{"id":1949,"date":"2013-05-04T20:42:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-04T20:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/05\/its-been-a-long-time.html"},"modified":"2013-05-04T20:42:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-04T20:42:00","slug":"its-been-a-long-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/05\/its-been-a-long-time.html","title":{"rendered":"It’s been a long time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Now I\u2019m coming back home. \u00a0It\u2019s been a while to get to the blog. \u00a0Things have been topsy turvy these last few weeks. \u00a0As 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!\u2026for a building that employees about 9500), I have to leave early enough that mornings aren\u2019t much easier than before. \u00a0Still, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, I\u2019m glad to see some faithful still\u00a0stopping\u00a0by, and the general readership continuing apace. \u00a0So I feel I must sit when I can and try, in my own\u00a0cumbersome\u00a0way, to toss out a few things that have been on my mind. \u00a0Chief\u00a0among these have been my thoughts on what the Boston Bombings showed about where we\u2019ve come as a society. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also had to take notice on this little story<\/a>, which involves my very own diocese. \u00a0It\u2019s making national headlines now, and of course, from the media POV, there\u2019s only one obvious solution. \u00a0It will be interesting to see how this case unfolds. \u00a0As usual, I\u2019m 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\u2019ll put down what I\u2019m thinking.<\/p>\n

Tonight, of course, we watched the Kentucky Derby<\/a>. \u00a0That\u2019s from those years we lived in Louisville. \u00a0Oddly enough, I never went to the Derby while we lived there, and seldom watched it, unless we attended some local church Derby party. \u00a0Now, we try to watch it every year. \u00a0That\u2019s part of our strategy of making as many days special as we can. \u00a0Being of limited means, we can\u2019t afford the Mediterranean cruise or the three week\u00a0African\u00a0safari for our kids. \u00a0But if we take the smallest things and add just a tad of special, we hope it makes up for the bigger things. <\/p>\n

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. \u00a0She\u2019ll me making Irish food, and helping set up a display jam-packed with all things green. \u00a0Because 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).<\/p>\n

There are other things, of course. \u00a0The blogosphere has been mostly quiet, and I\u2019m starting to get a fix on a couple things that have bothered me in recent years. \u00a0Figuring things out, if you would. \u00a0I\u2019ve also been thinking on the Catholic Church in this crazy, wild period in which we find ourselves as a country and as a world. \u00a0What it means to obey the Church, what it\u2019s meant in the past, and where it looks like the Church is trying to go today. \u00a0That might come sometime down the road. \u00a0For now, I\u2019ve got to get back to the family and finish our other\u00a0annual\u00a0addition to the Derby festivities (and I don\u2019t mean Mint\u00a0Juleps)\u00a0: our viewing of the Marx Brothers\u2019 A Day at the Races<\/i>. \u00a0Natch. \u00a0Be 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) \u2013 May the Fourth Be With You!<\/p>\n

And for your viewing\u00a0pleasure, the incomparable\u00a0Chico Marx, making\u00a0the\u00a0sheer\u00a0act of playing the piano fun to watch as well as hear:<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now I\u2019m coming back home. \u00a0It\u2019s been a while to get to the blog. \u00a0Things have been topsy turvy these last few weeks. \u00a0As 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!\u2026for a building that employees about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIt's been a long time<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"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\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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