Gideon - The Clown

You gotta love this one!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Here is one Thanksgiving Picture with the people and so little food in view - but the table is loaded full and the same was said of our bellies a short while later. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday instead of Thursday as Bear and family flew in on Thursday and Dad, Sue and Cindy came up on Friday to join us. It was the first time Cindy and Dad had been up for many years and it was good to see them. After dinner we had Evening Prayer after the Anglican Tradition.

Dad also took to the playing the dulcimer he build for us many years ago from his own plans and kit he designed. The strings needed to be replaced, but he did play a tune he composed many years ago when Cindy was in California and worried parents were wondering what she was dong. I've already forgotten the title of the tune, but I'll slip it in here later.

And here is Dad with his two Great Grandsons.

UplandHarma Books

One of the joys of traveling is getting to explore used book stores. It is even nicer when the book store owner likes to talk about his business. Jerry Haley of Uplandharma Books in Upland, Indiana is one such bookowner, and we had a great time talking about pricing of books, what books to stock and to stalk, what books to have to attract customers in the store, and the differences in bookstores due to geographical locations. Jerry shares the same admiration for reprints with the old fashioned decorated hardcovers as I do as we talked at some lenght some about these reprints. The book in my hand in the photo is a limited edition reprint # 454 of 500 of "Wings" by Gene Stratton-Porter that goes for $71.75 in his store. Later in the day, we went to Gene Stratton-Porter's home on the edge of the Limberlost Swamp (remember reading "Freckles" or "The Girl of the Limberlost"?) and found several copies of the book for under $45.oo!

The Limberlost Swamp was drained during Gene's lifetime and she moved several miles away to a lakeside property to continue her writings. Shorltly after that she went to Hollywood to put some of her books to film. You can buy them on DVD at the store behind the sign in the picture

Apples for pies

I've fallen way behind in posting the pictures and telling the stories of a trip to Indiana. So here is a picture appropriate for what Joan is now doing -- making an apple (cranbery) pie, although not from the apples in the orchard in the picture. Unfortunately, we left the apples at Dan and Julie's house. Hope you guys have made a pie from what we left!

On the left is a biology prof at Taylor. He was quite knowledgeble about apples and it just happens to be his orchard. Most of these trees have multiple grafs on them, which mean several varieties on a single tree. It's not often you get to taste so many different apples to compare them. My memory being what it is, I can't remember which one I liked best, and probably couldn't get it anywhere else if I could remember it!

Community

One of the things one normally loses when leaving one group to join another -- is a shared history. I am talking about the knowledge one gains about another person through contact with them under a variety of circumstances. Knowledge that allows space to make a mistake or even to sin or forgive. Knowledge that builds memories to share at a later date. Knowledge that allows communication by a look or a trigger word that communicates by the memory of some shared experience. Joan and I have lost a lot of that in leaving Second Parish.

For 6 weeks Joan and I have been exploring various Christian Communities in the Portland area. Since we were visiting Anglican communities, we did feel a great sense of shared history as we participated in hymns we had always sung, hymns we knew were sung by Christians from centuries back, reponsively read Psalms that have even more history etc. But it is time now to get back into community. For us - as we find a temporary community (and maybe permanent home) at Christ The Redeemer, we are moving into a community with a lot of our old friends! We also then will be moving back into a community with which we have a lot of personal history already. What a blessing!

Chant & Polyphony

Tuesday night Joan and I went to hear Chants sung by the Cathedral Schola Cantorum in just the right setting, a hugh cathedral. The cathedral setting has as much history as the chants themselves. The REC has introduced us to chants and I love using them in worship as a response in song to God when He speaks to us through His word. The ones we heard Tuesday night were all polyphony. The only downside is that they were all in latin. We had the english words, but as a tool in worship, you gotta use english if that is all you speak! The chants will continue every Tuesday evening until Dec 20.

History of the church building from Portland Landmarks:
The original cathedral was lost in the Great Fire of 1866 while still under construction. The present cathedral, a massive brick structure anchoring a soaring 200-foot spire, was completed in 1869 and represents an urban adaptation of Gothic style. On the day of consecration in September 1869, a severe storm blew down the main steeple, hurling it across the street and smashing a neighboring rooftop. the present steeple, crowned with a gilt cross, was completed a month later. The magnificent stained glass windows were brought from Munich in 1910 to line the nave, while the rose window over the main entrance dates to 1869

Book Traders

I have never found Curtis in too optimistic a mood, but today was the lowest I have ever seen him. Curtis runs Book Traders used book store just up the street and I can be found there at least once a week around noon-time looking over his books. Curtis was in a talkative mood today, but it was mostly about how bad business was. It seems Portand's social policy has attracted a lot of people downtown to his area who can only afford coffee and doughnuts. Some of these are nice people, but not the whole crowd.

His story today centered around a rather plump guy who "can't stop at eating one doughnut" and whose glutony evidenced itself in Curtis catching him walking out the store with 100 of his video's in a bag. Curtis dumped the bag out and threw the guy's bag out into the middle of the street, telling the guy that if it was ten years ago, he would be throwing his you know what out there as well.

Curtis told me this story just after the story about the police, who don't come when he reports crime. Catching someing peeing on his storefront in the middle of the afternoon and reporting it resulted in only a casual remark "That is only George being George". Well that set Curtis off on a tirade which I won't bother to repeat here...

Portland, in Curtis's opinion, is only interested in the Old Port Area. He loves Portland, but is really down now. He says Sunday he only bought in $25 worth of business. He says he will be lucky to make it through the winter. I'm calling all my friends this evening to go give him a visit. That's Book Traders at 561 Congress Street in Portland. Call 207-773-1840 and tell him you are cheering for him and that Dana says to hang in there...

Vist with Julie, Dan and Sam

"Can you hear me now" Verizon missed a spot -- the entire inside of the house. Here is Julie making a cell phone call to her folks.


Our trip was so full of fun and activity, that I'll have to give it to you piecemeal. Coming attractions include a visit to Dan's Hydrology class and tour of Taylor University, an evening with Wendell Berry, an evening with Julie's parents, Bohnaza gametime, a trip to Gene Stratton-Porter's cabin by the Limberlost Swamp, a morning jog and a visit to the local used bookstore. Stay tuned...

A Severe Mercy

My noontime walk today took me up Congress Street in the direction of Cunningham Books. As I walked, I talked .. to Dad on the cell phone as I hadn't talked to him in a few days. We got to talking of CS Lewis. Apparantly he hasn't been able to find a used copy of "A Grief Observed", so I thought I just ought to take a look at Cunningham's, as I can almost always find what I want there. Not to long ago I picked up his "Letters to Children" which is a very good read. Many children wrote to him about his characters in Chronicles of Narnia. Some of the letters were children asking some pretty good moral questions of Lewis, which he answer so simply, without condescention.

I didn't find "A Grief Observed", but I did find A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken, which is a marvelous story of Sheldon and his wife, who shortly after they get married dies of cancer. The book includes 18 letters from CS Lewis to Sheldon, as Sheldon attempts to deal with his wife's death. The book was written before CS Lewis was married and thus before Lewis faced the same tragedy. So - I bought the book at $6.00 (a hardcover in great shape!) and inside of 30 minutes had it packaged, addressed and mailed! The joys of working downtown....