The day after the big dog snow

We wound up with a solid foot of snow in the middle of the yard.

Church for tomorrow 12/20 is cancelled. Also, no choir party tomorrow night.

The wagon is cleared to the street, but we haven't been plowed yet.

The snow is melting a little bit, but something more is supposed to fall tonight.

Menu for a snowy weekend: biscuits and gravy; tortilla pizzas; artichoke spread; potato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches; pancakes and bacon. And that's as far as we are right now.

The walkway is cleared; part of the deck is cleared. The picture below is before I started on the front entryway.

Libby's in the kitchen; pray for us.

Some friends have lost power already; pray for Andy.

More pictures here.

Big dog snow

We haven't had much in the way of snow since we arrived. That changed today. It started snowing before sunrise and went for 4 hours or so. It switched to sleet mid-morning, but by lunchtime was back to snow. Briggs and I made a trip out to see what was going on at church (nothing); buy a couple of food items (popcorn, snack mix and milk), and get kerosene (the fire department responded to a motorist in distress while we were there). And it's been pretty steady ever since. We've got about 3" around the house. Ray's Weather is predicting near 12" for Black Mountain and straight north of here to Burnsville.

It was pretty weird: this morning we had a robo-call from the county school system telling us schools were closed for the day. It was not snowing then. Twenty minutes later it did start snowing. It was like a scene from The Truman Show. I'll get pictures later.

There is all grade of fretting over church activities: our big music is this Sunday for both services. Not sure what we'll wind up doing yet. Kind of depends on how much snow we actually get overnight. We also have our choir party on Sunday evening. That will be up in the air until decisions are made about church services.

Our street got plowed early this morning, but it's covered over again. Not sure if or when we'll see the plows again!

Not your father's Christmas Pageant

From Highland Park PCUSA, just last Sunday. Enjoy.





I'm not sure the track is the best choice (there are plenty of great danceable songs more on point), but I get it. The only thing my co-workers say when I suggest doing something like this is, "yeah, right." Hmmm.

Random December

A couple of shots from the past week or so...

Halloween

Calvin spiked a fever yesterday and so he's at home for a 24-hour quarantine from daycare. So I have a few minutes to catch up. Hence Halloween in December. We did the usual town thing, despite the drizzle. It's a miracle none of us got sick. Nick M. joined us while his parents were away. Continuing the tradition, Calvin was a red-hot-chili-pepper this year. Briggs and I re-discovered a junior-sized Dracula cape earlier in the season, so he wanted to be a vampire. He even enjoyed the whole make-up thing. Eli, because we would not let him solicit candy unless he were wearing some sort of costume, was a garbage bag that had been "gotten" by a black bear. The sign says, "Bear-1, Trash bag-0." Nick was the elf from the Tolkien Ring Trilogy.

Dinner theater

We had a Christmas dinner theater at church last week. The play was "In Bethlehem Inn" by John Carter, a drama I have mounted several times, in two previous churches. It all went great. Late last week I asked Briggs if he wanted to be a shepherd in the outside nativity scene. He said, "Sure," with his usual nonchalance. We got him a costume, and when we learned that we had not only a donkey, but it's yearling offspring, we made plans to let Briggs be the baby donkey's minder. He did great. This was on top of his debut as a percussionist at early church that same morning. He played triangle on the Taize "Prepare the way of the Lord." I taught him a down-and-dirty" short-short-long pattern, and had him join the band on the fifth layered iteration. He did a great job. All-in-all a busy day for Briggs, and an awesome outing for him.

Joke of the Day

How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb?


A committee of 7 to stew about the need to change the bulbs and fret about the expense (for 7 months), a motorized $300 a day lift to hoist the hired contractor into place to do the work (plus his paid assistant on the ground), 4 people (including Briggs) to move the pew cushions and drape the pews with plastic to keep dust off them, one person to dust the ceiling rafters since we're already in there making a mess anyway, and two willing brutes (including the Chief of Police for the Town of Montreat) from the committee hanging around to do anything else needed on the ground, and one organist to take pictures of the whole event.


Seriously.

Happy Holidays and Merry Xmas

Get over it. Even if non-Christians think they are neutralizing Christmas by using generic terms like "holiday" and "Xmas" it can't really be done. Sure, part of the rationale is to try to create a term that is all-inclusive of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Well, okay, but adding those two celebrations to the mix certainly isn't going to diminish Christian holidays this month. Substituting "holiday" for Christmas isn't going to make that happen. Saying "holiday" only widens the door as it were, for inclusion of a myriad of Christian celebrations and commemorations. At least for me.

What is the derivation of "holiday?" You knew it already: "holy-day." So if you wish me "happy holidays," I hear a good wish for the whole slate of special days during December (here are a few):

December 4: John of Damascus, writer of the hymn texts "Come, ye faithful, raise the strain" and "The day of resurrection"

December 6: St. Nicholas of Myra, the original St. Nick, Saint Claus, or, yeah, Santa Claus, known for his compassion and generosity

December 21: St. Thomas the Apostle, the doubter who turned to belief upon touching the risen Lord

December 25: The Nativity of the Lord

December 26: St. Stephen, the first martyr for the faith

December 27: St. John the Apostle, or variously St. John the Evangelist, or St. John of Patmos (writer of the Revelation of St. John)

December 28: Holy Innocents, for the children slaughtered by King Herod because of his fear surrounding the birth of a new King Jesus

December 30: The Holy Family, commemorating the flight of Joseph, Mary and Jesus to Egypt

January 1: Mary the Mother of Jesus

January 6: Epiphany, Twelfth Night, commemorating the arrival of the Magi to honor the new-born Savior

First Sunday after Epiphany: Baptism of the Lord

to mark Jesus' baptism by John the Baptizer

So if you wish me "happy holidays," thank you. Whatever you may intend, I call to mind these people and events of faith and the days on which we commemorate them this time of year. Whatever you think you're getting away with, this is what comes to my mind. If I happen to hear this good wish on one of the dates listed above, I try to mention that fact to my well-wisher when I can.

And as for "Merry Xmas." You can't take Christ out of Christmas period, let along by using a letter X. Get over it. X is the letter "chi" in Greek, which is the first letter in the name Χριστός which is Christ in Greek. This has for centuries a symbol for Christ our Lord. Don't even think that by using this anyone is taking "Christ out of Christmas." You can't do it with an X. And you pastors who know better, but who rail on with an ignorant general public, or who don't bother to set things straight for the folk entrusted to your care: shame on you for taking the easy way out. Grow a backbone and set your folks straight. In fact an X drawn casually in the sand was a secret way people of faith have signaled their believes to others in times of persecution (especially in the history of the early church). Now it's a secret way for us modern-day people of faith to convey Christ to a public that thinks it's merely creating an abbreviation, or taking

Christ out of Christmas. It can't be done. In reality they are putting our Lord Christ more forcefully in the minds of people who see this symbol. X marks the spot, people! It just needs to be explained to a world that honestly needs to hear more about Jesus the Christ. Get over it, and get with it.

So go ahead, wish me "happy holidays" and "Merry Xmas." I'll take them all, and thereby be reminded of my baptismal vow to go into all the world and convey the love of Jesus to a hungry, thirsty and weary world.

Another Artist

Maia C. drew this picture of our church organ recently. It appeared one day on my office door. I had to share it! I especially like the "smokin' sounds" that our organ produces!

Thanks, Maia! This is awesome!

You can click on the image to get a larger view.

Lee Child

I know: it's like 6 or 7 novels. I have enjoyed the Jack Reacher series. I haven't gotten tired of the pattern yet. But in the most recent one I did find myself being tempted to skip the parts I knew intuitively. I want to figure out the timeline of publication and see which ones I've missed. The ancillary novel library at church has given me a new addiction!

I knew I wouldn't have to go far: here is a nice wiki article on the main character.

Artist

Eli has had a real tough time recently suppressing his urge to draw, at school. He draws on everything including homework to turn in, assignments and examples that are distributed. The teachers were all complaining about it. "Eli needs to remember that I am not the art teacher," wrote one. I chose to ignore the complaints and have focused on getting him not to mess up school property and stuff that he'll have to turn in. Middling success in that regard too.

His support person at school, Mrs. Mitchell suggested a contract to establish limits. We agreed to it, albeit with reservations: we're pretty sure it won't last long. It didn't. Eli drew a picture on the back of the contract!



In Social Studies he is in a small group for some in-class project. One of the components is a drawing of whatever the project is (I don't know the scope or topic of the project). Eli's group tasked him with making the drawing. Nice call on the part of the group, and on the part of the teacher for letting things sort themselves out this way.

Eli had to answer a single science question for homework last night. It took a couple of sentences. I gave him a blank piece of paper and told him to write out his answer, rather than dictate it to me on the word processor. I watched him get started and then left him alone. Twenty minutes later the answer was done, and the rest of the page was filled with a huge drawing of the answer. It had to do with how the breeze generated by a fan causes a person who is sweating to feel cooler. So Eli had drawn a solar-powered fan, showing in minute detail the generation of electricity and distribution to the machine. Lots of wires, batteries and cells and packs, and such!

I had to laugh. It was right on target for the question he had answered. And the solar-power aspect will appeal (I think) to the teacher. So I let it go. Eli said, "I can get extra credit for the illustration." Right; we'll see!

But my thing is, if he's going to draw, why not figure out a way to let this be the way he gets his assignments done? The narrative stuff, sure; but accompanied by an artistic representation; why not?

Oink-of-the-Day Award

I read in the Asheville Citizen Times this morning that Asheville Christian Academy, here in the valley, voted last night to maintain its "men-only" rule for board membership. Okay.

The school was formed in 1972 as a merger between two schools, one with a uni-gendered governing board, the other with an inclusive board. The issue of changing the rule has come up before and been defeated. Conservative, literal-minded Christians prevail once again.

There are some fine folks at the school, and several kids we know through Scouts and other settings attend. So I don't disparage them. And I don't disparage the conservative mind-set. What I can't believe is that there is seemingly no way to reconcile valid if short-sighted Biblical interpretation with real-world expectations.

And then there's this. Quoting the CT, "proponents (of maintaining the single gendered board) also said that a nurturing temperament would keep women from making tough decisions and that men are more comfortable speaking to other men." One, these folks have obviously never met my wife, nor my mom, nor my boss. And two, well anytime you care to crawl out of the locker-room and join polite society, feel ever so free, fellas.

The vote was 148 for keeping things as they are and 103 in favor of a change. The school is governed by a board which meets monthly, and which is in turn controlled by a corporation of 250 members. It's not clear from the CT article who is on the corporation, but one assumes it includes parents, faculty and staff, along with some local religious leaders.

There is talk of some families removing themselves from the school. One wonders where they will land. Then I realized that most progressives simply work within the public school system or place their kids in non-religious private schools and take their lumps. I wonder what a progressive, expansive-minded, Christian, private school would look like. If I had some spare change I might be interested in an educational experiment.

Again, nothing against the good folks at the school. But come on; isn't there some way to move forward rather than remain mired in literalism? The valley is a study in conservatism: the Presbyterian Church in America (women may not teach men in the church school) is strong; the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (limits on women as pastors) caught a foothold with the realignment of the Montreat Presbyterian congregation. We've got Montreat College on one end of the spectrum and Warren-Wilson College (both historically Presbyterian-related schools) on the other .

Of course, I can hear loud and clear the howls of conservatives who believe that firmness, and single-ness of Biblical interpretation and living out of doctrine is the only way. All I can say is that rather than falling at the feet of doctrine and worshiping a book, I'll stick to adoring Jesus, and trying to emulate him.

A proper church library

The list of "recently read' in the right column has grown considerably in the past couple of months. Our former administrator at church kept a revolving library of books for other members of the church to borrow. We have a fairly hefty church library with all the religious books one might expect. It also includes a sizable collection of books written by members of our congregation, something rarely encountered in your usual church library. But this"ancillary library" that Jennifer R. had going was a real blessing to our many folks who love to read but are on fixed income. (easier even than a trip to the library!) While I wouldn't call the "holdings" trashy novels, they were more along the lines of beach reading than literature. I like the duel nature of our church library: the proper theological and devotional library and the special section of novels and mysteries for general consumption.

So late in summer it came time to clean the shelf as it were, and time to take everything to the used book-seller in town. I snagged a dozen or so books before that trip and have been reaping the benefits for several weeks. Harlan Coben was new to me, and a good find; John Sandford not as much to my taste. Patterson's co-authored title "Step on a crack" did nothing for me at all. Too many too-tidy puzzles answered with too much ease. Lee Child and his "Reacher" novels were a nice discovery for me. I've finished them all up, and will be taking them back so they can be traded. I've noticed that the "share shelf" has more books on it, so I may be able to keep reading others' treasures for a while.

State Quarters

We had been trying to gather all the state quarters in the series begun in 1999. My dad had helped us some, and even had given Eli a collecting book to help get him started. We were doing pretty well until we moved and then got behind. Every now and then we find a more recent quarter and are able to add it.

We actually have two collections going. The plan is to complete both and keep one, but trade the other (full of Philadelphia Mint coins) with someone who has a complete set of Denver Mint coins.

But then I happened across a US Virgin Islands quarter last week. No place for that in our folders! And today I had time to poke around and learned that this year (2009) there is a whole new mini-series of five "DC & US Territories Quarters." Yikes! In addition to the USVI coin I found there are already quarters for DC, Guam, American Samoa and the Marshall Islands.

Reckon we'd better get busy!

A-ha

A couple of weeks ago news of a salary and stress survey made its way through the Methodist Musicians news list. The reason: church musicians placed 5th in a list of stressful jobs that pay poorly. Top of the list (the most stressful job that pays poorly) was "social worker." Next came "special events coordinator," "parole officer" and "news reporter." Next was church musician. The survey was done by PayScale.com and reported by CNNMoney.

Named in the article as one aspect of the job that provokes stress was providing music for worship services at critical times in peoples' lives: weddings and funeral." The article didn't name what I think is the obvious, and most pervasive stress-inducer: the weekly challenge of selecting music for worship that appeals to the performers, suits the tastes of the congregation, is not too loud, is not too dissonant, is in a major key (see my post at BMPCNC Muz).

The survey was conducted by PayScale.com. Here's their explanation of the scope of the survey:

(Payscale.com) defined high stress and low pay jobs: Starting from a database of over 2000 jobs, Payscale used data from over 36,000 respondents who ranked their jobs for quality of life factors, and chose those requiring a bachelor's degree or higher where the national median pay is less than $65,000. The survey was conducted between Aug 10, 2009 and Oct. 1, 2009.

I took a look at the PayScale.com site and took their rating survey. My salary ranked in the 45 percentile for my field. I think that means 55% of my colleagues earn more than me; and that my salary is 5 percentage points off the average salary for my field. I also discovered that persons holding my academic degree (Master of Divinity) have an average salary nearly $12,000 more than my current salary. I wonder of that's what changing careers, even if it was 20 years ago seems to get you.

Smokey Mountain Brass Band

Eli and I went to hear the Smokey Mountain Brass Band this afternoon. I heard them on public radio on Thursday and thought Eli might enjoy it. He did. They are in the British brass band tradition: cornets and euphoniums, (two tubas) plus percussion. They gave a nice concert with proceeds from a free will offering going to polio eradication sponsored by Rotary International. I never played with a group that large, but it did take me back to Mt. Sylvan UMC days and our little brass ensemble and George, Charles, Rick and my dad and me.

PipeScreams

I gave a short concert on Wednesday evening for the kids in our Logos program and as part of our on-going Thursday Night Live fellowship series (I know: Wednesday/Thursday; just go with it). I had done three PipeScreams concerts in Ashland and they were very popular (they even led to spin-offs for July 4th). This being the first here, we kept it short and simple. One of my piano students, Nick M. played a piece from his lesson book. He did great! We had about 125 in attendance, including many in costume. Eli turned pages for me and worked the lights (killed the house lights at the beginning, and turned on the works lighting for the kiddie talk). It was his first time and he did awesome; I was very proud of him. Things look good for PipeScreams II next year!

Eli turns 12

We celebrated Eli's birthday last month. He's been big into NCIS recently, so his big gifts were related to that. Everyone had cake and ice cream in the evening.

Train Trip

In early September we learned of a trip on the GSMR sponsored by the Old Depot Association here in Black Mountain, celebrating 100 years of the depot. We were thinking about going, and then had a call from Paul W. at church wanting to take Eli on the very same trip. In the end Paul sponsored Eli and the rest of us also went. Eli (and all of us) spent some quality time with Paul, who is way to smart for his own good. The train ride was great. We packed a huge picnic lunch and ate on the ground at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. It was Calvin's first train ride, so he had a blast. The ride came with free admission to the museum in Bryson City. When the ride was over we were exhausted and wrung out, so we decided to skip the museum and covenanted to drive back down the next afternoon (Sunday) for the museum. Best decision we ever made!

This is the train at the Outdoor Center. They split it in half so traffic can continue to move around the area.

Food spots

Briggs: This trail mix sure does hit the spot.

Me: Oh, really?

Briggs: Um-hum. 'Cause I have this spot, and it's hittin' it."

Me: And where is this spot?

Briggs (points to the exact location): In my leg.

The week that was

It started last weekend. Eli came home Friday after a rough week of homework and tests. It was his birthday, but he had two tests scheduled to Monday morning. I sent a very frustrated-sounding note to his counselor. I am in a stew about maybe changing his medication regimen or maybe changing his class schedule (out of the gifted-talented track), so he can stay focused or move a pace he can manage so he can get classwork done in class, and not bring so much home with homework.

Monday we learned that a couple of kids related to church and the pre-school had H1N1; kids we were around last week and over the weekend. Briggs was mostly over his mess (after missing school WE, TH and FR) , but still had a pretty wicked cough.

The church office administrator was on my back to get us switched from cassette recording of our worship services to digital and CD format. That's all good, assuming the hardware folks had things in place, which they said they did. But on Tuesday when I started in on the project, found they had not: the software was going hinky, and then the newly-fashioned computer developed its own issues. I lost most of TU dealing with that before I finally threw in the towel. Part of that time-loss was going to our laptop (because it has the software and does a good job making the digital recordings), but it crashed, which had a whole other set of implications for this Sunday (projection in worship). Oh, and by the way, our systems administrator was out with H1N1 (one of those families mentioned above). So I didn't have a ready source of commiseration nor advice.

Also, with him out, we were trying to adjust our print development: no newsletter (fine), but the office administrator had to assemble the bulletin, whilst learning new software (nDesign) on a week with a not-as-usual bulletin (World Communion) and a guest preacher (later-than-usual information).

Also about that time I had another round of the traditional-versus-contemporary worship music conversation. Suffice it to say...it was icing on the cake that was my week.

All this time, Eli's counselor has been stepping up her work with him and luckily enough he is having a better week with less homework. But we've gone ahead and set an appointment with his doctor to review his case. That's next today.

Rehearsals went great this week. Our newest guitarist for the early service is ready to play for worship, stepping up from simply sitting in on rehearsals. The band has a nice sound. The choir has been work on a hard-as-hell anthem by Kinley Lange (Esto les digo). If the notes weren't hard enough, yeah, it's in Spanish. But they managed to get through it a cappella (did I mention that?) in rehearsal. Plus, we were taking candid photos for a new directory and the website this week. So all that went fine except for the tenor who nearly fainted in rehearsal.

By Thursday the administrator was in a real snit (understandable) to get the bulletin done. With so many foreign songs in the mix, plus the communion stuff, I found myself in her seat more than once making changes, in addition to assisting what little bit I could with the vagaries of InDesign (luckily I'd had some experience with similar programs, ie Pagemaker, before). But I was out of the office in the morning for a meeting, and had the usual slew of piano students in the afternoon. So the whole day was pretty rush-rush; way too intense for my liking. We finally got it put to bed, but I am sure there's something missing or wrong, somewhere.

Then at the end of the day Thursday, Eli got off the bus with a fever of 102.7. He's got something. Everyone in the office was clucking over him offering advice, but still wanted me to help with computers, bulletins, blah, blah, blah. Oh, and did I mention flags?

For World Communion we want to install flags of the nations where we have missionaries deployed. From the ceiling 16 feet up. It wasn't helped any by the nay-sayers suggesting we just slap them on the wall instead of doing it right the first time. We had to find the right hanging hooks, get scaffolding and personnel. This is intended to be a permanent installation, per our worship and mission committees, but the Session is balking and wants them up and down this weekend, then up again in January 2010 and down at the end of February. Believe me, the whole saga is much longer and excruciatingly convoluted.

So we got home Thursday evening, and I put Eli to bed with drugs. Then Libby got home with Calvin: she's sick.

So this morning I'm doing my best "tomorrow's another day" mantra. I got Briggs and Calvin to school and day care. Calvin was not happy that I was leaving him (just like his mama does). So why, you ask, am I wasting time at the computer? Hell if I know.

In another life

If I weren't a musician I might be a chef. Or I might be a furniture restorer. Or maybe a painter (as in houses). When I was a kid I went through all the usual phases: I wanted to be an architect and a veterinarian. Then I wanted to be a preacher. My degree is in psychology, so something all that line was always a possibility. I wound up a musician.

Rod Dreher comments today about his passion. He's a journalist but imagines life as a chef.

Plenty of amateur musicians comment to me that they wonder about changing careers and doing music professionally. I ponder leaving music (regularly). When Libby and I got married, folks used to wonder wistfully what it must be like at our house with two accomplished musicians living together. My pat answer was that it was very, very quiet. After a day of music, usually the last thing we wanted around the house was more music! Now with three boys we regularly get, "are they musicians?" To which I reply, "God, I hope not!" In reality Eli is making his own way as an inquisitive percussionist; Briggs is a break-dancer; Calvin can sometimes clap to a beat.

The thing is I suspect that once we are doing our dream job, it is no longer a dream. All the headaches that go with the job come to roost when we have to earn a living at it. I don't know if it's a case of trying to catch clouds, or out of the frying pan into the fire, or the grass is always greener, but it's some melange of all that.

I've got a friend/colleague who is an excellent trumpet player. She took her time finding her niche, but seems to have settled on chef-ing. (Her culinary school team placed third in a recent national competition.) I suspect she's wondered off and on about which career path to follow. She obviously does both things well. For my part I've told her to go with the cooking thing and let trumpeting take second place. I told her I would drop her name whenever I could to music colleagues looking for trumpeters in her new location (Raleigh, NC).

I usually tell folks wondering about the magical life of music-makers to stick to their day job and let music be a nice hobby, so that it can continue to bring the same joy for many years. I'll most likely do the same: slogging away at making music and helping others find bliss in it, and wondering what life would be like as a pirate captain.

A lick of sense

The president is planning to address American school students on September 8 and encourage them to work hard in school. Some conservatives have taken the position that this is some sort of indoctrination and are encouraging a sick-out amongst students. Inconceivable, and yet it's true. Rod Dreher at Crunchy Con provided the scoop. At least Rod (an articulate and balanced conservative amongst a growing party of wingnuts) is seeing the utter stupidity behind this position. Hopefully other Conservatives will react the same way. This is not the way to practice politics in our nation. Thank goodness some conservatives have a lick of sense on stupid ideas like this.

End of summer

Calvin started daycare at Mountain Area two weeks ago and Briggs ended his stint there, in preparation for beginning kindergarten this week. There was a week in there before school began when Eli and Briggs were at home and Calvin was away. I didn't get as much done as I had thought.

On Thursday, though, two friends from church took Eli and another boy from church to Biltmore for the day. Briggs was a little upset that the trip was just for older boys. So to make it up to him, he and I went to the WNC Nature Center in Asheville. We had a great time. We saw a couple of wolves snarl and growl at each other over a scent in the woods. Briggs got to pet a goat and some sheep. We walked through the butterfly house. Briggs didn't want to pet a snake, but he did get an up-close look at an owl. We saw the bears and some deer and turtles. All in all a good trip, and

not at all a bad substitute for Biltmore.

The next day the three of us went to Linville Caverns. It was nice and cool for me; I was weary of toiling on the window project. They gave a nice tour, though some of the commentary was over-the-top goofy. The caverns are pretty nice, though not nearly as capacious as Luray in VA. It's been several years since Eli was in Luray, and he doesn't remember the caverns. They both got a big kick out of Linville, so we agreed to make a journey some day to VA to see Luray.

New windows

The front of the house is an entryway with a closet and a second room we use as a study. It has the desk, compute and piano in it, along with 6oo books. This area used to be the front porch of the house. It was closed in at some point, on the cheap. The windows are old crank out things that leak like crazy. Also a couple of them have stripped gears in the crank mechanism, so they don't really close well. In summer it's not such a big deal, but in winter, it's murder. We've used screws to more firmly secure them, but they still let a lot of air circulate around them.

So this month I finally have gotten around to begin replacing them. I started with the single on the driveway side of the house in the study. That went pretty smoothly. This weekend I am going to replace the one on the left front of the house, in the study also. It's a 52 inch wide opening with a single crank window currently, but I have opted to use two 24 inch wide vinyl replacement windows, and will place a small divider between them to close the gap. I am hopeful that it won't look too queer when it's done.

There are two huge, ancient holly bushes on either side of the front steps, right in front of the windows to be replaced. They were in sad shape when we arrived, but we have left them alone and they have begun to fill out. Sadly, though, I'm going to rip them out for my convenience in this project. I made a trip to Asheville this morning to buy the replacements. I had hoped to use the truck to just jerk the bushes out. I had some nice sturdy link-chain handy, and I knew the chain saw had a dull chain, so I wanted to avoid trying to use it for the job. But I couldn't find any links to join the chain ends together. I had to make a run to Henson's for a couple of clasps. The mechanism worked fine, but...The bushes are so well-rooted in that they didn't budge. So I had to make another run out to get a new chain for the saw, and install it. Once in, it worked great and made mulch of the bush in no time. We'll replace the old shrubs with something new when everything is done. Once the shrub was down, I pulled of the exterior trim around the window. So far so good.

By then it was time to make a run to pick up Eli and Briggs from their buses. So I won't try to do anything else this evening. I intend to jump on it in the morning and have it done over the weekend. Here's hoping there are no surprises along the way.

My babies

Today was Briggs' last day at day care. In ten days he'll be starting kindergarten. Today was also Calvin's last day of freedom: on Monday he begins day care at the same place Briggs has left. We had hoped to have a two week period without a day care payment, but the fates conspired against us.

We have been blessed lo these many months with some terrific foster-grandparents, who have sat with Calvin week after week. We couldn't have made it with out Uncle Carl, Aunt Faye and Uncle Wade and Aunt Angie, plus numerous others.

Briggs is very excited about starting school. He's met his teacher already. I hope that we'll be able to walk to school several days each week. It's a half mile. Then another half mile to the church. At the end of the day they plan is for Briggs to ride the bus to church to meet me there.

Eli at Rockmont, week two

Nothing much to report, but I figured I should give an update.

Eli got hit with a frisbee while playing disc golf on Sunday afternoon. Libby talked to the doc. A cut about 1/2 inch long under the eye. They glued the cut shut. I asked Alice P. and Caroline P. to get a photo if they saw him on Monday, but they didn't. This is picture of part of the crowd at the beginning of "field day" they had on Sunday afternoon.

We think Eli went camping on Monday night, so no photos from Monday. And if they had the big three-day hike and camp-out like last year, he's likely on that too, and we won't see anything of him until after they get back. The camp keeps us informed in a general way via newsletters online. But they are trying to cover the activities of 300 boys, so you don't get much specificity!

So, we'll try to figure out what he's up to, and post something when we have anything new.

Stained Glass

Libby's cousin Martha Barksdale was vending for the first time at a street festival in Canton, NC, where she lives. She has launched into marketing her stained glass to the public. Read about her work here. We drove over this evening to wish her well and see what she was showing at "Materfest 2009." That's 'mater with a long-a as in tomato, not with a short-a referring to someone's momma. Martha has also launched a web presence at www.MajicGlass.com. Please stop by and take a look and buy something. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of Martha's work soon.

Martha has also begun working at a gem mine, something I think she's wanted to do for a long time. When we came to the mountains on vacation a few years ago and visited Martha, she took us to a gem mine near Canton. This place, Randall Glen, is way, way off the beaten path, but might just be worth the trek.

If you want, you can get this lighthouse for me for Christmas!

Eli at Rockmont Day 6

Here are some photos from the past couple of days. Eli has been playing dodgeball and whiffleball, and getting in lots of canoe time. Tonight is the big dance with the girls from Camp Meri-Mac and Hollymont. Eli swears he danced with a girl last year, and that he planned to again this year. We never had independent confirmation on that last year; we'll see what transpires tonight!

Camp pictures day 3

Eli is helping his folks a whole lot better this year by managing to get in a few pictures. Here are three (3 in one day!!) from Wednesday. We read that his cabin group was camping under the stars on Monday night.

One photo

This is a shot of the boys in Eli's cabin and their counselor, Thabo. Nothing (out of 305 pictures today) of Eli in a candid. We'll try to be patient.

Eli at Rockmont

We delivered Eli to Camp Rockmont this morning. He'll be there for 2 weeks. There are 380 boys participating this session! One of the kids in Eli's cabin is a buddy from last year, plus Connor, whom we know from church, is also there this session. The C session (in which Eli is registered) is the full two weeks; there is also the C1 session which runs just the next 6 days. So things will thin out a little next week. We loaded things into the cabin about 1130AM (we are so thankful that church right now is on a single service schedule, with that service at 930AM!). We met his cabin counselor, Thabo (from South Africa) and then had lunch on the lake front. Eli and I also had a chance to paddle around the lake in a canoe before he was due for the opening session.

Eli would enjoy mail, though he notoriously did not send a single card OUT last year. (Email me for the address.) Last year Eli appeared in a scant 6 photos (out of nearly 1500 taken by various photographers), so his instructions this year are, "if you see a camera, get in front of it!)

Briggs at the dentist

Briggs was at the dentist yesterday. They have these oversized glasses to keep the exam light from being a bother. Only on the boys they look kind of goofy. The dentist is a member of our church. She also used to practice in Eden, NC, so kind of small world. She took this picture while Briggs was finishing up. She snapped it real-time and emailed it to Libby before we even got out of the office. He had two cavities filled, and got a stern lecture to be a better brusher. He didn't seem to mind much, saying only, "it feels funny to smile and talk." And yet he was deterred from neither.

Linville and Blowing Rock

We headed out on Saturday for Linville Gorge and Falls and Blowing Rock. The weather was gorgeous in the morning (we left at 1030AM) though clouds moved in throughout the day. We took I-40 and US221 to go (about an hour to Linville). We used US221 and US70 then I-40 to come back and gained a little time. We parked at the gravel lot off NC183 and walked to the falls. There is a nice viewing area 4/10 mile from the lot at the top of the falls. It was a nice reward without too much effort, though I was carrying Calvin in the baby-backpack the whole time. We spent some time there at the top. We then hiked an additional 4/10 mile to get to the first of 2 lower viewing points. It was very nice. We could see some folks in the pool at the bottom of the falls, from about 120 feet up. Awesome!


We then got on the Parkway and went to the visitors' center lot and drove through (by then it was 230PM and we were starving, so no stopping there). The went to the (very nice and large) picnic area for Linville on the parkway and had a feast. We poked around the river a little bit. On the way to Blowing Rock, we passed Grandfather Mountain, and drove over the Linn Cove Viaduct. Those are really nifty sights. We then stopped at the Moses Cone home on the Parkway. We rested there and watched a turner carve some wood tops and wine bottle stoppers. We got a top. (At this point Calvin had slept a grand total of 20 minutes, so he was off-and-on fussy. Briggs also missed his daily nap, but swore he was fine until we set off for home: five minutes in the car and he was OUT. See the photos.)

Last stop was Blowing Rock. It's in private hands but is well-maintained. The rock is cool and there is a nifty observation tower that looks over the whole valley. That was pretty much worth the admission price. Calvin took a tumble running down down the tower walkway and hurt his lip and nose (Eli, ever the rescuer, ran for help). We were the focus of attention way more than we like to be for a few minutes there.

We used the Parkway to go up from Linville to Cone Park and Blowing Rock. We used US221 the whole way down. The Parkway is the better choice for speed and ease. The only benefit of 221 is an awesome view of the Linn Cove Viaduct from about 300 straight down at one point on the highway. US221 eventually straightens out a little bit and we made a dash back to Linville Falls, and ultimately Marion where we had supper at Fatz (kind of dark and a little up-scale for us hiker-refugees). We were home by 8PM.

Pictures are here.

Remembering Space

It's one of those moments in time when you know where you were when it happened. The landing on the moon was big for our family. My dad had working for Martin Marietta for a few years in Florida, but we were now living in Charlotte. He had worked on the Saturn V project, but we were now watching the Apollo project reach its climax. It seemed later than it was on that July 20 night. The three Barker boys were hunkered on the sofa watch the lunar landing. My mom happened to catch a picture of us all in our scivvies more ready for bed than for history-making.









Unlike the more traumatic events that are seared on my brain ("Where were you when the shuttle blew?" "Chapel, at Wesley Seminary." "Where were you when the towers fell?" "In my office at Crestwood Church."), this was a wonderfully positive and gratifying moment in history. I had no understanding of the context or the ramifications of the lunar landing. But I knew that we, humanity, had achieved something great, and that only our humanity, that same humanity, would let that be the last stage in our reach into space.

Cradle of Forestry

The three brothers and I set of for Pisgah National Forest and the Cradle of Forestry today. It took a little less than an hour to get there. I expected all the staff to be fairly ragged out due to the holiday weekend just past, but they were really on. Very friendly and helpful. We did the exhibit area first, with Eli and Briggs doing the scavenger hunt. They finished all the sitings pretty quickly and had a blast doing it. Calvin really enjoyed the tunnel with the fox in it. We watched a movie about Vanderbilt, Pinchot, Schenk and the others involved in establishing this forest preserve and the science of forestry in American in general. We took a ride in the fire suppression helicopter simulator. Briggs enjoyed it most; it was kind of lame for Eli. We had a scouting mission in the store then took a break for lunch (we had packed a huge cooler of picnic elements). After lunch we hiked the Forest Festival Trail. It was very nice particularly because it was paved, which made taking a stroller very manageable. We saw the old logging train, the log loading crane, the fish hatchery, the old homestead and several salamanders. On the way back in Briggs tripped while running and had a couple of scrapes; the very friendly and helpful rangers had band aids available for him and happily applied them. Briggs was very impressed. We made a final swoop through the store and made our purchases. We had gone down using the Interstate highways; we came back using the Parkway. We could see Biltmore from a couple of overlooks. It was a great day! The pictures are scrolling in the right column. Here is a video of Eli and Briggs ringing the bell on the old logging train.

W&M Friday

Today Mark Sedio did an anthem reading session. Most of the music was "global" in nature, with a heavy dose of his own stuff. (I realized I need to get on the mailing list for Concordia Publishing to get information about their new releases).

Paul Huh talked about baptism in his session today and didn't flinch as the conversation circled about to re-baptism and re-affirmation of baptismal vows.

David Eicher talked about the Presbyterian hymnal project, now officially called the Presbyterian Committee on Congregational Song (PCOCS, pronounced "peacocks"). He shared in written form the committee's statement on theological framework and foundation. It's a very nice statement that reveals that the guiding framework for the new congregational song resources will be the construct "history of salvation." It will be interesting to see how that is fleshed out in hymns and liturgy in the new resources.

Eli at Science Olympiad

Eli scored a place at the regional Science Olympiad summer camp last week. There were 60 middle-schoolers from our area at Asheville High School. The kids were able to choose 3 from an array of 15 science projects to work in depth on during the week, after exploring each on the first day. Eli chose "mystery architecture," a session on catapults and other launching devices and "scrambler car" (they build a car with a set-able braking system). We were very pleased because Eli actually had a good time. We were not sure he would like the need for focus and concentration involved, but the projects seemed to capture his imagination and he had a very good week. The camp ended with a contest on Saturday with everyone using formulas and skills they had worked on during the week to complete a specific task. Eli and his partner Mica took second in the catapult (long-distance) challenge.

The camp is sponsored by NC State and the NC Science and Math Center. It was free, to boot. We learned about it from a robo-call from the County school system. The school doesn't have a team during the academic year, but Eli might have something to say about that after his positive experience last week. The whole family shared lunch with Eli on Saturday before the awards ceremony. The pictures are just from Saturday.

W&M Wednesday

Work responsibilities curtailed my participation today somewhat, but here's a brief run-down.

Mark Sedio worked some more on Latin rhythms in the Global Music seminar. Seeing a clearly delineated description of various rhythms was very helpful. I was struck by how much work the new Lutheran hymnal resources have contributed to Hispanic music for worship.

This afternoon I attended the Caring for Creation seminar, which was trying to make connection between our conference theme, "Come to the Waters," and ecological concerns and a renewed interest in the stewardship of creation. This session was pretty exclusively devoted to ecological facts, with some theology added in. I've heard from sources that other sessions have been a bit more balanced. It was an interesting 50 minutes.

Bob Hobby spoke about hymn introductions and registration this afternoon. Lots of stuff I already know and practice, but it was gratifying to hear someone else discuss the theory and the practical applications.

I hope to attend the hymn festival service tonight, but we'll have to see how things are on the home front.

W&M Tuesday

This morning in Global Music with Mark Sedio we worked on "Come all you people" (Uyai mose) paired with "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty." New for me was taking the African song in 6/8 instead of 4/4. But that made pairing it with Lobe Den Herren in 6/4 AWESOME. What that does is make it possible to set up a drumming accompaniment on the African song, and carry it over to the old German tune. We'll be doing it this way at our services very soon!

Later I listened in on the Bible Study with Paul Huh. He dealt with passages from Romans and ended with a 10 minute cello (and piano) piece.

David Eicher introduced us to hymns incorporating NT water images today. One of the coolest was a text by Leith Fisher, with music by Timothy Redman. It was a very sparse text, almost haiku-like in its imagery and meter. The music was tuneful, with a crush of seconds that leant a modern, soulful sound. It was reminiscent of music from Taize. I found myself wishing that the tune ended on the dominant instead of the tonic though. We also read through a hymn written by Eliabeth Stilborn, "By the well a thirsty woman." We sang it to the author's original choice for tune, Ebenezer, and then to a tune by Diane Wilcox which, according to Eicher, the author never heard before it went to print. It, the second, newer tune, was the preferred choice by our modest crowd. It had a nice contemporary sound without sounding trite. This paired with a powerful text makes for quite hymn.

Morning worship included Orff accompaniment (plus recorder) for BEACH SPRING. The preacher used as her text the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. She had a powerful word of challenge to the youth in attendance, that the woman at the well attends their school, figuratively, and that every student who participates in shunning that ostracized student is wrong. The preacher followed that with a powerful word of grace targeted directly to any youth who sensed that maybe they were the woman at the well at their school, figuratively: that Jesus meets them with life-giving water also. It was an incredibly powerful preaching moment; one could hear one thousand worshipers not breathe nor twitch for those few moments. We sang a very pretty setting of the Lord's Prayer using a Philippine melody. Some of the folk-iness of the melody was subsumed in the rather contemporary-sounding accompaniment, the sort of cross-over I can really appreciate. It was a neat, new setting I'll be trying to incorporate soon.

After lunch we listened to a few more composers of worship music in contemporary jazz idioms, Chuck Mahronic and Joe Utterback specifically. We then took off on a long list of "creative" ways to interpret hymns. I was most satisfied to hear a word of "open invitation" regarding WONDROUS LOVE. The presenter noted that the melody is such that truly any accompaniment can mesh effectively. Recently I did this myself, using open fifths that moved all over the place harmonically. I think I hit at one point a chord that was nothing but a stack of tritones!

Bob Hobby spoke about tempo in the organ/hymns session today. What we alluded to over and again but never said outright was that the tempo of the hymn is always contingent upon context: the place in the liturgy, the mood of the liturgy at that moment, the season of the year etc. A good example proved to be DUKE STREET. In some circumstances this needs to be a very stately tune; at other times it can easily bear proceeding at a quicker pace. The context will determine what's right. And the congregation, when they know and trust their leader-musicians, will follow. That was a nice pastoral word from Hobby; a word we do well to dwell on constantly. We also began to discuss playing the various musical styles for different hymns, something near and dear to my heart. More on that tomorrow.

W&M Monday

This was the first full day of the conference, with all the classes/seminars in place. I sat in on the tail end of Mark Sedio's global music session. They were working on an African song which our choir has sung, Nimemona bwana. He had a helpful word to say about long whole notes that I'll need to remember: they don't matter!

I got waylaid by my buddy Kathy Toole and so was late to choir and just listened. Paul Head seems to be off to a good start.

I sat in David Eicher's hymnal lecture. Today it was a survey of hymns that include Old Testament water images. There are more than one might think, especially newer texts. There was one that used the tune of "The Bells of St. Mary's." The music was so trite, I have a hard time remembering what the text was like!

The worship service included a healing/anointing rite. FotG dramatized the Great Flood story and managed to include chanting "we will rock you." Oh, and the organ blew up during the introduction to the first hymn. That was about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After lunch I sat in on a seminar on "piano in worship." I can't remember when this sort of class has been offered before. Today was a romp through some fundamental repertoire classics to contemporary. There will be more about playing-style as the week moves along.

I have been looking forward to Bob Hobby's class on service-playing at the organ. He didn't disappoint. Today he spoke about using the notion of "pulse" to keep momentum in congregational singing. I think I do that fairly well, but it was nice to be reminded. (The organ was working as least in part for this session; the tech people are supposed to work on it overnight).

At conference

This is the first in a irregularly-paced set of posts from the Worship and Music conference at Montreat, sponsored by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians. It began tonight and will run through Friday evening. I'll be attending as much as I can. Eli and Calvin will be participating in the Montreat Clubs program (Eli more than Calvin, lest Calvin miss his visits with Uncle Carl and Faye and Wade this week).

One word: Lutherans.

Several of the leaders at the conference are Lutheran, including one of the preacher/presider people and the organist. Much of the music and liturgy from tonight's opening service was taken from Lutheran resources.

Of course the PC(USA) and the ELCA have an on-going ecumenical relationship. Maybe this was decided to be the year that we manifest that tangibly at this conference. The Lutherans also have the coolest, newest hymnal. Might we be getting a taste of what a new Presbyterian hymnal could look like?

I liked singing "Halle, halle, halleluja" at the gospel reading. I wished we had used other of the verses ("I am the bread of life...") in other parts of the liturgy.

I liked Bobby Hobby's (sorry, I just had to do that, Bob; you started it yourself in Richmond, VA!) hymn introductions and playing. Sadly, no matter how hard one blows, an un-amplified flute is never, ever going to work in Anderson Auditorium. Call me, you can borrow BMPCNC's flute mic.

Singing with 1000 other folks is great. We all need to remember, however, that we can't hold the last note of the phrase its full value and keep things moving along; make them a little shorter so we can keep up the tempo.

I loved hearing three Bible readings plus a psalm. It's the way it ought to be. Of course that can lead to 90-minute services if you're not careful. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It's late, so I'm not going to build in a bunch of links tonight. Check back, and I'll try to include them later on.

Scurry, ducks and geese (no chicks)

We went to Lake Tomahawk in town a couple of weeks ago to feed the ducks and geese and swans. The ducklings were very mobile and held their own trying to snatch bread-bits from the boys. Afterward we walked around the lake (about .5 mile). Just how gutsy are the town's geese? Even they will take a piece of bread from one's fingers! Nice Sunday evening for the whole family.

I agree with Keith

Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis (R) is quoted speaking quite disparagingly about a summer supplemental meals program, for school children who during the academic year receive free or reduced-price lunches.

"Hunger can be a positive motivator."

While I might say something like that in a pique of anger about my own kids, who are quite well-fed thank you Lord, coming out with something like this in relation to public policy and program is reprehensible. Davis goes on to suggest that these kids should get jobs at McDonalds so they can get free food during their breaks on the job. Her biggest concern seems to be that paying for this summer meal program leads to increased taxes (reportedly the 9.7 million meals served cost about $3.5 million, which seems to me to be a not-too-bad return).

Keith Olbermann tonight called Rep. Davis today's "worst person in the world." I tend to agree.

I think Davis needs to get in front of her remarks and defend them as best she can, and then recuse herself of her public service appointments related to child welfare in the great state of Missouri. An apology of a sort that these same defenseless children can understand and relate to, along the lines of having failed them and their needs miserably would be a good start. Remarks like this in no way signal a commitment to the welfare of that state's children. They further display a warped perception of the realities of hunger in our nation and a baffling inability to construe positive means to alleviate hunger and try to secure better futures for any state's children.

Thanks to ThinkProgress for relating the same story that Olbermann reported on-air tonight.

Back from camp

Eli had a good time at camp, even if they had to leave early because of a flu outbreak. Two kids (from Alabama) were ultimately diagnosed with Novel H1N1. The day our troop returned, we had one "sicky," who was told by his doc it was not the notorious version of the flu, but some other sort of virus. Everyone else was checking in "okay." That is until Sunday. They started dropping like flies with various symptoms. Some had started Tamiflu as a precaution, some had not. I couldn't keep track of the correlation between who was sick/not and who had started the med/not. But it was a little anxiety-provoking. Eli started Tamiflu the day he got home and never exhibited any symptoms. My doc graciously had a scrip available for me over the weekend if I began to show any symptoms (I did not).


We went ahead as planned and visited Mt Mitchell and the new observation platform on Saturday, and the Carter reunion in Mayodan and Hanging Rock SP on Sunday.

Here are some pictures from camp.

Pair of Ducks?

Recently I have been living with the notion of the paradox of our faith, and the paradoxes contained within our faith. Lots of folks want absolute answers, but I think a big part of faith is living with paradox, two seeming opposites that must reside together for the most authentic expression of our faith. Donna Shaper in a helpful post at Theolog, suggests the less antagonistic term "partnership" might be more helpful than either paradox or dichotomy. I think I might agree.

The notion struck me again today as I was reading about church marketing. Our church is in a very propitious moment: I think there are lots of possibilities that will likely begin to evidence themselves when we have new permanent pastoral leadership in place. This article by Brad Abare at Church Marketing Sucks seems to get at the issue. We are a fairly intellectual, liberal congregation, but not all that representative of the wider community in which we reside. We have a decision of sorts to make in the coming months if we are going to grow. And I think a lot of the decision-making will be along these lines and how we deal with the issues that are raised here. I intend to try to get our leadership to read these articles in preparation for studying how we want to understand ourselves as church in the next few years.

Bug-Out

The Scouts came back late last night. There was an outbreak of flu-like symptoms in another troop. It seems to have begun Wednesday night (one of our leaders thought it was food poisoning). The Haywood County Health Department is concerned that it could be the infamous H1N1 virus. Our troop decided not take any further risks; they got home after midnight last night. Eli is still sleeping. He will begin a round of tamiflu today. I have a call in to my doc (I was at camp for 90 minutes yesterday morning) to see what I might have to do. One of our boys was feeling ill last night, but only the one. The troop that seems to be the source had 15 out of 45 boys laid low. I am glad our leaders did not dawdle and brought the boys home right away.

Scout Camp

Eli went to Scout Camp yesterday. The Daniel Boone Council here in southwestern NC runs Camp Daniel Boone, near Canton. All 13 boys in the troop are at camp this week. Dads are sharing the leadership through the week(I'll be heading down TH morning). Eli will be studying First Aid, Crime Prevention, Weather, Canoeing, Space Exploration (building a rocket) and Horseback Riding. It will be a busy week. I'll post some personalized pictures when I have some. Above is the lakefront, and below is a typical campsite.