Happy Birthday, Diane!

There are at least two good things about birthdays. if you're in the right situation. If you're on Facebook, you get lots of greetings from all kinds of people you may not hear from any other time.
And if you're on the Magazines staff at Standard Publishing, you get free lunch with all your other co-workers at the place of your choice.
Today was Diane Jones-Dunham's birthday, and she chose a place new to her--and me! The Rusty Bucket on Mason-Montgomery Road. I was surprised at how good it was, and how hard it was to choose what I wanted from all the interesting possibilities on the menu.
Happy birthday, Diane! Today's celebration was the perfect proof of a truth we sometimes forget: "It's more blessed to give than to receive." I've received another great idea for where to take Evelyn for lunch on Sundays or dinner anytime! (Or dessert! I had a couple bites of that cookies and cream sundae Diane got free for being the birthday girl. Let's see . . . just six more months till mine!)

After a Long Weekend

Vacation: a break from work, at the end of which you're ready to get back to the job.
That's the way it's supposed to be, right, but as I crawled out of bed and drove to the office this morning, after a long weekend away, I wasn't quite ready to pick back up the routine.
But it wasn't long before I was feeling productive and satisfied again as I looked at the proof for the November issue (it looks good), handled correspondence, and made a decision about how to promote our app at the International Conference on Missions this November.
The highlight of the day, in many ways, was our birthday celebration with Lookout editor Kelly Carr. According to our tradition, she chose the place for lunch, and all of us enjoyed her choice, Mimi's.

We're having beautiful weather. Evelyn cut the back and side yards this afternoon, and I mowed the front, trimmed, and watered plants after work before supper.
I'm ready (I think!) to tackle a long list of tasks that need to be accomplished this week. After a good day of getting back into the routine, I need to be more productive tomorrow than I was today.

This Week at a Glance

This is becoming my weekly instead of my daily diary, but I'm determined not to just let it go. A few things to record from this week:

Made some progress at work: planning/editing the November issue, consulting with Jim Nieman about layout and design options for the October issue. Spent quite a bit of time emailing and on the phone to nail down plans for the Stone-Campbell Dialogue meeting that will happen this year in Abilene in October. (Evelyn and I are planning a nice dinner out the weekend before her birthday, because I'll be in Texas on her birthday.) Did some work toward further marketing of the Christian Standard app and its digital editions. As of today, close to 1,300 people have downloaded the app and close to 100 have actually paid to read the magazine via the app. That's gratifying; the numbers grow every day. But the progress seems slow to me.

Thursday Paul Williams was in the office for our last official meeting together. His contract as consultant with Christian Standard ends in August. It was a productive meeting, a nostalgic meeting, a meeting with blessings (Paul has always shed light on my path), ultimately a difficult meeting. I will truly miss all the insight and ideas he's shared to help make Christian Standard what it has become.

Friday I had a great lunch with Dave Lautzenheiser; talked over my plan for the worship service August 31. He asked me to lead in the Classic service, because he plans to be out of town that weekend.

The weather has been hot and dry, at least it was till the end of the week when we had a couple of rip-roarin' thunderstorms overnight a couple of nights. I had thought maybe I'd come home from work Friday to cut grass, but Evelyn decided (and I agreed) it was just too hot! So on an impulse we called Terry and Shirley Wuske and invited them to share dinner with us at LaRosa's (our treat)—just for the fun of it and to celebrate the new half-time development position Terry began with Grundy Mountain Mission last week. He'll do a fine job, and he can do it from Cincinnati! So they won't have to move, and we won't have to tell them good-bye. We adjourned to our place after spaghetti and hoagies to finish off a peach pie Evelyn had baked earlier in the week (with peaches we had bought in Amish country). We really enjoyed the spontaneous evening together.

Saturday night Paul and Sev Friskney came for dinner. We hadn't visited with them all summer, and it was good to laugh and catch up. We had typical picnic fare: hamburgers on the grill, baked beans, cole slaw, and Evelyn's potato salad. She made a Rice Chex ice cream dessert that we used to serve every summer but hadn't had for years. It was a fine evening.

Brian preached in the gym, and those of us in the auditorium
enjoyed his sermon via the video feed.

We enjoyed being at church this morning. This was our regular Welcome Center Sunday, so we were there about 8:30. I had some contacts to make regarding that worship service next Sunday, and we enjoyed all the chatting and laughing we always enjoy with the extended time to see folks. Trevor had asked Brian Jobe to be guest preacher, and he had a fine sermon. I'm thinking I'll use his points as the jumping off point for my men's group Bible Study Thursday.

 After church Evelyn and I each had separate meetings to attend. Mark Senseman led a training meeting for people who have been serving at the Welcome Center; he announced and explained some exciting innovations and renovations coming to that whole ministry. Evelyn attended Mark's meeting while I attended training led by Dale Reeves for "tribe" leaders in anticipation of a new series kicking off September 7. Dale has done an excellent job getting all that ready. Evelyn attended training for women's Bible study leaders last Sunday at lunchtime, and she's at a women's kick-off event this evening (Sunday) for that whole emphasis. It's really great to see strategic plans, training, and fresh ideas from those leading the ministries we're involved in!

A Welcome Party!

"This is good news, and you need good news."
So said a former Standard Publishing employee when I told him Kelly Carr was coming full time as editor of The Lookout.
I couldn't agree more. That it is good news, I mean. Kelly has been working as interim editor since last fall and doing a fine job. I wanted us to hire her as full-time editor from the get-go, but we needed to iron out her working arrangements in a way that both she and the company could feel good about.
Kelly will do an excellent job with The Lookout, and I couldn't be happier that she's with us.
We had a little "Welcome Kelly" party this morning, with plenty of bagels and a plant for Kelly's office. It's nice to have a party because someone good is coming (instead of leaving).

Kelly Carr (center) was welcomed by Lynn Pratt and Margie Redford at her party this morning.

Another "Another Good-Bye"

Jon's  going-away dessert buffet was a surprise, including the fact that his family showed up
to join the party.

Where I work, at Standard Publishing, we're getting good at going-away parties. Today's was to say

good-bye to Jon Underwood who is leaving after 33 years of service at Standard Publishing to serve as the chaplain at Mount Healthy Christian Village, close to his home and next door to the site of the old Standard Publishing building.

"I grew up with Standard Publishing," he said at his party this afternoon. "I grew up in a preacher's family, and we got all our Sunday school and VBS and church bulletins--everything the church needed--from Standard.

"We viewed Standard as the place where the scholars are. I never dreamed I would get to rub shoulders with them. Orrin Root. Mr. Hayden. It was wonderful."
Matt Lockhart praised Jon for his Bible knowledge as well as his ability to work with a team.
The caption on the cake was an understatement: "Jon ... You Will Be Missed."

Here are links to other Standard Publishing (or CFM) good-byes I've noted on my blog (It's a long list, but actually there have been more good-byes than these):

http://taylor-made-digital-diary.blogspot.com/2014/03/another-good-bye.html

http://taylor-made-digital-diary.blogspot.com/2013/10/another-good-bye.html

http://taylor-made-digital-diary.blogspot.com/2013/09/another-good-bye.html

http://taylor-made-digital-diary.blogspot.com/2013/02/one-of-good-ones.html

http://taylor-made-digital-diary.blogspot.com/2012/11/marking-day-measuring-my-words.html

http://taylor-made-digital-diary.blogspot.com/2012/06/men-and-women-in-black-and-other-nice.html

http://taylor-made-digital-diary.blogspot.com/2012/08/congratulatons-jan.html

Garden Gallop

Took a day of vacation today to join Dave Lautzenheiser and a bunch of other (mostly) seniors from Christ's Church at Mason for the annual Garden Gallop. Dave and Sarah Ferris organize this each year about this time; it's a trip to 3 or 5 nurseries/garden centers to shop for plants for spring planting and summer gardening.
This is at least the third time I've joined the group. I go for the fellowship, to keep Dave company (sometimes he and I are the only males), and to ooo and ahhh over all the annuals, perennials, vines, bushes, planters, hanging baskets, and garden doodads one can find at these garden centers. And every year he takes us to some places I've never been before.
This year we visited three garden centers on Ohio Pike/Route 125 east of town. I bought at least something at each of them; two offered us a group discount, and all gave new ideas.
I always have a container garden on the deck, and I decided this year to try something different: all foilage. I was able to find several unusual plants you just don't find at Home Depot and Lowe's. (But I saw some that I HAD seen at the big boxes, at much lower prices, so my shopping isn't over.)

Our gallopers posed for a group shot at one of the nurseries where we visited. We dodged raindrops
all morning. But the heaviest rains were on the way to the first stop and on the way home
after the afternoon was over.

We ate lunch at Quaker Steak and Lube. Great onion rings! They're giving away a Harley later this year, but I didn't enter the contest. Think of it as Cracker Barrel with motor cycles and auto paraphernalia hanging from the ceiling and decorating the walls instead of antiques, washboards, and pictures of somebody's grandmother.
After lunch (a LONG lunch, but it didn't matter; we enjoyed the visiting), we drove back to Natorp's in Mason. It was the first time I'd been there this year: acres of BEAUTIFUL, healthy plants under one roof. Every kind of annual, vegetable, herb, and perennial you can imagine.
I have a gift certificate from there I want to spend, but I didn't have it with me today. (Didn't know we were going to go there.) So I looked at everything and made mental notes. I'm going back to Natorp's!
I began the day by running into the office and visiting with Matt Lockhart for about an hour regarding a proposal we're making to sign-on with a company that creates digital versions of magazines. We're seeking approval tomorrow, along with another significant request at the same meeting. I'm praying about this (and I don't say that flippantly). At home this evening I revised the P&L statement I had created in preparation for that meeting.

Two Days of Disconnect

This is a picture of the inbox for my email account as it appears via the Outlook Web App on my laptop. I took my personal laptop to work today with a plan to find a Wi-Fi connection for accessing email, because we had no email or Internet connectivity in the office yesterday, and as it turns out, all day today.
So much of our work is via email; we go through a huge volume of email correspondence in a week. I had made a bunch of assignments last week, and the people were responding to them this week. And I had more assignments to make and questions to ask.
I went to Panera for awhile this morning. Good coffee. Interesting interchange at the table nearby as I listened to some sort of manager or supervisor interview two applicants for either manager or assistant manager positions. (You can only overhear so much from a distance!)
I was impressed by the way she listened to the applicants, the questions she asked, and little snippets about how Panera does its business. (They grow all their own tomatoes. The chicken arrives in the store presliced. They keep complete records of their business--sales volume, by dollar and by item--so they can predict from one day to the next and one holiday to the next what kind of inventory to stock.)
The first guy seemed to be a winner. The second guy, not so much, for a variety of reasons. Probably the killer was that he'd been fired from managing another restaurant because one of its health/cleanliness standards hadn't been met. After that second interview, she stood up to leave, looked over at me, and smiled.
"You're not going to hire him, are you?" I said.
"Was it that obvious?" she said, laughing. "I could tell after the first five minutes he wasn't for us, and it's so hard to give a reasonable interview to someone you know you're not going to hire." I think she did a good job.
Believe it or not, I did get emails written during that time, as well as some information pulled off onto my stick so I could print a Word document back at the office to give some contract info, etc., to Diane Jones.
They told me there was Wi-Fi access in the small snack room in the main lobby of our building. So I trudged down there about 1:30 and stayed till after 4:30--with 3 or 4 other Customer Service gals on laptops, also accessing the Wi-Fi. We were accompanied by ABC's daytime programming on the big screen on the wall over us. And the little room was HOT. I really think I was more productive at Panera.
I'm a little surprised at myself at the flood of relief that washed over me later when I was back at my desk and my email account popped up open (this was about 5:15). I tried the Internet, and there was Evelyn's latest post on Facebook.
Connected again. Connected again! Thank God, we're connected again!
"Thanks for your patience and understanding," said the note telling everyone that the problem was solved. I'm not sure there was that much of either in my heart today.

Nice Weekend, Happy Birthday

I've always believed birthdays are one of the best reasons to be on Facebook, and this year was no exception. In a pretense of humility, I will not count up how many birthday wishes I received. It wouldn't be easy, anyway, because some commented in response to my last blog post, some commented in response to a quote about aging I posted, and some commented in response to a shameless self-promotion plug I posted the day after my birthday--all in addition to Facebook's birthday notification at the top of friends' home pages.
It IS nice to hear from folks I might not communicate with any other time, though. I'm not planning on signing off of Facebook!
Actually, this year, I got my birthday cake as a result of one of those posts (not sure which one). My big day was Sunday, and it was a busy day at church. Evelyn and I had Welcome Center duty, and I filled-in as teacher of the Seekers class at 9:00. Then I had been asked to emcee a fundraising lunch that happened in the church parlor after the last service. When the event organizers, Dave and Valerie Reed, saw it was my birthday, they stopped by Kroger on the way to church and bought me a cake so everyone could sing "Happy Birthday" during the luncheon. I loved it!
The lunch was very nice, designed to raise funds to name a room in CCU's remodeled Rine Hall after

I opened my eyes and snapped this picture during the
closing prayer at the end of our lunch Sunday.

Vic and June Hunter. June was a graduate of the school and an active supporter. Her "adopted" daughter, Marilyn Pitzer, gave a fine tribute to Vic and June and presented Dave Faust (he was there and made a nice presentation, too) with a check for $25,000 from the Hunter estate plus a personal gift from her family. It was a moving, enjoyable day. We sat with Dale and Judy McCann and Cliff and Becky Leighty, plus one of the students who accompanied the Fausts to church for the event.
I attended the 10:30 worship in the gym (I'm usually in the auditorium or the chapel) and was especially blessed by Trevor's sermon about Solomon. I plan to discuss again with our men's Bible study Thursday four words Trevor chose to characterize Solomon's life:

• Compromise
• Exception
• Meaningless
• Duty

A couple of quotes I jotted in my bulletin:

"The road to folly starts with the word except."

"When a good thing becomes a god thing, that's a bad thing."

"Do something big with your one and only life."

We stopped at Kohl's on the way home and used a coupon to buy my birthday gift, a new pair of Skechers I can wear to work on jeans Friday.
Anticipating rain on Monday, Evelyn and I mowed grass after we got home. (For the record, that's lawn mowing no. 4 this year.) Shirley Wuske wanted to come dig some hydrangea sprouts from the bushes in the front yard, so we invited them to come share my birthday cake. After grass, before the Wuskes, both of the kids called, and we enjoyed nice catch-up visits with them. We had a great time digging and eating and visiting with Terry and Shirley (they brought ice cream to go with the cake!), and by the time they left, we were ready to get ready for the week.
It was a busy day, which is why I didn't have time to write about it then.
The birthday continued Monday; Evelyn got up in the morning and baked two coffee cakes for me to take to work. And then today the Magazines people took me to lunch. I chose Jason's Deli, the restaurant Sev and Paul Friskney had introduced us to earlier this year.
So I feel fully entered into my year as a 64-year-old. It was a happy birthday!

It's Spring! It's Really, Really Spring!

Pictures of the Day:
One of the best things I can say about my company under its current ownership is the location. We have a bright, modern office, far better than anything I would have imagined in my early days at Standard Publishing. It occupies one floor of an office park not far from I-71 and Fields-Ertel, a newer, well-maintained facility. And the nicest thing about it is its surroundings. Green. Leafy. A beautiful fountain. Fresh blooms rotated in and out with the seasons.
And daffodils. Every year I've gone around outside taking pictures of the daffodils that return year after year.
It was warm and sunny at lunchtime today, and I decided this is the time for my annual tradition. So here they are, harbingers of spring and of sunny, warm days ahead: daffodils in cream and yellow just beginning to pop open around our office building.

Another Good-Bye

Pictures of the Day:
Taken yesterday at the combination birthday/going-away party for Sandy Wimmer, retiring from Standard Publishing after a couple of decades-plus of service with us.

She worked faithfully, creatively, and in a very organized way for all those years. It's hard to imagine how many products, how many pages she has touched, how many children and teachers have been drawn into teaching plans and student books by art she touched.
Another excellent worker has left us, and everyone wishes her well.



Quote of the Day:
What if listening through the ears of love is the greatest interpreter for what it means to be “Christians only” in a world where there is no doubt we are “not the only Christians”?
—Casey Tygrett in "The Spirituality of Shutting Up" at christianstandard.com.

Discovering Joy

Pictures of the Day:
They let us leave work at 4:00 today because of the steady snow that had started much earlier, probably by noon. That was good, because I needed to get home, pick up Evelyn, and then get back to pick up Dave and Mary Lautzenheiser, our traditional Valentine's Day dinner partners. (Is this the third or fourth time we've celebrated Valentine's Day with them?) The snow was coming down steadily, but most of the roads were still clear as I made my way home late this afternoon. The trees, bearing a coating from the heavy, wet snow, were more beautiful than I could capture with my iPhone.

The snow continued throughout our trip to pick up Dave and Mary and throughout our dinner at

Mimi's. Service was slow, and our conversations were rich, and we lingered at our table for almost two hours. The trip home was a bit more challenging. Some of the roads were covered, as if they had never been touched. But we got home without incident, in time to put our things together for our trip to Indy tomorrow, with time left over to watch some Olympics before going to bed.

Quotes of the Day:
The American church often shares the surrounding culture's obsession with glory and power. One of the reasons our ministries are so ineffective is because we don't make room for God's power, since we are so enamored with our own. We don't make room for weakness—everything in our churches has to be dynamic and excellent. So we schedule things by the minute, rehearse our transitions and prayers, seek out the next killer series or curriculum or program. And all the while Jesus has moved on to people who have nothing other than him.

The American Dream is to live in our strength; God's dream is that we live in our weakness. 
—Mike Erre, "The Way of Weakness" at leadershipjournal.net


Along with hearts and flowers this Valentine’s Day, successful Christian marriages will celebrate the self-sacrifice and kind deeds that may express love better than any greeting card. And so they can realize what my preacher encouraged and our Lord taught: The way to discover joy for yourself is to provide it for someone else.
—"Real Love, Real Joy," the column I wrote a year ago for christianstandard.com

Treats for a Birthday

Quote of the Day: Even when we choose wisely and well, we still must live in a world that dreads death, fears disease, and vainly tries to hide from disaster. Two bad decisions, Eve’s and Adam’s, have left us longing for Eden but trapped on a planet characterized by travail.
—"Living with the Lie," my column at christianstandard.com, posted today.

Picture of the Day:
Today was Sheryl Overstreet's birthday. We celebrated by taking her to her choice of lunch spots, which today was Cracker Barrel. I hope she enjoyed her french toast, because I thought the Tuesday lunch special meatloaf was great!
Sheryl decided to bring a wonderful assortment of her favorite snacks for her office birthday treat, and I persuaded her to pose by the spread after we got back from lunch.

Trevor DeVage, Garrison Keillor, and Man of Steel

Quotes of the Day: "Be careful not to forget the Lord" (Deuteronomy 6:12).
"We all need reminders
of what the Lord has done in our lives."
—Trevor DeVage, Christ's Church at Mason, January 5, 2014.

Another Quote of the Day:

May we not lose our marbles,
and keep up the pace.
May we face getting older
with something like grace.
—Garrison Keillor 

Frustration of the Day: Discovering that almost four hours of work during Christmas vacation created files on a flash drive that today were all polluted and inaccessible. I'll ask IT tomorrow if they can recover the files, but a) my plans to make two or three hours more progress today were thwarted, and b) it's possible I'll be starting from scratch tomorrow.

Accomplishment of the Day: We decided to attend church at 10:30 instead of 9:00, since Evelyn had a lunchtime meeting at church at noon. So we were up early, and I was able to get written a draft of my January 7 column for christianstandard.com before we left for church.

Very Grateful Today: SO-O-O-O glad I brought in the outside Christmas lights on New Year's Day when the sun was bright and the temperature was flirting with 50 degrees. Since then it's been cold and snowy and blustery and ugly. And even yesterday when the temperature topped freezing, all the bushes (those bushes that the lights had been adorning) were covered with snow. And today, on a gray afternoon, the forecast was for rain and then snow again, which leads me to my second measure of gratitude: I'm SO glad I had no plans to sit in the freezing mess at the Bengals game this afternoon.

Disappointing Memory of the Day: Man of Steel, last year's Superman prequel now available on DVD. If you like 143 minutes of computer-generated imagery (I didn't keep count, but I doubt there was any 10-minute stretch in the whole film without it), enough explosions and falling buildings for 40 9/11's, super-hero fistfights (again, tiresomely made possible by CGI and inexplicably finally won by Superman), unaffecting performances by Hollywood stars, and a plot that frankly I found confusing, then do like we did yesterday and pick up the disc at your local Redbox. The best thing about it was I had a promo code and got the experience for free.

Picture of the Day: Sorry, Mr. Kroger, but I doubt we'll have all our Christmas candy eaten in time to buy more for Valentine's Day.

Seriously Studying a Prophet for the First Time

"So, are you going to be writing an editorial based on Ezekiel?"
Our vice president of product development, Matt Lockhart, was joking with me when I announced I had finished an assignment to complete some extra work for the company.
"No, I'm not anticipating that, but studying Ezekiel really was a blessing. I don't think I've ever studied the whole book of Ezekiel before!"
This spring Standard Publishing will release a teacher's study Bible, filled with commentary that first appeared through the decades in the company's popular and widely used Standard Lesson Commentary. Like so many projects in life--and in publishing--completing the commentary for the Bible has taken more time than planned. Before Christmas the editorial team recruited several employees, former employees, and freelancers each to take a section of the Bible to finish as soon as possible. With something close to an apology, Matt asked me to take on the book of Ezekiel.
I learned a lot, reading the book and reading the Ezekiel commentary that has been published by  Commentary writers through the years. It was something close to a devotional exercise, because periodically through the book, we authors were to insert a section called "What Do You Think?" with discussion questions for the teacher or group leader to use. Seeing the application of Ezekiel's prophecies and visions to the dilemmas and challenges of believers today was a blessing.
As I worked, I thought of the faithful editors who have so carefully prepared the Commentary chapters for decades, and I could see why some preachers buy each new annual edition as a reference for lesson and sermon preparation. My study made me almost--almost--interested in teaching the book of Ezekiel myself.
I'm guessing that might be a hard sell to my Thursday-morning men's group, though.

Snow Business

The story today is the snow. They said 2 to 4 inches, starting at 5 or 7 a.m. By the time I left at 7:15 the yard was covered, and Van Gordon was anything but clear. It was wet and heavy, and the trees were beautiful, more beautiful than my pictures show. The snow continued through the day. Evelyn called me after lunch and said she had measured 5-1/2 inches and it was still snowing. She hired a young man in the neighborhood to plow the driveway and shovel the walks, but by the time I got home, the wind had blown a drift to cover half the driveway. I tried to plow through, but after two attempts, gave up and parked the car sow I could shovel. Evelyn came and helped, and we cleared the driveway in about 5 minutes.
They're predicting temperatures in the single digits overnight, with worries about roads refreezing. Evelyn's assertion that we're moving south when I retire is sounding more sensible.

I snapped this picture and the one below through my car window about 8 a.m.

This was the view from our lunchroom, looking down at the courtyard
 between our building and the one next to us.

Here and below are scenes outside our building at lunchtime. 

Happy Boss's Day!

 

"I read your blog, and I think you had a good idea."
"A good idea?"
"Yeah, we should have a dinner for all of us who are STAYING at Standard Publishing."
Well, we didn't have a dinner at work today, but we did have fun! It's Boss's Day, and the good people in the editorial department got together to assemble a whole platform of goodies to celebrate.
People were talking all day about the sugar shot they got from the spread. There WERE a lot of donuts, cookies, and brownies. And they were WONderful!
But I did save the pie in my lunch to eat another day!

Matt Lockhart, Jon Underwood, and Carla Crane led the line for the goodies (top) after five of the bosses (including me, Shawn McMullen, and Lindsay Black) posed in front of the spread.

Another Good-bye

The buffet line of goodies filled tables on three sides of the room, and the big cake was on the fourth side. As I waited my turn to fill my plate from the Crock Pot creations, salads, snacks, and desserts, I said to a co-worker, "We need to plan a pitch-in for all of us who are STAYing!"
"That's a good idea," she agreed.
It seems we've had several goodie-laden send-offs for colleagues leaving for greener pastures. And more than one has left without a celebration.
Today we said good-bye to Bob Wallace who has worked in a variety of sales and marketing positions at Standard Publishing for, I think he said, 12 years. He's excited about his new position at Lifeway's headquarters in Nashville.
"Everyone there treated me so nice, even the HR department."
"They're big on their history. They have a whole section of one floor reproducing the founder's office."
"My boss has been so flexible with me. 'If you need to take a three-day weekend to get back home to  Cincinnati for your kids and do some work at home, that's no problem. If you need to come in late some Monday, that's no problem; just call me.'"
"They're very committed to family. My boss said you need special permission to work in the office after 5:30. The garage is locked and you need to go through channels to be allowed to stay. He said it's not worth it."
"They're all about the business, but there's a sense of mission you can feel in the meetings and conversations."
"They explained to me their two-year and five-year plans for the department where I'll be working."
I'm happy for him.
And for us who remain behind? I'm glad we have such good cooks and generous buffet contributors!

Another Good-bye

We've been having hot, hazy weather this week, and the rising sun has been beautiful every morning on the way to work. I stopped in the church parking lot to try to capture it today. It was prettier than this, but this will help me remember it.

Today we had another going-away party. Joann VanMeter decided to retire (I think she had toyed with the idea for some time), and we had a surprise farewell lunch for her today at noon. Matt Lockhart expressed the company's appreciation for her 14 years (I think that's the right number) of service, most recently (and most valuably) as our rights and permissions manager. Her skill and knowledge of the whole rights scene has grown with her years of experience. That, plus her knowledge and concern for our customers and contributors and her warm personality and ready laugh all combine to make us very sorry she's leaving.
But she's not the only one to go. A week ago Friday I treated the Magazines staff to lunch so that Shawn McMullen could tell them that he's been recommended by the elders of Lifespring Christian Church to become their senior minister. He'll preach trial sermons at Lifespring's various campuses this month, and if the elders' call is confirmed September 29, he'll begin at Lifespring November 1.

This follows a summer in which we lost Jared Alexander, Robb Faust, Zach Davis, Valaira Hoskins, and a couple of others I didn't know as well and whose names I've forgotten.
Someone came by my desk after lunch today, "You're not planning on leaving, are you?"
"Not planning on it," I said.

On the Lookout

You know how it is the day before vacation? You get a week's worth of work done because you concentrate, you focus, and you MUST finish it all.
Well, I feel like I've been in that mode for the last week or more. Between yard work and some church work and work work and preparations for our tour/cruise, I've been going, going, going. I've taken and stored some pictures I've been wanting to post. I think some of that will have to wait. Friday we leave for a two-week tour/cruise, "Paul's Fourth Missionary Journey," i.e., a Mediterranean cruise. :-)
There's be no Internet (well, you CAN pay $50 for 90 minutes of access, but I've decided not to do that.) So, maybe I'll squeeze out a minute to post tomorrow. (Tomorrow night's assignment: mow lawn and PACK.) But maybe I won't. If not, I'm afraid this diary is going on a 2-week hiatus. But I WILL be taking pictures along the way.

So here's what I can offer today. One of the tasks on my list was to gather some pictures for a little slide show CCU is preparing for a program at the NACC. I decided to take some pictures from the issue of The Lookout in 1976 that introduced me as editor. I was 26 years old! At that tender age I had the misfortune of getting the job of my dreams. And although it hasn't been all dreams since then, I've never left Standard in all these almost 37 years since then.
Anyway, here's how I looked as a very young, inexperienced guy. I could wish the price of knowing what I know now were not looking like I look now

Birthday Lunch, First Day Back

First day back at the office: Catching up on e-mails, making a list of everything I need to get done this week, checking the status of outstanding assignments, finishing up a couple of projects I started yesterday afternoon.
Nice surprise: I wrote a column to be posted this week, but I already have a column  scheduled to post tomorrow. So now I have next week's column written!
Today was the first day all of us would be in the office at the same time to go out for my birthday. We had lunch at First Watch (my choice), and it was wonderful.