A very busy month! I drove down to the Akron Art Museum to see an exhibition of photographs (by Andrew Moore) of abandoned buildings and other sites in Detroit, (the area where I started my ministry). It was both fascinating and a little horrifying; the large-format camera doesn't spare much by way of depressing detail. The exhibition was called Detroit Disassembled. In the AAM's permanent collection, the most interesting (to me) picture was a called "The New Moon" by Dwight W. Tryon, an American landscape painter (1849—1925); I was able to find a .JPEG of it, and have been using it as the wallpaper for my desktop computer (I desaturated it a little to more closely resemble the actual painting). I suppose my interest in navigation was a factor in liking this, even though it's a little gaudy!

Paul and I spent an afternoon at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, which chronicles the general influence of Jewish immigrants in American life with particular attention to the Greater Cleveland area. Fascinating!

I began a six-week adult education program on the book of Revelation at a church in Niles where I have many friends; this was a "trial run" of a class series I'm doing for the Institute for Learning in Retirement starting the end of January, 2011.

I attended the annual clambake sponsored by the Berea Power Squadron, which was compromised somewhat by wet windy wild weather, And I took the services three Sundays at Berea's Peoples' Community Church, whose on-Sabbatical pastor in a longtime friend and colleague.

Penney and I took a trip to Ohio's "Amish Country" mid-month, something we used to do three or four times a year when the boys were smaller, but which we haven't done in several years. It's always relaxing to be among people who measure time in seasons rather than seconds, and we always load up on various foodstuffs and other goodies. On the way home, we stopped in a country cemetery and took a bunch of pictures.

Ohio's Amish Country is centered around Holmes County, the largest aggregation of Old Order Amish in the U. S.

This scene is set in the Doughty Valley, near Charm (an aptly named village where we sometimes have lunch or dinner). The Guggisberg Cheese factory nearby makes and sells delicious Baby Swiss cheese.

I thought the commonality of decay (the tombstone and the stump) in the country cemetery made for an interesting photo (above)

The dramatic scene to the right just popped up as we were driving and I leapt out of the car to catch it.

We were delighted to have an all-too-brief visit from Louise Allen, a member of St. Thomas of Canterbury parish in Greendale, Wisconsin, whence we came to Ohio back in 1983.

While attending my family birthday celebration, Andrew rediscovered his old crib toy, retrieved for possible recycling on Adalyn's crib!

Also featured at the birthday celebration: reading to Adalyn from the book that was Penney's childhood favorite, Mister Dog ("the dog who took care of himself" and who liked things neat because he was a conservative). This child will not lack for reading material! Or irony!

We got in some late-Fall sailing before the scheduled haulout date of October 20, and took the headsail and mainsail to a shop in central Pennsylvania which rebuilds them and which had been recommended by several dockmates. (The haulout got delayed by low water and didn't actually take place until the day before Thanksgiving; we are moving to a different, deeper, dock for next season; see diagram!)

Fall along the Rocky River

This was also the month in which the long-a'building bridge over two sets of railroad tracks on the northern entrance to the city was completed; by a fluke, I was in a position to be first car across the span after the dedicatory speeches (that's our Congressman, Dennis Kucinich, in the left foreground).(Photo: Jim Walters)

Fall along the Rocky River