Oh, it's been far too long not to have jotted at least a short note to the passage of days, which progress with too quick rapidity, but on this brilliant and actually cool Saturday morning, I write as Susan and family and friends (mom and Nick & Lindsay and other Shuping kin) at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary of Lenoir-Rhyne University have their graduation ceremony (Susan is on the home page of the school's web site with this cutline description next to her smiling face ...
"Get to know America's warmest Lutheran seminary — and we're not just talking about the weather.
We are intellectually curious and spiritually courageous, but supporting each other is the glue
that keeps it all together."
I have to be heading off to Peg's for the housewarming at Christine & Tom's new home, near the church. It began at 11 a.m.
Well, on a walk this morning I met and spoke to three people and I don't want to forget names and before I do:
- Rob and his 11-month-old chocolate lab, exuberant and playful, Luna on the hill of Pickwick. He's a truck driver of liquefied sugar and works long hours. He bought the home at 31 and he and his wife want to have a child. I suggest he meet Bill, my neighbor from across the street, who is an immaculate yard keeper and who is a new father with the birth of his 2nd son (first child from his 2nd marriage), Liam Joseph, born in late April (27th, I think). Together now with his wife, Nicole, and their vibrant daughter, his step-daughter, Avah, they make a wonderful family.
- Across the street where all the work is going on, I spoke with Jeff, who grew up in Maplecrest and is moving to Sherwood Park II. The home is owned by a couple who are renovating and have a contract on it. They still have to bring in a lot of topsoil for the backyard and finish cementing the sidewalk.
Found this photo on the Facebook page for the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary and it shows my ex-wife, Susan Katherine Thisell (on the right), at the school's graduation ceremony. It is a remarkable accomplishment and represents a lifelong goal of hers to be a Lutheran minister
in the ELCA. Congratulations Rev. Thisell.
https://www.facebook.com/LutheranTheologicalSouthernSeminary/photos/pcb.10155595968925646/10155595967775646/?type=1&theater
On a much more mundane and ephemeral front, the Phillies beat the Nationals 8-1 ...
We hiked White Clay Creek (Bryan's Field Trail) in the brilliant afternoon, Smith Mill Road off Paper Mill Road that ends with at the parking lot and a request for a fee payment of $4 and the stub to be placed on the driver side's dashboard, and we got lost. In the process, we walked a good 4-5 miles with Dancer in tow and got tuckered, so did our dog. But the day was beautiful and Peg gave me botanical and ornithology lesson as we walked the trail dug deep by the passage of myriad mountain bikes. 
Phillies break out to back stellar
Hamels.
Ryan Howard, who hit his 10th homer in the game, congratulates the new Phillies 3rd baseman, 22-year-old Maikel Franco, on his 2nd homer of the year against
Stephen Strasburg, one of the Nationals' aces.
