Come one, come all! This is the Awsome Blog for the month of November, 2008. In this issue: a return trip to Big Bear, a balancing act and Mark inhales the belongings of less fortunate Californians. But first, I'd like to thank all the people who gave me a present for my birthday this month. You guys are wonderful. I really appreciate it. For everyone else, I think it's time you sat down and thought real hard about what's really important in life. (Hint: me.)

Here in the lead photo for this month is a view of the mountains around Big Bear City, California. I went up there for a christian conference for college-age kids on November 7-9. The conference itself was interesting, even though I ended up sleeping through a couple of the meetings. Mostly I just enjoyed being up in the mountains. I got to go for a nice hike through the woods, and we finally saw some snow. It was pretty heavy for a bit, but it quickly degenerated into sleet and then fizzled out completely.

On the weekend after my trip to Big Bear, the wildfires blazed up not far from where I live in Anaheim. Though the area I was in was in no danger, we had to keep all the windows and doors shut to keep out the powerful smell of ash that was carried over by the strong winds. Shortly after lunch on Saturday, November 15, I glanced out my window and saw this sight. Smoke from the fires had formed a thick, orange cloud that hovered ominously over the city of Anaheim. A few hours later I took this photo of the sun shining through this cloud. Even though it's only 3:45, the colors produced by the sunlight passing through the smoke made it seem like the sun was setting three hours early. I like this picture because it is so misleading. Even though the sun is so high it feels like evening. For days after this huge cloud dispersed, the smell of still ash lingered. At work the following Monday, Stephen D. pointed out that we were actually breathing in the remains of someone's personal property. Some wealthy Californians had thier homes burned in the wildfires and the burned homes traveled over to us where we began inhaling them and sometimes choking on them and caughing them back up. It was a bizarre realization.

This month we finished assembling the last mechanical platform. Ironically we finally figured out the easiest possible way to put these together and put this method to use only on this platform. I kind of wish we had to build another one since it's so easy now. Besides, I only get to do my balancing act on top of the unfinished platforms. Here you see me carrying all my nuts, bolts and tools in buckets as I walk down one of the beams I just finished installing. Since these beams are actually quite wide, balancing on them is not a problem. By now I can balance on a pipe two inches in diameter, so this is actually very easy. What makes it tricky is the fact that I am 11 feet above the concrete floor instead of just a few inches off the ground. When I balance on these things on the ground I can practically run along them, but once they are up this high the mind starts playing tricks on you. The way to beat these tricks is to focus on the end of the beam and simply walk normally towards it. As you get more used to walking along the beams you can start to focus on other things and let your feet find the beam in front of you. I am almost to this point, but I still need more practice. Before this platform gets finished (like the one in the background of the picture) I'll be up here a lot practicing. Picture taken by Stephen D.

The really big news this month is the installation of the two huge beams that will hold up the center of the building above the podium. For those of you who have not heard, there will be four columns near the podium that will be removed to allow for a much larger area of unobstructed seating. In order to make this possible, two beams 90 feet long and over 24,000 pounds each were ordered up for the purpose of transfering the weight of the ceiling above those columns to the surrounding columns. It was a huge deal when these beams arrived back in July, and it's an even bigger deal for them to finally be in place. In this picture the second beam is approaching its final resting place while most of the crew simply watches from a safe distance. My job during this process was to stand on the roof and make sure the crane did not damage the ceiling. Because I was up out of the way I didn't get many good shots, but by leaning through the windows into the building and holding my camera way out I was able to snap this one. Nearly everyone else there had a camera, though, so I should be able to get some really dramatic pictures for my photo album. Check back later for it to be updated.

The last thing to happen to me this month was a visit from a college friend of mine, Charlie Y. of New Orleans, LA. Charlie and I have been buddies since he started college. I can't remember how or when we met, or even if we started school at the same time. It seems like a really long time ago, now. Wow, that was five years ago, I think. Anyway, Charlie's step-mom lives in Laguna Beach, CA, so he came out to visit her, and I got to go stay with them for a night and hang out with Charlie for the first time since he graduated from college seven months ago. It was great to see him and great to have a face-to-face conversation for a change.

To all my Mississippi readers, I will be visiting my home there arriving on December 14 and staying into early January. I'll be looking forward to seeing all of you, but as a warning I may spend a bunch of time just laying around doing nothing. Doing construction all the time makes you really want to not do anything physical. That doesn't rule out watching movies and playing video games, but I may not be really excited about ultimate frisbee if you all are still playing that regularly. Anyway, See you all soon.