The Land of Ozz

Last night I witnessed first hand the importance of the proper use of handicap spaces and the surrounding area. My wife and I attended the her 10th reunion for the Summerville High School class of 1996. The event was held at clubhouse of a local gated community in Summerville, SC. We were joined by some good friends from out of town at the event and had a pretty good time. The event itself was not worth the $40 per person in my opinion, but the girls wanted to go. I spent a good portion of the night talking with Paul. Paul is the husband of Noel one of my wife’s friends since high school. Paul and Noel were in town from Virginia where they now live. Paul has been bound to a wheel chair for many years as a result of a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. We have grown closer to Paul and Noel in recent years for many reasons because they also have a young son who has had to battle some very complex medical issues. Our families have endured a lot of common scenarios in dealing with our sons’ health care. They are very knowledgeable about their son’s very unique diagnoses.

They have visited our home several times in the past and we try to have them over or go out with them when they are in the area. Paul can drive. My wife did not even know that cars and vans could be equipped like this until just a few years ago. Paul has a specially equipped van that he can travel with unassisted. He can open the right side sliding door and lower the ramp with a remote control. He then navigates his motorized chair into the van where he rolls right up to the driver’s controls. His chair locks into place and he is ready to go. The use of these features of his van is where the problem came in last night.

Last night Paul parked his van in a handicap spot with the right side facing one of those blue striped areas. You know the ones I am talking about. The are found right next to the handicap space with the diagonal lines that are painted the same color blue as the handicap symbol found painted on the pavement in the handicap space. The purpose of these diagonal lines are alert people not to park there to allow for specially equipped vans to lower their ramps and lifting systems. Paul parked and exited his van using this nice space as it was intended to be used.

After the reunion gathering, Paul, Noel, Sherry, and I were the last of our group of friends to depart. The four of us talked for the better part of an hour just outside the door of the clubhouse. We then proceeded towards our vehicles to find a cute little Honda Element parked about two feet away from the right side of Paul’s van. There was absolutely no way to get the ramp down. There was no way to get him positioned in front of the ramp even if it had come down. His vehicle was rendered useless by the position of the other vehicle. Now we considered for one short minute the possibility that one of use could stand in there and use the controls to move the van back far enough to clear the other vehicle. Noel tried that once in the past when facing a very similar situation. She ended up bending the Paul’s van and another car in the process. We also thought about putting the van in neutral and attempting to push it back far enough for Paul to get in but I was really the only one immediately available to push. The most logical option was to go back inside and ask the DJ to announce a description of the vehicle that needed to be moved from blocking access to a handicap equipped van. I gladly took on this duty and proceeding back into the building. I found that there was no one in there except the DJ who was packing up, some club staff, and a few stragglers from the reunion. I asked each of them if they drove a Honda Element. No one claimed the vehicle. The club staff offered to call a tow company and I gladly accepted. The remaining few of the reunion attendees were gathered outside the front door. I stopped by every single group of people standing around talking and asked if any of them owned a Honda Element. I did not find the owner of the Element, but I did get some very proud responses from some who wanted to make sure I and others knew they drove Hummers, Mercedes, or BMWs. Once I explained why I was asking, they quickly piped down. I am guessing that these overly proud folks were a little embarrassed about using this unfortunate circumstance to play the “mine is bigger than yours” game.

I went back out by Paul’s van where Sherry was waiting with Paul and Noel. I told them that I could not locate the owner of the vehicle and the staff was calling for a tow truck. A few minutes later the lights flashed on the car like someone was hitting the lock button on a remote. I immediately yelled out that who ever owned this vehicle should move it immediately because a tow truck was being called to haul to off. No one responded and the few groups of remaining folks just stood a looked at us like were crazy.

A few minutes later a couple of the clubhouse staff members came out. One of them said that none of the towing companies would respond to this situation because they had no one to pay for the tow. The staff then called the North Charleston Police to see if they could help. The police arrived a few minutes later. They proceeded to inform us that there was nothing that they could do. The officer said that since this was private property they could only leave a situation on the car for $25 for illegal parking, and they had no authority to order a tow truck to move it. The officer said that he could write the owner a $200 ticket if they could be located. We were stunned. I asked the officer what Paul was supposed to do if the owner could not be located. He just shrugged and walked back to his car to run the tag number. He was going to see if they could locate the owner and that was about all he could do.

Here we were a good ten miles from Paul and Noel’s hotel with no way to transport him and his chair (about 600 lbs) and nothing that could be done to help us if the owner could not be located. We could have paid for a tow truck to move Paul’s van or the other vehicle, but how is fair for one of use to pay to get Paul out of this situation?

It was about this time that a second police car arrived. Then the lights flashed on the Element again. Then we saw a woman walking in our direction from the front of the clubhouse. We asked if she owned this vehicle and she confirmed that she did. We told her that the nice officer would like to speak with her. He asked here to first move her vehicle and she did so. The officer then came over and asked if we wanted him to cite her with the $200 ticket. I told Paul that I would appear in court as a witness, but it was up to him as to whether to pursue the charges. The woman told the officer that it was raining very hard when she arrived at the clubhouse and that she did not realize it was a “no parking” area. It had been raining hard earlier, and there was not a sign in front of the space. There were only the pavement markings. Paul and Noel decided to let it go without pressing the charges. They displayed an amazing spirit of forgiveness even though the woman didn’t even ask them to forgive her.

Sherry and I talked in detail about this experience on the way home. We learned just how difficult life can be when a person in a wheel chair is faced with circumstances like we witnessed. While no one was hurt, this was certainly a violation of Paul’s rights in my opinion. He could not make use of his vehicle due to this woman’s choice in parking spaces. Ignorance of the situation is not really an excuse. I have been told that a few times in my life by officers writing tickets for my speeding.

The moral of this story is to be aware of your surroundings and how your seemingly innocent actions may affect others. Use common sense when arriving late to a function. If most all of the spaces in the parking lot are full then you should look very carefully before parking in that one little space right near the building. It is probably vacant for a reason. And by all means, DO NOT park in a handicap space if you are not transporting a handicap person regardless of how far you might have to walk.

My favorite Bible study tool is my Bible Reader software for my Treo 650 from Olive Tree. The primary reason that it ranks so high on my list of cool tools is the search and bookmark features. I can keyword search any version of the Bible I have loaded on my Palm and then bookmark it plus add notes. That is particularly helpful when I can’t remember where a scripture was that I read recently, but I can remember a word or two from the passage. I read The Living Bible most often in my casual daily Bible reading and then spin off into several other translations when I find a topic that I fell lead to study. The Bible Reader software allows for me to carry several translations including The Living Bible. The search feature is better than any other keyword search tool I have found in Bible software.

The fact that I almost always have my Treo with me makes the Bible Reader software convenient as apposed to carrying a leather bound Bible around with me. I just have to be careful as to when and how I use it. I rarely use the Bible Reader software in church. The main reason I don’t use it in church is for appearance purposes. I would not want a visitor or regular member for that matter to think that I am sitting there playing games during the sermon. I use my good old fashion leather bound Bible for church. I also use my good old fashion Bible for my daily reading.

I want to share with you a really cool tool I have found for my PC that allows for me to use just about every function of the Bible Reader software right from my desktop. It is called PDAReach and I have blogged a little more in detail about it over at Tech Land. I encourage you to check out my post on this cool tool. The picture hear is of the Bible reader software running on my Treo 650 and being displayed and controlled on my desktop.

Another awesome thing to check out today is a video of my little miracle boy Caden learning to walk.

A big thanks to my friend Cedric from over at IOSC who I ran into at the Growing Families International conference in Dallas last weekend. Cedric turned me on to the PDANet software that led me to the PDAReach application from June Fabrics. Cedric is also to one who provided me with the templates and images for the GFI Charleston website.

I have been in some intense discussions over the past two days on the subject of the Growing Families International (GFI) material. I found a blog post that is run by a pastor of a Baptist church. What he posted on his blog about the Ezzos and the GFI material raised the hair on the back of my neck. This pastor’s postings and comments refer to web sites that are known for distributing lies and partial truths about Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo and the GFI material. This pastor had obviously not tried to validate the source of the material that he was linking to and that got me upset. I jumped right in and challenged him over what I perceived to be his irresponsibility. He in turn wrote a single 2000 word posting on his blog that was directed at my comments. I wrote a few more remarks in which I should have been more loving in my delivery and wording. I was wrong for getting upset and I apologize to him and to his church.

I will not link to his site from here because I do not want to draw anymore attention to the links that he has posted. The sites linked to by this pastor and some who commented have been proven to spread false information. I am sure you will find his blog anyway if you look hard enough. I know now that I should have just left a link to Ezzotruth.com with a short polite note and left it at that. In the future I will strive to be more loving in posting the facts as I know them.

Update: I did my daily reading this morning and found confirmation on what the Lord had put on my heart yesterday.

“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” James 3:9-12 (NIV)

This passage was part of my daily reading and the whole chapter spoke to me. I encourage you to read James 3 today if you are like me and are working to improve how you speak to others.

I post the daily Bible reading schedule that I use each month right here on this blog. I encourage you to check it out. God continues to speak to me through his word at just the right time and on just the right subjects.

As I said in my earlier post, “it was amazing”. I got to visit with some of the folks who attended last year in Charleston, SC plus I made a ton of new friends from all over the country.

The best part of the conference for me was the testimonies. I got to hear dozens of folks stand up and tell what the conference meant to them. I stood up and spoke of how important the conference was to our family. This conference or at least the trip to the conference started with a great big challenge. Sherry and I were sitting on the airplane in Atlanta waiting on the door to close. The co-pilot was late so we were past our scheduled departure time when my cell phone started to ring. It was the husband of a couple we have become very close to over the past two years. I answered to have my friend tell me that his son had just died. He and his wife wanted me to tell Sherry before she heard it from anyone else. He had not even made it home from the hospital to tell his four year old daughter when he called me.

Our relationship with this family really began in December 2004 when Sherry as I were leaving Caden’s hospital room to go to the home of Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo for the only Christmas party that we would attend that year. Sherry and the mom of this family had taught school together in recent years but had lost touch due to Sherry staying home after giving birth to Riley. We stepped into the hall that night at the hospital to find this family whose son was in the room next door to Caden in the cardiac unit of the hospital. Their son was born only a week before our son Caden and had as many if not more medical concerns. Sherry and the mom grew very close from that day forward. Over the next year and a half they took turns baby sitting for each other so that we could get dates. This was a big deal since your average sitter and even some family members would generally not feel very comfortable with a feeding pump and suction machine. Sherry and her also spent quite a few mom’s nights out scrap booking.

The call to my cell phone this past Thursday afternoon immediately caused Sherry to question whether she should return to Charleston or continue on to Dallas. My answer was without hesitation. I knew that these folks had grown by leaps and bounds in their faith and trust in God in the past 20 months. I knew that they would be well taken care of by their church members and family. I also knew how important it was for us to make this trip to Dallas. God wanted us in Dallas and He had mad it abundantly clear to us in recent weeks.

We had tried to plan for the trip months ago, but the funds just weren’t there so we scrapped the idea. We also felt at the time that we could not leave our son Caden and travel halfway across the country. Caden had been hospitalized three times at that point this year. That was before his heart surgery in June. Two of those trips to the hospital were by ambulance. We felt that we had to take him and a sitter who could care for him at the hotel while we attended the conference. We were wrong. We had been praying that God would provide the way if it was his will for us to go to Dallas. We found that as always we just needed to trust God. The capable family members and sitter that God provided here at home where certain that they could handle Caden. Even though the childcare issues were made clear we still had problems with financing the trip. I did not have enough Delta points to get us both to Dallas and the tickets were out of our budget. That is when Mike, one of my few Christian co-worker friends, threw a cool 50,000 Delta points at us and reserved Sherry’s ticket. I had enough to book one more ticket for myself and I also had enough hotel points to get a really nice room for three nights in Dallas. The financial concerns were solved. Oh, did I mention that we were blessed with a much larger tax return that we expected at about the time the points were given to us? That easily took care of the conference registration fee, the rental car cost, plus some spending money without affecting our monthly budget. God answered clearly again. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

I am certain after attending the conference that were certainly meant to be there. After thinking about it I am also certain that the timing of that phone call was one last attempt of the devil trying to steal our joy. My friend had not idea of the timing because he had no idea what flights we where on or when. We should have been in the air anyway, but the co-pilot was late arriving to the airplane. It was at the time I took the call that the flight attendant announced that all cell phones must be turned off. We buckled up and requested a box of tissues after a brief explanation to the flight attendant on why we were both crying. The trip was full of tears, but I can honestly say they were not all tears of grief. That day Sherry and I celebrated that child’s life together at 30,o00 feet just as we did this afternoon in a memorial service with his family. I know it may sound weird to some who might ask how you celebrate after the loss of a 20 month old child. It is totally a God thing. The pastor today spoke of the relationships that were made through the life of this little boy. These are relationships that will last forever. Some of the relationships that were built were with the Lord himself though the life and death of this child.

Have you ever watched one of those Food TV shows where they have a competition on how to make the coolest birthday cake? This past Saturday night I got to visit the kitchen of a professional custom cake artist. I say artist because this stuff goes way beyond baking. There were air brushes, computer printers that use food color as ink, sculpting tools, ovens, and much more in this shop.

Below is a picture of the little surprise that was sent home with me this weekend from my trip to the Dallas area. Everything you see except for the white rectangle board is part of the cake and it is all eatable. You can click on the picture to see a larger image.

This cake is a very small example of what the folks at Dimensions In Cake can do. My wife’s Aunt Karen owns the business. Her business serves Weatherford, Dallas, and Fort Worth, TX as well as the surrounding areas. She specializes in 3-D Sculptured Birthday and Wedding Cakes. You will find contact information at the bottom of every page of the Dimensions In Cake web site. By the way, the web site was designed by my wife Sherry’s cousin.

Oh yeah, the cake tastes great!!! We also brought home an assortment of cupcakes including some really yummy ones with peanut butter icing. Not all of those completed the plane ride back to Charleston, SC. If you want a super special cake in the Dallas and Fort Worth area then I suggest you call well in advance since Karen stays very busy.

I had the pleasure of attending the GFI (Growing Families International) National Conference this past weekend in Dallas. It was absolutely amazing. This was the first trip that my wife and I have taken away from our children. You kow that this is a pretty big deal if you know us at all. To put it into perspective, our youngest son Caden had heart surgery less than a month before our departure for Dallas.

I will be posting more on the conference in the coming days. Gary Ezzo spoke and he hit on a subject that is near and dear to my heart. I will share more on that later. We got to meet some great new friends as well as join up with and fellowship with some other folks from the Charleston, SC area.

“The author hopes…to encourage Christians to exercise good stewardship of their collective citizenship.”

This is a quote taken from the cover of Why Christians Don’t Vote for Democrats by Richard Miller published by Xulon Press. The author hits the mark with this book. Miller draws a clear line between Secular Democrats and Christian America. It is very important to consider Miller’s definition of Secular Democrats while reading his book. Secular Democrats are defined by Miller as those Democrats who are prejudiced against Christians. While Miller acknowledges the term Christian Democrat, he takes issue with that segment of Christian Democrats who are proven to be “wolves in sheep’s clothing” when they end up voting like Secular Democrats.

For the purposes of reading this book, Christian American is best defined as the group of Christians who avoid the Democratic Party when election day rolls around. Miller gives very little attention to the group of Christians who find themselves repeatedly voting for Democrats for various reasons. Miller does offer some great questions to consider if you are a Christian who does continue to vote for Democrats.

Christians will find this book educational on several fronts. Miller provides a unique explanation of the main stream media’s perspective on Christian America. Richard Miller does a great job of educating his readers on the importance of voting for candidates who will tip the balance of justice in our federal government in favor of Biblically based Chrisitan values. Miller offers strong opinions of how Secular Democrats pollute our public education system and stifle the attempts of the Christian community to educate children through church based private schools.

The book did have some hard to follow wording. Otherwise Why Christians Don’t Vote for Democrats was an easy read.

This book rates a 4 out of 5 for delivering the content it promised.

I am a born-again Christian, father of two, with an AS in general studies and a BS in Computer Science. This book was sent to me as a gift from Active Christian Media.