Been a rather difficult week.  Had a problem earlier in the week, I let it go a bit thinking it would take care of itself.  It didn’t.  It got a lot worse.

Called the doctor’s office here in The Dalles and talked to the triage nurse.  She didn’t like the sounds of it, so told me she would contact the doc, who was in Hood River on Fridays.

She then made an appointment for me for that afternoon at 1300.  He called back and told me that he was going to order some anti-biotics as he thought it stemmed from an infection.  Then we set up a meeting for Tuesday when he is back in town.

One of his associates would be on call and could help me if the problem worsened over the weekend.

Thus far it is static, although still sore – I took some ibuprofen which helped with both the pain AND the swelling, so thus far we are managing.

It was a good thing we didn’t go to Hood River.  At the time of our appointment there was a train wreck in Mosier – a small community between The Dalles and Hood River.

Tanker cars of crude oil derailed and caught fire.  It was close to the freeway so they shut down the freeway between The Dalles and Hood River. 

The alternative route that people were sent on was to go over the Hood River bridge or The Dalles bridge – depending on direction of travel, hit Washington’s Highway 14 – a two lane road – so they could continue on.

HOWEVER the road became so compacted, both ways, it took hours just to cross the bridge not to mention traveling that short 22+/- miles.  EVERYTHING was backed up, trucks part alongside the road and since there was narrow shoulders they had part of their vehicle on the traveled part of the highway.

Deed left work at 1800 hours going west bound on the freeway and then went through some other roads to get around most of the stuck traffic (helps when you know the area.)  STILL it took her over 4 hours where she normally would be on the road for about one and a half hours.

On top of that she almost ran over an idiot that had set up his tripod in the middle of one of the roads – at night – black clothes.  She yelled at him to get off the road, he shrugged it off.  She said at least put some flares on the road to give warning to drivers since he was way too hard to see.  He couldn’t do that – it would ruin his picture!

Carla looked out our kitchen window about 2200.  From there we can see across the river and highway 14.  She noticed red lights flashing; it looked like the rope type of Christmas tree lights.  It took her a couple of minutes, but she realized that was the traffic on Highway 14 bumper to bumper.

IF we had gone to Hood River, and IF we found out about the traffic before getting in the middle of it, we would have gone south on highway 35 and taken the cut-off to Dufur and then back up 197 to The Dalles.  It would take a bit, but probably far less time than just getting across the bridge in Hood River – it was a mess.

One of the reasons why you don’t leave town without a full – or almost full tank of gas, no matter how far you plan on driving – who knows how many vehicles ran out of gas as they sat there idling for hours.

Psalms 145:3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

Science is amazing.  Everyday scientist are learning more and more about the earth, people, space, animals, things in general.

With each new discovery they find how complicated all of this is, how so much is undecipherable because the deeper they go the more complicated things are.

Originally we were told a simple, single cell was just that a single cell.  But as technicians developed stronger and stronger microscopes we learn that even the simplest of cells is complicated, it is like a miniature factory with many facets.

So why do so many scientist proclaim that everything evolved from a rock, or an indescribable piece of matter smaller than a period on this paper all of the sudden exploded and the universe is the result?

We look at man’s invention and we marvel.  The ingenuity of mankind is attributed to random and unforeseen forces that somehow come together.  The universe is magnificent, but it just came about of its own accord.

We are told that it took billions of years to be where we are right now – course if you place a piece of anything on the ground, it doesn’t become something else – other than rust if medal or dust if bio-degradable – it doesn’t create a superior life form. 

Even billions of years wouldn’t make any difference.

We look at a statue or a painting, we look at a house and we admire the results, how beautiful how well done and put together.

No one even thinks of saying that these items were self-created, we know better.  They developed from the fertile mind of a person who had the skill and ability to produce them, either by themselves or in tandem with others.

We don’t praise the art for being the art, but the artist for their creation.

Yet, man denies that there was a Creator.  Man denies that there is a God who created it all, who composed the universe and all that is in it with His mind and spoke it into being with His voice.   

Hard as it may be for us to get our minds wrapped around the concept, the evidence is there, in plain view.  Every plant, every animal, and every human has the same characteristics – they are unique and complicated.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.

Man’s ability and ingenuity to design instruments to look into these incredible things on earth only prove that God’s work is so great we will never fully discover His depth.

The more we learn the more we realize He is God and He deserves our praise, not just our thanks, not just our prayers for His intervention, but for WHO and WHAT He is – He is God, He is the Creator.

Later, Art :-)