Almost half-time...

... and the Buckeyes are up 42-0 over Northwestern. This could be a rather ugly game.

I have no illusions that Muskingum will do that well against Mount Union this evening.

I'm feeling a little under the weather lately. The pollen counts have soared and some early harvesting is starting, so needless to say my allergies have kicked into high gear. I've not done much today, just sort of lounged around drinking tea, hoping that I can get through the service tomorrow. I've already called the church and told the secretary to find out who my assisting elder is for Sunday and warn him that I may only be able to read scripture and preach. So we'll see just how well my elders can do in stepping up to a challenge! I have confidence that they'll do just fine.

Not much new here, found a few books on-line that I want to order, so I should get around to that sometime soon. Meeting a friend for lunch on Monday and work again next week. If something exciting should happen, I'll let you all know.

One more thing...

the Bucks are on a roll! 33-14 over Washington on Saturday!

Wowsers

The things I could write in this post! Since I don't know everyone who reads this I will refrain from what I want to write today. Needless to say information has recently come to light which has suddenly given me a whole new lease on life, and made me realise that tomorrow is not only another day, but a brave new world.

Other than that cryptic message, the weekend has been quite good. Church this morning went well, even though I laid into to them more than I had intended. We also had communion. This was also their version of "rally day" where the kids get to ring the church bell to announce a new Sunday School year has begun. We started out with juice and doughnuts then went upstairs and rang the church bell for a good 15 minutes this morning. I'm sure the neighbors were thrilled, but the kids loved it. The little ones were pulled up by the rope when the fly-wheel returned on the bell and they just thought that was too cool.

Yesterday was a funeral which went well, and as stated previously I'm glad I wasn't officiating. This was some lady who died. She was 98 and still active. At 85 she and several others went to Russia to pass out Bibles and other Christian literature because she felt a need to do so. Pretty amazing life. If I can do half the things she did I think I'll be pleased.

Currently reading Earl S. Johnson's Witness Without Parallel: Eight Texts that Make us Presbyterians. It's pretty good so far, I'll let you know more when I finish it.

That's all for now. Blessings!!!

Thought o' the day: It's official I have no regrets now!

When it rains...

you get wet. Well actually it pours. Life keeps me pretty busy the last few days. Yesterday I enjoyed a productive day in the office, and even though I accomplished a lot, it still wasn't everything I needed to do. I crossed the big things off my list, but there are always so many details to track down.

Ministry isn't always what I thought it would be. Even in a small church there is an awful lot of bureaucratic tape to get through. I manage however. I may be going back to the hospital again tomorrow, though this time a different hospital slightly closer to the church. And there is a funeral Saturday at the church. Since I didn't know the lady (she lived in Pittsburgh for several years) a retired minister from the area will be officiating (I hope).

I received Rabbi Harold Kushner's book When Bad Things Happen to Good People yesterday and have already read quite a bit of it. From what I've read so far I think I could have used this book when I did CPE last summer... just a hunch.

I heard from my good friend Matt yesterday. He's in Israel for the next two years studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. So far things have been good for him and I can tell he's grown a lot even in the short time he's been there. Matt's a good Baptist pretending to be an Anglican while he's in Jerusalem because all the Baptists in Israel are apparently quite scary. And he's assured me that he's in no danger of converting to Judaism or Islam (not that any of us would ever believe a Baptist would convert to something else (though we were working on getting him to become a Presbyterian before we left Princeton!

Thought o' the day: The 156th Coshocton County Fair is just around the corner!

I don't want to gloat...

especially after Ohio State's performance on the football field today, but did anyone see how soundly Michigan was routed by Oregon? Now that's a disgrace.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!

Today has been a rather boring day, and sadly I accomplished very little.

Ever since we up-graded our cable system and got road-runner high speed internet I have been surfing all of our new channels and have come to really like BBC America. I always liked BBC news, but when I was stuck in Scotland earlier this year my opinion of British television dropped considerably. But BBC America is great! I love to watch their news and there are several other programs, or should I say programmes (Cash in the Attic, Bargain Hunt, and Everything Must Go) which I really enjoy. So I watched a few of those programs this morning.

Then we picked about a peck and a half of grapes from our arbor and cleaned them. Mother froze most of them, but we kept out some for eating and for a pie tomorrow. There are still plenty of grapes on the vine, and in a few days we'll have to pick more.

Speaking of grapes... when I was young I spent a lot of time with my grandparents (on both sides). My dad's parents were big gardeners and had two very large grape arbors among other kinds of fruit (apple tree, cherry tree, elderberry bush, etc.) Well the rule was that my grandfather got one grape arbor and my grandmother got the other one, and each could do whatever they wanted to with the contents. My grandmother always made canned (cold-pack) grape juice, pies and cobblers. She would freeze some and keep them for later in the winter. My grandfather though always took his grapes, pressed them and made a hogs-head of wine. Now the wine was never particularly good, but it is something to see a barrell of wine fermenting in your grandparents basement! So here's to grapes!

Keeping with that same theme we're going out tonight to eat at Raven's Glenn a rather tony establishment for Coshocton County. It is a fairly new winery (3-4 years) with a very nice restaurant attached. They serve mostly Italian food, but the wine is very good and on weekends there is live music, when a rather good local pianist comes in to play and take requests, so I'm excited.

Thought o' the day: Trinity

I know, I know

Life isn't fair. There I said it. I know life isn't fair and there's nothing I can do about it. Yesterday was my birthday, and it was a pretty good day. I went to work in the morning, but left early so I could come home to see my grandmother, who's birthday is also Sept. 4. Yesterday she turned 87.

We've always celebrated "our birthday" together, except for a few years in college when I had class on my birthday, and it has always been a special day for the two of us. Now that she is in the nursing home and her dementia has increased it just isn't the same. Several times last week she forgot that our birthday was the same day, she thought mine was a week later. And yesterday when my parents went down in the morning she was very confused. They had a couple of presents and a cake, and after a few pictures my mother asked grandma what she got for her birthday, all my grandma could think of was the cake sitting in front of her. Then last night when I went down she didn't remember right away but eventually did remember that it was my birthday as well. She probably 'remembered' that five or six times over the course of the evening. It was almost and after thought. I know it's not her fault but it is frustrating nonetheless to watch someone who was once so vital slip away so slowly.

Damned disease anyhow.

Thought o' the day: Listen to some Brahms, it is rather soothing.

A VERY special day!

Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me,
Happy Birthday to me-e,
Happy Birthday to me!

It's my 26th!

Thought o' the day: so this is when the knees start to go...

Is this life?

Today is Labor Day, a day which, in principle, I don't really oppose, however, I do oppose the labor unions and their disproportionate amount of power. I also generally oppose the whole idea of labor unions in the first place. I think that states with right-to-work laws have it right, because the labor union is just an out-moded way of thinking and it cannot help workers or businesses in this global economy.

The annual Jerry Lewis telethon is over, and by all accounts it was another record-breaking year. Over $63 million was raised this year towards fighting Muscular Dystrophy. Go Jerry!

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Services went well in the morning and I really felt as though they liked and appreciated my sermon. If they remember it, well that's another story. And the memorial service for my great-aunt went well also. There weren't very many people there, but it was good to see some family and to remember my aunt. The church was beautiful - First Congregational United Church or Christ, in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. The minister was okay, I guess. It was pretty clear he hadn't put much thought, effort, or time into his homily though. He made some very good points, but he made them very poorly. I especially took offence when he compared my aunt's life to the rules of a video game. Strange. Not to mention the fact that he is a UCC minister (presumably pretty liberal) who has three theological degrees from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (which is a very conservative seminary). I didn't ask him about all that, though I kind of wish I did now.

Birthday tomorrow, I'll work part of the day and then come home early to celebrate with my grandma (because it's her birthday too!) at the nursing facility (where she lives).

Blessings!

Thought o' the day: Onward and Upward!

Happy Saturday everyone.

What a beautiful day today. The past few weeks have been pretty miserable, and were probably the worst weather of the summer. Temps have been in the 90's, sometimes in the high 90's. I know that those temps aren't really that hot, esepecially for those of you who live in warmer zones (like Arizona) but the humidity was also really high at the same time, which made the outdoors pretty miserable altogether. Anyhow, today it is bright and sunny in the mid-70's, perfect for Labor Day weekend.

This morning I got up (relatively early for me) and after breakfast and a shower decided to go up to Warsaw and mail an oddly shaped piece of mail, and go to the bank. This all happened about 11.15. As I went to get in my car I noticed that it was very, very dirty. Thursday past the township decided to chip-and-seal our road (or as my dad likes to say, scratch-n-sniff). This is a rather nasty process in which a truck sprays hot tar on the road, then a dump truck full of pea-size gravel back up, dumping the gravel into the tar, thus creating a relatively smooth road surface. The only problem is that the people who do this (every couple of years) always put down too much gravel (so that it will eventually work its way down into the tar). So there is a lot of loose gravel on our road and it is very dusty. Thus my car, which sits outside, was very dirty.

So I leave to go to the post-office only to find out that it now closes at 11am on Saturday (I thought it closed at noon). So on to the bank, which was open, though getting ready to close, and then back to the self-serve car-wash. When I pulled in all three bays were occupied and there were other people waiting. I said heck with it and came home where I washed my car in the driveway. It didn't turn out so well though. I don't think I used enough soap, and because of the sunny weather and light winds the water evaporated before I had a chance to dry it with a chamois. Oh well, it's a bit spotty, but it does look a lot better than before.

Sermon is ready for tomorrow, and I already have an idea for the Sept. newsletter article. Tomorrow afternoon I also have a funeral to attend (and participate in). My great-aunt died this week and her funeral is tomorrow. Her daughters thought (for some reason) that I would like to participate, so I talked with the minister in charge this week, and will do a reading or two and maybe a responsive lesson. The only bad part is that I think I only met my aunt once in my whole life. She moved to CA shortly after her husband died (when I was very young) to live with her daughter, and then moved back to Ohio when I was in high school, but she lived way up by the border with PA and NY, so we didn't get to visit very often. By the time she came back to this area to move into a nursing home I was in college and then seminary, so I really don't know her that well, other than letters and cards. At any rate I'm hoping that all goes well and that there are at least a few folks there (she was 92 and has outlived most of her friends and family).

I had clean sheets last night, and let me tell you, what a wonderful feeling! I think I'll start changing my bed every other day or so...

Blessings!

Thought o' the day: It's always darkest just before it goes pitch black.