A Not-so Sunny Day

Today has been a cool and rainy day in California. It is also our Wedding Anniversary. We had planned on going out to a nice place for dinner, but instead went out for Dim Sum at our nearby Ginger Cafe because of the rain. We are anxious to hear how Sydney's great dance and birthday party sleepover tonight goes! Barry and Sandy recently returned from a vacation in Hawaii . Tom and Jeanne are visiting in Birmingham and then up to Pigeon Forge for a vacation. Becky Earnest has been helping me a lot with my Sons of the American Revoluton paperwork. I get inducted next month. Here in California, school kids do not sing songs like "America the Beautiful", "My Country tis of thee" etc. in school and generally patriotism is seen as war mongering. I am impressed by many of the activities SAR has to try to help counter that. It also helps me appreciate the history of our family. One of the reasons our ancestor Scots-Irish left Ulster in the 1700's was the Test Act which basically disenfranchised the Presbyterian Church as well as any other non-Anglican Church. The Test Act was brought home the other night by our (Methodist) Minister. She had flown to Birmimgham, England, at the request of a family there to conduct a funeral there for a member of our church who was from Birmingham. They could not allow her to conduct a service because she was not a Church of England Minister. They offered though to make her a member, but she would have had to pledge allegiance to the Queen! They finally reached a compromise and the service went on.