For the month of November, I took the bus to work. Friends suggested the idea to me in October, during a group discussion about the merits of public transportation. Public transportation, they proposed, is less stressful than driving your own car. It reduces traffic, it's cheap, it's gets you into contact with others. So I decided to give it a try. The bus that goes past my home and close to my office is provided by the Red Rose Transit Authority (called "RRTA"). The Red Rose is the … [Read more...] about Riding the Red Rose Transit Bus for a Month
Neighborhood
Delivering the Papers
It was a hand-me-down paper route for eighteen years, starting with my oldest brother and ending with the youngest. My parents viewed the job as a safe way to learn responsibility. When I got my turn at age 11, I was just happy to earn money for books and art supplies. With a new bike I had gotten for my birthday, I was ready to go. Back then, Lancaster Newspaper published a morning and afternoon edition, the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal and Lancaster New Era, respectively. My older … [Read more...] about Delivering the Papers
Teaching ESL Classes in the Refugee Capital of America
"I like living here," Nur told me. "The people are so friendly!" Nur (all students' names are changed in this blogpost), was a middle-aged Afghan woman, with two of her sons, black-haired little boys, sitting next to her at the table. Several of her oldest children, Nur told us, were still back in Afghanistan, and Nur asked us to pray for them. Lancaster County has been called the "Refugee Capital of America" (see news articles here and here), and one of the many services available are … [Read more...] about Teaching ESL Classes in the Refugee Capital of America
To Catch a Tabby Cat
A furry orange kitten glares at me from the corner of the live animal trap. He's clearly a toughie, with a lean body and a red scratch next to his eye, probably a scar from fighting one of the other cats that roam our neighborhood. I'm careful to keep my fingers away from him. I call my sister immediately. "Are you at home? Because I have a kitten for Patrick!" My sister Joanne and her husband Lamar and their seven children live some twenty miles north, on a small hobby farm in Berks … [Read more...] about To Catch a Tabby Cat
Letter from the Yellow Zone
In March I wrote a blogpost in which I mused about what it would be like to live through some sort of natural disaster. Three years— excuse me, three months later, my curiosity has been sated. Lancaster County is now in the Yellow Zone. Pennsylvania is re-opening in stages: red was the total shutdown, yellow is partial, and in green you're to good to go (but not without your face mask, of course.) Most counties in Pennsylvania are green, but Lancaster and several other high-population areas … [Read more...] about Letter from the Yellow Zone