Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Squeezing In A Few Words; May 12, 2020

Find it really hard to take time out to write, but I usually feel better after doing so (and not that I'm distressed in any way!)

Today was pretty much consumed with work and it was a busy day at that.  Seven (7) meetings.  Wow.

I got in a late evening 3.7-mile walk in Springwoods Village after riding more than 15 miles on my Air Assault bike Monday evening followed by a four-mile walk of The Woodlands Waterway.

I think I'm holding in check my pandemic appetite. 

Seriously, though, I'm really not eating too much more and I'm replacing eating out in the evenings with the HEB Simple Meals, but the snacking is negating the activity.

I'm at 34.56 miles running, 52.105 miles walking and 30.8 miles cycling for the period of April 25 to May 24, with 12 days to go.

I listened to some NPR podcasts early in the evening, while looking at the weather and seeing if I needed to modify my weekend running routes to dodge as much rain as possible.

They included the following topics:

+ Americans Are Driving Less and Snacking More
+ "There Was So Little Information":  Polio Survivors Offer Pandemic Perspective
+ U.S. Officials:  Beware of China And Others Trying to Steal COVID-19 Research
+ In 'Together', Former Surgeon General Writes About Importance of Human Connection

And then I listed to a podcast from Alaska Public Radio about the winner of this year's Iditarod, the "Last Great Race of Earth", and how the race continued in the midst of the escalation of the COVID-19 crisis.

As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed, I saw this note from the Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI) Facebook page, "The first 30 minutes could be the most important thing you watch during this COVID-19 pandemic."

The church that I attended for much of my life, its former pastor is now the Communications Director for BBFI and doing a great job.

This was a video recording of an Online Forum for the organization's pastors and it talked about the legal and liability implications that churches needed to consider as they were reopening their services across the country.  Really a fascinating listen as a believer.

Often criticisms from non-believers who didn't attend church or those who did believe but thought that church had a lot of rules, well, for a while, there might be many rules to follow just simply to keep fellow congregants safe from COVID-19.

The pastors that shared their numbers from the surveys they took of their churches showed that about 60-70% would return immediately, given the church was taking necessary precautions, while one pastor in Iowa shared that - even though they tried to make sure that they exceeded their congregation's expectations - for the first Sunday back that they were only 25% of their regular attendance.

I think there's a lot of perception that churches are being reckless.  There will probably be a few that will be, but given the potentiality of lawsuits, most will make sure that they document what they plan to do and work to follow their plans to protect against legal action and/or loss of insurance coverage.

A couple of podcasts that I want to listen to soon. 

I'll bookmark them here in case you get a chance before I do.

They are Telos Running's interview with Dick Beardsley which can be heard here -  and three episodes of VAULT Studios' "Selena: A Star Dies in Texas", which can found here.

More tomorrow.

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