All Blog Posts (1,429)

gratitude: there's this young brilliant vermillion male cardinal that sits on the fence between our yard and the yard to the south. A challenge. I want a photo.  I've grabbed my camera several times. By the time I've got it ready (which only takes about 40 seconds) Mr. cardinal has flitted off somewhere. I haven't given up. Stay tuned.

Hi everyone

As you may have noticed, Phase 2 of the parking lot was paved last week. This week they finished putting the lines down and are ready to open it up for this coming weekend.

This means that in addition to the driveway and both First Place S entrances, the Rte. 50 access road…

gratitude: finally got down to preparing remarks about my career as a theater critic for my fellow Folger Shakespeare Library docents. The show goes on this coming Tuesday.

Gratitude: glad to have insurance. Car smashed up in no-injuries accident a few days ago. Insurance covers rental car while adjuster figures out the pluses and minuses of repair vs replace. And a few months ago medical insurance covered multi-thousands of dollars surgery to repair broken quadriceps tendon. And then a thousand more to deal with complications pursuant to surgery. Of course, being grateful for having insurance amounts to being grateful for having money and for having spent it…

gratitude: car out of service. needed ride yesterday to English for speakers of other languages party at Ric's house. Ric relayed request. Kit gave us a ride to the party. Derek and Ruth brought us home.

gratitude: catchy phrases. In today's New York Time, under the headline ``Show Us Your Woe'' Frank Bruni discusses ``fetishized misfortune -- hardship porn.'' (He watches a lot of TV.)

gratitude: called county solid waste office early this week (finally, after months and months of fretting and wrestling) to report that our waste bin lid was broken and useless. A new bin with a new lid design was delivered yesterday!

Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington

Board of Trustees Meeting

Draft Agenda

May 21, 2013

(Including Listening Sessions on 5/19 & 5/21)

Expected Attendees:  Board of Trustees (John Bohman, Chair; Margaret Bauman; Wendy Jessup; Ken Marshall; David McTaggart; Gretchen Menn; Mary Pike;…

gratitude: yesterday when I was descending on the Pentagon City escalator I noticed that the ascending escalator was not working. Zounds! Three hours later when I was back at the Pentagon City Metro stop, ready to go up to street level to catch the 16 bus, the ascending escalator WAS working. Happy day!

gratitude: usually listen to NPR in the morning while I do tai chi and push through those physical therapy exercises that should have me good as new in in no time (``no time'' is a jolly health professional phrase meaning, in sour patient language, ``in 18 months -- maybe''.) But the local NPR station's spring beg-a-thon in going on just now, which is important but not so great as, say, a tai chi enhancement. So I got out a Vivaldi tape -- six double councertos -- that Cynthia must have…

Hi everyone

A lot of projects moving forward this week-

HVAC: The chiller has been installed and the boiler is in progress. Neither have been hooked up to the new control system so they are not operation.

Parking lot: More Phase 2 curb and gutters have been poured but we are unsure when paving will happen. We are weather dependent.

First Place S: The water and sewer lines were capped and were inspected by Arlington County.

The Building and Architectural…

gratitude: The ATM outside our local bank has been improved. No need for the envelopes they used to provide. Just slide your naked check into some slot somewhere, deposit slip unnecessary. I couldn't see where that all-important slit was; fortunately a white-haired woman, probably my age, pointed it out to me; and then went on to point out where the oddly placed receipt slit was located. So you don't necessarily need someone half your age or less to cope with ever-advancing technology. In…

Natty Averett, UUA Board Trustee from the Joseph Priestly District (and UUCA member & former UUCA Board Chair), invites you to join her at General Assembly in Louisville this year to be in community with other Unitarian Universalists and take action for environmental justice.

Rev. Dr. Linda Olson Peebles, President-Designate of the Unitarian Universalist Minister's Association describes why it is especially important for ministers and other religious professionals to attend this year's General Assembly in Louisville, KY.

The UUCA Board of Trustees has just published its restated Policy Manual (dated May 10, 2013).  The development and maintenance of such a manual is a Board duty under the Church's Bylaws.  On Tuesday, May 21 at 6pm, the Board will hold a feedback session focused on its policies and the revised manual. Please go…

gratitude: the thing about these roses in our back yard (besides their being floppy, and not really ready for their closeup) is that they actually smell like roses. I remember prowling around the stunning rose garden in front of the Seattle zoo, going up to sensational hybrids with no black leaves and sniffing and . . . nothing. Same experience and the stunning Upton Hill rose garden here in Arlington. Sensational hybrids -- amazing colors, shapes and distributions of petals -- but no smell.…

"Do not search for the truth; only cease to cherish opinions." Said by, The third ancestor in China, Seng Ts'an. He said if we empty ourselves out, let go, and cease to hold on to our views, the truth will come to us.



Let go of all views or you will never find truth. No one is right or correct about anything. Nothing. Forget it. Just cease, cease, cease to cherish opinions, especially…

gratitude: a few weeks ago a friend -- Jim Strube -- brought us some cuttings

from his sprawling fig tree. He and son-in-law Tim put them in the ground and -- wow! -- take a look. Cynthia was talking today about eventually making fig preserves.…

gratitude: Rive, Spanish participant in our church-sponsored English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) invited us, after class, to the Java Shack. Ric, Cynthia and I joined Rive and his two children, Aitana (9) and Bruno (6). Rive is the Spanish embassy chef. He and his wife Adela (office manager at the embassy) speak Spanish at home. So, in his mid-40s, Rive is struggling mightily for gain English fluency by mingling with native speakers. His kids speak like natives -- they have been…

I haven't written since April 1st—April Fool's Day.  Not sure why.  Two possible reasons:

I've been very busy with my adult RE class on the COMMON cause of BOTH economic inequality and climate change, and I've been wrestling with difficult issues surrounding UUCA's Transition Time, including a possible trend that undermines my sense of self-worth (essential for blogging).  

What's going on?

I saw minutes of a recent meeting in which it was said that some…