Micah Dettweiler, my nephew is studying at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. I came across this article in the New York Times on Saturday and it turns out that Dr. Quave, the star of the article is Micah’s mentor.
Picture perfect day
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news…
Some excellent reading & music
This morning, in my long run which effectively completes my training for the half marathon in Montreal on September 25, I ran with my Eers earbuds in playing this week’s Discover Weekly playlist put together by Spotify. This is exceptional for me to run with music but since I needed to stretch my distance out and I would be running alone for two hours without a companion, I thought that doing this to jazz music would help “diminuer les ennuies”. And so it did – I finished 16 km of running with 8 songs left still unplayed in the 30 song playlist. If you use Spotify, clicking on the previous link will open up the playlist that I enjoyed this morning.
After returning home and being greeted as a hero by Carol for accomplishing such a distance (my training for this major run next Sunday has been, admittedly, spotty, I showered, brunched (oh, how I love running for the way that it makes everything taste better) and then rested my weary bones with some reading. In a similar manner that I use Spotify to find any and all music that I want to listen to, just this week, I signed up for the magazine service put out by Rogers which gives me unlimited access to a whole panoply of magazines. My iPad is the ideal device to read on. I have these magazines listed as My Favourites: Bicycling; Canadian Business; Canadian Cycling; Canadian Running; Consumer Reports; L’actualité; National Geographic plus these from same publisher – History, & Traveller. Continuing: New York Magazine; Popular Mechanics; Québec Science; Popular Science; Rolling Stone; Smithsonian; The Atlantic; Travel & Leisure; Vanity Fair; Vélo Mag; Wired; The Official Program of the World Cup of Hockey 2016 and, finally, Zoomer. Missing from this list are weekly or bi-weekly magazines like Time, Newsweek, McLeans, The New Yorker, Billboard and People. I opted for the Basic $9.99 per month subscription that includes only the monthly magazines. From a point of view of costs, I simply cancelled my New York Times digital subscription (too much of the American election) which cost me $14.99 per month. I am quite happy that the $10 per month gives me access to a fair slate of Canadian content including magazines en français that will help me expand my vocabulary.
Am I reading? Yes! Besides the reading from the library, much of this also coming across my iPad as e-books from the Montreal Library, the Bibliotheque et Archives Nationales du Québec, and the Ontario Public Library system. Thank you Baysville Library for access to the e-book wealth of an entire province. My Goodreads links to my updated reading list with very short reviews for my completed books.
Now back to Québec Science magazine’s fascinating article on the history of the Saint Lawrence river.
God has no problem with that
Thinking of a title for my Sunday blog this week, which must be prepared this Saturday night as tomorrow is not only a day of rest in the morning for me and Carol, it is an exciting day of choir work as we audition over 50 singers for Montreal Gospel Choir. Exciting season-beginning event each year.
So….what of the title, “God doesn’t have any problem with that”. Well, if God were God On High, and also Prosperity God, wishing, even willing my material well-being, I know he would have a problem with the way I conduct my business. This Prosperity God would be ashamed to be associated with an affair like mine which refuses to progress and finds itself (parce que, l’affair dans cette affair, c’est MOI) doing shoddy things like lugging home leftover product wrapped up with ice like I was some bag-lady moving her worldly possessions. At the June market I reached my target of a complete sell-out in spite of having significant un-ordered product. When this happens, I’m elated the whole trip home. Today I had little extra product available at the outset (except in Garlic-smoked sausage) so I didn’t try to promote extra sales. Result: I didn’t get extra sales and had several no shows – people not claiming their orders.
[Note added 6 weeks after original date of this blog: watch this 6 minute presentation on the effects of inner voices from Alain de Botton’s School of Life. You could say that my rather confusing blog “God has no problem with that” is about me listening to my inner voice condemning me about the way I do business. Fortunately, God is to me the comforting, encouraging inner voice and more than that, God specializes in redeeming bad situations, at least that is my experience. Read on and see what happens when I’m faced with more leftover product than I can carry and a rapidly approaching deadline if I am to reach the last Saturday train back to Montreal.]
What did the God that I know do? (Btw, He is Suffering Servant God and God Immanuel, too). This God sent an absolute angel of a taxi man: patient, caring, good driver, very professional, a listener. The flat rate from Burlington to Union Station downtown Toronto was nothing miraculous, but I tipped him as if he was Jesus Christ meeting Abraham. God can get me more of the tipping money and he all-the-time-Jehovah-Jireh does (that’s my life experience). But still, I’m lugging a hockey-bag-sized ensemble of 4 X 5 kg garlic sausage plus ice bag to keep the product chilled, plus insulation to keep the ice from totally melting, a vinyl sign used between ice and product to keep the whole thing from becoming sausage soup until I got on the chill train. ‘Le tout’ bound together and made carry-able, but not elegantly, with the jib halyard that I salvaged from the items in the rummage shed at the Lake of Bays dump several years ago. Fer shame, Ted!
I am presently returning from a business trip – please don’t imagine me meeting clients like a traditional businessman might on a business trip. That is what I do – meet my clients – but we’re not talking of some future sale, we’re handing over product that they have ordered from me by phone or email. If I did it every month I might really hate what I do, but I do it 4 times per year (go to market) and it refreshes the majority of what I do in my business which is work by myself in a cooler, packaging sausage while staring at the box liners hanging in front of my stainless steel work table. I don’t exactly hate that either, as it is menial work which gives a person time to think great thoughts, and the one day per week nature of packaging is about the appropriate healthy level for doing that sort of thing.
God has no problem with that. God can use that, even when I’m ashamed of myself for my shabby show. God is ‘in it’. Like ‘with me’ – Immanuel. God doesn’t desire to put me in a situation where I don’t feel much respect for my business self, but he doesn’t say “I’m out of here” or reinforce my negative self condemnation, he sends his angels to carry me. Sometimes the taxi dispatcher sends Jesus.
Glory to God, in the highest!
And peace, on earth.
Good will…
btw, the bag-lady worldly possessions ensemble got delivered to my faithful Cornwall customer (and perhaps himself a double agent school teacher / part-time angel) who was over-the-moon for how it worked out in his favour and was ready for me to deliver like this all-the-time. That would be putting the Lord, Thy God to a foolish test (in my eyes, anyways). This one’s a one-off, kind of cool-in-the-end experience that started with me wallowing in misery. And praise God, for His ways are right. But Via Rail delivery? Not happening…..more than once.
Mountain top reading
Me voici dans les environs ou il me plait prendre mon petit-dejeuner-le-matin de temps en temps. L’arbre dont son nom j’ignore (en francais je viens d’apprendre les noms des arbres et c’est un bouleau!) Je continue – cette arbre, le bouleau, est fixe dans une niche [ je pense c’est le bon mot] entre un plateau [??] de roche ou je me trouve assis.
[Hey, my incredibly awkward beginning to this blog – in the original version – seems to flow much better when I expressed it en francais. Malheureusement, je suis assis devant le clavier chez mes parents et icitte, les accents, grave et aigu, les tres mignons cedilles sur les c, sont cachees qq-part et c’est pas ecrire en francais sans les accents. Pas de tout, pas de tout, pas de tout. Et puis….. je retourne a mon originally-blogged language which is Capital E-nglish (with a little help from our German friends).]
[This is the original beginning to the mountain-top reading blog of Sunday, August 4 re-written when I saw that the original beginning had language that just-didn’t-flow, way-too many commas and well, it just didn’t please me in the way that this place that I sometimes eat breakfast at and linger and read at…not a great linguistic construct, that, but at least it’s a parallel construct…this place pleases me, but the description, not-at-all. Here, I’ll bring my breakfast hot-from-home, and, when my schedule permits, I continue here and read books. The birch tree which is rooted right in the middle in a small space between this large flat rock reminds me of a large rock along the Dickie Lake Road which has a similar birch growing, somehow, in a small space. At first glance, both trees – the Dickie Lake birch and the one pictured here – seem to be growing right out of the rock.
The view from my picnic table looks down over a large picnic area which is situated just above (or behind) the chalet and the belvedere. I can sometimes be distracted by others in the vicinity doing various martial arts, or throwing frisbees or playing catch with their kids. But in the morning, at 8:30am, it has the advantage of bird sounds and amazing light, and I climbed maybe 160 metres of elevation (with my bicycle) to get here, so I have an appetite and am already somewhat focused for my reading. Not many users in this large area in the morning and the other users of this area, if any, are usually alone and into their own meditative pursuits.
What am I reading up here? Well, if it’s in my Goodreads recently, I may have read parts of it here. Last summer, which was before I discovered the advantages of this particular picnic site spot, I was bringing Pilgrim at Tinker Creek on my bike rides up the mountain. But this summer and fall, I’m reading novels – literature, I hope. Right now I’m reading a Michael Crummey novel set in the fictional outport of Paradise Deep in Newfoundland. And then I have my regular 4 track Bible reading program which in September has me in Isaiah, Proverbs, Luke and Hebrews (some top notch Biblical writing, to be sure). I’ve been reading a 1950’s Short History of Christianity by Martin Marty and “Credo” by Hans Kung. Books like that I’m not reading in a hurry, but at a pace where I can contemplate what the author is really saying. There is another book that is so complicated that I have to be in a spot where I can really concentrate before I can make any progress in aligning my thinking with that of the author. This would be my best reading spot and probably the one where I am least likely to fall asleep mid-page.
And this is me re-establishing my Sunday blog on the Labour Day weekend, 2016.
Barbados Booking High
This afternoon I’ve been on an anticipatory Friday afternoon high, but not the typical release that comes with the venue of a holiday weekend ahead, but even more – a Barbados Booking High!
In the last two days I spent hours looking at travel possibilities, trying to balance Carol’s expressed needs for all-inclusiveness and a book-reading perch with a view, with my needs for both comfort (and nothing is more comfortable than a happy wife) and adventure.
Over 3 of the last 4 years we’ve spent a post concert (“One 12”, 13, and 15) pre-Christmas holiday in Dominican Republic at an all-inclusive, ditto for 2013 and in last year’s version we took a step in the Ted adventure direction by branching out from an old favourite – the 7 mile, Negril Beach and combining a stay at a budget all-inclusive with acceptable Jamaican cuisine (we had memories of going to Merrils for short stays with family) with a slick hotel down the beach which was strictly a-la-carte once you got beyond breakfast.
With 2015’s holiday successfully breaking us out of the package-all-inclusive mould, I started planning this year’s version. I prefer to start with something that I already know somewhat for having been there once – Barbados, and going on variations from there. Our first and only trip to Barbados had been a home-stay (thank you, Lashleys) and we made great connections that trip with relatives of our friend whose home we were staying at, who took us on a day’s tour around the entire island of Barbados. We felt the wind at The Crane, saw the surfers at Bathsheba, and rounded, by way of the hilly north to the flat and gentle waters of the (over-developed) west coast. All that and lunch at our hosts lovely central-Barbados hilltop home. Beijans are nothing, if not hospitable.
When I checked out flights to Barbados yesterday, the prices were quite good by pre-Christmas standards. I kept that in mind, but I didn’t ye
t know what I was going to do with it. Travelzoo is an email letter that sends out weekly travel deals. It always piques my interest to look at travel options that are also available at good prices. This week’s Travelzoo deals had a St. Lucia resort that got me checking into how I might get there. In the process of trying different flight possibilities of combining a Barbados flight with a pond-jumper over to St. Lucia, I saw that some of these Liat flights were not direct connections but stopped over in Fort-de-France (Martinique) or St. Vincent. In the end, I took St. Lucia out of the equation entirely when I saw an all-inclusive (my wife’s guaranteed approval) available at a very acceptable price per day that had impeccable rooms and great reviews on the food…in St. Vincent.
St. Vincent is now where we are really going for the week following the concert in December. We are taking a return flight, Montreal – Barbados, relaxing for the afternoon and evening at the pictured hotel quite convenient to the airport (South Beach Hotel) and then heading back to Grantley Adams after breakfast and lunch for the 40 minute flight with Liat to St. Vincent. From that point we are in the hands of the all-inclusive hands of Buccament Bay Resort. A couple of hours after arriving this will be our westward sunset view from the resort on the beach. There is a reef and crystal clear water right off the beach at the resort, so my relaxation WILL be including colourful fish-gazing. Oh yes, bring it on!
Update: September 23. We decided to forgo the unknown of St. Vincent & Liat air connections for the comforts of an all-inclusive on the west side of Barbados. Looking forward to walking miles along the beach in Barbados, hanging with the Brits at The Club and swimming in the clear waters with the sea turtles.
Dragonfly
When the wind is not pushing my Laser sailboat on Dickie Lake there is time to think. Last week a dragonfly dropped by on my board sailer during one of these lulls and it got me to thinking. As long as I’ve known anything of dragonflies, it has been my favourite insect. Who could not appreciate an aeronautical wonder that feeds on mosquitos or mosquito larvae, at the dragonfly nymph stage of their life. And if a deerfly pest should wander from his roadside territory to the water domain of the dragonfly, I’d like to think one of my favourite four-winged odonates would enforce his territory for the good of us all.
This dragonfly on the ivory non-slip deck of the Laser less than a metre ahead of me might have been wondering how my one-winged boat did fly, but it got me thinking of God’s presence in my life.
I moved cautiously to study the insect, but even when a bit of breeze started moving the boat, it stuck with me, along for the ride. I felt accompanied, as if by the Holy Spirit. I wondered if there are things that I do that cause that Spirit to abandon ship, as if to say, “I’m not with him on this matter”. Maybe I need to be careful to “walk right” to keep the beneficent non-creature on board in my life. But that is such an O.T. kind of thought about the Spirit. It’s possible that I can grieve the Spirit but the “I will never leave you, nor forsake you” Spirit we now have would just weigh on my conscience, letting me know he was present and not happy with me.
The info in wikipedia on Dragonflies would probably understand the dragonfly’s extended stay with me as “warming”. On Friday afternoon, another dragonfly turned a portion of his multi-facetted eye on me as I hovered over him with iPhone camera. If I have 7 or 8 pictures of him on the new cedar decking of the dock, it must be this “warming” again. Folklore has it that if a dragonfly lands on your rod when fishing, it means you are going to catch a fish. Or maybe you’re just being still, reflecting light, so that this distinguished insect can pass time mutually-beneficial with you.
Hmmm. Mutually-beneficial. May my presence be that way. And also with you.
Cottageday 1 Ambitiously realistic
Day one of my cottage vacation has me delving into the books from first light in the bedroom window, with James Alan McPherson “Elbow Room”. This is a Pullitzer prize-winning short story book from a black American author who died earlier this week. Ted deems it “prize-deserving and thoroughly enjoyable”. Its city settings totally out of context with life in Muskoka.
After swim, breakfast, run, breakfast, swim, I reclined in zero gravity (??) next to a maple sapling and checked out the maples in Donald Culross Peattie “A Natural History of North American Trees”. This writer, who died in 1964, has the perfect educational background for me: French Poetry at University of Chicago and botany at Harvard before working for the Department of Agriculture”. [See inside jacket photo]
The language usage is outstanding. Noted: rachitic, elegiac, dietetic, mayfly, wraithlike, sesquipedalian. Searching for the Latin expression used by Peattie, “Horribile dictu” I came across the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary, available for a 14 day trial – SOLD! Will be looking to expand my knowledge of words over this vacation.
Here’s a two paragraph quotation from Peattie which I cite, not particularly for the language, but for the subtle yet precise way that the author expresses an opinion on the landscaping uses of the Silver Maple Tree:
“A tree with so many charms has naturally been planted far beyond its natural range, and everywhere within it. In the South, where it is rare as a native tree, it is common as a street tree. In the West, even in southern California where deciduous trees usually find little favor, it is a favorite, for it cannot grow without lending grace to any spot; it makes a railroad station look like a home, and adds a century to the appearance of a village street. It is the fastest growing of all our Maples, one of the fastest among all trees suitable to our climate, be they native or exotic. It is as charming in its childhood as in age, and in its youth goes through no awkward stage.
Yet landscape architects have little good to say of it. They complain of the insect pests that attack it, and of its comparatively short life, as well as the breakage of its brittle and too-long boughs under wind and ice damage. They urge that it be planted, if at all, in the full knowledge that it’s quickly achieved effects will not last long, and that more permanent if slower plantings be started at the same time. It may be that we should always listen to cautious and sensible people and not allow ourselves to think too highly of a tree that will perhaps only live three times as long as we do.”
Natural history and language brought together, like Annie Dillard also capably accomplishes in “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”. A treat to consider Culross Peattie’s writing and learn natural history, American history and language, all together.
Prepared for a cottage vacation
The above view is a good summary of what I expect of my 10 or so days at the cottage this summer. Taken from the hammock where I read, read, read, it looks over the water where I swim, swim, swim and when conditions are right – Windy, mais pas TROP venteuse – I set out on my Laser sailboat.
Today, I am all packed, as when I did the wash yesterday I assembled the appropriate clothes directly into my suitcase. I kept telling myself that this year I will keep my expectations of what I am going to do at the cottage simple – besides the above, we’ll be eating, running or walking a lot (1/2 marathon to prepare for this fall) and after expending all that energy, sleeping so soundly, like only the cottage environment allows me to do.
Other years I may have included non-traditional cottage tasks, which strangely, I never accomplished. Some of them: Learning another language, making speakers – an alternative sound system for my truck, doing calling for an August market (this year it is Sept. 10); so many projects / so little time – the cottage is not conducive for THAT!
It is always a pleasure to make the 6-8 hour drive to the cottage. Because of the anticipation. Passing familiar places that you just see once a year. Much of the route is itself cottage country. Once past Ottawa we’ll be passing lakes on the left and the right, past Round Lake (Camp Mishewah – camp of my youth), through Algonquin Park, and stopping to provision along the way (but not over-doing the food purchases this year).
And arriving – unloading the trunk – it is all going to be in the car trunk this year – but for the canoe paddle which must go in the back seat. It will be such a quick unload; and then we’ll put clothes in a drawer and pull out one of three bathing suits and swim in the lake – just for fun – we’ll leave the laps of exercise up and down the shore for tomorrow.
Lukas Lafond-Rivard
