Yesterday I ran, joined Morning Prayer with my colleagues, had a meeting with the Rector, had a cup of coffee in town at Java, did some grocery shopping, made it home at about lunch time, worked on the bulletin for my licensing service, reconstructed the prompt for the first tuto … | Continue reading
What to say? Saturday we stayed indoors, at home, in deference to the flood waters. I didn’t run (though of course I could have taken a different route that stayed clear of the rivers; it just seemed more sensible to stay at home, indoors, while I hammered out a sermon and Margar … | Continue reading
Guess I’m not going to run this morning… Yes, yes, I understand that I could run in the opposite direction, but I’m a creature of habit. | Continue reading
I’ve been in a grouchy mood all day because I went for a haircut yesterday, and despite my having said explicitly (and repeatedly) that I wanted my hair tidier not shorter, not shorter, the barber trimmed away a year’s growth of hair. Once I sit down in the chair and take my glas … | Continue reading
I don’t usually read Matt Mullenweg’s blog — to be honest, I didn’t even remember that he had one, though I remembered his tagline — but Dave Rogers pointed me to it, and more specifically to Matt’s request that people blog, and that they link their posts to his birthday blog whe … | Continue reading
The ladies, Minke and Flora, that is. I’ll add photo evidence as soon as I can. Ran my two miles this morning, against objections from my quadriceps, coffee and fruit breakfast, shower, Morning Prayer, and back home to help Margaret with her tea and breakfast, as she slipped on t … | Continue reading
I woke up in my (our) own bed this morning after nine or ten hours’ sleep — aaahhhh! Got up, ran my shorter route (to warm my legs up to the idea of daily running again), coffee, shower, dressed in clericals since from today on, I’m more-or-less engaged as one of the clergy at Ab … | Continue reading
Margaret and I landed at Heathrow this morning, walked a half mile or so through the entrails of Terminal 3, and breezed through passport control in a flash (honestly, could not have been any faster, amazingly). We meandered to the Central Bus Station and went directly to the Oxf … | Continue reading
With a few hours left in the United States, if there are any last-minute errands I can accomplish for you, please let me know. It’s been a lovely visit to see our grandchildren, and children, and long-years friends; I was balked in two efforts to see my sister, with whom I very m … | Continue reading
Ahoy, friends — we’ve been bouncing back and forth from place to place, with dear ones from among our friends and family, catching up with lives from which time has kept us apart. Some joys, some deep frustrations, on the verge of resuming Abingdon days. | Continue reading
I’ve reached that point in travel and time zones, intensified by last week’s illness and subsequent exhaustion followed by a Sunday IV Advent/Christmas Eve, where I no longer really know when I am. On the positive side, seeing Laura, Si, Thomas, and Lydia (in Indy) and Nate (in N … | Continue reading
Last night/yesterday afternoon, a pernicious bug or a source of food poisoning afflicted some in the Adam and Harris-Adam families. First Si, then Margaret, then I succumbed and purged violently. We slept poorly and arrived at the airport at 4:45 or so exhausted, nauseous, achey, … | Continue reading
After running, breakfast, reading, and various other grandchild-oriented activities, we went to pre-school to watch the Christmas Program (not a pageant). Grandson and granddaughter excelled in their respective roles: Grandson performed the Reindeer Pokey (Hokey Pokey, but dresse … | Continue reading
Two miles (1.8 miles) in the morning, fruit and bagel breakfast, my introduction to my granddaughter Lydia, reading and talking and doing French homework with Thomas, and relaxing start of day with Si and Laura and Margaret. | Continue reading
A long time ago, I was invited to write a review of the NRSVue of the Bible, in exchange for a copy. I reasoned that as I own many copies of the NRSV in varying bindings with varying annotations and varying bonus features, I was unlikely to buy a copy of the ue (the Updated… | Continue reading
Can’t get much more ordinary than me running my two miles, making hot breakfast, feeding and walking the dogs, going to church, home to feed and walk the dogs… It’s ordinary in Advent. | Continue reading
That’s what I always say when Minke and Flora and I are passing other pedestrians, or dogs — though to be sure, Minke is usually so apocalyptically dramatic when she notices another dog that there’s hardly any point to trying to dissuade her. I had a busy day yesterday with some … | Continue reading
Yesterday I spent the late morning and the whole afternoon cleaning the flat in Headington that we recently vacated, and preparing it for incoming guests of our hosts. After a busy start to the morning, I was quite weary and not a little hungry by the time I got back to Abingdon … | Continue reading
Wednesday night I gave a talk to the Abingdon Rotary Club. I was assigned the title ‘A Christmas Message’, so I was constrained not to bang on about fountain pens or deconstruction or how proud I am of Margaret and our children; instead, I talked about A Christmas Carol and | Continue reading
Ran my miles, fruit breakfast, on my way to Morning Prayer, thence to Headington where I’ll give a once-over to the now-vacated flat. If I can get that done promptly, I’ll get back here with a view to (a) relaxing (b) reading (c) further working on the house. Margaret and I need … | Continue reading
Running (2 mi.), less concern about my right foot/ordinary plantar pain in my left, fruit breakfast, Morning Prayer, rain (the rivers are higher than I’ve seen them before here in Abingdon); but this morning I had a planning meeting with my boss, so we’re well on our way forward … | Continue reading
I think that like Rapunzel spinning straw into gold (supposedly), Señora Flora Dora Dinosaura, tribe of Zora, Food Adorer, Doesn’t Like Quora, must generate poop out of thin air. She just doesn’t eat that much, and evey time I take her for a walk she… requires a great deal of cle … | Continue reading
Yesterday’s activities may have pushed my healing foot a little too far — a run in the morning, two walks with the dogs, a walk to (and at*) St Helen’s in the morning, and another to (and at*) St Nicolas’s in the evening. By the end of the day, my foot was a bit impatient… | Continue reading
What do you know? It turns out that resting my foot, elevsating it, and tasking anti-inflammatories actually helps remedy a sudden flare-up of irritation to a once-broken (or otherwise damaged) bone and tissue in my foot! I’ll have to patent that and se if I can get johnson & Joh … | Continue reading
I did not run this morning. Indeed, I’m not sure I could have run. This is not due to the cold, steady rain falling during my running-time of the morning; the principal cause for my morning’s immobility lies in my right foot, the old war wound from the notorious Battle of Nassau … | Continue reading
This morning I ran a bit out of my way to go past St Nicolas’s, winding up with a run of 2.2 miles. The weather was dry (unlike yesterday morning, when it started to rain on me when I was halfway home). I spent intervals of the morning and afternoon hauling book boxes up to… | Continue reading
Abingdon has a plentiude of cafés, so I’m using Margaret’s absence to check out the atmosphere and offerings at several local establishments. This morning I’m at Java & Co., which serves a satisfactory Americano and has a plate of gluten-free brownies for Margaret, if she were he … | Continue reading
Yesterday was a marathon. I know it must be hard for the applicants, having just a few minutes to make a positive impression on interviewers for admission to your top-choice university. We interview two orn thee times as many students as we can offer admission, and we take applic … | Continue reading
Last night’s Advent Carols service went beautifully. It was my first ‘on’ service at St Helen’s (I read a lesson, led some responses and said the Advent Collect) — nothing complicated, but it gave me a chance to walk around the platform of the nave altar, turn my lavalier mic on … | Continue reading
I made my run this morning; the weather has turned warmer, at least for a day, and my fingers and toes did not go numb, or prickle and burn. My pace was moderate, and I arrived home almost comfortably. I’ll have another cup of coffee and a crumpet before church, take the dogs for … | Continue reading
Missed a few days (sorry). Last night I decided not to run this morning — fortuitously, as it turns out, since this was the coldest night so far this year. Instead, I stayed up a bit later than usual with Margaret, who will be leaving this morning to go to the US to help care… | Continue reading
It’s easy to think of drawbacks to running in cold weather, but one advantage lies in the intense urgency it lends to getting home again as rapidly as possible. Two miles, hot mug of coffee, Morning Prayer at St Helen’s in a bit. I neglected to mention that yesterday morning, whe … | Continue reading
Ran my morning miles, fruit breakfast, Morning Prayer at St Helen’s, correspondence, moving a bookcase and a bureau upstairs, some unpacking. Margaret found a small office printer stand with four tray-drawers. All this moving and unpacking and shelving has played havoc with my hy … | Continue reading
Ran my two miles, fruit breakfast, Morning Prayer at St Helen’s, moving and unpacking, odds and ends. | Continue reading
I assisted Fr Rob at Oriel’s Advent Carol Service last night, and then stayed for High Table at dinner. I hadn’t been into either of the SCRs or the pro tem [Senior Library] Hall, and I have to say that if one brackets the oddity of having a support scaffolding in the middle of a … | Continue reading
Ran two miles (although I dithered about whether I’d go, whether I’d run the whole two miles, and ended up committing to my usual length just by letting my feet take me to the two-mile inflection point), coffee, morning prayers. I’m thinking especially this morning of my sister H … | Continue reading
As we were unpacking, unwrapping some of the plenitude of framed art for which we give ardent thanks, my finger touched a frayed wire. Instantly, I felt an amazing, stunning, shocking, intense stinging pain — I was sure I’d sliced my finger open. I sucked the place of the wound, … | Continue reading
Put in my two miles this morning in sub-zero (-2°C) temps, prayers, hot breakfast, then off to the market square, Sue Ryder for a bureau and small bookshelf, and then (an ill-advised Saturday morning visit to) Waitrose. Today is framed art day at Enock House, and we may give a tr … | Continue reading
Today is a tutorial day, so after I ran my morning nanomarathon and cleaned up, I went in to St Helen’s for Morning Prayer, then caught the X3 in to Oxford where I’m checking in from a café before discussing the Matthean church with an Orielensis. Then to lunch with other New Tes … | Continue reading
Ran my two miles, coffee and prayers and fruit, then I think I’ll double my orisons at the church’s Morning Prayer service before I scour Abingdon for a packet of coffee filters. We anticipate another bookcase or two arriving. [Later] I meant four, four more bookcases, one of whi … | Continue reading
After my morning two miles, coffee, and prayers, Argos delivered a brand spanking new sofa and footstool. That mostly completes furniture acquisition for the lounge. More bookshelves to come. | Continue reading
Dad was born eighty-eight years ago today. He’s getting more and more difficult to imagine; different people age in different ways, at different paces. Many people I’ve known changed a lot between 72 and 88; I can imagine Dad with greyer, whiter hair, and somewhat diminished in o … | Continue reading
I don’t want to be that guy, but it has been grey and rainy for what seems like weeks. We’ve lived in England for more than ten years, so this is not a surprise, but having just moved to Abingdon it would be a pleasant break were we to have the chance to see our… | Continue reading
I made my morning run against the odds again, as the weather forecast last night sad that the precise hours of rainfall today would be the time from 5:00 to 6:30 when I usually run. I’m not sure it rained at all, but it certainly didn’t rain on my chilly, leisurely exercise. I sp … | Continue reading
I’m giving myself a morning off from the run. When I woke, I heard the sound of a light rain, and although it seems to have cleared up, I have enough aches and stiffness from yesterday’s exertions that it seems sensible to allow a day for the flesh to rebound. Today we’re going t … | Continue reading
Ran in the morning, even though the Home Office said there was a 94% chance of rain (wasn’t raining when I set out, and hardly encountered a raindrop on the whole run); hot breakfast; then worked like an inept, arthritic, back-weary demon constructing the last remaining bookcases … | Continue reading
Ran my now-usual 2 miles, 3° under clear skies, rivers still high, at a pace that is (for me) reasonable, but not impressive. As I unpack, I discover commonplace books, which I think I will begin recording here — both so as not to lose them, and so as to share themn with others a … | Continue reading
I cut off the spur that added two tenths of a mile to my run yesterday (thereby eliminating St Nic’s from my route, sorry y’all, I’ll build up to it). Chilly but dry, rivers still high and noisy, but beginning to feel at home in Abingdon. Bookshelves arrive today — that’ll make a … | Continue reading