Mon Jul 7 09:27 EDT 1997 Special Edition: What I did on my Summer Vacation I am back at work to rest after 18 days and 5000 miles of travel. Based on some input I've received in Texas, you'll note a table of contents for this special edition of the "weekend update" so that you can skim what promises to be a lengthy report. Those who want to skip instead of skim, press Delete now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Manor Minders 2. Boston to Texas and Oklahoma - June 18 3. Delegation Registration 4. Sea World - See Whirled 5. The business of business is business (Motion passes) 6. On the Road Again - Relating to Relatives 7. Ostrich Farm Makes Eggs Easy Ova 8. Grandparents in the Nineties 9. Relative Exchange - Homeward bound 10. Home is Where the Weeds Are 11. Home is Where the Company Congregates 12. Home is Where the Family Gathers 13. Fireworks in Mayberry 14. End of Vacation - July 6 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Manor Minders Before leaving, we arranged to have some friends stay at the house to enjoy its amenities and bring in our mail. Rich and Wendy also went over and above by cutting our grass, and keeping the pool clean and clear. We are very grateful for their help. They feel like they didn't do enough but in fact, they helped us out tremendously. We do have some catch-up to do in the garden, but we've already pitched in and begun recovery work there. Metcalfe Manor will be back in shape in a week or so. 2. Boston to Texas and Oklahoma - June 18 Due to an error on my part, I had my dad get us to the airport two and a half hours before our flight; an hour ealier than I wanted. Perhaps I was already on Texas time. We were met in Texas by my cousin Kendra and offspring who then kindly took us out to dinner and shopping for souvenoirs. Kendra was there to abscond with my third daughter Emily while the rest of us made our pilgrimage to General Assembly. Putting 5 into a hotel room is permitted with roll-away bed, but six would have doubled our rooms and rates. We were a bit worried about Emily, who had gotten travel-queasy. We wondered if she was having second thoughts about splitting from the family and going with stranger family, but that was not the case. When her queasiness cleared up, so did she. She had a great time in Oklahoma doing various things including horseback riding, and tarantula hunting. We stayed somewhere between Dallas and San Antonio that night, ate at a truck stop greasy spoon that might have read "Bob's Country Bunker" on it, and continued our pilgrimage. 3. Delegation Registration The Texas sun is something to be felt, especially to us northerners. We traveled in our shorts and tees to be more comfortable. I decided to register before finding our hotel near San Antonio but was having second thoughts after seeing a bunch of Nazarenes dressed in their Sunday evening, nice-casual, and Sunday regulars. Nevertheless, I found my way to Room N in the Alamodome to register, hoping that no one would recognize me and I would register incognito. When I noticed that the young man who was taking registration cards had an earring, I didn't care about my shorts. He took my card and said, "Ah, I thought I recognized you." 4. Sea World - See Whirled On Friday, I had a day before my delegate (delicate?) work began and my wife and son had already made plans to join hundreds of Nazarene children at Sea World. Joy was a chaperone. I arrived before the buses in my rental car and entered the park. I figured on getting in some rides and then catching up with my wife. I can say that I rode the "Great White Shark" roller coaster named because the people come off of it looking greatly whitened. I don't know why I let a machine throw the gray jello around in my skull. I used to know why, but I think the machine shook it out of me. I have decided that if I'm going to spend money on amusement theme parks, it will be a water park or just for the shows. I thought I'd gotten too old to be stupid anymore but apparently I was wrong. I took my video camera on a white water rafting-type ride, at the end of which is a waterfall that drenches everyone in the raft. I covered the camera bag as much as I could and did manage to save the contents; a case where quick thinking overcame earlier stupidity. 5. The business of business is business (Motion passes) Saturday was committee work. My committee (ministry and Education) had about a hundred people on it. We took proposals from various districts and amended the wording before it would go to the entire assembly for consideration. Some proposals would be killed in committee. It was fascinating to hear someone get up and speak in favor of the proposal and I'd agree with what they had to say, and then hear someone speak against the proposal, and I'd agree with what they had to say. Hmmm, this was more difficult than I thought it would be. The various committees studied proposed changes to the Manual of the Church of the Nazarene, a document that defines the doctrine and culture of our church denomination. There were no doctrinal amendments. (I think that would be very unexpected and unwelcome.) There was at least one recommendation to add "the Sanctity of Marriage" to the Articles of Faith but the proposal never got out of committee (D.O.A.). A friend of mine from Maine approached me Monday morning and asked me if I realized that I was the only delegate of over 900 that was wearing a tee-shirt and jeans. The New England delegation didn't seem to mind, especially when I passed around the peanuts. The favorite issues (movies and alcohol) were debated. The assembly voted to remove the specific language about the movie theater (keeping its admonition about the kinds of "entertainment" that are congruent with holiness living). The German delegation submitted a rewording of the stance on alcohol which initially passed. It condemned drunkeness and espoused total abstinence as the right choice but came up short on that word "choice." A gentleman from Tennesee stood up and asked the assembly, "Am I to understand that we just voted to allow social drinking?" With more arguments for and against, including one from a General Superintendent, the vote was reconsidered and defeated. I was unconvinced by most of the arguments until a woman from French Guyana (I think) stood up to say that her culture was similar to the German culture where social drinking was readily acceptable. She made the point that whether German of French Guyanan culture, or American culture, we at General Assembly are defining a culture for the Church of the Nazarene and its members. That was the best argument for "choice" that I heard and she swayed my vote. 6. On the Road Again - Relating to Relatives Astonishingly, we finished our business early, on Thursday evening. I called my Uncle Ken in Iowa Park ("Where the heck is Iowa Park?") and forewarned him of arriving a day earlier than planned. It may have sent Aunt Ruth into fits. Had she only know how little trouble we can be... ;-) We got to see all but Keith that weekend. For those who don't know, that would be Kendy, [Keith], Kevin, Kerri, and Kamela. Alliteration runs in the family. Emily was reunited with us and we had a blast. In fact, we were treated like royalty for entire visit. On Sunday, as a special treat, John Perryman delivered the message at Aunt Ruth's church. I submit that Rev. Perryman is probably the number one fan of Masculine Journey (my running article with the Herald of Holiness, which I haven't gotten this month, come to think of it). He lavished far more praise than I deserve, and I have witnesses who will tell you that I don't deserve it! Still, i am grateful and humbled by it and it was terrific to meet John and Mildred face to face. (Mildred: I combed my hair this morning.) 7. Ostrich Farm Makes Eggs Easy Ova On Monday, we were escorted to an ostrich farm. My uncle apologized, thinking that up east we have wonderful things to see and all he could do to occupy us in Texas was take us to see some ostriches. Little did he know that this would be one of the highlights of the trip. We found that ostriches will lay up to 65 eggs a year (each). The fertile ones are hatched to raise more ostriches. "What do you do with the infertile eggs?" "We heave them over the fence." I told them that people buy ostrich shells and decorate them and that I would look on the internet to see what the going rate was. ($15 per egg shell!) The Moores called us back to inform us that they had a dozen infertile eggs, and would we want any of them? Want them? We were ecstatic! We returned Monday night to clean and pack the shells for travel. We intend to decorate one of them and give it to them with our grateful thanks. I have already contacted one craft store in town to see if I can hook these people up with a few places to sell egg shells if they want to. 8. Grandparents in the Nineties We visited my grandparents in their Texoma Nursing home a few times. God bless Aunt Ruth, Uncle Ken and their kids for their faithful attention and dutiful love and care they give to these people every day. The mind at ages 96 and 93 isn't what it used to be. I likened it to two things: (1) a radio signal with lots of static - sometimes the signal came in and made sense and many times there was too much static to communicate. (2) A card file with relationships to other cards of information all jumbled and mixed up. There were moments where they each seemed to be aware and others where they were not. Grandma would get into a loop where she'd ask the same question four or five times in my visit. Perhaps she only thought she thought the question after hearing it and my response. Who knows. On Tuesday night, I asked if she would sing with me an old song that I remembered her singing with Grandpa and my dad as a trio. "He Lifted Me." I began, "In loving kindness Jesus came, my soul in mercy to reclaim..." I then stumbled on the next phrase losing my own train of thought (at 37) and she picked it right up: "and from the depths of sin and shame, through grace He lifted me." We sang a precious duet. She sang a very husky alto as I led, three of the four verses, out of sequence (again my fault). She knew all the words where I had forgotten them. Everyday things don't make a whole lot of sense to either of them these days, but I was glad to see and hear the ever-present memory of music come from this old woman. She probably doesn't remember that I visited her less than a week ago, but our visits were not as much for them as it was for us. And I thought that perhaps the reason for their existing as they do isn't for them to live longer as it is as much for us to care. Some lessons are harder than others. Again, who knows. 9. Relative Exchange - Homeward bound We set out for Ardmore Oklahoma on Wednesday because it was closer to the Dallas/Forth Worth airport than Iowa Park. That, and my cousin Kendra was kind enough and crazy enough to get up with us and help us transport everything to the airport. I made the mistake of making flight plans for 7:45am forgetting that I had a three hour trip from my Aunt Ruth's house! It was two hours from Ardmore, OK, but remember that Kendra is kind and crazy; I just haven't figured out whether she's more kind than crazy or more crazy than kind. (I think kind, btw.) She again treated us to dinner, awoke the house up before 4am and saw us all the way to the terminal gate, egg carton in hand. We'll be seeing her in a couple of weeks as they make their way up north. 10. Home is Where the Weeds Are We arrived home before 2:00pm on Thursday. We came home to a pristene pool and a garden that grew grass better than my lawn did. We also had green things sticking up through our brick walkway so we set our things down and started weeding. 11. Home is Where the Company Congregates On Thursday evening we got a call from some people who hadn't seen the house yet. Since our house sitters had cleaned the house we said, "Come on over! We'll be back in a few minutes!" (We had to run out to the store and buy food for the following day's Metcalfe 4th of July picnic at our house. We bought some extra ice cream for Thursday's guests. We had a good time and they thoughtfully let us get to bed by 10pm. 12. Home is Where the Family Gathers On the fourth of July, the entire Metcalfe clan, plus five welcome guests (26 total), gathered for a day-full of pool and pinball. I think Joy snuck off to weed a few times, but only a few. Everybody seemed to bring enough food for everybody else. I had the presence of mind to cook only half of what everyone brought, which means we all took home leftovers. For me, leftover uncooked steak means one thing: a cookout the following day! 13. Fireworks in Mayberry Unfortunately, Pepperell did not have it's fireworks show until July 5th so I don't know if my next of kinsmen got to see any displays. Fortunately, I had cookout meat and some friends to enjoy it with on the fifth of July (several church families represented). We attended the fireworks display, which in Mayberry lasted about 10 minutes. I'm tempted to say it was the mayor and two selectmen setting off confiscated bottle rockets and roman candles, but in actuality it was a nice (albeit brief) display that went off right over our heads instead of miles away in maddening hoards of humanity. And we got to bed by around 10 pm. 14. End of Vacation - July 6 We ended vacation yesterday by lazing by the pool in the afternoon and (guess what?) company in the evening. These were people who hadn't seen the house yet (are there any left?). I am very glad they finally came over for a traditional Sunday evening egg sandwich and some strawberry shortcake, using the strawberries we picked sometime on Saturday wedged in between other activities. So, here I sit, resting back at work, with only 431 new email messages to go through. (I actually thought it would be higher.) I've left out most of the detail, believe it or not. Mark ____________________________________ _____ |, Mark Metcalfe (508) 446-6451 \ \ U \__ _____ |\_0__, Cadence Design Systems, Inc. \___\ A \/_______\___\_____________ | M metcalfe@cadence.com / < /_/ ..................... `-. |_.|\._______________________________/ `-----------,----,--------------' _/____/