INTRO TO SUNDAY

No one showed up for Bible Study today. I had heard one by one from all but one that they could not come. Well, the one I hadn’t heard from didn’t come either. The pastor, his wife an their infant grandchild came and me.

We used the time to video an introduction for my speaking engagement this weekend. Very few people even know my name so we did a piece on how we met and my early days at the church and then came and continued the video at my apartment to see my art and what I do with a monthly newsletter. Mostly we talked and got to know one another better. It helped to relax me a bit. Now I’m thinking I should put the whole message on tape and stay home this weekend. At least all my goofs could be edited out.

My apartment is coming together — at least the living room. But I have a weird odor now. I know what it is; I just can’t believe I did it.

All I wanted was to thaw out two hotdog buns for a couple of sausage dogs for Supper last night. I usually put them in the microwave for one minute at a power of 3. They come out nice. Slightly warm and the bread will not turn to rock very quickly. While I was defrosting the buns I went to turn on my computer and set it up to type. While I’m at the computer the fire alarm in my apartment goes off. I turn and look toward the kitchen and see smoke billowing out of the back of the microwave and it is still running. The kitchen area is filled with smoke and it is coming my way.

I ran (well walked fast) to the kitchen to turn off the microwave and then turned on all the fans I have (three), open every window and then call the emergency number to report there is no fire but I need someone to come to shut off my alarm. I have a ten-foot ceiling and cannot reach the reset button. I didn’t dare open the door to the hall, as it would then set the alarms off for the entire building. Meanwhile I sat with the incessant alarm ringing giving me a headache just to protect my neighbors from the sound. They probably don’t even know what I did for them. Of course, Bobbie will still hear it, as she is right next to the locked control room with the master shut off. It rings in there when ever there is an apartment alarm anywhere in the building.

After much of the smoke dissipated I escaped the blaring sound by slipping quickly into the hall and sitting in the chair across from my door. It seemed like an eternity before someone came to calm the storm. Our maintenance man is new and this was his first alarm shut off. The shut off is not easy. Fire One needs to be called before he can shut anything off. He didn’t have their number.

When things finally quieted down and I returned to the scene of the incident my apartment really stunk. I didn’t know that nuked bread could smell so bad or that the smell would last so long. I mean those two little buns were blacker than sin and glued to the rotating plate. I still have that soaking to loosen up the paste (at least it looks and feels like black paste).

At least I’m distracted from the coming weekend. I think I’ll go work on my bedroom now. That’s where I have stacked all my boxes that need to be sorted. If I don’t do that, I will take a nap.

IMPROVED APARTMENT AND CHURCH

It’s Monday night and the public speaking assignment is now only six days away. Nerves calmed down. No real reason. U guess I just kept busy. I know the passage and I kept going over it in my mind and adding related thoughts. I rarely write things down at this point. I just want to know where I am going so well I will not really need my notes. At least it used to be that way. Who knows now?

On Friday the Housing Authority had a big garage sale across the street. A couple months back they moved from two doors down to Bremerton, now several miles away. Considering what was being sold I guess they got all new furniture. There were desk, chairs, and file cabinets galore.

Since I moved here to a much smaller space than I had ever had before I created a make shift deck. I had a board stretched across two two-drawer filing cabinets. It would have been nice had the filing cabinets been the same height. Since they weren’t I had several loose boards on top of the short one to try and even them out. It wasn’t perfect, but it was workable. The biggest problem was the board was too wide and there was lots of wasted space.

So I went to the garage sale to see if there was anything cheap that would work and improve the looks of my apartment. I found a secretaries desk with a return, I didn’t want the return so I measured its height, went home and measured my filing cabinets and one was the exact height I needed. Since I only wanted half the desk, I got the oak secretaries desk for $15.00. I disliked a stool I had for my drawing table. It was too high and gave me a sore back. So I thought (good thinking) that an adjustable secretaries desk might do the trick. I felt like I won the lottery. Picked that up for $10.00. Amazing, my living room is beginning to look like a real apartment and now I feel like a real person.

Getting those things has motivated me to straighten the whole place up. It takes a lot to motivate me to do that. I am even getting rid of books. I have no idea why I continue to buy books. I am a block and a half away from the public library. Duh! What is it about book ownership that seems so important? Today I took a pile over to The Home’s library. My daughter will come and go through the rest this weekend and that will let me remove another small bookcase that is really in the way. I am still trying to go through boxes of silly things in storage. My yearbooks go next.

We have a Bible study at The Home tomorrow and the pastor will bring his camera and we will do some kind of interview as a lead in to the service. I got connected to this church through the Bible Study. I was attending a much larger church with my family, but this little one is only two blocks away. I was hesitant to get involved, as his church is the same denomination I attended as a child. Not good memories. I attended for a year with no one speaking to me before I decided to call it my church. Involved was to tell him I was attending that church. He is a good preached and the musical talent of the church is outstanding. I had never seen that in a small church before.

Anyway, so I’m there. I am a greeter at the first two services Sunday morning. That’s a fancier work than the job. I help seniors up out steep stairs or the ramp. I move chairs to make room for wheelchairs. I help seniors get coffee, if the like. I do give out bulletins and greet most people by name, finally. I ask about their week, their job, their family whatever need the indicated the week before. I take guests to a seat, get them coffee and a donut and introduce them to several people in their age group. I didn’t like how it was being done so I took over after my predecessor was sent to prison on drug charges. Don’t ask. That’s a whole other story I will get too.

I know most of the people now. I am a strange fit for the church as there are two main groups, maybe three. The first and largest group is recovering addicts. They have a great ministry to these people. The second is young adult musicians. The pastor’s whole family is very musical and his children are all married adults. His son had several bands through high school and most come and play at the church. He plays drums, guitars, bass and keyboard. Very gifted yet very talented. His two daughters play guitars and sing beautifully. The oldest is the music director. One of the son-in-laws is also musically gifted and all these people attract others and seem to connect with musicians immediately. A new musician can attend on one Sunday and be playing on the worship team the next. I love it.

Gone are the days that anyone in this church mush prove themselves and attend here five years before they are allowed to do anything. This strange little church has several people who just get up to take the offering when the need arises. There is no schedule. I thought it was weird, but it works. This is the most laid back church I have even attended. The band plays mostly barefoot. Call the elders, get the district leadership, and get the president. This must be stopped now. Do it and I leave!