I like Google Chrome

I already use several browsers from Firefox to Mac... but I've kept IE on one old PC... I even downloaded IE8 Beta to give Bill Gates' a fair try... YUCK!  It crashes contnually and worse, once I downloaded it Microsoft boxed me in and I can;t revert to the old browser.  

Today I downloaded Google Chrome and boy it is crisp and clean,  fast as pretty stable even... 

Bye Bye Bill Gates..I'm outa Microsoft!

Windows is next to go.

Cutting myself

I've been rewriting Holiness for Ordinary people for the 25th anniversary edition (third edition ) coming out this summer. The book has four new chapters and the style and tone of the rest is being changed significantly. I've been working on it all semester and have dedicated my Christmas break to finishing the work to send it in by the January 9 due date.

So the last three days I've been doing the painful work of cutting --getting a 60,000 word manuscript down to 55,000 words. that means cutting 5000 precious words out of what I've written... OUCH! I just finished the third trip through the mss. "cutting myself" and have got it trimmed below 55,000... so I'm taking the rest of the day off...I think I'll go do something sweaty.

Here is my latest word count after self-cutting. (red chapters are new)

words
1003 Preface ..... to 1st, 2nd and 3rds editions
4361 Chapter 1 Sanctification Overview
3587 Chapter 2 It’s Everywhere
2679 Chapter 3 Seven Approaches to Holiness
1783 Chapter 4 Sanctification and Sex
1758 Chapter 5 Sanctification and healing
3577 Chapter 6 Images of Sanctification
4443 Chapter 7 Growing toward Entire Sanctification
3551 Chapter 8 God’s Part in Sanctification
3373 Chapter 9 Our Part In Sanctification
3106 Chapter 10 How to Know You Are Sanctified
2372 Chapter 11 Continual Cleansing
3349 Chapter 12 Understanding the Sanctified Life
2945 Chapter 13 Sidetracks from Holiness
3632 Chapter 14 A sanctified Church
5206 Chapter 15 Personal Testimonies
1040 Afterword
1427 Glossary of Terms
-------------
53,192 TOTAL WORDS (target word budget = 55,000)

OK I knmow this is irrelevant to whomever stumbled across it... but I needed to tell someone ..so I told my personal blog ;-)

Graduation Dec '08

I just finished up the semester at Graduation... In December we have a few graduates from our division. This year from our division we had 17 graduates from what I could count in the march. That included these:

CM: Johnnie Blair, Greg Boland, Alan Downing, Jess (Manglos) Hamlet, Jonathan Hicks, Brian Morton,
YOUTH: Brandon Faust, Chris Tabone
SPORTS MIN: Rachel Horner, Josh Miller, Paul Knight,
CHILDREN'S MIN: Megan Kiami, Katie Martin, Aubrie Rovenstein, Heather Tharp

I'm about to leave my office for Christmas break. All my grades are in and syllabi are done so I'm not omcing back until next year.
BIL: Tom Davis, Sarah Smith,

Grading LCE books

I've been grading all weekend... mostly the Local Church Ed. "papers" (which turn out to be somewhere around a hundred pages each--single spaced.) Grading is hard work but so gratifying. Man these students can work hard!

Grandson Sam

Steinbeck Reading Plans

I like Steinbeck's writing and have been through East of Eden several times with reading groups of faculty and students. Now I've decided to read through all the rest of John Steinbeck's writings --sort of in the general order of his writing... I'm just getting started but here is the order I'm going to read them:

1 Cup of Gold (1929) (over Christmas break)
2 The Pastures of Heaven (1932) DONE: (Great short stories of the people in one valley--many sad stories with great insight on human nature)
3 The Red Pony (1933) (over Christmas break)
4 To a God Unknown (1933) DONE: (Probably the deepest writing [after East of Eden] for religion readers--about a nominal Christian's reverting to paganism)
5 Tortilla Flat (1935)
6 The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath (1936)
7 In Dubious Battle (1936)
8 Of Mice and Men (1937)
9 The Long Valley (1938)
10 The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
11 Forgotten Village (1941)
12 Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (1941)
13 The Moon Is Down (1942)
14 Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team (1942)
15 Cannery Row (1945)
16 The Wayward Bus (1947)
17 The Pearl (1947)
18 A Russian Journal (1948)
19 Burning Bright (1950)
20 The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951)
21 East of Eden (1952) DONE --several times--can't wait for the next trip through... are there 'moral monsters' born with no conscience?)
22 Sweet Thursday (1954)
23 The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication (1957)
24 Once There Was A War (1958)
25 The Winter of Our Discontent (1961)
26 Travels with Charley: In Search of America (1962) DONE --a wonderful tale of travel--my first Steinbeck writing..can;t wait tor ead it again!
27 America and Americans (1966)

Posthumous
28. Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters (1969) DONE--for a writer a must to read near East of Eden!
29 Viva Zapata! (1975)
30 The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976)
31 Workings Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath (1989)

Best Little add-on I've seen... (Morning Coffee-for Firefox)

I don't swoon over computers or programs--I treat them like automobiles: they just need to get me there. I have four different computers with three different operating systems and I have not fallen for any of them (including my MacBook Paul H Hontz!).

BUT I'VE TOTALLY GONE BONKERS OVER A TINY ADD-ON program that cost me nothing Morning coffee for Firefox. (I don't particularly like Firefox but I use Firefox simply so I can have my Morning Coffee)

Each morning (say Tuesdays, for instance) I can click my little cup of coffee in the bar and the program loads in tabs every single web page I've picked ahead of time for Tuesaday (and any other day, or just weekends, or weekdays etc).

BAM I have before me the blogs and web pages I've decided to read that day and I can then work my way through them one at a time.

I have fallen head over heels in love with Morning Coffee... {swoon!}

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2677

First Snow from my new office

Today was the first snow in Marion... this is what I saw from my new office window upstairs in the CM building...

Headed for Christmas

I thought I'd update my classes this semester...

CURRICULUM: I'm really feeling like Christmas is just around the corner. Last night in my Curriculum class we all realized there are only two classes left... next Thursday (when their projects are due) then the Thursday after Thanksgiving when they take their exam..whew... two more classes 'til Christmas! Next week I get their curriculum projects--each has done something different... and they look good so far.

LOCAL CHURCH EDUCATION: This course is awesome... it is the best course I have...and every semester that is true. They are writing their final chapter for their book next week--Adult CE. Most of the students have written about 80 single spaced pages so far and they are incredible. Every semester I show the best work from last semester and the students seem to climb right up on the shoulders of last semester's students and make something even better. When can this stop? I am so impressed at the hard work of these students... senior pastors who complain that new graduates are lazy just don't know the key to motivation. I have never seen such hard workers!

CE CAPSTONE: A new course for me called "leading Christian Education." First time through for me as these CE seniors work through managing a CE program in the local church. It is pretty good for the first time through--sorta' a Church leadership for CE people."

CHURCH LEADERSHIP. We are in the "personal life of a minister" section now--their books are almost done. Yesterday they brought in the email responses from past graduates on what to expect in transitioning from college life to adult life/church life. They merged the feedback from last year's graduates like this:

I. Advice about preparing for adult life
Make a budget
Pay your bills
Value free time
Get support from others
Expect feeling lonely< find a "drinking buddy"
Find a friend
You have to be disciplined and responsible
Expect to not get poured into spiritually

II. Preparing church ministry
You will be trusted and expected to know what to do
The prof’s grade on knowledge…the congregation grades on everything else
You always have to be ready to be relational, to smile, to make conversations, and portray Christ in a positive light
Learn to work as a team
Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable
Need for balance. Flexible yet leave time for sermon prep
You will always be a pastor, its not a hat you can take off
Other people are depending on you to get the job done

III Things I can look forward to after graduation
These aren’t practicums, they are yourflock and your youth group
Freedom…the sky is the limit
You get to impact other peoples lives
Putting passion into action
Ministry is hard but also very rewarding and amazing
Constantly growing, learning, and being ready
Freedom-you can create, come into your own, choose your time (within reason)
You get to do what you are passionate about-ministry
Separating people from the problems they cause and enjoying the people
Prioritizing relationships w/family, students, their parents, and staff
Peace about being where you are called

Where's Bobby Schuller?

I usually listen to Bobby Schuller every Sunday morning to "prime" myself for Sunday worship (which is reliably better preaching than Bobby's, but reliably worse music) I have my differences with Bobby, but he was at least more biblical and orthodox that daddy Schuller.

This morning I discovered from Wes McCallum what's up. Son Bobby had a new vision from Dad Schuller. So Dad swooped back in after Bobbys two year rein and fired Bobby.

The whole famly fuss is interesting and representative of some of the emergent-Boomer church-for-the-curch vs. church-for-the-world debates. Bu it has changes my Sunday morning habit. Now my TV offers a few Televanglists I can;t stomach... so this morning I'm listening to the radio. Radio? I will have to explain this to my students--they don't know what a "radio" is.

Keith Drury

Fall Break Bike Trip

Sharon and I are testing out biking together. Over fall break we went to KaFor fall break we went to Kalamazoo Michigan and rode the the 34.5 miles from Kalamazoo to the lake in South Haven.

It was a great trail-- almost all in the shade, for us falling leaves. the surface is crushed limestone and slag which does gum up sprockets. had the wonderful “hungry Man’s breakfast” at the Trailside Cafe in Gobles about milepost 12 or so. There were plenty of old fashioned hand pumps on trail for water and lots of Job-Johnnie restrooms and benches for sitting. Sharon and I parked at the Kalamazoo end and rode to South Haven where we spent the night at the Comfort Inn after eating at the famous Clementine’s restaurant The next morning we rode back (mostly uphill) to the car and got home to Marion before dark.

now my Quads are sore but it was a great Fall break!

I've gone open source

On my latest computer (a tiny one the size of a paperback book which I plan to take on whatever new summer adventure I choose) I've decided to try to use only open source stuff on this nifty computer... so I have the Linux operating system, Firefox as the browser, the Sun programs for word processing and spreadsheets etc...

So far I am FAR more impressed with the open source programs that I am with Bill Gates' stuff.. it is leaner, meaner, faster and easily used. Why have I PAID for stuff that is worse than this free stuff? I may change all my computers over...

P.S. Just in case you are tempted to download Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8. (Beta) like they keep tempting us to do... I'd say WAIT as long as you can... On one of my other computers installed it and at least half the time it doesn't present most pages right.. then to boot when I tried to revert to 7.0 it wouldn't let me go back.... typical of the sort of Microsoft arrogance that makes me want to go completely open source.

I'm ready for a career change.

On Closing Doors... A personal reflection

1. On June 3, 1967 I stood before a church in Pennsylvania and closed the door on dating and romance with the women still available at my college. But that closed door enabled me to walk through the door of a superb marriage to Sharon for the rest of my life. Closing one door opened another.

2. In 1969 I closed the door at my first pastorate by resigning and numerous folk thought I was making a mistake closing the door on that that church. But I could then walk through the open door to being a full time student at Princeton Seminary. Closing one door enabled me to walk through another door.

3. After seminary I closed the door on a developing career running camping programs for the Salvation Army in New York where I had my first ministry after seminary. I could not be both a Salvation Army leader and a Wesleyan pastor—closing the Salvation Army door made it possible to walk through Wesleyan ministry doorway.

4. In 1971-72 I wandered the country with Sharon living in a VW camping, backpacking, and living like the hippies of that day. To the disappointment of that hippie generation we closed the door on our care-free wandering life in 1972. But that closed door opened another one: to work at my denomination’s headquarters in Children’s ministries for the next six years.

5. In the 1970’s everyone was talking about over population and I even went to a doctor to get an operation guaranteeing we would not contribute to the world’s “Population Bomb.” (The doctor talked me out of it.) In the late 70’s we I closed the door to our happy “just you and me” life together and opened the door to parenting when we decided to have our first child—one door had to be closed before the other could be opened.

6. In 1976 I closed the door to children’s work in the youth department and walked through the open door to become my denominations executive editor of curriculum. A General Superintendent called me on the carpet and said, “You have made a terrible mistake—you belonged in the youth department and now you’ve gone and ruined your chances of election to be in charge of youth forever.” Right or wrong I had to close the children’s ministry door in order to walk through the open door to leading my denomination’s curriculum the next two years.

7. In 1980 my denomination shut the door to my curriculum work when it ignored the opinion of the GS and elected me to lead my denomination’s youth work for the next eight years. The curriculum door shut and youth work door opened.

8. By 1988 I was worn out on youth work and announced I would close the door on that era of life against my mentor’s advice. At the summer general conference I closed the door on yet another opportunity and went to IWU to teach Christian Education. Those closed doors enabled me to be present in my son’s lives instead of traveling every weekend in denominational work—one door closed, another opened.

9. Even though I loved teaching college, I closed the door on it in 1990 when I felt prompted to accept leading my denomination’s Christian Education department. If I had not closed the door on teaching I could not have walked through the door to six important years of learning in my life.

10. In the Fall of 1995 I sensed that it was time to close the doors on denominational service forever, even though many friends and advisors urged me to stay put. It is the only time I have ever “put out a fleece” for a decision. I wrote one Tuesday on a Day Alone with God, “The first Wesleyan College that offers me a position teaching without my applying I will accept it immediately.” I got an unexpected call Thursday and by Tuesday I had a contract—I was willing to close one door in order to walk through another door and retired from denominational work in 1996. Teaching college again also opened the door to a new summer avocation—backpacking. I started that summer trying to finish the Appalachian Trail, a childhood dream of mine.

11. In the next 12 years of summer backpacking I have been able to take students or other professors into the mountains and I have had wonderful times. I’ve been able to finish the Southern Upland Way and the West Highland Way in Scotland, complete the entire 2160 mile Appalachian Trail, and 2600 mile Pacific Crest Trail along with completing the Colorado Trail. The last few years I’ve actually been repeating miles on these trails, including re-hiking the bottom 500 miles of the Appalachian Trail this past May. In total I’ve had the privilege of backpacking more than 10,000 miles of trails the last 12 summers. Now I’m closing that door. I have six summers left before I’m 70 years old, 16 summers before I’m 80. There are other summer adventures I want to experience. As I close the door on backpacking I can walk through the door to other things—like canoeing, bicycle-trekking, and whatever other adventures open up. I will still do some walking in the woods and mountains, but I am closing the door on backpacking as my primary summer career, and pondering several open doors to other adventures.

So, I need a career change. Not a change in my day job as professor but a change in my summer avocation of backpacking. I'm wearing out on long-mile backpacking.

I hiked more than 600 miles this summer but this came to me most clearly in August while I was hiking the Colorado trail with three other guys, We were doing a moderate 15 mile a day with three or four thousand feet of elevation gain. The trail beat me and I dropped out before the end of our planned 100 mile hike. I was "surviving" each day only by using up all my reserves… and all my Advil (16 per day) to enable my knees to carry me. It took the fun out of hiking. I turned down a jeep road near Silverton Colorado and eventually got a hitch with a 4WD jeep 60 miles back to our starting point where I retrieved our car to meet my hiking buddies when they ended their hike in Durango. Now I'm pondering next summer....

Some options for my new [summer] career are:

Reading/writing. Maybe I should forget trekking altogether and get a cabin in the mountains each summer and read and write for four months. I love reading and just to read all the books I’ve already purchased would use up the first five years. Maybe my treks in the future should be through books and my output should be words not miles. Maybe I’ll settle down in one cabin that has a great view of mountains and read-and-write all summer. I could switch to a reading-writing career.

Motorcycling. Or, maybe I could move into motorized trekking. I could buy a motorcycle and wander around the nation (and the world) like the guys did in “Motorcycle diaries.” I could write a daily travel blog on the road. Or maybe I could buy an off-road motorcycle and explore the 200,000 miles of 4WD forest service roads in the national forests I met two guys in Yellowstone park this summer riding from Canada to Mexico on these 4WD roads. I once rode my moped along the 600 mile Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive and It was fun—maybe I could adopt a motorized trekking career next.

Canoeing/kayaking. I left a canoeing career for backpacking. I had canoed nearly a thousand miles even before I did the entire Missouri River in 1999. I was planning a canoe trip down the Yukon River in 2000 when Paul Kind talked me into doing the PCT with him instead. He used the argument, “Coach, you can canoe when you get old.” Maybe now I’m old enough to go back to canoeing. I still have all the maps and research done for both the Yukon and Mackenzie Rivers along with books and guides to 14 other great rivers of America. Maybe I could switch back to a canoeing/Kayaking career.

Bicycling. I could switch to a biking career too. Biking is easier on the knees than backpacking. I might start by doing the Rails-to-Trails treks including the Great-Alleghany-Passage/C&O trail from Pittsburg to Washington DC. And there are other long off-road bike trails. I might even try to tackle the Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail from Canada to Mexico which parallels the Continental Divide backpacking Trail. I have far more friends willing to bike than backpack and Sharon likes biking better too since one can sleep in motels each night. Maybe I should switch to a biking career.

Maybe there are other summer careers too—but I sense my knees are saying it is time to switch careers. It is time to lay down my backpack. So if you are reading this personal blog you must be one of my friends... So what do your think? After dropping my backpack what do you think I should pick up?

keith drury

Home for a quick turnaround

No important or interesting news here but I probably should say that our vacation dribbled out to an unimpressive close as we coasted back into Marion this week after exploring several bike trails in Iowa, Nebraska & Illinois.

Sharon is back for graduation today (Saturday) while I am packing for the faculty backpacking trip to Colorado --we leave Monday morning at 5AM for that trip --with Dave Ward, Kerry Kind, and Phil Woodbury.

Besides repacking I need to organize my new office today... my stuff was moved into the newly renovated CM building last week... it is still stacked in boxes and I need to unpack and organize for the first week of classes which will happen soon after I return from the Colorado Trail.

Wandering Colorado (Aug 4)

one of the ways we define "vacation" is not getting boxed in--that is, not being a slave to a schedule, even scheduled vacation. Thus, whenever we start planning to go somewhere we find we tend to change our plans--as if that freedom to "not show up" is what vacation is all about. This as soon as we started planning to go to to the Durango-Silverton trainride we began thinking of alternatives and rebelled against the schedule we were starting to make.

This is how we wound up in Rocky Mountain National Park the last few days... Grand lake, over the divide, CDT at Berthold pass, Big Thompson canyon and finally here at GROUP publishing's lavish headquarters. (Pictures below).

Stopping at GROUP is fun for me--I remember when Thom Shultz had just moved GROUP out of his bedroom and into the first office... and I recall before Thom was married (eventually to his favorite editor). Sharon recalls our last visit here when the whole affair was sorta in a house. The company has become huge since then. Soon it will become like the gigantic companies (D C Cook, Gospel Light, Scripture press) it took on and found a niche.

Now we're thinking of headed to Nebraska to look at a bike trail there--but now that I mentioned it we will probably change the plans!

On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again,
And I can't wait to get on the road again.

On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends Insisting that the world be turnin' our way
And our way Is on the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends Insisting that the world be turnin' our way
And our way Is on the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again
And I can't wait to get on the road again

--------------------

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

keith drury

Great Divide Bike Trail

Recently I’ve been getting more interested in biking—partly because Sharon likes biking and I like doing outdoor things with her.

A month or so ago I discovered the Great Divide Bike Trail—roughly paralleling the 2600 mile Continental Divide Trail from Canada to Mexico but all on forest service roads and open to trail bikes. Just last week I met two guys from Minnesota who were actually driving their off-road motorcycles down the Montana-Wyoming section.

So while I was out here I dropped in on the headquarters of Adventure Cycling in Missoula, Montana last week and picked up the entire set of maps for this bike trail. (I also got the meet the founder of Adventure Cycling, formerly Bikecentenial whom I had connected with in 1976 when I was leading a cross country bicycle touring program called Ezekiel’s Wheels.

Anyway, I am sorta’ entranced by this trail—and doing it on some kind of bike. So we drove to the little town on the Canadian border where it begins, Roosville (icture me beside the road at the border crossing) , then drove in our car the first 40-50 miles. Our Toyota is not really designed for four-wheeling, but driving slowly we were able to make it up to the first pass and get a feel for the route.

I’m letting the idea marinate a while, and looking over the maps for a few months yet, but I might do this route on a trail bike (or even do it first on a motorized trail bike to check it out further). Who knows, maybe I’ll find someone around who wants to do the route too-or at least the top two states.

Posted from Salt Lake City, Utah... as we coast southward down the Rocky mountains to wherever....

--keith drury

Glacier National Park—July 30-31

We spent the last two days in Glacier national Park right on the border with Canada. It is still called “Glacier” though we’ll need a new name in the future since the 150 glaciers (1850) shrunk to 50 (1968). Today there are only 26 and they are melting fast. I think perhaps we might rename it for President George Bush—for his quick recognition of global warming and his defeat with his keen mind all those who deny there is any such thing happening.

The “Going to the sun” road (West side) is certainly one of the three finest roads I’ve ever driven. Impressive, even though the glaciers themselves are more like large snow patches. Seeing two bighorn sheep and a Mountain goat was this morning’s highlight though our hike across the snowfields back to Hidden Lake perched on the top of the divide was a close second.

On recommendation of Ross & Karen Hoffman we also drove up the other road in the park, the “many Glacier” road which also was beautiful. After several nights in our tent we are camping tonight at the Quality Inn at Helena Montana… we are sorta’ headed south down the Continental Divide for the time being… don’t know where we’ll end up.

Keith Drury

Bozeman Break —July 28-29

Montana is smoky from several local forest fires and also from the clockwise rotating of California’s smoke into Montana. As we were passing through Bozeman MT on our way north we were totally captivated by this University town and decided to stay a few nights as a "vacation fom our vacation."



I guessed the town had a population of maybe 125,000-150,000 to which Sharon (who likes to look such things up) announced it was about the size of our hometown Marion. These Western towns look so much bigger than they really are. Bozeman is booming.



Thus I spent my birthday preparing for one of my fall classes until dinner which we ate in the local park. There we discovered Bozeman was not booming for everyone—we ate beside three homeless folk who had lost their jobs and were down on their luck complaining that “the government” did not provide them with jobs. One was quick to say, however, that he was against Obama, “who is a Muslim and those ragheads will be dancing in the streets if we elect a Muslim President.”



The night before we had totally wasted our money watching “Hancock.” However perhaps some sort of age things was goign on since the theater was full of pimply-faced yuk-yukking teen boys who obviously thought the movie deserved at least an oscar. We chose not to bet any more money on movies tonight instead watching the history channel for our evening entertainment.

Today we continue heading north toward Glacier National Park but we don’t have to get there, or anywhere else, for several weeks yet, so we’re just moseying along as if we are on vacation.

keith drury

Yellowstone - July 26-27

We’re mountain-lovers and Yellowtone has some mountains, but mostly it has wildlife and steaming natural features like geysers, boiling mud pools and steaming holes and boiling springs. We wandered the park from dawn to dark the last several days including two visits to ‘Old Faithful,’ ’hiking the length of the ‘Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, circumnavigating Yellowstone Lake, reading the constant spin from the park service on how good the 1988 fires were, but mostly seeing wildlife: bear, moose, elk, deer, coyotes, wolves and buffalo and several kinds of rare birds. Yellowstone is not a zoo, but it almost seems like one of those drive-through safari parks…wild animals were everywhere!

The highlight of Yellowstone for me though was not the wildlife but the church life. We attended 8AM Sunday morning service at the Old Faithful Inn where Jarod Osborne is serving as the summer chaplain. We had a wonderful service and Jarod preached a great sermon to the gathered group. We got to visit with Jarod and his wife Esther after the service. Jarod was one of my students at IWU several years ago and he is now in Princeton seminary and this summer national parks chaplaincy is one of his two required internships.

Since we have finished the overnight backpacking stage of our vacation we did not do all of the 1,000 miles of trails in Yellowstone but we did exhaust every road in Yellowstone before biding it farewell and heading north to wherever this road takes us…

Traveling the Tetons July 25

I was here in the Tetons for a Curriculum Conference back in 1989 and I recall calling Sharon saying, “I promise to come back here with you some day.” Well, 19 years later here we are…promise kept. (as a side note, I now believe I have at this point now fulfilled every “I’ promise to come back here with you.” except one—the Austrian Alps….I’m getting out of debt. [and, likewise Sharon has paid on all her promise-to-come-back-here-with-you vows except one—New Orleans.] Maybe we can get a plane to Austria that stops over in New Orleans some day!

Since we are worn out from backpacking, and since we are not up to a technical climb with ropes, we simply drove on every available road in the Tetons before leaving it headed North. What beautiful mountains! If I were younger I'd make a try on the Grand teton!

-- Keith Drury

My entire day in one picture (July 24)

One picture describes this entire vacation day...

July 22-23. Pinedale WY

July 22-23.

We fell into bed at 8PM after leaving Brooke & Paul and squandered $110 for a night in a partially-updated 1950’a ma & pa motel in Pinedale, WY. Sharon woke up at 4:30 am fully rested which meant I also got up. We waited a few hours until the German ma & pa who own the motel got around to walking up themselves and putting out the stuff they called breakfast then checked out and went shopping for FOOD!

After packing our trunk with food we headed back up into the wind river mountains by car this time, to 9100’ and the Elkhart Trail head perched high above the valley and with delicious views of the snowcapped winds where we have been hiking. (The picture abovve shows part of the range we walked through last week). We pitched our tent at one of eight national forest campsites at this “trails End” campsite and sat in our camp chairs and read books all day. By supper huge clouds and lightning strikes approached and Sharon said “I saw a movie down in Pinedale—let’s go see a movie while it rains on our tent” so we drovw the hour back down to the valley to discover the movies in Pinedale only are open on weekends and they prominently displayed on the door “no move will be shown unless ten people attend.”

So we walked around the small cowboy town under our huge IWU umbrellas for our evening program as rain poured on us. Walking around the town park’s “health walkway” we ran into a moose family—skinny antlered dad, a fat momma and two little baby moose and watched them for a half hour as the mother sat nervously looking at us as if to say, “one more step and I’m gonna’ get up and knock you into the next county.”

Sharon, who is gifted at finding ice cream stores seduced me into eating more ice cream than I knew I could consume than we drove back to 9100’ elevation and crawled into our tent for a chilly night complete with frost this morning.

We are now (July 23, morning) sitting outside a hotel parking lot back down in Pinedale mooching their Internet connection to post this and answer email. Funny isn’t it? There was once a time when folk “went on vacation” which meant they were actually gone from all work-related things for several weeks. Now, with Internet access work goes on vacation with us. That’s one big advantage of the backpacking trip last week—there isn’t even a possibility of cell phones or Internet access for a long week in the mountains. On the other hand we get to share with family and friends while we’re on vacation. And of course we can check out hotel prices in Jackson WY where we are headed next to see the Tetons…whoops, we’re not up to paying $200 per night for a simple hotel room…so Sharon just went in and grabbed the final room available tonight at this hotel for “only” a hundred bucks. Returning to the car she simply said, “I need a hot tub.” So do I.

--Keith Drury

Just finished our Wind River Hile

July 21.

Sharon and I just came out of the Wind River Mountain Range… a wonderful foursome hike with Paul & Brooke Kind the last seven days. We had such a great time talking and walking and slapping mosquitoes.

The Winds had a big snowfall year so we still had LOTS of walking on snow and a few tricky places since we didn’t bring our ice axes. Starting at big Sandy Trailhead in the south we went all the way to the Northern end to Green River lakes. We are all 100% advocates of 100% DEET which was the only way to keep the swarms of mosquitoes at bay.

Today (July 21) we got to Paul & Brooke’s “drop car” and they returned us to our car at the starting point. We’re now headed to the biggest town in the region, Pinedale WY (pop 1400), for a night in a motel. Paul & Brooke are headed now to Rapid City where they will pack their moving van tonight and head out tomorrow for Princeton, New Jersey.

I will post this as soon as we get in range of WiFi.

As for us, we have several more weeks here in Wyoming… wandering the Wind River mountains by car, then the Tetons, then Yellowstone and who knows what else will strike our fancy.

A women's right to bare arms

Every day I look forward to getting on my porch my Marion, Indiana small-town newspaper (the Chronicle Tribune). Not because I get much news there (I don’t) but I get a great chuckle almost daily at their junior high spelling and grammar. Today’s editorial affirmed our “right to bare arms” in the headline. I wonder if the editor even knows the difference between baring arms and bearing arms?

If the editorial had been written by Ken Schenck or Bob Black I would have guessed it was one of their clever turnings of a phrase…

I thought it would be a GREAT headline for conservative holiness people if I were writing columns in the summer.

For instance I’d trace the history of how conservative holiness women used to be expected to wear long sleeves (as late as the 1950’s). But even in the 1950’s women started pushing against this “collective conviction.” The more racy women (often “song evangelist’s” wives) started wearing long sleeves of material that was see-though so that men could ogle their skin peaking out through the material.

By the end of the 50’s these racy women moved to “¾ length sleeves” and bared their lower arms for others to see—it was getting sexy.

Sure enough the women’s “right to bare arms” continued so that at Sunday school picnics in the 1960’s some came in “short sleeve” dresses showing off to the public the skin on their arms from the wrist all the way up to within 4” of their shoulders. It was stimulating to the men who had never seen so much skin of their church women!

Of course it wasn’t long until women took their "right to bare arms" all the way. Some started wearing “sleeveless blouses” to regular church services! Yikes—full appendage nudity! I recall sitting in Lakeview church (Marion) with my 75 year old mother in the 1980’s when a girl came into the service late and plopped down in front of us wearing a slinky blouse and only spaghetti straps—my mother was as shocked as if she had come in topless. By now I had accepted the women’s right to bare arms but she was so distracted that she talked about it the rest of the afternoon. She angrily responded when I just chuckled at her conservative standards but she argued back with this: “If things change as much in your lifetime as they have in mine, women will be coming to church completely naked by the time you're 75.”

I turn 75 in 2020… ;-)

. --keith drury

My Big Fat SUV

My
Big
Fat
SUV



Four dollar a gallon gas along with reducing my carbon footprint, has got me thinking about my own carbon footprint sins—I own a Big Fat SUV, a 1992 Chevy Suburban. I did some calculating this morning as I considered full repentance for my sins. Here are my notes:

800 miles driven per year—all in-town
11 miles per gallon in town mileage
72 gallons of gas used per year
@ $4.20 per gallon gas
----------
$302 annual cost of gas

Really, shouldn’t a person with pro-environment leanings drive around town in a Toyota Prius like my nifty colleagues Steve Lennox and Todd Voss do? Better yet maybe I ought to get one of those cool plug-ins and disconnect forever from middle eastern oil.

So I calculated a trade. I paid $10,000 for the used Suburban when it had about 100,000 miles on it. I could now get maybe $5,500 if I sell it outright—I could put that toward a lower emission car maybe. So I checked the cost of the cheapest used Prius within 500 miles of my home. I found a “clunker” for just over $17,000. (A true plug-in was far more than that so I dropped the plug-in idea altogether.) So if I sell my Suburban for five grand and add just $12,000 to that money, I too could be a cool low-carbon guy. How much would that investment of twelve grand save me on gas?

TOYOTA PRIUS
800 miles driven per year—all in-town
44 miles per gallon (in town mileage)
18 gallons of gas used per year
@ $4.20 per gallon gas
----------
$226 annual savings in gas

In short, if I fork out just $12,000 extra for the used Prius, I could save $226 every year at the gas pump and “it would pay for itself” in just 53 years—in time for my 115th birthday.

I need a quicker payback.

So I guess for a while yet, you’ll still see me running around town in “my Big Fat SUV.”

(Of course more commonly you’ll see be around town on my bicycle).

Ready for Fall semester

All week I have been preparing for Fall semester and my last syllabus is now done and all the first week's classes are prepared. My office is all packed up and in boxes for the move back into the newly renovated CM building August 1--but I'll be long gone so I will come back at the end of August for classes with these boxes all moved into my new office...so I had to prepare for fall early this year.

Now I'm thinking about the rest of summer.

I have three weeks here in Marion to
-Pack for the rest of the summer, and
-Do all the little chores professors say "I'll do that this summer."
...Today I'm painting kitchen cabinets and hardware
...cutting grass and caring for the garden-I-won't-be-here-to- harvest
...just being summer-lazy a bit
...I've got a bunch of other little things to repair, fix, organize, and throw away
...visiting with my local grandkids..

To be honest I'm blogging here just to delay finishing the kitchen painting.

I leave July 13 for the rest of the summer...
--Hiking in Wyoming with Paul & Brooke Kind
--Wandering Wyoming three extra weeks with Sharon
--returning in August just time to leave the next day for Colorado with Kerry Kind, Dave Ward and Phil Woodbury for an end-of-summer hike on the CT.

OK I better get back to painting before Sharon comes home to find me having done nothing at all today...

Family Reunion @ General Conference

Perhaps the best highlight of the Wesleyan General Conference for me personally was the reunion of all my family.

Left to right are

-David, Kathy, (College church ex pastor)

-Sharon and me, (IWU)

-Amanda and John, (Princeton)

-my late brother Elmer's son Scott & Elizabeth (World Hope) whom I consider like a son

All are members of my own denomination (Wesleyan), Dave, John and Amanda are ordained, and Scott is pursuing it now.

We all sat together on the front seat of the observers section and whispered, chuckled, sighed, cheered and grunted through every minute of every session. We do not claim to have a perfect denomination but we are all in this one and it is ours and we love it.

In 1988 at the General Conference I made a big bet on a family/career decision.

At this General Conference, twenty years later it reminded me that it paid off in spades.

--Keith Drury June 17, 2008

Back Home from General Conference

We flew back from Orlando last night and I’m in General Conference detox now. It was a GREAT conference and I loved every moment. Here are a few personal notes the morning-after.

- I shaved off my beard for this week. Most of the folk at CG know me clean-shaven and I didn’t want every single interchange with people to start with remarks about my beard or the “have you become Amish?” question. The only folk who mentioned facial hair were people I already see every week—and that didn’t matter since I merely explained the above to them and they understood. The beard starts growing back today.

- I am in relational detox now. Crowds recharge some people’s batteries (most of my family); constant relationships exhaust me so I must plan alone-time to recharge my batteries. I love so many people I saw this week, yet I get exhausted “relating” from 7 AM to midnight every day without alone time.

- I was reminded how much I love these guys. Man do I have great friends in this church. I skipped “The Gathering” last January due to a wedding (one that never happened it turned out) and regretted it. I’ll not skip the next one—or general Conference either. I got to see bunches of former students and youth workers.

- The highlight for me was being able to sit with my two sons in the front seat of the observer’s section and comment to each other on things like those guys on Mystery Theater or the guys in the Muppets. I represented the old folk and they the younger ones.

- I was suprised at how many 20-30somethings care about General Conference and showed up at their own expense. The boomers like to pretend it is all irrelevant. They are out of sync with the coming generation who really cares about stuff like this.

- I blogged real-time from my cell phone live reports on the conference…they are here. http://wesleyanstuff.blogspot.com/

- NEXT FOR ME: After resting up with alone time a while I am making all my Fall semester syllabi before leaving for the rest of the summer in 3 weeks.



-- Keith Drury June 12, 2008

Sharon's new pack

Sharon got a new pack--Golite's LiteSpeed

It weighs a bit over 2 pounds which is too much so we are adapting it now (removing the alum stays etc) to get it under 2# but it is a sweet pack.

She is "moving beyond" her trusty Golite "Breeze" 15 oz pack because she wanted 1) waist straps, and 2) a cooler looking pack ;-)

Sharon has endlessly long legs but is short-waisted so she actually fits a woman's small pack--her pack holds about 2000 cubit (cubic). inches which will be enough for about any long distance hike as a lite-packer.

I think this may be a revision of the old "speed" pack that Paul Kind (and maybe Mark Schmerse) used once... she liked that one so I think she'll like this one too

Ok gotta go register freshman... just wanted to report a new pack in the family ;-)

Finished 500 miles of Applachian Trail

On Thursday at nine o'clock we rolled into Damascus, Virginia... about 500 miles from our starting point at Springer Mountain Georgia on the Appalachian Trail. I had only hoped for 350 miles at the best but we rolled along quite nicely with light packs and long walks. In the final week we were doing 20-even 25--miles a day....

In Damascus we went out for supper with a half dozen other hikers we've been running with for the last week or so... they are celebrating our finish and their entry into the second quarter of the trail for themselves....

Ethan Lennox was my partner for the whole hike--all 500 miles. he is faster than I am but I can walk long. We were counting up and discovered we passed more then 150 long distance hikers (thru hikers going to Maine or those hiking 500+ miles).... only two have passed us which was quite a feat for someone who has never backpacked before the first night on Springer mountain (Ethan) and an old guy in his 60's... (me). Light packs and long walking were the secret. Burt Webb joined us for two weeks and Phil Woodbury for Three weeks of this hike

We got back to Marion by Midnight Friday and I had a "normal" weekend here at home preparing to leave for General Conference.

I am now experiencing PTTSS.... "Post Trail Traumatic Stress Syndrome"... my mind won't settle back into noisy town life... it seems like I don't belong here but have snuck away from where I "belong." Happens every year.... and I am exausted...I think I'll go back to bed and sleep until August!

Actually I head to general conference Friday, then I will start planning for the Continential Divide hike in July... Sharon will join me in the Wind River Mountains where we're be double-date-hiking with Paul & Brooke Kind... that will be great...a bit slower pace and more beautiful mountains..(and since Sharon is going) we'll take one of those "jet boil" stoves and make coffee daily!!!! After that hike Sharon and I will stay out in the Tetons and in Yellowstone for three more weeks before returning here to marion the day or so before I leave with Kerry Kind, Dave Ward, Phil Woodbury (& maybe Chris Bounds too) for our annual before-faculty-retreat hike on the Colorado Trail--this year form Creede to Durango...

I love summers!

--Keith Drury 6/2/08

Headed out hikin'

I've turned in my grades and been drying food and packing stuff to head off for the summer... I will sleep on the Appalachian Trail near Springer mountain Georgia this Sunday evening (April 27). Then on Monday I should have gotten on top of Springer Mtn and the official start of the Appalachian Trail. Sharon and I were here in March, 1972 on a wet wet rainly day. (see Sharon here in "pauncho"--the latest rain gear at the time... We started north from here to do the bottom thousand miles of the AT.

I won't get that far this time--I only have a month or so... 300-350 would be a good total.

I will return from the AT in time to go to the Wesleyan General Conference June 7-11. I should check my email next that week.

--Keith Drury (April 24)

I'm under the porch

My grandfather Anderson described his way of recovering from sickness this way, "You don't see a dog going to the doctor when he's sick--he just crawls under the porch and waits..and sure enough time almost always heals him."

I go under the porch every winter--usually from Christmas until Spring break. I generally get the flu or cold or whatever other bug is passing by in January which "settles" (my mother's word) in my chest and I hack all night requiring my emigration to our guest bedroom for the rest of the night so Sharon can sleep. I wake up exhausted, drag myself to classes, and barely keep up with my email--basically I just crawl under the porch and wait for time to heal.

So if you've written to me recently and have not heard back... I'm under the porch waiting for time to do its work.
--Keith Drury

UPDATE FEB 11
I see improvement and am grateful to the Lord for it...all healing comes from God--fast or slow.... still no voice--it has been 7 days without a voice, which makes "lecturing" difficult ;-) the other day in LCE I typed my lecture into a PowerPoint while they took notes... funny, they still asked me to slow down..I could type faster then many could take notes ;-) I probably waste many words anyway--that made me be more economical ... one student said it was "the best class this year": hmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

UPDATE AFTER SPRING BREAK
Like a miracle I Slowly have recovered. lost my hacking couch over break... but like a curse I got it back again within 24 hours of returning to work. Turns out the leaks in our offices in Old College church had gotten my officemate's books all soaked in January... and they were sitting unpacked all this time growing mold... when Chris unpacked them over break they were covered with black mold. A HA! They moved me to a temporary office in the World Impact section of OCC and within a week I was fine...

Second Semester begins tomorrow

OK..I'm all moved into one of the Sunday school classrooms at OCC--"Old College Church"... I share an office with Chris Bounds (who likes the average temp about 85 degrees) and classes begin tomorrow.

The inside of noggle is being gutted... the "staging area" is on the (former) lawn by the Jesus-patting-students statue. We have a bunch of classes all outfitted in OCC and the famous leather coaches in the hallways. Tomorrow students will start swarming in the building and we'll see if we treat it as a temporary wandering in the wilderness or we actually like it better than 'ol Noggle... Pictures later on...