I am nearing the end of this long summer academic journey. I have never had to think so much over one summer. Christina (my wife) and I are finally taking a nice vacation on the East Coast, visiting my mom and then her parents. My mom and her friend Ellen have this great place up in northern New Hampshire and we’re just kicking back for some well-deserved rest. Yesterday we drove up to the summit of Mount Washington which purportedly has the “worst weather in the world.” It boasts the highest wind speed ever recorded by humankind: 231 mph. When we stood on the summit, the temperature was about 47 degrees F and the wind was going about 45 mph. It was hard to stand up. The reason I look like a secret service agent in the picture is because I was trying to hold my glasses on my face. The picture makes it look a lot easier than it was. When we descended from the “tip top” rocks, it was much better. It was still pretty darn cold, but the wind calmed.

It was a little bit like preparing for and taking the GRE this summer. I started taking the Kaplan course about two months ago and for the past couple weeks I’ve been taking quizzes, practice tests, and memorizing vocab galore. Then the day came. September 7th, 12:30pm. Then I was done. I stepped out of the wind and I am amazed that it’s over. I will continue studying over the next several months because, even though I got a good score, I need to do better. I am feeling a little bit of GRE withdrawal, but it’s good to have a break. With this break I’m working on my paper for Intro to Early Judaism. It’s the first time all summer that I only have one academic task on which to focus. I will have to write more about that paper when it is slicked up a bit more.

Also, I have to send a thank you out to graham for adding this blog to the Anabaptist Aggregator. It’s a good group of thoughtful Anabaptists and I’m honored to be a part of it.