Midwinter Respite

For most of my working life this bi-modal holiday season has meant a week or more off from work, a midwinter respite from work and commuting.  It was just not productive to try to keep the plant going, shutting down machines then starting them back up, only to go through the same process again in just a couple of days.  I always considered that one of the real benefits of that job.

I will be working the next couple of days but that midwinter respite is still directing my perspective this year.  I have enjoyed our family gatherings, a walk along the river in Mohican State Park with small group of friends on Christmas morning, and seeing the sons and daughters of our church family, now grown and scattered but returned for the holidays.  I am delving into the new Astronomical Calendar, an annual gift from my wife, to see what we can look forward to seeing in the sky next year and thinking again about the cycles of the seasons.

Merry Christmas

Have you noticed how few people are wishing each other a Merry Christmas this year?  Is everyone is so worried about their finances that they know it is not Merry this year?  Do we not believe in the ideal of Christmas anymore?

We got an email this evening, Christmas Eve, with an article describing why the author denies the virgin birth of Jesus.  Fine.  The author enumerates five common sense reasons supporting his position…all very logical.

To me Christmas has less to do with the sexual activity of Jewish teenagers 2000 years ago than it does to the mysteries of faith, of God, of repentance and forgiveness, and how we should live in the world today.  Creationist arguments fall into the same category.  People spend too much time worrying about the medium and miss the message.

Merry Christmas!  Pass it on…

Thoughts on Winter’s Second Day — 2008

Our walk this morning was brisk…well, I should say that the weather was brisk.  The wind was gusting to 15 mph and the temperature was 2° F, putting wind chill well below zero.  I was warm enough but approaching discomfort due to my confinement inside all of that clothing.

The wind had slowed this evening and the temperature had warmed a little allowing the return to somewhat less restrictive clothing.  The sky was clear, so tonight after supper, I put on my heavy coat again and went outside for a little while.

The sky was clear overhead but cloudy or hazy above the northern horizon.  Except for the sound of a distant owl and the ever present sounds of vehicles on the state highway south of here and the airways overhead the night was silent.

High in the southeast sky the glories of winter sky shone brightly…that big loop of bright winter stars with Orion the Hunter in the center.  I always start with Sirius, the brightest, then following the loop clockwise on to Procyon, Pollux, Castor, Capella, Aldeberan, and Rigel.  The Orion Nebula, the fuzzy jewel in Orion’s dagger reminds me of the telescopic views I have seen on warmer nights, of the Trapezium in its center.  I wonder how we can take such a beautiful sky for granted.

We don’t get to see the winter sky too often here in cloudy northeastern Ohio and often don’t take advantage of it even when the sky clears.  I’m glad I went out this evening.

10%

There was a restaurant in Arkansas that offered squirrel stew. It was quite popular and was always crowded. One customer inquired of the owner how they could find so many squirrels.

“Well,” said the owner, “We do have to cut it with a little mule meat.” “But,” he said, “only 10 percent.”

“Really?” asked the customer. “I guess that’s fair.”

“Yup,” said the owner. “One mule for every 10 squirrels.”

Baxter Black – On the Edge of Common Sense

from “COOL squared”, Farm and Dairy

I don’t follow Baxter Black too closely but every so often I run across one of his columns or a radio commentary. He always seems to have his finger on the pulse of the country…

Woman from Westerville

Last Saturday evening we had a family gathering; our sons, their wives, my parents, my wife’s sister.   A belated birthday celebration and wrap-up to the holiday weekend.  After supper we were sitting around visiting when the phone rang.  It was a friend who has a propensity for meeting people, sometimes under unusual circumstances.  She wanted to know if I could fix a flat bicycle tire.  Tonight.

A woman from Westerville had a flat tire and needed help.  She had already walked the bike from Berlin, seven miles to the east of here.  Our friend had called several people who were either out of town, sick, or couldn’t do it for one reason or another.  Could I do it?  She had a new inner tube…

Several things went through my mind.  We had company.  I had eaten quite a bit for supper and, quite frankly, didn’t really feel like bending over to work on a bicycle tire.  It was dark outside, cold and damp; it was warm and bright where I was.  I can fix a bicycle tire.

OK.  I can’t come right now, but I’ll be there in an hour or so.

My sons were interested in helping, so after fifteen or twenty minutes the three of us got our coats on, put some tools and an assortment of small air compressors and hand pumps in the car and left on our service call.

When we pulled up to the house where the woman had stopped, we saw the bicycle.  Yep, the rear tire was flat.  We knocked on the door.  Our friend and the woman from Westerville came to the door.  The woman was so thankful that we had come to fix her tire.  Which we did in, more or less, short order.  There was a tiny little hole in the tube made by the tiniest little speck of glass.  We installed the new tube.  She kept the old one…she had a neighbor who would patch it for her.  We put everything back together.

She wanted to know if she could send us something…next month.  Nope.  We wished her good travels and left.  It was 8:30 in the evening.

This woman from Westerville was middle-aged…she could have been 35 or 55 or older.  She had long, unkempt gray hair and was dressed in blue jeans and a rather shabby green or turquoise coat.  She told us that her bike was fifteen years old.  She didn’t really appear to have any belongings of merit other than a few odds and ends in the basket on the handlebars.  She didn’t say why she was here on a dark, cold, Saturday night so far from home.  I suspect that she didn’t have any money to speak of.  The police had made arrangements for her to stay at the Traveler’s Rest hotel south of town…not the nicest accommodations but warm and dry.  She was going to walk her bike there to avoid hitting any more debris.  And head for Westerville at 7:00 o’clock tomorrow morning.

Safe travels, woman from Westerville…