Mín Englisc Blog

Nothing amazing happened today. Those two events that stand out are lunch, where I enjoyed talking for an hour and a half, and this evening, where I had a chain of three or four conversations on instant messenger going about two hours. I've typed a good deal of my Calvin paper; I would have done more, but I realised this morning that I'd not written a small submission that was due yesterday evening. I hope the professor won't be too unhappy.
And tomorrow I'm back to church after my latest miss, last week for Easter. It's good that I'll have several straight weeks there from now until the end of the semester, without any interruptions to expect.
One other thing: as I continue to heal from my illness (I'm coughing only when I get up, and my nose isn't plugged or running much at all), my knee needs to heal. For the first time since before I was a teenager (when I still wore jeans decently often), I have a hole in the knee of my jeans. One had been wearing thin for some time now, but yesterday while I was working, I had to go outside, and I slipped on some gravel. My anatomical knee was scraped up a little, and isn't healed yet, but my cotton knee has a small hole that will be permanent.

Today was the second anniversary of my big seizures that left me in the hospital for two days. Although I can't say I'm thankful for two seizure-free years (since I had the small one last month), I'm thankful that it's been two years with nothing anywhere near so serious. What's more, I'm yet thankful that it wasn't anywhere near as serious as it could have been then.

Rejoice that you don't have to worry about this problem! I'm not joking; you should praise God that your head is free from such a problem. I wonder: is it right to say "I thank you, God, that I don't have the problem that Nathaniel does"? I would tend to say that it's right, because you're not praying about something that you have done or not done (for example, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector); you're praying about something in God's providence, giving thanks that you're healthier than I in one way. I at least wouldn't mind, even if such a prayer were offered audibly in my presence.

He is risen!

This long weekend has gone quite well. I've enjoyed the stay with one of my uncles and aunts, just down the road from Grandpa's house, near Rose Point RPC. It's been primarily relaxation, although I've done some schoolwork: I've read all of Dante's Paradiso (the third and last part of the Divine Comedy), as well as writing a few pages (with more planned) of my big Calvin paper.
I worshipped this morning at Rose Point RPC, where Dr Gamble preached from Hebrews 1 on Jesus' divinity. I'd not heard him preach in a long time; it was good to be able to catch up a little with him and many other people. I'm to be going back tonight.
Another uncle and aunt, the ones with whom I've stayed over past Easters, invited Grandpa and me for lunch. I've had a good time (when I'm not borrowing their computer for quick Internet access :-) with them and my cousins. The weather's nice today (over 50^o in the sun!), and so I look to go outside in just a minute.

Time for bed. I've finished my history paper (due Wednesday), gotten down the points for my small political science paper (due the first day of classes after break), and various other matters.
I visited the campus nurse this morning, and on her recommendation bought some anti-congestion medicine. Today has ended up my the best day since break, far better than yesterday :-) At this rate, Easter break should be far better than I had feared.
Oh, and one more thing: at my request, my parents bought a new laptop for me today. Not that I'm getting it free :-) but between the various problems with this one, its obscurity (when the power cord failed last year, none of the people in the computer stores had ever heard of the brand), and the potential for more problems, I don't want to continue relying on this one. I'm glad that I have my external hard drive, since this way I can transfer most of my data without occuyping both computers simultaneously. All that leaves is program transfer...not at all sure how to do that. And I'll lose my record of 6,548 Freecell games!

What a day...Today we partook of the Lord's Supper, my first time since last fall. I'm as thankful as always.
Today has been very hard, however, due to this illness that keeps going on. All week long, I've gradually (but slowly) improved, but today, especially after this afternoon, I've suddenly gotten a bit worse. I didn't feel like going to church tonight, but I knew I should, and of course emotionally I wanted to go. It's hard, nevertheless, sitting by yourself (by your own will; it's not like the elders quarantined me!) and not being able to sing because of coughing. This morning, I sat alone as well, although I didn't feel as isolated because there were (as always) more people there. Even the Sacrament felt different, since at my request one of the elders separated a small piece of the bread for me before the service — never before have I taken Communion without taking any of the bread from the plate!
Despite the difficulties, I'm yet more thankful in a way. I'm very thankful that there's not a prescribed and detailed ritual for the procedure of this sacrament, and that the minister's prayer of solemnising the elements doesn't just cover the bread two or three feet from his mouth! I'm thankful to be able to commune despite my illness. I'm thankful that God doesn't complain that I didn't sing due to my illness. And I'm thankful for a loving congregation who prays for my health and whose elders take action to enable me to participate without risking infecting others.

One thing: this illness is reducing my ability to do schoolwork; please pray that I might get all my work done, despite the coughing and stuffed nose.

This week has been quite busy in many ways. I returned to school on Tuesday and to classes on Wednesday. Although I've not had many assignments, the week has been quite difficult, due to my lingering illness that gives me a constant cough, aching ribs and a scratched tongue (due to the action of coughing), sleepiness (since it's hard to sleep while coughing), and general listlessness. I've improved throughout the week, but I still have a bit to go.

What a time I've had in the last few days!
Isaac and I ended up going flying on Thursday, as the weather did better than was expected. We went to the Adams County airport outside West Union, a village a few miles north of the Ohio River, where the temperature was nearly 60º :-) Although the weather wasn't as good coming back (for a bit, we thought we'd have to leave the airplane two counties south of here, because he wasn't able to fly it back safely), Isaac ended up flying it back without any serious problems. It gave him experience with being flexible with his flight plans due to weather — the airport manager wasn't at all unhappy with him.
Since yesterday evening, we've had a snowstorm: not the worst I can remember (three years ago, we had much more snow), but throughout the region it was the worst blizzard in living memory. Columbus received over twenty inches of snow and suffered through winds of over 30 mph. In Ohio, county sheriffs can declare snow emergencies in three levels: the first is a notice that the conditions are bad; the second, a warning to stay off the roads; and the third, a prohibition of non-emergency travel, which can be enforced with citations or arrests. Everywhere in central Ohio, and many places elsewhere (including Toledo and Cincinnati) was under levels 2 or 3, with over a dozen counties (including a strip of 6 or 7 between Columbus and us) at level 3. It's not at all good here, but from that map alone it's easy to see that it was far worse almost everywhere else.

No flying today for me; the weather was indeed bad. That's not the only reason, however; I discovered yesterday evening that I had a fever over 100º. Ever since I got back home three days ago, I've been cold, but I believed that it was because the temperature of the house is much colder than that of Geneva's campus, especially because when I left the house, I generally felt better. So that's another complication. On the other hand, I feel significantly better tonight than I did when I went to bed last night; hopefully it will be done by the weekend.
Anybody paying attention to the latest news out of South America? Some days ago, Colombia killed some rebels deep in the jungle, just over the Ecuadorian border, and both Ecuador and Venezuela are angry. On the other hand, documents seized in the raid appear to indicate that Chávez is in league with the rebels, in this civil war that's gone on since the 1960s. Ecuador and Venezuela have been assembling soldiers on their borders. Are we about to see another war between the parts of the former Gran Colombia?

Polls have closed in Ohio, and (perhaps) in Texas. Huckabee has finally dropped out of the race, so McCain is the only remaining candidate with any significance. Obama has won in Vermont, Hillary has won Rhode Island (thus ending Obama's winning streak); it appears that she's won Ohio, and Texas is apparently really close. We'll see whether Obama's lead will remain.
Voting today was a little confusing, simply because I'd never voted in a booth. It was interesting to see how many positions were elected; I never knew how many there were. One interesting thing was local: our state representative (leaving office for term limits) was running for an empty county commissioner seat, being vacated by the (apparently winning) man who was running to fill the state representative's seat!
Weather was not good today: beginning early this afternoon, freezing rain covered half of Ohio for several hours. Isaac and I are scheduled to fly to Georgetown and West Union (villages a few miles north of the Ohio River, above Cincinnati), but he says it's not likely that the conditions here will be safe for it :-( I guess I'll have another chance some time.

Sorry for no posts over the last few days! I was busy the ast of the midtermsweek, althgouh all went well (including the POL test) and the trip home. I couldn't come home until after church, since my driver was a staffer at an Alleghenies presbytery event that went most of the weekend. However, I'm here at home (have been for about 30 hours now), and last night's sleep was the best I've had in weeks.
Today was really a day for my head! I had an ophthalmologist's appointment at 10AM (no change in my eyes over the past year :-), a trip to the neurologist's office in Marysville to deliver films of imaging (one MRI, one CAT) that I'd had done at the Medical Center in Beaver, and finally a haircut at 1PM. After that, nothing much: just relaxation, read the newspaper, go to Bellefontaine for dinner and grocery shopping with my family. And now it's about time for bed.
Tomorrow (actually today, since it's almost 1:30AM) is Ohio's primary voting day. I've never voted at home before: in primary and other odd-time-of-the-year elections, I've never gotten around to getting an absentee ballot, and I also forgot to get one for the main elections last fall. The only time I've voted was in the midterms in 2006, again by absentee (it's interesting to vote while sitting on one's bed!). So tomorrow is a first. When we were little, my parents would always take us up to the municipal building while they voted (we only had 807 people at the last census, and it's not like everyone votes!), and we'd always watch them go into the little booth etc. Sometimes, they even had a little "voting" thing, where we'd vote for the best ice cream (doesn't do well for me!) and other similar things. And I get to do it tomorrow for my first time! It's amazing the amount of campaigning going on around here: aside from presidential (as Ohio is a big swing state for the Democratic nomination, Hillary and Obama are running ads everywhere), there's a lot of campaigning going on for local offies: among other things, it seems that both our state representative and our state senator have hit term liimits, so there's a wide battle to win the Republican nomination (basically the general election here), and even the family court judge is fiercely contested between the incumbent and two challengers.
One thing that I noticed with one of Hillary's TV ads tonight: she needs to read a little more before making any more ads. This ad speaks of the rich having had their presidents, and therefore she's going to be the workers' president. And yet she speaks about working for the middle class. Someone needs to tell her that the workers of Ohio are proletarians, and she needs to be fighting the bourgeoisie, not advocating for them! Is she an enemy of the people, a saboteur portraying herself as a proletarian in order to dominate them? A Trotskyite? Or is she a very poorly-informed leader but true at heart? Either way, she's a bad choice: all we have to lose is our chains, but either she's a link on those chains or she's one of us who has been deceived enough that she's actually helping our enemies. Let us follow in the path of the Great Stalin and the Great Lenin — workers of the world, unite!