What next?

When we came home this evening after having been away from home since noon, we found that our power was out. Not sure when it went off, but when I reported it, I learned that it was a very localized outage - just our road. We were going to fix supper but couldn't, of course, so we gave up on an asparagus omelette, and settled for raw veggies, cottage cheese dip, potato chips and a dessert of ice cream and rhubarb sauce. Not too bad. When we came home, we had just come from a visit to Cliff and Eliza Bergh to see if there had been any developments in their building project, and indeed there had! Forms were all in place for the foundation, and they were expecting the concrete truck to arrive any moment to pour the foundations. So we waited to see the fun! And sure enough, in about five-ten minutes, the concrete arrived! It brought back memories of almost fifty years ago (Summer, 1973) when the truck arrived at our house where I am right now, and poured our foundation. I remember how exciting that was, and I think that's the way Cliff and Eliza were feeling. Their carpemter, Mark Brown, was there, and getting the foundation in means he can get to work! The amazing thing was that those forms were not there at noon today! The workers arrived at noon and put them all in in just 4 hours or so! Cliff and Eliza didn't expect to see the concrete until Monday, but by golly, here it was! They made quick work of pouring it in and there were three workers spreading it out inside the forms. In less than an hour - it was all done!

Here it comes!

Guiding the pour

Nicely spread!

Mark Brown, Eliza and Ellen******************************** Before we went to the Bergh's, we had spent close to three hours sitting by the pond behind the Dummerston Church, talking with David and Wendy Baker, and eating our lunch. This is something we had talked about doing for some time, and we finally did it today. The Bakers live in Dummerston, and we know them primarily through the Dummerston Church choir, although for a time they came to Guilford Church and sang in the choir there. But they feel Dummerston Church feels more like family to them. So they have settled in there. They are an interesting couple. David is a violin seller and repairer. He does not make violins, but he does restore them, and he goes far and wide to find and buy both violins and fiddles, specializing in older instruments. They are both very thoughtful, and often have questions of faith they would like to discuss. Wendy has said some very kind things about me as a minister, and I think they both feel that we are "wise elders." So, there was a lot to talk about, and three hours went by pretty fast. We were so engaged that I forgot to take any pictures. I didn't even think to take out my phone when three men drove up to the pond in a truck, came out with fishing rods, and in short order had pulled 20 trout out of the pond! I didn't even know that there were trout in that pond! But that did not prove to be a big distraction. We had each brought our own lunch, but Wendy had also made rhubarb/banana bread to share (yummy!) and Ellen brought strawberries to share. David raised an interesting theological question - how does one square the preciousness of every individual creature with the seeming waste of creatures in the overabundance of life - just think, e.g., of the number of fish that have to be spawned in order to insure that even one fish survives. David also raised the example of sowing carrots and then having to weed out most of the seedlings to allow a few to grow to full size. I had to confess that I had not really spent a lot of time puzzling over this problem! But it was an interesting issue to discuss.

The Baker's house and shop in Dummerston

David Baker working in his shop******************************** Yesterday, I decided at the last minute to stay at home while Ellen went to Shutesbury to take Savanna to her chemo appointment. I really wanted to put in some time cleaning up my study - something I have procrastinated for weeks. So I stayed home and got sort of distracted by Spelling Bee, but I did put a new belt on the Hoover vacuum cleaner and got it working again, cleared out everything off the rug in my study and vacuumed the rug well - something I had not done for months, literally! It was exhausting, but a job well done, and already I feel better just being in my study. There is a great deal more to do down there, but I can do more bit by bit. So right now, we have our power back, I am in bed listening to the Celtics/Warriors game, which is hotly contested - it's a one-point lead for the Warriors at the end of the third quarter. But the fourth quarter has been good for the Celtics throughout the playoffs, so they may be able to pull out a win. If so, they would go 3-1 back to San Francisco. Life is going on apace, and who knows what will happen next?