Secret child had divided Covina gunman and his wife

Scary. I mean really scary. As more and more details come out about this guy, how he methodically planned and used technical knowledge to carry out this thing, including the release of gas reminds me far too much of my father. The Santa suit, booby trapping the car and suit, it's all eerily within what I grew up to consider "normal". Even his lawyers description of him as a calm guy who gave no indication of what he was planning, is all too familiar. It gives me an appreciation of what my mother may have faced if she ever considered leaving him. No one outside our house would have believed what he was capable of.

For me, the most interesting thing is this killer blew it. He'd planned on fleeing the country, securing air tickets to Canada and wrapping a large amount of cash to his leg. The suicide was a fallback position. We'll likely never know, but my guess is he was overconfident and he made a literally fatal mistake.

OK, so I don't know this guy from Adam. It just feels like I do. My prayers go out to the family who discovered too late, and in the most heinous way, of what he was capable.

Stress = Compromised Immune System

Although some people may be naturally more susceptible to the common cold than average a growing body of evidence suggests that the ease with which we are infected is directly related to the amount of stress in our lives. People who endure large amounts of long-term stress are more likely to become infected with a cold or flu, and suffer more from cold and flu symptoms.

Ah, so that's the reason. Given the energy it takes to produce and deal with anxiety, stress causing susceptibility to illness makes sense. Of course, the next question is: is it possible to undo?

Pilot blinded by stroke is guided safely to ground

Without a doubt, this is one of the most incredible things I've heard of in a long, long time. A former pilot myself, in theory this should be fairly straightforward, but I can't imagine anyone willing to try it just to test the theory. Landing at night without a landing light can be challenging enough, but with NO frame of reference save what some stranger tells you (albeit a member of the RAF), boggles the mind. For all the training pilots have in trusting their instruments, literally flying blind, having to trust one's knowledge of where everything is in the cockpit would test anyone's intestinal fortitude. Think of driving blind at 60+ miles per hour (97 kilometres per hour) and having someone guide you. Now add in that you can't just pull over and stop. Eeeek.


It occurs to me that sometimes our walk with God is like this. Mine certainly has been. At a time when my marriage was rocky, I had no friends or family to support me, and my church had just abandoned me, I felt like I was flying blind. I knew God was still in control, but I wondered if He really loved me and, if so, why I was so alone. I can imagine the pilot felt entirely alone when he found himself blind at 5,500 feet. The pilot's only way to survive was through listening to a friendly voice that would tell him things he had no way of verifying. Still, he knew the voice was of a fellow pilot who was there to help. I can't imagine, though, that there wasn't a measure of apprehension and doubt, a thought that "I can't do this". Then again, the pilot had little choice. In an interview I saw with him, he spoke of the people on the ground who might be killed if he crashed. I can't help but wonder whether that perspective isn't a certain amount of the key.