challenge in itself for a 90 pound dog!) In our minds we were seriously thinking that we may have to put him down. The vet later in the day was able to take x-rays and determine that he had 2 discs in his vertebrae that are deteriorating due to age. He gave him a cortisone shot and some pills for a muscle relaxant. (That muscle relaxant also works on his urinary tract too!) The doctor also suggested that he not go up and down the stairs for a week. When we picked him up at the clinic he was walking on all 4's again without much effort. The doctor saw this and was surprised and mentioned that that was a real good sign.

He is doing better each day. I purchased a roll of sod and put it on plastic and a cardboard box so he has a place to urinate. #2 is more challenging!

For those of you that are a regular reader of this blog, you know that Cosmo is a very important part of the Center and he enjoys a very good relationship with everyone! It would have been sad if he did not recover so quickly. We are also very thankful that this did not occur while we were in Africa.