Adventures in Jet-Setting

Perhaps "Jet-Setting" is an old word.  Way back when air travel by jet was just beginning to be popular there were some people who were rich who could afford to travel a lot.  There were no such things as "frequent flyer miles" or "discount travel web sites."  People who wanted to fly just went to the travel agent and bought tickets.  Those who were rich enough to take trips frequently, say, more than once per month, were called "the jet-set."  Anyway, with all that as background I will tell you about my recent trip to Western Washington.

I flew out of Minneapolis on the early (7am) flight on Tuesday, January 5th and, with a change of planes in Denver that included a stop long enough to buy breakfast, I got to Seattle by 11:30 in the morning.  By the time I got to the rental car agency and picked up the car I was on the road to Bellingham by noonish.  I was kind of excited about the rental car because they rented me a PT Cruiser, and I had been sort-of interested in purchasing one, but had heard bad things about the gas mileage and long-term reliability, so I was interested in trying one out for myself.  Anyway, my plan was to pick up Daniel at 3pm and have an afternoon of frolic followed by dinner at LaFiamma, Daniel's favorite pizza restaurant.  I would call the trip to the Pacific Northwest uneventful so far.  Things went very smoothly as a matter of fact.  I got to Bellingham early enough to get some lunch before I picked up Daniel, and got him on time at 3pm.

Daniel and I engaged in one of our favorite father-son winter activities, playing pool at Park Bowl.  He has improved noticeably since the last time we played, but I still managed to take two of the three games we played.  We also played air-hockey and, combining my air hockey victories in the wee hours of New Year's Day after ringing in the New Year, I can brag that I am currently undefeated in air-hockey in 2010.  Of course, I am writing this on the 10th of January and I have only played about 10 games so far on two separate occasions, but still, it sounds better to say I'm undefeated for the year, so there!  We had a good dinner and great conversation before heading to Bellis Fair Mall to see what has changed in the years since I have seen it, and I picked up a CD of Handel's Messiah to play in the PT Cruiser.  Ah, the trip from Bellingham to Federal Way was nice, with all that music in my ears.

I truly enjoyed staying with Jon and Karen while in the area.  They are great hosts.  I got to their house after 10pm and they didn't mind, and in the morning Jon even fixed me a big breakfast of eggs, sausage and some really good coffee.  As a treat they had raspberry jam.  I don't know why it is hard to find raspberry jam in Minnesota, maybe because it is hard to find raspberries in Minnesota, period.  So being able to have raspberry jam on my toast was even a treat.  At 9am I headed to Tacoma for my approval interview on the campus of Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland.  It was January 6th, 2010, the day of Epiphany on the church calendar, as an added bonus, or a good omen, or whatever, I saw a bald eagle landing in a fir tree as I was getting off of highway 512 and onto Pacific Avenue.

The approval interview was really nice.  The candidacy committee is full of warm and gracious people who are not only concerned about the welfare of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which is their job, but they are also concerned with how I am doing personally.  They were very warm and welcoming, and the end result of the interview is that I am approved for ordination in the ELCA.  Now comes the assignment process, but that will be on a different blog entry.

After my approval interview and a nice lunch conversation with Paul, my pastor from Bremerton, I went back to Jon and Karen's for dinner.  When Jon learned that I had passed my approval interview with flying colors he suggested we go to dinner to celebrate, so we helped the local economy by eating at Azteca.  For evening entertainment we watched the new Star Trek movie.  I think I may have been the last one in our family to see it, but that has been cured.  Going to bed on Wednesday night was the last thing that went smoothly on the trip.

I got a call at 3am on Thursday morning from a computer of Southwest Airlines telling me that my flight had been canceled.  I was scheduled to fly from Seattle to Chicago and catch a connecting flight to Minneapolis, but there was a snow-storm in Chicago, so that ended that plan.  After giving up on the phone reservations after 7 minutes on hold, I figured I had better head to the airport and book a different flight.  First I had to turn in the rental car.  It has been a while since I drove from Federal Way to Sea-Tac airport in the dark, and somehow I managed to find myself on the wrong side of Pacific Highway and almost past the airport!  Luckily I had the good sense to recognize the airport lights that were on my right instead of my left, and got turned around before I drove too far.  I got the rental car turned in and headed to the airport.

At the airport I was naturally greeted with a VERY LONG line at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter, and a gentleman got up on a baggage scale to bellow out to the line, "In case you have not heard, Southwest flight 3511 with service to Chicago has been canceled.  If you need to go to Chicago I suggest you just go home and try again tomorrow, since this snow storm will keep the airport closed at least until noon."  I didn't go home.  I figured I don't need to go to Chicago, I need to go to Minneapolis, so when I got to the front of the ticket counter that is what I told the ticket agent.  She said to me that she could get me on a flight from Seattle to Denver and then from Denver to Minneapolis, but the soonest flight out was at noon, and I wouldn't get into Minneapolis until after 10 that night.  She was surprised that I said, "That will work!" right away.  She said to me, "Wow, I can't believe you're so agreeable!"  I said, "Well, YOU didn't make it snow in Chicago!"  She laughed and booked my flights.  The only downside is that all of this happened at about 5am, and the next flight to Denver was at noon!  That meant sitting in the airport for 7 hours!!  What do you do in an airport for 7 hours?  I slept a little, had breakfast, went to the Borders store in the airport and bought a magazine, a book and a newspaper, went to the nearby coffee stand and bought a large mocha, then went to the food court and sat down for a long wait. 

Maybe you are wondering what paper, magazine and book I bought.  The paper was the Seattle Times, naturally.  Even though I don't live in the area any more I still kind of like knowing what is going on.  The magazine was Country Living.  Why Country Living?  I like it because they talk about doing things that I like to do, like re-purposing an item from one thing to another, such as making a coffee table out of an old boat door, or making a cabinet out of an old console TV and stuff like that.

The book I bought was one that Jon had recommended the day before.  Mitch Albom has a new book out called, "Have a little faith" and Jon told me about how it talks about the commonality of faith among different religions uniting people rather than dividing them.  Reading that book sure helped make the day pass more easily.  It is one that I would also recommend.

I read the paper over my large mocha and my magazine after that, and both were long ago finished before I had to board my flight to Denver.  The book got started after I went to the gate to start boarding and I got a large chunk of it read between Seattle and Denver.  I called Anna to chat when I landed in Denver and updated her on the status of my flight to Minneapolis which had been delayed by half an hour and we chatted for quite a while, after all I had four hours to kill until my flight.  Even with all of the chatting I had time to grab some dinner at the Italian food stand in Denver and read some more Mitch.  The flight to Minneapolis was delayed just a little more, plus they had to change the boarding gate, but I finally got out of Denver at about 8:30 Mountain time. 

From Denver to Minneapolis I finished the book, got a nap, and calculated how much time I had spent in airports compared to how much time I had spent flying, and it is no comparison!  I was in airports for a total of eleven hours compared to four and a half hours of flying time.  I got home to our little apartment in St. Paul at about midnight Central time, thankful that this little adventure was finally over.  I hope the next time I have to fly it is in the spring, summer or fall.  Winter flying is too adventurous for me!  Blogged by Don

Winter 2009

Winter of 2009, our last winter here in seminary housing. Since winter has started we have begun feeding the critters around the seminary such as birds, squirrels, and now rabbits. It is protected a bit by our window with the big bush and being on the south side of the building, although we have gotten our share of snow as you can see.

January is about to start, the coldest month of the year. We have had 2 weeks off for Christmas break, with many people having left for 2 weeks, and many still going away for January-term or J-term. J-term is actually quite busy at the seminary with convocation, this is where over 200 pastors and lay people descend upon the seminary for classes, and I will be busy in dining.

Don is leaving for a couple of days in January. His last interview process with his candidacy committee will take place January 6. His brother and sister-in-law again have been kind and gracious enough to let Don stay for the days he will be in the area. He flies out January 5, drives up to Bellingham for dinner with his youngest, Daniel, and then back in time for bed. He has his appt January 6 at 10 a.m. , and then will have lunch with our pastor for Bremerton to discuss ordination plans, although he has to get a call first. Hopefully there will be time enough for visiting Jon and Karen Wednesday evening as Don needs to leave early the next day to catch his flight.
For a treat, we went to the Como Park Conservatory and saw all the greenery and pointsettas. It was not only warm but beautiful and a great way to enjoy the festivities of the season.


Sorry we have not kept up on our blog. It seems the time between September and December has just flown by, with work, school, and a little bit of play mixed in, to keep us occupied. Will write again next year 2010, hard to believe. So much will happen this next year, so much to look forward to.

Happy New Year's!

Posted by Anna

Confessions of a brass player

So, you may as well know that since our return to Saint Paul in September I have been playing with the Luther Brass group. We are a small brass ensemble made up of students and other people on campus who play brass instruments. We have two trumpet players, two french horn players, two trombone players and a baritone player for a total of seven players in all. Now, with all of this surrounding support of other players I had been hoping to simply play along in simple obscurity for the most part, but when our tuba player dropped out of the group it became necessary for our other trombone player to bring out his bass trombone to fill out the low brass sound. He prefers playing that instrument anyway, so he is truly enjoying himself. The only problem is that now there is only one instrument in the entire ensemble on the tenor part. Want to know who it is? I'll give you a hint; the full name of the instrument I play is "tenor trombone." So there you go, I am carrying the trombone part all by myself! I suppose one day I should really learn how to play the thing! Actually, it is all coming back to me with the help of the handy chart above.

Seriously, I am having fun and we are playing regularly in chapel and even a little bit outside of chapel. We have played three times in chapel so far this semester, and last Friday we played for the youngsters in the seminary day-care. Today, in honor of Reformation Sunday yesterday, we played Reformation chorales from the roof of Olson Campus Center. You've heard of a Fiddler on the Roof? Well, this was kind of like that except there were seven of us, plus our director, Dr. Paul Westermeyer, and none of us were playing fiddle, so really it was nothing like that. Besides which, our roof is flat and surrounded by brick so that no one ever falls off, and there is even a small eating area for people to enjoy in nice weather. Today was a bit cold for eating outside; with the temperature in the mid-forties while we played. Still, we drew a crowd of onlookers from the walkway below, and we had fun, which is the main idea. Now if only I could remember that F# is in fifth position I'll be fine! See? Seminary isn't all serious theology! Blogged by Don

Jackets

Never before in my life have I worn jeans and a jacket in August, but this year marked a first. Anna and I have been enjoying nice, warm late summer weather here in Minnesota, and I am nearly re-acclimated to living in the city after a year in Dundee, but I was not prepared at all for the cool weather that finished August! We had planned to have a nice picnic in Hudson, Wisconsin on Saturday to celebrate the fact that we are near Wisconsin again (any reason for a party, right?) so we packed up a lunch of sandwiches and fruit and snacks and headed east on I-94. It was a good thing we had listened to the weather forecast and prepared for the chilly weather that was predicted because the north wind coming down the Saint Croix River was just cold! At first I thought I could get away with just a long-sleeved shirt, but after a few minutes I gave up and put on a sweatshirt. Anna was smart and had brought a jacket. Even so, our picnic was shortened and we opted to go into downtown and explore the antique store. After perusing that shop our appetites were whetted for more antique shopping so we headed for Stillwater, back across the river in Minnesota. The weather wasn't any better there, but there were a lot more antique stores, so we had fun poking around them and looking at this and that. We were good little thrifty people, though, and did not give into temptation for anything. By evening, however, the weather had turned downright chilly and jackets were definitely in order. It already feels like autumn around here and we hardly had any summer! As I have been going to work this week the pattern has been that I need my jacket for the walk to work since the temperature is in the 50's at 6:15am, and by the end of my shift at 2:30pm it is warm enough that I have to remind myself to take my jacket home with me so I will have it for in the morning the next day. According to the weather forecasters around here the whole next week will be full of morning lows in the 50's and afternoon highs in the mid-70's. How did it become autumn already? Where did the summer go? I can hardly believe college football season is already here! You know what that means, don't you? Another Minnesota winter is getting closer!! Run away!! Or, at least know where your woolies are! Blogged by Don

The tale of the missing phone

Okay, now I feel dumb. Don went to make a phone call from the hand set today and could not find the phone. I could hear the agitation in his voice, so I started looking and I could not find it, so I am scratching my head. Where could the phone be? Did I pack it? Oh no, if I packed it, I knew it would never be found as we have many boxes already packed and stacked on top of each other. So then I thought out loud, why not call the phone. So that is what we did and we heard the phone ring and scratched our heads, from what room are we hearing it as it sounded muffled. Then began the search of rooms, the continual calling of the number and erasing of many messages that did not get made but filled up our phone. Finally I unplugged one phone that we have that is not electric but battery run, and we could hear the phone. Where in the world was the ring coming from? Again a search and finally the sound of the battery coming to the end of its life began to beep out among the many boxes. We searched those boxes not closed, and scratched our heads, where is it? Finally I looked at a lawn chair that we had been using in the office, it is one of those 2 seaters that when you sit down you don't want to get up. Well I had folded it up in the office and taken it out to the living room. The beep got louder as we started to open up the chair, and there in the middle of it was our phone, beeping at us loudly and getting softer as the battery's life was ending, and that is the end of the missing phone saga, except that we gingerly and lovingly put the phone on the crook so once again the battery would have life and we would have a phone.
Blogged by Anna

Victory (for us) and a country tradition

I count it as a victory that Anna and I have been able to harvest and eat some of each of the things we planted. We have enjoyed fresh spinach, beets, peas, beans, asparagus, rhubarb and lately sweet corn and tomatoes. Since we are first time gardeners this has been a valuable learning experience for us. In general we need to leave more room for growth for all of our plants next time. There isn't a part of the garden that doesn't look crowded, but chalk that up to our novice status. Next time we plant a garden look out! It will be even more productive.

What I also learned, in growing this garden, is that it is a country tradition to share what you grow. Other people have brought us their fresh vegetables as well, so we have enjoyed fresh broccoli, cucumbers and potatoes from our neighbors. They have also brought us sweet corn, which is good because ours didn't turn out so well, and beans. We have a plethora of beans now because I only planted two rows of beans, but apparently this was a good year for string beans because we have eaten so many that when I picked some this afternoon Anna's reaction was, "Gee, I wonder if our neighbor Kathy could use some beans." This exchange netted some more potatoes, which is good because we were out of those having served the last of them last Saturday for a meal shared with some other friends. You see how this works now, don't you? I give you what I have plenty of and you take it whether you need it or not. You pass along some of your extra stuff, either giving it to me or taking your extra, or even what I just gave you and you don't really want but took anyway to be polite, to someone else, and if they are a gardener, the process repeats until someone gets stuff who either isn't a gardener or whose stuff isn't ready yet. It's the country way; share your extra because you can't use it and perhaps someone else can. It is a nice way to stimulate the small-town economy. Blogged by Don

National Youth Gathering in New Orleans

It is a good thing we took a bus because it rained all the way from Minnesota to Mississippi, finally stopping by the time we got to Louisiana. It was a deluge through most of the lower Southern States. Once we got to Louisiana though, the weather was perfect, albeit a little on the warm side.



Here we are, riding the bus on our way to Louisiana. We got to the hotel and they were not ready for our group, so they took us to this big huge room and had us wait there.

On our first day, they took our group plus a few other hundred kids, into a room and talked to us about the week to come.

This is our group, Jared, Haley, Tessa, Emily, Sabrina, Jen, Abby, Missy, Cody and Rochelle.

One day was spent in the interaction center. They were many neat things going on, too many to mention here. There were art projects, justice exhibits to make one think about other people's circumstances like the lack of water, trafficking of people, poverty, etc. There was so much to learn.

One day Missy, Rochelle, and Cody went on a tour of the French Quarter. Missy's husband's cousin joined us for part of it and gave us a tour. We also got to taste the famous beingets (spelling?). They are wonderful pastries, actually fried dough, smothered in powdered sugar.

We wore orange shirts for our service day. We spent our time in Mandeville, 22 miles outside of New Orleans. We did yard work and helped paint a community center. What mattered a great deal was our presence in the community. Many times while we were working, people slowed down and waved and thanked us as they drove by. It was very humbling. This is our group all dressed in orange.



This is one of our "evening gatherings." We saw many signs by youth advertising free hugs, so Jared decided to make up a sign of his own, he met with success, although mostly from guys.


Donald, Rochelle, Abby and Jen and I spent a few hours in the French Quarter while the others went to the aquarium. We got Rochelle to sit for a sketch. It was a lot of fun. Abby and Jen wanted to shop, so we let them go and do that while we looked at the art. We found ourselves in a restaurant called the "Rivers Edge."

Our last day there, we were exhausted from the heat and no sleep. Our day culminated in one last Sunday service with Bishop Hanson giving the sermon. There was a lot of great music performed; one group the kids loved was called "Skillet." Another person was Agape, a hip-hop Christian artist from Minneapolis. The Flying Karamazov Brothers also performed, they performed a skit called "Juggling Jazz." Don and I had a chance to hear Lost & Found and we thoroughly enjoyed their music and their humorous presentation.

It was a great week but it was so good to get home and sleep in our own bed again.
Blogged by Anna with the help of Don