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Meanwhile, in the House follies, H677 passed with a whopping eight-vote margin, hardly a whopping mandate. Here is what we look like today... there is a lot of red between the coasts. How much does this mirror the church today?

Church life

This is for real in response to our sexton writing a state wildlife technician.

'Thank you for allowing me to investigate the bats you have in the Episcopal Church.'

I could stop here and leave this line standing by itself because it lends itself to all manner of absurdities. But here's the rest of the letter.

I confirmed that the guano is from Big Brown Bats. Though this species is not listed as endangered, all of Vermont's hibernating bat species have suffered great losses from white-nose syndrome so anything we can do to help them makes a big difference.

After speaking with other biologists, I can also confirm that it is not unusual to find dead bats after a particularly hot spell during a time when the young are just starting to fly for the first time. This seems consistent with what you are finding. As for the location that you are seeing these dead bats, it may be the area that they actually enter and exit the building. This could be confirmed by watching the eaves by the two walls you showed me at dusk (between 8.40 and 9PM these days) to see if bats come out. Based on what I saw today, I suspect you have a scattering of resident males living at the church, rather than a large concentrated colony of breeding females.

Thank you for your concern. I am pasting some links to exclusion techniques and bat house installation guidelines below. How does the church feel about having a few bats there?

Let me know if you have any questions and thanks again.....

Have at it.

The electronic tether

During CPE so many years ago, two decades ago mas or menos, I hated having the pager because it would beep, calling me to some emergency, usually someone dying or who had died... I never knew if it would go off; in fact, on my days of carrying it, the thing only went off once. Lo, these many years later, I probably would do better.

Nowadays there is a new sort of pager in a different context and it is called a smart phone... the old cell phone was not nearly as invasive, though it could be sometimes. The smart phone, however, can totally upset one's life no matter where one is (that is, if one is dumb enough to check email).

Yesterday, en route to the beach with my family on a two-day break to visit with my sister from the west and nephew from the big city, I happened to check my email to get a note related to work that was sufficiently problematic as to upset the emotional balance for the rest of the day. And, so, even though the day was glorious at the beach, and I enjoyed walking down the beach with my sister and nephew and then standing in the water (jellyfish so I did not swim), inside, I was totally off-kilter, worried and anxious. Said problem will not be resolved until next week at the earliest so I will continue to be in that state of flux.

And then there was talking to the canon to the ordinary as I drove down to my parents', and fielding frantic phone messages from parishioners in distress...

Lest anyone think that part-time priests don't earn their keep, let me remind them of the electronic tether.

Forty years later

My heart goes out to the people of Norway tonight as they contend with the shock that comes from having suffered an attack on their well-being and people. They, too, have entered this world of utter insanity where people shoot others because of some internal dissonance.

As I read the sad news of what transpired today in Oslo, I remember how as a 14 year-old I went to Norway with my aunt and uncle (they lived in the Netherlands and he was a travelling salesman so our trip also included Sweden and Denmark). Needless to say, as a fourteen year-old I did not know a whole lot but even then was aware of Norway being a 'neutral' country.

My aunt and I wandered around Oslo while my uncle did his business. It was all so civilised.

And, today, Norway has its sad day, 22-7-2011... I doubt the person responsible had any idea that he has sullied the Feast of Mary Magdalene.

May God have mercy on us all (even as the US Congress shows itself to be increasingly dysfunctional).

Is it or isn't it?

Even with the presidential seal smacked on the lid of the laptop, I don't think it's a Mac. Oh well.

So the President tweets. I still am not there.

A new star in heaven

Kirstin has joined the saints in heaven.

God be with Andee and all who love Kirstin in this moment.

Together we are one.