"You can't get rich in politics unless you're a crook." - Harry S. Truman

Tuesday evening:
A predicted low of 25 tonight means that before supper I'll turn on the heat lamp in the pump house and get both outside faucets dripping slowly.

The Portuguese verb "to feel" is sentir, as in sentient.

Wednesday evening:
I turned 69 today. No big deal; it feels a lot like 68. I went from the office to the gym where Jason, one of the owners who happens to be my age, used my phone to video my attempt at a PR doing dips. My goal was 20 but Jason insisted I go for 21. I made it to 21 but could not have pulled out one more.

I am very goal oriented. So I've set a goal for 1/1/20 - a PR doing pushups. For me that will be ten sets of 10 with sets of 10 air squats in between. That will set me up well for a "half Murph" on Memorial Day. That's a workout that has you run 1/2 mile, then do 5 pullups, 10 pushups, and 15 air squats ten times, and finally run another 1/2 mile. If I do the PR for pushups and 100 squats I'll focus on the pullups between New Year's Day and Memorial Day while maintaining that level for the other two elements.

My brain has been worked up the last three or four days over what seems to be a cultural presumption that has taken over the local church. Namely, the "bigger is better" axiom. Economies of scale happen in both the business world and the local church, but nobody thinks the bigger is better mantra is absolute.
Trade-offs.
A large church can afford to hire professionals for ministries like youth, women, music & worship.... These pros typically have training and expertise that exceeds what the volunteers in a smaller church can offer.
At least one outcome is that the congregation withdraws, telling themselves that they can't do as well, shouldn't try, and the work of the ministry belongs to people specifically and narrowly trained for tht task.
Anybody else see problems with that scenario vis a' vis the NT view of the local church?
OK, I'll shut up now. 

I've accepted that the potential for impeachment will dominate the news for the next 6-8 months and maybe longer. I don't know if President Trump's actions warrant impeachment and/or what the outcome will be if he is or isn't tossed out.
I've decided to let it go. Just disengage from the whole mess and all but ignore the noise from both sides. A year, two years, three years from now it will all be over, in the history books, and the country will have moved on to the next crisis.
I might come back to current events at that point or I may have figured out it just ain't worth it. Likely that.

"I don't necessarily agree with everything I say." - Marshall McLuhan

Questions I asked my class yesterday as we talked about the three sections of the Mosaic Law:

• Why is the prohibition against murder found in the Moral Law (10 commandments) and not in the Civil Law, like the prohibition against kidnapping and assault?
• Why is "keep the Sabbath" in the Moral Law instead of the Ceremonial Law like all the other religious calendar items?

I use Google Translator as part of my effort to learn Portuguese. When I wonder what a particular word is in Portuguese I can type it in the English side and get the Portuguese equivalent. Table is mesa. Dog is charro. 

But Google Translator has its problems. It seems to default to a masculine form when the feminine would be appropriate given the context. It doesn't know if I'm speaking to a man or a woman. Also, it decides which of two synonyms is appropriate, though it usually gives the options in tiny print down below.

Today I noticed there are two words for "to pray" - rezar and orar. So I did a search, read a few articles, and learned that Catholics rezar (recite) and Protestants orar (free form conversation, either verbally or mentally). So you'd rezar the Lord's prayer and orar for your kids. 

Have you heard of the pretty famous book "Eat, Pray, Love?" The Spanish edition (same two words) got rezar and the Portuguese edition got orar, but nobody seems to know why. 

I went down to feed the goats before leaving for church to discover they'd had another fight and destroyed the repairs I'd made Saturday. So yesterday afternoon I went to the Ace Hardware in Veneta, got a piece of angle iron, and screwed that into the 4x4 as a door stop. I will not be outdone by a goat!

I also got attacked by El Hefe when I went into the coop to fill the feeder and waterer. He jumped up and dug his spurs into my thighs. Those weapons are surprisingly effective. But so is my boot, which I used to send him flying to the other side of the coop.

I'm also not going to be bullied by a 4 pound rooster. 

In our small group gathering last Monday night they asked if this week we could forego our usual discussion of Brett's sermon and talk about what it means to honor your parents. A couple of the people who attend have a very strained relationship with a dysfunctional parent. How do they keep that commandment?

I'll be hitting the books hard this morning after I write the discussion questions for all the other small groups, one of my Monday tasks. 

It's now 9 p.m. (21 in Brazil time) and time for me to get to bed. Tuesdays start early and go long with some major work at the gym in between. 

Boa noite.

"He that lives upon hope will die fasting" - Benjamin Franklin

It's 6:45 a.m. and I'm struggling to get this day started.
Light a fire (57 in MoHo) and sit back down with my lap blanket.
Breakfast and sit back down with my lap blanket. (60 in MoHo)
Shave & brush my teeth, then sit back down with my lap blanket. (still 60)

Awaiting a burst of energy: morning chores, cleaning the kidding stall so the now-weaned kids can be relocated there, remove and replace the front window, wash Sally, work on Portuguese, go over my class material for tomorrow, and keep this fire going!! We're only going to get into the mid-50s today.

The Portuguese word for sunny is ensolarado. That's easy for me to remember. See the word solar in there?!

This is beast cool.

I just got back inside from feeding the goats. (Yes, I'm in my chair, and it's now up to 65 thanks to a glowing fire.)
Chaos.
I narrowed the opening to the kidding stall so that I can move the two kids from the weaning pen into that stall later today. The new opening is designed to give them in/out access, but be small enough to keep the adults away from a "free choice" (all they want) supply of alfalfa hay that the kids need.

We have three breeding does: Stella, her daughter Frenchie, and Dolly. In that order. Stella is a bully and is mean to Dolly so she knows who is boss. Frenchie gets off because she's Stella's daughter, but Dolly is terrified of Stella, and with good reason. A goat can lay a surprising beat-down on another goat if they take a mind.
Since the kids went up to the weaning pen I've been closing Dolly in the kidding stall at night so she can have access to grass hay and sleep in peace. Sometime during the night she figured out she could get through that narrowed opening into the main area (why???)...but not get back. The ensuing fight - Dolly on the receiving end of Stella's wrath - broke feeders, gates, and latches. So now I've also got repair work to do today.
If I get it done I'll also further narrow that opening. Once the kids are in that stall Dolly will have to spend all night every night out in the main area. With Stella.
This could get brutal.
Essential oils???

Last time I made a pie I increased the amount of crust I made so I'd have a better top. I had some left over so I rolled it out, covered it with a cinnamon/sugar mix, and baked it.
That makes a surprisingly good second breakfast.

It's now 12:30. I spent the last three hours making repairs to the barn, including things I didn't realize got broken in last night's Battle in the Barn until I started getting things ready for the weanlings. If they break things again tonight my hammer might be used on something other than framing nails.

Ray (left in this pic) attends UFC and comes to my Thursday night class when his schedule allows. He grew up in the woods of Alaska (think stereotypical Alaska back country living) and now runs a tree service here in Eugene where he cuts down monster trees that pose a threat to homes. This tree is 140 years old per his count of the rings.
If you come to UFC you won't have any trouble identifying Ray because he's 7' tall. He played center for the U of O back in the day and now looks like the stereotypical lumberjack. Knowing his size gives you a sense of perspective on this tree's diameter.
Ray is huge and is a beast when working in a giant fir tree. Then he comes down to talk to you and you realize the term "gentle giant" is the perfect description of his nature. Note the smile.

It's now almost 7 p.m. an it's been a busy day. Goulash and Haggis are now relocated to the kidding stall. I got the old living room window out and the new one installed. I still have to trim it out, interior and exterior, but no more puddles of water from the condensation off an aluminum single pane window. But the biggest news...
THE TRUCK IS SOLD!!!

He got a major deal and I got it gone. All issues were fully disclosed, so any problems are not on my conscience. I also don't think the intermittent issues are serious or difficult to fix if/when they become more frequent.

Our semi-annual property tax bill came in today's mail.
Of course it did. And of course it comes in at about $200 less than what I got for the truck. But if the truck had not sold we'd still have to pay the taxes, and out of current funds, so I'm trying hard to look at it that way.

Now it's time to take care of a couple of email projects, go over my lesson for tomorrow, and have some blueberry pie with a cup of coffee. And then crawl into bed.

T'ank you, Fadder.

"I personally think we developed language to satisfy our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin

I'm afraid the recent pattern of sporadic posts is the new normal for several reasons. I have less time for writing posts thanks to things like the start of fall ministries that have increased my workload, trying to spend quality time each day on Portuguese, added animal husbandry chores, and ... I'm getting old. I seem to get very sleepy earlier each evening. Combined, those factors and others mean I have less mental space during the day for the kind of random unstructured thinking that shows up here, and less time to compose a post.

Thursdays are especially busy with the potluck and then class that begin with the drive into town at 4 p.m. Back up an hour for getting chores done and then a return home near 9 p.m. and ...
Here I am at the bakery for my weekly cinnamon roll and coffee with my class finally fully prepped and a burst of a post.

Yesterday afternoon I took Stella over to Marta's for some quality time with Chiz, her massive buck. Neither of them seemed to mind spectators, and there's no question a) she was in heat, and b) she has been serviced. That doesn't mean she's pregnant or will carry to term. She had a miscarriage about 1/2 through her last pregnancy, so we won't be surprised if this one has issues, too. We'll breed Dolly for the second time in mid-January, her second breeding, and then take Frenchie over a month or so later for her initial breeding.

I should know by noon Saturday if the Dodge truck is sold. This is WAY trickier than it should be. The kid buying it is concerned about mechanical issues and generally ignorant of things mechanical, a challenging combination for the seller.

I'm making good progress on Portuguese even without the time I wish I could spend on it. I'm now far enough into this that pieces are starting to come together in ways that feel like significant progress, and that increases the fun.

I dislike Pres. Trump. I find him an unpleasant person whose character is questionable at least. But pulling out of Syria could be, IMO, the right move. The U.S. has a recent history of getting involved in regional conflicts that have become black holes. We didn't learn from the French failure in Vietnam and look how that turned out.
The middle east is consumed by ethnic and religious conflicts that have been going on for millennia and it seems presumptuous to think we can resolve what has proven to be intractable. Our support for Israel makes geopolitical sense (with absolutely NO biblical basis) but the ethnic hatred that has fueled the fires of that area, nevermind sectarian conflicts, are nothing but a trap. Yes, there will be victims - children among them - who should not fall prey to the evil. And one side *may* be slightly less culpable than another, at least at the present time. But give them enough guns and they'll rise to the top and be just as nasty as the present aggressors.
Such is the sad history of human relations, and all the king's horses and all the king's men aren't going to change that.

I got Sally's tach installed and working, but I still can't find good figures for a redline. I'm comfortable with 3500 rpm and that has me doing about 63 mph, more than adequate for my commute. But if I could take it up to 4,000 rpm I'd be very near 70 mph and freeway driving.
Anybody?

I'm also making good progress on my pursuit of a PR doing dips. Technically I'm already there. My previous PR was a set of 10 and two days ago I did 15. But my goal for next Wednesday is a set of 20. That may be more than I can pull off but I'll give it my best effort.
Setting this goal has been helpful for staying on track with gym time. I may set another one for January 1 to keep me going. Pushups?
And then a solo 1/2 Murph on Memorial day.

The Portuguese word for pie is tort. That's easy.

OK, the cinnamon roll is in my belly, the coffee there too, and a workout at the gym awaits. Then home for chores before coming back in for class.
I'll be back, just no promises on when. Sorry. (Desculpa)

"Gentiles are people who eat mayonnaise for no reason." - Robin Williams

Saturday:
Heavy sigh.
I took the truck to get it filled up. No problem. I drove it home and parked it out front so I could wash and vacuum it. No problem.
I planned to return it to it's spot up by the weaning pen until the potential buyer arrives Sunday afternoon.
Problem.
It won't start.
Long story short, I'm 99% sure the timing chain has stretched to the extent that the crank and cam shafts are too far out of sync. The timing chain should be changed at 100k miles and it now has nearly 200k. That, plus other symptoms....
I called the guy and we talked. Told him I wouldn't (and couldn't) sell him a truck that needed this repair. He doesn't know much about engines (thing under the hood that goes vroom) but his uncle does so he's going to talk to him. I told him I'd discount the price by $1,000 if he wanted to tow it home (his idea). The repair job should cost him about $800, so he would come out ahead and I'd have it GONE. He's still planning on coming tomorrow with his uncle's diesel and a trailer to haul it home, but he hasn't gotten ahold of that uncle yet.
Aaaargh.

It POURED overnight. The rain hitting MoHo's roof was loud enough to wake me up. This morning I've got mud out in the goat pen. But they don't care and I've got rubber work boots.

Sunday:
I went to the office early - my new normal routine on a Sunday morning - to go over my lesson in that quiet space, do some theology reading, and work a bit on Portuguese. Then off to teach my class. On the way home from church I picked up 80 lbs. of chicken feed because I was completely out.
After a bit of the Seahawks game (sad) I baked two pans of cinnamon rolls we'll take to our small group gathering tomorrow night. We have a light pot-luck meal each week and we're bringing dessert this time. These are the blueberry version. I hope they like them as much as I do.
I weigh myself each Sunday morning and expected bad news this week. Instead of one cheat per week this last one was closer to one cheat per day thanks to a pan of Marion berry cinnamon rolls sitting on the counter.
I went down half a pound.
Slamming it at the gym.
The kid (mid-20's?) came over to look at the truck. It fired right up. What??? Long story short, he likes it, took it for a drive and likes it more, and left a $500 deposit. He's coming back next weekend with a buddy to change out the sensors (I told him I just don't have time) and if that cancels out the codes he'll give me the rest of the money. If it doesn't I'll refund it. And if he doesn't come back next weekend he forfeits the $500.

Monday:
It's 3:30 a.m. and I've been up for an hour. I sent out my daily email, am finishing up this long-delayed blog, and will next get to work on a full day's to-do list. I've got a TON of church stuff to do, including some major prep work for my Thursday night class. Another session with thick content that I need to present with clarity. I'm behind my self-imposed schedule for the discipleship workbook rewrite, I simply MUST get Dolly's hooves trimmed along with several other "critter" tasks done, and run up to Junction City to pick up the ordered window that will come in this afternoon. Then get it installed, leaving only two more windows to go. We have a string of rain-free days the end of this week so I'll try to get to that task then.
I know I've been relatively AWOL here, but on a list of each day's priorities and available mental energy blogging has slipped down the list.
Eu desculpo.
Yeah, at some point before I leave for my 7:00 mentoring meeting I'll work on Portuguese.

Here we go!

"When we ask for advice we're usually looking for an accomplice" - Saul Bellow

Some days weigh more than others. They have more significant pieces or more emotive elements.
The problem with that observation (though I think it's accurate) is that I very rarely say, "This is - or was - a light day. That says more about me than about the days.

One of my personal commitments is that honest compliments are way too rare. So I want to give them whenever I can. Mark Twain said, "I can live for two months on a good compliment." We agree. We replay them in our heads for a long time after hearing them. The more specificity the longer they last. The duration also increases to the extent the compliment is about who we are, not what we've done. The internal over the external.

Today I sent Emily a message through Facebook that was prompted by seeing one of her posts and her face in the pic she included. I told her she and JR are heros in my book. She responded, "Hardly." Then she talked about how much she misses Eloise and what a blessing Pathway was to her during that period of life.
On a heavy Thursday that exchange was helium.

It's now Friday morning. My class last night was hard work - explaining complex subject matter (propitiation) in a way that made it easy to grasp. I don't know if I succeeded but I wore myself out trying.

For the last couple of months I've ratcheted up my gym workouts and I'm pleased with the progress I've made. I'm at or near PR level for several exercises and increasing weight and/or reps regularly. But there are at least two associated problems.
When I stop exercising my weight changes, but not a lot. Mostly my shape changes, with an expanding middle and arse. The reverse happens when I exercise diligently; my weight drops a pound or two while my middle shrinks disproportionately. If you start out skinny a smaller middle means a belt and gathered waistband, and the seat of my pants looks baggy and saggy.
"Get a smaller size pair of blue jeans." Not so easy at this waist size unless I'm willing to go skinny jeans...which I'm not.
Then there's my appetite. I am hungry ALL THE TIME. Is that a physical or psychological response? Is my body saying it needs more fuel to keep up with the increased calorie burn rate or is it my brain saying a cinnamon roll would taste really good right now.
I think it's interesting that we can trust the sensation of thirst (I need more fluids) but not hunger. Why is that? Seems unfair.

I *may* have a buyer for the Dodge truck!! He's driving down from Portland Sunday (2 hours) because he really likes this year/model Dodge. (To each his own) It's been sitting for almost 4 months so today between rain showers I'll get it cleaned up and take it down to fill up the tank. I've tried to tell him everything about it in our email exchanges. I'd be pretty ticked if I drove this far and found out it was a dog.
D.V.

I also need to get the coop and weaning shed cleaned, the rest of the window trim installed and painted, and do some summer-to-winter transition stuff. Fans put away, summer clothes into storage and winter out, etc. If I run out of things to do I can always work on firewood.

And some focused work on Portuguese today.
Already (7 a.m.) I've learned that pessoas and gente are synonyms for people. I'll learn pessoas because it's the plural of pessoa (person) and will be easier to remember.

OK, time to get to work.
Xau.

I'm moving to Kentucky!

Bernie Sanders has announced his plan to "end corporate greed."
Can world peace be far behind?

Too cool!
Yes, I want it. A modern drivetrain and do NOT touch the exterior.

I'm behind on responding to emails. Too busy.
This afternoon I replied to a girl who was in our church youth group in Prunedale. OK, she was a H.S. student then, but that was 40+ years ago.
She'd come across a document that listed some of the things we did together with the 6-8 kids who were teens in that church. (I was pastor, youth pastor, and whatever else needed doing, including remodeling the men's bathroom.)
That was a truly remarkable group of teens and I think about them often. What became of the Terry siblings? Doris? I'm still in touch with Darci and Terry Chaffin through Facebook and they're both doing well.
Gotta admit, I'm pressing through right now. Sometimes we go through stretches where we put one foot in front of the other and hope that this escalator called life doesn't outpace our ability to keep up. Getting an email like that is an encouragement to keep on keeping on.
Thanks, Teri. Your timing is impeccable.

That's an interesting word, impeccable. It's the negative form of the Latin verb peccare, to sin. So impeccable timing is without flaw. It's perfect.
Portuguese has some words like that. The word for death is morte.

It's starts raining tonight and will continue through the weekend with the heaviest amounts falling between now and Friday. So this afternoon I got the barn cleaned, some firewood stacked, and tools put away. I've got plenty of inside tasks to get done so I'll use the wet weather to my advantage and be ready to re-emerge the first of next week to return to outside chores.

My Thursday night class is currently doing a 4-week series on the eight salvation words in the NT. This week: propitiation and justification.
The first one is complex and I'm working hard to prepare an explanation that is accurate, reasonably complete, but also very user-friendly. Lots of reading and thinking. I enjoy the process, but don't feel like I have the time that preparing a good presentation requires.

Dinner time. Then a recorded episode of Endeavor, then bed. I have lots to get done tomorrow and starting early will be key.