On the cusp

Starting tomorrow, I’m on PTO through 1/5, which is going to be lovely. It won’t quite be two weeks of extended relaxation, though. Ordination is on Saturday, and I’m scheduled for five masses, one of which is the very next morning. After that is the noon Christmas (in Spanish), two Sundays, and The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Then the new assignment starts and I’m on for 4 liturgies per weekend: two each in Spanish and English, split over Saturday and Sunday. Haven’t quite figured out what the weeknight stuff looks like.

It sounds crazy, and I’m sure that it will definitely feel crazy, but I expect there to be a few pockets of quiet here and there and I hope to get some reading done. We’ll see. Last night was the OCIA Christmas party, and it was nice to chat with folks and try various desserts. It’s a little bit of a bummer having to leave them, but they’re in excellent hands and I trust that the Lord will do His thing between now and Easter. I will probably return at some point after the first of the year to do the contraception/IVF session.

I likewise have my last parish finance committee tomorrow. Clergy are members of these committees ex officio, so while I’m certain I’ve not seen the last of parish finance meetings, I can’t be a member in any active or voting way, which is fine. I’ve learned a tremendous amount, and I’m inclined to credit God’s providence for putting me there despite my constant confusion. Balance sheets don’t make much sense to me and all I brought to the table was a willingness to take notes and ask dumb questions. I’m neither an accountant nor do I have any background in finance. I suppose the willingness was enough.

In any case, here is some nerdspeak: I’m basically all-in on emacs now. I’ve used it to replace my RSS reader (with elfeed), console browser (changing elinks for eww), and email client (switching from neomutt to notmuch). Since it makes a decent text editor as well, I’ve also kicked vscode to the curb. I haven’t tried the irc client out yet but probably will at some point. I like my current client quite a bit and don’t feel any particular urge to switch (weechat for anyone who might be wondering). I’m relying pretty heavily on Claude for configuration assistance, but it’s mostly in the form of “how can I make X in emacs act like tool Y on the console” and the AI is happy to oblige without losing patience or telling me how I ought to be doing it. There is a close-to-zero chance I would have gotten this far without it; I’ll call it a win.

Book status is unchanged. I’m getting a little impatient with Pessoa, but will make a push and try to finish it out soon.

Still no radio activity. I’ll see if the mood strikes over the holidays; if not, there will be plenty of indoor time during JanuFeb for tinkering. Until then, I’ll leave you with this: CHRISTMAS WEATHER CHANNEL VAPORWAVE Vol.02 // 90s Nostalgia Mix. Enjoy!