Luke’s Notebook

A little bit after 11:00 this morning, I left with Paul and Jude in order to go to Red Bud, where they were going to be playing in a softball tournament with the Killer Beez, the same team I subbed for on Thursday night. I was planning to go along and watch, but I brought my softball gear just in case they needed another player.

When we got there, we saw Kelly, who runs the Beez. He invited me to play during their 12:00 game, as an extra hitter (meaning I bat only; no playing in the field). I happily agreed and quickly got ready for the game. We ended up losing the game by a 9-8 score. I was kind of disappointed that I wasn’t able to contribute more, as I only batted 1-3 with a single and a walk.

After the game, we all drove down to Subway to pick up some lunch and to kill time until 3:00, which is when the next game was scheduled. When we got back to the park, we found out that our opponents had forfeited, meaning we had no game. We were disappointed, but we made the most of it by playing a makeshift game of left field ball. On my team was Josh F., Josh W., Jeff and Steve. On the other’s was Paul, Jude, Kelly, Josh D., Kelly and a friend of theirs named Trenton.

We had a lot of fun hitting the ball around. I batted right-handed most for most of my at-bats, and I even smacked a few hits! Not bad for a lefty. All in all, it was a lot of fun, though it was really hot out.

The next game in the tournament is tomorrow morning at 9:00. I actually plan on playing the full game, fielding and all, because Josh W. isn’t able to make it in the morning. Since it’s a double-elimination tournament, if we lose another time we’re out of the tournament. If we win, though, we’ll keep playing throughout the day.

Though I want to win, of course, I hope it works out that we’ll be able to make it back in time for church at 10:30. I’m not sure how that will work, though, since Red Bud is a good 25 minutes away.

Well, I’d better run. We plan on meeting up at McDonald’s at 8:00 tomorrow morning, so that means we’ll have to get up extra early.

It’s been quite a while since I have ranted — in fact, I don’t even like to rant, really — but I’ve got a couple of things I want to share.

I am… kind of frustrated. There has been a recurring theme coming to me over and over lately. From listening to Abraham Nunez’s testimony, to talking to friends, to just being around certain crowds, I have been learning a lot.

In the talk Nunez gave at the Softball Classic, he kept talking about how God is going to ask us what we did with our lives. Did we do any good? What did we use our time on? Did we strive to reach our full potential, or were we kind of listless, barely using our gifts at all?

It’s sad to see people who aren’t reaching their potential, and there are lots of different aspects that I’m talking about. There’s your job, your friends, your boyfriend/girlfriend — it’s so easy to become complacent and to not max out on our potential for a variety of reasons. Maybe we’re comfortable in our job now and don’t really feel like exercising some other talents of ours. Maybe our friends don’t exactly bring out the best in us, but, after all, they’re our friends, and we want to be loyal. Maybe our relationship with a boyfriend/girlfriend isn’t ideal, but, hey, it’s better to have someone rather than no one… right?

So what am I saying here? Quit your job, ditch your imperfect friends, or dump your boyfriend/girlfriend? Well, no, not exactly. Nobody is going to be perfect; nobody is going to have the perfect job, friends, or spouse. I think it’s key, though, to be careful about choosing these things.

I believe we need to set high standards for ourselves. We’ll never have the perfect situation, but I think we must exercise wisdom in how we choose these things. In some cases, it may require quitting, ditching, or dumping. Sometimes a “clean break” is what’s necessary. It may take a radical decision.

Where do you draw the line, though? If we everybody held out for the perfect situation, we would all be jobless, lonely and single. Even the best friend is going to be flawed. This is where, though, I believe we need to use wisdom and discernment. And common sense, too. As we’re with our friends, we can ask ourselves, “Do these people bring out the best in me? Are they building me up, challenging me, encouraging me, or do they tear me down? How are they affecting me? Am I tempted to conform to their ways, or am I leading them?” It’s hard to be objective when dealing with people we care about. But I think it’s very important to evaluate what kind of influences and peer pressure we have in our lives, be it good or bad.

What happened? What set me off? Well, like I said, it’s been a recurring theme recently. Abraham Nunez’s talk, some recent conversations I’ve had with friends and family, and the goings-on at recent softball games and the like really kind of got me thinking along these lines.

We play in what’s often referred to as a “beer league.” A lot of the teams have relatives or friends on them — lots of people I know, like, and get along with. What really bothered me, though, was some of the junk that the players and/or their wives/girlfriends would talk about. There was nothing jaw-droppingly obscene or particularly offensive, but it was just like a steady rain of cynicsm, cussing, sexual humor and the like.

What’s weird is when talking to any one of these people individually, they’re all kind, respectful and, really, well-mannered. It’s just it seems when a couple of people get talking about something, then the peer pressure mounts and somebody else feels compelled to join in, and the vicious circle begins. Sometimes the wisest decision we can make is to simply bite our tongue.

2 Timothy 2:15-17Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene.

I hate to write about things like this, because these are folks I like, as friends and family members. I tell ya, though, it’s hard to really respect somebody who will be clean and polite around you but then more or less join the pack when a lot of peers are talking about someone or something.

This also reminds me to be extra careful when getting to know people. Almost anyone alone and one-on-one is going to be polite, attentive, probably not obnoxious or offensive. But it seems people show their true colors when you see how they behave around people whose respect and admiration they want. Sadly, the two personalities aren’t always the same.

I hesitate to write about this because I know just how flawed I am, how many times I have been disappointed with my behavior in certain situations. Nobody is perfect, and you certainly can’t just label someone “good” or “bad” from something like this. Knowing how much this has affected me makes me even more determined to be consistent, to be the same whether nobody is watching, my family is, my friends, strangers — whoever. In all circumstances, our awesome God is watching, and He sees right through our carefully-crafted facades, straight to our heart. We may be able to fool others, but there is absolutely no fooling Him.

Yesterday was another busy, yet fun, day. First thing in the morning, I printed a few copies of a deposition, bound them, and hit the road, making a delivery to a law office in west Belleville and another over in Fairview Heights. While I was in Fairview, I decided to stop by the St. Clair Square mall and pick up some food from Chick-Fil-A.

In the early afternoon, Mark and I went over to PTL Manufacturing in Belleville, which is my grandpa’s tool and die business. Our purpose was to meet up with Grandpa and Aunt Jane about the upcoming trip. Grandpa gave us an updated itinerary, and we talked a little bit more about different things.

After the meeting, Mark and I followed Grandpa and Grandma home. We brought along our bikes in order to mount them on the back of the RV. We also spent some time inside of the RV, just talking about where different things will be stored, who will sleep where, et cetera.

Around 6:00 in the evening, I arrived at Citizen’s Park in Belleville, where I was going to be playing softball for the Killer Beez, a team comprised of three of our cousins, an uncle, and quite a few friends. Since we had no game yesterday, I was happy to get to play with them. It happened to be playoffs, so that made it extra appealing.

I played half of the game at first base, alternating every inning with another guy. I batted 3-3 in the first game with a triple, double and single. We won 11-1, which meant the Beez advanced to the championship game at 8:30. Their opponent would be determined by the outcome of the 7:30 game.

What’s ironic is my brother Paul was substituting for one of the teams in the 7:30 game, and they ended up winning. So that meant we had brother against brother in the championship, and we were both subs for our respective teams! Kind of odd, huh?

Well, the championship game was very close, but we ended up pulling out a 4-2 victory. I only batted 1-3 that game, but I was able to help out at first base.

So that pretty much sums up yesterday! Today is a hot one. We’re closing in on 100 degrees.

There really isn’t a whole lot to write about. I spent a lot of time today, working on this week’s episode of “Safe At Home,” and I also covered the phones as John was gone all day.

This afternoon, Mark and I went out to the shed in order to retrieve our mountain bikes. Grandpa recently acquired a bike rack for the RV, so we’ll be able to take our bikes with us while on the trip. We wanted to take the bikes out of the shed to make sure they’re in fine condition and take care of anything, such as inflating the tires, et cetera. My burgundy Schwinn 21-speed bicycle seems to be in tip-top shape. I hope we encounter some nice bike trails while on the trip. I think that would be fun!

In the evening, I typed up part of a doctor’s deposition that is due tomorrow. I managed to churn out 20 pages is 45 or 50 minutes. That’s a really fast rate for me, so I was pretty pleased to get that finished so quickly.

Tonight, my Aunt Jane called me and informed me that a studio photographer that our family knows well, Jack Guciardo, had passed away this morning. He must have been 55 to 60 years old, and evidently he just collapsed while at a gym. He seemed to be in fine shape, so it’s a real shock to learn that he just died like that.

He was also my dad’s teacher many, many years ago, and he had actually been quite a bit of help to Paul and I last fall, as we were launching the wedding videography side of the business. His photography business, Crafty Eye Photography, had taken a few family pictures of ours, most notably last fall’s Stock family photo, where we had all of the in-laws and cousins from Mom’s side of the family gather for photos. Since Mom is one of 10, you can imagine the size of the photo!

It’s such a surprise to hear about this. Please keep his family and friends in your prayers as they cope with this.

This afternoon, I took my sister Mary (a/k/a Wizzy) to her gymnastics class in Fairview Heights. As we were about to head out the door, five-year-old Peter asked, in his ever-squeaky voice, if he could come with us. I asked Mom, got the go-ahead, and I headed out into the driveway with Wizzy and Peter.

While Wizzy was doing her gymnastics, Peter and I watched on, and I talked to Peter about everything from candy to… well, most of it was about candy. That’s his one true passion at the age of five. =)

After gymnastics, it was suppertime. While in Fairview Heights, we swung by Taco Bell and then went to the mall, where we picked up some food from Chick-Fil-A. From there, we headed on over to Sam’s Club in order to take care of a few things. As we left Sam’s, I got each of them a slushy-type drink. They were very happy campers on the way home. In fact, I think they had a great afternoon! It was neat to be able to spend some time with Wizzy and Peter.

Well, that’s all, folks.

Yesterday was a fairly typical Sunday, though in the afternoon Paul and I drove to a Catholic church in Madison, Illinois, to videotape a special Mass that they were holding. I wasn’t really all too eager to videotape something on a Sunday, but we were kind of doing them a favor in covering the service.

Today, Mark and I spent several hours working in the basement, where we laid down the rest of the carpet pad, cut it to size and glued it down to the concrete floor. It was the first time either of us had laid pad, and I’ve got to say I think we did an excellent job! The basement is looking great, and I expect it’s going to be just a wonderful gathering place for the Father’s House church services. We’re running out of things to do before it’s completely finished, so this is a really exciting time.

Well, as the subject indicates, it is only two weeks from the camping trip Mark and I are going on with our grandparents. Gosh! Before we know it, it will only be one week away. Then, we’ll be counting down the days. Yikes.

This evening, I typed out a list of a bunch of things I want to make sure to bring for the trip. I’ve got everything from my GPS, to my Bible, to my winter coat, to games, to… well, I’ve got a lot of things on the list! I probably won’t actually start packing for quite some time, but I want to leave enough time to remember anything that I may be forgetting.

By the way, tonight’s 8:30 softball game was rained out. I was going to sub for another team at 7:30, but obviously that game was washed out, tooo. We don’t have any other games scheduled this week, though I may play for my cousins’ team on Thursday. If not, then the next game is a week from today.

Start to finish, yesterday was pretty packed.

In the morning, I met up with Paul, John and Mark in the basement. We started cleaning up the areas that are uncarpeted (which, by the way, is a lot!). So we moved around a bunch of tools, pieces of wood, tile, et cetera, and also filled up a few trash bags. After that, we swept the floor in preparation for the carpet pad we were going to lay down.

Mark and I started to unroll the pad, position it along the edge of the house, and glue it down near the tack strips that go around the perimeter of the house.

When it was all said and done, we had put down pad in about half of the area. Once we finish the other half, we’re going to have our neighbor come over, who happens to do flooring work, and he’s going to install our carpet in the basement! That’ll be awesome once that’s finished. It’s really exciting.

Well, the basement work kept us busy until approximately 5:00, when we stopped to start getting ready for the Third Day concert at Six Flags. En route to Six Flags, we decided to stop by Chick-Fil-A at the mall in Fairview Heights in order to get some supper.

We drove through rain pretty much all the way to Eureka, and we arrived at Six Flags a bit after 7:00. It was still raining lightly as we made our way back to the ampitheater when we saw a big crowd of people standing outside the entrance. They had basically had a rain delay, and nobody was even able to get into the ampitheater at the moment.

So we sought shelter from the rain and just tried to kill some time until the rain started to let up, and around 8:00 was when they announced that the Third Day concert would begin at 8:30.

The concert was really good. We had great seats, and I just had an awesome time. I’ve got to say, though — I much prefer Third Day’s worship songs to their rock songs. Though the rock songs are fine, I jus really, really like the worship songs much more.

It was so cool to see the ampitheater, at times, turn into just a giant worship service, with people lifting their hands to God, singing to Him — basically forgetting who was on stage and focusing in on the One who deservers our attention, our praise.

We got out of the concert a few minutes before 10:00, and we headed straight for Batman to see if we would be able to sneak on the ride before the park closed down.

After literally running to the ride, through the line, and up the stairs to the boarding area, we were able to get on the very first time, as there was only a line in a couple of the gates. James and I went into the back row, where we rode and stayed on for a second time, since there was nobody waiting to get on after us.

We ended up leaving the park after that, stopping by Krispy Kreme on the way home. I hadn’t been to KK in quite some time, but I managed to down three doughnuts — a glazed, a jelly, and a cinnamon doughnut. Good stuff.

Tonight at 7:30 we played the 18th game of our Thursday night softball season. Since we are going to miss the playoffs, this was our final Thursday game until the fall season gets underway — probably a few weeks from now.

We had a rather close game against Phase 2, but we ended up losing 7-5. I batted 3-4 with three singles and a fielder’s choice. My average is up to .510, I believe, which is by far the highest it has been at in quite some time. So that’s really encouraging. In fact, this week I have batted 9-12!

Several weeks ago, I was stuck in a slump, where I just wasn’t getting many hits. It seems the turnaround was a couple of weeks ago, when a bunch of us went out to our ballfield for an impromptu practice. I consciously tried to work on hitting the ball up the middle and simply waiting for the pitch, adjusting to the speed of the ball. Since then, I’ve really been doing much better. Hopefully I can keep this up and make my average stay above .500!

Well, time to go. It’s hard to believe that Friday is already upon us. Saturday is the Third Day concert at Six Flags! I’m looking forward to that!

Around noon on Monday, Paul, Jude, James, Seth, Jacob and I left the house in order to pick up Ashley on the way to Six Flags in Eureka, Missouri.

We arrived at the park around 12:45 or 1:00 and headed straight for the roller coasters. Surprisingly, there was hardly any line for any of the coasters. The only significant wait we had was while in line for The Boss, which is the newest roller coaster at the park. As a whole, though, we were able to hop on rides after just waiting a few minutes. It was really neat, especially since it was such a hot day.

Before we left the park, we stopped to watch a show with a couple of alligator wrestlers. It was pretty entertaining, and it felt good to sit down in the shade for a little while after walking around on the hot blacktop with the sun shining down on us.

On the way home, we stopped by Taco Bell for lunch/supper. From there, we headed east on I-44 back towards Belleville. We dropped Ashley off, and headed on home a couple hours before Monday evening’s softball game. Ashley also joined us for the game, so it was cool that she was able to catch a “real” softball game while she was in town! The icing on the cake was the fact that we won. =)

Very early Tuesday morning (3:45-ish), my alarm clock went off, and Paul and I got ready to leave the house. We were going to drop Ashley off at the airport for her early flight back to Michigan. So we picked her up around 4:30 and headed for St. Louis, dropping her off at Lambert Airport and saying goodbye a little after 5:00, and getting home right after 6:00. We were pretty tired, but thankfully we were only gone for a couple of hours and were able to quickly make up the lost sleep.

That pretty much wraps up the somewhat extended weekend. The past few days have been kind of tiring, but I’ve had a blast! I’ve been looking through photos of the Softball Classic, and a little later on today I’ll be sifting through some of the video we captured.

By the way, last night’s softball game was won by us with a final score of 10-5. I batted 2-4 with a single and double. My two outs were pretty hard-hit, so I was pretty pleased with my hitting, even though I only got two hits. Ever since the practice we had out here at our place a couple of weeks ago, I have been hitting the ball a lot better. It’s really encouraging!!

Then on Sunday morning, Bobby Jo, Brandy, Gina and Ashley joined us for church. Afterwards, we invited the girls to join us for lunch at Cici’s. We ended up spending a good deal of time talking and laughing at different childhood stories, such as the time I had a tennis racquet, a turtle, and… well, you just should’ve been there.

After Cici’s, we separated with the girls as Bobby Jo, Brandy and Gina were going to head on home after dropping Ashley off in Belleville. Once we got home, we started getting ready to go to a family reunion in nearby Lebanon, and we asked Ashley if she wanted to join us. She agreed, so we swung by her place and picked her up en route to Lebanon.

There wasn’t a whole lot going on when we got there. I ended up playing a few games of chess and then a trivia game with Ashley, Paul, Mark and Jude.

Sunday evening, Mark and I dropped by Grandpa Stock’s house, where we talked a little bit about our upcoming trip. As I look at my countdown animation, I see that it’s 19 days away. Gosh! This is really, really sneaking up on me. Less than three weeks away. In fact, in three weeks I may well be in South Dakota. Yikes.

Well, I’m going to call it a night. The past several days have been kind of unusual due to the Softball Classic and a few other things, so I’m pretty beat. I’ve yet to write about Monday or Tuesday, but I’m catching up! The hardest thing to do was to give a rundown of the Classic. I’ve already done that, so it should be smooth sailing from here on out.