As I posted last week, the Virginia British Motorcycle Club had their annual Show and Swap at the Fairgrounds in Leesburg.
As my bike still needs front-end parts, I drove the ’90 Civic Si (its a great parts chaser!) Lots of fine bikes, a really nice sunny warm day (not too hot, perfect!), and a number of great vendors.
I had a great time.
Well – a number of folks came to the Christ Congregational Church (UCC) in Silver Spring, Maryland Sunday night to hear Calpernia Addams speak about Welcoming Transgender Christian – they were welcoming – but Calpernia was a no show.
The Rev Todd Hunter,the pastor of that church, stepped to the pulpit about 10 after 8 and apologized, but said she’d not answered her cellphone and she’d not contacted the church to explain.
Fortunately Pat Conover (of UCC) and Roxanne (of local support group TGEA) spoke to the audience and did their best to answer questions and enlighten the listeners, but it was a bit troubling that Calpernia didn’t show. We were pretty worried about her – there have been a number of incidents of violence to T-people over the years, some transwomen were murdered in DC recently, and sometimes things happen – but she posted an apology to her weblog Monday morning (dated “Sunday Midnight”) so apparently she is ok …
Ah Well … maybe next time?
This is a continuation of the story begun in Calpernia Speaks part 1
http://www.calpernia.com/comments.php?id=P142_0_1_0
On Saturday we were cleaning house upstairs. I’d left the main door open to let in some light – and it amuses the cats to watch the squirrels foraging for nuts.
About midafternoon as I walk by the top of the steps, I noticed the cats were very interested in something outside.
Seemed a neighbor cat had come by for a visit!
This is a real photo of our cats, not posed, no catnip was consumed in the making of this shot, no photoshop creativity (other than resizing the picture, curing red-eye, and minor contrast enhancement) – its pretty much directly out of my Olympus digital camera!
Just had a phonecall from my honey who read in today’s Washington Blade that Calpernia Addams is coming to town and will be speaking at a local church about Welcoming T-Christians into a church community.
Here’s what it says in the Events section of the Blade:
"WELCOMING TRANSGENDER CHRISTIANS" will be the focus of a program at Christ Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, on Sunday, Oct. 5, 8 p.m. Guest speaker transgender activist and author Calpernia Addams. 9525 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, Md.
The church website http://www.christ-ucc.org says this:
Transgender Author to Speak
On Sunday, October 5, at 8:00 pm, transgender activist and author, Calpernia Addams, will speak at CCC on "Welcoming Transgender Christians". She was the subject of the critically acclaimed 2003 Showtime film, "Soldier’s Girl". The film tells the story of Addam’s relationship with PVT Barry Winchell, who was murdered in 1999 at Fort Campbell, KY, by fellow soldiers who believed him to be gay. Born in rural Tennessee to a strict Fundamentalist family, Addams served in the Navy in Desert Storm, became an entertainer in Nashville, and now lives in California. She is the author of Mark 947: A Life Shaped by God, Gender, and Force of Will, an autobiographical work of how she came to terms with her gender identity and Christian faith. The title is taken from Mark 9:47 – "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out". The event at CCC is being sponsored by the Open and Affirming Task Force and the Board for Social Witness.
Calpernia’s Weblog is here:
http://www.calpernia.com/weblog.php
Leesburg, VA – Sunday October 5 2003 – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
See ya there!
http://www.virginiabritishmotorcycleclub.org/rally.htm
The bike project has been in a holding pattern for the last few weeks. I took the front end apart to replace the seals and bushings and found damage to one of the spring holders and a ding in the lower leg. So – I decided my best strategy was to get another frontend and rebuild that one, as needed. I decided if I could find the same year front end, I could pick and choose parts from 4 fork legs to make sure I had the best 2. So – I bid on a couple sets around Labour Day and got what I think is the best bet on a set from British Coumbia – its just taking a while to get here, what with the storm and all. While I was waiting I bought a pair of Dunlop K81 tires for the bike – the old K70s were dry rotted and cracking.
Then I had to stow away all the tools and loose parts for the expected hurricane
that fortunately never arrived as predicted.
Founded in Springfield, Mass., in 1901, Indian was once a rival to American icon Harley-Davidson. It lasted more than 50 years, and first went out of business in 1953. This time, it lasted five.
On Friday, Indian closed the factory in Gilroy where it made heavyweight cruisers and other motorcycles, telling its 380 employees that a deal with a new investor had fallen through.
The closing ends another chapter in the storied history of Indian Motorcycle.
Read more at
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/6818690.htm
Well – its Saturday evening and after OPM gave federal Employees (and thus, Contractors like me) 2 days off, we came through the storm remarkably well!
I spent 2 days clearing loose stuff from the yard, planting the remaining hanging baskets at the front door, packing up all the tools and loose parts on the back porch, freezing bottles of spring water, and in general, storm proofing as best I could. The TV news showed ever expanding storm pictures, scarey spiral clouds and vortices as seen from space, and we had gusty winds that were loud and made the trees move like wet spaghetti. ’round midnight Thursday, there was a bang, then a series of bangs as transformers sequentially blew all over the neighborhood – and we were in darkness. Friday we woke up and made coffee the old fashion way – boil a saucepan full of water, then pour it through the filter in the coffeemaker. Its slow, its tedious, but – a fine cuppa!
Anyway – we looked around and all of our trees were still standing! Lots of leaves and some branches on the ground, but the house was intact! Spent the day Friday raking leaves and hauling branches to the curb.
After Noon, Emma took the 2000 Civic Si and headed to Media, PA for a retreat she was leading … Storms may come and go, but Congregational Care is for every church!
Anyway – here’s why we lost power Thursday night …
they got it fixed 24 hours later!
According to a story from the BBC, fire has destroyed much of the National Motorcycle Museum near Birmingham, ruining 650 vintage machines and leaving 60% of the building a blackened shell. More than 120 firefighters tackled the fire which could be seen for 15 miles around.
Here’s a late September update on the story http://www.realclassic.co.uk/news03091910.html
Here’s a direct link to the museum’s website
http://www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk/
Important things are in store this week.
I asked for a half-day off this afternoon, but didn’t give specifics.
We’d heard about an interesting event at the Washington National Cathedral this afternoon: A Teaching by His Holiness the Dalai Lama Cultivating Peace as an Antidote to Violence. Sounded like an interesting way to spend the 2nd Anniversary of the September 11th attack
The Cathedral doors open at 2:30 and the event starts at 4 pm – and it sounded like an interesting event to attend – we’d never heard the Dalai Lama speak before. So we decided we could work a half-day, take the metro into town and grab some lunch, then catch a bus uptown to the Cathedral. Simple plan and fun together.
I grabbed Emma at 11, and we took the subway to Farragut West, and walked upstairs to International Square for lunch. 30 minutes later we headed outside
and caught the bus. 30 minutes after that the bus dropped us at Mass Avenue, and we saw a l-o-n-g line of people was already there! we walked 3 blocks to the end of the line and took our place … it was just 1:45!
To shorten the story, we did all get in, but it was packed. We heard chanting – a mix of the Tibetan monks throat singing and the Cathedral choir doing simplesong, with a simple sort of synthesizer backing them. Think Enigma, or Eno … We could hear, but just barely – the sound wasn’t that good where we were, and there were flatscreen digital monitors on some of the stone columns – a very future-retro vision.
Transcript, webcast and official pictures of the event
On a related note – we heard of another respected teacher coming to town –
Thich Nhat Hanh giving a public lecture at the Washington Hebrew Congregation, Sun Sept 14 – 7pm We have tickets for this and are looking forward to hearing him speak.
More info on Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Retreat Center