Hmph.

So, I've lived in the Lake Gaston area almost my whole life. I've been driving the back roads and by-ways for the last ten years. I've seen my fair share of woodland critters cross the road, and I've seen my fair share of woodland critters fail to cross the road. If you go back 7-10 years, it seems like I would hit a possum every few months, I hit a few squirrels now and then, several birds, heck, I even hit a rooster once! (Ask me about that in person some time, he was playing "chicken" to impress a hen. Really!) Though I tried rather hard, I don't think I ever got a cat. And yes, cats are the only animal I ever tried to run down. I hit a deer once, but, thankfully, I saw it far enough in advance that I was only doing about 10-15 mph when I clipped its back legs. It and my car were fine. I even hit a turtle once. But I swear, it wasn't my fault. I was looking in the ditch because I thought I saw a dead person, (It turns out that it was a scarecrow) and then I heard a sickening crunch under my tires, when I looked in the mirror I saw the remnants of a turtle. (I don't know if it was dead before I hit it, I could be innocent.) Another time, I was crossing a bridge in my Firebird when a Canada Goose took off from the water and flew along beside the bridge for a while. It then swerved in front of me, and was aerodynamically pushed higher and avoided me by mere inches. When I looked out the glass in my T-tops, I know it couldn't have been more than 6-8 inches away from the glass.
All that to say, other than a Jeep in early March, I haven't hit much wildlife with my car in the past 6 years. And, oddly enough, about March I started seeing new, or different, wildlife around the lake. I don't know if they sensed my experience on the road and were rewarding me with their appearances, or what. But I'll give you a quick run-down of what I've seen over the past few months.
I've seen 4 turkeys in the road, 2 of them walked off, 2 flew off. I was nearly hit 2 or 3 times by wildly banking buzzards in flight (That would not be pretty). I ran a wrinkly bloodhound off the road (It was in the other lane, but when it saw me, it jumped like I scared it, and shook all its extra skin around. I thought it looked pretty funny.). I've seen countless deer, squirrels and opossum. A gray fox darted out of a ditch-bank and across my path. Several dozen turtles have been spotted (and skillfully avoided, I add with pride). I even had a peacock cross the road in front of me. Yes, I'm sure it was a peacock, and it's been spotted by others.
I couldn't help but get the feeling that this was some sort of send-off by my local critter friends; wishing me a fond and safe farewell as I move to Richmond.
(Cue the move.)
I moved to Richmond on Thursday, June 14, 2007. I consider my time of residency change to be the time I arrived, 7:15 PM. The first time I left my new home was the next day at about 2:30-3:00. So, less than 20 hours after moving to "the city", and less than two blocks worth of driving as a citizen, I bagged my first squirrel. Hmph.

Ok, so here's a new post.

- I don't know what's going on. I really don't. I think it's good that I think I've realized that by this stage of my life, but, of course, I bet that just means that I don't really realize that I don't know what's going on. I bet a few years from now I'll be like, "Boy, I sure thought I knew it all back in '07. What a dupe I was." Then the process will probably repeat. I don't know, though. It might not. Whatever. I think that I think about what I think too much for my own good. Any thoughts?


- I ... uh, nevermind.


- "What's the possibility of a guy like you and a girl like me ending up together?" What's that from? You should know, it's the most quotable movie of this generation. Well, one of the top 5.


- The 80's rule. Except for the fact that it would take WAAAAYYYYYYYY too long to get ready every day.


- Taking bets on how long to the next post...closest without guessing too long...winner gets a token of appreciation.

I stare at the page in front of me, (and this isn't the first time I've done this) and I can't think of anything I want to say. Nothing. Me, David Nida, verbose man of many words and few verbal lapses, cannot think of a single interesting or funny or inspiring or challenging thing to say to the rest of the world. (Who'm I kidding, maybe ten people. 12 tops!) What does that say? I don't know. If I did, I could tell you about it, but I don't know. I don't even have a speculative guess. I cannot proffer a gentle, prodding thesis into that calm, waiting void. Though I do feel like being unnecessarily and not altogether sensibly wordy. I guess if I knew what that says about me, I would be closer to knowing what my lack of, uhm, i dunno, communicative motivation (?) says about me. So this is what I've come up with to let the waiting throngs hear from me. I am breaking my silence to let you know that: Last night I completed 3, successively more difficult, Sudokus in less than 30 minutes. Yeah, Baby!!1

To my accountability partners:

I'd like to take this time to thank many of you for your open, honest blogs. Blogs that deal with the heart of whatever is on your heart. Blogs that share what is going on in your life, and therefore share Christ.
I live in a vast ocean of emptiness. I'm not trying to be a sensationalist or anything, but there's nothing and (almost) no one here. You can ask Dan if you want confirmation, he's lived here. And at times -- no, for most of my life -- the lack of fraternization and fellowship has weighed heavily on my heart and life. I am, and always have been, an extrovert. Everything about me, from my heart rate and breathing patterns, to the quality and quantity of my speech, to the way I can't seem to slow down at all, all seem to change depending on whether or not people are involved with whatever I'm doing. And there's no offense meant to any of the kids at church, but, I mean, the oldest is 18, and I'm 25, and sometimes I just want a peer.
I know that it is a failing of mine, but I struggle to do anything when I don't get enough interaction with my peers. I have difficulty achieving anything at all. I can't write anything, I can't create things, I can't read good books, I can't even keep a proper blog. What's more, and much, much more important, is that I can't keep walking with God. I know that I shouldn't depend on people. But I do. Without people in my life, in some form, I just shut down. It's not even that I need them to challenge me directly about my walk -- though that is an unbelievably welcome (and rare) blessing -- I just need people to be around.
That's why I love it when you come to CWR. That's why I almost never miss working a weekend there. That's why I am so moved by reading your blogs, that sometimes it gets hard to breathe. That's why I want to thank you for being honest. Without your honesty and discussion of what you are dealing with, I wouldn't take time to think about them myself. You have been my accountability this year, and I thank you.
Please, if you will, reach out to me some time, or someone else. Not necessarily this week, though that would be fine, or even this year, but if you could just call me sometime and say something, it would make my day. Maybe even my week. Truly. And if you feel like it, ask about my walk with God, my current walk. I may not be walking that closely at the time, so the answer might not be an encouragement to you, but the act of the question itself (even if I'm not close to Him at the time) will bless me immeasurably. Thank you for loving God.

Dan Hawkins and D.C.Talk

I think a lot of people just don't realize how cool those two both are. I'm not sure of the reasons why. I like both Dan and D.C.Talk, even though some might find that an odd coupling. They're both held in high esteem by the majority of those who have attended CWR, frequently considered, "Awesome", and have been key influences on my life since the mid-nineties. So, here's to both of them. Yay!

My Car.

AHHHHhhh! Uh, Happy Thanksgiving recovery day. I sincerely hope your Thinksgiving day was blessed.
I've found myself in a bit of a predicament. I may have offended someone close to me, and I don't know how to make it right. By my calculations, Monday night, on the way to Jeremy's house, my car hit 100,000 miles. I didn't notice for another coupla days or so. I don't know what I should do to make it up to him/her. I mean, it's oil change isn't for another 1000 miles or so, and I can't afford new paint or rims. I'm at a loss. Please, if you have any ideas about how to patch up our relationship, let me know ASAP. I don't want to leave this situation raw like this any longer than I have to. Thanks for your understanding and swift response.

My internet is back up.

So, what a week. My month was a bit odd. I lost my computer's internet access a while ago, and got it back yesterday. But I'm jumping ahead there, and this is going to have to be organized if it's gonna make any sense at all. This is the week that has just transpired.
To start, I went to work a bit early so I could then go to Matt's play. I went to Matt's play. It was good. I got to hang out with the Creacy's and was exposed to the wonderous joyness of Charlie the Unicorn. (see Dan's blag, or youtube)
Tuesday I got to eat breakfast with Matt and Luke Whitehead. It was good. I then went home and played some PS2 for awhile (maybe 7 hours...it was my day off; and though I'm not proud of the time I spent [some would say, "wasted"] I did spend them in such a manner, and I'm giving you the facts.) (Remind me to tell you my ideas about the enticement and allure of video games some time, I think it could be an interesting topic.).
Wednesday seemed kinda normal when I woke up, but then I got to work. I was asked shortly after arrival to consider, on such short notice, working the midnight shift as well later that night. I thought for a moment, and responded in the affirmative. After my morning shift I went to AWANA then stayed at home for a few hours then went to work. At 6:00, after being awake for 22 hours, I finished my shift for the day of Thurs, and decided to go to Wal-Mart to get a router for my computer so it would work. When I got to Wal-Mart, I saw a friend of a friend sitting on a bench. That wasn't too weird in itself, but because it was 7:00 AM, and I knew this guy didn't usually get up that early, it made me go, "Hmmm." He then told me that he was waiting in line for a PS3. I thought for a moment, and decided that, since I had already worked that day's shift, I, too, was waiting for a PS3. I called J, and a few hours later he was in line as well. And we had a great line. There was none of that pushing and fighting or anything, we held each others spots, even let each other go to restaraunts in the shopping center. Number 2 was actually a local children's minister. And number 8 was a homeless man being paid to wait. I was 10 and J was 12. We were forced to wait outside, due to this Wal-mart's policy. That wasn't so bad for most of the morning, but, by mid-day, the storm system that caused the tornadoes across parts of our great state came through with a vengance. Or maybe just a lot of water in a short amount of time. About the time that it became pointless for us to go inside because we were totally soaked already, they let us come in to wait in the foyer. Sometime during the day, I went to RadioShack and discovered that my other router was still under warranty, and would be until Sunday. Some time after dark the local news station showed up (and yes, I meant to say that the station showed up. One guy pretty much does it all, writing, reporting, anchor, tech, commercial filming, y'know, th whole shebang.) and interviewed me and a few of the other people standing in line. We even got to show him what we did to stay warm, Hacky-sack. At about 10 or 10:30 PM they gave out the rain-checks to numbers 7-12, and we were free to leave. So J and I drove to Ahoskie because rumor had it that at 6PM they had no one in line, and they weren't opening the doors until 7:00 AM. We got there at 11:50, and 12 & 13 had just shown up. They had 12 spots at their Wal-Mart as well. We drove home (J stopping in Ro-Rap to drop me off at my car) and about the time I crawled into bed Friday morning at 2:00 I hit my 42nd consecutive waking hour. I slept.
When I got to work (a few hours late -- don't worry, I called in tired on Thursday), I had an uneventful shift. I then took a shower and went to church for our monthly Open Gym night. I played some soccer-type sport in an enclosed room (lots of running into each other) then shot some B-Ball. After a few minutes of that, we lowered the goal to a more accessible level (8' 6") and had a dunk contest type thing. That'll wear you out. It kills the legs. Badly.
Saturday I got up in time to go to RadioShack and Wal-Mart and exchange my new router and pick up my replacement for my old one before heading to CWR for the last retreat of the season. It was a nice, cool, breezy afternoon. I got to discuss the prospects of UNC's upcoming lesson in dominating a sport from the opening tip-off in November until the Madness of March starts to fade slowly away into the glow of yet another trophy sitting in a well-lit case for posterity to murmer in wonder at the splendor and glory of a truly great franchise and their hard-won hardware. Or something like that. Then I came home, planned a Sunday School lesson, installed a router and the appropriate software, and have been writing this blag entry ever since. I hope you've read and enjoyed it, I've enjoyed reading yours, and I never miss it. I'm just too shy to comment.