That's right, I'm in Beach. And no, there is no sunbathing on sandy shores here. Apparently this little town of about a thousand people in southwestern North Dakota is named for Captain Warren C. Beach of the U.S. Army's 11th Infantry, who lead an expedition of railroad surveyors through the area in 1880. The town of Beach is easy to find. It's at exit number 1 along I-94. It's very close to Montana, in other words.

Last Friday I headed west to this little town for my summer parish assignment at St. John the Baptist Church. Along the way, I pulled off at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park's Painted Canyon Scenic Overlook and rest area.

To my surprise, bison were grazing on the lawn of the visitor center/rest area. Some were even wandering around the parking lot.

This is the view from the scenic overlook.

Today I went out and walked around town. Here's a snapshot of the water tower.

This is St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, where I am living and working this summer.

One of the windows in the church.

A photo of the county's veterans memorial seems appropriate on this Memorial Day. The list of veterans seems long for such a small population.

Just east of Beach is the town of Sentinel Butte, pictured here beneath the towering butte from which it gets its name. I really wanted to get up to the top of the butte, but some traffic was blocking my way:

I'm not sure where these guys were going in their covered wagons, but they weren't moving very fast and they blocked the road. So I decided to try to get to the butte again some other time.

The towns around here and their church congregations have been extremely welcoming, and I think it's going to be a good summer out here.

-Jason

After years (literally) of agonizing over it, tonight I have completed a draft of my graduate thesis! It is pretty much the only thing I have worked on for the last two weeks. Everybody else left for their summer assignments two weeks ago, but I stayed behind. I did the same thing last year, hoping to make progress on my thesis after everybody left. I ended up completely wasting that time by riding bike and watching hours of the t.v. series "Corner Gas," on DVD. Don't ask me why, but our library has all six seasons. I found that series interesting because it was set in rural Saskatchewan, not too far from home, and because it's hilarious.

But not this year. This year, I buckled down and cranked away on the thesis, thanks be to God! It's actually quite nice around here when it's quiet and I don't have to rush to ten thousand different things each day. This scenario was perfect for thesis progress.

Tomorrow morning I will pray, attend Mass, and quickly pack up my things for the summer. Tomorrow night I'll be in Wisconsin visiting my brother, sister-in-law, and my new little nephew. After that, on to North Dakota.

Adios, Saint Louis. See you in the fall.

-Jason

Last Friday, May 14th, 2010, at 5:30 p.m., my little nephew was born to my brother, Ira, and sister-in-law Heather. They gave him the name "Noah Wallen Signalness," and he weighed 7lbs, 7oz and was 19.5 inches long at the time. Ira tells me he has huge feet and is already sort of "tall," even though he's only a couple days old. He must take after his dad.

I'm so happy for the two of them. I think they'll be great parents. But they might have their work cut out for them. That look on his little face seems rather mischievous, doesn't it?

-Jason

It's hard to believe it, but another academic year has flown by. I'm now a member of the "Theology 4" class, and will soon be ordained as a deacon. The picture above is of my old room at the seminary. When seminarians are ordained, they get new nameplates for their doors that say "Rev. Mr....," but it takes a while. A classmate prematurely put up a temporary "Rev. Mr." in front of my name, so it had to be clarified.

After working nonstop for a week on my thesis over the last days I managed to crank out one more chapter. I suppose I'm about half done with that project. Then, as a reward, I took time to pack up my things and move to a new room.

This is a crazy panorama I stitched together of that old room. It seems like just yesterday that I moved into that 10x10' room, but that was almost 4 years ago.

So now I'm enjoying my slightly larger room on the 2nd floor. The seminary is mostly empty as everyone has left for their summer vacations before their summer assignments begin. It's peaceful here when the place empties out. I'm thinking I might just hang out for another week and pound away at that thesis paper before I head north.

-Jason

This little video is from the recent Mass for the "installation of acolytes." Being installed as an acolyte is one of the "steps" on the way to the priesthood. This year, our theology I men were installed as acolytes, including Bismarck's own Thomas Grafsgaard and Corey Nelson. The celebrant at the Mass was Archbishop Naumann.

I came across this video on Youtube and thought I'd share it with the people back home. We have a very good schola (a.k.a. choir) under the direction of Fr. Samuel Weber, OSB. The particular Mass in the video above is especially elaborate, but not too much different from our day-to-day liturgies here.

-Jason