Weekly Travels February

While often my travels are dictated by my work schedule, I am going to try keep at a running monthly schedule of potential Chapter (and I've thrown in a couple Council visits of some distance) related visits/events. If anyone from my area is interested in traveling with me, contact me and we will see what we can do. And lately I've had so many changes to the schedule due to weather, I haven't even posted where I was going:

Week of 2/10
• Monday 10 18th District Inspection Minerva Chapter
• Wednesday 12 11th District Inspection West Gate Chapter

Week of 2/17
• Monday 17 7th Arch Inspection Painesville COUNCIL
• Tuesday 18 4th District Inspection Norwood Chapter
• Wednesday 19 19th District Inspection Mahoning Chapter

Week of 2/24
• Tuesday 25 2nd Arch Inspection Van Wert COUNCIL
• Thursday 28 8th District Inspection Oak Harbor

Circus & Day 3 Parking

Another cold and busy day parking cars at the circus but not complaining as we are done again for another year with fund raising. In addition, we are going to be able to do some extra items this year as we increased the funds since we did 5 shows this year versus 4 last year. We had lots of help and I really appreciate everyone braving the cold. Here are a few pictures for the circus and the parking efforts

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Circus Parking Day 2 and Grand Family Meeting/Willoughby Chapter #231 Inspection

Today was a split effort. I left REC Greg Clatterbuck in Dayton to head up the efforts with the Circus Parking Fund Raiser and I headed to Cleveland with Pam for the Grand Family Meeting and Willoughby Chapter Inspection. All the Grand Chapter Officers were present and most DDGHPs along with many PGHPs including MEC Gerogre Shell from the 3rd District and REC Joe Fair DDGHP from the 3rd District. We covered a number of topics and even talked some on next year and REC Keith O'Dell's ideas. Afterwards, Willoughby Chapter performed the Past Master degree for their Inspection with MEC Bob Thomas doing a couple of major parts. After a nice dinner we headed back to Dayton to prepare for the final day of working at the circus tomorrow.

Day One Circus Parking

Tonight was the first day of our fund raiser and with all things considered it went relatively smooth. Everyone who was to show up did and I don't think anyone froze to the ground. In fact many are ready to come back for more either tomorrow or Sunday. I'll have some pictures on Sunday to show some of the fun we had this weekend. But look at the bright side, after Sunday we are done with fund raisers for another year....

Preparing For Fund Raising Effort

While last night again the weather slowed down any travel, tonight I had some last minute prep for our GHP Fund Raising efforts of collecting parking funds at the Shrine Circus. Tonight I headed to my lodge to attend the Craft Club meeting and begging for a couple folks to fill in for some last minute cancellations from workers called into work this Saturday. I also had to get the safety gear and money pouches this evening but I think we are now ready. In addition, this year I'm making some hot chocolate to try to keep the help warm.

Trinity Chapter 50 Year Pin Presentation

Tonight we presented Past High Priest Bill Bowman his 50 year pin. Despite the terrible weather conditions we did a very quick opening (as tonight was our stated meeting), dispensed with all unnecessary business and then did the presentation. Afterwards we quickly closed and went downstairs for some refreshments. We dud our best to get everyone back on the road as quick as possible so they could safely head back to their homes. While we were in the temple less than around an hour, we got around 1/2 inch of sleet/ice and a couple inches of snow....

Busy Night ..... 3 events

Well after trying to spend most of the day yesterday in cold recovery mode, tonight I ventured out for three events. The first was unfortunately the sad event for the evening as I went to the viewing for Brian Arnold's wife. She was 43 and had been battling cancer for a while and they just thought she was starting to get better, it was not meant to be. Brian is Past Master and Past Monarch at Beavercreek and has not been in the best of health over the past couple of years himself. Next I travelled down to the Past District Deputy Grand Masters Meeting. We had 16 in attendance including one of the current Deputies and Junior Grand Warden Doug Kaylor. We discussed several topics including the Grand Masters One Day Class including the Mark Master Degree. While the meeting lasted a little longer than normal, we covered many valuable pieces of information. Next I headed down to the Miamisburg Temple where Valley Commandery (mine) was meeting. Since I got there so late they were basically done but it did allow me to confirm with several of the workers at the Shrine Circus this weekend about shifts and assignments.

Muskingham Lodge #368 Inspection

I decided that I would make one last stop for the day on my way home from Mansfield and stop at the Lodge Inspection of Musingham Lodge #368 in the 18th Masonic District in Fultonham Ohio just below Zanesville. This is an extremely small town with a 2010 census report population of 176. The lodge itself, however, has 110 members. They had a large contingency of PDDGM's present and several visitors from outside their district as they are located right next to the district line. In total they had around 70 present for the Entered Apprentice Degree. This is my first visit into the 18th District but I was treated as if I was from the District and I had the opportunity to meet one PDDGM who served in 1969 and was 88 years old who seemed more like he was in his 60's. The biggest issue was trying to find a place to park sine they still had lots of snow around and given the size of the town had very limited parking. Luckily the one guy parking in front of the temple left just enough room for one more car. It was a little interesting to leave after the Inspection since people had to park 2 and 3 deep at the curb and even into the street to accommodate all the cars.

Ohio Grotto Association Meeting

I next took the trip north to Mansfield and Baku Grotto who hosted the state meeting of the Ohio Grotto Association. They had almost 60 in attendance and the majority of the Grotto's in the Association were represented. To accommodate the changes in society and reduce commitment requirements, they presented a motion to reduce the time in the State Line for an officer from 6 years to 4 years. The Grotto is a fun bunch of Masons and you often get the opportunity to meet and talk with Masons who you might otherwise not have an opportunity. One of my favorite things about the Grotto is they are definitely the least "political" of all the Masonic groups in which I belong so you can really feel comfortable just being yourself.



Springfield #48 and Shawnee #237 Chapter Inspections

After taking a couple days off to hopefully start feeling a little better, I went to Springfield in the Sixth Captitular District for a couple Inspections. They held their Inspections back to back in the Past Master and Most Excellent Master degrees. MEC Bill Berry was present along with Grand Master of the 2nd Veil Dan Smith and Grand King Keith O'Dell. REC Al Johnson Grand Recorder of Grand Commandery was also present. They did a nice job on the work of the morning and with a temporary thaw out the weather seemed to cooperate. While I unfortunately had to leave before they were finished as the work ran a little long, the drive to the next location was nice as the weather still seemed to cooperate.