It began, like all other days, with getting up. Out of bed. Because the cat woke me up.
"Feed me!" she whined.
I looked at the clock. It was 5:30. In the a.m.
Stupid cat.
But I got up anyway. (Stupid me.) And walked downstairs. Avoiding the cat, who kept intertwining between my feet. Not sure what that's all about. If she trips me and I fall down the stairs and break my neck, how will she get fed?
Oh. Right. She just goes to the next (alive) person and wakes them up. And says in her little cat voice, "Feed me! But avoid tripping over the body at the bottom of the stairs. He was too clumsy to feed me."
Cat food for the cat. Coffee for Cheryl (who isn't up yet, but will be in a couple hours). Antacid meds (because I am old and things don't work as well as they used to). Then back up the stairs and back into bed, for thirty precious minutes of closed-eye meditation. (I can't sleep once I've actually woken up -- just drift around in my head, anticipating the alarm clock's chime.) Promptly at 6:59, right before the alarm is supposed to go off, I get up, shut off the alarm, and head downstairs again.
The cat sleeps on her cat-tree on the other side of the family room, quiet. Content. I pour some milk on a bowl of cereal. The cap apears at my side as though teleported, looking up at me with doleful eyes. Are you kidding me? How many times do we have to go through this? I don't give milk to cats. I take my cereal downstairs to the basement, to eat in peace. While reading the news. Which is anything but peaceful. Still too much anxiety in the world. So I switch to the comics, which is much more entertaining and a whole lot less stressful.
After breakfast, it's time to get ready to go. Clean and dressed, I head out to the garage with my bag o' stuff for Sunday School - and Mary, my only companion on these lonely Sunday mornings. But first, time for the car shuffle. Gotta move Adam's car out of the driveway, then move my car out of the garage, then move Adam's car back into the driveway. Should've done this last night, but I have no energy at night.
Then ... it happened. Right at 8:15, my scheduled time of departure. Major lower GI cramps. The kind that indicate last night's dinner did not agree with me. (This happens to me quite often, actually. I have a very finicky system.) But I don't have time to deal with this right now. I have places to go, things to do!
So we zoom off to church, just Mary and me. The early risers. So I can get my room prepped, and she can ... do whatever it is that she does. We come in downstairs through the Children's Ministry entrance, then she scoots upstairs, and I start prepping. And groaning. And waiting for the pain to pass. And it does, after a while.
I'm supposed to start in the gym. The gym was being repainted last week, but all that was supposed to be done by now. Is it? Can't tell. The "Wet Paint" signs are still up. I investigate. Nope, the paint is dry. Nothing has been done all week in here. So I set up the gym for Bernie&Tim's class. Then turn on the computers so we can log the kids in (because we run a safe, secure Sunday School).
Oops. Chrome got an update. Now Chrome doesn't work anymore with the check-in software. Have to switch over to Internet Explorer. Which I hate. Oh, well, any port in a storm.
Now time to prep my class. We're studying the book of Genesis. So I set up three columns on two whiteboards: People, Places, Things. Today the kids get to pick their favorite stories out of Genesis and talk about the people, places and things involved with each story.
Class starts and I have no helper today, so Mary and her friend, Tiff, come down to assist me. We have a strict policy of at least two adults (or near-adults) in each class. It's nice to have the help -- and fun to find out how much Bible-reading the two girls have been doing on their own! It's interesting to see which details they remember and which they do not. I urge the little kids every week to read the Bible with their parents because it was obvious for a long time that this wasn't happening. They were struggling to remember the most basic stories: Adam & Eve, Noah, Joseph. So we began working on memorizing the books, memorizing the stories, memorizing the verses. It's still a struggle, though, because if they're only getting pushed on one day a week (because they're so very busy the rest of the week with everything else), it's difficult to make any headway in their routine.
We need the parents to be diligent about these things!
We finish our lesson and head upstairs for worship with the adults, then after singing for a while the kids are dismissed to go to Children's Church. I go along with them to make sure the teachers have enough helpers -- and of course, this time they don't. The assistant is missing! So I go along with the younger class (4 years to 2nd grade) to help out the teacher. The kids are extra-squirrely today! Someone must've put sugar in their cereal this morning. I have to call kids out by name and take away some contraband (toys) so they'll pay attention (maybe), feeling like Mr. Grinch. But the teacher -- who is a real schoolteacher, by the way -- is able to complete the lesson, so the kids do their craft and then get a chance to play with the show-and-tell stuff she brought. Then we bring the kids down to the gym to have their own worship time.
After church -- after cleaning up my room and shutting down the lights and all the other stuff we have to do before leaving -- I head upstairs to meet with Cheryl and start my next task, which is changing the oil on someone's car. Out in the church parking lot.
Naturally, I forgot my drain pan, so I have to improvise with a plastic storage tub. And I forgot a funnel, so have to improvise with a plastic coffee cup. And I forgot a change of clothes, so have to do it in my Sunday outfit.
Changing the oil is easy. Except for the part where I had just drained the oil, and the lady whose oil I was changing suddenly turned on the car to check a computer readout. "Shut it down! Shut it down!" I shouted, seeing in my mind's eye the oil-starved pistons carving grooves in the cylinder walls. Or, worse, bone-dry crankshaft bearings melding with the engine case. (Been there, done that.)
She turned it off. And I put the oil in. And then she turned it on again. And ... a very serious Error Indication came on: "Low Oil Pressure". Oops. Can't drive the car if the oil pressure is low. This car is toast!
Spent an hour or so pulling my hair out, trying to figure out what to do next. Finally gave up and drove the lady home (along with her family) so they could continue on with their day -- which included a birthday party -- then I drove back home to eat some lunch and do some research.
Turns out that, for this particular car, any time an Error Indication is Set, simply fixing the problem doesn't reset the Error Indication. That is, even though the car now had sufficient oil in it, the "Low Oil Pressure" indication was still lit up. It is necessary to manually reset the Error Indication after the problem is fixed. Kind of like those "Check Engine" lights, which tell the driver that they need to take the car to an expensive repair shop to have someone reset the error indicator so the light goes away.
You'll love the "reset" procedure: With the key in the ACC position, depress the accelerator pedal three times in rapid succession, then press and hold the brake pedal, then turn the car OFF.
Worked like a charm, too. Now the Error Indication went away, and the car ran fine.
The only problem was that I had wasted three hours dealing with a non-existent issue.
Got the car back to the lady and her family, then Cheryl and I went out shopping at the hardware store and ordered our new kitchenette cabinets.
Then home to relax for a little while before the crazy week begins.
Marching Band boosters dinner Monday night. Also, our last Marching Band practice before our first game on Friday.
I'm not feeling ready for the season yet.
"Feed me!" she whined.
I looked at the clock. It was 5:30. In the a.m.
Stupid cat.
But I got up anyway. (Stupid me.) And walked downstairs. Avoiding the cat, who kept intertwining between my feet. Not sure what that's all about. If she trips me and I fall down the stairs and break my neck, how will she get fed?
Oh. Right. She just goes to the next (alive) person and wakes them up. And says in her little cat voice, "Feed me! But avoid tripping over the body at the bottom of the stairs. He was too clumsy to feed me."
Cat food for the cat. Coffee for Cheryl (who isn't up yet, but will be in a couple hours). Antacid meds (because I am old and things don't work as well as they used to). Then back up the stairs and back into bed, for thirty precious minutes of closed-eye meditation. (I can't sleep once I've actually woken up -- just drift around in my head, anticipating the alarm clock's chime.) Promptly at 6:59, right before the alarm is supposed to go off, I get up, shut off the alarm, and head downstairs again.
The cat sleeps on her cat-tree on the other side of the family room, quiet. Content. I pour some milk on a bowl of cereal. The cap apears at my side as though teleported, looking up at me with doleful eyes. Are you kidding me? How many times do we have to go through this? I don't give milk to cats. I take my cereal downstairs to the basement, to eat in peace. While reading the news. Which is anything but peaceful. Still too much anxiety in the world. So I switch to the comics, which is much more entertaining and a whole lot less stressful.
After breakfast, it's time to get ready to go. Clean and dressed, I head out to the garage with my bag o' stuff for Sunday School - and Mary, my only companion on these lonely Sunday mornings. But first, time for the car shuffle. Gotta move Adam's car out of the driveway, then move my car out of the garage, then move Adam's car back into the driveway. Should've done this last night, but I have no energy at night.
Then ... it happened. Right at 8:15, my scheduled time of departure. Major lower GI cramps. The kind that indicate last night's dinner did not agree with me. (This happens to me quite often, actually. I have a very finicky system.) But I don't have time to deal with this right now. I have places to go, things to do!
So we zoom off to church, just Mary and me. The early risers. So I can get my room prepped, and she can ... do whatever it is that she does. We come in downstairs through the Children's Ministry entrance, then she scoots upstairs, and I start prepping. And groaning. And waiting for the pain to pass. And it does, after a while.
I'm supposed to start in the gym. The gym was being repainted last week, but all that was supposed to be done by now. Is it? Can't tell. The "Wet Paint" signs are still up. I investigate. Nope, the paint is dry. Nothing has been done all week in here. So I set up the gym for Bernie&Tim's class. Then turn on the computers so we can log the kids in (because we run a safe, secure Sunday School).
Oops. Chrome got an update. Now Chrome doesn't work anymore with the check-in software. Have to switch over to Internet Explorer. Which I hate. Oh, well, any port in a storm.
Now time to prep my class. We're studying the book of Genesis. So I set up three columns on two whiteboards: People, Places, Things. Today the kids get to pick their favorite stories out of Genesis and talk about the people, places and things involved with each story.
Class starts and I have no helper today, so Mary and her friend, Tiff, come down to assist me. We have a strict policy of at least two adults (or near-adults) in each class. It's nice to have the help -- and fun to find out how much Bible-reading the two girls have been doing on their own! It's interesting to see which details they remember and which they do not. I urge the little kids every week to read the Bible with their parents because it was obvious for a long time that this wasn't happening. They were struggling to remember the most basic stories: Adam & Eve, Noah, Joseph. So we began working on memorizing the books, memorizing the stories, memorizing the verses. It's still a struggle, though, because if they're only getting pushed on one day a week (because they're so very busy the rest of the week with everything else), it's difficult to make any headway in their routine.
We need the parents to be diligent about these things!
We finish our lesson and head upstairs for worship with the adults, then after singing for a while the kids are dismissed to go to Children's Church. I go along with them to make sure the teachers have enough helpers -- and of course, this time they don't. The assistant is missing! So I go along with the younger class (4 years to 2nd grade) to help out the teacher. The kids are extra-squirrely today! Someone must've put sugar in their cereal this morning. I have to call kids out by name and take away some contraband (toys) so they'll pay attention (maybe), feeling like Mr. Grinch. But the teacher -- who is a real schoolteacher, by the way -- is able to complete the lesson, so the kids do their craft and then get a chance to play with the show-and-tell stuff she brought. Then we bring the kids down to the gym to have their own worship time.
After church -- after cleaning up my room and shutting down the lights and all the other stuff we have to do before leaving -- I head upstairs to meet with Cheryl and start my next task, which is changing the oil on someone's car. Out in the church parking lot.
Naturally, I forgot my drain pan, so I have to improvise with a plastic storage tub. And I forgot a funnel, so have to improvise with a plastic coffee cup. And I forgot a change of clothes, so have to do it in my Sunday outfit.
Changing the oil is easy. Except for the part where I had just drained the oil, and the lady whose oil I was changing suddenly turned on the car to check a computer readout. "Shut it down! Shut it down!" I shouted, seeing in my mind's eye the oil-starved pistons carving grooves in the cylinder walls. Or, worse, bone-dry crankshaft bearings melding with the engine case. (Been there, done that.)
She turned it off. And I put the oil in. And then she turned it on again. And ... a very serious Error Indication came on: "Low Oil Pressure". Oops. Can't drive the car if the oil pressure is low. This car is toast!
Spent an hour or so pulling my hair out, trying to figure out what to do next. Finally gave up and drove the lady home (along with her family) so they could continue on with their day -- which included a birthday party -- then I drove back home to eat some lunch and do some research.
Turns out that, for this particular car, any time an Error Indication is Set, simply fixing the problem doesn't reset the Error Indication. That is, even though the car now had sufficient oil in it, the "Low Oil Pressure" indication was still lit up. It is necessary to manually reset the Error Indication after the problem is fixed. Kind of like those "Check Engine" lights, which tell the driver that they need to take the car to an expensive repair shop to have someone reset the error indicator so the light goes away.
You'll love the "reset" procedure: With the key in the ACC position, depress the accelerator pedal three times in rapid succession, then press and hold the brake pedal, then turn the car OFF.
Worked like a charm, too. Now the Error Indication went away, and the car ran fine.
The only problem was that I had wasted three hours dealing with a non-existent issue.
Got the car back to the lady and her family, then Cheryl and I went out shopping at the hardware store and ordered our new kitchenette cabinets.
Then home to relax for a little while before the crazy week begins.
Marching Band boosters dinner Monday night. Also, our last Marching Band practice before our first game on Friday.
I'm not feeling ready for the season yet.
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