sh'liach k'hilah: partial course list

We received email Friday afternoon that includes a partial course list for the upcoming session of the Sh'liach K'hilah program. It includes:

• Daily text study (first day says psalms; rest unspecified)
• Working with the elderly (this could go in all sorts of interesting directions...)
• Systems: how to implement change (ding ding ding! And looks like a good instructor, too)
• Process of self-evaluation (? - same instructor as previous)
• Two sessions simply entitled "worship"
• Festival and high-holy-day liturgies (2 classes)
• How to write a eulogy (the first year included how to conduct a funeral, but didn't go into much detail about eulogies)
• Homiletics (2 sessions)

There are a bunch of slots that haven't yet been specified.

The schedule includes an hour and a half daily of "work time". I wonder if our comments last year about the unrelenting schedule were heard and heeded, or if the nature of the second year is that it requires more of this explicitly (research projects or the like).

Should be interesting!

Pennsic preparation

This weekend was largely occupied with pre-Pennsic construction. We'd started to build our new pantry structure over Memorial-day weekend, but the peoplw who hosted are currently out of the country. So people with trucks and vans moved everything into our garage and we planned to finish this weekend.

We didn't have a lot of people, so I was worried that we might not get done, but we managed. We had three workers plus me on Shabbat, three workers including me on Sunday, and four of us plus two kids today. This turned out to be enough to get two coats of paint on everything (and sand and prime some parts that hadn't been done the first weekend). Yay! So now all the bits are back in the garage, and on land-grab weekend someone in the group will get a U-Haul and cart it all up to Pennsic. (Moving the pieces from the other house to ours required two trips with one van and one pickup truck, so we're not going to do that to get it up to Cooper's Lake.)

The pantry is the same style as our camp kitchen, but the pantry is 10x15 instead of 10x10. This requires a different rafter structure. The whole thing looks kind of intimidating to me, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's over-engineered, but it'll sure be nice to have.

This was enough work, though, that it may be a couple years before the two couples who want to replace their 10x20 pavillions with similarly-sized structures like this do so. We'll see.

Tourists have been dropping off in the last year or two; this will be the sixth Pennsic for my house on a flatbed and the third year (I think) for the kitchen. There's nothing like new construction to attract attention. :-) (No, that's not why we do it.)

Even though I didn't work all three days, I'm still pretty tired. I was actually feeling crappy enough this morning that I didn't start helping with the painting until mid-afternoon. I think part of the problem was actually Shabbat; while I had planned to stay inside and do usual Shabbat things (since I wouldn't be able to help with sanding/painting anyway), there were few-enough people that I felt obligated to spend a lot of time out there just chatting. So I didn't get my Shabbat rest and I spent much of a day getting my energy sapped by the sun. Next time I'll know better.