Mín Englisc Blog

Isaac went through his first classes today, doing quite well from all I understand, and getting a problem resolved :-)
This past week has been rather slow as usual; after returning from Pennsylvania, I didn't have that much other than lawnmowing and typing for Synod's Church History Committee. I made plenty of progress on the latter subject, completing transcription of the minutes of Conococheague RPC (Franklin County, Pennsylvania) between 1816 and 1839.
An exception was a wedding on Friday — a member at Belle Center RPC was married to someone from Virginia who, if I understand rightly, is in attendance at Trinity RPC. The wedding was in Fulton County, in Ohio's northwestern corner; I'd never visited Fulton, Henry (through which we drive to reach Fulton) or Williams counties, and after we left we made sure to take a little detour to cross the Williams line. I've now visited 78 of Ohio's 88 counties :-) Along the way, we passed through the city of Napoleon, where I was able to get good photos of the courthouse (quite an impressive building) and a few other historic buildings.

We leave in the morning for Pennsylvania — Isaac begins his first Geneva classes on Monday the 31st. It's the first time in five years that I'm not.

Progress: this morning I went to the local office of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, took and passed a computerised examination, and was granted a temporary learner's permit to drive. For the first time in four years, I was able to drive this afternoon :-) We'll see how long it takes for me to become comfortable driving (probably a decent amount of time), but it's definitely progress. My doctor's office says that they'll need to reëvaluate me in six months; hopefully they'll reduce the frequency after this.
What's funny is that Isaac passed all tests for his driver's license on Thursday. Little brother could drive by himself and big brother couldn't even drive with supervision...

Where would I be without the love of Christ? Christ gives me support, he gives me purpose, he leads me in life, he holds safe my soul in life and stays my feet from sliding. When my foot is slipping, his mercy upholds me; when my anxious thoughts are many, his comforts cheer my soul. Yet evermore I am with him, he holds me by my right hand; he is my guide, and his counsel commands my way; and in after all is finished, he shall receive me in bright glory.

Back, and have been back for a week now, but never got around to posting. All went quite well on Saturday: it was Christ-centered, and it's great to see two Christian friends marrying each other. Not to mention that I enjoy reading in the ceremony :-) Moreover, the reception was extremely enjoyable: I was able to see several friends with whom I graduated, as well as some whom I'd not seen for nearly a year. Among those present was my sophomore-year roommate, who transferred out of Geneva at the beginning of last schoolyear; it was good to catch up.
After the wedding, I stayed with a friend in Beaver Falls overnight — good to see him and some of our mutual friends there, but that wasn't the primary reason. I was able to worship with Eastvale for the first time since graduation, and except for the friend who hosted me, none of the members knew that I would be there. It's always good to worship at the house of God, and better to worship with friends whom one misses, but even better when it's a surprise! I had expected to return to my grandfather's house in Rose Point (where I stayed for the week), but I was invited to lunch with one family and was able to arrange to stay for the evening service. This change was made for a single reason: the Beaver Falls churches meet for joint evening worship services in the summer, which rotate between churches, and Eastvale was hosting — not something that I would want to miss! I was therefore able to hear preaching twice: once from Micah, of course, but also from Dan Drost (with whom I stayed part of last summer in Pittsburgh), who is interning at Eastvale for the summer.
The return trip was rather delayed: after waiting for a second bus to appear (there were too many people waiting for the route to fit on one bus) from Pittsburgh, we hit a large traffic jam east of Wheeling, and we had to wait well over an hour in Zanesville to switch drivers. At least Zanesville was enjoyable: because we had plenty of time, I was able to run around and get pictures of plenty of historic buildings downtown. Although it was once the state capital, the state capitol building is gone: unlike in Chillicothe, Ohio's first capital, neither the original capitol nor a reproduction yet exists.

Last post for a while: I'm leaving for western Pennsylvania this evening, as I'm reading in a wedding on Saturday. Be back Monday.

Lately, I've been putting plenty of time into transcribing the minutes of the session of the Conococheague RPC (Franklin County, Pennsylvania, just west of Gettysburg) from 1816 to 1839. It's been quite interesting reading — when possible, that is, because the handwriting is bad and the spelling horrid. In what other document do you read that someone "submited himself to the court", that the session "adjurned", or that an appeal was managed by someone appointed "to manaje the apeal"? Or where else do you find a paragraph in which the same man's name is spelled two different ways? Sadly, another difficulty is poor handwriting: as I typed the transcript of an 1823 meeting, I could only read about half of the words.

Albino Indian Peacock

This week has been a bit different: as he recovers from an illness, Isaac has finally been able to work at a nearly normal level, so I've not had more mowing work than normal.
Today is a milestone for me — for the first time since March of 2006, I've intentionally taken less than 400mg of one of my medicines. For the next month, I'll be taking a reduced level, than a smaller level in September, even smaller in October, and I'll be off one of them in November.