Music at Uncle Irvin funeral

My Uncle Irvin died last week. I went to the funeral at Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, Va. last Saturday. I was asked to lead the singing and to sing "The Holy City," a solo popular in mid-century. Both hymns were by Isaac Watts, first published about 1719--When I Survey, and Jesus Shall Reign.

Click here to listen to about eight minutes of exerpts. I found the words online, but I was playing the piano by memory and ear.

http://www.box.net/shared/d3elrzbqit

A good dozen of my cousins, one coming as far as from Wisconsin, came to the funeral.

Charlotte outside the door

If you leave our house at nightfall, walk straight ahead, don't turn to the left.

Charlotte has been spinning her web each evening. I could get the broom from the kitchen and wipe her out.

This morning a slightly smaller spider had entered my car by the window I had left open. In the close space, my pacifistic feelings were overcome by my survival instincts--it's either you or me.

Off came both my shoes and the splot of protoplasm disappeared in mid-air. I feel no guilt.

Deadly Mascot wreck

It is so much fun to ride the bumper cars at a fair. But in real life, a pick up broadsiding a two-door at over 50 mph, killing the driver beside an idyllic tourist spot, seriously catapulting the passenger out the back window, such banging of one metal shell against another upends and sometimes ends a whole life.

Such was the case in Mascot, a little twin town of Monterey. Hundreds of tourists stop at Mascot every year to see the water-powered grist mill. Mascot is at the intersection of Stumptown and Newport Roads, about 1 mile southwest of Monterey.

The Mill Stream runs through the town of about 8 houses. See the falls in the background of photo. On the other side of the stream runs a narrow sanctuary enjoyed by egrets and kingfishers. When I was a boy tramps camped in the woods there.

The intersection is dangerous. A tourist was killed here only about 4 years ago. This evening I saw the cross with flowers in memory of a Lisa. How many persons died natural deaths in Mascot? Did an original American, centuries ago, take an arrow in the sternum here?

Monterey this summer is bracketed by fatal accidents, the last day of July and about the last day of August, both on Newport Road.

Manger working for sheep

How quickly the fate of things can change.

A manger was installed, hay bought, and here are Meeny, Miney, and Moe feasting on the mixed greens--timothy and alfalfa.

One day they were just one loud bellow away from the cattle truck, and the next day they are back in the good graces of the shepherd.

Actually, we've been through two bales and here you see them munching on the third.

The learning--presentation of the food. I've tried hay previous years, by spreading it on top of the straw on the floor, or just scattered in the pasture. Finally, put it up in the air and they're hooked. What can that say about humans and our eating habits?