Bfth's Boring Blog

(I was a guest speaker at my church today;  here's what I had to say:) Full disclosure here, when I said I would speak today, I *thought* I had a great idea for a sermon.  The more I tried to write, the more it lead nowhere and fell apart.  And then one day while I was on Facebook, I came across this great link shared by a friend of my family's who just happens to be an Episcopalian Priest.  This link was for an article/blog  written by another Episcopalian Priest and was entitled 6 Things That People Need to Hear From Churches But Are Rarely Said .  I really liked what t he Reverend Dr. Frederick W. Schmidt, Jr had to say and wanted to share his thoughts with you, but add my own spin.  Because I don't necessarily think that they are things that people need to hear; it is what they need to KNOW and to Feel when they come to First Presbyterian Church. 1.         Welcome!”  Rev. Schmidt says:  " A wel...

It's my husband's birthday. Ten years ago I threw him a great party to celebrate.   It wasn't elaborate and thank goodness the weather cooperated because we held it outside in our backyard.  I just invited a whole bunch of his friends over for an afternoon of food, drink, music and conversation.  It was a great day because we had friends and relatives from all over drop by.    Even though it was a Saturday in summer, my mother drove up from the shore (who does that) and his parents and grandfather drove in from Pennsylvania.  Good friends drove up for the weekend from Maryland and friends from the city bused into our suburb.  It was a wonderful blend of people It was a time to mark a new decade in his life.  And what a decade it was to be! Our previous ten years together (9 if you want to count officially the years we were married at the time), had a different focus.  As of July 2005 we were closing the door on the two of us and ...

Today Disneyland celebrates its 60th anniversary.  I'm a Disney geek, but I've only been to Disneyland (DL) once. That's not by choice, it's by location and finances.  Being on the East Coast, Disney World (WDW) makes a lot more sense.  While I have wanted to take my family to the west coast (and I even had a plan to do so in 2014), it just hasn't happened. It's been a long, Long, LONG time since I was in DL.  I believe I was only five at the time (more years ago than I care to admit) and my family headed to California for a couple of weeks.  So the trip was not solely to visit DL and my mother and I (along with another relative) only went for a day.  (In all probability, not a very long day since I was a cranky kid.  I won't focus on the SeaWorld incident; which my mother still remembers to this day as I embarrassed her with my crying and hiding my head.) Sadly, I don't recall all that much about DL.  And as this trip took place LONG bef...

T his morning a friend of mine posted a link to a political story and commented:  "How could any woman actually be a _________? The only explanation I can come up with is mental illness". (Yes, I purposely left out the party name.)  I didn't read the article and I have no doubt that whatever was said by whatever candidate(s) was stupid, cruel, insensitive...well you get the picture.   I was upset (notice I didn't say offended; too many people are "offended" these days!  Get over it already!).  I am a member of __________ party.  That doesn't make me part of their herd.  It means I am a registered member and when it is primary time I vote for the person within that party who I think is the best candidate.  It DOES NOT mean that I vote for a person solely because they are a member of that party.  It DOES NOT mean I believe in EVERYTHING that the party (or candidate) believes in or says.  I am NOT a cow; I'm NOT part of a herd.  I ...

I'm still slogging my way through my Pulitzer Project:  reading as many of the Pulitzer Prize Winners for Fiction as I can find electronically.  (Just makes more sense to read them this way as I can carry one device with lots of books on it.)  I have been struggling with William Faulkner's A Fable .  I don't know whether to give up and move on or keep trying. I've read only one other Faulkner, As I Lay Dying , about a year ago.  That was also an e-book and was poorly composed/translated.  I got through it but thought my dislike/frustration of the book had to do with the "translation" as it were.  The formatting was done poorly so I thought that was what caused by difficulty with reading it.  Now I have to wonder.  Am I just missing the Faulkner gene? Is stream of consciousness writing just not something that I can understand? (I don't think that's the case as I've read other authors such as James Joyce,  Fyodor Dostoyevsky,  an...

If you've read my previous posts, you know that I've got a busy summer.  And that I have a son who is attending multiple camps/programs during summer break.  Some he's done before ( http://www.marinesciencecamp.com/  and http://www.campjburg.org/) and some are new.  Each one is a little different and each has their own "quirks."  I understand that.  But I'm a little irked/annoyed/cheesed off with the people who are running the camp he has been attending this week.  Before I sound off, a few points: This day camp/program has been around for years.  (So long that I COULD have gone to it when I was a kid, but I didn't.)  It is part of larger community organization and as I understand it, is run/organized by volunteers.   The staff/counselors, however, are paid.  They obviously have some training or educational background as my son seems to really like the counselors, especially whoever runs t...

Summer...the time when we slow down and enjoy so many things.  The weather is warm so we can go outside and relax in a lawn chair, perhaps with an adult beverage.  We can go for a relaxing swim at the pool or the beach.  The air smells like suntan lotion and is full of the sounds of children. That's the theory at least.  For this SOMWad this summer is just as crazy as the school year.  My calendar is crammed and I have to keep checking it because I *think* I have time to do "x" or "y" only to remember that I've already got "z" scheduled.  (If you don't know what a SOMWaD is, you need to read   http://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/somwad.html) I free admit that I overbooked this summer.  I wanted to keep my son busy.  I know that the last two weeks of "summer vacation" there is nothing to do.  All the camps and summer programs have concluded as the counselors have headed back to college.  I knew that time would be the...