Not a Blog
This is my post from Friday, January 12, 2007 8:58 am when I couldn't get onto blogger, so I'm back on blogger and transfering it, sort of, back into the regular blog.
Welcome to my Not a Blog page. What is the point of Not a Blog? The point is that
Blogger is not working this morning and I felt like writing, that's the point. So here I sitwriting and wondering why I even bother with Blogger at all. Sure, Blogger makes me look all professional, sort of :-) But it's not the layout of the pagethat matters really it's the words on that page, right? I hope so because here I go...
Last night, Thursday, January 11, 2007, Mike and I went to the San Francisco Symphony.One of the residents in my building has been giving me Symphony tickets for years, we are really spoiled sitting in the most expensive and primo seats in the house every time.
The weather has been very cold here of late, early morning temperatures have been dipping down into the upper twentys! I went out yesterday just after lunch and found me a nice heavy,long coat to wear at JC Pennys. The label calls it a "Duffel Coat" but Mike called it a "Pea Coat".That was the name that came to my mind as well, before looking at the label. In any case it was70% off so I only had to pay $47.99 for it. I wore the coat when we went to the city last night and it worked really well, it even has a hood to protect the top of my balding head from the cold wind.
Before we went to the Symphony we stopped for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen on Van Ness.I had Jambalaya and Mike had some chicken salad thing. We had a nice bottle of DaVinci Chiantito go along with it as well. Dinner was delicious as it usually is at CPK.The Symphony was wonderful, also something that I can say "as usual" about :-)
PROGRAM:1 - Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3, Scottish
For the Intermission, Mike reserved a table in the Lounge of the Loge section. Our tickets are always for the Logebut we have never reserved one of the tables before, we will be doing that every time now though. They havenice comfortable easy chairs and coffee/cocktail tables. When you leave the hall at intermission your drinks arethere at your table waiting for you. You just walk out and sit down and relax, watching the peasants from thelower sections scurry about below you, standing in line for drinks :-) Ah, the good life...

2 - After the intermission was Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 with Sara Chang on Violin. Ms. Chang is a very energetic and animated violin player, it is a wonderful experience watching her play!
3 - The Finale was R. Strauss Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
Here is today's refliction from Higher Things:
January 12, 2007 - Friday in the First Week after Epiphany
"Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’” (St. Luke 2:49) We know very little of Jesus’ childhood and nothing of His adolescence. That would be typical of Luke’s day. Children were to be seen, not heard, and moved into productive adulthood as quickly as possible. There was neither time nor luxury for the anxieties of adolescence. When an Israelite boy was 12 years old, he began to take his place among the men of the community. Today, the Jewish people celebrate this as a young man’s becoming a Bar Mitzvah (“son of the commandment”). Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were in Jerusalem with the rest of the family for the Feast of the Passover, as was the custom. After completion of the Feast, the family set out to return to Nazareth and discovered that Jesus wasn’t with them. Frantically, Mary and Joseph searched Jerusalem for Jesus. On the third day, they found Him sitting among the Temple’s teachers, who were amazed by His wisdom. His parents were understandably upset, and Mary momentarily forgot who her Son was. “Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” Jesus reminds her of whose Son He is. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” He is both Mary’s Son and God’s Son, true God and true Man; the mystery can only be pondered in the heart of faith, as Mary did. The young and tender Lamb appears in the temple on the Feast of Passover. Some 21 years later, He would make another, different appearance at the Passover, then offering His spotless, sinless Life for the life of the world. Jesus is the true Bar Mitzvah, the Son of the Commandment, who perfectly kept the law of Moses down to its last stroke of the pen. He was obedient to His parents, and grew in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and men. From the womb to the tomb, the cradle to the grave, and every day in between, Jesus embraces and embodies our lives in His life – even as the boy becoming a man, obedient under the 4th commandment, honoring father and mother, cherishing, loving, and obeying them. His faithful obedience is yours through faith in Him. And baptized into Him, you too are a faithful “son of the commandment,” perfected in the holiness of Jesus.“Within the Father’s house the Son has found His home. And to His temple suddenly the Lord of life has come.” (Lutheran Service Book, #410)Daily Lectionary: Ezekiel 34:1-24; Romans 3:19-31Today's Reading: St. Luke 2:41-52