explanation

k so i guess i am nearly done blogging. reason: most of my blogging time has been here at battery boys. and now my battery boy time is coming to a close. that's right. i have been hired at the church as the interim children's pastor. so on top of my jr youth i'll be overseeing the kids. with that taking up my time and being financially compensating i can afford to quit here. so it's good for me. although i will miss you... but who knows, i'll probably stop in once in a while.

goodnight i love you have a good sleep

i'm sorry baby, i didn't mean it. i really like your finger paintings

i'm not sorry

i'm not sorry that i haven't blogged in a while

i'm not sorry that i'm done blogging

i'm not sorry that i'm going to miss your wonderful comments

i'm not sorry cuz you didnt comment anyway

i'm not sorry that you won't miss me

i'm not sorry that i won't miss you

i'm not sorry.

i might be back once in a while. but don't count on it

LA

On Monday,August 15, our quite diverse team of 22 youth and young adults headed for Los Angeles California. You might just wonder, what kind of 'missions trip' goes to California? sounds more like a vacation. Yes, it may sound that way, but i really was a life-changing week for many of us.

Monday was our travel day. once we got to LA there was to be no official agenda. On the plane Ronnie and i realized that the Blue Jays were in town for three games against the Angels. The first of which was that night. We got the wheels turning and figured that if we hurried we could get to the game not too long after the first pitch. Little did we know what truly was in store for us over the next 12 hours.

We hurried off the plane to figure out how much money it would take us to get to Anaheim. the cheapest shuttle could get us there in just over an hour for $48. Ouch. that puts us at the game in the 2nd or 3rd inning and that's not cheap either. we did it anyway.

As the shuttle was approaching the stadium we started to think about getting some tickets. On the sidewalk we saw some homies that looked like they could be scaplers. we rolled down the window and within minutes had 2 tickets for only $20. nice. good seats too.

the game ended up going 11 innings with the Angels finally winning. it was a great game. but now our next challenge; we gotsta get to the Dream Center. #1 we have never been there and just have an address. #2 we're in freaking LA #3 we dont know how the public transportation system works.

Through the advice of some other homies we went to the M-Track (train) and found out we missed the last one. Eventually we had to take public transit. the good news is it was only about $6 for the both of us. The bad news is that since it was so late very few buses were still running. we took the first bus to the end of the line at Long Beach. then took another. the next bus wasn't running for another half an hour so we chatted with the bus driver about baseball and how to get back. (it's now nearly 1am) His bus took us for an hour and a half to the end of the line in downtown LA. (slightly nervous) At this bus stop we met a fine gentleman named Art. you may ask, why the heck are these punks from sask doing meeting people from downtown LA at 3:30 in the morning?? we asked many of these same questions people.

So Art was a great guy and lived somewhat near the dream center so he offered to show us the way home. we finally crawled into bed at 4:30am. unreal experience. until 6:30 am when the alarm went off. not fun.

now the important part - the ministry. We were at the dream center for 5 full days. each day after breakfast we'd meet for our morning assignments. we were one of about 5 teams at the dream center so they broke up the 80 or so volunteers into the different ministries. we did everything from cleaning, to prep for ministry, to phone calling, organizing a warehouse - basically whatever slave labor needed to be done. then after lunch we'd go as a team to one of the ministries. we went to Skid Row, Santa Monica, delivered food in the food truck, helped with Metro Kids and Adopt-a-Block.

Skid Row was crazy cuz i knew it would be stretching so inside i really didn't want to do it, especially right at the beginning. but i knew that poetic justice says that Skid Row would be our very first afternoon ministry. Skid Row is the area of downtown where a large amount of people live on the streets. You can actually smell when you get down there (the whole week after we were there Amy was convinced her clothes still smelled like skid row) Our team split into three with a Dream Center volunteer leading each. My team picked 5th Ave. Our only task was to greet people and enter into conversation with the ones that looked engaging. It was way better than i thought it'd be. Ronnie, Ashley, Kaylene, Amy, Tyson, Stephen, Brittany and a nice girl from England were all on my team (any evangelistic team should have Ronnie on it). I loved having no other agenda but to talk to people. my favorite was when Tyson, Kaylene and I were sitting on the dirty dirty sidewalk talking to one man. or more like listened. he talked lots. he said something profound too. he said, "if you go hungry down here, you're either stupid or lazy." interesting thought.

So many of the ministries were great - that's just one of the highlights. my eyes were opened in a lot of ways. there are soooo many hurting people in this world that just need love. that gotsta be our only agenda in life - to make people feel loved.


Saturday night we left the dream center for Anaheim. Sunday we went to see the Red Sox vs the Angels. another great game - Manny and Renteria went deep and the Sox won. Scalping tickets for that game was a crazy ordeal but was really fun. **Scalping tip of the day - look for the guys who are going to the game but just have extra tickets. They're way nicer and cheaper than the guys that scalp for a living. Tip #2 - if you're really desparate for cheap tickets wait till after the game has been going on for a while. sure you'll miss some but it'll cost way less.

Monday was Disneyland!! Fun Stuff. I'm not a rides guy so i didnt really partake in most of that jazz but the rest was cool. Maybe not the happiest place on earth but cool nonetheless. Everything at Disneyland is sooo professional and well done. they spare no expense. i like that. so many times i found myself thinking that as good as it was it would've been that much better if Sarah was with me.... but that's ok. there'll be plenty of opportunities to make other awesome memories in the future. yeah, that'll be great

K, this is me signing off on quite a long post. i hope you've enjoyed. one thing though - you must leave a comment. thanks and come again.

black cars look better in the dark

k, we've all been waiting for this.... and the results are in...

but first i'm going to tell a few of my driving experiences.

- Back in November of 1996 i failed my drivers license test twice before i finally got it in January.
- One fall evening in the beautiful town of Carman i was driving my '88 Ponitac Tempest down mainstreet with Derek Eastveld. We were driving North heading to the Royal Bank. I was purposely driving too fast for the fun of it and knew that my brakes would stop me. well, the gravel on the shoulder of the street allowed me to slide forward, jump the curb and take out the railing right in front of the door. Derek quickly helped me lift the car up off the railing before we made our getaway.
- a couple of months later, probably in November of '97, C.R. and Rachel Mann and I were going to a town north of winnipeg... i forget the name. we were just getting ready to leave Carman but had to make one last errand. The snow was lightly falling; it was a very nice afternoon. we were in the parking lot, kinda behind the old mcc store turning between the credit union and the library, driving incredibly slow when my car found some ice and fresh snow and slide into a van. because we were on our way out of town for the weekend i left a note on the van explaining the situation and she ended up being nice about it. i still had to pay the deducible and all that crap.
- once in winter i hit the ditch with Derek's mom's car right in front of the Dunn's house. Jim was too drunk to come pull us out so we got someone else... gong show
- once garrett and i were driving dad's truck to camp, i looked down to adjust the stereo, looked up, and there was a dumb farmer gazing at fields, driving 30kms right in front of me. i swerved to avoided him but clipped his back bumper and almost swerved out of control. good thing i was driving the truck.
- yeah, then there's the stories tanys told. probably many more of those.

I think those are the main ones. i only bring up the past so that we can all (including me) learn from my mistakes. i now put this behind me in order to not have any more driving offenses. Lord, help me. He is able.

K, who won the story telling contest??? k here are the scores in order of appearance.

Faith and the Firetruck - great story Faith. the clincher is the fact that it all happenned in a firetruck. crazy stuff - 8.3

Tanys - i'm pretty sure you're lying... ok you're not. but it was regan's fault anyway. the coppers would've never stopped us if she wouldn't have tried to pull me in an swerve in the process - 7.4

Tyson - great story, i appreciate the effort - 7.2

Tyler - that may just be the craziest, longest comment in a long time. i'm just glad you're ok - 8.0

Kristin - i must say that you're story is one of the craziest of all times - something that is usually seen in the movies. But you made one mistake by discrediting my prize-giving asperations. and therefore you lost half of a point - 8.2 (i would've given a prize for the manfromsnowyriver deal too but when i asked how you knew that i didn't receive an answer. my game, my rules)

Megan - i remember the story and am glad you are alive, never mind pretty much unharmed. but i didn't see the picture so the impact wasn't quite as great for me... but you do recieve a point half point for being Sarah's best friend - 8.2

Therefore our winner is FAITH. congratulations!!! for your prize come to a battery boys location on a thursday between 5.30 and 8pm and i'll hook you up with something.

Coming soon - California Locamotion

post BDA meeting

My name is Kevin, and i'm a bad driver.

That's how today started. i had to attend a 'bad drivers annonymous' meeting. but i really do think that i'm a changed man.... hmm, i think that after i left the meeting i sped on the way to work.... ok, so i'm mostly a changed man. it's like sanctification, give it time. but i will change. i need to. Mr. Bankstatment needs me to. therefore, i will change.

It was actually a decent class. Two weeks ago i recieved a letter in the mail informing me that i was required to attend a TRAFFIC SAFETY WORKSHOP. i kinda smirked to myself. i knew that sooner or later my time would come. and today it did. from 9:30-11:30 i was at the SGI claim center taking in the workshop. there were about 15 of us there, and most of them were completely boring. i tried to make whitty comments and lighten the mood but no dice, these people were mostly dead. I dont really get it. i mean, if you have to be there anyway, you'd might as well make the most of it and have a laugh or two.

Anyway, i got the low-down on how things work and learned that if i don't get caught for 3 whole years i can have a completely clean record. so i guess that's the goal. i would estimate that over the course of my driving life (8.5 years) i have probably spent between $3000-$4000. that, my friends, is insane. my mother has given me all the speeches about how much money i could've saved so spare me.

i say all that to say this, i will be good. just say a little prayer for me. i appreciate that.

Monday we're leaving for California so i guess the next time you'll get to read my junk will be on the 25th cuz that's the next time i work at battery boys.

**notice how there was not one mention of sports this entire blog**

Leave a nice comment telling me about a driving blunder that you have encountered. I will give each comment a rating and the winner will recieve a nice prize. I look forward to coming home to many comments. thanks pals

sports etc

i just lost my post and im quite disappointed. Not that i really wrote anything of much substance, but still, that's besides the point. my heart still sank when it happened. i continued my sports monologue from a couple of weeks ago.

MLB - my predictions are doing great so far.

NHL - some may not know this about me, but NHL hockey has bored me to tears over the last couple of years. i still like hockey - the world juniors, olympics, etc. just not NHL. the league having 30 teams has been watered down with way too many bad hockey players.
but the events of the last few weeks have been intriguing, leaving some reason for optimism.
I'm quite excited to see Todd Bertuzzi back. He's such a big teddy bear and i hope he can come back to his peak performance quite quickly.

NBA - who really cares? not this guy!

NFL - Football, je t'adore! i am ventureing into the world of fantasy sports this football season. Darryl is putting a league together so i'm looking forward to that. if you want a piece give him an email.

CFL - ok so the Blue Bombers aren't great. but i'd still rather cheer for them than the riders. the Lions look great, and the Eskimos are right on their heels.

That's about all for the sports that matter. oh yeah, and curling. can't wait for that!

But now the stuff that really matters: the last couple of weeks have been great. i was in winnipeg with Sarah for about 5 days. i think i have a crush on her. mmm, yes i just checked and it's confirmed.
then mom and dad came to saskatoon to help me shop for a place of residence. we're still working on that one.
and then monday we're taking off for the missions trip to LA. but i should post again before departure. until then my friends...