The Family Letter

I've added some stuff that is worth pointing out.

The first is the weather, just over there. –>

It shows what it is like at the Honolulu Airport. I tried to add Hickam AFB, but it wasn't taking the code (PHIK). But the airport is only about 1.2 miles from here by car, closer if I climbed some fences and didn't get shot doing it. So now you will all know how miserable the weather is here.

Just below my weather is a box where you can pull up yours. It should be there every time you come back, too. You need to know the airport identifier for the nearest airport, though. That's four not three digits. For the continental US you'll add a "K" before the normal three-letter/number identifier. Thus Erie is KERI, not ERI. I'm PHNL. I'm assuming P is "Pacific." There's a link of identifiers below the weather box.

I'm sure you're all overjoyed about this feature. Just as thrilled as you were when I called from the beach on Christmas day and said things like, "Could you please repeat that, I couldn't hear you over the surf." Ahem. Next feature.

Below the weather is a "Where are you" feature. I don't think anyone has noticed it, because there are no entries yet. Clicking that link lets you tell me where my readers are from. It works better than trying to guess based on IP adress and all that, but it does require your participation.¹ So take a moment to let me know where you are tuning in from, please.

Last but not least, I have (temporarily, most likely) added a voting feature. At the bottom of certain posts you will find some stars. You can rate that post. This one should have them. After all that weather nonsense, I have a bad feeling about the rating this post is going to get. DOH!

1. I know what you're thinking: "Ha! The fool goes on about the weather in Hawaii and then wants my help! Never!" But seriously, this is kind of fun. [back]

Merry Christmas!

This was another first, my first Christmas "solo," so to speak. We had two services here at St. George's, one Christmas Eve and one earlier this morning, Christmas Day. Last night we had around 69 folks, this morning a little under 30. Both services were good. The music last night was great… We had both piano and trumpet, and the children helped out leading the refrain on "Go Tell it on the Mountain." The sermon was interesting… I aimed it both at the kids and the adults, with the kids' help, and I'm still not used to that. They're very… Enthusiastic. I just hope the adults managed to take something from it!

This morning was a bit less formal, a service of Lessons and Carols. I think I stretched us a bit far on one or two carols (Hymn 60 and 265 for sure), but everyone really tried their best and it didn't sound half bad. Everyone really did their best and that's what I call worship!

I wish I could have said the same for me. The cold is still hanging in and, though I don't feel too bad, I've gotten to the cough stage and my voice was rough enough this morning that I couldn't sing any high notes, or anything with volume. I've got some drugs, though, so hopefully the cough will be under control enough for a good night's sleep tonight.

After church I decided I'd had about all the standing up I could take, so I did some lying down. Seeing as how the "where" didn't matter, I joined two parishioners at Bellows Air Force Station. Sound dull? Yes, but not in the way you'd think… Bellows has excellent beaches. I spent a good long time on the sand, just soaking in the sun, a little time on the phone with family and friends¹, and a bit of time in the water. It was good. They invited me for dinner as well but I politely declined, and took to recuperating a bit quietly at home with Zoe.

This was also my first Christmas away from family. I've always been able to make it home before now, so I wasn't quite sure what it would be like. While it was a bit odd coming home last evening and opening gifts with just Zoe around, it wasn't really that bad. It would have been a lot more fun and enjoyable watching folks open the gifts I got them, and all that, but it was okay. I think I need a tradition, though… I wasn't sure if I should have opened everything last night, saved stuff for today, or what. But I just went all the way. Zoe was good company, and had some fun in the process herself. (She also made out like a bandit, with at least 10 toys from various sources, and her own needlepoint stocking! Oh, and she loves spicy Chex mix, too. How odd is that?)

Well, it is coming up on 10 p.m., and while I'm not going into work tomorrow I would like to give the body as much rest as possible. I would really like to be over this cold sooner rather than later, and rest always seems to help. Time to put the cat to bed and head to mine.

God's Peace, and a joyous Christmas to all!

1. yeah, yeah, calling to say "Merry Christmas" from a beach is low, but it wasn't my idea… the parishioners made me do it–it is their annual tradition! [back]

This week I figured out a way to convert any printable document into PDF on Windows¹. I did this so that St. George's could create a PDF of the Anchor Chain, our monthly newsletter.

It works, and the initial feedback I've gotten is that the newsletter is very readable in PDF. So from now on I'll be posting the newsletter here for friends and family. You can download and read the Anchor Chain for December and November 2005. (Please be aware that these will take a few minutes to download and display. I've noticed that in Safari under Tiger one sees a message at the bottom of the window that the "page failed to load." A minute later the PDF displays. So just have patience.)

From this time forward my far flung friends and relatives will no longer receive a printed copy of the newsletter unless they specifically request it. Please feel free to print it if you so desire, but keep in mind that we're doing this to promote good stewardship, both of money and natural resources.

Peace!

1. This has been a built-in feature of the Macintosh operating system for some time. Anything you can print you can save as a PDF. Anything. In Windows you need to download and install software such as CutePDF. [back]