A "micromort" is a measure of the risk of death expressed as a one-in-a-million chance.

I went out to my rental car this morning to find the windows covered with a layer of ice from a light rain that fell overnight and then froze. Welcome to Michigan.
I looked in vain for anything to scrape that ice off.
What kind of a rental company rents cars in Grand Rapids, Michigan without a snow brush/ice scraper included? A: Alamo.
No option but to sit in the running car for 15 minutes with the heater at full blast.

I had b'fast this morning with one of my former students who now pastors a church here in the area. Good conversation as we talked shop and how his ministry has progressed over the last decade-plus.

That conversation along with other informal exchanges, as well as some of the session content has my brain working on a variety of things. That's the reason I come to these events. And it's often the "side dishes" that prove to be the most stimulating, vis a' vis the formal sessions. Particularly true this year.

This afternoon's plenary session had no particular connection to the conference theme but was very helpful for me, and for Pathway. A local lawyer with expertise in church liability issues talked about the appropriate policies and procedures churches should have in place. That's an area that we need to address, as he said, not primarily to protect the church from legal action but to protect our people (both those who serve and those who are served) from harm.

I'm going to the ballet Saturday! The West Michigan Youth Ballet, an excellent troupe with a particularly wonderful artistic director, is putting on "The Tales of Beatrice Potter" and I'll be sitting near the front for the 4:30 performance. I have it on good authority that a couple of the roles are danced by performers almost as impressive as the aforementioned director. Looking forward to it!

We've been eating our meals in/from the student cafeteria. The conference ends with this evening's closing session (6:30-8:00) and is preceded by a banquet just for attendees. That eliminates my options for picking paleo options from the cafeteria lineup, but in the past it's been a very good meal, and one evening's deviation won't send me to an early grave. Who knows, they may even have bacon-wrapped something. Anything.