Sundry Sunday Tidbits 8/30/2015

First, for the benefit of those who don't do Facebook or who aren't my friends there, I'll post here what I posted there yesterday:

In an AP article in our local newspaper on how annoyed young people are by spelling and grammar errors, I found this gem: "The survey of 2,052 people showed 71 percent responded that they often find spelling mistakes in correspondents from others."

It was good for a chuckle here.

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Our newest grandson was in church for the first time today.  His parents and two older brothers all trooped to the front for the dedication for Cedric.  Gary was in charge of the dedication.  It was a lovely ceremony.

I got to hold the baby during church, if only briefly, before he began to stir and wake and make some unhappy noises, all the while busily stuffing his fist in his mouth.  By then his mother had finished doing the "housekeeping chores" at the back that she could not do with the baby in hand earlier--quietly putting out all the dishes to be returned to the folks who had brought them meals.  So she carried him off to feed him for the third time since church started.

The baby looks really sturdy and healthy (and did I mention cute/handsome?), but keeping his appetite appeased and his crying quieted is calling for some pretty intense parenting right now.   It's a good thing Shane and Dorcas are young and healthy.

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The accident involving my cousin Wilbur and his wife Shirley and their adult son Blake is never far from our minds and prayers these days.  They had been in Kansas to stand in for Gary and Rosanna, who are heavily involved in seeing to the needs of Gary and Wilbur's parents (Perry and Judy)--while Gary and Rosanna attended an FB board meeting in PA.

On their way back to their home in Columbus, OH, they were involved in a one-car multiple roll-over accident about an hour east of St. Louis when the driver fell asleep.  The driver had only minor injuries, and Shirley suffered multiple broken bones (especially in her face).  Wilbur's injuries are of the most concern.  He has diffuse axonal brain injuries, and has been comatose since the accident--both because of trauma and because of medical sedation.  In recent days, doctors performed a tracheostomy and inserted a stomach feeding tube.  No direct treatment of the brain injuries is possible, but all of us hope that rest and time will bring about recovery.  In an obviously carefully-worded assessment of Wilbur's prognosis, a doctor told members of the family that Wilbur's injuries are correlative to but not indicative of a good recovery.  I think that means that good recovery sometimes occurs, but cannot be assured.  Diffuse axonal brain injury can range from mild to severe.  We're trusting that the Great Healer hears and answers our petitions on behalf of all in the extended family.

Wilbur and Shirley have been involved in Christian service domestically and overseas for many years.

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In a side note to the above, my brother Caleb, who is an age-mate of Wilbur's, had made plans to stay overnight in Wilbur's home over the time of our niece Karen's wedding in Columbus.  Caleb's wife and other family members attended also.  Wilbur's accident happened perhaps only one day before Caleb and his family were to arrive in Columbus.

Karen Schrock is now Mrs. Nigel Ewan.  Nigel had asked Matthew for his daughter's hand in marriage before Matthew died in March.  I don't know Nigel very well, but he seems like a fun and trustworthy young man.  That was especially a good thing when, at Matthew's grave site, in the clayish slick mud of a thawing Ohio day, Nigel and Karen both fell into the mud while he was attempting to help her across a particularly bad spot.  Anyone who can maintain a sense of decorum in the mud at the burial of the future father-in-law has my respect.

Over the time of Matthew's funeral, an Amish man told Nigel that he looks like he stepped right out of a movie.  Nigel had the good sense to respond with a simple "thank you."

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Last week, during the week when school started on Wednesday, I was at school three different times.  Each time, I was there in the interest of facilitating the nature-study portion of the new science curriculum that is being used for grade school students this year.  On Friday, my two nephews, Joseph and Andrew, with a little help from me, presented a slide-show-centered talk on butterflies--repeated once in each of four classrooms, using photos that Joseph had taken, mostly in Reno County.  Andrew introduced the characteristics of various groups of butterflies, using Joseph's pictures of members of that group as departure points for his descriptions.  Joseph is 16 and Andrew is 14 (I think!).

The original plan was to use some of Andrew's photos too, but disaster interfered.  The disc on which all the pictures were stored "disintipated" about three days before the presentation, and the pictures were not backed up elsewhere yet.  Andrew had just resolved to transfer them, and had made a few moves to do so before the opportunity passed.

It was a fun but time-consuming project.  Their blog is a good place to see some of the pictures they showed at school.  Even some of Andrew's pictures are there.  The third person who writes on the blog is Andrew's brother Bryant--Joseph's age-mate.

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I'm seeing a plethora of  "classic" mushrooms erupting in our yard and in the adjacent hay field.    Despite my best efforts (and probably due to my having inferior references), I have not been able to identify them.

This is the TMI version as I wrote about the mushrooms in my nature journal:

"I brought in a mushroom from the buffalo [grass] patch to try to figure out what kind it is.  The stalk [stipe] is 6 inches tall and the cap is 6 ½ inches across.  The general color is creamy white, with all parts the same color, except for slightly darker scales.  The cap is somewhat scaly, as is the stem.  On the cap, the scales are more widely-spaced near the peak than near the margins.  The cap has closely-spaced gills, not attached to the stem.  The upper side of the cap has some “merengue” droplets on it.  They are not sticky.  The cap feels moist to the touch.  The stem is slightly flared at the bottom.  Some wispy tissue hangs from the stem, but there is no ring on the stem.  The edge of the cap is not completely smooth, but shows some small fissures and v-shaped notches.  The center of the cap is rounded.  The stem separates cleanly from the cap, leaving behind a round hole about 1 ¼ inch in diameter and nearly an inch deep.  The cross section of the mushroom shows the solid part of the cap being about ½ inch deep and the gills being about ¾ inch high.  I started making a spore print (one on white paper and one on red), and will wait for several hours to check the spore color.  The immature mushrooms look like beefed-up drumsticks—a ball on the end of a stubby stick.  The mushrooms have no discernible odor.

Hiromi is giving many dire warnings about poisonous mushrooms.  I told him I don’t think anyone ever dies from touching them—only from eating them.  I hope I’m right because I have certainly touched these liberally while posing them for pictures, etc.  Hiromi even held it up for me AFTER he had finished his breakfast and pill-taking (so as not to ingest any poison).  I don’t plan to eat these unless I’m sure it’s OK.  Until I figure out what kind it is, I won’t know.

I’ve got to get a better mushroom guide.  The only ones I have are not much good—because they are too non-specific to this region.  One is a Peterson’s for North America and the other is a Simon and Schuster one printed in Italy and then translated.  Way too overwhelming—both of them.  I do like the system of identification by elimination that appears in the front of the S&S book—like a flowchart. 

I really like what I see here and might have to spring for it:  http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Kansas-Mushrooms-Bruce-Horn/dp/0700605711

The spore color is pale yellow."

I love seeing these mushrooms and can't imagine why a well-manicured monoculture would be preferable to having these beautiful forms spread across it.

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On this very foggy morning, just in time, before church, I remembered to check the one remaining yew at the NE corner of the house--to see if orb-weaving spiders had left any bejeweled creations for me to photograph.  YES!   I did it hurriedly.  I still haven't figured out how to transfer images to the computer, so you'll just have to take my word for it that they were beautiful.

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I'm keeping a sharp eye out for when to pick the biggest watermelon in the garden.  Today I saw that the nearest tendrils had begun to turn from fresh green to yellowish green, and I think the time is getting close.  I lack confidence in my ability to pick them "just right." The cantaloupe have helpfully been detaching themselves from the vine when they're ready, but I don't expect the watermelons to make things so easy.

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I'm having devotions at the sewing on Tuesday.  Today at church Irene asked me if I remember what I talked about the last time I had devotions.  I hadn't a clue.  She remembered, and proceeded to fill me in.   I can't remember the exact title, as she could, but it was something like "Don't Waste Your Cancer." I had borrowed the title from an article in one of the Mennonite periodicals, and expanded it to speak of what to do in hard times.

I wish I'd remember what I said.  If it was good advice I might have benefited from it in recent months and years.  I still have no memory of any of it.

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The honeymoon is underway at the new Pilgrim Christian School facility (formerly Elreka and then Pleasantview Academy).  Everything inside looks bright and new, and the space feels extravagant in every room, except perhaps the cafeteria and the restrooms.

I've heard a count of 94 enrolled students in grades 1 through 12.  This does not include any homeschooled students that come in for individual classes.  Perhaps 10 families are sending children who have not had students in school there before.

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Lois Yoder plans to have hip replacement surgery this week.

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Lillian Nisly (Mrs. Arthur) had surgery in Ohio this past week to remove a tumor near her ear.  Because it was wrapped around a facial nerve,  the surgery required great care.  She is not yet feeling that recovery has begun, but prayers to that end are being offered, and her condition is probably typical for this stage of treatment.

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Yesterday I emailed this link to our DLM family email group.  Myron added this link on a related topic.  The first is written by a conservative Mennonite man named David Martin, and the second is from the New York Times.

The first article talks about how the Industrial Revolution changed things, and how conservative Anabaptists have not yet recovered from its deleterious effects, especially on family and community life.  I don't know if we've been reading the same authors (I for sure couldn't say who they are), or if Martin and I have reached similar conclusions from our own perspective.  I don't know anything about the author except what I can see on his Facebook page.  I hardly know where to start in recapping the article.  I especially think he is "spot on" in what he says about how our lifestyle has been affected by men with families usually having to earn their living away from home, without being able to involve their children, or work alongside their wife in child rearing.  Neither he nor I know for sure what to do about this problem, except to pray.  I began to pray about this several decades ago.  I have yet to see anyone of my acquaintance take this problem as seriously as I believe it deserves to be taken.  

The second article is about the effect of applying Adam Smith's economic theories.  The author especially  laments how separated work has become from meaning and purpose.  This is yet another effect of the Industrial Revolution (specifically the assembly line model of specialization), in which many duties are mind-numbingly repetitive, and personal initiative and a sense of ownership of the process is nearly impossible, or unhelpful if one is earning money by putting in time and robotic effort.

Reading both articles takes a bit of time, but is worthwhile if you want something significant and interesting to think and pray about.

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This was the last Sunday before my new Sunday School class teaching assignment begins.

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 Yesterday in my Nature Journal, I recorded a list of 16 things under the heading:  "Things That Made Me Happy Today."  I won't afflict you with the list.  Just know that I don't spend an inordinate amount of time in fearful worrying.