One of my two regular readers knows what is going on, and as it doesn’t seem like a lot of people read this blog I will go ahead and post a few more details, though not TOO many

After some problems arose and they did a few tests (endometrial biopsy and an ultrasound), the results of the tests were not good. There is a chance I have ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, BOTH, or neither. Regardless I have a full hysterectomy coming my way on August 19th at 12:30 EST. Please pray for me and for the medical team.

They hope to use something called the “Da Vinci Machine”. This modern contraption is a computer/3-D/robotic assisted machine that greatly decreases the amount of trauma to the body (no open surgery and large incisions), and apparently greatly decreases recovery time. Apparently, in the best of possible outcomes, I could even be back to work in 2 weeks!

They don’t know if they will be able to use the machine, though it will be available and my insurance has approved it. I’ve previously had surgery in that area before, so we will see. An oncologist will be in the room, and apparently he (or she) can do whatever they need to do through this machine as well.

Let’s all pray the oncolgist has a most boring morning

S-P (here) has been posting about silence, and there is an interesting discussion on his blog about this. I was going to just respond on his blog, but since I haven’t posted here for quite some time, it seemed good to do it here instead

Silence…. I wish I could hear it While that was a joke, I do have tinnitus due to nerve damage which means that for the last full decade, 24 hours a day, asleep or awake, my ears are making at LEAST 3 different sounds, at different tones. (Despite that, my hearing is pretty good).

Oddly enough, at about the same time I started backing off on all of the electronic noise generators that are available. Of course, it doesn’t do us much good to set aside the electronic toys if we just fill the space with interior noise.

Silence…. it would be good to hear physical silence, and it would be much better to hear interior silence. Perhaps, someday, God willing, I will know what that INTERNAL silence sounds like.

In other news, I am preparing to have major surgery on August 19th. Please keep me in your prayers.

It’s been a long time since my last post. I am dealing with some rather significant health issues, but hope to post more often soon. I haven’t forgotten about this blog, as much as it may seem that way.

I have finally completed my first set of chalice covers. This is not the first set I’ve embroidered, but the first set that I have done all of the work after that - actually constructing the covers, attaching the lining, galloon, fringe, and so forth. I was asked to use the same material for the lining as for the cover, so the covers are actually too thick - which was an issue at the corners. I also haven’t used a sewing machine since what seems like the dark ages, but it all worked out.

The covers are far from perfect, but they were made with love and those for whom they were made seemed to really like them. Thank God!

This is a picture of the largest cloth out of the set of three - sometimes called an Aer. This cloth has different uses between Greek and Russian traditions. In the Russian tradition ties are used (I had to go with red ribbons, I couldn’t match the burgundy fabric) and the priest ties the cloth on his back during the Great Entrance.

The next picture is of one of the two smaller covers - and they look alike so I just took a picture of one of them. You will note that it seems to be padded or something underneath the galloon on the sides. This was not meant, but comes from using the same fabric as a lining - there is just too much material. However, it seems to work. Don’t look too carefully at the corners….

Last year I bought the first car ever on financing (before that I always had my cash-paid ancient car). The Mitsubishi Galant GTZ is an incredible car… but the interest rate was WAY too high, and that particular car requires premium gasoline. It is possible to use regular occasionally, but it does require high-test gas. In these times that isn’t so good a combination, so it was time for a new car - or at least a different car with a lower interest rate, better mileage, and a 4-cylinder engine that would be happy with regular gas.

And….. I found it! I have the first actual new car in my life and while the payments are higher, the interest rate is considerably lower and I think that in the long term I have a much better car. It isn’t as sporty - and frankly - I found I really do NOT like leather seats. They look great, but are never comfortable.

So bye bye Mitsubishi Galant GTZ, Hello Mitsubishi Lancer ES (hmmm, there seems to be a developing pattern here God willing, I hope this will turn out to have been a good move. The payment is higher than I would like, but I think that over the long term I will actually spend less due to the lower interest. Also, next spring I fully intend on refinancing to get a lower interest rate. We shall see how it develops.

I’ve never had a NEW car before, so right now I am having fun

Here’s Looking At Ya! (isn’t that a cool front end?)

The Mitsubushi Lancer seems to be their competition with the Toyota Corolla, at least it seems to be. It is a good car and I am quite happy with it. Considering that not-small car payment due every month now - it is a GOOD thing that I like the car Very smooth 5-speed and it is geared nicely.

Here is a better look at the car.

I do not know if this photo will help Meg to see the structure of our Tomb any better or not, but it is far better than my earlier one. This was taken on Holy Friday, just prior to the Vespers service. This is a closeup that shows more details of the flowers. I did not take this picture.

Here is a shot that one of our choir members took of the Cross after Vespers and before it was pushed up closer to the Tomb. He was on the floor when taking this shot.

(note: I moved this from a comment in the previous post)

Ms Mutton wrote:

What a beautiful parish you have — it looks very homey. I’m especially impressed by how beautiful it looks with no pews, and with the oriental carpets scattered over the wood floor, something I’ve not seen anywhere else (at the one Russian parish I attended, there were oriental carpets on a marble floor; at Jordanville, the floors are highly polished, but bare, wood).

Our church was built in 1946 as it had outgrown it’s previous building which was an old Protestant church that the immigrant Romanians had been using since 1910. That wooden floor is, well, a little creaky

We refinished those beautiful floors about 3-4 years ago and we TRIED to not put the oriental carpets back on the floor. The problem was that when people started arriving for Matins and Liturgy - in other words those times when people started entering the Nave at the same time you couldn’t even hear the choir. The acoustics are quite good in our small church, so between the creaking of the floor boards, the sound of heels on the wood and so forth - one couldn’t hear the choir! So the carpets went back down. Of course, without the carpets the acoustics were even better… it is kind of a shame that we had to put them back but we did.

I will get a better picture tomorrow - or else scan and post a picture that someone else took of the Tomb from Holy Friday.

As I promised on Meg’s blog (Muttonings) here are a few pictures taken in our church today before I started cleaning up from last night before Agape Vespers this afternoon. The lights had not yet been turned on, so the lighting wasn’t so great. I could have retaken them later, but just didn’t remember to do so. Please click on the images to go to a larger version so you can see more detail.

Before you look further, there are MUCH better photographs on our parish website - which is found here.

This shot was taken from the floor in some odd attempt to be artistic. Hmmm that didn’t seem to work really well, so let’s try this again.

I still don’t think you can really see how beautiful it actually is. If I can I will get a better shot with more light, though it may be the flowers are already fading. They don’t last long, sigh… We really perplexed a few floral supply houses with our search for white flowers! They are rather hard to find this late in the year and we didn’t have as many as we have had in the past.

Here are more pictures

I just like this picture, and you can see some of the beautiful flowers on the Iconstasis.

One last photo - and I like it though there isn’t much light. To me this shot of an empty Nave with no lights turned on seems like it is waiting for us to come and pray. There is also something about being in the Nave alone like this that makes me to remember that it is impossible to truly be alone in church - regardless of the time. I like to remember that we can’t see the spiritual hosts that attend to holy places - and surely more so on Pascha! I will try and remember to get a shot tomorrow, after the priest arrives and the lights are turned on, to see to difference. The light switches are in the altar…

Christ is Risen!

Truly He is Risen!

Christ is Risen from the dead
Trampling down death by death
And upon those in the tombs
Bestowing Life

And to us He has granted Eternal Life
Let us worship His resurrection on the third day!

There is nothing that I can say to express the profound awe and joy of this most Holy of Days than the words from the Tropar that we will sing for the next 40 days - Pascha! May we all celebrate it in the never-ending day of the Kingdom.

Great Lent starts for the Orthodox this year rather late. Forgiveness Sunday is March 10th, and Pascha is April 27th - almost as late as it can be. I have no idea when I will have the time to post again, so I wanted to give a little progress report on one of my current projects.

The name of this design is Night Flight, and it is a rather long piece. I started it several years ago, completed the first couple of sections, and set it aside until now. You can see an image of the completed piece on the designer’s site here. I am not capable of doing such a design exactly as it is charted, so I do wind up “tweaking” some of the stitches. Not in a major way, for example, the two blue sections you see call for a Reverse Scotch stitch. Indeed that is what I am using for those two sections, but perhaps I reverse directions for the beginning row or something like that (which actually reverses the direction of all that follows in that section).

All of the fibers are overdyes, some are more subtle than others. It is an enjoyable piece. What sparked my return to THIS project was that I have, or had, a framed finished project of hers on my living room wall that was moved to my office wall at work. I like it there, but I miss having something like this at home, so it is time to finish it. I will work on other things during Lent, but hope to have it completed sometime this summer.