Away

Tomorrow afternoon I am going to get in my car and start driving. I will be away from the parish for two weeks. It's been over a year since I was away for more than five days, so I can't remember what it feels like. I am happy that I was able to find enough priests to cover Masses in English and Spanish, Baptisms, Holy Hours, and Confessions -- it takes five priests to replace me for two weeks. If I left for a year it would take, let's see, five times twenty-six is...
I haven't packed yet, but I did get out this morning to purchase four new tires for my car, which just turned 101,000 miles old.
Here is a nostalgic picture of the tire place, a no frills joint on South High Street. They don't provide free coffee or magazines to read, but they do offer quick service at quite reasonable prices.

Convent Chapel Progress

Yesterday we were blessed with a fine crew of volunteers who worked on the convent chapel. In these photos, you can see old door and window openings being filled in to accommodate new doors and windows. The cedar siding was recycled from an interior wall that used to be an exterior wall. You will also see the truncating of a standard door to make it fit a non-standard opening. Some of you will have to stoop before entering the chapel. It's good for you.

The Rudder that Went for a Swim

At the very end of September, when Lake Erie sailors are facing up to the reality that it is time to remove the boat from the water, came a sustained and mighty wind out of the west. The waters around Port Clinton are not that deep to begin with, and the wind pushed a lot of the more useful water down to the other end of the lake (and we hope they appreciated it) causing the water level to drop 5 or 6 feet. Coincidentally, that's just about exactly how deep the water normally is where Vidi Aquam is docked. You do the math.
VA, secure at her mooring, moved neither to the left nor to the right. She just moved straight down. One of the dock owners went to look things over and found VA looking pretty, but somewhat abbreviated. Her rudder was gone. Either floated off its pintles or bumped off. I was not too upset when I got the phone call, as I had been thinking of buying a new, more aerodynamic rudder -- and then I found out what new ones cost. That sobered me up a bit. Then, two days after the initial call, came another informing me that the lost rudder had washed up at a neighboring dock. The photo shows the wandering rudder next to my garage door, which gives you a scale. It is about six feet high and weighs about 35 pounds (.024 hectares). It could use a wash and brush-up sometime before April.

Conehead (not from France)

Last week something or someone bit Mr Martin in the hind leg. The marks of two incisors are still visible. To prevent him from licking the wound, he has been fitted with a protective cone around his neck and forbidden to go outside. He is not happy about this. CONTEST: Caption this photo!

Cradling Chrstianity

Last Thursday I was invited to a fund-raising event at a suburban parish. "Cradling Christianity" seeks to raise awareness and funds to support Christians living the Holy Land. Thousands of Christians travel to the Holy land every year, pumping millions of dollars into the local economies. At the same time, the countries that receive tourist dollars from Christians are making it very difficult for Christians to live there. Here is an excerpt from one story about this problem:

Lamenting the effects of Israel’s security wall upon the Palestinian Christian communion, Patriarch Fouad Twal, Archbishop of Jerusalem, predicted that the number of Christians would dwindle from 10,000 today to 5,000 in 2016 because of emigration fostered by Israel’s security wall.

The wall has “enclosed many Palestinians in ghetto-like areas where access to work, medical care, schooling and other basic services have been badly affected,” he said. “We have a new generation of Christians who cannot visit the holy places of their faith that are only a few kilometers from their place of residence.”

At the event, Father Peter Vasko, President of the Franciscan Foundation for the Holy Land, exhorted us to support our fellow Christians especially through enabling higher education.

Labor Day on Lake Erie: Leisure and Loss

Up on the lake, Labor Day is traditionally considered the end of the sailing season. Yet September is a great month for sailing. Not too hot. Wind. Beautiful fall foliage along the shore. Less crowded. All that. Labor Day itself can be depressing. Around 4 in the afternoon Port Clinton looks deserted, as if the Ohio National Guard at Camp Perry had lobbed a neutron bomb into downtown. The overcast skies contributed to the mood. Light and variable winds boxed the compass. Forewarned by previous experience I returned to port early (the wind picked up as I headed back) and left town before total depression set in. Back to Columbus in time to help with computer setup in the convent.

O.K.

Last month, cat #2, Pongo, took sick and died. One Saturday morning he came to the back door, moving slowly as if in pain, entered the house, looked at me and let out a slow cry, and slunk off upstairs to hide. I might have to take him to the vet on Monday, I thought. He went out Sunday night and on Monday morning I found him stretched out on the back lawn. Gone. There was no time to mourn as we were working full-bore on the convent renovation.

A few days later, I heard a powerful scratching at the back door and looked out to see another cat. For two days he beat on the back door and jumped up onto outside window sills, staring wildly through the glass. I gave up. Now he lives here. Mr. Martin, the original cat of the house, affects not to see him. The newcomer has been named Other Kat. O.K. for short.