A very nice day at home.

Today was a "blank day" - i.e., no appointments. I slept well, got up late, came out to my chair, had my "fave" breakfast, did the spelling bee puzzle, checked email, just enjoyed "futzing around" on the net. I did my exercises while Ellen went to the store, Andy came by to check out the shower measurements. Now it's time for the PBS Newshour and supper. An enjoyable day.

My usual breakfast.

The big day approaches!

i can't quite wrap my head around the fact that almost a full year has gone by since my big 91st birthday party at the Guilford Church. I'll be 92 in just 3 days! No big party this year. A small gathering here at the house on Saturday. That's fine. Will there be a 93? We'll see! Not impossible! Meanwhile, it's River Singers, Hallowell Rehearsal, Retired Clergy, a Deacon's Dinner at the Dummerston Church, TarHeels on the radio, looking out at falling snow, listening to Ellen read Huck Finn, PBS Newshour, Peter Falion and Andy Davis staying with me on Wednesdays, exploring making the upstairs shower safer, etc. I'm reading about the early history of the Syrian church after learning that Cynthia has ancestral roots in Syria. It's a chaotic history that is not familiar to me. Which makes for interesting reading.

At a Hallowell rehearsal; Mike Mayer standing. *********

Town Meeting is next Tuesday. Sugaring should start soon. Spring is only 22 days away!

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine

Ellen and I are doing Bible Study together. Many readers of this blog will remember that last year I led at the Guilford Church a Bible Study on the Parables of Jesus. I am continuing this with Ellen here at home, but the lecturer is not me, it is Dr. Amy Jill Levine, who is a Jewish scholar who has specialized in New Testament studies, and especially the figure and teachings of Jesus. She has encountered a lot of implicit anti-Semitism in Christian New Testament scholarship, and she seeks to overcome that in her work. She Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, and has also taught at Vanderbilt Theological Seminary and Swarthmore College. She has developed a course on the internet, through Bart Ehrmann. Here is an overview: "Hello and welcome to "The Parables of Jesus: Jewish Insights into Gospel Ethics, Humor, and Provocation," by Dr. Amy-Jill Levine This course consists of four lessons with Dr. Levine as your instructor. Each lesson spans from 50 to 60 minutes, accompanied by two extensive Q&A sessions. Parables have lost their punch: they have become axioms about aiding ("Good Samaritan"), assurances of forgiveness ("Prodigal Son"), promises of grace (“Vineyard Laborers”), and exhortations to pray (“Widow and Judge”). While these are credible readings, they often promote complacency and rarely prompt ethics. Worse, stripped of historical context, they become hosts for antisemitic interpretation. First-century Jews knew that parables were not platitudes: they challenged, provoked, and engaged the mind as well as the heart. In this course, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine will cover the following pertinent topics: The parable of the man with two sons (the 'Prodigal Son') The parable of the man attacked by robbers (the 'Good Samaritan') The parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Equal Pay for Unequal Work) The parable of the widow and the Judge An introduction to the study of parables. Insights into the parables of the Pearl of Great Price, the Sower, the Leaven, the Mustard Seed, the Dishonest Steward, and others that depict enslaved individuals. Dr. Levine will examine these parables within their Jewish contexts, review previous scholarship, and address ethical and pastoral questions they raise, highlighting both their humor and their depth. She will address questions such as: (1) How might the first hearers of the parables, who had no knowledge of Jesus's death, have understood them? (2) How did the Evangelists initially interpret the parables, and what were the benefits and drawbacks of their interpretations? (3) How did antisemitic interpretations of the parables develop, and how can they be corrected? (4) While many see the parables as focusing on salvation or Christology, what insights do they offer about economics, ethics, insiders and outsiders, and the roles of the enslaved and the enslavers? (5) How do the parables help us understand the social roles of first-century Jewish women?"

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine. ******************* Dr. Levine talks pretty fast, and it can be had to follow all her humerous little asides, of which there are many. Fortunately, when you play the video of her lecture, you can slow down her speech without changing the pitch of her voice. Amazing! We are both enjoying hearing her lectures and talking about them.

Valentine’s Day treat

Yesterday was sunny but cold: a good day to get out and drive up to Grandma Miller's bakery. I did not plan to get out of the car, so I dressed casually and comfortably. They still had chocolate eclairs and that was our special treat for the day, plus morninglory muffins for the future. Yum!

Ellen coming out of GMB with eclairs, muffins and coffee. ******

This evening I listened to the Heels play Syracuse. it was a must-win game if the Heels have any hope of getting into the NCAA tournament. They pulled out a 6-point win, 88-82. The game was tied with just a couple of minutes of play remaining. Whew! Fingers crossed!

More snow coming!

There is a forecast of up to two feet of snow this weekend. I've been worrying about the weight of snow on the deck. We havn't been shoveling it, and we already had over 18 inches. 3 1/2 feet of wet snow would weigh a lot. A deck collapse would be catastrophic! So I asked Zach to come up and shovel it. He came, but he brought his snowblower! That made quick work of the job! He brought Riley too. Riley is getting big! So that is a weight not only off the deck, but off my mind!

Zach snowblowing the deck with Riley. We usually put away deck chairs and tables for the winter, but not this year. Zach had to clear them out of the way of the bloŵer. Same for the Christmas tree, which we put out on the deck only about a week ago.

Zach with the Honda blower. It seems to work very well. It has caterpillar tracks and seems to be able to crawl through just about anything.

Riley. Zach has taken Riley with him on jobs since he was a baby. He would plow with Riley curled up in his lap. Pretty neat!******************************* The storm will carry into Sunday morning, so no in-person church this Sunday. They are doing a zoom church service in Guilford, but all from people's homes. They will probably use videos of virtual choirs for hymns and anthems. The church has quite an archive of them on YouTube from the COVID pandemic era.

We’ve got snow!

This winter is proving to be much colder and snowier than last winter. Yesterday, both Dummerston and Guilford called off church because of snow. We did not go to either the Bergh's or Katie's for the Super Bowl for the same reason. We're just staying at home. But it's snowing so often we're home a lot. Especially me. Which is fine in a way, but it is confining. I have two doctor's appointments this week, plus other things. We'll see!

Our snowy deck. We don't usually leave tables and chairs on the deck over the winter, but this year we did. There are sort of cute cones of snow piled up on the tables.

Not the easiest of times!

My last post was made 12 days ago on January 27th. That happens to have been the day I went to the dentist - a new dentist, as it happens. About 3 weeks ago, I was experiencng some pain in my lower left jaw, and I called my usual dentist's office to make an appointment, and I learned that they were no longer in the network of providers of my dental insurance (no explanation as to why). Thus, I would have to pay out of my own pocket for anything they did for me. That was sort of a blow. I immediately contacted my insurance company and got a list of dentists locally still in their network. They were mostly all part of a large dental office called Aspen Dental, which I think is sort of a chain. Not my first choice, but I didn't see any good alternatives. So I looked over the list and landed on a woman, Dr. Kumar. I like my PCP, Dr. Van Dyck, a woman, why not a woman dentist? I called Aspen Dental and got an appointment with Dr. Kumar, which was schedueled for January 27th. She had X-rays taken, and they revealed a cavity in a crowned molar in my lower left jaw, a cavity that was very close to the nerve in the root. She recommended an extraction, which I agreed to - I see no point in putting hundreds (thousands?) of dollars into my teeth at this stage of my life. So the extraction was scheduled for Feb. 3rd -last Monday - at 9 a.m. It was done by a man - someone who specializes in extractions - and it was done in a matter of a few minutes. My jaw was numbed with novacaine, so it was essentially a painless extraction. Amazingly, I had no pain after the novacaine wore off. There was quite a bit of bleeding for the rest of the day, but I had several pages of instructions for post-operative care which we followed carefully, and gradually the bleeding slowed down and finally stopped. I am still eating only fluids and soft foods, and regularly rinsing with warm salt water. It isn't fun, but it hasn't been too bad either. I had not gone to the start-up of River Singers, which was the next night after my firat appointment, because I just felt sort of out-of-it, and I didn't go on Feb. 4th either (the day after the extraction), so I have missed two rehearsals, which I think exhausts the allowable number. I'm hoping I will feel up for going next Tuesday!

Aspen Dental in Brattleboro. I don't see Dr. Kumar in this group, but that is the right building in the background. ******************* Wednesday, Jan. 29th, there was a memorial service for Al Franklin at the Guilford Commmunity Church which I normally would have gone to and sung in the choir. But under the circumstances, I stayed home and wrote a note to his daughter, Carolyn and her husband, Kevin (Kingsley), explaining my absence. Al died just short of his 90th birthday - he was just a couple of years younger than I am. He was active in the Guilford Church all the years I have been connected with it. He was also active in the Grange, and was even president of the Vermont State Grange. His daughter and her family were also very involved in the church - Carolyn's daughter, Anne Kingsley was president of the youth group, and Anne's brother, Josh, did a lot of video camera work for the church, including filming Shirley's ordination service. Carolyn and Kevin and their family lived in Guilford for years, ran a goat farm, and made goat cheese. They are now living in Pittsford, VT and Al was living with them at the time of his death. While he was living with them, they came down to services at Guilford fairly often, and it was always good to see Al. He was a naturally outgoing person.

Alfred W. Franklin (1935-2025)********************** Thursday (1/30), I did get to the Retired Clergy gathering at the Dummerston Church, and we continued our discussion of Aging with Wisdom and Grace. This was a particularly good session because we all shared something of our thoughts and feelings about how we would like to die. After the clergy, Ellen and I hung out at the church for Tea and Talk, which is open to anyone just to drink some tea and visit. But this time, we watched a "Christian" movie: The Resurrection of Gavin Stone. , which was about a man who goes through a moral transformation for the better when he is recruited to play the role of Jesus in an evangelical church theater producion. There were about ten of us there to watch it, and it was enjoyable. Friday was a quiet day at home, and Saturday we went to Cliff and ELiza Bergh"s for supper and to watch the Tar Heels play Duke in basketball - their arch-rival. It was my first chance to see the Heels play - up to now I've listened to all the games on the radio. It was sort of hard to watch - Duke slautered them. Duke was ahead by as much as 32 points at one point, led the whole game and ended up with a final score of 87-70. Duke had a player that the Heels had no answer for. I hope my finally watching them didn't jinx them! (Betsey used to think that when she watched a game it jinxed them, and actually would record games and watch them later just to make sure she didn't!). Sunday we watched church on Zoom, and then Monday morning was the extraction. I haven't done too much since then, although on Wednesday, a guy from Vista Home Improvement, who I learned about online and set up an appointment with, drove over from Albany, NY to make an estimate on doing a tub/walk-in shower conversion. Showering is a problem for me now in terms of safety and balance, and I was curious. I thought it might cost about $3000-4000, but he quoted three prices: $18,000 if we said "yes" that day, $20,000 if we did it within 30 days, and $22,000 if we did it within a year! Yikes! So forget that! Andy Davis was here with me when he came - Ellen had errands to do - and I was glad he was here. That was my first experience with on-line sales like that. Maybe my last! I was expecting to lead the choir in Dummerston this weekend, but heavy snow is forecast for tonight and tomorrow, so we have cancelled choir. So, no rehearsal last evening and no going out to church tomorrow. Probably just as well. I think by Tuesday, I'll feel good enough to finally go out and get to River Singers. I'll listen to the Heels play Pittsburg later this afternoon, and Monday they will play Clemson, a quick turn-around. I hope they can pull themselves together after the Duke loss. A little side-note: Cliff Bergh lent us a book about Bill Bradley, an outstanding basketball player for Princeton back in the 1970's. It's a fun book, and Ellen has been reading it aloud to help me get to sleep. It works! But I've also learned from it (while I'm still awake!) Bradley later served in the Senate, from New Jersey, and even ran for President. He was quite the guy! And one of the best basketball players ever, I guess.