Test run

Driving to St. Bartholomew's this morning for the Mens' Breakfast felt a little strange this morning, at least until I figured out that this was only the second time I'd made that drive since Labor Day, what with travel and illness. But for all it might not have been the best for my health, I'm glad I did.

Fr. McGrath started us off with an "Elizabethan" Morning Prayer, starting with the Order for Morning Prayer then switching to the ante-Communion (up through the Creed), followed by a Bidding Prayer -- which I don't think I have ever heard before, for all that it's right there in the Prayer Book.

Then it was off to the Parish Hall, breakfast and fellowship that ran near to a couple of hours. The old topic of evangelizing in our difficult culture came up again -- I was reminded of today's Epistle (for St. Luke the Evangelist: 2 Tim iv.5) and the no-doubt unsought fame of "Alexander the coppersmith" who among other things "hath greatly withstood our words."

Finally, there were a few little tasks to be taken care of. Fr. McGrath suggested we give the generator a trial run, now that we have generator, outlet, and transfer switch all installed. A good idea, since the windy season will soon be upon us and we need to be sure we know how to set it all up and get it running in case we lose power for a significant amount of time again.

At first things went well, but when it came to operating the transfer switch everything fell apart. There were references to operating breakers that weren't labeled, and more. And in the middle of it all we discovered we were lacking a really key element in performing a power-out switchover to generator: we had no flashlight!

A bit of study of the situation and we figured out that:
1) Not all of the printed directions in the transfer switch cover applied to our installation
2) If we labeled the breakers and the transfer "switch" (really a breaker lockout), it was fairly obvious what to do.

We verified the setup works, and what we did and didn't have. (Didn't haves that surprised us: lights in the restrooms, kitchen and sanctuary.)