Life Going By

I've been wondering if there is any deep meaning to the fact that a piece of fiction has been sitting on my blog for almost a week while I haven't seemed to have anything to say about my real life. Nothing going on? Nothing to say about it? Neither of those, for anyone who knows me, would seem to be likely. I'm not really sure myself. The days just seem to wander into each other, full of the stuff of everyday life. I kept myself busy over the long weekend in pursuits both useful and recreational. In the house projects department I tackled the nasty wood floors in my bedroom with furniture refinsher. I know that's not what the stuff is intended for ( it says so right on the can "Do not use over large surfaces") but I figured it was worth a try. I checked out a small spot under a dresser and it did the trick, so I went for it. They are not perfect, but what once was ugly dark reddish brown, scratched up, paint splotched, stained and only done in the middle is now a reasonably even sort of golden-oakish finish that covers (almost) the whole room. I still have to finish the part under the bed. I ran out of refinisher and energy. And I had to sleep downstairs on the couch due to fumes one night...but hey, I have better floors! And the whole thing is going to cost less than $50!

On the fun front on Monday I went to the State Fair up in the Big City with friends. It's the home of food on a stick....which for some reason I didn't have. We didn't really have a plan but wandered through various exhibit halls, listened to music, people-watched and generally enjoyed what seems to have been the last day of summer, judging from the weather forecast. I hadn't been to the fair in a long time, so it was interesting to go back again. I didn't remember it as being so much about "stuff" you should acquire to make your life better in some way. Maybe those just weren't the places I wandered before, but I was amazed by all the things that were for sale. The slicers and dicers I expected, the Ginsu knives and the Miracle Mops, collapsible boats that fit in your car trunk, those kind of "get 'em here cuz you can't get 'em anywhere else, folks" things. I remembered them....but shoes and furniture, pianos and children's toys, jewelry, clothing, dishes, pots and pans, just everything and anything. It was just like going to the mall. It was strange. All that stuff. And then we went to the "Eco-building" where there was a Trash Mountain. It was about the size of my office at work and represented the amount of trash that the average family generates in a year. Lots of stuff. Hmmmm.

Then it was back to work. We have a new piece of documentation one of our government programs is requiring. It's a summary of information that is already contained in another document, but apparently these folks can't extrapolate it from that that every three years when they come and do chart reviews, so for each client that is in this program we must rewrite this information into their format in the "interpretive summary." We must do them retroactively for clients previously enrolled. I am twelve behind as of today.

The ministerial association meets for the first time this morning, so I will duck out of here for a bit to attend. It will be good to slip into the other part of my life for a time and reconnect with my clergy colleagues. We catch up on each other's lives a bit at this first meeting as well as plan the coming year. I think I'll volunteer to help plan the community Thanksgiving service this year. It seems like a good year for that.

I'm preaching this weekend and next. So far the texts have not spoken, but I remain hopeful.

So that's what's been happening in my real life while the fictional heroine of Chapter Three has been waiting for her next chapter. Not a whole lot, but I do feel blessed by it.