Archive | July, 2018

Clang! Clang!

31 Jul

I was “on the altar” again on Sunday and managed to create a stir.

When I turned to put the offering plates on the side table, I shoved the lavabo onto the floor. Splashed water all over the chair and the floor.  For a split second I considered using the purificators to scrub the floor, but decided that was not an option. The Senior Warden came up the side aisle with a rag and tidied up while I went on about the business of serving communion.

All I can say is, at least it wasn’t one of the cruets.

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The Weekend

23 Jul

The Squire and I went down to Timberville Saturday morning to visit my nephew, who is studying to become a minister in the Church of the Brethren. We went down to hear his first sermon, and  I took down a box of my dad’s books, plus the carton of sermons we’d received from the Senior Warden at Holy Cross. Karl was over the moon! I think if his wife hadn’t stopped him, he’d have spread the papers all over the table right then.

That afternoon we visited the radio station where he works, and visited a Mennonite country store so Karl could buy some marbles to use in the children’s sermon. I bought some corn and sweet potato taco chips, and a bag of wasabi peas. Later we took them to dinner at a Thai restaurant. His home is not large enough to accommodate two extra people, so he and his wife put us up at a motel not too far away.

I have restless leg syndrome and must take my anti-convulsant at least two hours before bedtime. I didn’t take any medicine before we left  for dinner because I didn’t want to fall asleep in my dinner plate, so what with one thing and another it was midnight before I stopped twitching and fell asleep. The Squire, poor soul, said that even after I finally drifted off I moaned most of the night.

Do not EVER let anybody tell you RLS is a “minor” problem!

We woke up early on Sunday, had breakfast, reloaded the car – and still had an hour to kill before church, so we did the one thing I swore I’d never, ever do – we went to a Wal-Mart! I needed to keep moving or I would have simply fallen over from simple exhaustion, so sitting in the car reading wasn’t an option. We just wandered around, but The Squire bought an insulated bag to carry home our restaurant leftovers; it will also come in handy for trips to the grocery store.

So – we got to church a little before 10. Karl was already there, and we followed him in for the grand tour. Professional courtesy and all that! The service was very nice and Karl’s sermon was excellent! He didn’t try to tell the congregation everything he knew (a frequent problem with newly minted preachers) but hit on several themes, used some humour, and tied everything neatly together at the end. My sister would have been very proud of him, and my dad would have been bursting at the seams.

Lunch at a local Cracker Barrel, hugs all around, and we were off to visit our youngest daughter in northern Virginia. Birthday wishes and a nice gift from her and her children, and off again. We got home around 6:30. The Squire finished off his leftover Thai food, but I took my pills and went to bed.

 

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The Box

19 Jul

Several months ago, my sister’s older son announced his plans to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps, and go to seminary. We are all delighted, and I know Lynn would have been, too. I began to go through the boxes I still have, but a fair number of my dad’s books had been shipped off to Operation Pass Along, in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Still, I managed to fill a good sized carton, but the one thing I couldn’t find was a packet of my dad’s sermons.

The Senior Warden had told me that after Daddy died, the Diocese sent out supply priests, trying to keep Holy Cross going, but one man in particular was not vey reliable. My dad had kept all of his sermons, carefully filed by scripture reference, and when they didn’t have a priest, Mr. SW would go into the files, pull the appropriate sermon, and do Morning Prayer.

I call the Diocese, but the papers were not in the archives. In absolute desperation, I called the Senior Warden, and he had them!  Insert Gloria here! He promised to send them to me, which he did, bless him.

Now, I realized that even a year’s worth of sermons was going to be a fair sized envelope, but somehow I was not prepared for this box.  It is 12 X 10 X 11, and weighs 22 pounds! Some envelope! There are sermons in there from his time at St. Mark’s, in Roxboro.  He started there in 1984, and the first pages I picked up are from 1985.  I didn’t even try to go through the entire box, but some day, some fine day, we are going to have to get them all scanned and put into some sort of order.

Wish me luck!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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Itty-Bitty Black Bugs

7 Jul

Every summer, for about a month, we have an invasion of tiny bugs in the bathroom. Back when we were having so much trouble with ants, we called in an exterminator, and he said nobody had ever figured out where they came from or what to do about them, but since they were not harmful and had such short lifespans it wasn’t something they obsessed over.

Fair enough.

Two of them could probably fit on the head of a pin. It amazes me that something so small could possess a heart, a brain and some sort of navigation system. We find them on the wall, clustered around the nightlight we keep burning 24/7; they used to shelter under the clock radio before that item went to the Great Recycling Bin in the Sky. Now, they crawl around the counter, seemingly aimless, but when they meet, each one swings to the left to avoid a collision, and if I put something in their way – a pencil perhaps – they turn and go back. Do they have eyes? Antennae? Do they feel vibrations? How do they do this? What mysterious errands do they run, scurrying along? There’s nothing there to eat; even the ants have given up on that.

Very mysterious. And I really must  find something to do with my time, other than gawping in amazement at a bunch of BUGS!

 

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