Subject: Weekend Update: March 9-11, 2001
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 14:18:32 -0500

  March's Lion dumped another 8-10 inches of snow in my area on Friday
night.  However, I was determined to minimize my shoveling and
maximize my kids' involvement because my lower back muscles were
barely recoving from the big snow we go earlier in the week.
Fortunately, the snow was of the "good packing" consisitency, so I
took a page from Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and concocted an idea to
enlist the *willing* help of Emily and Andrew.  I went out a bit after
9PM because 4-5 inches had already fallen.  I made a ball in the snow
and rolled it up the brick walkway and back by which time I had a
substantial base for our first snowman.  Before long, Emily and Andrew
had their coats on and joined me for the fun in the driveway to roll
up as much of the driveway as we could.

  We built several snow persons that evening and the following morning
and spent some time in sculpting a few of them.  My driveway had only
remnants of snow that was easily squashed by feet and tires.  I did
have to scrape some of the walkway but the job was much easier.  We
are in a warming trend now which means that we will get a lot of
melt-off soon. (For those of you outside of our area, our area had
not-a-few roof collapses because of the snow!  Fortunately, such
churches and businesses didn't have people in them because of that
same snow so we are thankful for that.)  Spring is around the
corner... well, after tonight's predicted ice and snow.

  On Saturday, we hosted another gathering of the worship team, but
snow and other circumstances diminished the number who could attend.
Nevertheless we had a good meeting and enjoyed the good company and
good food that accompanies these people.

  Pastor sent me a headline from a recent Boston Globe article: "Coke
shares hit new low" and he included a note saying that he knew by the
headline in the paper that I had given up Coke for Lent again.

  On Sunday, Joy and I and the younguns piled into the car and
attended the Manchester CT Church to hear my Dad preach.  We had a
great time at church and at dinner visiting with Mom and Dad.  It has
been a long time since I has *seen and heard* him preach and I need to
take advantage of the opportunity as often as I can.  We also
conferred a bit about Dad's sermon website where I often read my Dad
preach.  Just this past week we got two email letters, one from
Australia and one from South Africa.  The minister in Australia wrote:

  "Often ministry (I have been in ministry [for many] years)
   can be a place like Moses experienced when he had to run
   from Egypt but in the desert place God spoke to him and
   redirected his life. That's what [your Internet ministry
   has] been to me[;] God's voice speaking to me and redirecting
   my life[.] I remain eternally grateful."

  And from South Africa, a minister wrote asking if he could translate
the sermons into Afrikaan.  Naturally we agreed and were humbled by
both letters. Dad's website really isn't all that big by Internet
standards.  It is a Cul-de-sac on the Information Superhighway.  We
are often stunned by its impact on some people though because we
haven't done a lot to promote the web site.  It grows by word of mouth
(or email) recommendations, internet searches, and a few web links
here and there. It provides people all over the world with access to
sermon and other resources, and for those it helps we are very
grateful.

  Thanks for your notes and concern about Joy. My mother and her dog
will spend some time with us after the surgery.  Perhaps Dad will get
a little Monastic retreat but I expect he'll be busy enough in
Connecticutt, so he gets especial thanks for his sacrafice.  For those
of you who expressed a desire (or insistence in some cases) to help
out during the recovery period, I hope you understand that we will
need to coordinate this a little for the best effect for your effort.
I'll know more about what this will all entail after we consult with
the doctor on 3/23, so I don't expect any details until then.  Again,
thank you.

Mark
--
+---_-----------+ Mark Metcalfe, metcalfe@cadence.com
| c a d e n c e | Cadence Design Systems, Inc.    Phone: (978) 446-6451
+---------------+ PCB Systems Division, Technical Communications Manager