"Football isn't a contact sport, it's a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport." - Vince Lombardi

In the "Close, But Not Quite" department, two malapropisms from this morning:

• A pastor on Facebook wrote: "Christ insured his crucifixion." Who knew Geico bundled crucifixions into their home and auto policies??
• In a USAToday.com article on a boy who had a speech impediment fixed with a 15 second surgical procedure: "Really poor annunciation." The virgin Mary would disagree. 

I forgot to include in last night's post that we fired up the new wood stove late yesterday for the first time. I built another fire this morning to take the chill off MoHo. What a huge difference!! The wood buns at less that half the rate. I put three pieces in at the beginning of this morning's fire and an hour later they weren't half consumed, whereas with the old stove I would have reloaded once and be close to the second. 

The stove gets hotter, too. We had an oven thermometer on the old stove and with a roaring fire it would get up to 200-250 degrees. This stove quickly hits 400 degrees and would go higher if I opened the damper all the way.

Our supply of firewood is going to last a LOT longer and we'll be more comfortable. It wasn't a cheap upgrade but I'm glad we finally did it. 

The class I'm teaching Sunday mornings before the worship service is for those who are doing the read through the Bible in a year program. We spend the first half talking about things that struck them as they did the past week's reaching and I try to answer questions they have. Then I introduce the section they'll be reading in the coming week with an overview of relevant customs, geography, characters, etc. and an outline of the book if it's the first time the schedule has us reading in it. I prepare slides for each week's look ahead and also create a quiz (that isn't collected) to they can check their progress. 

I go from there into the worship service where I try to take very good notes on Brett's sermon. Monday morning - usually shortly after I get up, or around 3:30 - I write out questions that are used as discussion guides by the small groups at their meetings.

I enjoy both these responsibilities and am glad to help out. But it does keep me on my toes. Some days, after adding in chores and medical appointments I think I should go back to being a pastor so I have more free time. 

Sally's rear main seal is all but gone. I'm leaking oil at an embarrassing clip and making a mess of her undercarriage. Alas, this is another job for Ron who can put her up on a lift instead of me jacking her up and laying in the gravel. Especially since this job may require pulling the oil pan. 

I think the Dems may have overplayed their hand. I suspect they'll look back and realize the biggest impact they had re. Kavanaugh's nomination was energizing the conservative base that otherwise might have laid idle during the mid-terms. 

We're going to get 1/2" of rain over the next 24 hours. We've only had a couple of hundredths a few times since the last significant rain three months ago so this will be wonderful. The native rhodies on our property are wilted from lack of water. I'm curious to see how quickly they respond to the rain. 

Buddy is doing grate. He doesn't like going in his crate but he'll adjust. Right now it feels like he's been put in jail. 

He makes it very clear when he needs to go outside, hasn't shown any bad habits that need correcting, and pretty much leaves Bear alone. That attitude is reciprocal and I think Bear resents the intruder. But no fights. 

I don't know why I'm so sleepy but I dozed off at the end of that last paragraph. That level of drowsiness suggests that anything written from this point onward will sully even my questionable reputation. 

G'night.