Thanksgiving, Mass & Leaves

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We had a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner with family last week. 
Dee made the turkey, ham, green beans, sweet potatoes and biscuits. Christina brought scallop potatoes and desert.

Isabelle, Hailey, Eryn and Me

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Our Thursday evening prayer group watched Segment 6 of the 

Ministry of the Wild Goose with Father Dave Pivonka, TOR. 

This week we learned that the Holy Spirit is present in the Mass. 
A concept that I never thought of before. 

The study questions that were asked:
 why we attend Mass, 
how do we prepare for the Mass and 
what part of the Mass is most important to us. 

These are not easy questions for me. I have never thought about them. 
So, in addition to the Holy Spirit at Mass, I have to think about Father Dave’s questions as they pertain to me.

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Advent begins on Sunday, December 2.

I suggest signing up for “Best Advent Ever” at Dynamic Catholic.

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Snoopy is getting ready for Christmas, practicing his version of “Silent Night.”

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Last July I took our lawn vacuum in for servicing. I wanted to be prepared for the Fall. The plan worked out well. At least for the first weeks of the onslaught of leaves. Then this week, the temperatures dropped to a range in the mid 30’s. 

On Wednesday morning the aforementioned device refused to start. No matter what coaxing I tried, it just wouldn’t start. So, with the blower and rake I moved leaves off the lawn. A long arduous process. 

Thursday it warmed up to the low 40’s, so I though I had a better chance. But once again it refused to start. So I pushed it out into the sun for about an hour and that did the trick. It ran for the rest of the day.

Today I was trying to remember when I purchased this finicky device. It seems that it was back in 2006. Hmm, 12 years old. Maybe it’s wanting to retire or perhaps it longs for a warmer climate.

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The Irish Lads are ranked number 3 in the "College Football Playoff" list as of December 30.

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Alison Krauss & John Waite - "Lay Down Beside Me"

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Go over to "This Ain't the Lyceum," where Kelly is hosting more takes.

Prayers, Calvin & Mr. Lewis

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Please pray for the following souls who recently joined our Lord.

My cousin Naomi's husband George to Lou Gehrigs Disease. 

Please pray for her and the family.

Ann, from the Salisbury Presbyterian Church, that Dee and I knew from Sunday morning breakfast gatherings at Panera. For her husband Jim and family. She was 80.

Eileen, from Brandermill Woods Retirement Community that Dee and I knew through Church of the Epiphany. For her family. She was 92.

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In 1622, the Wampanoag, People of the First Light, gathered with the settlers from the Mayflower. Information on the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head in Aquinnah, MA is here.

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Dee and I, along with our granddaughters, Eryn and Hailey, watched Disney's "Frozen" last night. This is not our first viewing.

 I still enjoy the music, the story line and the characters. 

Sharing the experience with my beautiful ladies is a lasting memory. 

Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven

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“Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one.  Lock it up, safe in the coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

C. S. Lewis

Moira posted this quote on her blog. She also writes about marriage and “the grace of the Sacrament of Marriage.” I suggest that you take the time to read what she has written and look at the beautiful photos of Glendalough.

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USC is hoping to spoil the Irish Lads undefeated season on Saturday. This will be the “90th edition of the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football.”

The Spiders ended their season at 4-7 by winning their  final game against William & Mary. 

Basketball anyone?

Go Spiders!

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Russ Lee - “Tell Me”

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Go over to "This Ain't the Lyceum," where Kelly is hosting more takes.

Mini-Trip, Clown & Potatoes

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I was going to “not write” this week because we are in Ocean City, Maryland with my brother Tee, his wife Karen and my sister Kim, and her husband Frank.

Kim and Frank own a nice condo near the beach which is in partnership with my nephew Chad. It’s a short trip, just the weekend. 

Last night we had dinner at “Bull On the Beach,” a great restaurant that specializes in beef, my favorite being the “Bull Brisket” sandwich.

This morning, Tee is making bacon, a service that he enjoys and is infamous for.

Todays restaurant is going to be Seacrets, another one of our favorite places.

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“The comedy that clowns perform is usually in the role of a fool whose everyday actions and tasks become extraordinary—and for whom the ridiculous, for a short while, becomes ordinary. This style of comedy has a long history in many countries and cultures across the world. Some writers have argued that due to the widespread use of such comedy and its long history it is a need that is part of the human condition.”

This is an excellent description of my brother Tee. The more laughs he gets, the more he performs, much to the chagrin of his wife Karen. Especially when things touch close to “home.” It’s never a dull moment when he is present.

Clem Kadiddlehopper

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Please pray for one of our Epiphany parish friends Mildred who joined our Lord on November 3.

“Eternal rest grant unto Mildred, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon her.

May her soul and the souls of all the faithful

departed, through the mercy of God,

rest in peace. Amen.”

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“Autumn Digression: Potato Dancing” By Russ Lockwood 

“While contemplating the maneuvers, I was reminded that the area around OberEssling had once been populated with potato fields. Next to the beergarden was once a pair of towering potato silos holding the crop and a special outbuilding that boasted a most ingenious wood-fueled contraption to squash the potatoes, move and heat the fibers into vapor, and condense the vapor into a potent white-ish, almost clear, alcohol called Taterweiss. 

Indeed, local lore has it that the von Trappeze family created a rather popular drinking song that starts out: "Taterweiss, taterweiss, Ich liebe jetzt zu trinken..." which doesn't make much sense unless you've consumed vast quantities of Taterweiss. 

In any case, one year the UberSeptemberFest resembled a Venetian masked ball with all involved wearing a variety of masks – a few charming, others alluring, but the vast majority grotesque. The more alcohol consumed, the rowdier the party became until it just got out of hand. The inebriated crowd complained the contraption wasn't squashing the potatoes fast enough to make Taterweiss vapor. One unknown genius suggested using their feet to stomp on the potatoes, much like crushing wine grapes, to speed the process. 

Fueled by UberSeptemberFest joviality, the crowd stumbled to a silo and smashed in its side to get at the potatoes. Unfortunately, the silo toppled to the ground, spilling the potatoes all over the place, including through an iron gate and into the family burial grounds. 

The crowd surged inside the gate and started stomping on the potatoes, the flowers, the headstones, the statues, parts of the iron fence, and even some of their fellow revelers who had twisted their ankles and fallen down. 

Worse, other revelers fed an overabundance of wood into the contraption with the idea that the larger the fire, the faster the potatoes would vaporize. The whole contraction burst and set the outbuilding and silos on fire. To the horror of the owner, amidst the flickering flames, the Taterweiss-fueled, grotesque-masked denizens kept stomping on the potatoes in a dance macabre. 

As von Franken surveyed the burning wreckage of his buildings and the drunken crowd wearing grotesque masks a hopping and a stomping in his family burial
ground, he moaned, "They mashed the mash, they were a
monster mash. The monster mash, it was my graveyard 

smashed..."
This became a popular Taterweiss drinking song 

in taverns around the area.

Really.”

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There is a frost coming to Virginia. It is suppose to be 27 degrees Saturday night and 31 degrees Sunday night. That means that the grass will stop growing but the leaves will be falling faster. “If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.”

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The Irish lads play their last home game for this season against the Florida Seminoles.

The Spiders are now 3-6 as they head to their last home game against the Maine Black Bears. 

Go Spiders!

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Matt Maher - “Hold Us Together”

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Go over to "This Ain't the Lyceum," where Kelly is hosting more takes.

A Celt, A Musical & A Mug

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My brother Tee and I attended the Richmond Celtic Festival over the weekend. We saw big men tossing big logs, aka. “Tossing The Caber,” and big men throwing large stones, aka. “Shot Put.” There was plenty of music, fish and chips, bagpipers, ladies dancing, Irish Coffee and Guinness.

Tee & Me

The most fun seemed to be at the bandstand where, among other bands, Albannach was playing.

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Dee and I, along with Tony, Pam, Roger and Margaret went to see the production of Les Misérables at the Altria Theater here in Richmond. It was a great production and we all enjoyed it.

Wikipedia

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Brother Maynard - Monty Python and "The Hotly Grail"l

“Thou shalt set the time one hour back,

no more,

no less.

One hour back shall the clock be set,

and the setting of the clock shalt be one hour back …..”

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“A Mug Like No Other,” another interesting historical note about “Autumn Traditions in an 1805 Beergarden”  By Russ Lockwood 

“I was reminded that this particular beergarden, owned by brewmeister Klaus von Franken and set among potato, grain, and pumpkin fields, owned the largest drinking mug in the world. It had become a tourist attraction for 19th century Englander tourists, who paid a couple pfennigs each to drink beer from this mug. Actually, to be clear, the proper term for this type of mug is 'stein.' 

In any case, one of the post-Waterloo Englander tourists, a gal named Mary Shelley, visited the beergarden, paid her money, and drank way too much from the mug. She passed out and her friends had to carry her back to the hotel. When she finally awoke in a most disheveled and stuporous state, one of her friends quipped, "It's alive! It's alive! It drank from Franken's Stein and it's alive!" 

That little nugget of wit stuck in Mary's addled brain and she went on to pen a classic Gothic horror story. 

Really.”

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Our Cursillo Brother Dave has reached the 75 year mark and is still going strong. 

Happy Birthday Dave …

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Notre Dame and Navy in San Diego. I was pleased with the game but my brother was not. He’s an ex-Navy Submariner and was pulling for the Midshipmen.

The Spiders are prepared for Villanova at "Homecoming Weekend," this Saturday November 3rd.

Go Spiders!

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Dierks Bentley - “Woman, Amen”

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There are no takes at "This Ain't the Lyceum." Kelly is taking a break..