The week that was

The past week turned out to be a very busy one, with major events that included Tarentum's first Earth Day Clean-up, and a presbytery meeting.

A major accomplishment of the week for me was mastering the route between Tarentum and the part of Verona where the Seneca Place Nursing Home is located. The trip is supposed to be only 12 miles, but there are some tricky opportunities to make wrong turns that can add 5 to 10 miles to the trip. What a sense of accomplishment I had when I finally figured it out and could make the trip without getting lost! And then Janet K- was transferred back to a hospital that I already knew how to find perfectly well.

With the Pennsylvania Primary coming Tuesday the 22nd I've had to deal with an increasing number of political telemarketers calling me at home to promote their candidates. (Who hasn't?) But a neat discovery I made on Thursday morning explained the appearance of numerous Obama signs in the neighborhood around the church. It seems that the local Obama headquarters is right across Third Avenue from Central Presbyterian Church.

I think they made a good choice of location in the town that is the crossroads of the Alle-Kiski Valley. Their HQ is only a block and a half from a Port Authority bus stop at the corner of Corbet and Fourth. As I have gone to and from the church over the last few days I've seen volunteers carrying campaign materials as they prepare to take the bus to other nearby areas. I don't know if Hillary even has a local headquarters. Maybe she thinks she doesn't need one now that she has the endorsement of Tarentum Mayor James E. Wolfe and Lower Burrell Mayor Donald L. Kinosz.

The meeting of Pittsburgh Presbytery on Thursday felt long even though it actually got out almost on time. A major item of business was the settlement with the Memorial Park Presbyterian Church. Although some in the presbytery felt we should continue to defend ourselves in civil court against MP's lawsuit, in the end the presbytery voted to allow Memorial Park to withdraw their "clear title" suit and be dismissed.

We also learned that a local group is going to distribute a photograph of the Steelers praying, with a scripture portion attached. It'll be a true collectible for all the local fans.

The Earth Day Cleanup in Tarentum on Saturday was a great success. Tarentum had never before held a day when the borough encouraged everybody to get out and clean up the litter in town. The weather cooperated and volunteers (some of whom were from outside Tarentum) turned out all over town. The presence of so many volunteers helping with the litter was an extra motivation to residents to take a little extra care of the places where they lived.

File under : Central Presbyterian Church, PCUSA, Pittsburgh Presbytery, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Tarentum, politics