Yesterday as I walked through the Eastport Cemetery I did what I always do in old cemeteries. (Yes, that's something we've done often while visiting small towns.) I read the inscriptions on the headstones of couples and families.
"Beloved wife" "Infant daughter" "Loving husband"
I can't help but think about the stories and the pathos behind the few words chosen by a family member to go on a piece of granite that will last generations longer than the author.
Very often a husband and wife are buried alongside each other, and in the case of headstones from a century ago their age at death is given in years, months, and days. Yesterday I took special note of the difference between the date of death of husband and wife. In one case it was a span of less than eight weeks but often one outlived the other by several years. And I was surprised that husbands outlived their wives as often as the other way around.
Because I'm 3,000 miles away for a month and missing my wife I thought of how sad those spouses must have been for their time alone.
My mom since last Christmas.
This morning I just had a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast because I knew I was headed to Beach Bakery in Westhampton and knew that fresh baked goodies was a temptation I couldn't resist. Sure enough, that cinnamon roll went down very easily with a hot cup of coffee.
I'm working on an article about missions that will probably never see the light of day (likely shouldn't) and spent my time at the bakery working on that.
I'm in a set-to with Amazon that has me irritated and frustrated. They've pulled my Understanding Your Bible off their site until I can prove I hold publishing rights. They had it up for almost two weeks before deciding it was questionable and have now listed it as "suppressed." What???
How do I prove I hold the copyright?! The feds don't require any registration. They say that if you're the author (or originator of other classes of material) and it's your original work all you have to do is declare it copyrighted and it is so. You declare that with a standard paragraph inserted at the beginning of the book and call it done.
I think the problem is that my book was printed by GBC, then by the GGF with my permission and then by Grace Publication without my permission (!). I suspect they think those printings show it's not mine. But I still don't know how I prove otherwise.
I've sent them a response explaining all of that but so far haven't heard back.
The crooked bite is because she narrowly survived a case of Listeria which is almost always fatal in goats. That bite issue is the only lasting effect.
I went for two runs today. They were hooked together end-to-end, but they were two separate runs. I left heading west for the first stretch - into a wind gusting to 21 mph that created a wind chill of 44 degrees. A long sleeve shirt, a short sleeve shirt and my waterproof running jacket zipped all the way up. Running tights, gloves, and a hat.
Freezing!
When I turned around for the return leg the wind was at my back and I went from freezing to sweating in the 50 degree temps.
Then the last 1/4 mile was back into the wind so the sweat froze.
But I did 3.5 miles and worked off at least some of that cinnamon roll.
It's early afternoon. In an hour I'll walk over to church to look in on their Hang Time ministry which is an after school time for elementary kids. I'll go get some NY pizza for dinner and then back to take in their Boy's Brigade. It's a way to give some props to the people who serve in those ministries. The people of any church often feel alone when they're between pastors. Jeremy, their youth pastor, has been doing yeoman's duty holding things together but he's taking advantage of my presence to attend a youth pastor's conference in CA and take a well-earned deep breath.
New Yorkers with their distinctive accent sound like gangsters but it turns out they're really nice, caring people who have been very gracious to this Oregonian.
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