The Arrow's Path

It's still snowing here in Brookings, but thankfully its not blizzard conditions. We will probably get 4 to 6 inches and not the 6 to 11+ they were predicting last night. For my readers out of state (and out of the country), if you want to know what the weather is in Brookings and South Dakota, the Brookings Ham Radio club has a website that has massive weather data that can be found here . It's hooked up to the Elmer and all sorts of weather Doppler. Luckily, I don't have TV so I won't get interrupted every 2 seconds with weather updates telling me the obvious.

My wife and I and the visiting in-laws went out to dinner about 6 on Friday evening. We came back to discover a strange delivery to the church. By the front door, there were two flats of baby cabbage plants. At first when I had driven by, I was afraid the palms for Palm Sunday had been delivered too early, so I ran over to check. Nope...cabbages. 48 of them to be exact. I called around to various parishioners trying to ascertain why cabbages would have been delivered to the church. No one had any idea. Its still at least a month and half away from planting season. One parishioner called me back later in the evening and said when he was out walking around the neighborhood, he noticed the Presbyterian church had also been gifted with 2 flats of cabbages. So, whoever the mystery cabbage giver was, he or she was at least ecumenical in the cabbage giving goodness. No one ever fessed up to it. On Sunday morning after I had announced at Mass that there would be free ecumenical cabbages for th...

The SDSU women played a heck of a game in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament, leading most of it. They just could not quite pull it out in the end. It was a great game to listen to on the radio though. Both teams had hot and cold spells, and it was within 2 point for the last 5 minutes. I really thought they were going to beat the Big XII champs...but, alas, just a heart breaker. You do have to remember though that this was the first year of Division I tournament eligibility for the Lady Jackrabbits. Just missing the Sweet 16 is not too shabby. Ah well, maybe next year. Congrats on a fantastic season just the same...

for winning the first round game in the NCAA Tournament by sinking 3's like nobody's business.

This YouTube video has been circulating around some of the Anglican blogs in England. The subtitles are in French, but its a very interesting transformation of a stone free standing altar to an liturgical east facing one. Watch this and see what you think...

I have for some years always been interested in radio. I started collecting old time radio shows like the Shadow and Sherlock Holmes when I was in middle school on cassette tapes you could buy at Cracker Barrel or wherever. When I got older and the internet and MP3 technology became accessible, I began collecting radio shows in MP3 form to the point of thousands of shows. I worked on radio a bit in college and even built a small radio from a kit. I have just always been fascinated with radio technology. I was always saddened that they stopped making quality radios. If you look at some place like www.ra dioattic.com, the beautiful woodworking of older radios from the 40s and 50s were incredible. I decided with my new office that I was going to get a vintage looking radio. I found this modern affectation, a remake of a aviator dial "coffin style" Crosley radio with a CD player on ebay. What's neat is that you can get the short range FM radio broadcaster like I have pictured...

I don't have an attention deficit disorder-hey, it's a squirrel!!!!

There is a great editorial piece from the Church Times about the radical decline of religious life in the Anglican church . As a person who considered for a time a call to the religious life and loves spending retreats at monasteries , I am saddened by this article, though I know it is very true. Read it and see what you think...

Brookings, South Dakota, is home to South Dakota State University. Their mascot is the Jackrabbits. Say what you want, but its a great mascot in terms of originality. SDSU just recently moved up to Division I from Division II. Before the move up, apparently the Jackrabbit logo (seen to the left) with its affinity to Bugs Bunny was not apparently mean enough looking for Division I. Needing something meaner looking (and to avoid copyright infringement to Time Warner), the SDSU folks hired some big design firm in New York to come up with a Jackrabbit. Apparently, no one from the firm bothered to go out to the plains or google search what a real Jackrabbit looked like, and so all the designs they came up with just looked like a bunny. SDSU finally hired a local guy to come up with the following logo seen below. It was meaner looking, which makes sense if you have ever seen a real jackrabbit. Its bigger than a raccoon. It is like a big hare on steroids. I bring this up because the SDSU Jack...

Let me paint the scene. This time last week we had snow, and it goes down to -5 one night. Fast forward one week... It's 65 degrees today. I was walking around this afternoon outside without a coat on. Most of the snow has melted, except for those huge piles of snow-turned-ice-glaciers in parking lots that won't melt until sometime in June. I won't to say its almost spring, but being this far north, you are probably in for disappointment. I am told by residents that it is not that uncommon to have a freak blizzard in late March or April. Given this extremely long South Dakota winter, I am going to view this freak springtime like a cast. What do I mean by that? Well, if you have ever had a broken bone and had to wear a cast, you will know what I mean. As a connoisseur in my younger days of broken bones, let me just say that when you go for a checkup, just assume the doctor is going to put another cast on. There is nothing worse that thinking you will finally get your cast of...

I have discovered that in South Dakota, in lieu of spring, there is another season: Mud Season. Considering it was -5 degrees F a few days ago, it seriously felt like a heat wave today, as it was about 40. The snow was melting like crazy. We still have a good bit, but at least I am seeing some patches of grass. The ground is still frozen, however, and thus the melted snow does not really go anywhere. It just changes form, into water and mud puddles. Then at night it will freeze and turn into muddy ice slicks. Needless to say, the dog is getting many more baths, which does not thrill him. The price you pay for a good mud romp I suppose.

The Brookings Register, the local newspaper, ran a story on some of the woodworking we have at the Parish church. I scanned the article, so you should be able to click on each page to read it. I think it was pretty good publicity, as we have had more than one person come by the church to look at it. I apologize for the fuzziness of some of the text. My scanner/printer is on the fritz and works when it wants to. After (badly) scanning these two articles, the printer/scanner decided unilaterally that it must be 5 o'clock somewhere. Here is my picture of the pulpit, which the front page article has a close up of. Actually it's the Epistle stand that is also used as a pulpit, as we don't have a pulpit proper.

I am told tomorrow's little mid-week snow storm could contain "blizzard conditions." Unfortunately, that's not a Dairy Queen Blizzard, although getting to call a snow day on account of M&M's and Reese's Pieces could have been fun. Unfortunately, the blizzard is the real deal. 4 to 8 inches of snow, wind. Oh yeah...I'm in South Dakota. It is not supposed to come until tomorrow but its already dark and misty, which will probably mean a nasty slick of ice under the blizzard goodness. Luckily, its supposed to be up above freezing again by the end of the week, which means Mud Season is on the way. In any event, tomorrow might be sermon day instead of office meetings. We shall see.

Here's one for you. My first official Sunday service at St. Paul's was on the first Sunday of the month. The main altar is right about the kitchen in the undercroft. Turns out the first Sunday, they also have a breakfast/brunch for after church. So they made pancakes, eggs, and bacon. Of course, the whole service, being right above the kitchen, we could smell the bacon. I, of course, love bacon. So the entire service, I was smelling bacon. The Lord be with you! And also with bacon you!

I still haven't gotten cable TV hooked up yet in my new digs. I actually went by the cable TV place and got a price quote. I did not bother to make an appointment at the time for the Cable Guy to come out and hook me up to the tube. And funny thing is...I haven't missed having cable TV at all. About the only time I watch TV is to catch a Star Trek or MASH rerun or during Football season. I do like catching the evening news from time to time, but most of the networks and the BBC run their telecasts online now, and if I'm desperate, I'll watch that. I actually missed not getting the newspapers more than not having TV. I have gotten to watch the last Battlestar Galactica episodes online as well. Seeing as its getting near the Series Finale, I haven't missed out on that any. That was really the only thing that tempted me about getting cable hooked up quickly. I've actually found I have read a lot more without having cable TV around. (Funny how that works, ain't ...