Fast Start

I finally got in a weather-able, correctly timed, non-leg-weary run this morning, and at a good time — my rolling average drops below 20:00 for the first time, to 19:50 today. I am sure I’ll have more slow days in weeks to come, but at least I see some progress, which is why I resumed timing my runs in the first place. I do think I may time my runs on alternate days, though, to allow days for not taxing my legs to the utmost.

Coffee, fruit, Morning Prayer, clean up, sercond coffee and toast, off to morning Eucharist, home for a rest, then back for the Healing & Wholeness service.

Imported Rant

The other morning I was especially stirred when I read the previous night’s headlines from the Fractured States of America, so I went on a tear on Bluesky. This is what I wrote:


Look, I hate to say this, but from over here it looks as though the US has turned the corner and entered the emergency zone.
If GOP elected officials are afraid of Trump goon squads, if Musk can threaten advertisers with cancellation of state contracts if they don’t spend enough on X, if Trump can ‘joke’ about being king, if Hitler salutes are now normalised in public (though even Bannon held back a little), if there is no organised, articulated opposition, if Trump can tell blatant falsehoods on mass media (Zelenskyy ‘dictator’, attacked Russia) without being vigorously rebutted by an allegedly free press, if Trump governs by executive orders rather than legislation, if the POTUS and VPOTUS have repudiated their alliance with the liberal democracies of Europe, and thrown in their lot with unabashed tyrants… well, there you are.

Vale, Carole Conrade!

News has come round the Web (via Mike Aubrey) that Carl Conrad, an exceptionally thoughtful, generous classicist-philologist who for a long time taught at Washington University in St Louis. I just posted the following reminiscence at the B-Greek bulletin board, descendant of the mailing list in which I used to participate with Carl.

Thank you, Jonathan, for passing along this news. Carl was a mighty man of old of the B-Greek mailing list, back when it was strictly a mailing list, and we all learned much from him — many of us about Greek, but all of us about how to conduct ourselves with grace and patience in a mixed group of international scholars, intermediate and beginning students, autodidact experts, axe-grinding non-experts, and wayfaring strangers.

I will remember him particularly in conjunction with his advocacy of positions on verbal aspect, deponency, the aorist passive, and linguistics in general at a time when these were not common currency in the biblical marketplace of ideas. He was kind and helpful to me as I was growing up into a Greek teacher, and I know that Jonathan and some of our old-school participants will miss him — have missed his participation — and will long give thanks for his contributions. Vale, Carole Conrade!

Slow Time

I had a bit of a lie-in this morning, at least by my standards, waking up at 6:15 and not getting out of the house till after 7:00. I promptly decided that the way my legs felt, I would take today as a restful day — walking and jogging my two miles, but not asking much of limbs. Just as well, cos my right knee kept flashing me warning pangs, and everything felt exhausted. Then some doomscrolling, las, redeemed by a hot breakfast, hopeful prospects for the Orioles and their first spring training game today, and productive sermon prep time.

Whoosh, No Time

Perhaps more to the point, I timed my morning run but botched it somehow — I wasn’t on my best pace, but I am 100% confident that I did not take 2:56 to get around my two miles. No big deal, though if I wasn’t running to time, I wish I had had the chance to take a more relaxed pace.

Coffee, fruit, clean up and dress for Morning Prayer, check messages at the Parish Centre, then home to work on sermons for Sunday (two services, two sermons), And to Oxford for the NT Seminar, where Tyler Brown gives his presentation on the Sign of Jonah. Then home.

Rain, No Run

Lovely evening at Exeter with the churchwarden and his sister; high marks for another ancient college (with an exquisite chapel)!

It was raining when I woke up at 6:15, so I (with relief) opted not to run. I poured a cup of coffee, had some fruit for breakfast, will clean up and dress for a day in Oxford. Morning Prayer, then off to Oxford for first tutes with Anna, Mimi, Ottavia, and Alex — then home for dinner and an evening with Margaret for the first time in several days.

Beginning Halfway Through

Last night, I had the chance to talk with three of the students whom I’ll meet in tutorials for the first time tomorrow, Fifth Week, halfway through Hilary Term. We had good conversations (not about Luke), and Sarah (their HB tutor) has been very encouraging about them. The next four weeks — with my four first-years as well as my two finalists — will be a bit wild and wooly on the workload side, but it should be fun as well.

Ran my two miles at a good pace today, another sub-20:00 time, bringing my rolling average to 20:02. Shortly the rolling average will start flickering over and under the twenty-minute mark…
Coffee and hot breakfast, I’ll clean up and go to Morning Prayer, then I’ll sift parish emails and fine-tune my homily for this afternoon. This evening I’ll be a guest of one of our wardens at dinner at Exeter, so I’ll add that to my College Dinner Life List (actually not a very long list — I think it’s just Oriel (obvs), Trinity, Keble perhaps, Lincoln, Univ…).

Keeping Active

Not so much physically active, but definitely active on emails and services and sermons and…

So, this chilly morning (0° when I ran) I put in my two miles with a new personal best time, one that pulls my rolling average back down to 20:03. I can’t tell you how I made the difference, but I have noticed recently that my first two minutes of running don’t get me as far as I’d wish, so I concentrated on getting off to a quick start. The rest seems to have just continued as usual. Then coffee, fruit, more coffee, toast, showered and dressed, Morning Prayer, groceries, then back home to work on tomorrow’s funeral homily/eulogy. Around 4:00 I’ll start getting ready to go in to Oriel for the annual Theology Dinner.

Less Frenetic

The only item on my timetable for today is a pastoral visit to a retired priest in our parish (which ordinarily takes upwards of two hours, sometimes more, since he abounds in story-telling). Apart from that I’m swatting emails when they fly too close to me, and working on a sermon for Wednesday’s funeral.

I ran this morning, not a bad time, but it dislodged my first exceptional run from the rolling average, so the average crept upward more than this particular run will have warranted (now I’m at 20:17, with an overall average since I started timing myself at 20:48). I’m a little nettled that my competitive streak is obtruding on the experience; that’s why I stopped counting in the first place, after all. If it turns out that I can’t time myself without being driven by the clock, I’ll just stop again, or perhaps time only one day a week, or something. Coffee and fruit, shower and dress, Morning Prayer, another cup of coffee but at R&R with Margaret, then home to prepare for home communion.

Fun Day

Two miles at a mid pace, rolling average creeping up to 20:09; coffee and fruit, say Morning raayer, then after a while, coffee and toast; shower, dress, fine-tune sermon (in the ‘Continued’ section), then to church for Mass and sermon. I’ll preside at Evensong tonight. Continue reading “Fun Day”

Post Valentine Post

Let’s see…. Yesterday morning I took an easy, non-timed run. As it turned out, I walked for significant portions of the two miles; my ankles and knees appreciated the gentler treatment. I didn’t even start the clock; I knew from the start that this would be a semi-rest day. Then coffee and fruit, shower and Morning Prayer, home for coffee and toast and general email catch-up, then began work on my sermon for Sunday (heaven permit that it ends up a fruitful start and I can wrap it up this morning), then Margaret unveiled her spectacular Valentine gift to me, a pen cabinet to hold a hundred of my fountain pens (woot!), lunch, then off to Oxford to shop for Margaret’s Valentine gift*, and from there to the New Testament Seminar for a paper being given by my Oriel colleague Hindy Najman (an exciting paper on tabnith/tupos (some day I have to alter the CSS for this blog to allow Greek and Hebrew type) in the Hebrew Bible and the Letter to the Hebrews, then at the end of the day back to have a Valentine’s dinner at Dorindo’s.

This morning, two miles at what felt like a strong pace (but which turned out to be less than many recent days, deflecting my rolling average to 20:06). A cup of coffee, let the dogs out, I’ll say Morning Prayer in a minute or two, then clean up, make a hot breakfast, and turn to tomorrow’s sermon.


* I had intended for a long time to buy a large quantity of the dark chocolate black tea that she relishes, from Whittard’s. Whittard’s, though, seems to have a distinctive approach to marketing: they regularly, predictably allow their stock of this particular tea to run out, and then profess to be unable to stock it for weeks — all the while they suggest ordering it from the Whittard’s website.
Now, I am no retail shopkeeper. Still, with my only vague apprehension of the elements of High Street retail merchandising, it seems to me that if there’s enough demand for a product that you regularly run out of it… you might order a larger stock, or more regular deliveries, even both. We will order from the main website, with a sigh.
Empty-handed, I stopped at Montezuma’s for choclate, and at Scriptum for a notebook. Happy Valentine’s Day, Margaret, and all who celebrate!

Thursday Morning of Fourth

A second sub-20 two miles this week, as once again I surprised myself and lowered the rolling average to 20:02. At this rate, I may attain a five-day average below twenty minutes as early as tomorrow. I didn’t expect my pace to break twenty minutes till warmer weather.

Lunch and tutorial today, but nothing else timetabled; I will be pondering Sunday’s sermon, perhaps reading or working on one or another project.