And another week, now...VACATION!

Vacation starts tomorrow.  Two weeks at the beach.  Last weekend we went on the Duck Tours in Boston with my Brother and Sis-In-Law.  Finished with a fantastic dinner in the North End.  Some photos of the time in Boston

No Duck Tour could be complete without a set of duck lips, courtesy of my sister-in-law, unsuspecting that I am taking a photo - she should know better around me!

And of course, K got to pilot the boat.  We didn't hit anything.

We survived the trip.

One of the denizens of Boston?

Ron got to hoist the cup.  In his mind.

And helped Orr stay aloft for the grand goal.

He joined the tennis greats.

And helped the Leprechaun hold the ball

Dinner in the North End

Last stop...

Another week flew by

Well, another week has come and gone.  No venturing out to a bible study this week.  I was expecting to need to fly to Michigan in support of a customer issue all week, but never came to pass.

One more week until vacation.

I've let the KofC and the leader of Eucharistic Adoration know that I'll need to give up both activities due to class schedules this year.  I'm looking forward to the shift in focus to classes in 6-7 weeks.

Also expecting a trip to the UK in early October, right after the first class session ends.  Manchester, England for a trade show and many friends, including my former boss - who love good food as much as me.  I'm sure we'll have more than a few meals together.

Only weekend plan is duck tours with my brother, although the heat may preempt that.  We were supposed to also have dinner in the North End of Boston - we'll see.

A summary of our excursion last night

My "church hopping" mentor sent this summary of our experience last night.  I thought it was better than any summary I could have written.

I sent Tom an e-mail asking if he wanted to go to this new church in Nashua I found called "" (Pentecostal) for our Wednesday night church hopping. He agreed and we went for the 7:00pm bible study tonight. The first interesting part (yes, there are a few) of the night started as we got there. The address for the church was an Indian restaurant. A friend of mine who attends the church came by and showed us the door and said the address was the same for both units.

The songs to start off the night were ones that have the chorus sung about a dozen times again and again and again and again (you get the picture). The lead singer had a fabulous voice though and did some long winded praising when the song was done.

Tom noticed there were boxes of tissues all over the place. Funny, in the Catholic Church we have hand sanitizer all over the place and no tissues? More on this later.

Next Pastor came on and started preaching up a storm. We were studying out of the 5th chapter of John. He had us bouncing all over the bible for references. He made sure on numerous occasions that we under stood Jesus didn't come to make a religion, only relationships? One statement he made I wanted to have him explain after was "Jesus to be spiritually alive, he first had to spiritually dead". Not sure what that was about.

After the night was over, a woman came forward to talk to pastor about salvation and pastor handed her a bible. As she was leaving she said, "I didn't think I should have come being this intoxicated, but I came anyway". This with make up running down her face because of the tears. Ah, now I know why the tissues and not the hand sanitizer.

Afterwards we talked with pastor for about 20 minutes. We explained we were in a the formation to become deacons with the Catholic Church. He started in that all believers need to be born again to get to heaven. Before we could discuss this another fellow from the church came over to greet us. We explained the same thing to him. He asked pastor what was his church's take on saints. Pastor said to ask us what our take was on saints. I thought that was a weak cop-out answer. I was wondering, if he didn't know we were studying at St. A's for our formation would he have said the typical non-Catholic answer. Well, as I was thinking this, the other guy says, "well, Catholics worship saints". Ok, now hold the bus there junior, that's supposed to be pastor's response. I explained that was a misconception by a lot of non-Catholics and that would be idolatry and forbidden by the church because we only worship God. Then the other guy says, "well I'm Catholic." Oh my, this roller coaster we got on tonight is going to have to end pretty soon.

Well, I saved the best part for last. At the end of the service tonight pastor was wrapping up and just stopped and said, "God is telling me there is someone in this room with back pain". I'm looking around the place and seeing all the folks in their 40's and older and thinking, there's a good change half the room's got back pain tonight. Why didn't he just pick a topic like needing reading glasses, gravity has taken over parts of your body or hair loss? He put the first person who came forward in a chair and said one of their legs was an inch shorter than the other and commanding a healing from Jesus and said the persons legs are now even. The person got up and said the back pain is gone. Two more came and he did the same thing to them.

Tom told me on the way home tonight that I was lucky that this was the fourth time he's gone out and not the first or he may not go back. This was something right out of a Jimmy Swaggart televangelist program. Tonight will go down as one of the more memorable Wednesday night session and probably not one to be repeated. Well I'm off to worship some statues and saints before I tuck myself in for a restful night sleep.      

It bugs me...

I, like many of you, got the email and read the news that Netflix is raising prices.  I rent DVDs as well as watch the streaming video.  What I resent is them proposing this as a means to support the DVD rentals that they thought would phase out.  This is nothing more than raising revenues for shareholders.  Don't try to sugarcoat it, just say prices are going up.  I'll be scaling back my membership to maintain the same monthly fee I currently have.  So I'll do with less for the same amount of money.

It seems to me this is the same strategy of our government.  Have you noticed that the budget debate talks center around whether "revenues" will be part of the package?  And we, and the media, accept this term.  What is the "business" of the government that generates these "revenues?"  These are TAXES, not revenues.  It's not like they have created a new product that will generate new sales.  They want to TAKE more.  I guess if we use the term revenue, we won't be as inclined to feel negative about the discussion.

OK, that's my brief rant of the day...

Weekend photos

Here are a few pics from the weekend.  Don't forget to click on them to enlarge to full size:

My Brother and Sister-In-Law:

And...at long last, a pic of my daughter:

Weekends fly by...

Had C's graduation party on Saturday and also went through Mom's jewelry before the party and equally dispensed that among the children and our spouses.  Had a good time with family.  It brought to mind a few things.  First, I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but it's good to get together with family.  After your parents die, you no longer have that reason to all get together at the central meeting location with the emphasis on visiting with your parents.  Instead, I think it leaves you to life's business and you need to find the time to spend with each other.  It becomes more difficult.
Second, I pointed out to my brothers that I never envisioned a time when both our parents were not here.  Another thing that really sneaks up on you.  Suddenly, you are older and your parents are older also and poof!  they're gone.  We saw it coming in both parents - not their passing, rather just that they were getting older and their time was getting shorter.  We all noticed it in my dad, that it seemed like all at once his body had aged significantly.  I saw the same in mom, that although active, her body just started showing its age suddenly.

Sunday was more family time - had tickets to the Lowell Spinners.  It came with free food (thanks Toots!) and I used the opportunity to bring along my new Nikon and give it a try.  I still have to learn how to take advantage of the new features, but that will come with some studying.

Sunday mass was one of the very few occasions where none of us had an assigned ministry.  It was nice to reflect on the mass without the need to focus on a ministry.

This coming week looks good for work activity with a few visits planned.  Saturday brings Men of St Joseph, a Men's Ministry where I just joined the leadership team.  I have a few activities this week including leading the prayer portion.  I plan to lead everyone on Liturgy of the Hours Morning Prayer.  I was originally planning to read the day's mass reading and offer a reflection, but the gospel just didn't speak to me this week.  I'll need to find another opportunity for that since I wanted to use it as a speaking and "homily-type" experience.

Will post a few pics later today from the weekend.

Has it really been a week?

Nothing like a Blog to remind you how fast time passes.  At work in the past, we had several jobs that were late by several months.  This is not uncommon when working on complex military designs in the development phase. When asked by management how we got 6 months (or whatever the time was) behind schedule, my engineering manager would reply softly "One day at a time."  How true! We let things slide only for a day.  One day turns to two.  Before we know it a week has passed.

I got back from travel Friday.  A long weekend loomed but is now a memory.  Spent some time with my brother and his wife Monday - family time is good.  Especially when your parents are gone and you no longer have a reason to meet at that central meeting point.

This weekend is a small gathering for my son's graduation.  Too busy in June to fit in a family and friends gathering, we postponed it until now.  Still planning to travel at least once more this month - either back to NY/NJ, upstate NY or FL.  I'll fit at least one trip in and it would be good to do two.  Upstate NY may include some family accompanying me on a business trip.  August is fasts approach and that two weeks at the beach is coming up fast.  Booking that in January makes summer seem so far away.

In making sure I stay engaged spiritually this summer, I started a book Tuesday night called "What Happened at Vatican II"  We have at least one formation weekend on this topic in the fall/winter and I think a class covering this in more detail.  Regardless, it will be good to get more detail and a clearer perspective of the politics of the time and the wranglings during the council leading to the published documents.

I received our information on class times for the fall and it's clear that I'll have to give up two activities.  One is for me, which will be sad to back away from. The other is a service group and that will leave a hole.  I pray it will be filled.

I'm planning to post more personal insights over the next few months to spur some extra thinking.