Back at it on Monday afternoon
Saturday turned out well: G and I went to the David Davis mansion around the middle of the day and attended a free concert of Civil War era brass band music played by the 33rd Illinois Volunteer band, which re-creates an actual band that was in existence for a year at the beginning of the war (the Federal government, wanting to save money, stopped supporting the bands although apparently quite a few remained in existence apparently because the enlisted men an their officers supported them). This group uses actual historic brass instruments from the era, but their drums are recreations since the real ones, being made with wood, which does not hold up nearly as well as brass, disintegrated long since. There was also a group of dancers, mostly middle-aged people, in costume, who do the dances of the period, which happily don't look all that difficult, being either waltzes or something that looks like a more decorous version of square dancing. We enjoyed watching, listening and learning considerably more than we'd known previously about the music of the era. It seems that General Sherman lived to dislike "Marching Through Georgia" - he had to listen to it 200 times on one occasion after the war when that many bands paraded past him, each one playing the same tune; after which he was heard to say that he wished he'd marched around, not through, Georgia.
In the evening, we went to JBD's 49.75 birthday party, held at the Sugar Grove Nature Center - lots of fun, with hot dogs and brats to roast, and other picnic-cookout type food, and good company, including quite a few from the Stitch-In Club.
Yesterday morning another candidate for the position of rector at St. Matthew's. This one is somewhat older than the last, and has children in their 20's, also an ex-wife with whom he claims to be on good terms. He seems very sincere and willing to help people and work with a congregation. I don't envy any rector's situation, as this man put it, of being in middle management, between the bishop and his congregation. How all the mess in the church will shake out is anyone's guess. G has been reading Frank Kirkpatrick's book on the current situation, and points out that Frank discovered and relates a number of justifications for slavery written by good churchmen of the pre-Civil War era - so who knows, indeed?
In the afternoon I prosecuted the housework - boring! Today back to the work week routine, with a lot of time spent reminding students to stick to academic work between 10 AM and 2 PM, and to pull the signs down when they leave computers - oh, such an onerous task!
I've got G and me on the bus to Indianapolis on October 10; Community Ed is sponsoring a trip to see two special exhibits, the Tutankhamen treasures at the Children's Museum, and then one on Spanish art at the city's art museum later in the day. While I don't look forward to sitting on a bus for three hours - plus or minus - I know we wouldn't get it together to drive there for a day's museum-going, either, so this way we can leave the driving to someone else and enjoy the exhibits.
I've had no word from the church wardens about my objection to the notice about the Life Chain event. SC told me that the new secretary got it in an e-mail message and just inserted it without reading the text since it was going to all the churches in the area. I can't help wondering whether I will get any feedback from the wardens. It's not as if they don't have more important matters to attend to (I'm glad I don't have to wrestle with finding a new rector, and admire those who have the stomach for the job) - but I would also like to think they're paying attention to the concerns of the congregation.
So far, no fallout from my little encounter with the librarian who, on Friday afternoon, referred to me as a "lab monitor." My position is certainly not a prestigious one, but I am, by God, not a "lab monitor," and will take issue with anyone who designates me as such. I should add that on Saturday, between the concert and the party, while at Meijer, I ran into a CU who thanked me enthusiastically for all the help he received from the lab when he was looking for a job, which he found - and a good one, it is, too, at ISU. I just hope that at least occasionally word of this sort of thing reaches PS. Sometimes I think the only feedback he ever gets about this place is negative.
This evening the Stitch-In Club is going to eat out because it's the last Monday of the month; I'm looking forward to it very much. For a long time I didn't care to go so much because The Mouth irritated me, but lately that's fallen off, so it's more pleasant than it was for a while there.
In the evening, we went to JBD's 49.75 birthday party, held at the Sugar Grove Nature Center - lots of fun, with hot dogs and brats to roast, and other picnic-cookout type food, and good company, including quite a few from the Stitch-In Club.
Yesterday morning another candidate for the position of rector at St. Matthew's. This one is somewhat older than the last, and has children in their 20's, also an ex-wife with whom he claims to be on good terms. He seems very sincere and willing to help people and work with a congregation. I don't envy any rector's situation, as this man put it, of being in middle management, between the bishop and his congregation. How all the mess in the church will shake out is anyone's guess. G has been reading Frank Kirkpatrick's book on the current situation, and points out that Frank discovered and relates a number of justifications for slavery written by good churchmen of the pre-Civil War era - so who knows, indeed?
In the afternoon I prosecuted the housework - boring! Today back to the work week routine, with a lot of time spent reminding students to stick to academic work between 10 AM and 2 PM, and to pull the signs down when they leave computers - oh, such an onerous task!
I've got G and me on the bus to Indianapolis on October 10; Community Ed is sponsoring a trip to see two special exhibits, the Tutankhamen treasures at the Children's Museum, and then one on Spanish art at the city's art museum later in the day. While I don't look forward to sitting on a bus for three hours - plus or minus - I know we wouldn't get it together to drive there for a day's museum-going, either, so this way we can leave the driving to someone else and enjoy the exhibits.
I've had no word from the church wardens about my objection to the notice about the Life Chain event. SC told me that the new secretary got it in an e-mail message and just inserted it without reading the text since it was going to all the churches in the area. I can't help wondering whether I will get any feedback from the wardens. It's not as if they don't have more important matters to attend to (I'm glad I don't have to wrestle with finding a new rector, and admire those who have the stomach for the job) - but I would also like to think they're paying attention to the concerns of the congregation.
So far, no fallout from my little encounter with the librarian who, on Friday afternoon, referred to me as a "lab monitor." My position is certainly not a prestigious one, but I am, by God, not a "lab monitor," and will take issue with anyone who designates me as such. I should add that on Saturday, between the concert and the party, while at Meijer, I ran into a CU who thanked me enthusiastically for all the help he received from the lab when he was looking for a job, which he found - and a good one, it is, too, at ISU. I just hope that at least occasionally word of this sort of thing reaches PS. Sometimes I think the only feedback he ever gets about this place is negative.
This evening the Stitch-In Club is going to eat out because it's the last Monday of the month; I'm looking forward to it very much. For a long time I didn't care to go so much because The Mouth irritated me, but lately that's fallen off, so it's more pleasant than it was for a while there.