Posted on March 14, 2008 - by Calvin L. Smith

Englishman Near New York (19)

Settling down now. Nice to be permanently connected to the Internetat last (my in-laws, Kay’s parents, bles `em, don’t have an internet connection back in Ohio). My daughter (who is over visiting them) and I had to go out every night looking for a hotspot outside of restuaurants etc. There are lvarious free hotspots in some US cities but you have to find them. I have a little device which can pick them up, so Gabriella (my daughter) and I drove all around Toledo looking for hotspots. I was a bit concerned, though,  keeping on stopping outside restaurants for us both to work on our laptops in the car. We looked like we were on some kind of surveillance operation, or worse. I expected to be arrested on suspicion of terrorism at any minute (you know how gung-ho American policemen are).  Anyway, I am here and looking forward to this conference. More about this tomorrow. The keynote speaker is Jurgen Moltmann, the famous German Protestant theologian. Nearly didn’t make it here though. I had to catch two `planes from Detroit to get here and, arriving at the airport earlier than I expected (around 7.30 am) was asked if I wanted to take the earlier flight. I agreed, only to spend the rest of the morning on the tarmac as they first de-iced the `plane (amazing how they do that, with a guy hovering o ver the wings with what looks like a giant gun… very Star Wars), then they tried to fix the engine that suddenly failed. So much for the early bird catching the worm. Finally made it here, and of course bearing my experience in the Midwest taking care to upgrade my car to a big American one (well worth it, drives like an absolute dream).

Looking forward to sharing more about what I’ll be doing over the next couple of the days. But must rush, Morris Cerullo has just come on TV (I cannot miss this). He is looking so much older than when I last saw him.