"This room is going much too smoothly"

That was going through my head as I was drilling the pilot holes into the second piece of base molding that I was installing in the laundry room yesterday evening... just a few minutes before scoring a direct hit on my left middle fingertip with the hammer.

The laundry room renovation was my Big Project for the Christmas break and I'm on the final leg.  I cut out the bad pieces of drywall and replaced with new, cut back and capped the plumbing from the old sink that was in there when we bought the place, removed the three ugly kitchen wall cabinets that were above the washer and dryer, taped and mudded the new drywall joints, spackled about a hundred little holes and gouges, cut, trimmed, sanded, and painted new shelving to go where the cabinets were, painted the ceiling and the walls, and prepainted the base molding.

I was nailing in the second to last piece in an awkward corner between the entry door and closet when it happened.  The blood indicated that this wouldn't be just a cradle my hand and cuss for a minute then get back to work moment.  It required a little attention.  I reckon I won't be playing any guitars for a few weeks.

But, hey, the laundry room looks great.

A few of my Favorite Things

One of my favorite Christmas presents was a book from Alison:  Between the Rivers: History of the Land Between the Lakes.  It's a very well researched book and it's a treasure of information for anyone interested in the area.

On Christmas day, Alison actually slept in.  It was a (pleasant) shock to wake up on Christmas morning and see the dawn peeking through the window.  Managed to get downstairs and get coffee made before the girl even awoke.  In the past Christmas mornings it's usually been Alison at our bedside sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 am pleading with us to get up.

After a nice, lazy Christmas morning we hopped in the truck and headed down to the SSPX chapel in Nashville for a Christmas evening Mass and potluck.  The traffic on the interstate and in Nashville was unbelievable.  Rained the whole way there with just a few minutes of snow flurries as we crossed LBL on the way back.

Made our annual visit to St. Stephen's on his feast day (December 26) and explored a little bit of the old road bed that used to go to the church building before Lake Barkley was dammed.  It's now just a wide path through the woods with a few signs of previous life (building foundations, fencing).

See you in 2007.

Posted 12/31/2006 by Michael Inman | Link |

And a Merry Christmas to All

Just checking in to say Merry Christmas.  I'm off work until January 2 (college jobs rock) and the smell of homemade dressing coming from the kitchen is maddening.

Here are a couple of heartwarming stories on this day before the celebration of Christ's birth:

1. From Fox News:  Jesus Christ to be Honorary King of Poland

WARSAW, Poland — Lawmakers have drawn up a resolution naming Jesus Christ as the honorary king of Poland... (more)

...but have failed to win support from the country's powerful Roman Catholic church.

TAMPA, December 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – When a group of teachers and sisters from Villa Madonna Catholic school tried to brighten up patients’ hospital stay with Christian-themed gifts, the nun in charge of St. Joseph's Children's Hospital missions decreed that such gifts were inappropriate. A nun from a different order, Sr. Kim Keraitis, who helped organize the gift giving responded she found the political correctness of the decree appalling.

Posted 12/24/2006 by Michael Inman | Link |

Today I am a Danny Bonaduce fan

Funny encounter with an idiot conspiracy theorist about 9/11.  Language alert - don't bother reading the comments.  Obviously the special-ed class is out for Christmas vacation.

To paraphrase an oft-used line attributed to many people but probably based on Proverbs 17:28:

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to be a conspiracy theorist and remove all doubt.

Posted 12/19/2006 by Michael Inman | Link |

People... I'm This   > <   Close.

From the "Catholic News Service", which I ordinarily wouldn't read because of its ties with the USCC, comes this little gem:

Vatican officials give thumbs up for 'The Nativity Story'

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican officials have given the latest Hollywood re-enactment of the Gospel accounts of Jesus' birth a thumbs up after hosting the film's world premiere Nov. 26. (More)

CNS review of the movie here.

Here is the US Bishops Conference review.  According to them, "...Hollywood finally gets it right with 'The Nativity Story'."  Remember, this is the same organization that said of "Brokeback Mountain", "the universal themes of love and loss ring true".

Other Catholics aren't being quite so kind with it here, here, here.

Last, but not least, is a jaw-dropping article by Thomas Drolesky regarding the Vatican's endorsement of the movie.  An excerpt:

What is, of course, interesting to note is that it is evidently the case that none of the conciliarist officials who viewed The Nativity Story (either when it was presented to them via a DVD or in the "premiere" at the Paul VI Audience Hall on November 26) had any objections to the film's doctrinal problems. It is evidently the case that none believed that Our Lady or Saint Joseph or Saint Elizabeth, who scream at Our Lady at one point in the film (according to a report sent to me by another reader), were blasphemed in the motion picture, although it is probably the case that some low-ranking curial officials, one of whom was in seminary with me a quarter of a century ago, recognized the blasphemies but are afraid to speak out publicly for fear of blowing their chances to become "bishops" in the conciliar structures. Most of the conciliar officials who congratulate themselves endlessly on the "new springtime of the church" they have helped to create and sustain walked out of the Paul VI Audience Hall on November 26, 2006, without thinking for a single moment that anything was opposed to Faith and morals in The Nativity Story.

Posted 12/13/2006 by Michael Inman | Link |

Time Flies

I started a Thanksgiving post early Thanksgiving morning... about a dozen, actually.  Each time it would degrade into something silly and sappy, so I gave up.  Let's just say that I've been very blessed in the last eighteen years or so.

Okay, back to the fun stuff.  Deer season ended last Sunday.  Did go hunting since the last post but didn't see any deer.  I'm kind of glad.  It was just fun being out there.

Last Tuesday I'm driving across the field to retrieve my treestand and what do I run up on but a coyote.  Pulled a U-eey, ran in the house and grabbed the SKS, ran back out in the field, on foot this time, loading rounds as I went.  Saw him topping a hill but he disappeared over a rise before I could set up for a shot.  I went across the field to the edge of the woods where I thought he probably went in and saw him down in a small ravine.  Knocked him down with the first shot, which surprised me since it was a good distance using iron sights on an SKS (no less) shooting freehand, standing up, and slightly out of breath from the sprint across the field.  I figured now I have to clean the dang gun anyway (that combloc milsurp ammo is nasty) so I sent a couple more rounds downrange before heading back to the house.

Janet had seen a yote on the road near the house the day before and thought it had acted strangely.  It hadn't seemed scared and ambled casually out of the way of the car with a slightly stumbling gait... in the middle of the day.  She walked back to the ravine with me and confirmed that was most likely him.  He (or she - I didn't check) was very thin and looked like he had a severe case of the mange.  A healthy coyote wouldn't have let himself be caught out in the daytime like that so I figure he was pretty sick.

Two firsts in one month.  My first deer and my first coyote.  No pics of the coyote.  Those .30 caliber rounds didn't leave him very photogenic.

Speaking of .30 caliber rounds... here's the official Inman household coyote gun.

It's a great shooting little rifle, though, and now it's officially been dubbed the "Coyote Gun".  The only thing I really don't like about it is, because the barrel is short and the upper carrying strap mounts so close to the muzzle, if I'm carrying it by the strap over my shoulder the muzzle is lower than the back of my head.  Don't much care for that.

Posted 11/30/2006 by Michael Inman | Link |

A Hunting Story (bear with me... it's my first one)

Saturday morning (opening day) I popped awake at 3:00 am, adrenalin already pumping.  My friend who is an experienced hunter, and was gracious enough to accompany me for my first time ever deer hunting, showed up about 5:00 and we headed off into the big woods.  We felt our way across the line onto public TVA land down into this little hollow and sat on either side of a big oak tree next to a creek bed we had scouted earlier in the week.  It had rained hard during the night with a strong cold front coming through and the leaves were moist and quiet.  The air was very cold with a mild breeze from the north.

Everyone should have a chance to get out before dawn and sit quietly experiencing daybreak in the woods.  It's a purifying experience.  It's also a very chilly experience.

A few hours after it got light my friend urgently whispered, "Mike!".  A small button buck had wandered up from the creek bed and was passing by us.  It was off to my right so I couldn't really turn completely around for a good shot.  My friend however, on the other side of the tree, had a textbook shot so he took it.  That was all the deer we were to see that day.

Sunday, I was by myself back out at the same area before dawn; across the creek sitting on the ground next to a different tree giving me a pretty good view of several different approaches.  I lasted about four hours after daybreak before my aching back and butt decided that this sitting on the ground against a tree might not be the way to spend the next sixteen days of deer season, especially since I have a ladder stand back at the house.  I didn't really want to pack it all the way down into this little hollow though so I decided I might try back up a little higher closer to my own property.  Before leaving, though, I wanted to hike up another hill and take a close look at another wooden treestand we had noticed the previous day.  It was old and pretty rotten.  As I turned around to head back toward the creek and home I heard a loud blow and saw the backside of a large deer running away from me... right near where I had just sat all morning.  Grr.

Sunday afternoon I sat up the ladder stand about a third of the way down a hill in the woods right past the edge of our field.  I had a pretty good view of a large draw toward my left - the one that headed down toward the creek bed, and a thick wooded area where the deer I spooked yesterday had run into.

Monday, I didn't have to go in to work until late in the afternoon because of some evening studio productions so before dawn I was back at it.  My backside was happy to not be on the ground.  About 7:00 am I heard a grunt and among all the squirrel movements came a slightly different leaf rustling sound.  Off to my right I watched a decent buck walking up a trail like he had somewhere he needed to be.  I followed him in the scope as he walked about 60 yards in front of me and toward my left.  The tree limbs and branches seemed too thick for a good shot and he was headed for a clearer area so I watched and waited.  After disappearing into a small thicket he never reappeared on the other side.  I wasn't too disappointed but I had kind of scolded myself for not having the presence of mind to let out a whistle or something to make him stop long enough for a good shot.

About 45 minutes later I heard more rustling and up the same trail came either another deer or the same one that had passed by earlier.  This one did stop almost directly in front of me about the same distance away as the other one.  The .270 barked and the deer took off, made a u-turn, and disappeared into the thick woods the same way he came.  Right after losing sight of him I heard some thrashing around in the leaves so I figured he was down and not far.

I sat for a minute or two gathering my wits and waiting for my pulse to slow before climbing down from the stand, then eased off in the direction he had gone.  I found him close by in a little clearing, probably not more than 30 yards from where he was hit.  Trying to remember all I had learned about field dressing, I hung my orange vest up on a nearby branch, took my jacket off, rolled up my sleeves, pulled out my old knife and some rags, and went to work.  It was a clean textbook chest shot, right through the heart.  When I was finished I looked at the steep hill going back to the house, looked at the deer, sighed, and headed off toward the house for a rope and some tarp.

When I went in the door, Janet said, "Did you get one?"  I just held up my red stained hands and grinned.

She helped me drag this hoss up the hill back to the house and left to take Alison into town for a piano lesson.  I had a two part video I had recorded from Kentucky Afield where the host and a professional butcher skinned and boned a deer in one episode and cut the parts in the kitchen in the next.  I'd watch a few minutes of the video then run outside to do what I had just watched, then run back inside, watch a little more, then back outside.  It would probably have been comical to anyone watching.

I was all done except for cutting trim meat from around the ribs when Janet and Alison drove back up.  Janet was impressed.  Alison, in classic twelve year old girl fashion, was supremely grossed out... heh.

We got almost all the meat into the freezer Monday afternoon before I had to go to work.  The few remaining pieces that we are going to grind we pulled out of the cooler today.  All in all... not bad.

Posted 11/14/2006 by Michael Inman | Link |

This election day quote is brought to you by the Angelqueen Forum

"My uncle in Chicago voted Republican till the day he died... and he's voted Democrat ever since."

Posted 11/7/2006 by Michael Inman | Link |

"But you, my dearest jewel,
Your beauty has conquered me."

Posted 11/1/2006 by Michael Inman | Link |

Rainy Days

Two days ago... seems like longer... I walked out of my house, entered the woods and as carefully and as silently as possible considering the freshly fallen leaves, stalked to my makeshift blind on a hill looking down into a draw, cleared myself out a little spot, and sat down.  I laid my Cowboy Companion across my knee in a semi ready position, pulled out my little coyote caller, and started squalling.

I must have had it set for rain because that's what came.  About ten minutes after I got settled I heard the first drops of what has now been two days of solid rain.  Well, we did have a little break Thursday morning which allowed me to grab my topo map and compass and take a little hike before going to work.  Of course I didn't get back home until the rain had started again in earnest.  Supposed to end today but the old man that came by this morning looking for gopherwood didn't seem to believe me.

I mentioned earlier about the work on the windows.  I've got three completed and one primed and ready to paint.  Only twenty more to go.  No way I'll get this project done before winter stops teasing and moves on in to stay.  The others will go faster though because I started on the side of the house that was the most weathered.  The windows on this side were in bad shape; most of the glazing had fallen out, lots of peeling paint and bare, weathered wood, a little rot.  The other twenty windows are in really good shape compared to these and should go a lot faster.  Besides that, this side of the house had the garage door entrance to the basement and some uneven terrain making it something of an adventure each time climbing the 28' extension ladder to the second floor windows.  Janet wouldn't even let me go up the ladder without wearing a scapular.

Some rainy day link-ees:  Via Vir Speluncae Catholicus The Great comes the hilariously funny Ask Sister Mary Martha, by Sister Mary Martha of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Sisters of the Weeping Nuns.  I don't know if it's a real nun or not (leaning toward thinking it is) but it's very funny.  I'll never be able to pass a fabric store now, or walk into a bank, without cracking up.

Speaking of Church stuff, I noted with some interest this news report that the Vatican has instructed the US bishops to knock it off with the EM's cleaning the sacred vessels after Communion.  Good.  Maybe someone at St. Henry's will read it.  Our good bishop, who had the audacity to claim recently that all the Masses in his diocese are done according to the rubrics, will surely pass that tidbit along, right?

Posted 10/27/2006 by Michael Inman | Link |

"When bishops release documents in which they purport to expound the truth, they should be more than happy to have their words picked up by others and circulated as much as possible."

According to an article at catholicculture.org entitled, "The USCCB: Criminalizing the Use of Church Documents", the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (aka: Judas Iscariot Fan Club) has decided to go after websites that have reprinted English versions of Church documents (the ones they hold the copyright to, anyway).  Some of these documents would apparently include the General Instruction of the Roman Missal and even the Catechism.

I guess you'd think that the US bishops (spit) should be happy to have their instructions and Church documents distributed freely for the faithful.  But, nooo.

Actually, considering some of the pap that comes from the USCCB, that might not be such a bad thing.  I've been of the opinion that pretty much anything that comes from the US bishops is best ignored, anyway.

Posted 10/16/2006 by Michael Inman | Link |

God Bless You, Rod Dreher

I've been a fan of Rod Dreher's writing since his days at National Review.  Rod's latest post on his Crunchy Con blog should send a chill down the spine of any Catholic struggling with the present condition of the Church.  But for the grace of God go I.  Although I've never had any connection personally, or through anyone I know directly, with the sex abuse scandal in the Church, I feel like I can understand Rod's "dark night of the soul".

I'd go to fulfill my Sunday duty, receiving the Eucharist and then getting the heck out of there, wanting as little as possible to do with parish life. One day, in tears, Julie and I confessed to each other that we were afraid we were losing our faith entirely. This is not a place either of us ever imagined being. To know that you have the responsibility to raise children as followers of Christ, to say nothing about having responsibility for your own eternal soul -- well, to be in that position and to be so alienated from the Church you believe has the right to command your fidelity is a terrible thing.

If it hadn't been for the SSPX and our Catholic friends who were going through the same thing we were and had just stopped attending St. Francis de Sales in Paducah in favor of a Society Mass in St. Louis, I'm not a hundred percent sure I'd still even be Catholic.  Well, we probably would be, but I know we'd be staying home.

There is a reason you will go to a Catholic parish and find it full of lukewarm parishioners.  It's because the Novus Ordo Church has driven away Catholics who love their Faith and can't stand to see it repeatedly raped by the very bishops and priests who are supposed to be upholding it.

In a few neocatholic blogs there are some pretty vicious comment threads going over Rod's decision to join the Orthodox Church.  It's painfully apparent that the majority of those people, while correctly quoting this-and-that and warning against leaving the Church, they just Don't. Have. A. Clue.  Yeah, I'm perfectly well informed about the consequences of leaving Holy Mother Church and I'm sure Rod was, too.  These are strange times, though, when you can no longer recognize the Catholic Faith of the last 1900 years in the institution itself and the majority of its members.  It's pretty sad when you find yourself in doctrinal discussions with protestants and feel like the very Church you're defending barely exists anymore.  Hell, I'd have an awful hard time justifying trying to convince someone to leave their protestant heresy behind and sign up for RCIA at St. Leo's or any other parish in the Diocese of Owensboro.  Besides trying to engage in basic apologetics, you have to then explain to somebody why the whole Church appears to be in apostasy.  It's dizzying.

I can certainly understand Rod Dreher's decision and he'll get no criticism from our household.  If I had one question, however, for him, it would be did he look into attending Mass at an SSPX chapel, and if not, why?

Here's another excerpt.  Man, oh man.  I've see a lot of blog entries in the last seven years or so but this one may rank as one of the most intense I've ever read.  Go read the whole thing.

As Christians, Truth is a Person, not merely a proposition. Here I was beginning to live a more Christ-like life as a fellow traveler of Orthodoxy, and knowing that if I went back to full-fledged Catholicism, I would be returning to anger and despair. What does it mean to live in the Christian truth in that situation? How would I feel if I approached the Judgment Seat and said to God, "I lived as a depressed and embittered man, lost my children to the Christian faith, and was a terrible witness to your goodness. But Lord, thanks to you, I never left Catholicism."

It was not an abstract question for me. I wondered: is the point of our life on earth to become like Jesus, or is it to maintain formal affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church? I honestly don't believe God will ask of me, in the day of judgment, "Were you an obedient Catholic? (Or Orthodox, or Presbyterian...)" He will ask me, "Did you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind? Did you love your neighbor as yourself?" I had made in my life till that point the fundamental error of conceiving of the Church as an end in itself, rather than a means to the end of becoming a saint in Christ.

Posted 10/12/2006 by Michael Inman | Link |

Could It Really Be?

I swore I wasn't going to get excited over the latest "universal indult" rumor but this one seems to be picking up steam.

• From the Associated Press:  Pope Set to Ease Latin Mass Restrictions
• From the Irish Independent (registration required):  Pope poised to revive Latin Mass
• From Il Giornale:  Torna la messa in latino Pronto il decreto del Papa (Translated here)

Okay.  So I'm getting a little excited.  A little.  Like I've said before, not much in this diocese will change.  The bishop will likely ignore it, none of the priests in this diocese will likely have any interest in it, and the Catholics in this diocese pretty much couldn't care less.  It's a first step though.  For that I will be celebrating.

But not too much.  One little detail that another news source mentioned (italics mine):

The new indult would permit any priest to introduce the Tridentine Mass to his church, anywhere in the world, unless his bishop has explicitly forbidden it in writing.