The vestry meeting last night was eye openning with the financials of the parish taking center stage. Pledges will need to be increased in both number and amount to meet the challenge of rising costs. The topics of discussion were the usual, people facing the giving season of Christmas, followed by tax season in spring, yada yada. I didn't bring up my thought (because it just ocured to me) but maybe I'll discuss it with the senior warden and Fr Travis. Instead of a pledge drive in the dead of winter and approaching tax season the drive should start after refunds are teceived, the Christmas bills are paid off and the "end of year jitters" aren't on everyone's mind.
My pledge will be increased in relation to the threat of Elon Musk attempting to streamline government operations by "adjusting" the Veterans Administrations budget. I've been a recipient of disability payments from the VA for over fifty years. The last slash and burn administration (Reagan/Bush) considered reducing by ten percent the dollar amount paid to recipients of disability compensation. Pappy Bush (that Connecticut Yankee carpetbagger) as any Texas "Conservative" was a fierce opponent of government entitlement payments. Tax cuts are not in their minds backdoor government entitlements. Nuance escapes them. Or in the case of a politician reducing their favorite campaign contributors tax "burden", deliberate ignorance.
I don't turn on the central heat until the interior temperature dips below 60°F. since I spend most of the day here in the office I use an oil filled radiator to warm this room. At a maximum rating of 2000 watts it's considerably less expensive than the electric whole house furnace operating at 10000 watts. I tend to ward off the cold with wardrobe adjustments. A hoodie with the hood covering my head of freshly cut hair keeps me warm and comfortable. As for Mr. Mistofellees
A screen capture;
From today's reading list; How the Ivy League Broke America by David Brooks in The Atlantic.The link provides a free read as a gift from my subscription. As articles come and go on the Internet, here's a snippet of what's available when I post this entry, "Every coherent society has a social ideal—an image of what the superior person looks like. In America, from the late 19th century until sometime in the 1950s, the superior person was the Well-Bred Man. Such a man was born into one of the old WASP families that dominated the elite social circles on Fifth Avenue, in New York City; the Main Line, outside Philadelphia; Beacon Hill, in Boston. He was molded at a prep school like Groton or Choate, and came of age at Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. In those days, you didn’t have to be brilliant or hardworking to get into Harvard, but it really helped if you were “clubbable”—good-looking, athletic, graceful, casually elegant, Episcopalian, and white. It really helped, too, if your dad had gone there."
At 1845hrs. for those so inclined; The Daily Office Evening Prayer
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