The Show Must Go On

Yesterday up at 0400 in order to meet our friends at the designated carpool site by 0530 to drive to Baltimore to catch a 0730 bus to NYC.

Spent the day in NYC visiting Trinity Church, the 9/11 memorial, caught a showing of "Kinky Boots," had a late lunch at a Mexican place (good food, slow service), walked through a bit of Times Square, walked down to where we would catch the bus home, walked back to a diner for dessert (dessert was okay, service was slow, bathrooms were disgusting), walked back to catch the 8 p.m. bus to Baltimore, arrived at 11:30, drove back to the designated carpool site, dropped friends off, drove home, brushed teeth, into bed at 1:40 a.m.

Up at 0600 in order to get ready for Sunday.

Mrs. Ref is staying home for this one.

There is a L--O--N--G nap coming in about 6 hours.

Day 14

Moving right along . . . we are now on day 14 of our move east. 

We haven't killed each other yet, but Mrs. Ref is currently having a discussion with the cats.

Today is a quiet, restful day, which is greatly needed after two long drives and two time zone changes over the last three days.  Tomorrow will include a trip into Chicago proper for breakfast with a cousin of Mrs. Ref and lunch with several seminary friends.

Sunday we are debating on which church to attend.  If FP+ shows up for lunch, then we will attend St. A's.  If FP+ isn't at lunch, then we will look to attend the church where he is guest preaching.

Monday we will be leaving our host/hostess EARLY EARLY EARLY in order to get to Detroit to see our friend Dave.  He wandered into the church in VC one Sunday in 2006 saying he was the musician for the local summer theater and asked if he could play for us on Sundays.  I may be slow, but I'm not stupid, and he played every summer for three years.  He works for the Detroit Fox Theater and plays for the Red Wings, as well as a bunch of other stuff.  And then we head to Ann Arbor to see more old friends.

On Tuesday we will head down to Canton, OH, pay a visit to the NFL Hall of Fame and get rested for the final leg of the journey.

And on Wednesday we will finally arrive in our new home town.  With any luck the moving van will arrive the next day (but I'm not holding my breath).

All ..... most ..... there.

The Best Laid Plans

Last week Friday I had a visit with a parishioner who was just diagnosed with a terminal disease, a lunch meeting with the Bishop, a hospital visit, and the SOU spring scrimmage.  Last Saturday I had to be at the church in Medford for an all day Diverse Church training session.

Mrs. Ref therefore designated today "Sleep-in Saturday."

That was a mistake.

At 6:45 this morning I received a phone call telling me that one of my parishioners had died.  So I was up, showered, dressed, fed and out of the house by 7:15.  Not bad, but not exactly her idea of sleeping in.

But prayers were said, people were comforted, and we move forward.

Oh . . . and there's no heat in the church.

Crickets

So things have been a little quiet around this corner of the blogiverse. 

The family got through Christmas vacation just fine; although I really need to remember that Sundays need to be the end of the vacation.  As such, I didn't really have time to prep a sermon (which is why one wasn't posted here last week), so I sort of ran with a rough draft about gifts.  It seemed to work.

Other things in the office are going less smoothly, and, like Forest Gump, that's all I've got to say about that.

In the meantime, we keep plugging along wondering what the new year will bring.

For now though, it's Friday, which means laundry, maybe a few bills, general housework and starting to organize for tax season.  Happy happy joy joy.

Holy Quartet?

I have an incredibly busy week this week.

My Brasilian daughters, Julie and Bruna, are coming to town for a visit.  They will be here Wednesday through Saturday.  Mrs. Ref and I are very excited about this, and she has taken Thursday and Friday off so she can spend quality time with the girls.

Thursday is Movie Night at church, so I'm tied up with that (and there are reasons I can't cancel this one, which I will probably post about next week).

One of our longtime, beloved parishioners died last week.  I am meeting with his son, also an active parishioner, and his daughter to work out the details.  The funeral will be Friday.

A former parishioner who was active two administrations ago, slightly active under the previous administration, and not at all since I've been here, died and requested the funeral be here at the church.  She was a member of the Supreme Emblem Club, and the funeral will be a combination of the Emblem Club's funeral ritual and the funeral liturgy of the Episcopal church.

Yeah . . . can you tell there's a headache in there?

After meeting with the daughter and S.E.C. representative, they've chosen the Holy Quartet of funeral hymns:

1) In the garden;
2) Nearer my God to thee;
3) Amazing Grace;
4) The old rugged cross

And, of course, the usual Sunday planning and sermon writing that needs to happen.

The good news is that I'm sure I can find a football game somewhere.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow ... tomorrow ... I love you, Tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Thursday, Ascension Day, the damned sling comes off permanently.

There's probably a sermon in there somewhere, but I'll just go with getting the sling off and calling it good.

Home

Last week Mrs. Ref and I headed back to Nevada, MO (pronounced Neh-VAY-duh) for The Kid's graduation from Cottey College.  It was a long, stressful, relaxing, celebratory weekend that is almost now officially over.  The final leg of the weekend is taking place now as The Kid makes her way from Missouri to home via a couple of different airlines.

And in the end, she has been duly commenced and moved out.

She'll be home with us for a few weeks, and then she's off for her summer job at the church camp in the Diocese of Spokane on beautiful Lake Coeur d'Alene (pronounced Cor duh-lane).

The most bizarre part of the weekend was when I came into the office this morning.  I tried to check in and print our boarding passes from the hotel in Nevada, but their printer wouldn't talk to my computer, and they didn't have a business station for guests.  I finally gave up and would deal with it at the KC airport (which is a really weird place, btw).

When I came into the office this morning, though, my boarding passes had printed out on the office printer here.  Wow.

And now it's back to business as usual.

If they made a movie of my life

There wouldn't be enough material.

If you are on the Book of Face, you've probably seen the thing going around for its 10th anniversary allowing you to have the system put your life into a 62-second "movie."

Mrs. Ref did this and it was kind of entertaining.  Slides involving all our girls seemed to dominate.

I said, "Hmm . . . wonder what would happen if we tried me."

Answer:  We're sorry . . . you don't have enough material for a movie.

Oh well, I kind of like what I've got just the way it is.

Things that make you physically sick to your stomach

About exactly one month ago we had a new organ installed at the church.  The short story is that the desire for a new organ was a long, drawn-out process that looked like it would never happen.  And there were debates about what brand and type of organ to get.

As it happened, we were gifted with a substantial amount that covered most of the cost of the organ.  So we now have a new Allen Q350 organ at church.  It's a really great instrument that will improve the musical quality of the parish.  It replaces an older electronic organ.

The new organ has something like 48 speakers spread throughout the building.  There is a set at the back of the church on each side, there is a set above the choir section on each side, there is a set in the sanctuary on each side, and there are two LARGE bass speakers that sit on the floor against the wall behind the altar.

Last Monday, December 2, we hired a guy to take down the four old speakers that were hanging from the ceiling.  When he showed up, I told him, "You need to take down the four old speakers and shelves.  The new speakers on the new shelves stay, and the speakers behind the altar stay.  You're only removing the old big ones."

I checked on him once to see how things were going, and all was progressing well.

TODAY . . . I had some former parishioners (as in, "We used to attend here 40 years ago") come in for a visit.  I was showing them around, getting them caught up and chit chatting, when I mentioned the new organ.

"Can we see?"

You betcha.  We went into the church, showed them the organ and pointed out the six banks of speakers and the two . . . WHERE THE HELL ARE MY BASS SPEAKERS????

Yep.  The two big (36"x18"x18") bass speakers were gone.  Just . . . gone. 

I tried to remain calm while also trying to get them out of the building.  I began making phone calls -- police, insurance, contractor -- covering all my bases.  While the cops were here, I heard back from the contractor.

"I thought you said to take ALL the big speakers."

"No."

"I'll try to track them down."

A few hours later, they were returned.  The organ company is coming through town this weekend and will re-attach them.

After all that, I need a glass of wine and a football game on TV.

Bad News Update

Remember that bad news I couldn't mention the other day -- if you don't, scroll down.  I can now say more.

On Monday, my soon-to-be-11-year old parishioner Miriam was found to have a brain tumor toward the back of her head.

I got a text Monday evening that said the family was on the way up to the major children's hospital in Portland.  She was scheduled for surgery on Tuesday.  Thanks to God's grace, I was in the area for that clergy C.E. thing, so I was able to spend time at the hospital with the family before surgery.

The post-surgery report is that it was more complicated and risky than originally hoped for, but it went well and the surgeon was optimistic.

I checked in before leaving town today, and the family is doing well and all are resting.

Bad Day

This should be a good day.  The first football meeting is tonight (rookies only), and I'm taking a couple of newbies to the meeting.  Hopefully they will want to continue with this hobby.

I'm hearing thunder.  Hopefully that will bring rain.

This should be a good day.

Instead, our air quality has again been downgraded to hazardous.
Outside activities have been restricted and cancelled, so football teams can't do that.

And, more importantly, I have a parishioner who is actively dying.  Technically we don't do "last rites," but that's what people still call it, and I've been asked to administer it.

This should be a good day, but it's just not there.

Road Day

Today was spent pretty much on the road.

The bishop held a meeting for all the Deans and Presidents of the Convocations (Deaneries in some places) at the church in Salem.

That's about a 3-hour drive.  The first two aren't too bad; it's curvy, there are hills and interesting scenery.  That last hour, though, from Eugene to Salem, has got to be the worst drive in the state.  It's pretty the first time you do it -- mountains to the west, a bunch of dairy land, cows, sheep, that sort of thing.  But if you want variety in scenery, that's not the place for it.  Nor is the steering wheel really necessary, since the road looks like this:  ========================= .

The meeting wasn't bad, and we were finished slightly ahead of schedule.

Then it was back in the car for the 3-hour trek home.

Now I spent 6-1/2 years in Montana, so I'm not really complaining about the driving -- it's what you do.  But my knees . . . I am seriously close to tears they hurt so bad.  I can really only do 4 hours max at a time anymore; so a combined 6 hours was almost too much.

Mrs. Ref will be driving more than usual on our upcoming vacation to Montana.

Happy Birthday

It's The Kid's birthday today.

Hard to believe that 20 years ago I was a new daddy.

I'm still not sure how we got here, but I've enjoyed the journey.

I love you, Kiddo.

Gaa

I'm attending a Plan for Tomorrow conference to help me get organized for retirement.  I did this once in Montana, but I seriously failed at it.

So I'm going again.  Apparently, I'm still failing at it.

It looks like my best option for retirement is to die.  The day after my final day of work would be preferable; but really, any time would be okay.

I am dying

I've been relatively healthy all my life.  I've had the usual bouts with colds, an occasional flu attack, but all in all, I think I've been on the above average side of healthy.

I've discovered a few things I'm allergic to; mainly morphine and Easter lilies.  We discovered the morphine thing post-knee surgery when we learned that it tended to make my body want to just stop.  It didn't bother me, but the nurses were sort of in a panic about it.

And there was an incident at seminary when the chapel was full of Easter lilies that caused my throat to constrict and a terrible coughing bout ensued.  That could have been due to the amount of lilies and the relatively small, enclosed space; but to be on the safe side, I've instructed my altar guild to not purchase lilies at Easter.  We decorate the church with many types of other flowers instead.

But now, at almost-49, my body has decided to come down with a case of allergies.  I thought it was a summer cold, but Mrs. Ref said, "Nope, it's allergies.  Welcome to my world."

I'm sure I'm dying over here.

Life

Exactly three months ago I wrote a post about doing three services in one day, one of those services being a wedding.

The wedding was between a woman who was 88, and a man who was 91.  In that post, I said, "I avoided any cracks about 'til death do us part' not being that far off."

It's a good thing.

He died Friday.

I'm doing a memorial service tomorrow.

My his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace.

And then there was one

When I was growing up, there were three voices that epitomized sports to me:

John Facenda:



Pat Summerall:




Frank Gifford:



Of these three, only Frank is left and the glory days are long gone.

RIP Pat.

Really?

I came down from the office to help Mrs. Ref with dinner and said, "What's burning?"

She had put a pot of water on to boil for the spaghetti.  We looked around and couldn't see anything, but man, something smelled not good.

After an enjoyable meal of spaghetti with a special mushroom/artichoke sauce, salad and glass of wine, and after we cleaned up the dishes, Mrs. Ref calls out to me, "I found what was burning."



Yep . . . one of our cats apparently walked across the top of the stove and caught her tail on fire.

Reviews . . .

Will never be the same.  I just read that Roger Ebert died.

Football is Life

I often say the above -- Football is life -- because, from where I sit, it so often seems to be true.  There is hope and energy, love gained and lost, struggle and reward, opportunities made and squandered, exultation and heartache, and often much more and all in the space of a 60- or 48-minute game.

Sometimes the game doesn't seem fair.  Sometimes it seems like the powers-that-be are out to get you.  Most of the time the better team wins, but not always.

Football is life.  And one thing I've noticed is that the teams with the better attitude -- positive coaching, players who play without whining, teams that show no signs of infighting -- are the teams that, more often than not, come away victorious.

I really couldn't put all of that into words until just now.  An internet friend forwarded me a link from a SportsCenter spot a few weeks ago that I had somehow missed.  Football is life; and in life, as in the game, it's the attitude that counts.