Yesterday, back before the Colts gave me something random to think about (like Ninjas or Pirates or Hobos) for the next two weeks, I participated in the second week of my Quaker experience/experiment. For this week, I traveled to the Akron Friends Meeting, the building for which I thought had been demolished. Turns out, it hadn't. Well, it had, but they moved...

(I think I already told that story?)

Anyway, I ventured, and I found that the Akron Friends Meeting was smaller than the Kent Friends Meeting. While Kent had a somewhat uncomfortable number of around 12-15, at Akron I was one of five, the only male, and was the youngest by around 25 years. While Quakerism has a strong hold on eastern Indiana, it's grip on Northeastern Ohio seems to be quite weak if existent.

I don't know what next week will bring me, because I am not terribly comfortable in either setting, though I think it's more the numbers than anything. Here I've been wanting more intimacy in meditation and worship, and I have an opportunity for that and it's much harder to jump in. But part of intimacy has to be community, and it is admittedly hard for be in a community of much older people. Call me an age-ist, I don't care. It's hard to be on an even playing field with people older than your parents, and that's just the way it is in our society.

Also, the Akron Friends are talking of abandoning their house and disbanding, joining other communities. I don't think that's a place to join as I'm trying to figure things out, you know?

The next closest meetings are in Cleveland (28 miles) and Wooster (32 miles). Distance, in those cases, will harm my chances of being a member of the community. I may try one of those to really play the field, but I think if I am to remain on this path that Kent (a meeting which I wasn't really offended, and one that looks much better after going to the poor one at Akron) will be the place thus far.

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In the next week or so, we will be adopting out Maggie's puppies. They are growing up nicely. They (like apparently all puppies) have a case of the worms right now, which means they shit something that looks like spaghetti. It's really far more gross than you might think. But, they are now on medication for this and it should solve itself soon. Either way, with the puppies getting ready to leave the house, I thought I should post some pictures of how they're coming along:

Even though they drive me insane by being such food-whores (they'll always eat anything they're offered, and they'll pull amazing stunts to do so) and by crapping everywhere, I know I'm going to miss them when they're gone. They are cute and they do, even at their worst, tend to bring a smile to my face with their undeniable cuteness. Is that worth the rest of their mess? Hell no. In fact, today was the first day in several weeks that I have not cleaned up at least one (and as many as dozens) pile of dog shit, and that was only because Amy cleaned the puppy pen today. I will NEVER miss that.

I don't know... puppies are kind of like big yards. I mean, big yards are great because they bring a lot of enjoyment and stuff, but they're way too much effort. Puppies would be great if I could play with them a few hours here and there when I feel like it, but then pay someone else to clean after them and take care of them. Maybe that's one of the big reasons that rich people are the ones with massive manicured lawns, besides property costs, etc.

I think I read a paper about the political ecology of lawns a few weeks ago. But, thinking about that makes me think about my currently-going-nowhere dissertation and it makes me frown. I don't like it much right now. It's a big task that's staring me down but not shrinking. And I have to work on it soon, or I might as well quit the program, move back to Indiana and do something stupid for a living.

I think I'm done for tonight, right?