"It is not how old you are, but how you are old." - Jules Renard

By 6:30 this morning my brain was already full.

I've been reading about Eastport, NY to get a sense of that place. And my sense is that Long Island and Eastport are both unique, or at least very different from any place I've lived. In Phoenix a home built in the 1990's is an "older home," something that doesn't describe anything in Eastport built since 1900. Some homes predate the War of Independence.

I'd never thought about "the Hamptons," a term I've heard used on TV shows. I think. Don't really know for sure where I've heard it but it's always plural (mountains?) and I got the sense that it was spelled with multiple $ signs.
It is spelled with $$$$ but it isn't mountains or anything of the sort.
The Hamptons are made up of a bunch of towns at the east end of Long Island that have Hampton in their name - East Hampton, Bridge Hampton, Hampton Bay.... They're all filled with luxury summer vacation homes and inns and totally clogged with tourists from May to September. Eastport is west of the Hamptons (Long Island runs east and west off the coast of NY) and has been the rural, working class, dull-eyed sister. But as prices and traffic in the Hamptons have gone through the roof more people are discovering Eastport and the tourism has been moving in a little more each year.

Old families with old country names with lots of Italians. A growing antique scene, subdivisions popping up, and Dunkin' Donuts as ubiquitous as Starbuck's in Seattle. Almost like it's a place caught between the 1800's and the 21st century.

Of course all that comes from my reading online. I'll get a much better sense of the place once my feet hit the ground there and I start interacting with the people. One month won't but get me started understanding their corner of the country but I'm looking forward to what I think is going to be almost a cross-cultural experience.

Pam got home this afternoon!! Things are, as my grandmother would say, "right as rain." And rain we've got by the bucket load. We're at a half inch so far today and it's still coming down, with another half inch tomorrow and three quarters on Saturday. 

Nathan called this evening and the flights from Eugene to NY and back are booked. This is gonna happen.
Tomorrow I'll start sketching out the sermons and lessons I'll do while I'm there. I'll start with a list of options and then choose those that I think will work best. I don't know them or their church so I'm going to need some help from Someone.