Garth and the Royals...

As I said I was going to do, I attended the Cards-Royals game this afternoon. It was really fun---not too hot, a nice breeze and the Cards won...it is always a good day when Albert hits a home run! Anyway, I left after the middle of the 8th, I think (Cana and her dad were almost home), and as I was leaving, the p.a. announcer came on and said, "everybody join in this song!" and in no time, Garth was singing "Friends in Low Places," and sure enough, those Royals fans sang along with the chorus. Friends in low places. Do they sing that at every home game, or just the ones they are losing? It seemed a little bizarre to me at first and then I just had to chuckle. Gee, if you have been at or near last place in the American League Central division as have been the Royals over the past few years, why not celebrate with a song that allows you to claim it? I'm assuming that that is why they sing this song at Kauffman Stadium? Am I misreading something or was this singing thing just a Sunday tradition, like God Bless America or something? If anyone can enlighten me, please do.

ADDENDUM: Well, I just searched images for Garth and the Royals and Google came up with the image above...is this Garth Brooks in Royals Blue? There is obviously something here I don't know...sorry to show my ignorance of this, but like I said if somebody could let me in on this I would appreciate it...

Count your blessings...

And that is just what I am doing right now. We are "in" at the condo--moved yesterday. There have been some new homeowner glitches but all has worked out so far. Since Monday, we have had new carpet laid in my room (after Joe the Handyman brought Greg the carpenter over to repair what was either water or some non-termite damage); had Caleb's first bedroom set delivered; purchased a new washer and dryer after I realized the washer/dryer combination wasn't working; had it delivered and then was told that the old hot water hose was so rusted the delivery guy couldn't get it loose; called a plumber to fix it; had one of the two air conditioning units replaced with great effort by the HVAC guys ("ma'am they musta built the room around the air conditioner") which was located in the attic of Cana's room; bought a ticket on line for the Cards-Royal game at Kauffmann stadium tomorrow; had Kevin Buckrucker, Barry Baugh, Jonathan and Linda Cooney, and Barron Willer move my stuff from Liberty to the condo on Thursday (and did other things for me too, thank you very much)--I broke down and bought the very used, Burke knock-off version of the Saarinen tulip table and chairs from River Market Antiques; and had Two Men and a Truck (actually it was THREE Men and a Truck) move me yesterday. It was the smoothest move I have ever had. Cana will return to KC with her dad tomorrow night and we all will be SO glad to see her...it's been about 10 days.

So many blessings--mostly people who were extremely helpful--those I've mentioned; Susan Vogel who took Caleb to get his stitches out yesterday; Caleb who said he slept better last night than he ever had in his life on his new bed; the extra helpful Time Warner Cable guys who hooked up boxes and DVD and router and modem today; having a paper carrier who brings my paper and puts it outside my door; and finally, and with greatest appreciation, I thank our Dick Curry, who called my new pastors yesterday and welcomed them. Dick is putting in a pastor for me tomorrow, and if it is possible to be even more appreciative of him than I have been in the past and to love him in the Lord even more than I did a week ago, I do. I am also grateful to everyone, including Dick, who keeps telling me to relax, take care of me and us, and rest. Thanks to all for being humongous blessings...I do count my blessings, and I do see what God has done.

You Go, Girl!

This came to me from Geoff Posegate today. It's for all you baseball and/or Helen Reddy fans and I HAD to pass it on...

Old School Cool

I just finished reading an article in today's Kansas City Star Magazine (Sunday newspaper mag) about a young man named Ashley Cooper who is "The Nursing Home Singer" here in the Kansas City area. I could try to summarize the article but why don't you read it for yourself? Here 's the URL:

http://www.kansascity.com/238/story/666403.html

It made me smile all through my bar-b-que sandwich and carrots! Those of you who visit regularly in nursing homes will sympathize with his comment about not taking it personally when somebody nods off....

Some thoughts one week before the move...

Congrats to Rod and Amy McNeall!!! Rod is our pastor at Carrollton. Brody was born yesterday and is absolutely gorgeous! I was privileged to hold him a while, and would have liked to have done it longer... but the many boxes that are yet to be packed beckoned and home I went.

I am really not quite sure how I am going to get it all done by next Friday. Cana did not get her room all the way done before she left with her father, and Caleb is one-handed. But I imagine I'll get there. The condo looks great, thanks to the flooring people and especially thanks to Joe the Handyman who has painted two rooms, put up a light fixture in the dining room, built and added a door to the den which will be Caleb's room, put in a kitty door in the laundry room which will also be their room, changed two toilet dampers (if that is what they are called), and supervised the other workers that were there, including the floor guy (whom he cleaned up after) and the guys putting in the new air conditioning unit. This all from a man I had not met until a month ago. He put aside other projects to get my work done before I move in next week. He is probably about 60; cares deeply about the quality of his work; likes to crack jokes; called me at first, "dear" and then later "sweetheart." I really didn't mind that. But when the guy putting the flooring in who was two hours late one day and then left quite a bit of mess and generally treated me with an arrogance that made me want to throw his band saw at him, when HE called me "dear" it was a different matter all together...I would say each time under my breath "don't call me dear." Do you know what I mean???

Last Day in the Office Till August 25

...but I wouldn't hold my breath. I am going to try to stay away from superintendency work from this Saturday until August 25,... summers have tended to be "lighter" work wise. My last official duty before leave begins is going to Bishops Week at Mt. Sequoyah. I will leave tomorrow. Today we had a District Finance Committee meeting, and I am just glad we have such a fine committee because as leave approaches, my mind becomes more and more like a sieve with very large holes in it. On the home front, laminate began being laid at the condo today, Joe the Handyman for whom I am so grateful, began painting two rooms (it seems like something else little crops up every time I go into the condo like today we realized two of the toilets were repeatedly running and Joe said something about a "broken foot" and I think he meant the inner-workings of the tank) and the stackable washer dryer, which I hoped to use muchly today, has a great washer, but the dryer isn't working. So I hauled a wet load of necessities back to the current apartment and Cana did the up and down the stairs thing until they were dry in our $1.00 a load not-so-great dryer downstairs. Sears comes to hopefully fix the condo one next Monday. I feel sort of on automatic pilot now, kept in the loop only by having forced myself to write down everything in my calendar...I can't tell you which day they are laying the carpet in my room next week or when Caleb's bedroom set is being delivered without looking at my calendar, but I know not all is lost because I DO know the Cards are playing the Royals this week at Busch so I suppose life will be okay...

My Summer Reading List

I received the most recent issue of Circuit Rider a few days ago and was delighted to see an article which listed the favorite "reads" of several persons across the connexion, all novels, that also engage theological themes. None of them would appear on Barnes and Noble's "Inspirational Fiction" shelves, but rather in the "Fiction-Literature" shelves. I picked up several of them at Half Price Books (one of the joys of living in the Westport area) last night, many of them less than half price. I realize that as a library student, I should just borrow them from the public library, but I thought these might be ones I would want to refer to at a later time, and so, I purchased. I am hoping that during my leave, I will be able to sit by the pool int the condo complex and read in the afternoons (oh, please God, make it so!) Here are the ones that I picked up from the list, and a couple other of my own suggestions. Sorry, these are not in alphabetical order, but instead are in the order that I took them from my Half Price Books Bags:
Empire Falls (I am already reading it...) by Richard Russo
Salem Falls (Yes, I see the theme too) by Jodi Picoult
Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'nan
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
The River Why by David James Duncan
Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos
Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler
Death Comes to the Archbishop (I think I read this a few years ago) by Willa Cather
Men and Angels by Mary Gordon
And I also saw and picked up
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler, even though CR did not list it
AND I picked up a Michael Malone book I have not read The Last Noel...I was surprised not to see any of Malone on the CR list
AND I picked up Gail Godwin's Father Melancholy's Daughter which I read ten years or so ago just before I serendipitously started to read her Evensong, which is the later life of Margaret, the daughter. Any book by Gail Godwin will set you weeping and deepen your faith. I also would recommend any of Wendell Berry's fiction.

Anyway, that's my summer (and probably fall and winter) reading list, with a nod of real appreciation to Circuit Rider.

Bumper Sticker

Mothers who love Jesus and who live like they love Jesus better watch out. I saw a bumper sticker today that really irritated me. I was in the drive thru at Starbuck's by the district office behind an Element, a vehicle I have come to deeply appreciate since Philip C-J now owns one and has hauled all sort of Danish Modern furniture for me in it over the past three months. So I was prepared to like this Element in front of me and anyone in it, when I first noticed on the back window a metal magnet fish...and I don't know about you, but always when I see one of those, I take a second look to see if this is a sincere fish or a sarcastic one (I do suppose some might be sincerely sarcastic or even sarcastically sincere, but I think you know what I mean). This one today turned out to be sarcastic, and I laughed for some odd reason that not everyone reading this entry might appreciate. On the inside of the fish figure was the word "sushi"...I did not stop to analyze it but just laughed a bit. But I stopped laughing when I read the bumper sticker underneath: "You love Jesus because your mother told you to." I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be a slam at my overly-simplistic faith...that I ONLY love Jesus because my mother told me to.

I have several problems with this and I am now going to share them with you:

First, how did this young whipper snapper know why I love Jesus...or if I love Jesus at all...which I do of course.

Second, well, yes, I did love Jesus first because of my mother (and my father) who got me to Sunday school and worship every Sunday. And who read me Bible stories from a beautiful book we had, and who gave me a Bible as soon as I could read well enough (I think I have four BIbles in all that they gave me). And who loved Jesus thoroughly and knew themselves loved by Jesus in good times and bad. And who loved his Church and the fact their daughter became a United Methodist minister. So yes, I did love Jesus at the beginning because my parents told me to, but mostly because they SHOWED me how...and that is how many of us first came to faith. Of course I grew into my own faith, but if they hadn't helped me to know of Him, that faith might have been a lot longer coming.

And, thirdly, well, in my own way, I have told my own kids to love Jesus. I THINK both in some way would claim that they do...but certainly not in the same way I do, I don't think. They are both still working it all out, as in fact, is their mother.

I just finished reading Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. And in her fancifully faithful story, Jesus as a child knew who he was, and came in a sense to love that, because his mother told him so. And because she and others were faithful and believed what they had been told at his birth, they loved him into his being who God created him to be. So if it was good enough for him, dear mothers, daughters and sons, it should be good enough for us.

So there.

craigslist

Thanks to everyone at AC who had told me they missed my blogging. May was pretty much a wash for anything other than appointment making. It has been a mad rush to the end but tomorrow is the fixing of appointments and besides a half an appointment that I have open I am done. I will explain if anyone cares to know.

The other thing is the purchase of a lifetime--the condo on Plaza-Westport Hill, and the fact that I will be on leave from June 22-August 25 and I will be moving with a little help from my friends/pastor the last week of June. I have gotten to know craigslist for KC. The living room in our current apt is filled to the brim with Danish Modern. Because I am feeling like a bit of a wise-guy or gal or whatever, I show you the ugliest used couch I found there (I did not buy!) If this is your couch, I am sorry to hurt your feelings. I still think it's ugly...

Craigslist is like the old radio program The Trading Post that was on WCIL AM ("when you hear it, it's NEWS! When you read it, it's HISTORY") at noon when people from the Carbondale area would call in and say to the host "Bill, I have fifty bales of hay for sale cheap or for trade on use of a backhoe next week" or"Bill, we have a real nice baby bed for sale that needs painting and we'd like $10 for it." Literally hundreds of listings for KC Craigslist appear every day just in the furniture section. How have I lived without this for so long???