Miscellaneous Observations

Things I thought I'd write about in this post, but then decided I wouldn't after all:

- The Antiochian Archdiocese Board of Trustees' decision to have an internal audit and what a bad business decision that was;

- Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon's Pastoral Ponderings podcast and its thinly veiled shot at Ochlophobe Owen White, and the subsequent large number of comments generated by Owen's responsive blog post (at last check, there were 98 comments - sheesh!);

- Comments made here and there in the Orthodox blogosphere about how we ought to get out of Afghanistan, and quick;

- On the continued erosion of any sense of private life in this country

In the end, I decided none of this would be useful other than to allow me a place to vent, albeit with the secret hope that someone would read my post with high approbation.

Instead:

I am thankful for a friend that lent me some of Forster's Hornblower series - a good read, and far better (in my estimation - sorry fans) than the Patrick O'Brien novels. I am particularly pleased to have the loan of a "handbook" written by the author which is replete with maps and notes and short discussions about the places featured in the novels.

I am in awe of the windstorm we had last night - truly a wild one, but thankfully we sustained no damage.

I am happy to report our freezer is filled with nearly 90 lbs of lamb for the winter and early tasting reveals it to be all we had hoped - quite mild but flavorful and reflective of having finished on grass. Given the fast, we will next have lamb probably for Christmas. We are thankful for this

I am also happy to report that we quite likely have both ewes successfully bred for next year and everyone is in good condition going into the Winter.

I am anxiously watching the persimmons come on - should have some ready to go by next week! Persimmon pudding is (God willing) soon to be in our future!

AMC is playing "The Prisoner" (c. 1967) on demand on Comcast or streaming on AMC. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the original episodes.

Finally, friend John (Terry) Cowan has some interesting recent posts over at Notes from a Common-place Book.