Maunderings on a Saturday Morning

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd just ramble a bit. Just so the poor dear hasn't thought I've forgotten it, you know.

Today's going to be a scorcher. When I let The Penster out at 9:30 this morning, the heat and humidity was almost a solid wall hitting me in the face. Even the dog wasn't her usual energetic self when returning to the coolness of the house after the heat got hold of her. I have a feeling that our evening ramble is going to be closer to midnight than we ordinarily venture out. It's a good neighborhood, though, so it should be okay.

The house is beginning to look barren and no longer mine. It's not sold yet, but I'm continuing the process of emptying the place. Last weekend, it was suggested that I paint the entrance foyer something other than its exuberant yellow. I've known for some time that I'll probably have to paint the walls some blah color, but was hoping to not actually be living in the house when that happened. My son's coming home next week to provide the labor, and I already have the paint, so that's not a problem. I could do it, but can't bring myself to color over the walls I so carefully painted after Her Horribleness roared through and made a mess of my house.

But the painting's why the house is beginning to actually look barren. So far, much of what I've removed to storage has been hidden in cabinets. Now the rogues gallery has come down off the walls and many of my pictures are in boxes waiting to be hauled off to a drab and barren little room filled with other boxes. I haven't pulled them all down. Don't have enough boxes of the right size for that. But it is still a bit of a jolt to look at the places where the pictures have been and see only blank wall.

And then, what if there's a hurricane before I get everything to wherever my new place ends up being? ACK! I have no way of burrowing through the boxes to find my boxed up picture albums and framed pictures. All I can do is hope that they survive in storage. Now, of course, this may be a ridiculous fear. After all, I wasn't able to do anything before Her Horribleness came through town in 2005 and nothing happened. Loss of life is obviously much more devastating than losing some pictures, yet there is a sense of continuity which goes with having them around to look at from time to time. When I move from one place to another, it's nice to have my rogues gallery and other art (pictures my son made in elementary school, of course) to make the new place "home".

I'll live. But I'm not happy about it at the moment!

Manana, I have an early morning drive up to Lufkin to preach. It's about a 2 hour drive and is through reasonably nice territory, that is, there are trees and hills, not flatland and scruffy stuff. It's a neat congregation. I'm doing something with the kids for Father's Day. Just love it when a congregation picks up on my hinting and comes through! They've always done something for Mother's Day, but Father's Day just seems to slip off the map when it actually comes to doing something for the fathers. When I asked about doing something, my contact volunteered to help provide the 'something'! How cool is that?

This church isn't the only one I've encountered to honor mothers, but just gloss over fathers. Since I'm not the pastor of a particular congregation at the moment, I just hint broadly (well, actually say, "You know, we celebrate Mother's Day. What are you doing on Father's Day?") and see how it goes. When I've been pastor, I just boldly say, "What are we doing for Father's Day?" and then hang in there until something definite, and roughly equivalent to Mother's Day, is planned. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it! *chuckle*

Ah, well! We're headed dangerously close to afternoon here, and I've a couple of morning things to finish before we get there. Who knows? Someone may decide to look at my house this afternoon ... and I still have last night's dirty dishes to hide, er, deal with and put away!