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Nov. 12, 2009

The day the earth almost died....

Over the last century, and especially recently, countless people have predicted that the world is going to end due to some catastrophe.  Some predicted aliens; some prophesied that overpopulation would lead to massive incurable famines; still others proclaimed that the end would come by disease, permenant submersion of all habitable land, a super volcano, an experimental accident, global warming, a nearby supernova, superintelligent computers, or grey goo nano-technology that would dominate the universe. All these scenarios have been seriously put forward, but few as much as one: that earth will be hit and destroyed by a giant asteroid. Now serious people usually brush off all these scenarios off, calling them "alarmist" and "apocolyptic." Those who trust in science say that man could ward off any of these threats that might actually be possible. For example they say: 'We can detect astroids years before they come near earth and a well guided missle sent from earth could end an asteroid's life far out in space.' Well, theses people sound much more credible and believable. And they are, but neither side has things completely right as was proved this past week. Science was proved faulty last Friday when an asteroid nearly struck earth and was not detected until 15 hours before it made its closest approach. (Click here for article). Fortunately, the asteroid was only 23 feet in diameter, and would have been much reduced in size by the time it hit earth. Still, it could have exploded in the atmosphere and caused severe damage. Several historical events show the damage that can be done even by small asteroids or meteors: 1. In prehistoric times a 54 yard long meteor hit in what's now Arizona. It caused a 4,000 ft long crater that is 570 ft deep. See the picture below. 2. In 1490, in China, historical documents tell of 10,000 people being slain by "falling stones." Astronomers believe these "stones" to have been the result of an asteroid that exploded in the atmosphere. 3. The most recent impact catastrophe was the Tunguska Event in Russia in 1908, when a 4-6 mile wide meteor blew up in the atmosphere directly impacting 830 sq miles.  Fortunately it happened above an empty part of Siberia populated only by extensive evergreen forests. The damage was still tremendous. The explosion was 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, and produced the effect of a level 5 earthquake. There are many eyewitness accounts from Tungus villagers and Russian settlers living many hundreds of miles away on the shores of Lake Baikal. They report seeing a massive blue column, as bright as the sun, descend from the sky and immediately after, a massive explosion that knocked people off their feet, broke all the windows, and severely damaged crops. This was all hundreds and hundreds of miles away. The influence of the explosion was felt even in Europe. There was no night in either Europe or Asia for several days afterward due to the explosion. People in London could read their newspapers at night in its light. It was generally assumed to be the beginning of the end of the world. In Siberia itself, where the explosion actually happened, a new lake was created 80 million trees were felled as seen in the picture below. If that asteroid on Friday had hit earth and if it had been as big as the Tunguska asteroid, our world would be drastically changed. And scientists didn't even see it coming until hours before the event. If an asteroid like Tunguska hit the US, China, or Europe, the world as we know it would truly have been at an end.

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

The end of our big white faithful Toyota Hiace van

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! Thanks for all the prayers and messages we’ve received. How incredibly heartwarming and comforting to be surrounded with such care. Let me fill in the details. We were heading for Hamilton on Saturday in two vans to celebrate the first wedding anniversary of some friends who were actually travelling with us in the second van (along with Barbara, Charmagne, Kaitlyn & Grace). Hamilton was the venue as that is where the bride hails from. And that is where a certain Christian Dairy Farmer (Paul & Helen) had just dressed down a couple of big moo cows for us to Bar B Q and eat our fill of marinated fillet steaks. Perfect weather and driving conditions, little traffic on the road…it really was pleasurable motoring. Jeremiah was driving the big white Toyota Hiace van with myself in the passenger front seat and Jedediah squeezed between us. In the back seat, Alanson was lying out having a snooze and all the luggage for us 4 and the 6 in the second van was in the end part of the van. Just as we approached the wee village of Owhango on State Highway 4 (just a wee way south of Taumarunui) and coming out of a large sweeping curve to the right, the van left the road and we found ourselves on the grass shoulder which also dropped away lower than the level of the road. In an effort to get back on the road, Jeremiah turned to the right before letting the van slow down. The effect was to shoot us back onto the road, across our lane and into the on-coming lane. To correct that, he turned back to the left. The van rolled onto its right side, then onto its top and then onto the left side, all the while sliding at speed down the centre of the road, with the nose of the van pointing straight down the road, right on top of the white line in the centre. Alanson found himself sitting on what used to be a side door window with the tar seal ripping his rear end away. It took his pants but left all his skin. He also got various cuts to his feet and hands plus a cut at the back of his head and a big graze near the right kidney. Jeremiah’s right collar bone got broken by the seat belt and his right shoulder was burned by the heat of the tar seal and glass ripping off his sweatshirt’s shoulder but leaving his skin pretty much intact. Jedediah got a wee graze on one elbow and two fingertips. Something hit the top of my head making two slices, one requiring 8 stitches and the other needing 2. And my left index finger took a whack turning it black and blue and swelling, but not so much as a scuff mark. The front window of the van, being now vertical and without glass, was like a handy five foot high door through which three of us stepped out, and Alanson got out the back “door”. I looked like a crash victim with the red stuff running freely over my bald head and down my face. Alanson got me to the side of the road and we both sat down, he holding my wound. I really had next to no pain and was just thinking what a hassle this was all going to be. Barbara and the rest were checking on us and shifting our gear off the road. A motorist stopped and was very helpful with providing shade, a first aid kit and talking to me “to keep me awake.” I was feeling fine, but in answer to his questions, I got to explain a lot about home education! Two farmers in the paddocks came running, the male directing traffic and the female, a nurse as well as a dirt farmer, got straight onto me. The next person to come into my view identified himself as a doctor, probed us four in a professional manner, pronounced us AOK and took off. Then came the rescue firemen who assisted the farmer/nurse in assessing us all and in cleaning me up a bit. Police turned up and gave ol’ Jeremiah the third degree…they were nice about it and advised him of the possible legal scenarios coming up. When St Johns arrived, there wasn’t much for them to do, but load us in the Ambulance and take us to Taumarunui Hospital. I guess we spent a couple hours there. The staff was just great, all over us doing this and that as apparently it gets pretty quiet there at Taumarunui Hospital. They have a brand new x-ray machine and the operator was having a ball doing Jeremiah’s collar bone and taking multiple images of my bruised finger (fair enough) but also of my neck for some unknown reason. They never told us anything about the x-ray images they got. But every Dr and nurse who came near me seemed to have a blood pressure cuff to put on me and then read the riot act about how high the numbers were. Steve drove the two hours down from Hamilton to collect us from the hospital and take us all back to wife Linda, Paul & Helen, the six daughters from these two families and those mountains of steaks waiting to be Bar B Qued and devoured. But they had to leave me behind, as the Drs decided I needed to spend the night for observation. My room mate turned out to be about as Kiwi a bloke as you could find: life-long forestry worker who started out chopping down Rimu, Tawa, Matai, etc., camping in the hills, eating wild venison, wild pigs and Wood Pigeons. He’s done the deer culling from helicopters, dealt in exporting feral venison, goat  meat & pork to Germany and got his own pilot’s license. At 68 years he was still driving bulldozers dragging felled logs to the trucks. About three months ago he set the brake on the dozer on a steep hill, stood on the rear tracks to unhitch the wire ropes when the dozer took off backwards. His chaps got caught in the tracks and his right leg was mangled to bits before a stump caused the dozer to stop. His mate got on the dozer and drove it off, confirming the brake had been set, then applied a tourniquet. The grace of God, the tourniquet and his all-round fitness saved his life, but he would only say he was lucky. The helicopter from Taupo got to him before the ambulance from Taumaruni could find its way along the 12 miles of logging road.  Next morning, Sunday, Paul drove down to collect me. We had some great fellowship on the drive back and arrived in time to hear Steve’s sermon on I Peter 1:3. And then, believe it or not, we Bar B Qued these fantastic fillet steaks that had been marinating for an extra 24 hours! Talk about melt-in-your-mouth, Trev! But it was all too short, and 8 of us who’d come up had to go back. We left Charmagne and Jedediah as they were off to Auckland airport and then to Australia on Monday, thanks to either Steve’s or Paul’s taxi service! On the way home, we stopped at Owhango Motors to see the old van one last time and at the crash site to look at the tracks in the grass and skid marks (and Police spray paint marks) all over the road. Got home to Palmerston North at 10:30pm, about 33 hours after the crash. At 5am Monday, six and a half hours later, Barbara and I were off doing a delivery run between Marton and Palmerston North, a little business our family just started doing six days a week. And that night at 7:30 I was attending a prayer meeting in Feilding with a very receptive attitude! So the Lord did some quiet, unobtrusive miracles in preserving us through a 100kmph roll along tar seal with no traffic coming the other way and no obstacles to wrap ourselves around. We’ve been evaluating the whole thing and asking and trying to answer the many questions that come, fully convinced that God ordained every detail of it as part of our maturing and sanctification programme. Certainly life is very fragile; God holds every detail in His hands; we need to be about His business.

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Stuff

Yay! I got my template finished! One thing I like about it is that I can post my pictures bigger than before. I might change a few things someday but for now it's good enough. :-) This is the first template I've ever had that I used an image map for the header. It was lots of fun! Later today we're going to the park with a friend. We'll bring our tennis rackets and balls. We're hoping that the firefighters aren't playing though, because I don't think I've ever gone to this park and they haven't shown up...  And then after that, we are going to the library. And lastly, here is a random photo that I took a few months ago at a park in CA. There was a whole family of ducks swimming around in the pond. The ducklings were sooooooo cute and fluffly that I wanted to pick them up and cuddle them, but of course that isn't allowed. :-) The mother duck probably wouldn't have been too happy with me...

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Nov. 12, 2009

Girlhood Home Companion Magazine Giveaway!

Nov. 12, 2009

Free sheet music

Have you ever heard a song that you liked and then looked it up online to see if there's a piece of free sheet music for it?     Often you can find a piece of free sheet music for that song, such as 'The Spinning Song' for piano. But more often than not you can't find what your looking for... At least I can't. Below are links for four sheet music sites, which don't come up when you google 'free sheet music', they never have for me anyway. http://imslp.org/ A project to put all out of print music online for anyone to use. This website has a lot of classical music on it. Music Scores   Has a lot of free arrangements and solos ranging in difficulty levels. Some songs are not free. Also the site has a limit of downloading three files every twenty-four hours if you are not a member. To become a member it costs thirty dollars a year. Making Music Fun  Mostly easy music. Meant for a  music teacher  resource. It's all free and there's music for a lot of different instruments. The Session free Irish fiddle tunes. These are arrangements just simple tunes. My favorite is music scores, except the limitations can be annoying. I also like Imslp a lot but it just depends what your looking for There you go, have fun! =D                           ~Ness

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