"Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." - Saint Augustine

From friend Sue

Last night was our first below freezing. Actually it was about 5 a.m. when we hit 31 degrees. The guy at the winery down the road told me I should wait until we've had two or three nights in the 20's before I cut back the badly overgrown grape vine in the garden area. It hasn't been pruned in at least two years, maybe longer, and it has runners 30' or 40' long.

When I came out from the bedroom a little before 4:00 the indoor/outdoor thermometer on the small table between our chairs said it was 57 inside. I got the wood stove lit and 90 minutes later it was 64. After 17 years in MI we find it no problem to wear sweatshirts over long sleeves, so that temp is fine.

The wood stove is in the living room next to the kitchen (they're open to each other, with only a 5" step separating one from the other). The very small spare room is just down the hall, but it's just storage and the door stays closed. Our bedroom is at the end of the narrow hallway, and because we're only in there at night the electric blanket solves that problem.

In between is the bathroom, and that's the problem. It's too far away from the stove to get any significant amount of its heat and we're in there throughout the day. The morning shower is rough until that nice hot water warms you up, but we discovered this week that the result is mold. Mold on the walls and mold on the ceiling. And it spreads rapidly. Not good.

The bathroom window is one of those old school versions that's about 12" wide and 30" tall, with three panes that tilt outward at the bottom when the crank in the corner is turned. After Pam cleaned off all the mold with a bleach solution I set the fan up right in front of that window and turned it on this morning while I showered.
The good news: very little fogging on the mirror, indicating the humidity was exhausted out the window.
The bad news: getting out of the shower meant stepping into a cold bathroom.
(first world problems)

No matter what you know or think about cheating in sports I promise you, you've never heard of this, or ever imagined anything like it. Ever.
Paralympics cheating

Spent a few hours working in Fred doing more demo. I'm very close to done, but then it's up to the loft for more of the same, just in very tight quarters.
I uncovered a hole in the ceiling where a stove pipe went through. I won't do that, though. Besides the speed at which a 60-70 year old cabin would burn I'd have to cut a hole in the steep metal roof, and that's not something I'm going to tackle.
I'm pretty sure OSHA would have preferred I wear a hazmat suit today, but that was a pretty quality breathing mask.

The summer between my junior and (first) senior year in college I did an internship at a church in Spokane. I stayed a week or two at a time with various families in the church, including with the Martins. Great family.
One of my areas of responsibility was the Sr. Hi youth, and their daughter Beth was in that group. Her younger brother Bruce was in Jr. Hi.
Forty-five years later we live west of Eugene and attend Emmaus Church, part of the Evangelical Free Church denomination. Because our pastor will be preaching elsewhere tomorrow the regional director will fill in.
Yep. Bruce Martin.