Trip to Minnesota

So I said I'd tell a little more about the visit. I drove up on Friday. It was a fine pleasant trip listening to The Lexus and the Olive Tree, a book about globalization by Thomas Friedman. I also saw a wild turkey on county road 4 west of Rochester. Jim and Tara have got a beautiful little farm. The front yard is like a park with lots of trees, especially a huge maple that's big enough to be seven or eight normal size trees. They've got a fixer-upper house, several outbuildings, a windmill, and a scuzzy pond. One of the outbuildings is Evan's inventor's workshop which he has graciously opened to his brothers between noon and three.

It was so good to see Tara and the boys when I arrived and to meet Avery. Toby was very concerned about my owie, the big scab on my leg from my softball sliding adventure. He must have asked me forty times on Friday, "Why do you have an owie?" He asked the other days as well. He's a cute little fellow who can generate a mighty stench. Aidan trapped me in the living room by telling me it was a dungeon with traps on the doors. It took awhile before I remembered that I was strong enough to walk through his traps. I didn't get to see Evan on Friday because he was at his grandpa's so I could have the bed. Tara made delicious strombolis for supper and Jim and I talked late into the night. We spent Saturday hanging out and goofing off, playing horseballs and trackball. Eventually Evan came home and he and Jim and I drove "aimlessly" through the countryside looking for tractors. I really like the southeastern Minnesota landscape. After supper we took Evan back to his grandpa's where we talked and played pool and ping-pong. Jim won at ping pong but I managed to take at least one of the pool games.

Sunday took us to Berean for the start of a series on Ephesians and then out for lunch at Golden Corral. In the afternoon Jim and I talked while he worked on painting the house and the boys played in the sprinkler. In the process Evan developed a case of albino foot by stepping in a can of paint thinner that Jim was using to dip his primer brush. I love Jim, Tara, the boys, and Avery. I'm glad I got to go up there.

This weekend it's off to Gatlinburg and the Smokeys for a week with Mom, Dad, Lydia, Geron, and, primarily, Cora. WoooHooo!

Haiku:

On the drive home on Sunday I developed the idea of coming up with a summary haiku for each book of the Bible.

Dumb Galatians, dodge
The snip-snip. Live by faith in
Christ. You've been set free.

Happiness falters.
Man's desire is vanity.
Fear God all your days.
(Ecclesiastes, thanks to Nate's youth teaching on Wednesday)

I got through Ecclesiastes on Sunday but I didn't remember any well enough to write down besides the Galatians one.

Have a good week wherever you are.

A Few More Haiku

From the drive home from Minnesota:

Bright lights fill my eyes.
I gently tip the mirror.
Ahhh. Ocular peace.

Wild turkeys roadside,
Two hawks soar over the fields,
Birds on the prairie.

Haiku while driving.
Look up, look down, up again.
Safe driving? Folly.

A couple from my division meeting on Monday:

Weeded books abound.
Primeval reference volumes
Will soon fill dumpsters.

Caffeinated Dew
Preserving my alertness
Both blessing and curse.

Two related to current library problems:

CARLI load misstep
Where are my authorities?
Alas for headings.
(Due to a very fundamental miscommunication in our consortial load process several thousand locally created authority records weren't transferred to the new server. Hopefully they can be recovered. CARLI is the consortium we just joined.)

Call number browse failed.
Help! I'm in the Z's not B's.
Cat. Staff search needs help.
(The call number search in our staff modules got broken during the switch to CARLI as well. You can search for a specific number but you can't browse a range.)

Trip and Haiku

I drove up to Minnesota to the Kluth farm on Friday and came back last night. It was great fun on which I hope to report later.

Y'all might remember that I wrote about a character from the book Cryptonomicon back in May. Another character in that book was Bobby Shaftoe, a U.S. marine in the Pacific theatre during WWII. Bobby Shaftoe had a Japanese friend from before the war and liked to make up haiku. I got to thinking maybe I could too. I made a couple on my way to Minnesota:

Rest stop in 1 mile
Next rest stop 21 miles
Maybe I should pee.

Look! Outback Steakhouse
Bloomin' Onion, sirloin, beer.
Wish I had money
(or, Would that I had time)

I made a bunch on the way home including these:

Boys play in sprinkler
I watch while Jim primes for paint
Tara reads in peace

Horseballs hang on rack
We chat in adirondacks
cooled by pleasant breeze

Ephesians sermon
In praise of glorious grace
Calls us to praise God

There were others that I'll put up sometime.

June's Gone

I enjoyed June. It was a good month. The weather wasn't too bad. I got to travel. I got to work, eat, hang out with friends and do other stuff. I went to Philadelphia on June 13th for the American Theological Library Association annual conference with my friend and boss, Matt. We did some quick sight seeing on Wednesday night, seeing the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. On Thursday I attended worship at a beautiful old Episcopal church, heard an address on Calling, and attended various educational sessions. Thursday night we got together with our friend and former coworker Stephanie and one of her staff members for dinner. It was a good time of catching up, reminiscing and meeting Stephanie's baby. On Friday I heard about the training of Muslim chaplains at a historically Christian seminary, attended more educational sessions and saw the Phillies get blown out by the Tigers. Saturday saw more education before flying home. The following weekend I flew down to Nashville to meet Mr. and Mrs. Aluru who are visiting from India. I also saw Mom and Dad, and of course, Ann and Daniel. They fed me an astonishing amount of good Indian food and are very nice and friendly people. We also watched a fun Bollywood musical. The rest of the month has been full with youth group meetings, LIFEgroup events, including a fun outing to a Reggae/Calypso concert at Independence Grove in Libertyville, LIFEgroup leadership events, and other stuff. I finally finished the Cryptonomicon and Steve and I are making steady progress through the first season of Battlestar Galactica on DVD. I've played a lot of softball and I hope I can say I'm getting better, though my sliding technique needs definite work it won't get. My friends John and Sarah had a great wedding to end the month. On a sad note, my favorite wrestler murdered his wife and son before committing suicide last weekend.
July has now started. I'm looking forward to travelling to Minnesota and Tennessee and spending time with family and friends. There will also be more softball and the TIU staff volleyball tournament, so July should be as full and as fun as June.