We were invited to travel south to the Navajo reservation for a Navajo Christmas. We're not planning on going down, but we were curious just what a Navajo Christmas might be like. So we asked. Well, everyone's going to dress up. ... And it turns out, the Golden Corral is open on Christmas Day in …
Month: November 2011
Church, Culture, and Incarnation link
There's an ongoing conversation in which I find myself involved. It's ongoing because my Orthodox friends find my opinion so outrageous, they remain busy trying to change my mind. My error is I'm not convinced that Christians who are not Orthodox should necessarily convert to the Orthodox Church. Because my argument against Orthodoxy is multifaceted, …
Tired of Empty and Meaningless Thanksgiving Greetings in your Inbox? Here’s a post about beer.
We made a quick trip to Montana in order to take care of some family business. While there I discovered a plethora (maybe even a surfeit) of locally brewed beers. I’m no beer connoisseur, but I do like the uniqueness of a locally brewed beer, and I’m always in search of a good porter, because …
In His Steps? I Think There’s a Better Path
I just finished a book that ends with a rather silly notion. But it's a pervasive notion in our contemporary world, so it's worth a comment. The book is Philip Yancey's, The Jesus I Never Knew. In this study Yancey follows the venerable tradition of Romantic writers who consider the implications of the historical Jesus …
Continue reading In His Steps? I Think There’s a Better Path
New Trick for an Old Dog
My browser of choice for years has been Firefox. I originally used it because IE Explorer was so famously insecure. Explorer has caught up and possibly even surpassed Firefox on that front, but Firefox has add-ons and doodads that aren't available on the other browsers, or if they are, tend to be clunky. But Firefox's …
Tracing My Way Through Loess
Once again last weekend I was struck by how similar the central United States is moving north to south. Here, at the Iowa-Nebraska border, the Missouri River passes through the largest deposit of loess (a glacial soil) on this side of the globe. The only comparable loess deposit is in China. But this is not …
The Flood Plain
Since we were already in southeastern Nebraska last weekend, we decided to head a few miles farther south to Indian Caves State Park, near Brownsville. We purchased a 2011 state park pass, so we have tried to visit as many state parks as possible in order to take advantage of the pass. Like Ponca State …
Are You a Birder?
When we went to Nebraska City last weekend, I didn’t just run away and have fun while Brenda was in class. (See previous post.) There was an early morning class on birding taught by an ornithologist and a biologist and it involved going out into the field to look at birds. I decided to participate …
November Soliloquy
Saturday, while Brenda was in class at the Arbor Day Farm complex in Nebraska City, I toured the southern half of the Loess Hills Scenic Byway across the river in Iowa, from Council Bluffs to Hamburg. It had been extremely windy the last couple of days, so the air was hazy with harvest dander and …
People Watching
Brenda’s doing continuing education at a conference this weekend at the Leid Lodge Conference Center in Nebraska City. Mary Kay and an agricultural feed company are also having conferences. We were watching guests come in trying to decide whether they were Mary Kayers or feed company reps. Way too much perfume, with makeup that would …
Just Another Jim 