Here's something strange for you, Jeff. I just read your post and clicked to do a new one and sure enough, I hear Van Ronk singing about "McDougal Street" on the cd I have playing (...and the tin pan bended and the story ended...). Have you heard this recording? If not, well, I'm not too far from sending you a package so could give you a "sampler" of sorts, hehe. Anyway, yeah, I've been looking forward to the Boston Globe guy's book, I'll definitely drop by his site and read his new posting. I've been by there a few times but not anytime lately. FYI, there's a "favorite Dylan songs" thread on the board right now. I know you're probably avoiding dropping by these days (and haven't much time to either way!) but it's encouraging to see those sorts of things.
Jeff, I think the best housing solution right now is to move to Omaha. But uh, I guess that's probably not too feasible. Btw, Stacey's mother sent along some newspaper clippings from the story on the big celebration event put on by the Orthodox church in Plymouth that Fr. Walker is involved with (not sure if he's the parish priest or what, though I think he might be). Ok, I just found the website, it's called Protection of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church. I'm excited about the church, not just out of reasons having to do with the spread of Orthodoxy, but also because this will give Stacey and me somewhere good to go when we're back visiting! St. Mary's in Goshen is cool but far away when home visiting.
As far as EWTN goes...a couple weeks ago I was flipping around during breakfast on a Saturday morning and saw that they have a couple interesting children's cartoons about saints and such. I have no idea how regularly I can remember to do so, but my intention is to tape them for you so your kids can watch them. I think I've done so once so far and I'm not sure what happened to that tape, hehehe...but we'll try.
Hey guys, last week NPR did what they claim to be the first radio interview with Dylan in 19 years. They have that and some other good Dylan-related stuff over at npr.org.
Yeah, I don't envy anyone looking for apartments. As you know, we just went through that this summer and while it's fun at first, pretty soon it's tiring and just plain tedious if you're not careful.
I've been to the Briarcrest ones and those are pretty nice, but yeah...a ways from the base.
As far as the house Aaron's renting, I think I know which one that is and it's pretty cool despite being a bit dingy. You can probably burn some incense and do various other tricks to get rid of old man smell. I remember when I was a little kid we lived for less than a year at this place on Hickory and somewhere in there it had the everlasting smell of urine. Anyway, I'm sure there are ways to get rid of that Old Man scent. I'm sure there's a Neil Young parody in there somewhere.
I need to read some Dostoevsky myself. I started Brothers Karamazov a while back but had to return it to the library and never got back to it. Right now I'm reading a book not quite as long, 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Here's an article a professor passed along to me about a new Kerouac journal collection.
While we (meaning myself, Stacey and Walker) were at the zoo I got a voicemail from Jan, a lady in our church. She said she wanted to talk to me about the church bookstore and I had a pretty good idea then what she was probably going to talk to me about. Anyway, I just got a hold of her a few minutes ago and sure enough, she asked if I and Stacey would like to take over the bookstore duties. I told her I'd have to talk to Stacey to be sure but even if Stacey can't really put much time toward it (which right now she probably can't), I'm definitely interested. I've helped Jan with the inventory before and she's shown me some of how she does things, it's not terribly hard. I've even had a few ideas on how it could be improved. Anyway, she and her husband are getting up in age and have done this for a long time. A couple weeks ago he officially passed on treasurer duties to someone else because his eyesight just isn't what it used to be and doing treasury stuff is obviously pretty hard with poor eyesight. So...looks like I'll probably end up being the bookstore guy. While it is extra time and tasks, I'm pretty excited for a couple different reasons. First, being in charge of what books and materials come into the bookstore to sell is pretty cool...especially considering this is working with Orthodox stuff! Second, I'm realizing now that marriage or not, I've moved from being "young adult" and kind of...you know, one of the "young people" in the church who is excited and happy to be ther and everything...to being actually one of the responsible men of the church. Not that this means I'm going to start voting consistently Republican or wearing a suit every Sunday, but I no longer am of (or want to be of) this mentality that there's this sort of church core and group of people responsible for "keeping things going," I guess, and that I'm not necessarily a part of that because I'm young of age, young in the faith, etc. Some of that was rationalization for laziness or not wanting to be "obligated" in a certain sense, but some of that was insecurity that I'd screw things up or (and especially this one) that I'm not really the type of person people would want to view as a big part of a local church body. In my own mind I still struggle with stereotypes in that regard, and I also don't want to appear hypocritical in certain areas, I guess. Anyway...I've realized more and more in the last year or so that a lot of people in my church are getting older and I'm young, able of um, mind and body, all that sort of thing, and that I'm part of the generation whose time is to start taking things over because our time to be responsible and offer not just support but bigtime responsibility is now. This all sounds cheesy, I guess, and I'm typing this stream of consciousness and rambly due to time constraints and my own mixed-up head, but I hope I'm making sense. Even when the pressure was turned on tightly in elementary through early college, I never ever felt I should be in "full-time Christian service" or the ministry or whatever. I mean, Walker and I did that ministry thing in high school both out of boredom, love for Ponderosa, and wanting to help people, but I've never felt "called" or whatever. Still don't. I'd be a priest if I felt called to it and have often, very often wondered if that's something I'll be honored to do in the future, I don't know. However, there's a lot of stuff in the church that the priest shouldn't have to do, there are people who need to be a laity backbone and be like Joshua and Aaron holding up Moses' arms. I'm realizing now that in looking at what I do at church both regularly and when needed, I'm a part of that. Pretty freaking humbling, actually. But...this is who I am and am supposed to be and want to be and I thank God for people at church who believe I'm able to teach their kids and do the bookstore and lend my voice to chant. As a kid I sometimes resented all the stuff my parents did at church. Yes, the church was a lot bigger and other people should have been doing some of what they did (either instead of them or along with them). I guess now, though, I understand why they did and do what they do, and I'm proud to be like them, and just as proud to be doing so as Orthodox laity.
I hear you on the organization thing. I'm lousy at it myself. I guess we're finally at the age where even the non-executive types have to start using calendars and organization notebooks. For some reason the phrase "Everything that Rises must Converge" pops into my mind here, but there's no real reason why. For the record, my birthday is March 3. I've been thinking about starting up some sort of calendar or something...kids keep getting born and I can't keep track of their birthdays, thanks especially to Jeff and his virility.
I'm looking forward to the Dylan book. This weekend Borders has big discounts for "educators" and between Stacey and myself, we can qualify with the right IDs. I may have a tiny bit left over from my insurance reimbursement check that'll help with that, though we have plenty of libraries here I can use.
Speaking of libraries...to answer your question, Jeff...the libraries here are among the programs pretty heavily affected by state and local budget cutbacks. Hours and staff positions have ended up on the chopping block. I did take a look at things after reading your post and yeah, nothing is open (at least according to their website).
My job here is frustrating but not terrible. My boss and I have reached a pretty good understanding and things are a bit better. I'm still looking but have the luxury of being pretty choosy, at least. It sounds stupid but my main objective is to just not fall into something worse, even for slightly better pay. I need enough of a salary increase to cover our school costs, if nothing else.
Thanks for the kind comment about my blog, Jeff...while my intention is to use that as exercise, it ends up being a form of exorcism sometimes. Oh well. Something I am going to ask for input from both you guys on is my Sunday School approach. I'm not really able to describe it too well in just a few minutes at work (though perhaps I should be able to!) but I'm going to start logging what goes on every week, my thoughts on it, ideas, etc. on a separate blog...in fact, one I'll use with my other blogger name, most likely. Once I've got that new computer (no check came yesterday, perhaps today!) my plan is to use that not only as documentation but also an idea-bouncer. I'm not sure yet if I'll clue the kids' dad in on the site (though perhaps later) yet or not but I think this can work.
By the way, Walker, when Fr. Stephen was over a couple nights ago, he and Joan really really loved the picture you did. He says "hello" and he hopes to you see you soon. Sunday's actually his last Sunday doing our liturgy, the new priest starts that next week...I'd like to find more time to write about him and his influence but work is a terrible place to try.
All right, well, that's probably enough for now. By this afternoon I'm sure I'll have thought of several things more to post.
