D
E C E M B E R 5 , 2 0 0 4
ABOVE
The tree at home. Pictures from Bexley come later,
after Mom finishes with the tinsel.
Decorating
a Bexley tree
Overloaded the slim white pine with all of the ornaments we could
find, many & many & many. It looks very good, and takes up
considerably less of the room than many past trees.
Red
lights only, this year.
Women's
Tea
Amy, Stephanie, Mom and Grandma in attendance at church; the bell
choir played, Dusky Reader (in surprisingly subdued form, it was reported)
joined in.
Computer
in Bexley
Meanwhile, back at home in Bexley, hooked up the tangerine iMac and
set it up with AOL for two months trial.
Hung
outdoor lights
We're risking the lights of death -- they hang around the front porch
and thus do not actually touch anything at all when they are lit.
All
strings of Christmas ("seasonal") lights carry warnings,
but I have never seen a warning like this one -- it virtually promises
the destruction of the world should they come into contact with anything
when plugged in.
The
packaging looked so enticing, though.
Quite a triumph for the marketing department.
I
got them a year or two ago, but hadn't found any way to use them until
now. (Obviously not on a Christmas tree -- Across the bushes out front?
nope. Under the arbor in back? the leaves are still falling. On the
bannister? certainly not.) Target is still stocking them -- I didn't
pick them up to see if they still have the same catastrophic Beware!
user, you shall not use these! warning.
Come
Thou Long Awaited Savior
Arr. Garry Cornell
Sang the choir.
This
hymn sticks in my head because a rewritten (reworded) version of it
hung forever on the wall in the downstairs cabin (above the boathouse)
in Minnesota -- "Come, thou long-awaited cruiser, launched to
set the Schultzes free."
The
second lesson was on the Hope for the World, how the lion and the
lamb will lay (lie? -- help, Amy, this one I can never get right),
down together and be led by a child. The asp and wolf will join in
the general loving-kindness, along with several other fearsome animals.
Update:
Amy says lie. And she doesn't appreciate the comma after
the close parenthesis.
At
the first service, the lessons were read by Denny Asp, who assured
the congregation that his family was not related to the terrifying
asp in question. Pastor Wolfe began his sermon by noting that neither
was he a kin to the dangerous wolf of the passage.
Pastor
Wolfe preached a rousing sermon on Hope. The microphone could have
been better calibrated for him -- he supplies most of the volume necessary
all on his own.
One
of the benefits of being retired, he said, was not having to pick
out advent hymns -- when really everyone just wanted to get on to
the Christmas carols.
His
song for the day, he said, would have to be one from an old movie
(1959 -- the year he was ordained). "High Hopes" -- The
ant that wanted to move the rubber tree.
We're
still trying to figure out why the Battle Hymn of the Republic was
the recessional hymn. But Pastor Wolfe can rest easy; asking him wouldn't
get to the decision-maker anymore.
Chad played it with a running (jumping, leaping) counter-melody above
it -- I haven't decided if I liked it or not yet. Though he did play
it well -- it only lost speed nearing the end of the last verse, and
it must have been a real work-out with all of the notes it contained.
