Houston: Monday
Well, at least I’m getting this written up & posted on the same/actual day…
Today was a much less openly contentious day on the convention floor. Some interesting business was taken up & discussed (and the discussion was actually useful (!?!) in spots…
Perhaps of greatest interest was that I actually got up & addressed the assembly, once to call for a point of information, and then to make what was the final floor nomination of the day. (Btw, floor nominations, which were such a contentious & roundly smacked-down thing yesterday when they were for the Board of Directors & none got approved, were much more acceptable to the convention today. I have my thoughts as to why, but, like I said yesterday, I would prefer to hold off on stating them until after I’ve had a chance to more fully digest the whole convention experience…
I thought that the President of the AALC, with whom the convention approved full fellowship today, Rev. Aadland, gave an OUTSTANDING & wonderfully orthodox Lutheran address today immediately after resolution 3-01 passed. Watch the video — it was a very good address!
All that aside, it was a full day on the floor. It didn’t feel quite as long & arduous as yesterday did (and as I’m sure tomorrow will, with its evening session), and getting dinner before 8pm certainly helped.
And it was at that dinner that the most interesting thing happened. I can now say that I had dinner with Dr. Ralph Bohlmann. Or, at least, that I had dinner conversation with him (and the wonderful lady delegate from Iowa). Given his long & well-known history in the LCMS over the past 35 years, well, suffice it to say that it was an interesting conversation!
And with that little partial-anecdote, I will take leave until (most likely) sometime on Wed, although if I can manage it, I will certainly try to post something tomorrow/Tuesday.
-ghp
Houston: Sunday
This is a belated, and largely truncated, review of things that happened during the first full day of the convention yesterday (Sunday).
I didn’t get to write it up yesterday, well frankly because I had to choose between eating dinner at 10:30 pm or writing things up. My stomach won out over my other considerations, and the need to relax & get to sleep shortly after returning from eating further trumped any blogging. Oh well, I guess it’s my own fault for taking so long to get back to the hotel after my meetings; however, I just couldn’t pass up the chance to be a bit of an Issues, Etc./Todd Wilken groupie, and watch a little while of the national/syndicated Issues, Etc. live broadcast. ;^) And then have to walk the 12 blocks back to my own hotel. :^(
It was a very long & hectic day. And it was, all things taken into account, a contentious day on the convention floor. You can check various sources like CAT41 or the LCMS website for official results & information (if you already haven’t). Thus, I’ll just deal with some of my general thoughts & impressions.
I’m not sure what they’re showing, in terms of floor shots, on the live video feed, but I’m sitting near the front of section D, where the voting delegate seating sections are laid out like this:
FRONT
A-B-C-D
E-F-G-H
I-J-K-L
BACK
IOW, I’ve actually got pretty decent seats up front. I’ve got a pretty good & nice group of people around me, including a couple of folks that I actually met/knew before the convention, so I’m not really isolated and it’s not a bad/uncomfortable situation to be in for the week. Perhaps of most note, at least for some of you out there (and you know who you are…) is that I’m sitting next to an Otten.
It was, as I said before, a long day, with lots of odd & interesting happenings. Politically-speaking, the only comment I want to make right now (mainly because I want to process the whole convention experience before I start to make comments of an overly snarky nature) is that after Sunday’s elections, I now know what it feels like to have ‘your ass handed to you’…
It was pretty darned interesting to have the video welcome message from the “locals” come from President George W. Bush (43). If I had been made to guess who it would’ve been from, knowing that the greeter would be famous, I would’ve guessed former President George H. W. Bush (41). I gotta give SP Kieschnick this much - he must have some pretty serious stroke to have pulled that off!
Well, that’s about all I can recall for the moment (and I still have to write up today’s/Monday’s notes).
-ghp
Hot times in Houston
Let me apologize in advance, for the more-than-usual stream-of-consciousness state of this entry. That said, it’s been a long day, and it’s about all I’ve got left. And, based on the schedule for the next week, that’s about all I might be able to do. Anyway, read, enjoy, and ask any questions you might have, and I’ll do my best to answer them when I can…
The rain stopped & the sun came out a bit, specifically just in time for the 12 block walk from my hotel (seeing as the IN district didn’t rate being at the hotel attached to the convention center) to the all-delegate banquet. The helpful shuttle bus seems to have stopped running by 6pm (which doesn’t bode well for the rest of the week, btw…), which warranted the walk in 91 degree temps with humidity that reminded me of the 12 years I spent in NC (IOW, HUMID!). At least we got to dodge traffic that was beginning to arrive at the Toyota Center for the Beyonce concert…
Dinner was good, nice TX BBQ beef & chicken, green beans, chili beans, sweet cornbread, coleslaw, & potato salad, with a nice apple cobbler for dessert. I was, however, disappointed that the tea was not sweet — so not only do Texans get BBQ wrong (when compared with NC), they also get tea wrong. Tea should be sweet. Nuff said…
Dinner company was also quite good. Nice guys. I must confess, however that I did pass up a chance to try and sit at the table with Atlantic District President David Benke & TBNJFPAC luminary Wayne Graumann. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it — I guess I’m just a coward. ;^)
There were some other, various & sundry meetings going on, and I saw lots of TBNJFPAC buttons & paraphernalia around. But then again, I also got to see, meet & greet some sterling folks like Chaplain Wohlrabe, & Revs Sterle, Bolland, Stefanski, Stuckwisch, Petersen, Gallup, & Ball, just to name a few.
Well, that’s about all for now. It’s time to try and get some sleep before the 6am wakeup call prior to the 7am IN District breakfast meeting, and the start of official convention business at about 9am.
Houston out…
-ghp
Houston, you have a problem
Well, I’m here. I’ve been checked-in & oriented, and I’m about to be fed.
But I’m mighty cranky about having to pay for ‘net access, and particularly about not being able to use my laptop on the convention floor, even for non-communicative stuff like taking notes & looking up Bible verses & stuff.
More later, as time permits…
-ghp
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