November 2, 2008 Sunrise
Finally – a day at home. I crave these days, I need these days. Introverts need quiet, reflective time to recharge, to find their inner balance. I plan a day of work, but work I love. I’ve cleaned and organized my workroom, and I yearn to get busy with my day’s goals.
Sunset was weird this morning – it had to get beyond the thick bands of cloud on the horizon before it could show – more like 6:20 than 6’ish.
Are those November colors, or what?
Here is the weather at 0800:
And here is the five day forecast (For those of you not living here, this is heaven in Kuwait):
Have a great day, Kuwait! 🙂
Thinking About Wealth
Today’s reading gives us a lot of food for thought about wealth and how we use it.
At one time, when I was still an Army wife, we had returned to the United States. We didn’t even have furniture – the military had provided it all our years overseas, and were in the process of picking up a few necessary things – like beds! All we had were some beautiful Oriental carpets, which we had picked up, piece by piece, as we were living overseas.
I would wake up at night and worry about thieves breaking in and stealing my carpets. Then I read Matthew 26: 19 – 21 – this verse:
19″Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
I stopped worrying about the carpets. I’ve never worried about them since.
Now, like others, we have watched all the monies we have carefully invested for our retirement dwindle, and it is hard not to despair. And here again, comes a reading to make it clear to us where our real wealth lies. Our “wealth” is only on paper – it doesn’t really exist until we buy or sell. Our real wealth is what we are storing, day by day, towards our next life.
This reading is from Forward Day by Day:
Luke 12:13-31. So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.
How often have you interrupted a preacher during a sermon? Probably never. In today’s story, a man interrupts Jesus while he is still preaching. Perhaps Jesus sniffed greed behind the man’s question as he responded with a parable about the right attitude to riches.
Advertisers try to convince us that good food, comfortable homes fitted with all modern conveniences, a healthy bank balance, and no financial worries are the stuff of which the good life is made. Jesus, who came that we may “have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10), warns that an abundance of possessions cannot secure for us this abundant life.
Yet there is no condemnation of riches. It is not because of riches that the man in the parable is labeled a fool, but because wealth, rather than God, took first place in his life. The rich man’s barns overflowed with perishable grain, but he was spiritually bankrupt, for he had failed to store up imperishable riches in heaven by wise and generous use of his wealth.
God’s concern is not ownership (what we have) but stewardship (what we do with what we have). To be truly rich, be rich towards God.
The Great Kuwait Sand and Surf Challenge
OK, so here it is, the new photo challenge. You will have three weeks. All your photos must be in to me or posted on your blog and linked to me by Saturday, November 22. The poll will go up then, and voting will continue to November 29, when the polls will close and new winners will be announced.
Sand and Surf can be anything related to beach activities – tidal pools, boating . . . this contest is open to Kuwaitis, residents of Kuwait, and people who have an attachment to Kuwait. We don’t require that the scene be recognizably Kuwait, because well, sand is sand and surf is surf. The photos do not have to be Kuwait, but we want them to be entered by someone remotely Kuwait-related.
Ready on the right!
Ready on the left!
Photographers, take your target!
Fire!
Off topic but related – on the top floor of the Al Rayya Shopping Center (attached to the Marriott Hotel near Dasman Circle) is a really intriguing photo exhibit. It looks to me like all Kuwaiti, and some of the photos are purely spectacular. Some are very moving. I don’t want to give too much away, but if you enjoy photography, this exhibit is worth a visit.
All Saints Sunrise
Good Morning, Kuwait, and a gorgeous day it is out there. It is a mere 59°F / 15°C out there early this morning, and the high today is only expected to get to:
Truly, sweater weather on this the first day of November. 😉
I had those anxiety dreams this morning, that got me out of bed early on a day when I have a lot to do, and need to be places at certain times. One dream kept recurring – I was supposed to be flying somewhere, and I kept packing my suitcase – leisurely – when I should have been leaving for the drive to the airport. The phone rings and it is the airport asking if I am planning on making the flight, and I say “yes!” even though the flight is supposed to leave in 35 minutes and the drive to the airport is about 30 minutes and I am not packed!
Think I am feeling unprepared about something? Think I am maybe worried about my relaxed attitude when I have obligations to meet?
Here is the drama of the sky just before dawn this morning – no, it wasn’t all that early, dawn is coming earlier and earlier every day:
Those lights are one of the big freighters heading south.
Here is the sunrise:
Just look at those autumn colors! WOW. Not a cloud in the sky, barely a wisp of haze on the horizon – this is going to be another of those gorgeous days in Kuwait that we have all been dreaming of during the hot, steamy days of summer. Gooood Morning, Kuwait!
Halloween Sunrise
Boooooooooooooooooo! Good Morning, Kuwait, and a chilly autumn Halloween morning it is:
How COOOOOOOOOL is that? Sweater weather?
The sun rose all golden and smokey looking this morning, there are strings of fishing dhows on the horizon and life is sweet:
Have a great day, Kuwait.
Heading for the Desert
Every now and then I wish I were a man. When I was a little kid, our dads would all head out on a big boat, going hunting. Mostly, women stayed home. Some women hunted, but it is hard work, and, I think, maybe men don’t always want women along when they go out hunting, they want to (in Alaska) drink and party and play cards and talk crude and don’t want anyone around reminding them to mind their manners.
The truth is I don’t know what they do. I can only imagine, based on things I’ve heard, movies, my imagination.
Today, my neighbors are headed out to hunt. How do I know? They have their falcon with them. It is perfect weather – clear, relatively cool, the heat has definitely broken, it is wonderful to be able to drive without any air conditioning. . . .
I know, I know, there is still this kid in my heart that thinks that going hunting with a FALCON is very very cool.
Sunrise After Rain, 30 October 2008
It’s a glorious morning. The sky is clear all the way to the horizon, there was huge surf last night, so if you comb the beaches – today is YOUR day. 🙂
Weather Underground: Kuwait says we have a more serious chance of rain in just five days:
Meanwhile – today is a glorious day. I thought I had posted this first thing this morning, LOL, guess not. Have a gr8 day, Q8!
Warning Triangles, Flares, and Traffic Control
There was another accident outside my house last night, and I almost didn’t even call the police, but then . . . I did. I thought “It’s useless to call.” And then I thought “But at lease it’s SOMETHING I can do to help.” I am guessing people would have thought I was crazy if I had gone out and started trying to direct traffic (LOL; isn’t that a funny thought?) This time the polite man on duty took all my information and the police didn’t call back. A road warrior (traffic police) arrived nearly an hour later, but with the slick roads in my area, I can imagine they were very busy, and there didn’t appear to be any injuries to people, only to cars.
What is scary to me is how easy it would be for another car to come plowing into the accident. It’s night, it’s dark, people are in a hurry to get home and they have their route down pat, so they are on automatic pilot. Most of the time, they go past at a fairly fast speed.
Aren’t people required to carry warning triangles and flares here? Even just setting up a warning triangle a hundred feet back would have helped last night. A flare would have gotten attention and slowed traffic. People directing traffic around the accident would have helped. For an hour, those involved in the accident just stood around, so vulnerable. It’s a small thing, but it might help, in Kuwait, where even these very basic precautions are ignored.
Menace on the Roads
LOL, AbdulAziz sent these fabulous close-to-sunset-in-Kuwait photos. Here is the first:
Isn’t that beautiful?
And here is the one taken just before it:
AbdulAziz, I hope you were at a stoplight when you took these photos! I imagine you driving down the road, camera in one hand, one eye on the photo and one on your rear view mirror and you might come into conflict with one of those bus drivers! Watch out!
Rain in Kuwait
Lots of rain, peals of thunder, lightning strikes and lots of rain! The Qatteri Cat is totally freaked out, running from the leaking window with it’s new drip drip drip to the windows – he thinks the rain drops are bugs or something, and makes that eh-eh-eh-eh-eh sound cats make when they see birds. Rain!
I am laughing; who would think this PacificNorthwest gal would be celebrating rain – we get so much rain out there in the PNW. But even when there was a huge rainstorm here in Kuwait last year, we didn’t see any where we live, or only a drop or two, not even enough to smear a window or create a puddle. Now Rain! Real rain!
When it started, I was driving. We got home as soon as we could; the first rains turn the highways into grease slicks.
Remember – this is not California, where people might stop and dance for joy at the parking lights. (California has droughts, too.) Dancing for joy only allowed in the privacy of your own home!
Update – an hour later it is still raining, and I have towels under several of my windows to collect the intrusion!
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