Friday: needed to leave for NC between 9 & 10 am. So we didn’t leave until after 11. Not much margin on a 5-1/2 hour trip. Stopped in Commerce Ga. Mistake. Line for Chick-fil-A was out on the street. Bad traffic between Spartanburg & NC line. We stayed in an old renovated factory house Airbnb in Concord NC not far from Charlotte Motor Speedway, which is huge, like a big stadium a mile around.
Got to visit with Joel Norman and wife Addie. She works at Trinity Church, in Brookhaven I think. Their newborn son is Patton. J&A and W&MC went to the rehearsal dinner. Grabbed supper at Chipotle. Later grabbed groceries at Publix. When the couples got home Joel mixed a good fruit punch drink, and we all got to chat. C had gone to bed.
Saturday morning back to Publix and Starbucks. For lunch back to Publix for sub sandwiches and chips. With little Patton and Millie and big sister Shivonne there is plenty of babysitting to do. Will and Joel were gone most of the day, first to a guys breakfast and then pictures and stuff. More to follow on the wedding.
Sunday: stopped on the way home in downtown Greenville. Ate at Tupelo Honey. Funny we never went to the Tupelo Honey here in Sandy Springs. But did go there in both Asheville and Greenville.
After Greenville we drove to Dekalb Farmers Market, so we didn’t get home after 6 pm. Y’all get any damage from those high winds late Sunday afternoon? Heard about that tree that fell in Garden Hills, killing that man. Bad winds in Memphis as well.
Monday: up early to run 3 miles. Busy day at work catching up and such. Worked past 5:30 and drove home. Had to gas up on the way. Got 600 miles on the last tank. Made it to Commerce past Charlotte, then all the way home and then to work.
Ceil and Matthew went with me to Ponko Chicken Monday night. The prize I’d won was two meals and drinks, but to make it easy the manager comped the entire meal for all three of us. C ate a chicken salad. M got wings and fries. I got 5 tenders, fries, and sweet potato fries. Very good.
EDDIE COLLINS [SABR Bio] his25-year career never produced a batting title. His hit total (3,315) was 5th all-time when he retired. His final cumulative batting average is .333. He holds the career record for most sacrifice hits even though he never led the league in any season. His 512 sacrifice hits will have him atop the leader board for generations, possibly forever. In second place is Jake Daubert’s 392. Eight out of the top 10 active leaders in 2023 are all pitchers, with Clayton Kershaw’s 110 leading the way. To underscore the near-untouchable status of Collins’ mark, Kershaw’s total on the all-time list has him tied with Mel Ott and others for 325th place (Tom Glavine has the most sacrifice hits for a pitcher, with 216 - 69th all time). Collins and Lou Brock are tied for most career bases stolen in World Series play, with 14.
DENISON: we are seeing numerous stories about a reported decline in religiosity in our society. From empty church buildings being repurposed to headlines like “US Church Attendance Still Lower Than Pre-Pandemic,” to articles on “Americans moving away from religion,” you would think that biblical faith is on life support in the US. But pull back the curtain, and the story changes. The repurposed church buildings are in Europe. The decline in US church attendance is from 34% pre-pandemic to 31% today. This is three times higher than the percentage of Americans who watch sports on TV and 50 percent higher than those who go to movies multiple times a month or engage in sports and exercise regularly. Of the “Americans moving away from religion,” the New York Times notes that nearly half are Buddhists and Jews and “around 30% of most Christian denominations.” Mainline churches are seeing much higher rates of decline than evangelical churches. In fact, according to cultural commentator Glenn Stanton, church attendance is at an all-time high, both in raw numbers and as a percentage of the population. “The number of Christians in the world today is larger than it has ever been in the history of the world.”
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