Friday, July 02, 2010

Shabbat shalom


God is providing fireworks this evening, or so it seems. I am snugly indoors but I hear thunder rolling in the distance. The sky this evening was spectacular. All manner of clouds stretched across the vast expanse of heaven as I drove home. Dark clouds over the distant hills to the southwest. Los volcanes looking inviting. I really want to hike around there soon. As I neared the end of watering the yard I looked up at a very dramatic sky with some clear blue here and there, mostly to the north. Dark clouds, smears of light clouds, a streak of light from the sun. Awesome.

Italian class was amusing last night. The instructor had obviously shared my e-mail to him that explained why I skipped class on Tuesday. Lots of questions about SS Peter and Paul and my dinner. He introduced adjectives and our homework is to come up with adjectives for a list of nouns. I think I will go for the unusual, the outrageous, and the humorous to make it fun.

Nice chat with the next door neighbor tonight. I enjoy a neighborhood feeling and I hope it is growing on my block.

Harvested the seven Methley plums left on the tree. They were so ripe they came off if you barely touched them. I had one and will enjoy the rest over the next two days. The harvest on that tree only came to about 12-15 plums but they have been very nice.

This is the weekend to feed and treat all the roses, so that task lies ahead of me. I also bought a dozen of the curved retaining wall blocks to put an arc around the peach tree nearest the house. The well around it keeps getting worn down by the dragging of the hose and occasional rain, so I will make it more substantial along the portion that is higher than the bordering ground. Got a bit of exercise schlepping those from the car to the back yard.

I finally replaced the light bulbs that had burned out in the ceiling fan in my bedroom. They don't give that much light but the room sure was dark without them. (Yes, it took me weeks to get around to this.)

Printed off the lessons for this Sunday - in Spanish and English. Since I will be presiding and preaching at a bilingual Mass Sunday evening, I have read all the lessons in Spanish. I will ignore the English and focus on a short Spanish homily. I can then translate paragraph by paragraph into English as I deliver it. (Now, what are the odds that a word or two of Italian will want to creep into this process?)

Along with sundry yard chores this weekend, I hope to get outdoors for some exercise (biking or hiking) tomorrow. Monday we plan to go to the Jemez Mountains to hike.

Chipping away at things that need to be done. It has been a good week.

May you all enjoy a good Sabbath rest.

--the BB

2 comments:

Michal Anne said...

I am impressed by your ambition to translate each paragraph of your sermon from English to Spanish. The church I am preaching at started as Spanish only, then bilingual in the 60's. At that point the preacher preached in either Spanish or English depending on who showed up on any given Sunday. Now a text and a hymn is in Spanish, and, fortunately the sermon is in English or I would be sunk. Let me know when you go hiking in the volcanoes--I would love to go with you. Have a restful weekend!

Paul said...

Actually, from Spanish to English. The only time I took an English sermon and translated it to Spanish it felt very awkward to me. The congregation said it was fine but I need to think in Spanish to preach in Spanish or it feels culturally problematic. Doing an "instantaneous" translation back into my native tongue is then easy. It will be as scriptless as all my sermons, though I will do vocabulary prep over the course of today.