Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

I was wrong, sort of. I was right, in that I wouldn't be home much until Wednesday, but I was wrong about *which* Wednesday. Last week Wednesday, after the election, I was home, sort of. I was creaky and tired and really not moving well, so I pretty much just did laundry and packed. Thursday I went to work, and as soon as I got home, J started putting stuff in the car so we could go to Chicago. Fortunately, he was already pretty much ready to go (some serious 'wanna leave now!' vibes), so I wasn't waiting around for an hour while he remembered "one last thing". Some of that is because I'd made a list of things that needed to be done around the house before we could leave (cat related things that he never remembers), and they were done by the time I got home from work.

Then we went to Windycon. I spent Friday lounging around the hotel, as J was working on a friend's trailer. *I* thought we went over Thursday so *we* could do stuff on Friday, but I guess I was wrong. (I did wander over to the mall and did some clothes-for-work shopping and went to the Billy Goat at the food court, so there was that.) J had a scratchy throat on Thursday, and assumed it was just a cold, but it got worse, so Saturday he trundled off to Urgent Care and got an antibiotic script for Strep Throat (he also has a cold - congested and coughing and sneezing, no fever). Sunday I drove home. There were inches of snow on the ground between StJoe and Kalamazoo, but the roads had been plowed, and were just wet.

Monday (I thought) was going to be a pretty easy day - unpack, do laundry, go to rehearsal. I had forgotten that there's Bell Choir rehearsal on Monday. And then there was a Worship Team meeting right after it, that ran right in to "Leave for FCB rehearsal". I dashed home after Bell Choir and got my gear for FCB and something to eat, and went to the meeting, where we dealt with many complaints about the new minister (her hymn selections are old and slow and boring, and she preaches too long, mostly). There is a shift in church populations around us -- the big UM church the next town over is splitting off to the Global Methodists, and the big UM church in town is remaining with the United Methodists -- and she wants us to get some of those people. It ain't gonna happen unless she makes some changes in her sermons and song selection. In this day and age, the way to build a church is not an old-fashioned service, of the kind that was old when I was a kid. A traditional style service is fine, but it needs to be shorter and have better hymns. We have three hymnals in the pews. We rarely use the black one, and I don't think they've ever used the green one -- we used to use them all, even when we had an old white man in the pulpit. (to be fair to the old white man, he was a lot less conservative than the younger white man we just had -- who rarely did anything from the red hymnal "because they're old".) I try to get the pianist to play some hymns faster so they're not so boring, but the pastor will sing slower and beat out the tempo she wants on the pulpit. :(

Tuesday I went straight from work to a Red Cross blood drive one town over (in the opposite direction, natch). I was late, but this particular blood drive was lightly scheduled in the afternoon, mostly due to people opting out of their scheduled appointments due to health (cold season has started) or cold/wet/slippery roads. Then I went to LCCB rehearsal. J had scheduled a meeting with our financial planner for Tuesday as well, but I kinda missed out on that one. I had neglected to put the blood drive on the calendar in the kitchen (he hardly ever looks at it anyway), so he scheduled a meeting at the same time.

The funeral meal was last Saturday. It was not quite the wreck I thought it would be -- I got the crew to set the hall for 102 people, and we fed about 85, which gives nice spacing. (They had originally only set 80, so it was good thing I had them set more tables.) There were more people than that at the service, but there were some who never planned on staying, and some who left when it took over an hour for everyone to get over to the hall -- much chatting with the widow. There were enough leftovers to send some home with the family and still have a light lunch after church the next day. This weekend is the farewell potluck for the minister -- she's not leaving for a month, but there's no open Sunday between now and then. I still haven't decided what I'll bring. Nor do I know which instrument I'll be playing in the praise band -- it depends on how many trumpet players show up.

DB's Miraphone (tuba) is back in its second home -- the corner of the living room. :) It will go back to school on Monday, although probably not before the band director notices that it's gone -- he wasn't in school on Friday, but the associate director was, and he said it would be fine if we borrowed a good tuba.

I set out a hummingbird feeder on Tuesday. I still haven't seen any hummers, but the ladies on the lake say they have, so there are some in the area. Wednesday morning I looked out and there was a Baltimore Oriole on the hummingbird feeder. So I dug that feeder out and set it out. Thursday afternoon the Oriole was on the oriole feeder.

My left shoulder had been hurting since the concert (apparently, I really shouldn't unrack chairs); so I finally went to the ortho last Friday. She gave me a script for therapy and one for the NSAID-that-actually-works. After five days on the NSAID, the shoulder felt pretty good, but I still kept the PT appointment. The PT said that it was a good choice, as the joint is still not right, so we'll be working on the tendonitis which allowed the joint to shift a little out of position. So now I have exercises and icing to do. whee.