Mín Englisc Blog

Norwegian police have announced the recovery of this version of Skrik, "The Scream", a classic painting by Edvard Munch. It was stolen two years ago by armed gunman during broad daylight.
Mowing was interesting today. We used larger walkbehind selfpropelled mowers than at home: able to do more, but not much harder to use. However, they had us working on the slopes around the football field: 45º angles for the whole distance, almost fifty feet from the lowest point to the highest.
Tonight, I finished reading (for the second time) Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. I find amazing the statement in this edition's introduction that "Mansfield Park is perhaps the least popular of Jane Austen's novels." Apparently, many people dislike it because of its themes of traditional morals and favor of the clergy, not seen as much (especially with Mr. Collins!) in Pride and Prejudice or other novels, or because Fanny does relatively little and is the recipient of most of the action. That's why I like it: the immorality mentioned in the book is less than one would read of in respectable newspapers today, and its appearances are completely condemned. The characters work well together, and I'm sure that I would greatly enjoy meeting Edmund and Fanny. You ought to read the book :-)
Isaac told me today via AIM of an interesting experience. Here's what he has to say:
"just so u know. thot u'd like to no. i just got frostbite on my fingers :P (at least i think.) i was working with butane in an aerosol can, and got a bit on my fingers. it's reeeeeealy cold. hehe. dad called me an idiot (while laughing.) i think he's right! cya l8r!"

Today was overall enjoyable. Among other things:
• Tony is looking to host a weekly Wednesday night get-together like last year. Of course, I have to go rather farther to get to it, but it was still good to visit it tonight.
• I ran into another of the sophomore Eagle Scouts at dinner and we talked for a good while afterwards, as it was the first chance we'd had to chat for quite a while.
• I'm partway through putting up posters for Eastvale on campus. Mrs. Schaefer put together the posters, and my job is getting permission for them.
This morning was the first instalment of the year's chapel program. It's mandatory this year; I'd prefer it to be optional, but it's not a big deal — and since when is it an evil idea to worship the true God? Dr. Dean Smith preached this week's sermon, likening the students and faculty to sheep and shepherds, in the line of John 10 (I am the good shepherd), which sermon I found quite useful.
Tomorrow I begin work for the physical plant, as I have what I need for boots. Hopefully it will go well :-)
Attending the Bible study at church this week really helped me to feel like I'm back in Beaver Falls. However, between last night's Dessert and Devotions and the thing tonight, I now really feel like I'm back at college :-) It's great to have a healthy social life with other Christians who will help to guard me from sinful behavior, whose gatherings will be free from dangers and who are altogether respectful of problems and difficulties. After all, these are my closest friends here, and possibly (I wasn't around to see!) those who worked hardest on my behalf after the seizures. I was so lonely when I arrived at Geneva last year. It's taking a while to fit in again, but I'm so thankful to God that I'm not at all lonely!

A poster of Uncle Sam used in this morning's American history course.

I got through all three classes today, although all of them were rather slow-paced. For PED 101, we only had a roll call and syllabus handout. Last semester, in the other physical education course, I had a paper and two written tests. This one has no written tests — but two papers and a presentation! HUM 303 was interesting and overall similar to discussion groups for other the previous HUM classes. COM 101 was embarrassing: I joined the wrong class! I knew that I had a 9:30 class on the first floor of Northwood, so when I saw someone I knew, I asked him if he were in for the speech course, which he was. I had no idea that there were two COM 101 sections meeting on first floor Northwood at 9:30! Thankfully, the professor in the wrong section understood quickly, and the professor in my section was accomodating. Although I arrived rather late in the proper section, she counted me as being there, possibly because I had been in a COM 101 class since 9:30.
Tonight is the first of this schoolyear's Dessert & Devotions at Filberts'. I'm really looking forward to it :-)
After class, I hopped a ride with my RA to Walmart and Home Depot, where I bought steel-toe boots, picture-hanging wire, and a brick. Why a brick? Click on the topmost picture and look at the poster.


Picture taken from doorway

Picture taken from next to merit badge poster

Picture taken from next to fan

Today was the first day of classes. US history at 0800, Middle East history at 1115, humanities #3 lecture at 1220, and European history at 1325. Tomorrow's schedule is not quite as busy: PE at 0800, speech at 0930, and humanities discussion at 1100.
Besides time in class, I'll have another business this semester: small work with the groundscrew here at Geneva. In a way, it will be a first: never before have I held an "actual" job. It doesn't pay much — minimum wage for six hours per week. Less than $30 for six hours of work: home is better :-) It's definitely better than nothing.

Today was a joint service at the fieldhouse, sponsored (and therefore run) by College Hill RPC. Pastor Selvaggio preached from Psalm 46, especially with its message of God's sovereignty over all nature and over all nations. One thing I appreciated was this: in verse 10, where we have God's voice saying "Be still!", he tied it to the passage of Jesus and the disciples in the boat. Again, we have the voice of God saying "Be still!" to raging destruction surrounding God's people.
Tonight was the first instalment of the usual Bible study at Eastvale. It was Dr. Carson's turn, so he used Psalm 125 — a good tiein with Psalm 46, "Like Zion's mountains shall they be/Who in the LORD confide." Afterward, I ended up going to Carsons', showing them the Cache Creek pictures and a few others.
Between morning and evening, I've managed to see almost everyone from church today, including our new pastoral intern, who is a licentiate who is living with his family in our parsonage. It's great to be back.
Sorry for no blog rating again. With lots of work coming up this semester, it will be harder to do (time on ratings means less time in sleep!). As well, I'm ranking so few of you, and I don't know where else I'd be ranking. Consider the ratings — which I've done almost every week for two years — to be suspended, not cancelled.

Today I got into Geneva. Sorry for no post since Thursday! I hope to post more tomorrow. Since there's a joint service, I don't have anything tomorrow morning until 10:45.
It was nice to spend a little time at Carsons' today, especially since I hadn't told them that I was coming back today!


The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird is the only hummingbird in eastern North America.

This morning involved mowing, as we finished two lawns before lunchtime. I had my end-of-summer appointment with the neurologist, who said that my medicine levels are doing well, and that I should avoid alcohol and all-night parties. Recommendations don't seem too hard :-)
Tonight is my last night at home. My classes begin on Monday, and we're leaving tomorrow (I guess later this morning, officially) for Pennsylvania. We're looking to visit my grandparents and leave some things at my room on Friday, stay overnight at my grandparents' house, and have me dropped off at Geneva on Saturday. I'm very excited at the nearness of returning to friends, most of whom (with three exceptions) I've not talked with since the beginning of May.
As a result, much of my day has involved packing. At the moment, nothing is in the car, but we have everything ready in the living room. It's not as easy for me as it is for some (four hours' drive from home), but it's easier than for others. Interesting thought: My roommate this year is from Los Angeles, on the other side of the continent, but I'm still a good deal closer to my roommate's home this year than I was to my roommate's home last year!


While reading random articles this evening, I came across the article for Joshua A. Norton, a most illustrious resident of San Francisco during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Who was Mr. Norton? He was the "Emperor of these United States and Protector of Mexico". His Majesty Norton I proclaimed himself emperor in 1859 and continued so to style himself until his death in 1880. Since he never took any measures to disobey the government, he was always tolerated and sometimes honored. He seemed to enjoy the issuing of various decrees, including one (in 1860) to General Winfield Scott to arrest the entire Congress because it had disobeyed his decree for it to disperse!

Pluto has officially been removed from the list of planets.

Much of today was occupied in travel, as Dad took Isaac and me to Cincinnati to visit our grandparents. It's sad to see them in the nursing home, but I'm thankful that there is such an option, since none of us could care for either of them properly. After visiting them for a while, we drove over to another part of town and passed by the house where they lived for approximately forty years, where Dad grew up after early elementary age, and always "Grumps and Grandmother's house" for all of us grandchildren. Some trees and a few miscellaneous outdoor ornaments have been removed, there is a for-sale sign in the yard, and the trees (obviously) are bigger, but otherwise it's mostly the same as when they sold it several years ago.


The Lesser Golden-backed Woodpecker is a woodpecker from southern Asia.

Today involved mowing two lawns: one working with Isaac, and one of mine. Lack of rain led the couple at my lawn to cancel mowing last week, and continued dryness meant that the lawn this week was only as tall (perhaps somewhat shorter) than it would be normally after one week, not two. Another couple asked me to wait until next week for mowing — obviously impossible, since I don't want to commute from Beaver Falls to mow one lawn!
Tonight was our troop's latest court of honor, which was, sadly, not very honorable. Things were not run well. Isaac was given four merit badges (good), although he had earned six since the last court of honor. And when was that time? Last September. Ideally, four or six courts of honor should be held per year.

This is the Lilac-Breasted Roller, a crow-sized bird found in southern Africa.

Today is really the first day of intensive prepare-for-college. I worked much of the evening on packing miscellaneous school supplies and toiletries. All this would have taken much longer except for one thing: during the summer, I almost never needed most of the school supplies and toiletries I brought back in May, so I just left them in a box all summer. Therefore, today's work involved little besides catalogueing what I had.

News on the television tonight: Carson Palmer should be back soon!

Fæder úre,
Þú þé eart on heofonum,
Sie þín náma gehalgod.
Tobecume þín ríce.
Gewurþe þín willa
On eorðan swá swá on heofonum.
Urne gedæghwámlícan hláf syle ús tó dæg.
And forgyf ús úre gyltas
Swá swá wé forgyfað úrum gyltendum.
And ne gelæd þú ús on costnunge,
Ac alys ús of yfele.
Sóþlice.

Father ours,
Thou that art in heavens,
Be thine name hallowed.
Come thine reich.
Work thine will
In earth so as in heavens.
Our daily loaf give us to day.
And forgive us our guilts
So as we forgive our guilt-owers.
And not lead thou us in temptation,
But deliver us of evil.
Soothly [ = Amen].

Dad preached in the early service on the topic of presbyterian church government (Acts 15) and in the late service on the topic of the Bible (2 Tim. 3.16). Last week, he finished a years-long series on Old Testament history, so today he was taking a break. Between services, we hosted the Mortons.
Today was my last day for worship here at Belle Center before going to Beaver Falls on Friday and Saturday. It's hard to believe that the summer is already over...Next week, I should be worshipping at the beginning-of-the-schoolyear joint service in Metheny Fieldhouse. It's also hard to believe it's been a year since I began college. Wow. One year has passed so fast. I've had the first time of being semi-on-my-own, a new church, many new friends, a semester of schoolwork, finals, quick visits with relatives and a few weeks at home, three more months of school, everything with the seizures, one more month of school, more finals, a few weeks at home, graduations in Indianapolis, a month at home, Stillwater and Covenant Heights, and a few more weeks at home. I hope it will be a lot easier this year; although I'll be getting into harder classes and working a bit (I'm looking to apply to work with the Geneva physical plant, probably doing outdoor work like mowing and weeding), I'll not have as hard of a time adapting to the circumstances. I've had a great time here at home (not "all summer" like I told one person, but at least most of the summer), but I'm ready to go back. I've been apart from my church at Eastvale for several months, and yet I've seen weekly updates (Dr. and Mrs. Carson have sent me a bulletin each week, even when I was in Oklahoma!), so I'm out of the loop and eager to find what's new, and yet I'm eager to see how things are continuing from last spring. I love being here with family, but I'm also looking forward to seeing friends again. I greatly appreciate Covfamikoi (especially since I missed it!), and the Indianapolis week was priceless, since all of my closest friends are in Indianapolis (or from Indianapolis and going to school elsewhere) and I saw all of them then. Still, I'm ready to go back to friends at Geneva. For someone who, except for college, has only lived "with" friends in daily life for a single week (last May), returning to living with friends for four months is strongly appealing.
Also, of course, I'm aware that most of you who are my age (more or less) have begun school or will begin school within a couple of weeks. May God keep all of you as well!

Please note: if you're not one of my friends from Indianapolis, don't think I'm trying to slight you in the paragraphs above :-)

Unlike yesterday, we've had plenty to do today. Dad and Isaac, along with Matthew Bump (who stayed here overnight) went to today's edition of the Airfest 2006, held at the Bellefontaine Regional Airport. Mom and I went later. It is quite impressive to have an airshow in such a small county, especially since many aircraft fly over Belle Center as they give paid flights :-) Isaac himself flew twice (his first flight since last year's airshow), and Matthew flew once, for the first time in ten years. While the rest of us spent most of the afternoon here at home, the two boys were at the airshow from morning until 1700 tonight.
As well as the airshow, we had the special presence of our Uncle Charles, Dad's brother, who came up for much of the day (our aunt planned to come but was unable) and attended the airshow. He left after dinner, which we ended up eating at the Skyline in Bellefontaine. [Repeat remarks about local Skyline from a few days ago.]
After returning home, I had my other interesting incident. For some time, our garage door has behaved badly, falling as fast as gravity will let it if lowered, and not rising properly. Tonight, I forgot and closed the door, resulting in it crashing to the ground. Worse, my instincts have always been to catch falling objects — but the garage door is heavy enough that it bore my hand to the ground, leaving me with aching knuckles that were caught between the door and the concrete. Meanwhile, the handle hit me on the head and knocked me over, resulting in my lying on the ground in minor pain, just a few seconds after absentmindedly closing the door.

Before I go to bed, I thought I'd best post. Not much has happened, except for Isaac's room: we completely reworked it, emptying it, moving around the furniture, and restocking the room.

Besides mowing, which I did less of because one couple said their grass was too short, the only interesting thing about the day was a blood test. I had to go to Bellefontaine and get my periodic blood test for antiseizure medicine levels. Exciting, isn't it?

Ireland More lexicon. I believe that this will be the last segment of the Irish diary. I hope it's been enjoyable for all of you!

faucet/tap
flashlight/torch
french fries/chips
garden hose/hose pipe
gasoline/petrol
ground beef/mince
highway shoulder/verge
hood/bonnet
interstate/motorway
jello/jelly
line/queue
milkman's truck /milk float
molasses/treacle
parking lot/car park
peanuts/monkey nuts
potato bread/fadge
potato chips/crisps
shopping cart/trolley
sidewalk/foot path
soccer/football
stroller/pram
stove/cooker or hob
supper/tea
sweater/jumper
tennis shoes or sneakers/trainers
truck/lorry
trunk/boot
vacation/holiday
windshield/windscreen
wrench/spanner
yard or garden or lawn

My main activities today were all lawnmowings, as usual: three houses, all adjacent to each other. Besides that, I also began my paper for "The Call", the Geneva office that helped pay for the Oklahoma trip, which requires of all recipients a reflection paper. Sorting through all my papers from Ohio State two years ago and from the spring semester of last schoolyear also took a bit of time, as I ended up shredding a pile of sheets of paper perhaps two inches tall.
Tomorrow morning, I have to have a blood test for antiseizure medicine levels. Not nice, but it's inevitable.
Ireland While we were in Ireland, Mom and I put together an American/Irish lexicon, including sixty-one separate entries, with the Ohio term before and the Northern Irish term after. Please note that this is the work of a child, and therefore some of these entries might not be totally accurate :-) A reference to Charity's Australian lexicon will illustrate many similarities.

airplane/aeroplane
apartment/flat
babysitting/childminding
baby nursery/creche
biscuit/scone
burner/plate
bus/coach
bun or roll/bap
cake/sponge
band aids/plasters
"call" on the phone/"ring" someone
camper/caravan
can/tin
candy/sweets
clothes pins/clothes pegs
closet/cupboard
cookie/biscuit
corn/maize
coupon/voucher
cracker/biscuit
crib/cot
cupboard/larder
defroster/demister
diaper/nappie
divided highway/dual carriageway
doctor's office/surgery
drugstore/chemist
driveway/yard
elevator/lift
eraser/rubber

Just tonight I found out about the fire suffered by Brandon and Megan Fisher recently. It's just astonishing looking at these pictures...such total damage. Praise be to God that nobody was hurt! And it's just amazing what I read, that their wedding pictures were mostly preserved, even though they were in a room with the fire, a fire so hot that it melted an aluminium mixer into a pile of metal. God provides for all of us in everything, and God will provide for them in this too. May God give them comfort, reassurance, and a good chance to start over again. Megan posted several prayer requests, including one that we give "thanks for the church, here in Oz and back home. Brandon and I were wondering how those without a church would be able to deal with something like this."
Zec. 13:9
"And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, 'They are My people,' And they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"

Little has happened today. I've been busy (as normal) with mowing and computerized matters, including another apocryphal book. This on, the Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, is totally different, a strongly Gnostic work with bits of nonsense. At two different points, it praises God with his "secret name": Zoxathazo a oo ee ooo eee oooo ee oooooo ooooo oooooo uuuuuu oooooooooooo ooo Zozazoth. Imagine trying to memorize that :-)
I had planned to buy some of this semester's textbooks online, and tonight was that time. We found that I could save $67 by using reputable sources, which was over $40 after shipping charges. However, I decided to skip it — my parents offered to give me the $40 or so :-) Thanks!
One thing that occurred to me today while lawnmowing came from Psalm 10: in this psalm, we see a plea to God to judge his and our enemies. So should we cry out to God, and it is proper to rejoice (in a certain way) at the destruction of those who hate God (q.v. Psalm 9:1-4). But the thing that occurred to me was this: although we are saved from these enemies, we were they. It is important, always important, to remember that unrepentent sinners are unrepentent sinners, but we must never forget that we are different by the grace of God alone. We would be in that group included in the request to "break the wicked, evildoer's arm" of 10:15. Praise be to God for rescuing us!

Ireland With today's post I close the diary entries. There will be at least one more associate entry before I finish this series altogether.
We got up about 7:00 this morning, and arrived and checked in about 9. The McKeemans stayed with us to keep us company. Isaac was so energetic that Mr. McKeeman kept taking him for short walks. We had a hard time saying goodbye.
The trip to Shannon was fast. While we waited to get going we looked at the duty-free shop. The plane's communications worked fine this time.
We left around 12:30 PM. I had a fun time listening to the radio much of the time. Isaac & I both napped on the flight.
We had an interesting time landing. The plane was about to land when the pilot lifted up again. He came on the intercom to say, "I'm sorry, folks, but I missed the approach!"
Eventually, we landed about 1:30 Boston time. After going through customs and security, we left the terminal to get to the domestic terminal. As we left the terminal and stepped out into the open air, the heat & humidity almost knocked us over, since we were used to Irish weather.
Before we left for Columbus, Isaac & Daddy moved back so that he could have a window seat, too. After we landed at Columbus, the pilot invited us into the cockpit. We had great fun pushing and pulling levers, knobs, and buttons.
Mrs. Bump met us at the gate, and then we picked up our bags. Daddy’s suitcase broke, but we didn’t lose anything.
We finally got home about 7:30 PM. Everything was a mess. The yard was very tall with lots of weeds in it. There was even a corn plant, three feet high at least, growing by the clothesline post!
We drove to the Dairy Isle to get some ice cream and snacks. Then we went over to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith and their girls. We were glad to see each other again.
Isaac & I slept on sleeping bags in the living room under the ceiling fan to help us cool down.

Notes:
• Many of you know that Isaac loves flight and looks to become a professional aircraft pilot. See, even when he was 4½ he was energetic about flying!
• Imagine the scene with us in the cockpit happening today!
• It took four woman-days of work to mow the lawn.

As some of you know, over the past few months I've been accumulating a bit of "biblical" apocrypha, both Old Testament and New Testament, and reading through it. I know that much is heretical, so I study it to learn about its untruths, to see how these texts and those believing in them are wrong in the eyes of him who is the Truth. Lest you wonder, there yet are such people; the ideas of The Da Vinci Code are largely based on a few specific books among the New Testament Apocrypha.Please don't think I'm departing from the true Christian faith that our church teaches!
A few of these texts are not part of the Bible, not because of their heretical theology, but because of their non-apostolic origin. Among these books is one called the "Didache", or "Teaching" in its original Greek. It's a combination of several different texts (all close to the Bible) enjoining godly morality and adherence to the Bible. Many of the teachings echo the teachings of Christ and the teachings of the Proverbs. Overall, it seems a good summary of Christian theology, especially practical theology.
During the discussions of the Holy Spirit for my Bible class last spring, the idea of prophecy and speaking in tongues was defended with examples of those who claim such experiences, even though many of those scenes appear unbiblical. For example, one author claimed to have his whole congregation burst out in a Pentecostal format, all at once, and he believed this to be an action of the Spirit of God — completely disobeying the command in I Corinthians for the regulation of such experiences!
With this in mind, one of the teachings I found particularly relevant, and I appreciate it quite well. Here's Didache 11:12.

Yet not every one that speaketh in the Spirit is a prophet, but only if he have the ways of the Lord.

Part of the reason I wrote so much on this subject is that very little happened today. Significant, however, was lunchtime, as Dad took me to Bellefontaine to eat at Skyline. It's so nice to have a Skyline just in Bellefontaine :-)

Ireland
We finished up what we had to do today. Daddy went into Ballymoney to do a few things while Mama finished packing.
Mr. Archie McKeeman picked us up around 11 AM. He and Mrs. McKeeman are going with us to drive the car back after we leave Dublin Airport. First we went to a store that sells boxes, where we bought one to carry the painting. Then, we went to their house. We ate a snack and left a little after noon.
After driving south, we stopped to eat lunch somewhere around the border of the Republic. We ate on a lovely hill that overlooked a beautiful river.
Once we got to our B & B, Mr. and Mrs. McKeeman went for a drive while we walked up to the airport. That way we'll know what to do tomorrow.

Today's sermon, on the entirety of the book of Nehemiah, closed Dad's longrunning series on Old Testament history. After a few weeks, he plans to begin a similar series on New Testament history in the early service. As long as I can remember, his standard series have always used the Old Testament in the morning (or 1:00 PM, now) and the New Testament in the evening. Currently, the evening series is in the Gospel According to St. John, having just finished the passage with the man born blind.
Attendance today was quite low, only 31 people, as three whole families were missing. Here's what's the problem: although one family is on vacation, the other two absolutely cannot make the service times, as one has medical concerns and the father in the other family works at night and must sleep during the early afternoon. It's so sad to have our building's condition preventing multiple families (especially in such a small congregation) from worship and fellowship with the congregation.

Blogs I really do need to start ranking more blogs. Hopefully I can get around to adding more this week.
1. : 3 posts, on the 8th, 10th, and 12th.
2. : 3 posts, on the 9th, 11th, and 12th.
3. : 1 post, on the 11th.
4. : 1 post, on the 8th.
5. : 2 posts, on the 9th and 10th.
6. : 1 post, on the 12th.
7. : 1 post, on the 9th.
X. : 0 posts. Last post 3 August.

Ireland
Today was our last Sabbath here. It was a sad day for me. Even Daddy had a hard time preaching tonight.
After the morning worship, Mr. Kerr, the session clerk, gave us the congregation’s thanks for everything. Then he gave Mama & Daddy a painting of Dunluce Castle and 2 Northern Ireland mugs to Isaac & me. Then, after the psalm sing, I gave everyone little paper signs and flowers that I had drawn.

Notes:
• We hung the painting in our dining room (it's still there) in place of a clock, which we moved to a different wall. For some months, we accidentally continued to look at the painting for the clock. This we jokingly referred to as "Dunluce Castle Time".
• Both of the mugs we ended up breaking by accident. We later paid Mrs. McCauley to send two more, one of which broke a few years ago. The other I broke two weeks ago: I filled it with water and put it in the freezer, intending to get it out soon, but I forgot until hours later.

Sorry for another day with no post. I hope I'm not getting into a trend...
Today is birthday #79 for my grandfather, Laurence Pockras.
With no mowing for today, I've been reading more of Arthur and doing some more on Wikipedia. Among the things I've put up is a picture I took last month in Oklahoma:

This is the churchyard at the former Cache Creek RPC, the Indian mission in southwestern Oklahoma.

Ireland
July 11
Mama mowed the yard and got groceries for the last time over here. As well, we finally had rain. There has been so little, reservoirs are drying up.
Mrs. Kerr came and talked with us this afternoon. As well, Grandma called tonight to see if we were all fine.

July 12
Today was Grumps' birthday. They called this afternoon to talk and see how we all were doing.
Mama did most of the packing today. Soon, we'll be all loaded up to go home. We even had to borrow a suitcase from Miss Joanne Millar to carry our souvenirs in.

No time for a decent post. A few notes on the day:
• Tonight, I attended the monthly District Roundtable for Boy Scout adult leaders in Logan County.
• Our computer is working poorly enough currently that my laptop is the only one that we're using right now.
• I finally got around to posting the new version of the RPCNA article on Wikipedia tonight. If you looked at that page before about 11:00 PM, Eastern Daylight Time, you saw the old version. An obvious difference: unlike the previous version, my version includes a picture of the Cache Creek mission I took last month while in Oklahoma.

Ireland
We left Mr. and Mrs. Fallows’ house after breakfast. On the way to Stranraer, we stopped at a little village called Alloway to take pictures for Mrs. Alloway.
We caught the ferry in plenty of time. Mama put on her "seasick bracelets" before we got going, and she felt fine the whole time.
When we got back to Dervock, it was almost suppertime. This evening, Mrs. McCauley’s sister & brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Carlson, came over for a short visit.

Note: Mrs. Alloway was an older woman who lived across the street from us here in Belle Center until 1999.

Sorry for no update since Tuesday! I've been busy on the computer during this time, but using Wikipedia rather than Blogger. Although I've used Wikipedia frequently, I only yesterday signed up to be a member. I plan to do relatively little on the site, but yesterday and today I've been putting in a lot of work on overhauling the article on the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. I've finished reworking the text, but (as any Wikipedia user will know) Wikipedia articles are expected to contain links to many other articles, and I need to put in all those links.
Other than that, relatively little has been going on. I'm now done with the week's mowing, except for one lawn. Tonight, we went to Bellefontaine for dinner, getting Papa John's pizza. We used to go there a lot higher percentage of our eating-out times, but its lack of eat-in space has turned us more toward Fazoli's.
As an Assistant Scoutmaster, I attended the usual troop meeting yesterday night: a total of four boys. I understand that summer activities usually have lower participation rates, but it's still absurd. It's never good to have leaders absent (I'll not be a hypocrite: two years ago I missed summer camp and five straight meetings, due to ECHO and Calvin), but it's worse yet when one of those leaders has not even yet explained his absence.

Ireland
August 8
This morning, we went to a bank to cash travellers’ checks. We also got lunch for later at a nearby bakery.
We ate lunch in Scotland after a very pretty drive up. Later, we found that we almost saw Hadrian’s Wall, an old Roman wall in northern England. A little after eating lunch, we stopped for a matchbook for Mrs. Alloway.
We got to Mr. and Mrs. Fallows’ house in Wishaw about 3:00 PM. Mr. Fallows is the minister of the Wishaw RP Church.

August 9
This morning we went to Edinburgh to look around the city. We met Mr. Horne, an RP minister, who gave us a tour of the city. We saw Greyfriars church, where the National Covenant was signed and Covenanters were buried after being hanged. We also went to St. Giles Cathedral.
While walking around, we saw a woman playing a harp on a street corner. She looked so interesting that I took a picture of her.
We had also hoped to tour Edinburgh Castle, which was an old medieval castle on a hill overlooking the old part of Edinburgh. However, it was festival time, and the price for us all to see it was £20. We couldn’t spend that much, so we bought a cassette tape of last year’s festival.
After getting back, Mr. Fallows took Daddy, Isaac & me to Reverend and Mrs. Quigley’s house in Airdrie. Mr. Quigley is the RP pastor there. They were on vacation, so we went to water Mrs. Quigley’s flowers.

Not much have I done today. Mowing, as usual, was a factor; I only mowed one lawn, and that late, because of problems with running out of gas.
Tonight, I finished reading another section of Malory's Arthur cycle. This section doesn't have as many physically unrealistic bits (e.g. Merlin flitting about like a bat), but the political and geographical parts are very interesting. A Roman emperor by the name of Lucius demands tribute of Arthur, which demand leads to war. When the two nations fight, Lucius brings into battle soldiers of all realms, including many knights from Egypt and India (!) and a king of Ethiopia. Arthur ends up killing Lucius, conquering France and Transalpine Gaul, and marching into Rome to be crowned Emperor by the Pope on Christmas Day. Perhaps Mr. Malory got a certain Arthur confused with a certain Charles the Great/Karl der Grösse/Charlemagne.

Nú wé sculon herian / heofonríces Weard,
Meotodes meahte / and his módgeþanc,
weorc Wuldor-Fæder, / swá hé wundra gehwæs,
éce Dryhten, / ór onstealde.
Hé ǽrest scóp / ielda bearnum
heofon to hrófe, / hálig Scieppend;
þá middangeard / manncynnes Weard,
éce Dryhten, / æfter téode,
fírum foldan, / Fréa eallmihtig.
I don't know why, but I just felt like putting in some Old English, and poetry at that. This is an old poem (with adjusted spelling), called Cædmon's Hymn, likely written in the 700s at latest.
"Now we must praise / heaven-reich's Warden, / the Mighty's might / and his heart-purpose [purposes of mind], work of the Glory-Father, / as he wonders created, / eternal Lord, / beginnings [?] made. / He first shaped / men's sons / heave to roof, / holy Shaper; / then middle-earth / mankind's Warden, / eternal Lord, / after made, / men's lands, / the Lord Almighty.

Ireland From this point on, the journals are different. I wrote no journal after 6 August, so entries today and following days are ones I wrote five years ago, using my mother's journal as the historical record, attempting to reproduce the style of six years before.
This morning we left Hertford. We saw a lot of wheat & vegetable farms while we were driving today.
Around 11:00 we stopped at Sherwood Forest. In front there was a statue of Robin Hood & Little John fighting on the bridge. Mama & Daddy got a copy of a book about Robin Hood for me. I also got a Robin Hood hat and collar, while Isaac got a money bag. After we left Sherwood Forest, we ate lunch and got back on the road.
We had to wait in a traffic jam for a while. After we got to our B & B, we went to the National Railway Museum. We got to see a big model of Thomas the Tank Engine and had engine pictures painted on our hands. Isaac had James, while I had Gordon. We almost got to go on a replica of the Rocket, but we were too late. Instead, we got on a little train that rode around a little yard.
Our B & B is in an old barn. We get to sleep in bunk beds tonight.

Dad preached from the entirety of Esther today, noting that the book provides us assurance of God's presence even when it's not easily seen.
Ireland
We had planned to go to a Free Church of Scotland today, but the train fare into London was too expensive. Since we had a minister, congregation, Bible, and Psalms in the back of Daddy’s Bible, we had a worship service at our cottage in Hertford. We even took up an offering in a cup that we will put in the offering at Dervock next Sabbath.

Finally, I can resume blog ratings after only...six? weeks of nothing. I'm tired enough that I'm not going to put on pictures. Anyway, the blogging seems to be rather weak this week. It's not usually good when only one person posts more than once in the week! And only eight bloggers...perhaps I need to start reading and ranking others.
BLOGS
1. Becca: 3 posts on 3 days.
2. Nathan: 1 post on 1 day.
3. Charity: 1 post on 1 day.
4. Ellie: 1 post on 1 day.
5. Andrew: 1 post on 1 day.
6. David: 1 post on 1 day.
Anna: 0 posts on 0 days. Last post 23 July.
Katie: 0 posts on 0 days. Last post 21 July.

Most of today was occupied by something new for me: a canoe trip on the Mad River (just south of here) with the Scout troop. I was asked to go along as an adult leader, especially since most of the other leaders couldn't go. I had a very enjoyable time, never coming close to tipping the canoe, gliding along the water for several longer periods of time, and seeing many others (a Scout troop from far western Ohio and a youth group from a Chinese church near Cincinnati) along the river. Several spots were shallow enough that the canoes touched bottom, although usually the riverbed plummeted suddenly at the edge. During a late-morning stop, we ended up spending the break working with the church group, helping them to pass a shallow/dropoff section, which was shallow everywhere except along the right bank. Since few people went along the bank, some of us worked to clear the stuck canoes while the rest aided people farther down, mostly ones having small problems in the deep water. We ended up taking a lot more time than expected with one canoe, for it caught on a submerged log, capsized, and would not float. After taking care of one of the passengers (clinging fearfully in deep water and a decent current, without a lifejacket), we tried pulling the canoe. Human chain did not work, so we eventually pulled it out with a rope. Interesting experience; it was quite exhilerating working to help others :-) and not fearful working with the sunken canoe as it was for some of our other people (I didn't see anything until the passenger was rescued), and I quite enjoy boating — as long as the boat doesn't take on much water.


Ireland
Today we toured London via British Rail. We left Hertford Northern Station, near where we stayed, and went to Kings Cross Station. There were 2 scheduled stops with lots of flag stops in between. We found out that Kings Cross Station is just like the European "stations" on Railroad Tycoon Deluxe. We also looked at the St. Pancras Station which was right nearby.
Next, we got on the Tube and went to Paddington Station. After looking around for Paddington Bear we noticed a souvenir stand so we bought 2 stuffed Paddingtons.
When we got on the Tube again we went to Westminster. We saw a man playing a mandolin when we came out of the station. We saw the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben & Westminster Abbey.
After that we walked near St. James Park and up to Trafalgar Square where we chased the pigeons. We had lunch at a pizza place near there and then walked up to see Buckingham Palace.
Then we went to Piccadilly Circus by the Tube. After that we went to see St. Paul’s Cathedral. Since we had gone to Piccadilly Circus we didn’t have time to take the tour.
Lastly, we went to see where Mama had stayed when she was in London 14 years ago. Isaac & I were too tired too keep walking so we just took the train back to Hertford.

Over the past year or two, I've felt like I've missed out on a lot of great English literature. Therefore, I've been reading a lot of stuff I might not have read otherwise, even though some of it is not exactly English. For example, I recently finished reading the Kalevala, the set of Finnish national legends. However, this week I began reading Malory's collection of books about King Arthur, thinking that this semi-French set of legends might be considered English. Overall, the plots of the stories are interesting, and it's not too hard (generally) to read the Late Middle English, even though the spelling is dramatically different. Two things annoy me slightly:
• There are tons of pointless jousts (twice today I read of knights finishing a joust, embracing, and going off together as friends), and the battles are very drawn-out. My hypothetical example of a battle: A fewe knyghts [or knyghtes] challenge each othir too warre. Ond after hit [it] ys allmooste donne, moore come doun on hem [them]. [Repeat enough times to fill three pages of text.]
• Spelling is inconsistent. I know that spelling was not consistent in Malory's day, but you'd think the guy wouldn't spell the same name differently from sentence to sentence. For example: in one sentence we read of "sir Oughtlake", while the next sentence speaks of "sir Outlake".
My ideal battle would go somewhat like this:
Fyfe honderd knyghts ond fyfe kynges warred on a syde,
Ond fyfe honderd knyghts ond fyfe kynges on the othir.
Nyne honderd ond nyne ond nyntiy dyd dye, ond nyne kynges.
Ond a kynge dyd sla the laste knyght.
THIS BOOKE ENDYTH!

Ireland
Today we drove toward London. We went through Stratford-on-Avon where William Shakespeare was born. We saw the cathedral in Worcester and also went near the city of Oxford.
This afternoon we got to another farm B & B near London. We are going to stay in a cottage there until Monday morning.

Again, not much has happened today. Sorry for such a short post, but I need to get other things done :-(

Ireland
Today was our longest drive in our vacation. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant along the motorway in England. Though we paid a lot of money for our lunch, we didn’t get very much food. We went to a gift shop there and bought a book for Isaac about Percy & Thomas the Tank Engine and a book of boat stencils for me.
Tonight we stayed at a B & B (bed & breakfast) on a farm in Shropshire. We ate supper at a Little Chef restaurant.

Today has seen relatively little of interest. Besides mowing one lawn and helping to mow two others (neither one of which was very much work), I've busied myself with cleaning my room and reading somewhat of Tolkien (as usual :-) and other matters.
A report out today notes that the UN deputy secretary general is complaining because the US State Department calls Hezbollah a terrorist organization. This man, Malloch Brown, is a Briton. Would he consider the IRA to be a terrorist organization, just because of its political activities (Sinn Fein) both in the past and yet today?

Ireland
Today was maybe the most fun day of our trip so far. We drove to Larne and got on the ferry boat to Stranraer! Mama got a little seasick on the ferry so Daddy bought her seasick bracelets which made her feel better. During the trip a clown blew up balloons and then shaped them into animals for us. After that came 2 people dressed like Tom & Jerry, the cartoon cat & mouse.
After we got to Stranraer we drove to the Milligans’ house. Mr. Milligan is the pastor of the Stranraer RP Church. We met their son, David, who set up a soccer game on their SEGA machine. I beat Daddy in one game.
Later we drove to Wigtown. We saw where the 2 Margarets were held and then we drove out to the monument that marked where they were drowned in Wigtown Bay. We stopped in town again and bought 2 little Scottish flags.

Note: besides Airdrie, Stranraer RPC is the only congregation left of the RPCS, although from what I hear, the congregation is virtually dead.

One of the other Covenant Heights attendees wrote about the storm we encountered on the way back:

It was so fun to just lean against the window with the top of your head pressed against the window and look up...I wanted to stick my head out of the window, but it would have either been taken off by a passing car or struck by lightning.

I must say: this creates an interesting mental picture, just the idea of sticking one's head out the window in such a storm, independent of the risks of passing cars or of lightning.

Ireland
Today Daddy took Grumps & Grandmother to Aldergrove Airport near Belfast. They left about 4:10 a.m., and got there about 5:00.
After breakfast we all left for Portrush. Mama and Daddy bought t-shirts for us boys. We watched the man iron on the picture of Dunluce Castle, Giant's Causeway, and the Rope Bridge.
This evening when Isaac & I were racing in the driveway, Isaac cut in front of me and I crashed into him. Isaac got big cuts on both of his knees & I got a small one on my left knee.

Notes:
• The Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge is an old rope bridge spanning the gap between a small island and the coast of County Antrim, in Northern Ireland.
• I well remember the crash into Isaac. We were running next to each other when he sped up and ran in front of me, and we kept running. This went fine until he decided to stop suddenly.