Let's start with shoes and spiders.

Adam and Eve did not wear shoes. There were no shoes in the Garden of Eden. Hence, wearing shoes now is a sad thing for fallen man to have to do on a regular basis.
 Rainbows (flipflops) are a good thing! 
Going barefoot is a good thing.
Summertime is a good thing.

Tomorrow, I am headed to the MU campus to face the Rock Wall , and I am super-excited about spending the day with my Marshall Maniac, aka David.  Okay, but what to wear? Certainly not the flip-flops. Do I really have to wear the not-so-comfortable New Balance shoes (that are really old)? Nah, according to the Rock Wall expert, aka David, I can rent climbing shoes there. Yay! For two bucks, I can put my "five fingers" in something made to attack the terrain. (And David will get his belated birthday present -- his new pair of five fingers -- to try out as he instructs his 'Ol Man as to how to get off the ground.

So, why am I so excited about climbing this wall? Well, think about it. "So, Mr. Pelts, what did you do on your summer vacation?"  How cool it will be to say, "I went rock climbing with my son!"  Now I don't have to immediately tell them that it was inside, in a very safe environment, that my teacher, aka my son, did not let me venture too far up the wall for my own good.

But, it will be an adventure, and part of the joy of life is "the adventure."

My recent adventures include, but are not limited to --
learning and accepting that I will teach two Civics classes next year,
hearing my wonderful daughter describe for me the Vehicle (that starts with the letter "V") that she plans to purchase,
reading letters from my youngest who is away for five weeks, living among the bugs and munchkins as he works at camp,
hearing  wedding details from my oldest, and thinking -- is it really possible that one of "our" children is getting married?
driving to Huntington tomorrow (with a gps) to spend the day with my Maniac, who will try not to laugh at me too much as I defy gravity,
listening and looking at the most beautiful woman in the world, aka as "your Mom," as she loves and understands and affirms me . . .
and in the midst of it all, the glue that holds it all together . . . experiencing God in a newer, fresher way than I ever have in my life.

During the time when we were expecting Isaac, and when we were adjusting/thinking/ responding to the surprise of it all, I often said out loud, to myself, "Life is an adventure."  And with the Lord, it really is.

Okay, this is my first blog entry. I think I've written way too much. But as people who know me know, I tend to be wordy.

Okay, and what about spiders?  Bev recently discovered that my crocks (those ugly shoes that I wore at least four times) in the basement have happy spiders living in them. I'm glad somebody is getting some use out of 'em. If I were a spider, I think living in a crock would be a pretty good thing.