It's been a long time

Now I'm coming back home.  It's been a while to get to the blog.  Things have been topsy turvy these last few weeks.  As my schedule at work shifted to weekdays late into the evening, and yet because of the deplorable parking (a parking lot big enough for 8000 people!...for a building that employees about 9500), I have to leave early enough that mornings aren't much easier than before.  Still, it's a job, and no other complaints but less time with the family in the evenings, fewer sit down family dinners, and of course, less blogging.

Nonetheless, I'm glad to see some faithful still stopping by, and the general readership continuing apace.  So I feel I must sit when I can and try, in my own cumbersome way, to toss out a few things that have been on my mind.  Chief among these have been my thoughts on what the Boston Bombings showed about where we've come as a society.

I've also had to take notice on this little story, which involves my very own diocese.  It's making national headlines now, and of course, from the media POV, there's only one obvious solution.  It will be interesting to see how this case unfolds.  As usual, I'm of about three minds on this, so when I can sort it out and not say things in the wrong way, since I know some folks from around here who read my blog, I'll put down what I'm thinking.

Tonight, of course, we watched the Kentucky Derby.  That's from those years we lived in Louisville.  Oddly enough, I never went to the Derby while we lived there, and seldom watched it, unless we attended some local church Derby party.  Now, we try to watch it every year.  That's part of our strategy of making as many days special as we can.  Being of limited means, we can't afford the Mediterranean cruise or the three week African safari for our kids.  But if we take the smallest things and add just a tad of special, we hope it makes up for the bigger things.

We also had to cram in our Cinco de Mayo today, because tomorrow our eighth grader, who is approaching confirmation, is having a special world study day in which my wife volunteered to help him unpack those rascally Irish Catholics for the Ireland segment.  She'll me making Irish food, and helping set up a display jam-packed with all things green.  Because of that, we moved the usual Mexican fare to today, and added a little Derby pie to the mix to keep it official (a combination not for the fainthearted).

There are other things, of course.  The blogosphere has been mostly quiet, and I'm starting to get a fix on a couple things that have bothered me in recent years.  Figuring things out, if you would.  I've also been thinking on the Catholic Church in this crazy, wild period in which we find ourselves as a country and as a world.  What it means to obey the Church, what it's meant in the past, and where it looks like the Church is trying to go today.  That might come sometime down the road.  For now, I've got to get back to the family and finish our other annual addition to the Derby festivities (and I don't mean Mint Juleps) : our viewing of the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races.  Natch.  Be back soon, until then, well done Orb, and of course, as Mark Shea reminds us on yet another important aspect of today (Star Wars Day) - May the Fourth Be With You!

And for your viewing pleasure, the incomparable Chico Marx, making the sheer act of playing the piano fun to watch as well as hear: