Yeah, I'm Writing About the Weather

Laugh-Out-Loud Moment of the Day: Son Geoff's Facebook post: "Hey does anyone have any thoughts on the weather?" Because the weather is what EVERYONE is talking about.
As every news report has told us, we (and most of the Midwest) are experiencing the coldest temperatures in two decades, which means even old guys like me have trouble remembering what minus 5 degrees feels like. I'll say this, it's brutal (to use another word repeated on the news reports). Tonight is trash night, and my 3-1/2 minutes carrying two loads down to the curb left me shivering even though I was bundled up like Nanook of the North.

Picture of the Day: Yeah, I know, this isn't too creative. But, hey, it's MY diary, and I want to remember this:

Quote of the Day: "It's easy to get caught up in the foibles of a corporate culture and the systems that have been built over time, but they have nothing at all to do with the faith that built the system in the first place."
—Seth Godin, in Tribes

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.

New Year, New Layout, New Approach

Having resurrected this daily-diary blog on January 1, I've decided to take a new approach to it. I had a little time today to explore all the template and layout options available from the good people at blogger.com, and I chose a new look for the blog. That's snow in the background; I'll choose a different background photo with the seasons, or maybe someday I'll upload one of my own.
And I've also decided to try a different way of writing my daily entries. Maybe once in awhile I'll write the extended, several-paragraphs essay or story as I did last year. But most days I'm going to try a format like the one shown below.
The headings will vary with the day, and some days there may be only one! I'm thinking this will be easier to write, easier to read, and maybe more interesting for both me and readers.
We'll see. But I'm energized by trying a new approach.

Encouragement of the day: Talking with our friend Linda Weaver who has been virtually bedfast for several weeks in anticipation of surgery January 15, which will be followed by several weeks of recovery. I called her to see if we could bring her some food this weekend, and her spirit and attitude were a blessing to me. If she has to be shut-in, she's glad it's during our snowy winter instead of in the spring when she wants to be in her flowerbeds. She can lie in bed or stand, and she's been standing to read good books she's gathered. Friends have been kind and thoughtful, and her family is taking care of her—they had a wonderful time together at Christmas. Her daughter, a nurse in Honduras, is coming to stay with her after the surgery. "It's all good," she said. 

Smile of the day: Remembering my efforts last night to discover new ways Evelyn could wear the infinity scarf she got for Christmas. I must say I found some attractive options, as I modeled the scarf in front of the full-length mirror. But, looking at myself, I laughed out loud. "If the doorbell rings, please don't answer it," Evelyn said.

Quote of the day: "One requirement of being a virtuous friend is a proper respect for oneself. Aristotle famously stated that a friend is 'another self.' But in order for someone to love his other self properly—'wish what is good' for someone else—he must first wish what is good for himself. Only then can he love others rightly."

—Micah Mattix, Wall Street Journal, January 4-5, 2014, page C9,

in his review of   Friendship by A.C. Grayling

Accomplishment of the day: Taking our nonworking, discarded printer to the Staples store to recycle (it's been sitting in the basement for months) and getting a cord to connect our computers to the new printer since the  Wi-Fi has stopped working and we haven't been able to print on it. Running to the basement to plug in will be no inconvenience compared to waiting and wondering and growling in frustration because the document that the computer says is printing never prints.

Picture of the day: Look what $4.00 worth of Kroger roses did to spruce up the Christmas bouquet Ed and Peggy Sweeney sent us for Christmas. We'll enjoy it at least another week!

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. 

It's a New Year

Evelyn spent most of the day de-Christmasing the place after Jen and Matt and the kids left around 10:00 a.m. I paid bills and got the checkbook up-to-date while giving an assist here and there to Evelyn who was rearranging some of the winter-not-Christmas snowmen and other decorations. I made us big salads for lunch, and we walked after 2:00. With a temperature close to 50 degrees outside, I decided it was the perfect afternoon to take down the lights outside. It took me longer than I planned, due largely to an extension cord wrapped and tangled all around itself in the garage. It took me at least 15 minutes, maybe 30, to get it into a manageable coil that would fit on the shelf in the garage.
All the lights and extension cords and portable outlets are put away in the basement. The only thing that remains is the Christmas tree inside, which I'll tackle probably Saturday morning.
They're predicting a couple inches of snow, at least, for the morning and cold temperatures all weekend. So I'm glad I got the outside stuff done today.
It was the second holiday in a week I've spent the whole day without leaving the house. Really, t's a nice way to have a holiday.
For dinner we cooked a couple of steaks from Omaha Steaks the Aulens had sent us for Christmas. They were really good, and there are more in the freezer!

Miles and Nina posed on the streetcar
in the Cincinnati section of Museum Center. 

Today's picture was taken yesterday. We spent the afternoon at the Cincinnati Museum Center after a big pancake and bacon breakfast at home. The museum was open a little later. We left just before 6:00 and then headed to the Chinese buffet on Tylersville Road. The Johnson kids love going to a Chinese restaurant, and this one is pretty good. The place was packed, and we had a good dinner.
Then we headed home to play Apples to Apples before retiring to the family room to watch Argo on DVD (Jen had brought it with them). Evelyn made two huge bowls of popcorn for us to munch while we watched. The kids hadn't seen the movie, and I was glad to see it a 2nd time (the first time was a year ago at the movie theater). Then we tuned into NBC and watched the ball drop and wished each other happy New Year together.

LAST Weekend

October was a busy month. And November has turned out that way, too. We were busy all day Saturday or the whole weekend every weekend, and I've been leading two small groups and attending a Tuesday morning (6:15 a.m.) "No Man Left Behind" group at church. I've posted a some pictures on Facebook without making comments or adding descriptions here. I have a "month at a glance" post in my head, but this will be "weekend at a glance" for LAST weekend! Yep, I started this blog post last Sunday and gave up, tired, before it was finished. Now, a week later, I'll finish it.
Last Friday evening we ate Mexican at El Rancho Grande and came home to watch a show or two we had been saving on the DVR. Saturday was a blessed day at home all day long--at least for me. I was up early to run to Kroger's to get the stuff Evelyn needed for supper. She put her casserole together (an old stand-by, Party Chicken), with instructions about temperature and time for be to get it started.
She and Tammy Weatherly drove to Louisville to attend the funeral service for the mother of a friend and former colleague, Carrie Birmingham. Evelyn taught with her years ago, before Carrie moved to California to teach at Pepperdine, and Tammy and Jon were friends and classmates.
Before she left I peeled and cut up a Crock Pot full of apples with a little brown sugar and cinnamon to make applesauce. It was finished about 3:00 in the afternoon.
While Evelyn was gone, I pulled up my zinnia bed and the tomato plants, dumped out most of the hanging baskets and patio pots, ran the lawn mower over the leafiest areas in the backyard to mulch the leaves, and planted a pot of bulbs that I hope will be glorious next spring. I put away the tomato stakes and all the empty pots, arranging it all in the garage.
I got the idea on the Internet for my bulb garden in a pot:
Fill a large pot with soil within about 11 inches from the top and plant a layer of late-blooming tulips.
Cover with dirt within about 6 inches from the top, plant a layer of daffodils.
Cover with dirt within about 3 inches from the top, and plant a layer of crocus. Finish covering the bulbs with dirt.
The idea is that the crocus will bloom first, and then the daffodils, and then the tulips, making a grand display of springtime color on the patio for several weeks. I hope it works.
I swept the deck, brought some of the deck furniture into the house, and arranged a few cool-hardy plants on the deck for a few more weeks of display before we have winter.

I had bought more bulbs than I could use, so I planted a tulip patch close to the driveway where we'll see them every day as we come and go.
 The air was cool, the sun was warm, and it was a wonderful day to get so much done.
I came inside, took a shower, and read a bit while waiting for Tammy and Evelyn to get back. They arrived here a bit later than they planned, but I had turned down the oven to delay the "done" time of the main dish. Evelyn threw some peas in a pot to cook and got the meal on the table quickly. We enjoyed visiting with Tammy for a couple of hours before Evelyn left to ride back home with her, where she'd left our car earlier in the day.
Sunday we were at the first service and then off to brunch and back home early. On the way home, we stopped at Home Depot and bought one more box of gutter guards, which I installed on the last quarter of the house in good time. Evelyn mowed while I worked, and then I finished mowing, edged, and blew off the driveway and sidewalks. I planted my leftover daffodils at the front of the house, looked at my watch, and saw 3:30. "Good, I thought, I still have some time left in the afternoon." When I came inside I realized I hadn't set back my watch (it was Time Change Sunday), and the time was only 2:30! Lots of time left.
So I cleaned up and then tackled a pile of filing that had accumulated over the last couple of months or longer. Not a favorite task, but it was very nice to have the time to tackle it.
Before it got dark, I took some pictures in the backyard. Our beautiful maple tree hadn't lost most of its leaves yet (this week it has), and the Knockout roses were still blooming profusely. It was a good weekend to be home, to be outside, and to be able to get so many jobs done.