Happy Birthday, Mike!

Last Friday was Mike’s birthday – number 44! I had a tee shirt made for him with the single “Magnaclam” floating through space, on the front, while the Magnaclam fleet can be seen on the back. Unfortunately, the colors didn’t come out right – instead of shades of gray & black, they turned out brown. The people who made it said it had something to do with the paper I had the original images printed on, but that makes no sense to me, as they scanned it into their computer. I wanted to put it on a black shirt, but they only do light-colored shirts. Another defect was that they didn’t get the picture on the back centered properly.

Underneath the Magnaclam on the front was the “salute” Mike made up for the Magnaclams: “Oh, hail to the great Magnaclams! May their neutronium shells shine in splendor forever!”

I also had a cake made with a Magnaclam on it, and it turned out better than the shirt. I have a picture of it that didn’t turn out too well, because the flash against the white made everything look washed out.

Picture on the front of the shirt:

Picture on the back of the shirt:


Sorry about the pictures being cut off at the edge!

Pastor Appreciation and Centennial Celebration

Sunday October 5, we had a double celebration in our church. Since October is Pastor Appreciation month, we honored our pastor and his family. We had a carry-in dinner, and the pastor and his wife were given a place of honor – a small table all to themselves, with candles. Of course, it wasn’t candlelight, because it was broad daylight, and besides, the entire fellowship hall was lit up. The parsonage family was honored with a card shower. I usually make all my greeting cards, and I hadn’t got one made for them, so I made it the following week, and handed it to the pastor on Wednesday.

On Sunday, we also celebrated 100 years of the official existence of our denomination. One hundred years ago, in Pilot Point, Texas, the Church of the Nazarene was officially organized. We were made up of several groups of churches with like beliefs. The person known as the father of our denomination, Phineas Bresee, came from a Methodist background.

Our denomination was honored with a video clip from Willard Scott of NBC, and a letter from President George W. Bush.

Several of our members, in past weeks, have bought tee-shirts to commemorate this event. On the front, the shirt has our church emblem in the background, and the words “His Century” and underneath that “100 years of Holiness.” Of course, we don’t pretend that we invented holiness, but that is the defining doctrine of our church. On the back of the shirt, we had the name and location of our local church – Calvary Church of the Nazarene, Brookville, PA.

October's Bright Blue Weather

This is a poem written by the same author who wrote "September," which I posted on an earlier blog.

October's Bright Blue Weather

O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumblebee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And goldenrod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When gentians roll their fingers tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.

O suns and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.

Helen Hunt Jackson

October birthdays:
My son Mike - October 10 (44)
My brother-in-law Tony - October 27 (79)

Blogger's note: Corrected date of Tony's birthday