2001-06-25 - 3:34 p.m.
Spiders, odd googles, and grey questions

I've spent most of today constructing more webpages and putting the finishing touches on Thursday's floor plan. I don't think that house had ever been thorougly cleaned or remodelled since the college bought it. The first floor was nice, but one of the closets needs to be knocked out to make more room in the cramped bathroom. The basement, however, was so thick with dust, junk, and cobwebs that I had trouble keeping my composure.

I caught a web on the end of my measuring tape at one point and flinched, jerking the tape around to shake it off. The girl helping me asked, "Is there a spider on it?" when she saw what I was doing. I, already nervous and not paying too much attention, heard instead, "There is a spider on it." In a totally reflex action, without conscious thought, I screamed and threw the tape across the room. Then we both dissolved in a fit of giggles. *laughing at memory* I hope they get around to clearing the place out soon! It was nice and spacious, and the bathroom has twice the room of the one upstairs, if only the water still ran to it!

I did paste together another odd google page this weekend, and posted it earlier today, if you'd care to take a look. I'll keep it updated as best I can. D'you know, I think by far the majority of my hits are either concerned with my hatred of pantyhose, or the varous "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" questions I've reprinted. It's ridiculous. Who is Daniela Lumbroso, anyway, to inspire so many web hits on an obscure little diary like mine?

Speaking of page hits, I think my diary has been found again. I never did thank Jaded for saying she wouldn't tell anyone; if she's still reading this, I'm thanking her now, but I guess someone wanted to look through my past entries again and discovered the new ones. *shrug* Oh well. If I wanted complete anonymity, I would have started a new diary. Or near-complete, anyway. It's futile to imagine that one can be forever anonymous in ANY medium.

Speaking of mediums, I chanced to watch a few episodes of "Crossing Over with John Edward" on the Sci Fi channel last week. *shudder* That's creepy. On some of the shows, the information he gives is vague enough, and includes enough leading questions, that he could just be BS-ing. On some of them, though, he gives grieving families such detailed information and reassurances that unless he really is digging info on them before speaking to them (the show declares otherwise) he really IS channelling something.

This brings me to a sticky point in my faith. I am a Christian, I've said that often enough. But believing in the Bible implies a lot more than most people consider on a daily basis. While I am by no means a fundamentalist, I am one of those who believe you can't really follow Jesus while throwing away chunks of His Word. The relevant piece of that idea, for the moment, is this: There is an intangible world outside of the everyday world, and it teems all around us. What is it exactly like? No one can say, and indeed, most people never encounter it. But it's there. Does it include ghosts? Or, as the Bible implies, does it contain "demonic spirits" that lead people astray, pretending to be ghosts and past lives and such?

I have difficulty in planting my feet firmly on any statement in debates like this one. They trouble me. I used to be able to have discussions with other people on questions of faith like this one ... but most of my old debating partners were in high school or early college, and have scattered to the winds. Anyone I might chat with now would probably look at me strangely; they'd either think I was beneath them for having serious Christian beliefs, or think I was beneath them for getting into that grey mystical area of questions that most Christians don't like to touch. Or perhaps they might even think I was beneath them for having questions in ANY area of faith ... I know we've ALL met folks like this, rigid in their beliefs, who are completely certain that they know everything, and that questions equal sin!

*sigh* Anyway. Back to my Enya and my tea ...