Month: August 2024

A really solid run this morning: not my fastest, but a good, limber, steady run, just the way it should be. Coffee, cleaned the kitchen and emptied the dishwasher, said Morning Prayer, showered and dressed for morning. We’re expecting to take David and Marlies to breakfast when everyone wakes up; then I’ll represent the parish at the Welcome service for Abingdon’s new Methodist pastor, then home again before dining out with David and Marlies.

It seems as though I’ve fallen into the habit of blogging on alternate days; it’s not deliberate, and I’ll try to get back on the daily routine, even though it’s mostly tedious descriptions of my running routine. Speaking of which, I took a very leisurely day this morning after a good day at a good pace yesterday. After Morning Prayer, fruit breakfast, and cleaning up I put in a productive writing morning (I may actually finish this essay before September’s over!). Then Margaret and I took a dog-free evening in Oxford, where we dined at Majliss on the eleventh anniversary of our arrival in Oxford, 2013. There we were joined by Seabury alum the Revd Russ Bohner, who in in Oxford for a week; we reminisced and caught up and solved the problems of the world all through dinner.

This morning ran (as I said above), I had my coffee and fruit breakfast, showered, and had a meeting with my pastoral care co-chair. I’ll try to write this afternoon as we prepare for a visit from former Seabury colleague and long-time friend David Cunningham and his wife Marlies. Scarcely a dull moment around Enock House!

Yesterday morning I had a really good run: nice and steady, some bounce to my stride, good pace, satisfying kick at the home end. I spent time working on liturgical ordos for St Helen’s, and did some reading. This morning I took my miles slow. In fact, slower than what you’re imagining right now. The sinews in my joints felt loose and slightly sore, and I didn’t want to force them; I walked, jogged, ran, and slowed to a walk, then went through the cycle again. In the end, nothing hurt or was tweaked, but it was a verrrry slow two miles.

Then I made coffee, said Morning Prayer, showered, ate a hot breakfast, prepared a Wednesday morning ordo for St Helen’s (made a big difference, as compared to working from the same laminated single sheet that the congregation uses), said the Wednesday Low Mass, lingered to talk over coffee with the gang, then home with Margaret and the ladies who had come to meet me en route.

Two good miles this morning, slow to warm up but satisfyingly springy once I got limber; cup of coffee, Morning Prayer, and shower; now, coffee in town, editing service booklets, and beginning work toward Wednesday’s homily. I got tired of using my Church of England comprehensive liturgical-year planner as a diary (too bulky and heavy by far); I’ll buy one for my desk, I suppose, but for next year I’ll carry a Leuchtturm1917 A5 Weekly Diary to keep track of my appointments. It’s a bit of a relief to have taken that step; the big CoE one was a real anchor.

No holidays till late November, by which time the rector will have well and truly retired. (I do have a retreat timetabled for early October, a bit late for my yearly obligation but still within the window). But from now, summer is effectively over and work will define the shape of my days…

I’m heading back to Abingdon — I have tomorrow morning’s service at St Helen’s, and I want to be home in good time to work on my homily and get some sleep — and it was a pure joy to revisit my favourite city. I had the chance to see and catch up with friends, to visit old haunts, to hear some good research papers, and to update my recollections of places that figure prominently in my memories of four wonderful years.

I wish I could have seen everyone, but that will have to wait. I expect there’ll be an opportunity to return (heaven permitting). In the meantime, bless you, Glasgow!

I arrived safely and comfortably at Central station yesterday afternoon, in typically dreich Glasgow weather. No matter! I love this city, and am happy to have a day before the conference kicks into gear, so I’ve already met a former student (Una), I’m staying at Doug’s gaff (nominally house-sitting while he goes to Greenbelt), and meeting Charlotte for lunch. And taking photies like a giddy tourist, ’cause I cherish every glimpse of this dear place.

Glasgow, f***ing love you, mate —

My best morning run in a long time: good, steady pace with hardly a slowdown. Prompt shower, then to the Ladybank Paddock stop to catch the X2 to Didcot Parkway, thence to Paddington, to Euston, and now aboard the Pendolino to Glasgow. I should be disembarking at dear Central Station at about 15:00.

My pace this morning never rose to ‘strong’, nor my stride to ‘limber’, but in my own stiff, sluggish way I made a steady two-mile run, and that’s fine with me. (I don’t usually encounter other runners going the same directions as I, but this morning I was passed by two young, vigorous serious runners, so you may detect a slightly defensive note in my observation. Well, so it goes.)

I had a long meeting toward midday with the wardens. Since the Team Rector is retiring, and the Team Vicar already works [more than] full time, and the other Associate Priest has a very strictly limited Working Agreement, it seems as if I’m the point of most flexibility. We talked over what functions I might serve during the interregnum, which tasks I might pick up, how my time for things I already do might be constricted, and so on. There will be much learned, I think — I hope — and it will be more interesting than I had hoped my part-time gig would be, but here’s where I am and this is what I do, so I’ll just buckle my seat belt and steer as steady a course as I can, and see what the end of this particular road looks like.

Ran my miles, a good run but at a slower pace — my legs didn’t get limber as fast, nor even as limber, as yesterday. Spending the working part of the day on finances, on business for St Helen’s (mostly), and if I have time and energy left, for my overdue essay.

Had a really good steady run, albeit at a moderate pace. Church in the morning, home to watch the ladies while Margaret was in Oxford at the baptism of a friend; I may have napped a little. Gave the ladies a long walk through the Ock Valley Park. Margaret had a good time at the baptism, we dined together, and it’s evening and we’re together.

I ran my two yesterday morning in pleasant weather with mostly satisfactory comfortable limbs at a decent pace. I then proceeded to squander the whole day rather than buckle down and get to work on my overdue essay. Well, not the whole day; I did work on the Sunday Missal for St Helen’s, and I spent most of the day with Margaret (which is never a waste, of course).

I had a lie-in this morning, so I opted not to run, and attacked my daily responsibilities with refreshed energy. I hesitate to think I should skip running more often, but I can see a possible value in occasional breaks (especially if I’m getting stultified by my work routine).

After bantering with Dave about the temperature, we both encountered inclement weather: he in the classic Floridean heat-humidity combination, and I in typical British-Isles drizzly rain. My miles went by satisfactorily, though, as long as you don’t count ‘got home looking like a refugee from Alice’s Pool of Tears’. Today is Wednesday, so I had coffee and after Morning Prayer, a hot breakfast. Then I had to clean up and hustle to St Helen’s for Wednesday morning Mass, where we observed the Feast of the Assumption, or Dormition, but certainly of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This afternoon, I’ve been working on an ordo for Sundays in Ordinary Time. I have a couple for marriage preparation this evening, so it will have been a full day.

Persistent blogger (I’d say ‘fellow persistent blogger’, but my daily entries are perfunctory compared to Dave’s) Dave Rogers, one of the original circle of people I used to link to regularly, commented today on my describing 19°C as ‘hot’. Fair play, Dave; I used to live in Florida too, but that was (mumbles like Trump) years ago, and I’ve lived north of 50° (the other kind of degrees) (one of the other kinds of degrees, sheesh) for the past fifteen years, sneaking up on being a quarter of my life. I’m fully acclimated to British temperatures, where (a) 19° really is a hot daybreak temperature and (b) we reserve the right to complain about the weather no matter what anyone else thinks of it. (Sorry for the links to Twitter, but VBP isn’t active on BlueSky.)

Anyway, it was down to 12° this morning, so my miles were pretty comfortable. Both knees behaved (after an early jolt or wobble from each of ’em), I pulled my stride closer to the front of my foot, and I sustained a decent pace through the morning. Coffee, fruit breakfast, some liturgical typesetting, pastoral visit to Fr Keith, and work this afternoon on tomorrow’s homily for the Assumption/Dormition….

Well, yesterday was hotter, 19°, but this morning was hot enough. I wore my knee brace for my run, and realised in short order that one problem, perhaps the problem, was that in my new stride, landing nearer my heel jolts my knee in a way to which it was unaccustomed. After I walked off a particular jolt for a few paces, I resumed running but landed further forward toward my toes, and that worked adequately. We’ll see how that plays for the longer run…

Then coffee and fruit, Morning Prayer, shower, and now am working in the town square with a cup of coffee from R & R.

I walked more than ran this morning; my left knee went twanging after a short while, and though I coaxed it with spells of walking, and it led me to believe I could trust it, the knee would always twang again after a few strides. All part of adjusting to my new stride, I reckon, but a nuisance nonetheless.

In the afternoon I saw that Gavin Dunbar was playing the Tony Wilson tribute ‘St Anthony: A Tribute to Anthony Wilson’, which caught me right off guard; how could I, the connoisseur of rock elegy (and huge fan of John Cooper Clarke and the Manchester scene), not have seen it before? Thanks, and respect, to the King of Partick.

I should have realised last week that when I began experimenting with a longer stride, that my muscles would react by getting sore in different ways. I should have, but I didn’t. So the penny finally dropped this morning as I was wondering why my legs were stiff here rather than there where they’d always been stiff before, and why (once they limbered up and I began my full, loose stride) they seemed very rapidly to get sore in those places. I’m a slow learner, but I do learn. Anyway, I got my miles in, partly running and partly walking, and got home for coffee and hot breakfast, cleaning up, check-in at the church for wedding set-up, home to edit and print my homily, quick lunch, then off to church again for the wedding. after that, home for the afternoon and evening….

My morning run began with lingering stiffness, then limbered up into a refreshing, free, gleeful, elastic run, then quickly pulled back in to accommodate slightly overstretched calves. Ooops.
Ran some errands in Oxford, including picking up my Bod Card and some mail from my pidge at Oriel, inquiring at Blackwell’s for University diaries (not till later in August), look in at Scriptum (succumbed to buying their bespoke Diamine red ink ‘Turandot’), looked at current iPhones with a view to replacing my current phone once the new models drop in September, and so on.

Then home to extract the rest of tomorrow’s homily from my imagination. Rehearsal tonight.

I think that’s right. I got a slow start, but my legs warmed up and hit a good pace fairly quickly. Home for coffee, fruit, and Morning Prayer. For the morning, I have to think about weddings and interdisciplinarity till 10:45 or so, then will go to meet SSH alumna the Revd Monika Doering and family, perhaps chat over coffee, and then show off the church. Afternoon for more reading and writing, heaven permitting.

It took a long time for my limbs to get loose this morning, but by the time I took the turn home I was hitting my stride satisfactorily. Then I had coffee and a hot breakfast, Morning Prayer, catching up on emails, working on feast day ordos, working on my wedding sermon for Saturday, and a meeting with the Team Vicar….