Last week, I posted that we are now official card-carrying members of the brand-spanking-new YMCA in town. Now understand, I was your typical “band geek” in high school, and I’ve never been around the “gym culture” a whole lot in my life. In fact, if you take one quick look at me, you’ll soon discover that I really don’t know a lat pull from a lap pool. So I’ve been a tad uneasy/unsure about this Y thing.

But we’ve been a couple of times now, and it’s really not so bad. Here are some things I’ve learned so far…

• The indoor walking/jogging track is a lot easier than the hills in my neighborhood.
• Some people don’t care how they dress (undress?) to go out in public. (Corollary: A lot more people ought to care how they dress to go out in public, even if it is just a workout at the gym.)
• The lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” is still pretty hot in her Speedo, even after all these years!
• As for me and my Speedo…well, let’s just not even go there, OK? Just kidding…my Speedo is baggy and striped. But it is a Speedo!
• I’m not the only one who doesn’t have a clue what to do with all the weights, machines, etc.
• There are people who are paid to help you out when you don’t know what you’re doing.
• There are regular Joes and Janes who, while not paid to do it, are more than happy to lend a helping hand and a dose of encouragement – without laughing too much.
• There are poseurs everywhere you go – even in the local YMCA.
• Some people want to carry on a conversation in the locker room. Others don’t.
• The instructions on the machines really work!
• I’m really, really out of shape.
• So are a lot of other people.
• And some are in worse shape than I am. Go figure…
• Did I mention anything about the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” still being pretty hot in her Speedo, even after all these years?
• The whirlpool is, in fact, my “workout” of choice!
• I’m tired at the end of a session. But it’s a good kind of tired, and I’m already noticing I’m sleeping better.
• It’s awkward learning unfamiliar language and an unfamiliar culture. But if I can stick with it, it’ll be worth every minute and every dime to shape up.

I was flipping through the channels last night and I came upon Delirious? playing at what appeared to be some New Year’s Eve bash. They were doing their classic History Maker. And that has put me in the mood for some late 20th-century “modern worship.” All day today, I’ve had Delirious? playing either in my head or on some audio equipment somewhere.

So, in honor of my buddy Tony McCollum (and his now virtually defunct blog) the first Unwind (Wind-up, eh, Tony?) of 2006 is Delirious? from their Cutting Edge CD and from the Worship Together compilation Revival Generation: I Could Sing of Your Love Forever.

Saw this article over at THE OOZE this morning. Don’t have time to elaborate right now. Your comments are welcome. Especially yours, Gary, Andrew, Tony…

Imagine a roller coaster. Imagine you and about 6 billion of your closest friends are taking it out for a spin – all at the same time.

Imagine that roller coaster is cruising along at about 67,000 miles per hour. And imagine that it is spinning around at the rate of about 1000 miles per hour as it chugs along its 586 million mile course.

And imagine that roller coaster is just about to complete its run. The station is in view. Everyone on the coaster prepares to breathe and to disembark as the coaster makes its way into the station.

Only instead of slowing to a stop at the station, the roller coaster maintains its speed and heads out on the course again.

That’s what’ll happen in just about 17 minutes. Just when you thought 2005 was finally slowing to a stop at the station, you find it roaring off again, losing its identity into 2006. Another 67,000-mph trip around the sun for me and you.

What will we make of this next part of our up-and-down adventure?

Happy New Year…make the ride count!

Well, my buddy Gary Lamb is putting the finishing touches on 2005 with a few good posts. I noticed I made his Top Ten list of blogs. Judging from the company he’s put me in, I feel a lot like Wayne and Garth…

I’m not worthy!

The other nine on Gary’s list are on my list of top blogs as well, and they all have something practical and powerful to offer folks who stop by their places. Me? Well, all I’ve got to offer is, well, me and my ramblings. But thanks for stopping by. And thanks to Gary for putting me up in that rare air!

OK, OK…enough Village People jokes already! We just got a brand-new Y in town, and part of our Christmas to each other was a family membership there. The lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” has had the itch to return to her glory days swimming (still holds records from her high school, qualified for the NCAA nationals her sophomore year in college, but cut short because of mono that year!) So we joined…

The place looks great, it has excellent facilities, and get this…they have what they call the “Coach Approach.” That means as a part of our membership, old dumpy fat guys like me get to have our own trainer/coach…

No man does it all by himself.
I said, young old dumpy fat man, put your pride on the shelf,
And just go there, to the Y.M.C.A.
I’m sure they can help you today.

…who helps us clarify our fitness goals and then get busy on a program to help meet those goals. Cool, huh?

My fitness goals? Here’s exactly what I told the guy…

I’m 45, and I want to be 21!

Wonder if they have a miracle routine?

BTW, check out this picture. See the smaller body of water in the right foreground? That’s the whirlpool! I think my 45-to-21 program starts right there!

OK, so our church wasn’t among the “cool” churches. OK, so my staff probably won’t think I’m all that great of a boss. OK, so we didn’t have setup/teardown issues. OK, so we didn’t make a fancy-schmancy DVD to give out to our folks so they could worship at home. All that stuff is great – and I truly mean that.

All I know is we had three – count ’em – three families who came to “our place” on Christmas morning, because some other places had closed for the day. Will we ever see them again? I don’t know. Did they have an opportunity to hear about Jesus? You bet! Was it a hassle to do the Saturday night Christmas Eve thing and then get up and do something else Sunday morning Christmas Day? Yep! Am I any better than those who did it differently? Nope!

But all that aside, we did have a great Christmas Eve service and a great Christmas Day service! Here’s some pics from the Christmas Day deal…yep, that’s food – a lot of food! And yep, that’s the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” putting the finishing touches on a great spread! And yep, that’s “The Boy” doing his very best waiter imitation, filling up orange juice and iced tea cups.

Drudge had a link tonight that said…

NOBODY KNOWS HIM: Man who died after 9 years in coma to get nameless grave

The link takes you to a UPI story about a New York man, known only as “Henry,” who was severely beaten near Yankee Stadium in July 1996. Imagine what kind of life a man leads who can go missing from somewhere for nine and a half years! What if nobody ever inquired about you after nine and a half years? Imagine leaving so few footprints that no one even knows your name after nine and a half years!

I’m wondering tonight how many Henrys there are in my community, men and women whom nobody knows, men and women who matter so little to the people around them. I’m wondering tonight how many Henrys I pass every day. How many Joans, and Johns, and Freds, and Susans, and other names that may just be aliases for real people whom no one knows, about whom no one cares, for whom no one mourns.

But hear this: Somebody knows Henry. And this Somebody wants me to know Henry, too. Because if I don’t know Henry, more than likely I don’t know Somebody, either.

Selah…

Remember the Maxell guy from the 80s?

He’s baaaaaaaaack!

I always thought that was a great image…mainly because I wanted my stereo to have the same effect on me!

I love what the folks over at Engadget had to say about the blown-away guy…

Though we might hope blown-away guy might have replaced his Le Corbusier with a Kjaerholm and his hi-fi with a Sonos, we�re just glad to have his a** back around to show everyone how it�s really done. Just as long as he�s still listening to Wagner, anyway, and didn�t trade his classical collection for some Bloc Party or Killers records or something.

UPDATE, 2:21 p.m.: Turns out I’m not crazy, and I’m not to blame (for a change!). TypePad is having “issues” today…but if you use TypePad, you already knew that, didn’t you? They say they’ll be fixed later today.

OK, you techies out there…I’ve got a quandary of sorts.

I’m using Firefox 1.5 as my browser. I’m using Bloglines as my aggregator (or whatever you call it!). Here’s the deal…There are a lot of blogs in my list of feeds that update right regularly in Bloglines, but when I go directly to the blog itself, the page has not updated in several days.

I’ve cleaned out the cache and all the other private viewing data through the Options tab in Firefox. Still no go. Help?!?!?!?!?!?!

Note: I don’t know if this matters or not, but the two main blogs I’ve noticed this happening on are TypePad blogs. Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Note #2: I just noticed that the same thing is happening – or not happening, as the case may be – when I try to go directly to those blogs with Internet Explorer also. Hmmm….just gets curiouser and curiouser…

Note #3: OK, it seems that each and every one of the TypePad blogs in my feeds are about a week behind when I go to the actual blogs themselves. Somethin’ ain’t right…