Mín Englisc Blog

These past few days have been quite productive: I've finished transcribing another book of session minutes, and I'm mostly done with proofreading.
Seeing the bright moon tonight reminded me: when I was little, I never realised how bright the moon was. I remember first observing — at a rather late age; I may have even been in high school — that I could see my shadow when there was a bright moon but no other light, whether in the sky or from the ground.

I just found this great newly-posted photograph of a courthouse in rural eastern Nebraska. A good picture of a beautiful building on a great day :-)
Nothing much has been going on here since Monday. I did make some progress on Tuesday, finishing transcription of another book of session minutes (the final book for Morning Sun, Iowa), so I hope to be able to complete proofreading soon.

This was the weirdest of yesterday's churches — while most of the old Catholic churches in the region are High Gothic with towering brick spires, St. Louis Church in the village of North Star (built in 1914; it's among the newest of these churches) is a stuccoed single-story Mission Revival structure. We virtually never see Mission Revival in this part of the country, and the contrast with the other churches makes this quite a significant building.
For the first time in several months, I can close the back door without pushing it closed. Our screen doors have now been replaced; as well as performing minor tasks, I essentially removed the old door from its hingest: quite the difficulty it is when the screws' heads are in tightly and are damaged enough that a screwdriver can't easily grip it.

Dad and I went for a drive in the farthest western part of the state: not exactly to where I went on my birthday, but somewhat farther south.

This is St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church, located in the countryside southeast of Versailles in northeastern Darke County, about 65 miles southwest of here via the (admittedly rather circutuous route) that we took to get there, stopping for pictures here and there. Built in 1850, it's no longer an organised congregation; the building is only used once annually.

I have just learned via email of the sudden death of another retired RP minister: the Rev. Robert Tweed, Ph.D., who passed away between 8 and 9 PM last night. The pastor of three different churches and twenty years a Bible professor at Geneva college, he went the farthest from home of all of our ministers. Dr. Tweed was the only man to be the pastor of an RP church in Alaska, serving our former Anchorage church from 1979 to 1987, its entire existence.

Dad preached today from near the end of John's gospel. Overall, quite the average day at church; because Isaac was home and his friend was here, we had arranged to have lunch at church, so that he could see more people. The best part of our social time was an impromptu new-psalter-practise session: Isaac and his friend have become familiar with some of its selections while at school, so they led us in some new selections. I've only twice been able to use the new psalter in worship — both times at Eastvale, just one selection per service — and we didn't try any selections today that I'd used before.

Enjoying this weekend: it's Geneva's fall break. Accordingly, Isaac is here, along with one of his friends; the other guy lives much farther away than Isaac does, so it's impractical for him to go home.

Slightly more has happened in the last two days. Today was mostly a day of mowing and online work. Yesterday, however, saw me go into Bellefontaine for a little work. I've signed up to be an alternate as a poll worker for next month's elections, and of course I have to have some training to understand what to do for said election, whether or not I'm called. Yesterday, therefore, was the training time; while there's plenty to remember, we were given checklists to follow and forms with directions for different situations. Everything seems quite orderly and sensible; if I'm called to work, I expect that I'll not have too difficult of a time.
This weekend is Geneva's fall break. Isaac and a friend from school are planning to come here for the weekend; it will be good to have even a tiny bit of society for a few days.

Just back from Marion, where I cycled today — 37 miles each way. I would not have gone such a distance, except for two contributing factors: (1) Today's wind was a strong western one, frequently reaching 20mph or more; and (2) Dad had agreed to pick me up in Marion, so that I did not need to ride home again :-) While in Marion, I visited several historically significant sites, including the home and tomb of President Warren G. Harding, a Marion native. With all the riding here and there in the city, I'm estimating that I rode approximately 40 miles today altogether. I took the camera and kept it busy: 139 pictures in total :-)

Went down to the county historical society today, where I've been told that I'd be welcome as a volunteer. I was given more specifics about what I'd be doing if I'm able to volunteer, and it looks like I'll be spending a bit of time working away there.

First post in ages, yes, I know. It was a difficult week — among other things, Grandmother was not doing well, and it was hard to see her and hear her words in a hard time. Other issues have popped up as well. Thankfully, at least some of these issues seem to have been resolved (or resolution is possible), and Grandmother is somewhat better.