Friday Five: Keeping My Cool

This was our house in Minnesota the day we baptized Ainsley in 2007.
Keeping cool, indeed.

Ahhhhh... Just a few short months ago, we were shoveling snow. Today, we're sweating buckets!

Highs in the 90s. Humidity in the "uncomfortable" range. And air quality in the "red" zone. It's summer here in the Washington, DC Metro area, and I'm not really a fan.

Recognizing that RevGalBlogPals are from around the world, your weather may be different. But play along and tell us how YOU beat the heat when it's in season with this week's Friday Five.

Summery Friday Five

Songbird gave us the Friday Five this week, and it's all about summer. Here are three things I love, two things I don't come the longest time of theyear.

Three Summery Things I Love:

1. Swimmin' holes. Specifically, the new Furman Aquatic Center here in our lovely town of Ames (Kids' Pool pictured to the right by Ronnie Miller of the Ames Tribune). This water park has been ridiculously wonderful for us this summer - we bought a season pass (with some help from a good friend) and have already gotten return value for the big expense. The Sisters love nothing more than going to the Water Park on an afternoon, and at this point all they can do is walk around in the water and go down the kiddie slides. I can't wait to see how much they love it when they're big enough to go down the big water slides you can just see in the background.

I've loved going to the pool in the summer my whole life, and it's been fun going back with our girls and discovering, among other things, why running on a wet pool deck is never a good idea. Okay, maybe that last wasn't so much fun, but the rest certainly has been!

2. Cooking food with fire. Hot dog roasts, burgers and brats on the grill, hobo packs, corn on the cob wrapped in its own husks - you name it, if it can be cooked outdoors I'll give it a shot this time of year. I'd like to try pizza and a dutch oven roast sometime before this summer's out, and maybe if I get a little adventurous I'll attempt to smoke some ribs, too.

3. Baseball. I grew up in the Baseball Capital of Nebraska, and spent most of my summers pursuing America's pastime until I was 16 and, frankly, got burned out. Even though I haven't played in all the years since, I still love going to the ballpark to catch a game, and joining a summer church league for softball wouldn't be all bad, either. Our campus ministry makes at least one trip to Des Moines for an Iowa Cubs game each year, and it's always a highlight of the summer for me. Hopefully at some point in the near future I'll have the chance to catch a Twins game at Target Field in Minneapolis as well.

Two Summery Things I Don't Love So Much

1. Sun, Heat and Humidity. You can blame this one on my Swedo-Germanic ancestors, I guess. When it comes to the weather, I'm all for sunny days, but I love them best when accompanied by spring or fall temps. Well-insulated chaps like me don't react well to being constantly sweaty, itchy from heat rash and fried to a crisp. An additional frustration for me is the way my body selectively tans: my arms will get comfortably red, my legs will stay pasty white no matter how often I wear shorts, and my face and neck will burn no matter how much sunscreen I use. I bought a nice hat last fall, and hopefully the full-coverage brim will help keep the forehead blisters to a minimum this year.

2. Mosquitoes, the state bird of Minnesota. Nothing ruins a picnic or night at the beach/lake/ballpark/campfire faster than these flying vampires. Yet another reason I prefer autumn and spring: no bugs.

Bonus Target of Loathing: Junebugs

Please, feel free to fly around our porchlight all night, smack into our screens and generally scare the hell out of me or my family by flying into our faces, buzzing like the world's first vuvuzela. Yuk, yuk, yuk.

Summertime and the Livin' Is...Boring?

I'm not really sure what to make of this week.

Beloved is off on a mission trip in South Dakota, so I'm in charge of our progeny. We are having a beastly hot and humid week in Iowa, and perhaps that has something do do with the lethargy that has swallowed me up. Campus life has crawled to a near stop, and without a regular Bible study or anything beyond our small Sunday night worship services, I'm perhaps feeling a bit under-utilized at the moment.

All I know is, some days it's hard to feel as though I'm accomplishing much in the way of contribution. It's hard to blog because our internet is still not functioning properly at home. Several home projects remain uncompleted because by the time I get the girls to bed all I want to do is sip a beer and breathe easy. (Though I did manage to get one nearly completed this morning, and should finish it up tonight with a bit of good luck). I have managed to get to the gym several times this week, which is good, but frankly it's a poor substitute for the running I'd rather be doing in this weather (oddly enough I really enjoy a hard run when it's hot like this).

It could just be the June drag. This is our "Resource Fair" season, when I spend two hours every day connecting with incoming first year students during their Orientation sessions. It's been good - we've made a lot of contacts and our partners in local congregations seem to be telling their kids to be sure to connect with us once they're on campus. But after three weeks it does begin to wear on you a bit, the constant repetition of catchphrases and the pressure to be "on" with complete strangers.

Anyway, life is good - the girls are happy and we're having fun while Mommy's away, but it definitely isn't quite what I thought this week would be. Maybe the guys at Car Talk nailed it when they named the Head of their Working Mothers' Support Group "Erasmus B. Dragon" (sound it out): my ass is definitely dragging today, and I've got the weekend to survive yet. Uff da.

Grace & peace,
Scott

The illustration is "Ennui" by Mike Reed.

Sunday Morning Breakfast at Chez Johnson

We've had an unexpected blessing here in Ames this summer. Campus ministry doesn't worship on Sundays through the summer - most of our student population has either gone to summer internships, to church camps or just home for the summer. Generally this is a time for the campus pastor (that'd be me) to get out and about to spread the 'word' about campus ministry. But since I'm new to the area, I haven't really been on anyone's radar for supply preaching. So over the last month I've had several Sunday mornings "off." It's a rare occurrence for us, one that likely won't happen again until I hang up my preaching jock for good (I'll wash it first.), so we've enjoyed this time by eating really big Sunday breakfasts and generally relaxing before going to worship at our "home congregation," St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Ames.

Today was the last Sunday of this special time. I've picked up three supply dates for the next three weeks, then the baby comes, and by the time I'm off paternity leave, school will be in session and we'll be worshipping on Sundays again. So, this was a day for celebrating with good food, including:

Burgies' Espresso Blend coffee
Blueberry Pancakes made from scratch
Scrambled eggs (with green peppers & sharp cheddar cheese in mine)
Cran-apple juice
and, of course, bacon (everybody sing the bacon song!
"dead piggy, dead dead piggy dead piggy...")

All of this was accompanied by the wonderful sounds of Great Hymns of Faith, the beautiful compliation CD from the St. Olaf College Choir from Northfield, MN. Seriously, if you're a person from a hymn-singing faith tradition, you should own this CD (even if you're not, you should still own it). You can order it here.

One of our favorites is the classic F. Melius Christiansen arrangement of Beautiful Savior. As usual, youtube's embedding line is crap, so here's the direct link. The recording starts very softly, so crank up your volume and enjoy. A blessed Sunday, friends.

Friday Five at the Beach

In honor of summer, please share your own beachy memories, plans, and
dreams with a "Beach Trip" Friday Five.

1. Ocean rocks, lake limps? Vice versa? Or "it's all beautiful in its own way"?

I’ll admit that I love both, but living in Minnesota for eight years, four and a half of which were on the lake, created a love for lakes that is hard to shake. (It’s hard to believe it was that long, even though it seems like we’ve been here in Ames quite a while) Last weekend I drove into Storm Lake, Iowa for the Western Iowa Synod Assembly and thought, “Did I turn right accidentally and wind up in Minnesota?” It felt good to be driving in a town on a lake again.

2. Year round beach living: Heaven...or the Other Place?

It could be both, actually. For me, environment is not nearly as important as the company with whom I’m sharing it. But, all things being equal? Yeah, beach living would be really, really cool.

3. Any beach plans for this summer?

The only beach plans for us this summer are next Saturday, when I’ll be running along the shore of Lake Superior for 26.2 miles before enjoying a post-marathon afternoon with friends in Duluth’s Canal Park.

4. Best beach memory ever?

You know, for a Nebraska farmer’s kid I have a lot of beach memories – isn’t that odd? I remember walking on the beach in York, Maine with my ex-wife while we vacationed with her brother and his wife, spending the day at South Beach every New Year’s for three years while in the Nebraska Marching Band, and the Cliffs of Moher (which isn’t really a beach memory, but it is the ocean and it is SO VERY COOL to remember - see the beautiful pic above). But a really, really good one is from the honeymoon Kris and I took after we were married. We were in Grand Marais, MN, and we just walked on the beach and enjoyed an afternoon in the sun, with some poetry and a really good meal at a shoreline restaurant before heading back to our cabin for the night. Just a great afternoon.

5. Fantasy beach trip?

I’d love to go back to Titusville, FL, where I did my internship in 2001-2002, and while there, stay for a few nights along Cocoa Beach. I have some wonderful memories of some really great times at Cocoa Beach, and it would be really nice to catch up with my friends at Trinity Lutheran in Titusville. This is a trip I actually hope to make sometime in the next few years, after the kids are old enough to remember it (and the almost-required addition of a few days at DisneyWorld, of course).

Bonus: Share a piece of music/poetry/film/book that expresses something about what the beach means to you.

Well, to be honest the beach doesn’t mean nearly as much to me as the sea (again, how does a farmer’s kid know these things?), but the novels Bag of Bones and Duma Key, both by Stephen King, are beach novels, and I enjoy them both tremendously. Ooooh, wait, now that I think of it, Waking Ned Devine is a great beach movie – especially the scene of the old men skinny dipping and then racing off to beat the lottery man to Ned’s house. Funny stuff, that.

Friday Five, Take Two: Summery

So, if one Friday Five is good, two must be better, right? HotCup ran this one at her place and it looked so fun I decided to play two. You know, like baseball - "Let's play two!"
1.) What first tells you that Summer is here?
The end of classes. Yeah, technically it's still spring, but when baseball practice is starting and kids aren't checking the clock every fifteen seconds for the last day of school to be over, that means summer has come, baby!

2.) Name five of your favorite distinctively Summer habits or customs.
Fire - either in the grill for cooking or in the pit for enjoying of a nice summer evening
Following the Minnesota Twins (although that's a bit harder to do here in Iowa)
Golf
Working around the house on the lawn/flowerbeds/etc. (hoping for a vegetable garden next year)
Spending time as a family on bike paths & trails (although the pregnancy is definitely limiting our time playing outside this year).

3.) What is your favorite smell of Summer?
Ooooh - tough call. Do I go with line-dried bedsheets, lilac blooms (technically Spring, but who's checking?) or meat cooking on the grill? Why not say all three? Okay - all three, plus lots of others.

4.) What is your favorite taste of Summer?
Burgers, sweet corn and homemade ice cream. Feed me that and I'll love you forever.

5.) Favorite Summer memory?
Oh, without a doubt my favorite summer memories revolve around my years at Carol Joy Holling Camp, both as a camper and as a staff member. No other summer experience has given me more joy or been more important. Even now, more than ten years after my last Fun Campfire, I'm still using skills I learned at camp and maintaining relationships from those days. Church camp ROCKS!

Well, there's the second Friday Five. Now maybe I oughta get some actual work done. :-)

Friday Five: Seasons Change...

reverendmother has the Friday Five this week at RevGalBlogPals:
It's Labor Day weekend here in the United States, also known as Summer's Last Hurrah. So let's say goodbye to summer and hello to the autumn. (People in other climes, feel free to adapt as needed.)

1. Share a highlight from this summer. (If you please, don't just say "our vacation to the Canadian Rockies." Give us a little detail or image. Help us live vicariously through you!)


Wow - can I share two? First, playing the role of E.K. Hornbeck in Prairie Wind Players' Inherit the Wind. It was a thoroughly enjoyable (and immensely cathartic) role and a real treat to work with some of my fellow cast members. Second, bringing a group of campers to Carol Joy Holling Camp in Ashland, NE, where I went to camp when I was a kid and where I served five summers as a counselor and Tipi Village site manager. It was the fulfillment of a dream thirteen years in the making: ever since I began to feel called to ordained ministry, I've wanted to do this. Glad it happened this year.

2. Are you glad to see this summer end? Why or why not?
I am and I'm not. I'm always excited about September because I'm an autumn person, but we had a pretty good summer. This summer went SO very quickly; I'd hoped to plant a garden this year (only got a garden tilled), hoped to have several woodworking projects completed (one is halfway cut and not at all assembled) and wanted to lose some weight (pants are still tight). But we've had a lot of fun with friends and family and are looking forward to a great autumn nonetheless.

3. Name one or two things you're looking forward to this fall.

I've got lots of things to be excited for this year: Husker football, the beginning of school, high school sports, Husker football, cooler weather, the beauty of Minnesota in September and October, Husker football, Husker volleyball, running the Siouxland Half-Marathon on 20 October with some good friends, Husker football, watching Ainsley learn to crawl and maybe walk, oh, and let's not forget, Husker football. :-)


4. Do you have any special preparations or activities to mark the transition from one season to another? (Cleaning of house, putting away summer clothes, one last trip to the beach)
Not really: the change in activity level at our church and getting involved at school is enough of a transition to manage. We've gone to the Minnesota State Fair the last few years (AKA Scott's End-of-Summer Gorge-a-thon-on-a-stick), but didn't make it this year; that's about as transition-y as we get.

5. I'll know that fall is really here when __________________________________.
we have a fire at night and I feel the need to put on a sweatshirt. That's the BEST time of the year. Also, when I can smell harvest in the air, when our walnut tree goes that cool, insanely red color before its leaves drop, and when Notre Dame loses to Michigan (sorry, Irish fans!).

RevGalBlogPals Friday Five: Hot Town, Summer In The City...

...or town, or suburb, or hamlet, or burg, or unincorporated zone, or rural area of your choice---pretty much anywhere but the southern hemisphere, it's summer. (Australians and others, consider this an invitation to take a break from winter for a while.)

1. Favorite summer food(s) and beverage(s)
Wow - how to choose? Can I sum up with "Just about anything cooked over fire or charcoal?" After spending two summers at Tipi Village at NLOM, every June 1st I start to experience a little "tipi seasoning" jones - meat and Lawry's and I'm good to go!

2. Song that "says" summer to you. (Need not be about summer explicitly.)
I'd have to say "Centerfield" by John Fogerty. I grew up in the baseball capital of Nebraska (no kidding!) and every night we were playing they'd open the pre-game music with "Centerfield." There are other great summertime songs that I'm sure many will mention, but that one does it for me. Along with that, you should add a hot dog with kraut and mustard and a cold beer at a ballgame to #1 above - even in the Metrodome, the worst place to watch baseball now that the Kingdome has been destroyed, a dog and a beer and baseball make for a fine, fine evening.

3. A childhood summer memory
Being dropped off for VBS at our church, followed by a sack lunch and a bike ride down to the park for baseball practice. After practice, an afternoon playing at the swimming pool until Dad picked us up at 5:00 or so, when the pool closed for the afternoon. Supper at home, followed by another trip into town to watch the Legion teams play ball. Chasing foul balls, which our mayor would redeem for a dime in the press box. Could life be any better?

4. An adult summer memory
Church camp - gotta be camp! Getting up at 6:00 for a cup of coffee, a cigarette and some reading in a good book before anyone else was awake (I know, I know, the smoking was bad, but it was peaceful and quiet and cool and it's my memory - deal). Cooking eggs & bacon on a griddle over a firepit. Playing guitar & singing at the top of my lungs to get the kids up for worship. Watching 25 4th-6th graders sing "This is the Day" at 7:30 a.m. and enjoy it. (This is the day - that the Lord has made - I will rejoice - and be glad in it!) Bible Study - Crafts - Hiking - Site Meeting - Council Fire - Games - Giggling kids. Like LutheranHusker said, wouldn't life be better if we all stopped every day at 3:00 p.m. for a sno-cone? Finally, evening worship. Gathered around a campfire, playing my guitar and leading worship is where I discovered a sense that God was pulling me toward ministry.

5. Describe a wonderful summer day you'd like to have in the near future. (weather, location, activities)
Cool morning breeze. A four-mile run that lasts 35 minutes and feels like two miles. Breakfast with Beloved and Ainsley: pancakes & eggs. A good book to enjoy for an hour or two. A hike in the afternoon, maybe a dip in the lake. Supper cooked over fire or charcoal (sensing a theme?), and I read my good book while listening to the Twins game on the radio (they beat the White Sox, of course).

Optional: Does your place of worship do anything differently in the summer? (Fewer services, casual dress, etc.)
We're worshiping at 9:00 a.m. instead of 10:30 these days, but otherwise most everything stays the same.