Cabbage soup and other matters,

1.    Grover Cleveland can wait until tomorrow.

2.    My neighbour Ed and I drove through pelting rain last Friday to have lunch in the wonderful older district of Tampa called Ybor City.  We ate at a gay friendly restaurant called “Hamburger Mary’s.  The place was all but deserted on account of the very heavy rain.  It’s a nice enough place, but dammit,  the menu is filled with unhealthy foods. 


I settled for a “Buffalo Burger”, being assured that buffalo meat has much less fat than beef. It was very tasty, though far too big.  I also opted for sweet potato fries in the belief that sweet potatoes are nutritionally good.  


All well and good, but a $50 price tag for two people , (including a generous tip),  seems excessive in these days of recession.

3.    Bloated though I was, I knew that I needed to eat a wee bit of dinner. Fortunately I had some homemade “cabbage soup” on hand. This was a simple and healthy repast. (Vegetable stock, coarsely shredded cabbage, diced orange tomatoes, and a bit of garlic comprises the basic menu.  I added a few leftover garbanzo beans – a.k.a. “chick peas”).  Yum yum!

4.    I have become an aficionado of beans and peas. There is nothing like a dish of fava beans, or chick peas; of black beans or black eyed peas. Butter beans and lima beans are also most delicious.

5.    It’s a joy to observe my two cats.  They were strangers when I adopted them, but these days they rub along very happily. They take turns in licking the other’s ears. Once in a while senior cat Ada has had enough and she chases junior cat Adelaide around the house.

6.    I get even more joy from my adopted dog, Penne.  She delights and amuses me.  When I am changing my clothing she will present herself in my bedroom, “tail a wagging”.  When I say “not now Penne” she slinks back to her bed.  But if I utter the one word “well”, Penne prances and dances about the house, knowing that we are about to take a walk.

7.    I am one of four retired clerics who are “minding the shop” at St. Boniface Church this summer. We are Ralph, Jack, Charles, and Michael. It is an unmitigated blessing that we like each other. I presided at this morning’s 10:00 a.m. Eucharist, whilst Charles preached a very fine sermon.

8.    St. Boniface’s Senior Warden announced today that the Vestry has selected an Interim Minister.  His name is Dean Taylor.  He will join us in October. This news causes me to be both happy and nervous!

9.    In this “in between time” at St. B’s it fell to my lot to officiate and preach at a funeral this afternoon.   It was for Kathryn Stickney a woman who I knew and liked very much. After the chapel service we placed her cremated remains in a niche in the St. Boniface columbarium.  I preached on the biblical promises of God’s faithfulness, ratified (as it were) by the resurrection of Jesus, as the basis for our hope of eternal life.

10. That’s it folks!