Weekend Update

Right on schedule, here are the latest photos of the St. John's Lutheran Church building project. We continue to move toward completion of the exterior of the building, but the interior is still a couple of months away from being finished. Once the roof is shingled over the church area the electricians can work their magic, and then the drywall goes up. In a week or so some of the Laborers For Christ will begin leaving us, and the good-byes will be difficult, but as Kay puts it we now have a whole bunch of new friends that we can visit, and stay with, when we travel. That's Kay...always the pragmatist!

I had my first basketball games of the new season to officiate earlier today. My first two were 8th grade boys, and the last one was 5th grade boys. It was nice to get back out on the court and run around a bit, but when all was said and done my knees were barking at me. I didn't blow any calls, or miss anything blatant, but as usual the coaches were barking almost as much as my knees.

Very early tomorrow morning I am on the airplane headed for Fort Wayne, Indiana. Actually, the airplane will take me to Chicago, and from there I will be driving a rental car. To fly directly to Fort Wayne was quite a bit too expensive, so the rental car thing from Chicago worked out to be a much better deal. I am really looking forward to getting started with classes so I can start learning how to do what I have been doing for the past 4 months. My mentor, Reverend Virtus Young (emeritus) will be accompanying me, and he is always fun to be around. I am expecting to laugh a lot the next 5 days.

The weather will continue to be nice for the next couple of days. Expect sunshine and high temperatures in the low 70s. Oh, by the way, the blowing dust today was never a big deal as the visibility never got below about 8 miles. I told you so! Tuesday still looks like it will be the start of the major shift in the weather pattern. From Tuesday through the end of the week it will be much cooler and cloudier, and there will be some rain showers to contend with. The mountains should see their first snow of the fall season. High temperatures will only be in the mid to upper 50s!!!

I will conclude by announcing that the Wisconsin Badgers had a nice win today, but then you probably already knew that since I have indoctrinated all of you into members of the Badger Nation. Bucky Badger beat Michigan State 38 to 30 in a game that was no where near as close as the final score would indicate. Next week will be a real test, the first road game, as the Badgers travel to East Dakota to take on the Golden Rodents.