Old old old old old old....

I like old things. Antiques, classical music, great art, history, and so forth.

I just don't like getting old myself. Ok, ok does anyone?

Anyway it is now official: I will never see 20 again. Or 30. Or even 40. No, nor 45.

46 just sounds...old.

I don't even bother taking the day off anymore. What's the point? I'd rather go to work and do something constructive.

I would prefer not to repeat my 41st birthday though. I spent that in the hospital, thinking I was having a heart attack. (It wasn't.)

So to all and sundry who may be celebrating today, happy birthday and (as the Orthodox say) Many Years! As for me and my house, we're going to work. :)

PS. Don't forget Arts/Quincy Riverfest on Sunday in Clat Adams Park!

NOW you tell me...

Had I realized how much work it was going to be to have a house-warming party, I'd have said the heck with it and taken a vacation instead.

Even as we speak and I'm about to head to church for Vespers, the floors still aren't mopped.

Oh well, nobody is going to lick the floors anyway.

Check out these pics. First is the way my apartment looked when I first saw it. Second is now.





And since I'm doing this semi-Japanese thing, here is the faux tokonoma:



Yes, the sword is real.

Anyway, party time tonight. Should be fun.

Local football

Truth in blogging: I am not a big football fan. Never have been. But I don't mind following local high school football (college--read pro farm leagues--and pro ball definitely don't do it for me).

So...what is it with Quincy High?

I went to two high schools: Peru, Indiana and Kenosha Tremper, Wisconsin. Peru wasn't good, Tremper was decent.

But QHS, at least in the decade I have lived in Quincy, has been a joke.

What are they lacking? What can they do to actually get competitive?

I was in-house producer for last year's broadcasts on FOX 103.9 (WQCY for those who prefer call letters :) and thus followed the season pretty closely. They came "so close" so many times, but always let it get away.

Any ideas? Any suggestions?

I'd love to see them turn things around and start having winning seasons. I know hw cool it was when I was in high school to be able to strut a bit because your team was winning...

Of course, I was a marching band dweeb...(trombone, for those who want to know).

More Orthodox feasting!

Tonight I'll head to St. Raphael Mission for Great Vespers for the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.

I like August and September--it's chock full of feast days, from August 6th (the Transfiguration, i.e. when Jesus went up on the mountain and the disciples saw Him with Elijah and Moses), through August 15th (the Dormition of the Virgin Mary--that's the Assumption for you RCs), through September 1st (church New Year), to September 8th (Nativity of the Virgin Mary), to September 14th (the Elevation--or Finding--of the Holy Cross, which occurred when the Emperor Constantine's mother Helena fostered a search in Jerusalem somewhere around 325 A.D.).

Given that we Orthodox spend a huge amount of time each year fasting, so many feast days is quite powerful, emotionally and spiritually. How much fasting? Almost all Wednesdays and Fridays, as well as mid-November to Christmas, 50+ days before Pascha (Easter), up to two weeks before the feast of Saints Peter and Paul on June 29th, and 15 days before the Dormition of the Virgin Mary (mentioned above).

Anyway, this particular feast--the Nativity of the Virgin Mary--is especially dear to me.

It was on this feast day in 1993 that I became part of the Orthodox Christian faith. Almost a "spiritual birthday", if you will.

Needless to say I try to spend some of the day in church, thanking God for His blessings to me, and guiding me to a place where, as the Russian seekers told St. Vladimir in the 10th century, I "know not whether I am in heaven or on earth!"

God bless you on the feast!

An Invitation to Riverfest

Riverfest is coming up Sunday, September 17th!

My employer is sponsoring the music stage again this year, and things will get rolling at noon with....me!

I'll be singing a variety of songs, mostly with guitar (fair warning: I sing better than I play guitar :), in a variety of genre including folk, show tunes, and some stuff I've written myself.

In addition to myself, you'll also hear:

Miss Quincy Lindsay Hess

Little Miss Quincy Nicole Browning

The Bybee Flats

Zane Evans

Sunday, September 17th, Noon to 5 during Riverfest at the STARadio Stage in Clat Adams Park in Quincy.

I hope you can stop by, if not during my segment, then during one of the others--and be sure to visit all the other arts activities and displays.

Midnight Train

Here's a brief story I wrote for an online contest. It required the writer to start with the phrase "a stone-cold night in Memphis". Most of the participants mentioned Elvis. Not me. I had to be different. :) Enjoy!

On a stone cold night in Memphis, I was waitin' by the Illinois Central tracks, looking for a fast ride out of town.

Normally, of an April evening I'd saunter down by the switch shanty and yak for a while with the yard men but just after midnight of April 30, at the turn of the 20th century, the year of our Lord 1900, it was a tad more chilly in town than I cared for. Or hotter, dependin' on your viewpoint.

T'wasn't that I intended to break the window nor went through it thinkin' about the stuff the jeweler had showin' there. But when you're gettin' the stuffin' beat out of you, and your only escape is through a big ol' piece of glass, and when you get through you see lot's of nice sparklies just beggin' you to pick 'em up, well, anyone would surrender to his sinful nature and consider re-distributin' the wealth into his own pocket.

Anyway, the blueboys were on my tail, as were the fellows I'd had my disagreement with in the first place. That's why I was hangin' around the main line and hopin' a fast train would come through right quick.

I couldn't have been there more than five minutes when I heard the engineer whistlin' for the grade crossing about three blocks away, and then he was slowing for the switch.

Yikes! It was the night express to Canton and New Orleans, old number 1!

Well, I'd asked the good lord for a fast train, and I got it. I hauled myself up onto the last passenger car and tugged my coat close around me as I pushed through the vestibule.

Just my luck, there was the conductor, and the look on his face said I better have a fare or I'd be gettin' off just as quick as I'd got on. Lucky for me I had two bits and could pay for a billet as far as Canton.

"Hope we get there in a hurry," I said, real friendly like as the scowling old slug took my money with a prissy two-fingered grab, like it smelled bad or something. Come to think of it, it probably did--I hadn't had a chance to get a bath or a shower for a while.

"Oh it'll be fast enough for you, mister," the conductor said. "We got out of Memphis late, but we also got the best, fastest engineer on the IC pulling the throttle tonight."

"And who is the worthy brother, then," I asked, a mite sarcastic, I suppose.

"Why John Luther Jones, speediest hogger in Mississippi. If Casey Jones ain't fast enough for you, then you're a damn sight too fast for safe living!"

Historical note: On April 30, 1900, John Luther Jones stayed at his post in the cab of his steam locomotive, trying to slow his train before it struck the rear of a freight train standing on the track in front of him. His was the only death in the ensuing crash.

© Copyright 2004 Kevin N. Payne. All rights reserved.

Oops!

I apologize for the "service outage".

Apparently in doing an update on Monday I did something wrong and erased most of the template for my blog.

Lost that update too. Now I have to remember what I wrote.

I'll rebuild my list of links later this evening.

Thanks for the kind comments from so many people. I hope I can be interesting, entertaining, and informative. Just not argumentative (and that's tough for me, believe me).

Happy New Year!

Yesterday was the first day of the Orthodox church year. I bet you missed it too. Ouzo, vodka, all the ethnic accoutrements to celebrations, and you missed it. :)

Here's what's up with that, courtesy of the website of the Orthodox Church in America:

The first day of the Church New Year is also called the beginning of the Indiction. The term Indiction comes from a Latin word meaning, "to impose." It was originally applied to the imposition of taxes in Egypt. The first worldwide Indiction was in 312 when the Emperor Constantine (May 21) saw a miraculous vision of the Cross in the sky. Before the introduction of the Julian calendar, Rome began the New Year on September 1.

According to Holy Tradition, Christ entered the synagogue on September 1 to announce His mission to mankind (Luke 4:16-22). Quoting Isaiah 61:1-2), the Savior proclaimed, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim release to captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…" This scene is depicted in a Vatican manuscript (Vatican, Biblioteca. Cod. Gr. 1613, p.1).

Tradition also says that the Hebrews entered the Promised Land in September.

And this, an icon of Christ teaching the elders in the Temple (though why He has a beard at 12, I do not know--looks more like the Christ teaching the Apostles to me).

Pilgrim's Ramble #1

I was posting a response to a friend who has popped in to check out my blog when I realized that it was growing lengthy, and in fact was good fodder for a Pilgrim's Ramble.

What's a Pilgrim's Ramble?

Opinion and musings on sundry things in the sense of putting together pieces to form coherent, defensible, and intelligent positions. Not really "rambling" at all, but since I've gone with the "pilgrimage", i.e. travel, notion, "ramble" works.

This one, the first, is about being open to exercising your mind, as well as your body.

I've been reading Joe Irvin's blog for some time. Joe always finds interesting articles to post--articles that force me to stop and think and examine my own positions and (let's be honest) pre-conceptions.

I can say without hesitation that there are a number of subjects that Joe and I wouldn't agree on. But I can also say that if he and I sit down to talk about them, it won't be the knockdown, drag-out example of vitriol into which so many internet discussions (flamewars!) seem to devolve these days.

Joe's posts challenge me. They challenge me to get my thoughts and reasoning in order. They challenge me to grow, and that's a very good thing.

It's all too easy to slip into our caves and surround ourselves with nothing but the thoughts, philosophies, and dogmas that make us comfortable and happy and content. It's even possible to grow a little as you expand your knowledge in that atmosphere. But where's the impetus to really accomplish anything? How much temptation is there just to sit and vegetate, foolishly convinced that we have arrived at the place of all answers and all knowledge and we don't need to work at it anymore?

A lot, believe me. With all the reports of physical obesity in the U.S. (and I'm one of 'em, albeit 70+ pounds less than last August, thanks be to God, smarter eating, and more exercise :), we need to not neglect mental obesity.

At Joe's site, even if I don't always agree with the articles posted, I am exercising my mind by receiving--and then pondering rationally--new views and insights. That's good for me even, and maybe especially, when they are not ones I hold myself.

How often we forget that humans grow best when we get adequate exercise--whether physical or mental!

Of course that presents its own problems, such as learning how to control your temper, and how to engage in civil discourse and debate.

I suppose the point is this: there's a time and place for sitting deep in your comfort zone and assimilating more information and thought from those who agree with you. There is also a time and a place to "get into the red zone", struggle with views that challenge your own so you can better understand and defend your own positions--or modify them, if necessary.

Thanks, Joe, and all those who keep me exercised. :)

I think next Ramble we may talk about self-control and dispassion. Good, meaty Orthodox subjects!

I like trees

Yes, it is true.

Those who listen on Saturday mornings when I broadcast the news on WTAD know that producers Bruce or Jim and I usually end up talking briefly about my collection of bonsai, many of which I managed to nurse through last winter only to kill by not properly accomodating this summer's hot weather.

Ah well, one lives and learns or one finds another hobby.

(Wow. Have talked so far about introductions, Russian language and religious culture, Quincy food, and now bonsai. Eclectic, indeed. :)

I bring this up so I can do two things.

One reason is to promote the Springfield Bonsai Society, of which I am a member. It's not a large group but it draws people interested in the tiny trees from across a wide swath of central Illinois.

Check them out here:
http://www.geocities.com/springfieldillinoisbonsai/

The second reason is to post a picture, just to make sure I can.

This is the tree of which I was most proud--the one on which I had done the most work training and nurturing. I hoped to have it repotted in a bonsai pot and ready to display for the first time at next spring's bonsai show in Springfield.

It is a cotoneastor horizontalis.



Alas, it was one of the casualties in the summer heat.

Live and learn.

(Yes, it is poorly Photoshopped to take out the background activity. I'm no graphics wiz, I'm afraid.)

Let's talk food...

I am surprised that Quincy has such a variety of good restaurants, from inexpensive to pricey, from shovel-it-in-home-cooked fare to fancy cuisine, from American standard to ethnic delights.

Some of my favorites:

Busy Bistro--this relatively new place simply has some of the best and most interesting dishes (which Chef Michael calls "New American Cuisine") in the area. Great atmosphere too, with original artwork on the walls (I still want to buy some of those tree watercolors, Kerry!) and much original woodwork from when the place was the Busy Bee store. A little on the upper end of pricing, but not too far out.

Tony's--What can I say? I love the stuffed mushrooms and they make a good pizza (among other things). The decoration is "old attic eclectic" but I can deal with that. Plus it's less than a block from home. :)

Greek to Me--brand new and a worthy replacement for the old Olive and the Gyro House. Gus and his mom have an interesting mix of American and Greek dishes on the menu. Be prepared! There's a LOT of food on those plates! Be sure and order the saganaki. Don't ask why, just do it, and after it's served, yell "opah!"

Let's hear it about other local eateries.

Pravoslavniye

It's a Russian term that means "right belief", and gets translated often as "Orthodoxy". It also has connotations of "true believer" and "faithful". Some define it specifically as "Orthodox Church". None of those are quite sufficient to define the entirety of meaning in the word, but "Orthodoxy" will do in a pinch.

As an American Orthodox Christian, looking at cultures that have been deeply influenced by this rather different version of Christianity (neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant), I have to be willing to accept various customs from ethnic Orthodox since we Americans haven't had enough Orthodox for long enough to have developed our own unique customs. Thus I have used a Russian term to identify my "church culture" if you will.

On the other hand, many of those customs are pretty cool. And the food is often "to die for"--and the Greek stuff is even good for you, mostly.

Now I'm hungry for some baked feta and gyros. Off to Greek to Me (on North 6th Street, for those looking for some good ethnic food, or even plain old American fare) for supper!

I'll muse more about what it means to be "pravoslavniye" later.

KNP

The road goes ever on...

Beginning with a quote from Tolkien. That surely says something about me, though I'm not sure what, exactly.

Hello, and welcome to Quincy Pilgrim, a blog about life, love, faith, fun and any other topic about which I care to comment, especially as it relates to living in Quincy, Illinois.

Subjects will include (and not be limited to) the arts, food, my many and varied interests, Eastern Orthodoxy, and most anything else that takes my fancy. Except, for the most part, politics. That's because I'm involved on reporting on most of the political stories going on in the area, and also because such discussions tend to spiral into the depths with alarming frequency. I'd rather have enjoyable conversations, even if we disagree, without getting personal or nasty.

Therefore, my ground rules for talking back: keep it nice, keep it on topic, and keep it coming. Also, if I choose to delete a post from a reader, I will explain why I did so, both to the poster and to the group as a whole.

I also welcome your suggestions for subjects to discuss.

That's enough of that for now.

Welcome...and if you would care to join me on the pilgrim's road, come along. I don't walk fast so everyone should be able to keep up.

KNP