Category: Church

Candle lighting

I light a candle for Katie and a good 25th year for her.  She’s off to a good start.

I light a candle for Julie, whose pregnancy is so difficult she will be in hospital until the baby is born.

I light a candle for Chipper, who is sounding more so.  She has the WORLD’S WORST CONTRACTOR, at least as far as memory serves.  Her cable provider does unspeakable things to long dead goats, also.

I light a candle for Rebecca, who recently started coming to church and who has a simply charming babe in arms.

I light a candle for Lois and her midwifery dreams.  High hopes, high hearts, dear one!

I light a candle for Jeff, who ate an entire batch of cookies yesterday.  It is a special mercy of providence that I’m only making a dozen at a time, I’d fear for his safety otherwise.

I light a candle for Keith, who is enjoying his new job, both in terms of the level of competence of his coworkers and the fact that he’s doing what he wants to do.

I light a candle for Paul, who body checked me by way of saying hello when he ‘ran into me’ at the mall the other day.  I burst out laughing after I got over my startlement… it was such a Paul thing to do.

I light a candle for all honest police officers, all dutiful firefighters, all troops serving the Queen.

I light a candle for independent journalists and documentarians.

I light a candle for all retail workers in this, the most wretched time of year.

I light a candle for the animal companions, past and present.  May their spirits encourage us to live in the now.

I light a candle for the weather.  It has been rainy, but it hasn’t been cold, and as one of my Seattle based fb friends says, you don’t have to shovel it.

I light a candle for my landpeers.  Bert and Kim are made of awesome; I am so happy they look after us.

I light a candle for the successful canvass at church, it’s a big load off my mind.

I light a candle for those who have entered the grove; Unca David, John, Derry, Grandad, Granny, Grandma, Kaitlin, Miriam, George, Carmen, Phillip, Grampa, Bounce and Gizmo.

I light a candle for the displaced, the enslaved, the unwanted and the wounded.

I light a candle for the hope kindled in all of us, sometimes, when it seems there’s no hope to spare.

Canvass is done – thankfully

Sue and I can now quit worrying about that and start worrying about other things.  The church community pulled through and all beings may experience happiness.  I still have to survive the budget meeting, but that will be okay.

Yesterday I realized I have been going about this time off thing all wrong.  I wrote out Beacon Birthday (substantially complete, no lyrics).  I went to the spa and got a lemongrass scrub and hot stone massage, which I needed like you would NOT believe.  I went to Sue’s to do church business.  I did a small shop, which Jeff is going to get the benefit of today as I have a nice brekky planned for him.  I did not go singing, but I did record SIX SEPARATE SONGS by singing into my phone.  I’ve had songs in my head for days, and I composed and recorded, on the spot, six songs.  I don’t even know if they were the songs that have been kicking around my head.  But I certainly seem to have no shortage.

Being off work has made it possible.

Margot came and snuggled with me again.  She likes my bed better now that I’ve gone back to using the duvet cover.

And I quit worrying.  Life is short, and the part of life where I’m mobile and get to enjoy myself is vanishing before my eyes.

I also figured out what I am giving for Christmas.  It is good. I think my friends will like it.

Lois!!!!!

We had a superlative meal at Chong Lum Hin last night – blowout amounts of food for seven people and six  beers came to $115.

And of course Lois was there so we had a lovely schmooze.  Kyle, Keith, Kate and Carly joined me Paul and Lois.  Jeff was asleep.  I think he would have enjoyed it.  There was an extremely funny piece of byplay.  The more I hang out with Kyle the better I like him.  He simply doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, and that, my friends, makes a lovely change.

Church was awesome, although (speaking as a semi-pro) Donatella should have pitched her voice lower and slowed down.  She wasn’t being kind to the deaf people in the congregation.  And Lois came so I got to sit around and drink coffee with her afterwards.  Paul took Carol home, blessings on his shiny silver head.  Rob came up to me and scritched me behind my cat ears (I was wearing the anime hat Keith gave me.)

Today I’m off to Sue’s place for ‘the adventures of further churchy business’ and tonight I’m thinking about finding an open stage and singing.

The Beacon Birthday song (or some end of it…) is substantially complete and I am transcribing it.  There’s a bridgy part that I’m not too clear on as far as the melody.  Three other songs are nipping at me to be written down, but I’ve learned to wait until the tunes are fixed to do that.

Time to pop the last of the cookie dough into the oven so Jeff and I can SCHNACK!  MWAH!

And don’t think I’m not angry about what’s happening in the world.  I am.   But I am also loving what is, including this foul and windy weather.

Various

First, this incredibly cute crosspost from reddit.

Second, church was awesome…. John Hagen played trumpet for Danny Boy and Last Post, and we sang This is My Song as the final hymn and oh yeah the sermon was good.

Third, Keith is over watching Brave with his uncle.

Fourth, I made rotelle and beef and tomato sauce  for supper.  Why, I even ground up parmesan.

Fifth, the pledging for next year is still coming in and I’m starting the breathing thing again.  All will be well.

 

The gift

Yesterday was a gift of small pleasures and brief beauty, enamelled and jewelled and assembled with unhurried care.

I awoke early and started my rushing around for a very busy day at church and promptly forgot the single most important thing.  As I stepped out of the house, a scene of surreal beauty met my gaze: in New Westminster all the tall buildings were outlined by the effulgent glow of the sun through a wall of cloud.  The effect was enough to stop me in my tracks and call for Jeff to come and see.

I then went to Thrifty’s to buy meat, bread and cheese for sandwiches for ‘afters’, and then went to the church where I tried to help with setup and then realized I’d forgotten all the Stewardship Drive materials.  D’oh! Back home to collect them and then back to church in time for everything to start.

I gave a several minute ex tempore speech on the subject of pledging and was congratulated by no fewer than three people afterwards.  I never seem to have an accurate sense of how I’m doing, I thought I sounded ill-prepared and merely attempted to connect emotionally and practically to my church siblings.

Please imagine that I was dressed as a steam punk vampire during these shenanigans, as I was.  Somebody else took a picture.

The minister preached a mighty sermon on giving, and used the potlatch as the central idea.  The notion that gracious giving and gracious receiving is part of our human heritage was posited; the emotional calculus of feeling shamed or lorded over when we receive gifts was examined in the light of our materialistic culture.  I must admit I teared up toward the end.  The minister called me on it, asking what happened as I started out smiling and started not exactly scowling but getting more and more serious and I said sheesh if I stop smiling maybe it’s because I’m very moved.

Short talk with Rob W about a specialty item of clothing he may feel inclined to sew up for me. Planning is.

The sandwiches went over (and down) very well.

Tom and Peggy invited me to supper.

The minister helped finish the washing up.  (one of us, one of us!)

I returned home at 1:30 (told you it was a hectic morning…) footsore and tired, and no sooner cleaned one pan and changed that Paul rang.  “Walkies?”

I looked out the window.  With his inerrant attention to the weather, he had picked the one portion of the day wherein we were likely to get direct sun.  Although my feet were already complaining, we did a circuit of Oakalla (aka Deer Lake Park), and saw:

A beautiful sky, filled with cirrus and nimbus and cumulus clouds

A VERY LARGE and unidentifiable raptor soaring in the same skyfield as a gent flying his glider at the model airplane field,

A chickadee chasing a moth (I had never seen such a thing) apparently for pure sport (the moth put on an incredible burst of speed)

Dragonflies catching the last of the sun

Many happy dogs who really should have been on leashes but were well behaved anyway

Sleeping kids in strollers.

Then home, where I relaxed with ER and SG1 until it was time to haul myself upstairs and make biscotti to take.  I made pumpkin spice biscotti out of my own head’s recipe; they were well received.

I supped with all of the local Lunder-males, grampa, boys and grandbean, and it was a delicious meal of inadvertently caramelized butternut squash, roast chicken breasts, taters, broccoli, home made cheese sauce and pumpkin pie.  It was all edible and choice.  Bean-pie is so adorable as he falls asleep it was most charming.

Then home, to sleep; woke at 1:30, forced myself back to sleep and up again at 7.  A windy nasty day, but I have coffee and biscotti and the world can go hang until I watch Treme.

Today  – renew car insurance (I folded – I feel like I can’t live without a car as long as church is so time consuming and then there’s the issue of job hunting), church business have to leave the house for, more church business, another bit of church business, contact the folks in Pemberton to arrange transport of the furniture, and, if the fates are kind, some practicing and writing.

I light a candle for all those in Hurricane Sandy’s way.

I light a candle for the folks at Pennzoil who topped up my brake fluid without charging me.

 

 

The good and the bad

Three homilies in the making

The manifold path – the various things people have done to experience the numinous.  I had extensive notes at one point and lost them, so reconstructing it is a bear.

I had a comrade – coping with loss of friends

This Chalice – the symbol of our faith.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful homily by Sandy Burpee yesterday at church.  Sandy has been active in social justice issues since forever, and he is a force to be reckoned with; his accomplishments include getting Beacon involved with the food bank in Coquitlam and getting more social housing into the Tri-Cities.  The homily was in the form of a description of what a day is like at the food bank and I was moved to tears.  We are SO fortunate to have people like the Burpees (Cathy is awesome too!) at our church.

Wore my bardic hat to church.  I love the reference in The Wire to ‘the Sunday crown’ so that’s how I referred to it.  Lovely long chat with Rob W after church.  He likes me because he can be politically incorrect around me.  C’mon, he’s ex-military – gotta cut the man slack somewheres.  I told him about me new project, which is A COMPLETE LIST OF GENDERED SLURS, more on that in another post.

Saw Keith briefly yesterday, we had a nice long chat.

FINALLY heard back from the rellie regarding the piece of furniture I have to go pick up.  He said he might bring it down but he wasn’t enthusiastic, and a drive to Pemberton is no prob.  Thinking of hiring Katie’s dood to assist, and he’s got rellies up there himself so it might all work out.  More on that when we finally get it.

It’s Pledge drive time at church!  If you want to support children so that they may go to a Sunday school where (age appropriate) they can learn about sexuality, critical thinking skills and why being civil is better than being a jerk without getting pounded in the ear about God, please send a cheque in any amount to Beacon Unitarian Church, #414 – 552A Clarke Road,  Coquitlam, BC V3J 0A3. Thank you, no salesthingy will call.  I got Keith to pledge, which pleased me NO END.

I have a LOT OF STUFF to do and of course am swithering about doing it.

Eddie is calling and running up and down the stairs.  Sometimes 10 pounds of cat can sound like heffalumps.

Made stirfried chicken and veg/rice, plus bonus rice pudding, for dinner last night.

Woke up about two hours ago missing John, which started this all off again.  It would have been his birthday this past week, which is probably why I have been thinking about him so very much.

Excellent news

I have a job test on Monday at noon which I am very pleased about.

Also I actually TYPED the minutes and sent a draft to Sue already; the board meeting was last night.

Also Sue and I ground our way through the Stewardship Drive work (she did most of the work but I will be instrumental in getting it all printed for the pledge package).

Furnace on for the first time this year.  House smells like a dusty cat.

 

Brain hurts

It’s like a slap in the face to get up and realize there’s NO MORE SUN.  But hell, it’s October.  And October is SOME OTHER PLANET Month. (Obligatory Joe Hall reference).

I’m off to put gas in Ziva, maybe even for the last time as the plates expire at the end of the month and I’m not renewing them.  I will collect Katie and bring her back here for laundry and other mischief, and then churchy type stuff in preparation for the Board meeting tomorrow.

I am working on three new songs simultaneously.  One of them is because I downloaded a free app which allows me to strum chords I couldn’t play tanked up on painkillers, meth and ketamine, one of them is vibrating rapidly back and forth between being George’s theme (Lady of the Deep Waves) in my imaginary show and being something sad from the Game of Thrones universe, and the other is a Celtic style “Go forth and be happy” kinda tune.  I must be driving Jeff nuts, I’m practicing for hours every day and unfortunately it’s rather hard for me to write songs without actually, you know, like, singing.

I am contemplating the list of things I’ve put off with misery.  I’d like to trade that in for some feisty action and a dirk to slit the gizzard of my procrastination but the friendly NPC at the counter is NOT helping.

I’m enjoying having a phone that allows me to post pix directly to my blog though, I think it instantly made it more fun and interesting.

 

Yesterday, a tessellation

Jeff took me out to breakfast. I couldn’t hack a turkey just for the two of us, so it was roast chicken with taters, squash, veg and gravy. Opening (ha, everything was already open and the sound tech had just finished encouraging a rather poopy bird (flicker?) to leave via the window by which it gained entrance) and closing church; excellent service, interacting with the Bean, who is TALKING UP A STORM, finding Tom’s sweatshirt just as I was locking up, identifying it by the sawdust and getting it back to him; taking Carol home, dropping in on Kira-kitty to say hi and finding her so still that at first I thought she was dead (I thought my heart would stop) but she’s just deaf, and promptly got up when she realized I was topping up her dish. Singing and playing the compost song for the minister (I tolja I can write a song about anything); more practicing when I got home. A lovely long phone call with Jan of Courtenay – a brief one with daughter Katie – in all an entirely satisfying day. Ziva’s rooftop was retracted; glorious fall day; almost starting to be creeped out at how I’m starting to think it really should RAIN.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE.

Visits.

Visited with Sue this morning to help her download from her daddy’s funeral. He was 102.  Meshuggas about the inheritance; waiting is.

LOVELY visit with Mike last night (funnily enough I’d been kvetching to Paul, with whom I was practicing yesterday, about how MIKE WUZ NOT RETURNING MY CALLS WAHWAH) and he called around 8 and I kinda forst him to let me come over.  I brought Otto and sang Theo’s Theme and John Scalzi’s Blog and Compost and Grateful and It’s Just So Nice When Someone knows your Name, and Lemming’s Twofer, and the first verse of Wanted to Believe, and Mike sang the drop D version of Dylan’s Tangled up in Blue and another song, I can’t remember which.  We talked about various things, including how trying work is for him right now, and how the insomnia really doesn’t help. BUT HE FOUND THE TAYLOR.  His parlour guitar was lost in the move but he found it again, and so me happy.  I was VERY BAD and drank two beers, which made me so drunk I collapsed on the sofa and slept from 10:30 til 8:30 the next morning.  Two beers.  I always was a lightweight, but this was ludicrous.  Also worked on Rozo for a while, her shoulders were a reticulation of weenie little knots.  While I was there Mike called Brian and I got to talk to him for a while.  There is nothing like the sound of a friend’s voice, yanno?

This morning I came home and promptly started brekkie for Jeff, being melon and bacon and pamcakes, and then Sue called and I went off and had a second breakfast of more coffee.  Also, getting checks signed so I can pay some churchy bills. Then I wandered into a sign shop and ORDERED the John Caspell Memorial Pinball Parlour sign for reelz this time, and then my other errands got shunted aside as I had to trot home due to the coffee.

Now I am looking up the language of flowers on the internet for a bouquet I’m buying for the minister tomorrow and as soon as I change my clothes – ew, slept in my clothes, what am I, frosh at some scummy college??? – I’ll be off to buy a floral bouquet, pick up some more spray paint, and buy some eggs and butter to get going on some biscotti.  Roast chicken for dinner tonight.  MMMMM chicken.

I cooked a pork roast the other night with basil and lemon thyme from Suzanne’s deck garden.  It was nommy too, although Jeff owned that it was a little overcooked.  We did agree that pork roast should be roasted, it doesn’t cook right in the crock pot.

Paul and Keith are off to Seattle for the long weekend.  Katie is doing cat care this time; I should call her.  The only reason I know she’s alive is from her facebook comments.

Miss Margot has been extra barfy.  I need to brush her very very thoroughly and give her a lot of kitty malt.

SO LOOKING FORWARD TO SINGING NEW SONG FOR MINISTER.  he he.

New Song – Compost

It was wonderful to hear back from the minister. This is in D open tuning.  I’ll be singing it for her Sunday.

From these thorns, we will grow grapes
From this dry and brittle grass, we’ll harvest grain
From this rot,  we will make sweetness
once more as the seasons turn again

What did you put in your compost today
With perspective, a little help and time
All may be redeemed, all may be transformed
And in the garden peas and beans will climb

From this sorrow, we may grow compassion
from this anger, seeds of justice grow
from this envy, resolve to do better
Once more, though it seems it can’t be so

What did you put in your compost today
With perspective, a little help and time
All may be redeemed, all may be transformed
A better world awaits if we but climb
A better world awaits if we but climb

And for those of you who hate it when I’m serious, this via Stephen Fry from twitter:  It’s #JamesBondDay so we might as well get the oldie of the day of out the way: “What time does Sean Connery go to Wimbledon? Tennish !

I will never have as much fun as these two dogs

Rowf rowf rowf POP.

And in keeping with the canine theme this morning, check out these puppies interacting with an iPad.

SSSSSophisticated SSSSSSSSnake is sssssssssssuave.

Links good as of August 2020

Yesterday I ground through some work for church, ran the dishwasher and made cinnamon buns and put a roast in the fridge to thaw. Minister got back to me and wants to hear the song on Sunday.  Made an appointment with the bookkeeper.  I’ll be making an appointment with the dentist and the eye doc today, I can no longer stand how horrid my teeth and glasses are.

I am completely disgusted with the Mentalist.  Castle got its mojo back as soon as it ditched the arc.   I’m pretty burned out on NCIS although Mark Harmon is never hard to look at.  Treme is as amazing as it ever was.

Disturbed night of sleep

I woke at 2:30 and stayed awake for a couple of hours, then slept again.  I woke up and thought “I know what time it is – it’s 9:30!”  Then I checked my computer and it was 9:25.

Jeff has YAY made more coffee, so I think I’ll stagger out into the kitchen and review my to do list.

I had a lovely long chat with Keith last night.  He had a wonderful time in Toronto and had many stories to tell of old friends and family.  He very much enjoyed hanging out with Peter and Sarah, and said that getting Kaileagh and Sophie into the same room was pretty funny (they are both high energy wirey blondes with attitude).  Grandma Phyllis is about the same as always, only a little less mobile, but she must have been very happy to have so many of her family and family friends about her, given that she’s had two dreadful losses in the last few years.

My new song on Otto is NOMMING ME BRAYNZ!  It uses 7, count ’em, 7 chords, all in rapid fire succession, and also requires finger picking, so it’s at the outside edge of my ability to play.  Oh Muse darling you are a cruel and uncaring personage.

I continue to await with interest the comments of the minister on the new toon.

 

Church, food, music.

Took a chicken soup to church today for the soup lunch, and despite there being 7 SOUPS (A new record) every drop and smidge of it was consumed.  Thanks to Shane for his peppery beef soup, it kicked ass.

The homily this morning was amazing, about how readily various faith traditions coexist inside Unitarianism.  I have a copy of the homily, and intend to carefully re-read it.

I have two commissions for church; one to write a song about compost, and one for Beacon’s birthday celebration (church is 30 years old in February).  La la!  Also I took Otto to church today and lightly exercised him.

The calming effect of action

A few days ago I was all triggery and overwhelmy about my sad state as a buttbrain who had helium hands and volunteered for something she oughtnotta.

Today I am not.  That is because when I get together with Sue (usually there is FOOD and CAT and PLOTTING) we have this dreadful bias toward action.  We have now set up a new way for members to donate which will make life easier for everybody.  This is with respect to regular donations AND estate planning.  And we need to have the conversation about estate planning.

It will be a little more complex from a bookkeeping point of view, but that’s why we hired a bookkeeper.

And now, fresh coffee.  I feel better.  I have a day of running around and visiting friends and sushi in front of me.

 

hey mOm