This and that

The other day I sat with a guy from my church and chatted. We were at the nursing home where his wife has lived for the past 10 years. She suffers from alzheimers, and a host of other physical problems. She is basically confined to a bed and can't move about, and she has no idea who her husband is, or anyone else. She does not communicate. He goes and sits with her every single day. He used to feed her every meal, but she just recently had a feeding tube inserted, so now he just goes and sits with her. I doubt most people at our church know he does this. Most probably don't even know he's married. He never complains, never lets on. He's always pretty happy and I suppose to him this is just normal life. It was odd but rather serene sitting there talking to him as he stroked her hair... and she had no idea.

Earlier this week I got an email from an old friend - one of my best friends from seminary - that he had resigned from his church. I don't know any details, but it always strikes me as somewhat sad whenever I hear someone has resigned from a pastorate; especially when they have nothing else lined up.

I tried to clean my office a bit this week. It is a pig sty. I threw some stuff away. I thought about throwing out my boxes of seminary notes but didn't. Yet. I would like to rearrange the furniture. I used to do that quite regularly, but I don't even remember the last time I did. I probably need to take down some of the stuff on the walls too.

Wednesday I finally used the Nasal Rinse thing I bought. Jane had used one, and I actually bought another one thinking Isaac could maybe use it. Since he didn't, I decided to. But when I opened the box it didn't have the nasal rinse bottle in it. That's a rather important piece. I just used Jane's. I'm sure it's sanitary. I kinda like it, but am thinking of getting a Neti Pot instead.

Our water softener puked out on us last week. Well, or, I guess I should say, the church's water softener puked out. This is always one of those situations that I'm never really sure how to handle. Yes, we live in the house; but it is not ours. I know what *I* would do if it were mine, but I never know where the lines are, or how others feel, because it isn't mine. It belongs to the church, and is therefore the church's responsibility. Some people get this, and some don't, and... it's just always a little complicated. All I know is, it makes a difference not having a water softener with our well water. You can feel it, and perhaps the biggest difference is in the dishes. Not that it's the end of the world, but still. I was very pleased that one person, when I shared the situation, right away offered to contact someone to get a quote. So we have three quotes on a having a new one installed: $950, $995, and $1849. Maybe this week that will happen.

Speaking of which... this week I was totally swamped for some reason. I had too many dealings with water softener salesman, insurance agents, phone solicitors, year-end statistical reports, plus just the normal stuff of people who are upset, sick, in the hospital, had their feelings hurt, and on and on and on.

But it's nothing compared to what's happening in Haiti.

Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner...