Mín Englisc Blog

Safety Post

Today so far looks decent; although it's cloudy, there's been no rain so far. This all will change later, surely. Please pray for lighter storms and rain than predicted!
I need to answer two questions about recent posts:
Rebekah asked for the name of the author of the quote about Iraqi insurgents. This came from Mike McConnell, host of the 9AM-noon talk show on WLW Cincinnati radio. Last week, he took a trip to Iraq, where he visited al-Fallujah and Baghdad.
Nathan asked if I would predict the end of the blog contest. I have no idea how long it will go; I expect to be able to post every day into early July at least. If I can post at Covfamikoi, I should be able to go at least to the end of that month. I don't know how long Bekah or Rebekah can go.

Today marks 100 days of consecutive posting!
This morning was my second CLEP exam, American History II, which I took an hour away at Bluffton College. In case you don't know about these tests, I'll explain: they give college credit. By passing it (which I did) I get credit for having taken a semester-long course, even though I only took an hour to do it.
Next, we left Bluffton to go to Defiance, where the Morton family lives. Sadly, the older Mrs. Morton passed away yesterday evening, so Dad had to make a pastoral visit.
My big event today was driving: Dad had me drive from Bluffton to Defiance, and most of the way from Defiance home. Since the drive from Mortons' is over 1½ hours, I got over two hours' driving today.
Tomorrow evening is the beginning of the annual Spring Camporee, held this year at Buck Creek State Park, at least an hour away. Heavy storms are predicted for tomorrow night. If not for two factors, I might not go: (1) I'm in charge of the troop, and (2) there's a callout ceremony tomorrow night for the Order of the Arrow, an honorary Scouting society; if I don't attend it, I can't join.

Quote:

They [the Iraqi insurgents] don't fight; they just plant bombs and run away.

Thanks to the wonderful forecast, we needed to go and mow, finishing before lunch.
Two items of prayer:
Give thanks for a measure of healing for Elder George Shopp at Southside. After four years of kidney failure, he has come through a successful kidney transplant surgery. Pray for his recovery.
Pray for the Morton family from our church; we just heard that Mr. Morton's grandmother, age 93, is near death. Pray for all the family, especially Mr. Morton's father, who is taking this very hard. Most of all, pray for the grandmother — she is not a believer, and she may have only hours to live.

Today is somewhat of a return to Saturday's weather; although it's warmer, and there's no snow, we've had rain most of the day. I'm really glad that I was able to mow yesterday!
Hopefully, I'll be able to finish work on my stamp color chart today. Why doesn't the catalogue company produce one of its own? Surely there would be a market for such a thing; the main British catalogue company produces one for its catalogues.
At tonight's troop meeting, we have much to do. Since we have a camping trip this weekend, we must pack equipment for that. As well, the governing Patrol Leaders' Council must decide on arrangements for the patrols; our two large patrols will soon be split into three smaller ones.

This morning was our semi-annual dentist's appointment. Since I'll be in Beaver Falls in October, Mom scheduled my next appointment for December.

Praise the LORD for a marvelous deliverance that he has given! A week ago last Friday, we received news that Mr. Charles Shofstahl’s family had been told that he might have just a few days to live, due to an acute form of leukemia. Mr. Shofstahl, whose daughter Miriam is married to Pastor Charles Brown at Westminster, also suffered from other illnesses, including a kind of pneumonia that resisted all antibiotics. His elder daughter, Abigail, sent out a jubilant email on Wednesday (I’d post its text, but it was accidentally deleted) with the news. Here’s a summary:
Mr. Shofstahl’s leukemia is now in remission, thanks to aggressive treatment. Although he will have to have continued treatment for the next several months, he now appears free of the cancer. What’s more, his other illnesses are gone, among them the pneumonia, which turned out to be viral — thus explaining its resistance to antibiotics. Mr. Shofstahl (if I remember rightly) was released from the hospital several days ago. What a marvelous deliverance — going from near death from cancer to being cancer-free in less than a week! In another email, Abigail said that she felt like singing Psalms without stopping. As surely she has done, let’s sing this psalm to God’s glory!
You now have turned my sorrow
To dancing full of joy;
You loosened all my sackcloth
And girded me with joy.
To You sing psalms, my glory,
And never silent be!
O LORD my God, I'll thank You
Through all eternity.

Dad preached from I Samuel and John today, since today was a lunch-at-church-followed-by-afternoon-worship week. The texts viewed the coronation of Saul and the second question of Nicodemus, respectively.
Today marked a milestone in our congregation's history, as Mrs. Jocele McDonald resigned as congregational precentor at Thursday's session meeting. Although others had precented, notably my mom and Paul Soma, they only did when Mrs. McDonald was absent or ill. She had occupied the position since 1976 — over 22.5% of the entire history of the congregation!

BLOGS
1. Bekah*: 7, on 7 days.
2. Rebekah*: 7, on 7 days.
3. Becca: 10, on 6 days. Please pray for Mrs. Long, who had surgery today.
4. Katie: 6, on 6 days.
5. Nathan: 4, on 4 days.
6. David: 2, on 2 days.
7. Allen: 3, on 2 days.
8. Anna: 2, on 2 days.
9. Charity: 1, on 1 days.
10. Abby: 0, on 0 days. Last post 7 April.
11. Grace: 0, on 0 days. Last post 24 March.
12. Joseph: 0, on 0 days. Last post 11 March.

Brian will no longer be ranked. It's nothing against him; he's switching to Xanga, and I don't normally rank Xanga sites.

In the meadow we can build a snowman,
And pretend that he is Parson Brown...
Walking in a winter wonderland.

Happy January! With a couple of inches of snow on the ground, isn't it wonderful?

NO

So much for mowing this week. I mowed only one lawn on Thursday, expecting time to mow yesterday or today, and I was wrong. As a result, this one remaining lawn will be outrageously tall.
Today's weather is altogether uncharacteristically BAD for this time of year. Rain, varying from light to heavy, and snow — we may get several inches by tomorrow morning! — combine for very unpleasant weather.

Not much happened today. Much of my day was spent working on stamps. Since the main catalogue company doesn't publish a color chart, I'm making my own. This involves a lot of work: I search for many different single-color stamps and use each one as the color chip for that color. It's quite annoying how many color differences there are; for example, what's the difference between blue, dark blue, deep blue, and dull blue?
Tonight, we went to Bellefontaine for supper at Fazoli's. Besides that, we visited a member of our congregation in a nursing home and went to Wal-Mart. Nothing much to mention.

Great News! Today, I completed, for all practical purposes, my Eagle project! Files are now in the mail to the E&P Board in Pittsburgh.
Dad took me out driving on the street for about twenty minutes today. Overall, it went well, and I enjoyed it. Dad says I'm doing really well with my use of turn signals (doubtless because of experience with cycling), but I'm turning too slowly. At this rate, I will soon be taking more complicated drives, like going down US 68 to Bellefontaine.

Just had an "adventure" for the first time in a while:
Once I finished mowing, we picked up a large branch. Although Mom wanted me to carry it home, I asked to tie it onto the back bumper. Despite her protests, I succeeded in getting her to allow it. Suffice it to say that we got it the entire two blocks safely.

Not the news I wanted to know:
Coming toward us is a line of storms the length of Illinois. It's currently west of the Mississippi, but it should be here by tomorrow. This means that I need to go back out to mow one lawn; it doesn't need work today, but it will be past "ready" by Friday or Saturday.

I'm having a hard time posting, with Isaac watching State Fair in the next room. Did any of you know that I, like the people in that song, easily could have been Iowa-born-and-bred?
This morning we finished The Incredibles. I didn't like the ending as well as the other parts; it was still nice, but nowhere near as funny as the rest.
I just finished mowing one lawn, so I'm done with that for the day.

Big news for me today: Dad took me for my first moving driving lesson. In other words, we went up to the village park, where I practised driving around a deserted area. Fun, but I still don't like the feeling of governing such mass. I guess I'll have to get used to it, I guess.
Tonight at the troop meeting, we had a repeat of the emergency drill. Overall, it went rather poorly: communications depended on Isaac and me with our semaphore, which didn't work well. Between the comparatively great distance and the difficulty of seeing the flags against the backgrounds, we could barely understand each other. On the plus side, everyone did their parts well, the rest of the drill was fine, and the troop meeting went decently.
Isaac borrowed The Incredibles from the library yesterday, and I saw snippets as I was walking around. Since those little bits seemed funny, I decided to watch it myself. Bear in mind that I watch a new movie less than once per year. Although time considerations kept me from finishing tonight, I enjoyed the entire movie — except for the (unwatched) final twenty minutes. That's tomorrow's job.
Happy 30th anniversary to my uncle and aunt, Mom's eldest brother and his wife. On the other hand, today is the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Pope Benedict XVI has appeared. The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he is the oldest man to be elected pope in over 100 years. The previous Pope Benedict, XV, reigned during World War I.

Bells ring: A new pope has been elected.

Time for a short piece of psalm, as we sang it in Ireland. For these words from Psalm 72, use the tune "Effingham", listed in our Book of Psalms for Singing under 77C.

16Of corn an handful in the earth/on tops of mountains high,/With prosp'rous fruit shall shake, like trees/on Lebanon that be.

The city shall be flourishing,/her citizens abound/In number shall, like to the grass/that grows upon the ground.
17His name for ever shall endure;/last like the sun it shall:/Men shall be bless'd in him, and bless'd/all nations shall him call.

18Now blessed be the Lord our God,/the God of Israel,/For he alone doth wondrous works,/in glory that excel.
19And blessed be his glorious name/to all eternity:/The whole earth let his glory fill./Amen, so let it be.

Today marks 90 days of contest. If we keep this up for two more days, we'll have gone for over ¼ of the year...over 1.4% of my entire life.

The following text is from the Rev. J. B. Scouller's Manual of the United Presbyterian Church, which (in its field) is very similar to Glasgow's history of our denomination. Despite the length of this text, the original sketch is much longer. Please read the entire text; the selected portions are all very funny, and the single somewhat boring part leads up to the best situation of them all.

ANDERSON, John, D. D.:
Was born in England, near the Scotch border, and of Scotch parents, about the year 1748...April 21, 1794 he was appointed Professor of Theology for the Associate Church....
Dr. Anderson was a man of mark in every sense. He was remarkably small, his stature not much exceeding five feet, with a large head enveloped in a forest of thick tangled hair. "Nature," says one of his pupils, "in setting him up had forgotten to supply the convenience of a neck, and there seemed to have been a great lack of muscle where it ought to have been, as his head was constantly inclined to his [chest] at an angle of forty-five degrees." His voice was low...
He was noted for his abstraction of mind and entire ignorance of the common affairs of life. On one occasion when leaving Philadelphia, where Synod had been in session, Mr. Young, with whom he had lodged, knew that he had no money and gave him enough to take him home [he lived in far western Pennsylvania], but knowing his habits concluded to watch him until he got out of the city, and soon found him in a book store where he had already spent his last dollar, without any thought of how he was to get [home]...His habit was to take a book to read when he mounted his horse, and he soon became so absorbed in it as to be oblivious to all else, and "old gray," understanding his ways, would generally betake himself to what grass and food he could find, and things would remain thus for an hour at a time. He rarely or ever succeeded in going to Presbytery or Synod without losing himself. He would even lose himself when going to his own church, and when services were over he would sometimes mount the first gray horse he found and ride away without any regard to ownership. He once set out from home upon a cold day in the winter to attend a distant meeting of Presbytery, and indulged himself in his usual practice of reading till the severity of the weather compelled him to desist. He now found himself in a place which he could not recognize, and began to urge his horse forward with [unusual] activity, but having ridden all day without discovering any habitation, or meeting any person from whom he could obtain directions, as a last resort, in the evening, he gave the reins to the horse, thinking he might lead him to some shelter for the night. The horse, thus left to himself, soon brought him to an opening in the woods and made directly for a habitiation at a little distance. The Doctor knocked at the door and it was opened by an aged lady, of whom he inquired, in a supplicating voice, whether he could get lodgings for the night. The lady proved to be his wife, and the house his own, around which he had been riding all day at the distance of a mile or two....

Please pray for me; I have tendencies this way, and I most definitely do not want to end up losing myself on the way to church!

Dad preached today from chapters 5-7 of I Samuel, where the Philistines capture the ark of God, return it, and are defeated at Mizpeh. We had above-average attendance today — all normal people were there (except for Lydia, who is visiting Laura in Michigan), plus one visitor — making 45 people in all.

BLOGS Two errors I corrected:
(1) Blogs weren't ranked; I simply forgot the numbers. Remember that the periods for the numbers were present.
(2) Bekah wasn't listed as being a member of the contest.

1. Rebekah*: 7, on 7 days.
2. Becca: 7, on 6 days.
3. Bekah*: 7, on 6 days. This includes 4 pictures with small captions.
4. Nathan: 4, on 4 days.
5. Katie: 3, on 2 days.
6. David: 2, on 2 days.
7. Anna: 2, on 2 days.
8. Brian: 2, on 1 day. Each post is a picture with small caption.
9. Abby: 1, on 1 days.
10. Charity: 0, on 0 days. Last post 9 April. On the plus side, her last post has gotten 34 comments to date.
11. Allen: 0, on 0 days. Last post 29 March.
12. Grace: 0, on 0 days. Last post 24 March.
13. Joseph: 0, on 0 days. Last post 11 March.

After over 3½ hours of sleep this evening, I feel decent. Before that, I felt as never I had before — not very sleepy (although I nearly fell asleep twice while playing the computer), but extremely tired, even so tired as to dislike thinking. Is this how old, ill people feel in their weakness? God be merciful to them; I could never stand feeling so all the time by myself.
Perhaps it was good that I slept so long. I asked to be awakened at 6:45, after one hour, but I was allowed to go until 9:25. But then, my parents twice awakened me — or so they thought; I have often heard of the awake-like things that I do when asleep.
By sleeping twice today, I have completely lost the sense of being in a dream that I normally have at CYPU events — and normally lose when I go to sleep. I would appreciate prayer that I could avoid, somehow, this sense in the future: because of it, CYPU events are not real to me in the fullest sense of the word. Yes, I remember them, but almost as if I were watching a movie of a true story: the events are real, and they happened just as depicted, but I didn't really take part in them.

Back from Sonrise Party, where I set a new personal record for most straight hours awake: about 28, from 6:30 am (Daylight time) yesterday to 9:30 am (Standard time) today. I had a great time, but the departure was grievous; I might not see Kevin again for maybe over a year and a half. Read Becca or Bekah for a more detailed account.

See you at the Sonrise Party. Only 11 hours to go!

Tomorrow evening is the Sonrise Party. Hope to see all of you there!
Today has really been busy. For the first time all year, I mowed two lawns in one day. Furthermore, Mom has been working (with some help from me) on lots of scholarship applications. Hopefully, I'll get several of these, since we've spent so much time on them.

Well, today didn't go the best. For one thing, I had trouble with the mower: the left rear wheel fell off twice. As a result, I had to give up its self-propel feature and use another, person-propel mower. As well, we didn't have the best results at our meeting. Oh well; there won't be long-term problems.
Mowing for the first time all year will be nice for my wallet, but it's not good for my feet. They ache tonight. I guess this is what I get for mowing for the first time all year.
Please pray for Charles Shofstahl, father-in-law of Pastor Charles Brown at Westminster. Mr. Shofstahl was diagnosed recently with an aggressive leukemia, and he is not doing well at all. Pray for his life to be spared!

Sorry for no decent post yesterday, since I was quite busy. There might be no more from me today; I have to mow (for the first time all year) and I have a patrol leaders' council for the Scout troop this afternoon — not to mention prayer meeting as usual on Wednesdays.

Safety post.

Today was really not very different, in general. Dad took me down to Delaware (near Columbus) to pick up my lawnmower from the repairman. Total bill came to just $62, which is quite good when we consider that he had to replace the engine. Plus, he bought my old non-working lawnmower for $20, since he has a side business (he works for the Muirfield Village golf course) of repairing lawnmowers.
Other than that, really little has happened today. Therefore, let me recap some recent events that I forgot to mention in previous days' posts:

Friday, I got a new watch. The old one needed replacement because the band-holder broke, permanently breaking the watch.
Stamps continue to occupy a bit of my time.
Please pray for Dave Pierce, one of our members from the failed work in Northern Kentucky, who is dying from a melanoma cancer. He is in little pain (praise God!) but he seems to have only weeks to live.

Happy 56th Anniversary to Laurence Malvin Pockras and Sarah Lou (Curtis) Pockras!
Dad preached this morning from the first four chapters of I Samuel. Can we, who live in the confidence of the fulness of God's Word, really understand the utter despair of the priest Eli at the end of the fourth chapter? Truly this is one of the saddest parts of the Bible: Eli, upon hearing the worst possible news, is stricken with a stroke or heart attack and dies — news that God has deserted the entire nation. What could be worse? Of course, we can read farther and discover that God had not really forsaken the people, but how could Eli have known such? Just imagine his horror that the ark has been taken: even the news of his sons' death cannot compare. If Psalm 22 were available to him, surely he could have repeated the words Jesus would use, a millenium later:

My God, my God, O why have You/Forsaken me? O why/Are You so far from giving help/And from my groaning cry?

Let us rejoice that God has delivered us:

For He did not despise nor spurn/The grief of one oppressed,/Nor did He shun his cry for help,/But heard and gave him rest.

BLOGS for the week of 3-9 April
1. Becca: 16 on 6 days.
2. Rebekah*: 7 on 7 days.
3. Bekah*: 6 on 6 days.
4. Anna: 8 on 5 days.
5. Charity: 3 on 3 days.
6. Katie: 4 on 4 days.
7. David: 2 on 2 days.
8. Brian: 8 on 1 days. Seven of these are just a picture each.
9. Abby: 1 on 1 days.
10. Allen: 0 on 0 days. Last post 29 March.
11. Grace: 0 on 0 days. Last post 24 March.
12. Joseph: 0 on 0 days. Last post 11 March.

We arrived in Cincinnati around noon, although we didn't see Grumps or Grandmother until 3:00. In the mean time, we visited a Scout store, ate lunch at a Skyline Chili, and visited a couple of stores at a mall.
Most of the visit was spent at a restaurant, where we had a celebratory dinner; my grandparents' 56th anniversary is tomorrow.
Please pray for my grandparents; both of them are in rather poor health. It's really hard to see them as they are.

Today we leave.

Tomorrow morning, we leave for Cincinnati. My grandparents' 56th anniversary is in two days, and Dad's family will be celebrating with a meal tomorrow.
Besides eating a dinner, we have some other things to do tomorrow. Among other things, we hope to go to a Scout store; some awards forms are needed, and our Council offices don't seem to stock what we need. As well, I need an extra Senior Patrol Leader patch; although I have one, I own two uniform shirts, and these patches are sewn on tightly.
Today has mostly been a day of inside work, again. Although I put several hours into stamps, I made relatively little progress. I guess that's what happens when I feel more like reading the stamp catalogue than working from it.

Today has been a mixture of issues, mostly stamps and playing on the computer. We'll probably get going on mowing next week (assuming that the repairman gets the mower done), and that should leave me with significantly less time. On the other hand, it will increase my cash flow.

Dad and Isaac went to our homeschool group's Science & History Fair tonight. Mom and I usually go, but we stayed tonight to work: I had some stuff to do with the Glasgow project, and both of us need to work on scholarship applications.

Because Nathan Hart seems to have defected to the non-blogging part of the world, I'm deleting the link.

Monaco mourns:
His Serene Highness, Prince Rainier has died. Europe's longest-reigning monarch, the prince assumed the throne in 1949. His son, Prince Albert, will succeed him.

Last night was not the best troop meeting. Although we had 14 boys there, the meetings weren't the greatest. Of course, this was the first meeting with new leadership. The Hawk patrol leader, Matthew Bump, was promoted to assistant senior patrol leader, taking him out of the patrol; the new patrol leader had never had a leadership position before last night; and the assistant patrol leader wasn't able to be there last night to help.
Today has included stuff like stamp work and scholarships. I've now finished a rough draft of all scholarship essays, so I'm pleased.
I forgot to mention a piece of great news: All parts of the Glasgow project are now in, and I'm only waiting for a message from the E&P Board before I get the files into the final form. The entire file should be online by the end of the month.

Today marks the end of the eleventh week of the blog contest.

For the first time, beer may be sold at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. Why? Unlike the last two years, the Reds didn't lose the opener.
In all seriousness, Cincinnati today won their first Opening Day game at Great American; the previous two were dismal failures. In the middle of the ninth, this one seemed to be the same way: Cincinnati was down 6-4. A hit, followed by back-to-back home runs, provided the most exciting ending to a Cincinnati Opening Day in many years.

The Reds are on the radio! TODAY is Opening Day! First pitch at 2:10.

For some reason, we had low attendance this morning — only 35 people. The most surprising was a lady who, to my memory, has always before told us beforehand if she were to be gone — and she didn't. Dad & Mom are currently leaving for her house to see if she be ill or something like that.
Before lunch, I was looking at a book that Dad owns, Minutes of the General Synod 2001, published by the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church; this book is like our Minutes of Synod and Yearbook. Like us, they include congregational statistics for each church. It's just amazing how many large churches they have, and how large their presbyteries are: in 2000, they had 35,000 members in 255 congregations in just nine presbyteries. First and Catawba Presbyteries each have 1½ times as many people as our entire denomination! Furthermore, Catawba Presbytery has a very large congregation indeed: Columbia First Presbyterian, a congregation of over three thousand members. Just imagine if that church were to join us: if it were split into Columbia First through Twentieth, each congregation would have twice as many members as our congregations average! This one church is larger than any two of our presbyteries put together!


BLOGS
1. Rebekah*: 7, on 7 different days.
2. Bekah*: 6, on 6 different days.
3. Becca: 8, on 4 different days.
4. Katie: 3, on 2 different days.
5. Charity: 3, on 2 different days.
6. Anna: 3, on 2 different days.
7. Nathan: 2, on 2 different days.
8. Allen: 2, on 2 different days.
9. David: 1, on 1 different days.
10. Brian: 1, on 1 different days.
11. Grace: 0, on 0 different days. Last post 24 March.
12. Joseph: 0, on 0 different days. Last post 11 March.
13. Abby: 0, on 0 different days. Last post 6 March.

Today has mostly been a day of isolation for me. Since I received the last part of Glasgow a couple of days ago, I needed to work on finishing the typescript. This job, which occupied much of the morning and afternoon, included putting pictures back in (I deleted them to make emailing easier), noting corrections, and reviewing the project in general. Just two main items might yet need to be changed: (1) Little numbers at the bottom of every sixteenth page will need to be deleted, as they deal with the production of the original book, and (2) The format of references in the List of Errors appendix may need to be changed. Still, it feels great to be close to completion.
After finishing work on Glasgow, I went upstairs to work on stamps. Although I took a few breaks, I was working on them most of the time from 5:00 to 10:30. You can imagine that I made a bit of progress.
During my stamp time, Dad arrived from Presbytery. As a matter of fact, he was the only person of whom I saw much at all while working on either Glasgow or stamps.

Vatican News reports that Pope John Paul II died about half an hour ago.

Fox News reports the pope's condition as "very grave" this morning. An update is expected at 1030 hours today.
It's so sad to see such an end to such a great man. Great man? you might say. Yes, a great man. Listen to this passage from Fox's article to which I linked:
"Fifty percent of the collapse of communism is his doing," Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity movement that toppled communism in Poland in 1989-90, told The Associated Press on Friday. Without the pope's leadership, "communism would have fallen, but much later and in a bloody way," he said.

Þes dæg, swá eall menn sculon witan, is hátaþ Eastermónaþ Dysigmanna dæg. On him menn macaþ gléostafas on óðrum mannum bútan wræððu, forþæmþe hit is mid ús, þá Engliscgecweðras, þéaw.

It's been months since I posted a significant passage of Old English, so I felt it was héah tíd (high time) to type some. Translation:
This day, as all people must know, is called April [Easter-month] Foolishmen's day. On it, people play joythings [jokes] on other people without wrath, because it is a custom among us English-speakers.

Thanks to the Rev. Robert Hemphill, pastor of Westminster congregation in Colorado, all of Glasgow has finally been proofread. Once I finish typing this post, I'll get back to preparing the Microsoft Word file for transfer into a PDF; in this form it is to be posted online.
Tonight, Mom took Isaac and me up to Bellefontaine, where we ate at Subway and bought groceries. Besides five gallons of milk, she bought me a new watch, since I tired of the "pocket-watch" idea. Following that, we headed over to to Reames' house. It's amazing how much work has been completed, especially when I consider with what they had been working. One wall had been bowed out by FOUR INCHES! They hope to finish the house soon, although they have a good deal of finishing work (painting, baseboards, etc.) to go.

The Vatican now denies reports that the Pope has died.

The Vatican has now confirmed that the Pope has lost consciousness. Furthermore, Italian media are now reporting his death. Whether he still be alive or not, I'm sure that he will have passed by the end of the day.

Pope John Paul II appears to be dying; his kidneys are shutting down, and his breathing is weak. Some Italian news agencies are reporting that he has lost consciousness.

I gave an April Fools' joke: Dad returns from Presbytery today.