July 1, 2006

• B"H

  
  

  Recovering From PFE

  
  

  It's Saturday morning, day 6 of our return from the hills of Tenn. Nearly all week I have been thinking and reflecting on the events and people I met last weekend at the PAPA festival. First of all I want to give thanks and praise to GOD for granting us a safe journey both ways and a nice time together. If I were a more organized person perhaps I might have shared these thoughts sooner and in a more cohesive manner. As it is, I'm glad to be able to make it from day to day as I try to collect my thoughts and say something intelligible.

  
  

  You may ask, "What in the world is PFE?" Ha ha ha, I made it up and it stands for PAPA Fest Euphoria. I had a great time at the Fest, as I knew I would. At the last minute, last Wednesday, our plans nearly fell apart and I thought that I might stay home after all. I tried to hitch a ride with some of the nearly 35 people from our neighborhood, but they were quite packed in and barely had room for themselves. I really wanted my family to be with me, even though they didn't share my exuberance for this event. I'm glad that things worked out the way they did and in the end, we all had a good time. We even gained a new family member from the process. I'd like to introduce Sophia, our new dog, to my Xanga family and friends. Hopefully soon, I'll post her picture and everyone can see what a beauty she is.

  
  

  Speaking of pictures. I finally figured out to upload photos from my memory stick to Xanga. Last Fall, after we got our new camera phones, I bought this software that allows me to transfer photos and other info from the phone directly to my PC. I had the worst time getting it set up and then after it was finally working I needed to upgrade my operating system from Windows 2000 to XP. Ha ha, what do you think happened in that process? Yep yep, the company that sold and installed the new software deleted all my old programs including Data Pilot.

  
  

  Grrr. At home we are still using a dial-up modem. It took me nearly 4 hours to download that program and in a flash, it was all gone. To say I was upset is a mild understatement. I don't blame the computer technician too much. He was just doing his job. I should have known better and ordered a disk from the company instead of taking the "simple" route and downloading directly from their server. For the time saving of not waiting 3 - 5 days for the mail to arrive, I instead added all sorts of tzoris because of our slow connection rate.

  
  

  So, now it's all good. I have reloaded the software and I have photos to share. My greatest regret from last weekend was that I didn't take hardly enough pictures. It was hot and a lot of our stuff was scattered about. That might seem like a reasonable excuse, but in my case it's beside the point. (I wear my cell phone nearly all the time and I even have it under my pillow when I go to sleep. The only time I usually turn it off is when I'm at work, because that place is under ground and so filled with concrete and other electronics that I can't ever get a signal there.) I wish I had been more mindful to take pictures, because who knows when I'll ever see some of these folks again?

  
  

  

  
  

  Here's a view of what the site looked like. We were all out in a big open field on the side of a hill. As I understand it, there were about 500 people in attendance ~ 430 adults and 60 + kids (12 and under).

  
  

  There was a community kitchen where folks could share cooking aparatus and food, and the open space made visiting easy from one tent or campsite to the next.  

  
  

  

  
  

  This is shot of me with The Tribe - AndeAhmik. I love these guys so much. I was really blessed to be able to meet up with them and spend a little time to affirm their calling and try to encourage them. They have asked me to stand with them in prayer and I'm not only glad to do it, I'm honored to be asked.

  
  

  

  
  

  This is me with Eric, a new Xanga friend. I happened on his site while surfing around from one place to the next. He's a neat guy and you can check him out more at his site. 

  
  

  There's so much more to share, but so little time. Later I'll try to post again and add more details to the story.

  
  

  Blessings,

  
  

  Shlomo

  • 12:10 pm
  • 3 Comments