Miscellany from a Holiday

• I like driving all day long because I get to listen to music and be by myself the whole time, and sometimes see pretty things, and it still feels like I'm accomplishing something.

• I thought the Tragically Hip's album "Road Apples" was replete with references to William Shakespeare, but it turns out there are only six references in three different songs. Still, more than your average album these days.

• I miss the sky around Edmonton. Vancouver has mountains and ocean, which are beautfiul and special, but the sky is always sort of hazy or cloudy over the mountains, and over the ocean it's either clear or overcast. You don't get the sort of vast skyscapes that I associate with Alberta (and especially with my family's farm, which is elevated above the surrounding countryside). Imagine rank upon rank of cumulus clouds, each one of them distinct and unique but surrounded on all sides by others of their own kind, stretching away as far as the eye can see. Or a sky filled with four different kinds of clouds at different elevations and distances, challenging the brain's ability to make sense of it all. Then, at sunset, imagine the colours of the rainbow stretched out until they fill 30 degrees of sky above the horizon, with deepest red showing where the sun has just disappeared, and the spectrum slowly giving itself over to a rich violet directly overhead. At the farm, on a clear night in the spring, you can see the Milky Way spread across the sky like a highway. But in midsummer, as it is now, there are so few stars at night, because the sky never gets dark. The sunset stops at about 11:30 pm, and the warm glow of the sun spends the rest of the night moving across the northern horizon until the light begins to return about three hours later. At 1 am, the brightest part of the sky is always due north.

• Too many people were trying to get into Vancouver last night. The overturned truck on Hwy 1 at Surrey wasn't helping, and I had already been driving for over twelve hours.

• I said goodbye to my car, Kenobi, on this trip. She was a good car when I got her two years ago, and could be decent for a while more with some TLC, but was definitely starting to show her age. I switched not because of need but because of opportunity. My sister wanted to sell her '99 Caravan SE, and I saw real potential in that, in terms of cargo space, comfort for my back, and features like power locks and air conditioning. I realized that it's been over four years since I had a car with all the comfort features and no malfunctions. It's very, very nice. Although, on my way into Vancouver I snapped the little hook that holds the sun visor in place (looks like you sold at the right time, Michelle! It's falling apart!) If anyone knows of a Caravan that's been written off or whatever, let me know because I'm in the market for a tiny piece of molded plastic. My new car's name is Isaac.

• I had some insight into my philosophy of blogging, particularly compared to my good friend Kristen. You see, we are opposites on the Introvert-Extravert scale (as defined in the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator). I am an "I", while Kristen is an "E". I think this explains our different approaches to blogging. I need to have my topic and 'point' worked out ahead of time, whereas she manages to externalize her thoughts onto the blog itself. Neither is better (though I would never do it the other way!), just different.

• I'm an Enneagram Type Five. Click the image to learn more about the Enneagram:

• I saw Jenn and Wendy in Calgary, as well as my sister and her family, and my dad and Jill in Edmonton. It was great to see everybody. I also met with the Education & Students Committee from my Presbytery, which is the regional oversight body in the United Church of Canada. I have to meet with them every year to maintain my status as a Candidate for Ministry. It was a fine meeting, with some new people and some familiar faces. I didn't get any specific feedback from them at the end, but the general feedback was very positive, so I think it went well. I went to worship at the church in Fort Saskatchewan, too, and it was great to see everyone there. I had a chance to visit with my Grandma and Charlie too, and that was good.

• Whenever I'm back at the farm I tend to start reading comics, because I didn't bring any with me to Vancouver. This time I read volumes 6 & 7 of Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman." They're called "Fables & Reflections" and "Brief Lives." I also read the start of volume 8, "World's End." The Sandman is one of the few pieces of literature that I can read over and over and over, and it remains virtually perfect. In an entire ten-year run of comics, there are maybe one or two panels that I would change if I had the chance. It's always a breathtaking experience. I also reread "Calculating God," which is a novel by Canadian science fiction writer Robert Sawyer. It's not my favourite of his books, but it was still interesting enough for a second read. He's my current must-buy author. The other things I read were for school; I'm doing four week-long intensives in July. I read "The Last Week" by Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan, and started on "Excavating Jesus" by Crossan and Jonathan Reed. I'm doing a course with Crossan at the end of the month; he's this summer's Visiting Distinguished Scholar at VST.

• I have to get to work on worship planning. I'm filling in for my former supervisor, Anna, at Gilmore Park United Church in Richmond, BC, while she's on vacation in July. I'll be in classes all month during the week, so I want to get started on choosing music and writing prayers and stuff like that today. If you're around, come check it out. Every Sunday in July at 10:30 am, on the corner of 1 Rd and Blundell in Richmond.