A busy weekend

Do you ever have those weekends where you think, "Man, I can't wait to get back to work Monday so I can rest"? Well, okay, so that NEVER happens. But we did have a busy weekend. And I'm not complaining.

ALMOST LIKE A 3-DAY WEEKEND
I didn't have three days off, but I had to close on Friday night. Instead of the usual 5 am - 9 am (or 5 am to 1 pm), I worked noon to 8 pm. So I got to sleep in Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That rarely happens anymore.

Friday nights at the Y where I work are usually pretty slow. The place was empty from 7-7:30, and then, of course, someone came in at 7:30, and another at 7:40. It turned out they were meeting each other there. At least they left right at 8 pm.

TRUNK OR TREAT
Saturday we helped daughter Carrie at an event she was running at her Y branch. She decorated her van and asked if we would help pass out candy out of it. You know what they say about old men handing out candy from a van. Still, there were A TON of people!

The event was from 1:30-3 pm. We arrived a little after noon to see if they needed help anywhere else. As with most Y events (and probably everywhere), volunteers are not always super dependable. So I watched the entrance and let the "trunk people" in when they arrived.

We actually handed out trinkets instead of candy. Carrie's van was decorated as a monster. The back door was the mouth, and we set the trinket bowl just inside the mouth. There was a red "tongue" on the ground. I made the kids walk up the tongue and try to reach in and grab a trinket before the "monster" closed his mouth on them. :) It was actually fun - other than the poor little kids that I scared half to death.

Anyway, we had places to be and had to leave right at 3 pm. There was still a long line of people waiting to go through. Fortunately sil Drew took over for us.

THE BIRTHDAY OUTING
Saturday night we went out with our usual group of friends that go to Takaoka (Japanese restaurant) when there's a birthday. This one was between Mike's and mine, so we both got happy birthday sung to us and received a sherbet dessert with a sparkler on top.

Afterward the eight of us went to Mike's house where we laughed and drank and relaxed amid his museum of all our childhood's memories. He has this classic house he has decorated as close to the home he grew up in as he can get. I think it's awesome.

HIGH CHURCH SUNDAY
Sunday morning we actually went to church! Well, we went to a church anyway. The oldest grandchild was singing in the choir on this particular Sunday. This is the church where they go to school. It is a massively beautiful work of art of a building downtown. I think it's incredible and could sit and look around for hours.

This is pretty "high church" for us. It's something we are not used to, so I think it's pretty neat. We did have a little trouble following along at the start. I thought I had the right page for the reading and song, but it didn't sound like the words I was seeing. For a minute I thought people were singing in a different language. Eventually we figured things out. The sermon was actually quite good, and I was surprisingly inspired. I'm glad we went.

We sat in the front row of the balcony. It was great for seeing all the empty pews down below. I got a little freaked out when we had to stand though. I was afraid I would drop the hymnal over the rail. Worse yet, I didn't like feeling that *I* might go over the rail. We managed to survive.

RIVER CITY RAT RACE
After church we rushed home and changed into our running clothes. At 2 pm was the annual River City Rat Race 5k/10k. This event is also put on by Carrie's Y, so she was helping with everything there. Jane, myself and Drew all ran the 5k.

This was my first time running since the marathon three weeks prior. I wasn't sure if I would walk or run or both because my legs haven't quite recovered yet. I let Jane run ahead and I just did a nice easy job. I think I came in right about 30 minutes. The legs were a little sore, but it did feel good to get out and go again. It was also a gorgeous 70-degrees and sunny.

THIRD SUNDAY SUPPER
A little later in the afternoon we headed out to the Feipel homestead and partook the first of the new Third Sunday Supper.

I'd kind of forgotten we did this at the church I used to pastor. Every third Sunday we would just get together, everybody would bring a dish to share, and we would hang out.

Carrie invited us, another couple from their church, and some other friends. There weren't a lot of people, and I was feeling absolutely beat, but we had food and conversation and enjoyed ourselves.

We finally left a little after 6 pm before I collapsed. We went home and had the pre-bedtime glass of wine, watched a little GritTV, and I crawled under the covers around 8:30.

So, it was a busy weekend. All good stuff. I have not been feeling the greatest this morning. Not sure if I caught a bug, or it's simply the effects of too much fun. We will see...