The Musings of Colleen & Tim Dearborn - Tim - Personal

San Francisco or Chicago?

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:51:17 -0600

I have been at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco over the last week. I think the below graphic adequately describes how much I am looking forward to Chicago weather when I return.

Of Dinosaurs and Cavemen

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:42:53 -0700

While taking care of a email setting problem for an instructional assistant in a 3rd grade classroom today, I overheard an interesting discussion. The class, seated on the floor in a circle, was discussing a book about a caveman who had a dinosaur as a pet. The teacher, emphasizing the fictional nature of the story, asked, "Did caveman really have dinosaurs as pets?" A resounding "No!" arose from the class. "Were dinosaurs around when cavemen were on the earth?" Another strong chorus of "No's".

I bit my tongue and shook my head a little, heart saddened some. I am probably imaging it, but perhaps there was a little disappointment hiding underneath that 2nd third grade "No". What if they were able to hear or read about true dinosaur stories? "True stories", you may ask? Yes, true stories like God creating the land-based dinosaurs on the fifth day, the same day as man, stories of Adam giving different dinosaurs their names, stories of Noah finding room in his huge ark for them, stories of Job's knowledge of dinosaurs, and speculative stories of a new Earth were dinosaurs may once again roam the earth along side of grown-up third graders.

Behold now, Behemoth, which I made as well as you; He eats grass like an ox.
Behold now, his strength in his loins and his power in the muscles of his belly.
He bends his tail like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are knit together.
His bones are tubes of bronze; His limbs are like bars of iron.
He is the first of the ways of God; Let his maker bring near his sword.
Surely the mountains bring him food, And all the beasts of the field play there.
Under the lotus plants he lies down, In the covert of the reeds and the marsh.
The lotus plants cover him with shade; The willows of the brook surround him.
If a river rages, he is not alarmed; He is confident, though the Jordan rushes to his mouth.
Can anyone capture him when he is on watch, With barbs can anyone pierce his nose

Render unto Caesar...

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:32:37 -0700

I just finished the filing my Federal and State taxes, as well as paying my first installment of our property taxes. In Sunday School, we just finished studying about how the slaves in Egypt paid 20% of their produce as a tax to Pharaoh through Joseph. The slaves had a good deal. We pay a total of about 27% in taxes -- and I'm sure I missed some. I am not complaining... much. We live in a great country. It's just that people sometimes forget that if the government does something, we have to pay for it.

10% Effective Federal Income Tax (after deductions and such)
3% State Income Tax
9% State & County Sales Tax (don't forget utility, gasoline, and phone taxes)
5% Property Tax (property tax compared to our annual income)

Antarctica or the Shores of Lake Michigan?

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:33:02 -0700

Brain Tumors and Thankfulness

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:19:17 -0700

Romans 5:3 (RSV) says, "We rejoice in our sufferings..." and I Thess 5:16 (NAS) commands "Rejoice always". There is no one I know who has lived these verses out more powerfully than my younger cousin, Melinda. In 2007, she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Since then, she has had 2 surgeries, with a 3rd surgery coming up on Monday, Feb. 1.

However, ifyou read Melinda's most recent journal post (Jan 27, 10), you will not find someone who is petrified, but someone who is bubbling over with thankfulness, literally in every paragraph. Melinda spends more time praising her surgeon and asking people to pray for God to bless him, than she does asking for prayer for her own surgery. Wow - what an example for us all. The next time I start to complain about something, I need to shut my mouth, re-read this post, be thankful, and pray for Melinda (and yes, Melinda, I will pray for Dr. Madden too).

A Sequel to the Bible

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:55:00 -0700

An eight-year-old daughter of a friend of mine asked him, "dad, in like a million, thousand years are they going to write a sequel to the Bible?" Here is my long-winded response to her...

"God's sequels, unlike many movie sequels, are always more powerful, exciting, etc than the original (ex. 1st Earth/New Earth; 1st Adam/2nd Adam). If God authors a 2nd version of His Word, the same will be true of it.

But wait, maybe in a way, He has already started. 2Cor 3:2-3 says that our transformed lives are letters of Christ, are trophies of God's grace (Ephes. 2:7)

Revelation 20:12 talks about books that contain all the deeds people have done. Unbelievers are judged by these books. Perhaps these books also contain our story. Maybe we will study them, discovering how God worked through ALL the events in our life, good and terrible, to protect us, bring us to Himself, and showcase His grace. And then, after we have just begun to understand God's goodness, we will hear other people's stories about how God did the same thing in their lives.

Maybe, just maybe, WE are one of the books in God's sequel."

Bald Eagles and Ice Flows

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:46:19 -0700

Karis an I just returned from a beautiful, albeit overcast trip to Starved Rock with some friends from church. We viewed the first Bald Eagles that I have ever seen in the wild. The frozen waterfalls were mind-boggling -- good thing I didn't bring crampons and 2 ice-axes. The path and wooden steps were icier than I have ever seen them. Thankfully, I was wearing a pair of Yak-Traxs that I picked up at Menards for $14. It was like walking on dry pavement the whole time, even when I climbed around the ice-fall.

Stock Market Peaks and Valleys

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0700

I like to publicly comment on how our retirement funds have done at the close of each year, in hopes of offering some encouragement to others. In 2006, I started taking personal responsibility for managing our retirement money by investing in 10-15 individual stocks, with the help of Motley Fool Stock Advisor. My goal was simple when I started. I wanted to do better than the S&P 500. 2008 was an awful year. However, as a result of not withdrawing from the market, we ended 2009 slightly above where we started in 2008. The current score, from 1/2004 to 12/2009: S&P 500 - up 1/4 of 1%; Our investments - up 102%.

Below is a table of how our retirement investments have done over the last 6 years on an annual basis.

Year	Method	Our Increase	S&P 500
2004	Mutual Funds	16%	09%
2005	Mutual Funds	08%	03%
2006	Indivd. Stocks	24%	10%
2007	Indivd. Stocks	52%	04%
2008	Indivd. Stocks	-40%	-38%
2009	Indivd. Stocks	72%	23%

2010 Bible Reading

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:28:05 -0700

There are lots of Bible-reading plans available online that involve reading the entire Bible on different schedules from 90 days to 3 years. My plan for 2010 is a little more simple, and doesn't involve a schedule, per se. Simply read the New Testament in order, one chapter a day. What happens if you miss a day? No sweat. Just read ONE chapter the next day. Don't worry about trying to catch up, as that often discourages people from continuing if they miss several days in a row. (You can miss several days and still will complete the whole New Testament before the end of the year.) Is anyone interested?

Hundreds Gather to Protest Global Warming

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:41:52 -0700

More Info

Beautiful Halloween Covered Bridge Ride

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:22:03 -0700

On a chilly Halloween morning, I rode with my brother-in-law, Eric, to central Indiana. The day started before sunrise with a light rain and 10-15 mph winds. It gradually warmed up and the sun came out (though I discovered that traveling at 60+mph for an hour in 40 degree weather can be quite chilly). Our destination was Rockville, IN and Parke County, the Covered Bridge Capital of the World. Once there, we toke the "red" covered bridge route, enjoying several covered bridges, low-traveled back roads, a little bit of gravel, and some beautiful scenery. We stopped at Bridgeton, home a double-span covered bridge, where we enjoyed some hot chili at the Mill and I had hot cherry cobbled topped off with some very orange pumpkin ice-cream. Then, after a primer in ninety-degree turns on 1 1/2 lane blacktops, we headed home to finish my first road trip of 380 miles.

First Bike With a Motor

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:10:10 -0600

I have bicycled 38,000 miles, crossed mountains ranges, major cities, and peddled over 1,000 miles on 3 aluminum cylinders inside. I always thought that having a motor on a bike was cheating. But after driving a truck that gets 19 mph on good days, and after realizing that most of my day was spent either inside a building or inside a vehicle, a motor on a bike for the purpose of commuting started to peak my interest. We have some beautiful forest preserves that I can drive through if I desire on my way to work.

So, after taking a very helpful motorcycle class, getting my license, and persuading my wonderful but very concerned wife, I bought my first bike with a motor: a 2006 Kawasaki Vulcan 500. It had less than 3000 miles on it, and was purchased for less than $3000. As a bonus, the previous owner drove it to my house. (My skill level isn't such yet that I was willing to drive it from the north side of Chicago back down to the southern edge of the city.) Now, I wonder if our Golden Retriever can fit in one of the saddle bags.......?

President Obama's School Speech - A Revealing Time for American Christianity

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:12:45 -0600

President Obama addressed school children today. His speech could be summed up as, "Do your best in school. Don't let any negative circumstances you may currently find yourself in be an excuse to have a bad attitude toward your education." It was not the speech that made the news. It was the reaction, no the outrage and controversy, stirred up by parents who did not want their children being "indoctrinated" by the President that made the news. Below is my response, which I posted as a comment in a blog of a friend of mine.

A Telling Time For American Conservative Christianity

The full text of President Obama's speech has been available for a couple of days. Besides maybe being a little humanistic, is there anything indoctrinating it it? If this same speech had been given by President Reagan, what would have been Conservative Christian response? I believe it would have been "Amen". What is the difference?

We are not a monarchy. However, in our country, the office and title of "President" has historically carried with it a great amount of honor and respect. More often than not, in the direct presence of the President, he is addressed as "Mr. President" and not by his given name, pointing to the honor that is carried, not by the person per se, but by the office.

I fear that our culture in America today has lost that respect of the office. In the more recent couple of decades, this respect was there with President Reagan, obliterated by President Clinton through what became public infidelity, and then was starting to be rebuilt through President Bush and President Obama. However, this respect is under attack, by among others, many Christians who have lost the ability to have respect for those with whom they disagree, much less the ruler of the land.

I fear we have forgotten how to do the 2nd part of I Peter 3:15, "always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence". If we don't know how to respect the leader we can see (and disagree with), how can we respect the Leader we can not see (and our sinful hearts sometimes secretly disagrees with)? How can we teach our children to respect authority, when our own actions show that we only need to respect authority that we agree with?

Air Force Poster or Family Photo?

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:36:43 -0600

Lately, in the midst of the presidential election and economic woes, our troops in harms way have received very little attention. Please remember to keep them and their safety in your prayers.

I post these pictures, not because they would make great Air Force pictures (which they would), but because my cousin Chris Wells is behind the wheel, or stick, or whatever they call it in an F-16.

Cylon Economic Woes

nospam@example.com (Tim Dearborn) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:07:16 -0600