Odds and Ends

I have a few little newsy items that I want to post. They will be of varying interest to my gentle readers, but I want to post them, so here goes:

• Philip P. Bliss (see Hallelujah! What a Saviour! below) and his wife died in a train wreck at Ashtabula, Ohio, on December 29, 1876 when a bridge collapsed. The train fell 70 feet. Philip survived the fall, but wouldn’t leave without his wife. They both died in the fire. He was 37, she was 35. They left behind two small children.


• When I mentioned my post on my old truck to my mom, she reminded me that I rode the bus from Nanaimo, B.C. to Raymond Alberta to fetch the truck. My parents dropped me off to visit a friend on Vancouver Island and continued with their holidays. The bus trip took 21 hours. How could I have forgotten that? It was only in 1982!


• We had an unexpected house guest last night. A little dog appeared in our back yard. My three girls walked around the neighborhood looking for its home, but didn’t find anyone that knew were it belonged. It was Sunday, so the pound was closed, as was the vet and pet store. We kept the little ankle biter overnight. No, that’s not fair – the little thing was as mellow and friendly as possible. I don’t like these little pug-faced things normally, but this one was very nice. This morning we were able to track down the owner. It turns out that he was in the hospital and a friend was looking after “Misty.” The little Houdini escaped under a fence. We have a happy ending. I’ve posted a picture below for you lap dog lovers out there.


• It’s my wife’s birthday today. We did the special dinner yesterday because we knew today was going to be very busy. Happy Birthday Juanita!


• Our shingles are being replaced. A very capable home builder from our church has fit us into his schedule. We are grateful – the house market is very hot around here these days. He picked a great week to start. I said I’d help him and I’m going to be away most of the week. Oh well. I did do a little shingle removal this morning with him before we headed off to music festival in Hinton (an hour away) with Grandma. Juanita and our daughter Emily played today – cello and violin respectively. They did great!


• Dishes await, Juanita’s out tonight, laundry, packing and kids need attention. What am I doing blogging? I hope to be able to post a bit from Louisville, but I won’t try to compete with Tim Challies.