An Exciting Flight

          I have been watching the Little League World Series from Williamsport. It included a major league baseball game between the Phillies and the Nationals.  The two teams flew into the Williamsport airport for the special game.   This brought back to me very interesting memories from 1959.

          It was back on December 1, 1959, when an airliner trying to land there in bad weather flew into a mountain and all but one passenger was killed.  The airport was surrounded by mountains which made flying there somewhat dangerous.

          A few months after that tragic accident, I was a student at Susquehanna University and was working as the official NCAA statistician for the school's football and basketball teams.  I traveled with the teams to all of their games.  The university decided that the football team would actually fly to several of the football games in New England.  Now at that time I had never flown in an airliner so I was very excited about the experience.  However, my first trip was one I will never forget.

          After we had taken off from Williamsport, the cockpit received a signal that the luggage compartment was unlocked. I had a vision of our footballs and equipment being scattered all over Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.  But the crew felt it was safe to continue and they did.  Fortunately, we landed safely with all of our equipment.

          But then, following the game, we headed back home to Williamsport which happened to be fogged in.  It brought memories of the previous tragic accident there. We circled for nearly an hour but it did not clear.  The recent accident and the mountains surrounding the airport made our situation rather scarry. But what we didn't know was that the pilots had decided to head instead for another airport. 

          Time passed very slowly and suddenly we began to descend.  I was sitting next to a window. I could see the fog clear and then all I could see was a large body of water. We were headed directly for it.  I think my heart just about stopped and then we hit a runway and we landed safely.  I still feel that relief today.

          What had happened was the pilot changed course to Harrisburg.  But we didn't land at the newer airport in Middletown but at the old one in New Cumberland.  Its runway was just over the Susquehanna River and you had to fly over the river to land.  Thank the Lord, we were safe.  Buses took us back to Selinsgrove.

          That was a very memorable trip.  Fortunately, it did not scare me enough to keep me from flying. Thankfully, since then I have taken several dozen plane trips all over the country for work and for pleasure.  I have enjoyed most of them and now miss taking them because of my physical limitations.  And I do thank the Lord for His protection as I've traveled.  And there have not been any river rescues necessary.

Memorial Service

          One of the lessons which I learned during the pandemic is that life is short – often much shorter than we ever expected.  I lost many good friends during that time, several of whom seemed to be in the prime of their lives.

          We don't like to think about death and we often avoid planning for it.  But it is important to do some planning, especially for the sake of those whose lives are dependent upon ours.  This can include wills, insurance, and preparation of important records. It might include burial locations or cremation and plans for memorial services.

          Now, personally, I wouldn't care if my family would skip a public service for me.  Nobody would really care but them, and that's who services are really for.  I won't know what is done or what isn't done.

          However, I have given some thought to what I would like if there was a service.  I would like it to be God honoring and a testimony to what I've chosen to do with my life.  That would include the music.  Until recently my choice was "Jesus Led Me All The Way".  This song shares my testimony and what I hope others have seen in my life.

          But now I have a new choice, "My Redeemer Is Faithful And True", written by Steven Curtis Chapman. The Chapmans found this to be true even during the death of their 5-year-old Maria, their youngest adopted daughter, who had been accidentally struck in the family's driveway by one of her brothers returning home in his truck. But throughout their lives they found God's faithfulness endures. He will never change his mind or fail His children. His promises are secure. He is always there, in the good times and the bad times.

          And I have found this to be true, so his song is also my testimony.  Thank you Lord!

As I look back on the road I've traveled,

I see so many times He carried me through;

And if there's one thing that I've learned in my life,

My Redeemer is faithful and true.

My Redeemer is faithful and true.

[Chorus:]

My Redeemer is faithful and true.

Everything He has said He will do,

And every morning His mercies are new.

My Redeemer is faithful and true.

 

My heart rejoices when I read the promise

'There is a place I am preparing for you.'

I know someday I'll see my Lord face to face,

'Cause my Redeemer is faithful and true.

My Redeemer is faithful and true.

[Chorus:]

My Redeemer is faithful and true.

Everything He has said He will do,

And every morning His mercies are new.

My Redeemer is faithful and true.

 

And in every situation He has 

proved His love to me;

When I lack the understanding, 

He gives more grace to me.

[Chorus:]

My Redeemer is faithful and true.

Everything He has said He will do,

And every morning His mercies are new.

My Redeemer is faithful and true.

 

You can hear it here.    FAITHFUL

What Did You Say?

        Today's classrooms have gone through major changes. You might not recognize them if you haven't been in one for decades.  And teachers must also adjust which includes learning new technology.  Here are some of the new educational words.

 

Acadormant - Students who have stopped making any academic progress.

Assessmental - The idea that high standards for education are possible when assessment testing takes precedence over real learning in the classroom.

Bookstache - The facial hair added by students to every portrait in the American history textbook.

Colate - Two students who arrive tardy to class at the same time.

Corroborative learning - When all the students in a class agree to stick to the same excuse for why their work is not done.

Coverage-based instruction - Instruction based on the idea that what is taught is much more important than what is learned.

Digital disorganizers - Fascinating electronic organizers that distract students from paying attention to assignments, instructions, and due dates.

Dispedefflent - The aroma that fills the air when students remove their shoes during class.

E-fail - Electronically sent failure notices.

Erasivot - The divot that you get in your paper if you erase too hard.

Fontics - Literacy training through the use of wacky computer type fonts.

Handoubt - To wonder if the students even looked at the important papers you just passed them.

Hydropendant - Student who requests permission to get a drink of water every ten minutes.

Hyper-critical thinking - Higher level thinking evidenced by such questions as, "What kind of a haircut is that?!" And, "Why do we have to do this stupid assignment?!"

Interconversations - The office conversations you overhear when someone forgets to turn off the intercom after an announcement.

Letter of recondemnation - A letter of reference from the wrong person.

Magnetic schools - Special schools in which students are either attracted to or repelled by the other students.

McDone - Students unable to participate in the afternoon's learning activities because they consumed large amounts of fast food for lunch.

Meview - A class review of material in which the only one really reviewing is the teacher.

Multiple unintelligences - A variety of ways of not knowing something. Includes, but is not limited to: resistive unintelligence, disinterested unintelligence, distracted unintelligence, unconscious unintelligence, and absent unintelligence.

Pager-turner - A reading so enthralling that the students turn off their pagers so they can finish it uninterrupted.

Plausea - The nauseous feeling a teacher gets while trying to figure out if a student's excuse is believable or not.

Powerpointless - A wonderfully executed, high tech presentation completely devoid of meaningful content.

Repedementia - Repeatedly telling the same joke to the same class because you can't remember which of your classes you've told it to.

Seatables - The little pieces of school lunch that hide on the seats of school lunchroom chairs waiting to adhere to the next unsuspecting sitter.

Shmudgle - The rainbow of color on the heel of your hand from using it as an eraser on the marker board and on overhead transparencies.

Signotsure - The signature that comes back on a mid term report that looks more like the student's than the parent's.

Strobed - Feeling you have after spending all day in a classroom with florescent lights that do that flicker thing.

Substandardization - Standardizing a system of education down to the lowest common denominator.

Teacherscreen - The student who stands in front of you to purposefully block your view of the rest of the class as he asks you a question.

Telesubbies - Substitute teachers who only show videos.

Torigami - Assignment papers folded and unfolded so many times that they are turned in as sixteen separate pieces.

Vistamized - A student so fascinated with the view from the classroom window that he has completely lost touch with what's going on inside the classroom.

Wired classroom - Any classroom in which the teacher has had more than five cups of coffee and each student has had more than two cans of Mountain Dew. 

POLITICAL PREDICTIONS

          Once again, we are being forced to live through another disgusting event in history. TV news commentators, political "experts", politicians, and newspaper correspondents are going to have their day controlling all we can hear and watch. They will fill our lives with all their "expert opinions" whether we want to hear them or not.  And, believe it or not, many of their opinions just might be very biased.

          Unless you are away on vacation on Mars, you certainly are aware of the charges against our former president.  And you realize that he will probably also be chosen to run for president.  And he just might be the only candidate who can beat the current president.  What a sad mess.

          What will eventually happen?  Nobody but God really knows but there are plenty of predictions.  As I said, everyone thinks they are an expert.  So, with that in mind, here are my "Mr. K's. Predictions".
          PREDICTION #1 – Trump will win the court battle and the election.  Then, as president he will give himself a pardon.  He will then have a national yard sale to pay off his debts.

           PREDICTION #2 – Trump will lose both the court battle and the election.  Then, as president, Biden will joke about giving Trump a pardon and use it as a tease..  But it will slip his mind.  Instead, he will try to use another of his student debt relief executive orders to pay off Trump's debts with our money.
            PREDICTION #3 – Trump is able to continue his presidential campaign but it ends in a tie with Biden.  The Supreme Court flips a coin to pick a winner when neither contestant can win the 100 yard dash run-off.  The toss is done at the retirement home where both are now residents. The cost of Biden's home which covers dementia is raised by Hunter Biden.  Trump's home expenses comes from the proceeds of his yard sale.

          PREDICTION #4 – The rapture occurs and there aren't enough honest people left on earth for quorums in courts or in law-making organizations.  So, who knows what will happen?  I know at that point I certainly won't know or care any longer.  And then, should this happen, there won't be any additional blogs (or predictions) written by me.

          I know which my choice will be.