A VITAL week

This past week has been a busy one. Many of my AMU/APUS classes are drawing to a close, as are my Ivy Tech classes. They operate on different schedules, so it takes effort to keep on track.

In addition, this week was the VITAL Quiz Bowl -- each year, 32 teams compete to become the trivia masters of the Monroe County area. This was the 25th anniversary of the Quiz Bowl, so it was special. I hosted two evenings on (live) area television; it takes a lot out of one to do this. The Quiz Bowl (and its attendant silent auction) raises several thousand dollars each year to support the VITAL office -- the adult literacy program run by the public library. It is a good cause, and I am happy to be involved, although each year I secretly tell myself this will be the last one. However, when asked again, I find that I'm just a guy who can't say no...

I reconnected this week with one of my seminary professors, Ron Allen, with whom I worked in several courses in the Bible and the preaching areas. We had a good lunch, talked about writing projects, politics, church matters, and the lack of pepper in potato soup -- in all, a good time. I hope I'll see him more than once every other year, but we both recognised the limitations and loss that occurs when people move on, and there's really no blame to be ascribed to what is for the most part a very natural process.

My own courses continue apace - my orbital mechanics class is now completed, and I move on to remote sensing satellites; the midterm exams in solar system astronomy and the stars and galaxies classes are completed. I need to catch up this evening in my CDSP certificate class, in which I have fallen behind largely because of my concentration on the situation with my parents.

My mother and father are both having major health problems; my mother has an aortic aneurysm, and my father a recurrence of cancer. Even though I am not there with them in Florida (my sister has been doing a lot of work in that regard, visiting and helping, for which she gets stars in her crown from me), the emotional energy that it takes to deal with such things really takes it toll. This has been the first week in a while where they have both been home from the hospital for a good amount of time; there is more down the road, but for now, things are stable and steady.