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My year of serendipitous encounters with the Church continued today when the new bishop came into our shop today to get his official document from Pope Francis declaring him the bishop of the Diocese of Tucson. It's got the lead papal bull attached to it. Very cool. Here's what one looks...

My wife and I went to mass at the Benedictine convent yesterday. It was the last time that the Eucharist will be celebrated in that beautiful chapel. Changes have already been made. The special pews that the sisters sat in at the front have been removed and ugly chairs had been put in their...

My wife and I have a long time friend. He inherited a degenerative nervous disease from his mother. I remember talking to him years ago. He told me he didn't want to go to Heaven, he just wanted it to be over. As his condition deteriorated, a couple years back he moved back to his home state...

I ran into a banditry of chickadees the day after Christmas on the Oregon coast. Here's a few of the masked bandits.

Because you know you want to tag along...... .....or maybe not. Here's a (now documented) Mexican Jay freaking out my wife last Sunday.

I've been a member of an artist's co-operative for the past 20 years. For the past 3 years I've served as their treasurer. For various reasons, I'm leaving the gallery on March 1st. Meanwhile, they can't get anyone to step up to do the books and now are holding an emergency meeting tomorrow...

Ash Wednesday is on Valentine's Day and Easter is on April Fool's Day this year. Is 2018 going to be a weird year for Catholics?

I came upon this grave while birding the grounds of Holy Trinity Monastery. I suspect it's occupied by a young immigrant found in the desert. There was a small tattered backpack and some rags of clothing behind the cross. Given the size and color I suspect they belonged to a young girl...

My wife and are getting restless to go camping since we haven't been out since the Fourth of July so we were thinking of somewhere near here to spend New Year's Eve. All the nearby state parks are full but it dawned on me that the Holy Trinity Monastery in St. David has some RV camping spots...

My wife and I visited her brother's family in Portland again this Christmas. They live in the same house that she grew up in. Back then, it was a neighborhood of immigrants and within that neighborhood is a gem of a church, St. Stephens. St. Stephens is where my wife was baptized and where...

One of the esteemed art professors at the university brought in a painting he wanted reproduced and then mounted. I was given the pleasure of mounting it. It wasn't very original as far as painting goes. Aside from a totally ridiculous and irresponsible color scheme the imagery borrowed...

For too long I have put others interests before my own, so starting this new year, I'm putting myself first. Me First!

I did the Tucson Christmas Bird Count again this year. My area includes Winterhaven, the neighborhood next to mine. They go all out for Christmas. It's a bit of anomaly in Tucson with it's grass lawns and it's mixed urban forest but this morning, it also hosted a herd of these. If it's...

Reading the defenses of the supporters of Donald Trump and Roy Moore I've been somewhat disappointed at their willingness to find fault with their accusers. I know at my parish given the recent child sex abuse crisis, that we take all accusations very seriously. So, I'm curious. In your own...

This is hysterical. Multi-year Arizona effort to privately fund border wall falls short It looks like they only managed to raise around $60,000. You got to love that kind of commitment.

It's been a long time, but we had a Mexican come in the store today selling tortillas, soft cheese and machaca, (beef traditionally air-dried on the roofs of Mexican homes) I bought all three for $20 American and brought them home to my wife. We made quesadillas. The were sabrosa! It just...

Study: Gun Sales Rise After a Mass Shooting, and More Fatalities Follow One little-known fact about mass shootings is that they have been very good for the gun business. Americans’ anxieties are stoked both by the random violence itself and the ensuing debates over gun control. Customers...

Here's my Christmas card this year. It's actually more of an Advent card since it's a rendering of the Advent wreath at the Benedictine convent. This will be the last Christmas that the good sisters will be with us.

I just found out I sold all four of the paintings that I submitted to the Small Wonders show at the organization I teach for. Happiness is mine. Here's three of them

When he was in Bethany reclining at table in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil, costly genuine spikenard. She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.4 here were some who were indignant. “Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil? It...