Retreat:

Well, I made it through last week. And probably even passed my prelims just fine. But it wasn't a super pleasant week as far as the amount of work and studying that needed to get done. However, it left me relatively free to go on the GCF (bible study) retreat this weekend, and it was nice to head out of town for a weekend. Up until now, I hadn't seen any of New York except within a couple miles of Ithaca (since I've always flown in).

The retreat was about two hours away, northest of Syracuse [here]. The camp itself was around a small lake, but it was about a mile and a half from a much larger Oneida lake, just visible at the bottom of the satellite view. Upstate New York (for those of you who have not been) is rolling, tree covered hills, with quite a bit of open, agricultural area and small to medium size farms. Syracuse is the closest city, but there wasn't too much to note from just driving though it. The city stops very abruptly and turns into small, rural communities. The fall colors, although past their peak in some areas, are still quite prevalent although the weather has taken a turn for the colder and wetter. Fortunately around here it doesn't stay wet all winter... somewhere in the next few weeks it gets too cold to be wet.

Oneida lake, NY

Anyhow, the retreat was good. Lots of normal retreat-type stuff happened--messages, worship times, eating, free time, bonfire, and not quite enough sleep. I went running Saturday afternoon down to Oneida lake and over past Cleveland, the local "general store, gas station, post office, and bar" town on the shores of the lake.

This week is still certainly busy, but not with the overbearing deadlines and uncertainties of prelims. Hopefully I'll have time to catch up on some of those things that got put on the backburner... like fellowship apps due here soon.




Fall colors here under a canopy of pines from my run on Saturday.

No color left here in the backwoods of the camp property, but I liked the balance of this shot.