In A New York Minute

You hear this term all the time. Things change in an instant, in the blink of an eye. One minute you’re enjoying your Labor Day weekend, having a few beers and off- roading with a friend. Your little boy is strapped in his car seat in the back laughing and giggling as you bounce over rocks and bumps. And when you come upon a river, your judgment, clouded by alcohol, also clouds the possibilities of what could happen.  Below is something that happened in an instant


Sep 7, 2010... The California Highway Patrol says a 1-year-old boy has drowned after his drunken father drove an off-road vehicle into a river in the San Bernardino County desert. CHP spokesman Joaquin Zubieta says the Suzuki Samurai plunged Monday night into 9 feet of water in the Mojave River in Apple Valley. The driver had been off-road driving and was inching the SUV into the water when it plunged and rolled over. Zubieta says 23-year-old ______ and a 19-year-old passenger escaped but couldn't get ______‘s 16-month-old son out of the baby seat. ______ was booked for investigation of manslaughter and driving under the influence and remained jailed Tuesday. Apple Valley is about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles.


  Don Henley wrote a song titled In A New York Minute. There is a line in that song which runs through my mind “Somebody going to Emergency, Somebody’s going to jail”. I pray for this young father and mother and for their unimaginable loss. I pray that the Peace of God be upon them. And I pray that if the father is like us that he find our fellowship.

A Nice Problem To Have

   Hey everyone, hope all of you have had a nice and relaxing Labor Day weekend to this point and will enjoy the rest of the day. Our picnic yesterday went quite well yesterday with at least 50 (if not more) folks showing up for some AA fellowship and good food. The weather helped out by providing us with a slight breeze that kept the temperature pleasant. At some point during the picnic I thought to myself that on past Labor Day weekends my biggest worry was if I would have enough booze for the weekend or what lie was I going to tell to get out of an invite for a get together with family or friends. I was always being invited to be with people that loved me on holiday weekends like this (if I didn’t have to work) and I would always say “yeah, sure I’ll be there.” but 9 times out of 10 would flake on out them. Yesterday my only concern was if I had made enough beans… what a nice problem to have.


  Some drama this morning at our early meeting. A guy who’s been in and out of the door of our meetings this morning accused a wonderful lady in our group of calling the local PD on him as he was driving to the meeting. His girlfriend is being sponsored by my friend and how he came to this conclusion is unknown but he came in a very threatening manner towards her. I thought at first it was a joke, that he was just goofin’. Luckily there were 2 other guys nearby and they were able to get in between this guy and my friend and hustle him out of the room. The PD was called for sure this time and the matter was settled outside. The mood was definitely tense at the beginning of the meeting but the guy who led the meeting did a fantastic job getting us back on track with the topic of sanity, which he reminded us we were all missing when we walked through those doors. It was a great meeting and we are all praying for the gentleman who had to leave this morning. I pray he comes back. I pray he doesn’t drink.