Whither goest blog?

It has been months since I have written here... many times I have thought of posting something, but life just gets in the way...

The things I would have written in the three months I have been silent:

-- how Ezekiel 37 ('Dem dry bones) so spoke to me this Easter Vigil as I came out of 18 months of unemployment and re-entered parish life, that what had been a personal disaster, a desert time, was finally resurrected with the knowledge that once again I was back in parish ministry... at Church of Our Saviour, Killington, where I have been living since 7 September 2012, but now it is official that we are partners in ministry...

-- my utter awe and gratitude to wake up every morning in such a gorgeous place, knowing how blessed I am to live here for how ever long...

-- dealing with elderly cats and parents...

So there I am... so much, too much to the point of being on overload.

A walk in the 'hood

Once again I am back at the House of the Redeemer on E95th Street. Last year I stayed in the upper corner room that has three (!) windows. This time I am in the room just next to it. The room is just as hot as ever.

During our break I went out for a short walk. It's a nice day today and I need some fresh air. What fascinates me is that if you go over to Park Avenue, you can see where Metro North trains enter the tunnel that goes to Grand Central Station. For all the years I have ridden the train into and out of the city from Connecticut, I always wondered what was above ground. Nothing exceptional, just a neighbourhood but it is fun to see Carnegie Hill and its buildings. It's a typical NYC neighbourhood with its drugstores, pizzerias, news stands, delis, restaurants, apartments.

I have to laugh: just up the block there is a SUV with Vermont plates. From the amount of bird guano and leaves on the windshield it is clear that the vehicle has not budged from its parking spot in quite some time. Moreover, it is clear that the car does not reside in Vermont but in NYC. No wonder the license plates are whipping through the alphabet (when I got my plates in 1992, we were still in the AAA111 scheme of things; now we are up to EM?H or something like that).

Shortly, back to work in the grand library of the house... if only the plastic chairs were as elegant as the surroundings; they are torture to sit on for any length of time.

And it was evening...

Listening to Sarah T. Monte's I Can Do All Things (bi-lingual), and unwinding from vestry....

I could use a Flor de Caña but it's too late. (This is a bitty image I yanked off the web.)

Why Flor? Because when I went to Nicaragua in 1984, during the contra war, with an ecumenical group, we'd unwind at the end of the super-full days with Flor.

It's super cheap in El Salvador (though it has gone up in the past year): $6.00 for the 4-year rum, $7.00 for the 5-year rum. Up here, if you can even find it (I did in Colorado), it's more like $20.00 for the 4 year-rum.

Oh, perhaps I shouldn't write about this subject, but I did see in one of the Friday Dance Party photos some Ron Abuelo so I know there are other rum drinkers out there.

Enjoy, even if it is virtual.

Limping along

I am not totally cut off but am limping along at a 49k (on a 56 modem) dial-up connection. It's slow (though I lived for years with a 14k modem), but at least I am back online. However, I can't sit online the way I have grown accustomed with DSL as this ties up the phone line (well, that can be a plus sometimes, too).

So for right now we're on minimal blogging. I will see if later I can post a low-res photo. After I wrote yesterday, I took a bunch more of various scenes around Montpelier. I'd go back to Capitol Grounds but it seems kind of extravagant to drive all that distance so I can have the convenience of wireless. Meanwhile, I am trying to find out if there are any hot spots in town.

It's scary how dependent I have become on the internet and my DSL.

Meanwhile, la Doyenne is mrowing downstairs. That means she is carrying around one of her furry creatures.