A good late fall day

Today I actually got some chores done. I stored all the deck furniture in our little shed, which took a little re-arranging. I also started to buck up an ash tree that rotted at its base and fell over right near the driveway. It has a lot of good wood in it. Ellen finished her curtains for Tamar's and Mimi's bedrooms in the new house, after a lot of frustration getting them to size up correctly, and took them to Northhampton. I arranged for Calvin to pick me up to take me to a Hallowell sing at a service at the local Catholic Church, a mass for children who died this year. Ellen met us there. We have sung at this service several years, but this time it had special meaning for me.

    Late fall at 194 Prospect View Drive

          St. Michael's RC Church

Ellen and I had a concert choir rehearsal right after this service and we made it right on time. Now we are home listening  to the World Series. The Cubs have led the entire game but the Indians have just tied it 6-6 in the 8th! Horrors! 

Rubber legs

Last night, during the night, I got up to pee and my legs had turned to rubber. I could barely walk at all. I went on-line and entered "legs turned suddenly to rubber" and learned that this is a common symptom of anxiety and stress! I had never heard of this. It described very accurately what I had experienced and said it was common for people who experience this to think they have some dread disease, like ALS or something. That's exactly what I thought. I was relieved to learn it was anxiety. I went back to sleep and this morning my legs are functioning fine. How weird! I wonder, with all the anxiety over this upcoming election, how many rubber-legged people there are out there?

Boundaries

The Boundary workshop was good. It was very different from earlier ones I've attended. This one focused on the issue of pastoral burnout - setting boundaries that make it possible to keep on serving a congregation without being totally used up, getting sick, neglecting one's family, etc. It took a "systems" approach to the relation between pastor and congregation - everything is interrelated. I.e., you can't address the issue of pastoral burnout just by working with pastors. You have to look at the total picture.

There were about 50 people there, of which I knew maybe 10-12. I did see some folks I haven't seen for a long time.

Ellen found a nice coffee shop and the public library as a place to hang out. We got back in plenty of time for me to get to my bass section rehearsal, which also went well.  Then I went to the pool. A good full day.

Full 24 hours!

Yesterday evening we drove down to Katie and Savanna's for supper and then watched the World Series. We were rooting for the Cubs, but they lost 7-2.

Brendon is behind that balloon. He's going to be in a production of Oliver later this month.

We got home about midnight, then got up early for a Dummerston choir rehearsal at 8:15a.m. The choir sounded great this morning. We hung around the church talking, then at noon went across the street to watch the Green Mountain Mummers do their Morris dancing and mummer's play - a very old death and resurrection tradition which is slapstick funny and mock-serious. 

Morris Dancers/mummers raise the star they just formed with their swords.

"Dr. Trump," a charlaton, trying to raise from the dead a "corpse" buried in the leaves, part of the mummers' play.

Then we dashed to Kathy and Tom's yurt for poetry group - we hadn't been for months and months. The theme today was "listening." Lots of good poems. Then we dashed from there back to the Latchis Theater to watch films on climate change, followed by discussion. One of the films was The wisdom to survive, featuring Roger Payne, Gus Speth and Eugene Friesen, among others. We collected emails of people interested in John's workshop coming up on Nov. 19th on Contemporary Spirituality and the Whole Movement of Life, then went next door to the Coop where there is WiFi and sent them all posters. We got a quick bite to eat and came back to the Latchis for Ron Howard's new film about the Beatles. Nancy Tierra joined us for that. That was fun. Then on the way out we moved against a stream of people coming in for a special showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, many of them in costume. 

Lining up for the Rocky Horror film

All that in 24 hours. Tomorrow we get up early to drive to Randolph, VT (about 100 minutes away) for Boundary Training for clergy, something I have to do to keep good standing as an ordained minister. Tomorrow evening I'll have a Bass Section rehearsal for the Brahms Requiem. Whew!!

John Roberts

We're at a concert!

John Roberts is a British folk singer who has been singing for 55 years! He has long been associated with Tony Barrand in the group Noel Sing We Clear and also as a duo. He has what appears to be an infinite number of ballads and songs in his memory and he shared many of them tonight in a "house concert" at the home of Robin and Andy Davis. He accompanied himself on the concertina and also the banjo. About 30 people were there. It was delightful in every way! Robin had prepared a wonderful spread of yummy cookies and other confections, including some date-nut bread to die for. I brought some home. 

Oh no! Snow!

Well, I wasn't really expecting snow this evening. I had a choir rehearsal scheduled and I have just cancelled it because the roads are very slick. Ellen is in Bennington and was planning on driving home later tonight, but I think I've convinced her to stay there tonight. She is with Mary Anderson who had surgery on Tuesday and needed someone with her after she came home and Ellen offered  to stay with her. Mary's sister arrives tonight so Ellen could come home, but I think it will be prudent for her to stay even though she has to sleep on the couch. It's supposed to turn to rain after midnight so it may be all washed away by tomorrow. 

Vivid color at vivid reports

Today is a gorgeous day here. It is very mild and sunny, and the color is still brilliant, even though many leaves have fallen. The view off our deck is more open this fall, since clearing out the white pines last year, and it is lovely. The red oaks, which are the last to turn color, have started to turn.

      View off the deck

          The oaks are turning. 

Monday, we went to OSHER lectures on Humanism and Education in the a.m., and Islamic architecture in the p.m. Both very interesting. We took a walk during the lunch break and were treated to more color. 

        On our walk . . .

        . . . and walk . . . 

              . . . and walk.