I can't do anything

I can't do much of anything.

I tore off the bottom part of a railing that goes down our back steps. I tried to fix it with masking tape. It didn't work. Bern fixed it with a screw, I think.

I can't clean the house up to Bern's standards, so she does.

I can't do yard work up to Bern's standards, so she does it all.

I can take out the trash and recycling and do washing.

Nothing much more.

I feel guilty of my incompetence, though I shouldn't. Bern's standards are just higher than mine.

She is just so much more adroit than I am, it embarrasses me.

She even walks the dog better than I do.

I should look at it this way--I'm lucky to be married to her.

And lucky to do as little as I do.

I can preach and do communion and baptize and marry and bury--and she can't.

At least, at that I'm better.

But I love her so.

For 50 years she's been making my life easy.

What a blessing.

 

 

The third meal

 I put Brigit's dinner down before I went to the grocery.

I called upstairs, "Brigit, dinner" and then "I'm going to the store".

Bern heard the second call, but not the first.

She came down after our dog had eaten her dinner and was ready to go out.

But she thought Brigit wanted food and thought I hadn't fed her.

So she fed her again.

Brigit was glad to eat a third meal before her walk.

What a lucky dog she is.

We love her so.

But she doesn't need a third meal in a day!

 

I don't know what I'm going to write

Sometimes (like tonight) I sign on to my blog with nothing certain to write.

I don't know what I'm going to write.

But it will be something.

The weather is wondrous.

No air conditioners for two days.

Sitting out on the deck, reading, with short sleeve shirts.

How good can it get?

In July, I start as Priest-in-charge at Trinity, Milton, which is part of Litchfield, 30 miles from my home.

My last 'cure'--figure out what that means???--was with three churches, only one of which was 30 miles away.

It's a great congregation that  I'm getting to know. I think I'll love it.

A quarter time job in the church means 10 hours a week. Since the trip takes me an hour round trip and the hours include sermon prep. I'll only work on Sunday and one day a week, doing God knows what.

Biden is at the G-7--the seven most wealthy countries. I think I can name them: the U.S., France, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan.

Those leaders agree with our President more than the Republicans in Congress do.

Voter suppression is not an issue in the G-7--except here!

Attorney General Garland today announced the Justice Department will be expanding the group that deals with voting.

Lord help us!

The Maga folks don't want people of color to vote.

What a travesty.

Well, I didn't have anything to write after all....

  

I've been pondering...

 ..."Eternity".

And it's a waste of time, so far as I can ponder.

I have no idea whatsoever what 'eternity' could be like.

And I'm not sure I would want to have an idea.

I know the brand of religion I practice has some inkling that somehow we will spend 'eternity' in the Light or in Fire.

I don't know what I believe about that.

"Ends" are a part of my reality.

"End-less-ness" is beyond my ken.

Spring ends.

Each day ends.

Dinner ends.

Sleep ends.

Experiences end.

Life ends.

I'm never any help when people ask me, as a priest, 'what happens when we die?'

I have no clue.

I leave all that up to God.

I'm concerned about living.

Let the Almighty handle dying.

Eternity is far out of my ball park.

I guess I'll just wait and see....

 

Tomorrow will be great

Tomorrow with be a respite from the heat--though it will return, for months now.

But I've kept my word so far and not complained about the heat.

But Bern does.

I do better with heat and she loves the cold.

Amazing we've been together all these years!

Biden is on his way to meet the last President's buddy--Putin.

VP Harris is back from talks in Central America.

Bills are being pushed before Congress to do good for our democracy and our country.

It is such a joy to go to bed not dreading what the President might tweet during the night.

Or might say or do during the day.

We're moving toward normal after the pandemic, especially in CT, which has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country.

And politics (except for those who believe 'the Big Lie') is getting back to normal.

Let the heat do what it may--I'm feeling so much better about every thing I could go and howl at the moon.

If we can see it tonight....

 

Getting older

I don't know how old you are, beloved, reading this, but I am 74 and have some questions for you in that area of life.

Do you ever walk purposefully into a room and forget why you went there?

I do.

Do you ever open a cabinet or a drawer to get something and not know what you're looking for?

I do.

Do you ever open the refrigerator to get something and are not sure why?

I do.

Ever pick up your car keys and wonder for a moment where you're going?

I do.

In my youth my IQ was 154.

Not sure I want to take the test now.

But maybe IQ doesn't have to do with the lapses of memory as you get older.

I don't know.

But I do know this: sometimes in a few seconds, I forget what I'm up to when I knew for sure those few seconds ago.

Getting older is a trip!

Just not always a good one.

 

It's in the eyes

My eyes have itched all day. Bern's have too. Must be something in the air.

I need my eyes because I need to see the Truth.

Here's one true thing I see: I greatly dislike the state I grew up in and lived for my first 21 years and then served a church there for five years.

West Virginia is the source of my ire.

McDowell County, where I grew up, had a population of 100,000 when I was a teen. Now it is 23,000. Coal is dead--which is good--but so is the County of my birth.

It was a Democratic state most of my life there--but now it is ruby Red and getting redder.

The last state wide elected Democrat in the mountain state is Joe Manchin. And he's the one who is holding up all of Biden's bills--infrastructure, voting rights...on and on. 

With the Senate at 50-50, every Democrat is needed to pass anything. But Manchin won't budge.

He might as well become a Republican since he's voting with them at almost every turn.

I guess he fears going back to WV and losing his Senate seat to a Republican.

Like oh, so many politicians, he's more interested in keeping his job than in doing the right thing.

Alas and alack.

(I'm still a fan of WVU's sports teams--their the only thing that holds me to my home state.)