When you tell your wife you smell burning rubber and she responds, "That's dinner."
I ran into town on some errands this afternoon, including a stop at a butcher shop downtown. I'd called and the owner agreed to sell me some freezer paper so I don't have to buy a whole roll online. Cool place, much bigger and busier than I expected. They have a section with wines and gourmet cheeses, and about six guys standing in the center of the room behind the glass cases working at big tables carving up carcasses. Throw back.
I got the front brakes done on the Kia this morning. Problem: they pads weren't as worn as they should have been to account for the noise we get when brakes are applied. So next week I'll do the back brakes. The good news: Kia did a good job on the design, so it turns out to be a pretty straightforward job. I just assumed the rear wheels were drum brakes but they're discs just like the front. And now that I've done the latter the former should go even faster.
I can't decide how I feel about tearing down statues. On the one hand it seems silly, as though that big piece of granite or metal had some intrinsic power over contemporary culture. It's an inanimate thing, for Pete's sake.
On the other hand, for the same reason I can't work up the worry to care about its preservation. If it makes somebody feel better to tear it down, so what? If they think it's going to change people's hearts to remove a statue of a guy who's been dead for 150 years they're sure going to be disappointed.
Whatever.
To say the eclipse dominates the news here in OR is an understatement. And merchants continue to reach new lows in finding corny ways to piggyback on the event.
Meanwhile, some people have abandoned common sense to fret about the craziest stuff. Like, "Put your animals indoors so they don't stare at the sun and go blind."
Have you ever seen an animal stare at the sun? They've got more sense than that. Only people do something that stupid.
In the last few months I've had contact with three local struggling churches. One of them folded about 6 weeks ago, merging with another congregation (which was really a swallowing). The other two are shrinking, one losing key members and the other dying out as its aging congregation dies off.
I'm NOT saying the thing they have in common extends beyond these three churches, but they do have one thing in common: a pastor who doesn't lack for self-confidence. Alas, they don't have (IMO) a clear sense of what the church is to be and do, what God wants the church to be and do. They've bought into the latest solution to reviving the church (missional, millennial, deprogrammed) and plow ahead from one year to the next firmly convinced that if they say it often enough and loud enough people will buy into it and the church will thrive.
Except it's not.
This week I got an email from friends here who have given up on the struggle and are looking for a better church. They'll find it. And the pastor of the church their leaving will tell himself, "They just can't accept the new reality."
Just interesting (to me), that's all.
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