"We can lick gravity but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming." - Wernher von Braun

A friend - a Tico - posted this on his Facebook page. We can watch a limited amount of video with our satellite internet IF we do it before 8 a.m. when we have get unlimited data (2 a.m. to 8 a.m.) so I watched this when I got up this morning.
I think this video is wonderful. But as Gustavo wrote in his post, you have to watch it through to the end.
And yes, that's their real voices, I'm assuming in falsetto. Never mind if it sounds weird to you, think about the vocal control these guys have.

August 25 would be the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein so the classical stations on DishTV and the local classical music station are playing a lot of his music. Some of it is outstanding, IMO, and some of it just weird. The chorale I joined in Riverside did three concerts a year and for one of them we did portions of his Chichester Psalms. I started out thinking it was in the weird category but after rehearsing it for months I almost got to like it.
Who doesn't like West Side Story?!

I did my five miles today. It was an LSD - long, slow distance - just get in the miles. When I got home I saw that while not exactly blazing my tempo wasn't all that bad.
There's something oddly enjoyable about doing longer runs. There comes a point when you fall into a groove, don't think about the effort, and just run. When I get home from an LSD I'm tired, and today drenched in sweat, but mentally refreshed.

The Brits have wonderful colloquialisms, one of the things we like about watching BBC period detective shows on PBS. On Endeavor DCI Friday often sends Morse out the door of the station house with "Mind how you go." It means, "be attentive, be careful." I've taken to saying that to Pam when she's headed out the door for town.
Last night on a new show from that genre, Hinterland (described by DishTV as "detective noir"), one of the characters said, "She's not a patch to Mabel", meaning, "she's not nearly as good" or, as we might say, "doesn't hold a candle to...." The person in question isn't adequate to be a patch on the fabric that is Mabel.
I need to remember that one, too.

There's a bond that develops between a pastor and (some of) his people, including his students, that this pastor is usually unaware of until it pops up somehow in a conversation, often years later.
This morning I got the sweetest email from Candy who, with her husband Danny attended the Prunedale church when we were there. (They still attend.)
She wrote, "Remember how we used to sing Bless Be the Tie that Binds at the end of each Sunday evening service? It's been on my heart all week as we look forward to the reunion on the 26th."
That warmed the cockles of my heart that 35 years later she remembers that.

We're casually deciding what we want to do on our camping trip in each of the two state parks where we'll stay. That first night we'll be in Valley of the Rogue State Park just south of Grants Pass. The only In-n-Out in the entire state of Oregon happens to be in Grants Pass so we're going to drive back into town for what we consider the best burgers in the business. That also means Pam won't have to prepare a meal or do dishes afterward, which will simplify getting out first thing in the morning for the long drive to Henry Cowell State Park outside of Santa Cruz CA.

Late breaking:
I've had a sermon idea boiling in my head for the last 3 or 4 days. That happens sometimes. I have been thinking how to develop the idea, what passages I'd use, how I'd develop the premise and how the application section would play out.
Truth be told, it was difficult to tell myself to mentally work on it but then put it away in my brain file labeled Sometime. The more I thought about it the more I got into it.

After this morning's longer run I should have taken the rest of the day off in terms of exercise but for no good reason I decided to go to the gym late this afternoon.
When I leave home I try to remember to take my phone off "airplane mode" so I can pick up any voice mail stored and waiting until I'm in cell phone range. I did that when I got to the gym.
I ended up doing a pretty strenuous workout that included 75 pushups, 75 sit ups, 4x400 meters of rowing, and 12 pull ups (in addition to the 36 I'd already done here at home). When I came out I checked my phone and, sure enough, there was a message that actually arrived while I was inside.

It was from Brett, our pastor. He's out of town for the week. He'd asked two of the staff guys if they could preach for him but both of them said they'd also be out of town. Brett said that for some reason his brain told him the pulpit was covered. Then late this afternoon he had a dope-slap moment (he didn't use that term) and realized he hadn't lined up anyone to preach. "Can you preach Sunday?"

I believe in coincidences if it's spelled with an upper case C.

So I'll be spending a lot of the next few days making sure this brainstorm of a sermon works. What's in my head now is nowhere close to what I need by 10:30 a.m. Sunday.