I didn’t run this morning — dead legs, so I walked most of the way with occasional short tests of my limbs’ willingness (all tests negative). Hot breakfast and coffee, shower and dress, Morning Prayer, finalise and print sermon, funeral at St Michael’s, then home to read and writ … | Continue reading
I did read a good bit and write a few words for my next essay, spent some time thinking about my upcoming paper at BNTS, and wrote some of the sermon for Wednesday, on top of taking the Communion service for Bridge House — so yesterday I had a full dance card. This morning’s run… | Continue reading
Yesterday morning’s sermon went all right, and Margaret and I enjoyed a plesant cup of coffee (tea) in the square after church. I did get a tiny bit of work done on my current essay debt in the afternoon, but step by step is how it will get done. The rest was rest and reading… | Continue reading
I haven’t been able to post sermons for most of July, so weeks of preaching are clogging up the pipes. I’ll post several below the fold, as it were (‘“As it was” — we know this to be true from our Prayerbooks’, as my father used to say). Saturday 5 Trinity C Abingdon 2025 Proper… | Continue reading
When I stopped timing my runs in March, I had hammered my times down to about 17:30 or so for the two miles. But I was no longer feeling neutral about exercising in the morning — I started to feel more intense annoyance and resentment about my morning runs, and I decided that any … | Continue reading
So, haven’t burned through my bandwidth yet. Ran and walked my two miles this morning. I’ve been running every day (barring rain) for a while, but my legs just didn’t feel like putting in the effort this morning, so I gave them a break. Yesterday I had a parish visit and a meetin … | Continue reading
This post may be visible only for a short while, as my hosting company and I haven’t been able to figure out just who has been hammering the site nor how we might stop them, and my monthly bandwidth allowance may burn up in a matter of minutes. Nonetheless, I’m still here to say … | Continue reading
After having extricated the Disseminary domain from its infestation of bots (at least, for the time being), made back-ups galore, taken a deep breath, and squeezed my eyes closed — I updated my PHP installation and then, trembling, updated WordPress. You see the result before you … | Continue reading
Another very good run this morning! I don’t know what on earth has happened — Cool weather for the last two days, warm and humid this morning, and all three went by with no sluggish portions, no wobbly joints, no dead-weight limbs. Coffee, toast (we’re out of my breakfast fruit), … | Continue reading
The good support team at Exact have helped me weed some toxic invaders to my site, and we may be able to disinfect it altogether soon. Here’s hoping… Meanwhile, yesterday’s run was good, and this morning’s run was very good indeed. Although I haven’t been getting around much (sta … | Continue reading
Good run this morning — still a mystery to me why some mornings are better than others. Coffee, fruit, shower, coffee, toast, and Margaret and I went to St Michael’s this morning — this morning in the congregation, rather than at the altar or pulpit. In case you hadn’t heard alre … | Continue reading
I have neglected the blog for a couple of days — well, not the blog itself, but this public face of it. The outage of June/July arose because Exact Hosting had responded to a vast upwelling of traffic on my site. The traffic is coming predominantly from Vietnam and Canada, and se … | Continue reading
The temperature dropped precipitously overnight; after a good run in the stifling heat yesterday morning, I couldn’t get loose in this morning’s chill (down from 17° yesterday to 9° this morning) and in the end, mixed walking and running. Coffee and fruit, shower and dress, and s … | Continue reading
It was too hot yesterday — I made a care home visit at which I soaked through all my clothes and became distinctly aromatic, in an unpleasant, embarrassing way — so I gave myself a day to take my miles at a walking pace. Coffee and fruit, I’ll shower and dress, head to Morning Pr … | Continue reading
Morning run (despite the heat), coffee and fruit, showered and dressed, Morning Prayer, coffee and toast, 10:30 online meeting, 15:00 service at the Old Station House, 19:00 PCC meeting, and then bed. Minke has taken to sitting in the tiny space between me and the side of the cha … | Continue reading
I preached this morning at St Helen’s, on the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul, while we await the revelation of the outcome of our search for a new Team Rector.I append the homily below for the record… Peter and Paul, 2025 C Abingdon | Continue reading
The short version: After my last entry, I left for a visit with my children and grandchildren, during which time something lurking in the bowels of the site generated excessive bandwidth, such that Exact temporarily closed my site. I might have gotten it open again, but being on … | Continue reading
Preached at St Michael and All Angels. Caught up on rest. | Continue reading
Went in to Oxford to have the phone repaired, and was told that they couldn’t accept it for repair unless I had an appointment (even though there was nothing else going on at the store). Hung out with my former student Ryan Whitley for a while, showed him around Oriel, and rolled … | Continue reading
We woke up early this morning to get to Kansas City in time for the first of our three flights homeward. Ours left a little late, so that we were cutting it close for our flight to Boston. Oua ground holdr flight out of Baltimore was slightly delayed, though, so we got there in g … | Continue reading
Today we spent most of the day with a seminary pal of mine from olden times. Before we connected with him, we walked to the church he planted, checking it out for signs of his leadership (clue: we didn’t see any). Then we went to a meeting with him, then to his home to meet… | Continue reading
Farewell, Maine! ‘Should fate unkind send us to roam The scent of the fragrant pines, The tang of the salty sea will call us home.’ Next stop, Lawrence, Kansas. | Continue reading
We visited Pippa’s classroom at MDI High School, and looked around the rest of the school (especially the library), meeting some of her colleagues. Lydia and Tom weren’t sure they understood why they mightn’t take books out of this library. Then we checked out the Oceanarium, whe … | Continue reading
In the morning, we went to the Schoodic Education and Research Centre and took a small hike through the woods, then made out way to the shore. After that, we went home. Resting and socialising in the afternoon; Nate left southbound before too late. | Continue reading
In the morning, a delegation (including children) went to Tidal Falls, a reversing tidal rapid in the next town north of Sullivan. We saw some sea stars in their own habitat, and some mud, and some kelp. On the way home, we stopped at the Sullivan-Sorrento Recreation Centre to ce … | Continue reading
First of all: Library. Second: Thunder Hole, a visit to which constitutes a family tradition, and which was appropriately timed for maximum effect (somewhat before high tide). Then, home for a cookout with the fam. | Continue reading
(a) This is Margaret’s and my 43rd wedding anniversary, an elegantly prime anniversary (if not a particularly appealing number in any other particular way). (b) Today we travel from Portland to Sullivan, Maine; Si, Laura, Thomas, and Lydia will pick us up at Helen and Marc’s home … | Continue reading
From Providence to Portland, Maine, where we settled in before a visit to our friends from undergraduate days, Helen and Marc. (I don’t have photos from these days, because my phone was no longer functioning (as I noted before) and I hadn’t unpacked Margaret’s camera (that I was … | Continue reading
Safely in Providence, Rhode Island, with our dear friends Holly and Boyd, including visits with Anna and Jenesis. Appointment at the Apple Store midday, where the workers ruefully acknowledged that they didn’t have a screen in stock — but helpfully ran diagnostics that indicate t … | Continue reading
When I checked in and dropped my suitcase at Heathrow, I used the boarding pass on my phone, which was still functional despite the cracked screen. When, minutes later, I needed to show my boarding pass at security, the screen on my phone started strobing and turned a noxious sha … | Continue reading
Yesterday was the 39th anniversary* of my ordination as deacon (fr. Greek diakonos, a servant, a menial, sometimes a messenger) in the Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Episcopal Church, the US branch office of the Church of England. Since then, I’ve served in seven other dioceses, th … | Continue reading
Another rainy morning when I got up, so I didn’t run again. This morning has to focus on wrapping up tomorrow’s sermon; I’d like to squeeze in a run sometime, but it sounds as though this interval this morning will be the only rain-free point in the day. Margaret’s spending anoth … | Continue reading
Back on duty today, but no morning run (as it was raining). Coffee, fruit, very welcome hot shower, Morning Prayer, coffee and toast, sermon writing, reading, paper-editing. And I’m girding myself for travel again; being there will be lovely, but all the to-ing and fro-ing… ‘of m … | Continue reading
Lots of time at prayer, a significant nap, some reading. Will update later — time for the Office of Readings and Lauds. | Continue reading
I have for a long time been proud of the fact that I haven’t broken the screen on any of my successive phones, for fifteen or more years — until this morning. Technically, I didn’t break it; my iPad, which fell onto the phone, broke the screen. But I won’t try to didge accountabi … | Continue reading
No run this morning — I woke up early enough to squeeze one in, but I hadn’t planned to take one and it felt imprudent to change plans on the spot — but packing the last few items to prepare for the Sodality of Mary’s annual retreat. I hope to have time to nap between… | Continue reading
Good, comfortable run this morning — the way it ought to be. Coffee and fruit, Morning Prayer at home, clean up, fine-tune the sermon over coffee and toast, then up to St Nic’s for Mattins. This afternoon I’ll pack for the retreat. (Whoops! — Thanks to blogging this, I realised t … | Continue reading
I took an easy stroll this morning, with intermittent efforts to pick up the pace stopped in short order by unwilling leg muscles — just weren’t going to run. Coffee and hot breakfast, working on tomorrow’s sermon, soup, a thorough grocery shop with Margaret, and that was that. W … | Continue reading
Something Alan Jacobs said the other day started my brain itching until I realised what was bothering me. He was responding to Ted Gioia’s panegyric on Oxford’s teaching (and examining) as a remedy for AIism; Ted said, ‘For a start, professors in the US would refuse to spend so m … | Continue reading
I hadn’t expected today to be a good morning run, but once I limbered up (about a half mile in), I kept a good, steady pace and even ratcheted it up slightly as the run went on. I have no explanation for this. Coffee, fruit, off to Morning Prayer and to check the message machine… | Continue reading
This morning my body was gently but firmly unwilling to run more than a few paces. I was tired (despite a solid seven hours’ sleep), muscles just a little sore but mostly stiff, joints stiff, etc.) and the pollen in the air was irritating my eyes and breathing. Thus I opted to wa … | Continue reading
I took an easy morning run today, slow and self-indulgent, as my legs were stiff and slow. Then home for coffee and hot breakfast, and — as I sat down to eat breakfast — I check for messages and email. And what a morning it was! Last week, Lucy Bellwood’s Tumblr page led me to… | Continue reading
Good run yesterday, and very good run today. Yesterday I had public office hours at R&R in the morning, wrote a couple of recommendations, finished a lectionary help on Philemon, constructed a fresh outline of my overdue article on Anglican Hermeneutics, and Margaret and I had a … | Continue reading
My morning run went s-l-o-w-l-y, but it went. Coffee, fruit, toast, shower, dressed, church, home, work (emails, homily for evening service, etc.), groceries, evening Healing and Wholeness service, home for dinner. The Orioles won one game yesterday, the DFA’ed Cionel Pérez, and … | Continue reading
Every now and then, someone online reminds me that Metafilter still exists, and I sigh and give a little thanksgiving that not everything from the good old days has been strangled by monopsonists or smothered in AI slop. This afternoon I bumped into a reference to a MeFi thread o … | Continue reading
I missed yesterday, yet again, but (a) my run was not especially distinguished in any way; (b) we had a very favourable report on Flora’s recovery from abdominal surgery, so good news for the ladies; (c) pleasant, relaxing lunch and afternoon; (d) made my way in to Oxford, did a … | Continue reading
Yesterday didn’t quite go to plan. The funeral was as desired, and I rode to the crem in the hearse, all well. The Committal at the crem was duly brief, and all were stricken; and the hearse brought me back to St Helen’s. The catch, though, is that the church had been locked up w … | Continue reading
I didn’t run this morning, since we had much-needed steady, gentle rain. Morning Prayer, hot breakfast, then Staff Meeting, then a funeral and committal at the crematorium; possibly a round at the wake; then home to close my eyes and let stress ebb from my sinews. | Continue reading