One Week in the Life
Usually in these letters I try to come up with what in the
year has been out of the ordinary. As I was trying to think what
those things might be for this year, it dawned on me that it might
be just as interesting (not to say interesting, just as interesting)
to look at what isn't out of the ordinary. So, here is a description
of a typical (and therefore nonexistent) week. I'll start with
Monday, which isn't the first day of the week, but which seems
that way, and I'm writing so I can.
Monday morning: I wake up at about 5 minutes till 7:00.
The radio has been playing for about 10 minutes. I roll out of
bed and get dressed. I'm supposed to meet Richard
Brown to go walking at 7:00. I'm usually about 5-10 minutes
late. Richard is up and dressed. Once I get there he puts his
boots on, and gets the rope for Misty and chain for Max. Max is
a smart old dog with an attitude. He walks with us without a leash
unless we encounter other walkers who are afraid of him, or who
have another dog. Misty is a chow, and goes along on a long rope.
Misty has more energy and less sense. She loves to go bounding
off into the blackberry brambles. We walk and talk for about 45
minutes behind his house on an vacant field owned by Lockheed-Martin.
When we get back to his house we pray for a while. Then I hurry
home for a shower, and off to work by 9:00.
At work, I'm still in a Monday zone, despite the wake-up walk.
I check my e-mail -- over
100 messages, though most of them are from mailing lists, and
getting filtered off so I can just pick the good ones. I mostly
putter around in my office until lunch. And lunch is late --about
12:30. After lunch I go to the Medical Center and get an allergy
shot. When I get back to my office, I do a quick check of messages
and then, unless it's one of the bad Mondays, really get to work.
I work until 4:30, or more like 4:45. Then I go over to the Activities
Building for an hour of aerobics. Now there's a deal! Small classes,
good instruction, available four days a week with at least a couple
of classes each day (maybe even a Friday lunch class making it
five days), all for $5/year. I like aerobics because there is
someone to tell me what to do. I hate exercising, but I'm pretty
good at doing what I'm told, especially if it's my choice whether
to do it or not. Not very masculine, I fear, but there are several
other men in the classes. We even had a class that was all men
once. Anyhow, after a good hour of sweating, I get back to work
about 6:05 and catch up on the hour I missed in the morning.
At
7:05 I go immediately to UAH
for the Monday Night Bible Talk. I grab a tuna sandwich at the
UAH grill, and carry it to the room we use in the UC. Tonight
my roommate, Mark Johnson,
leads a discussion-style study in the book of Luke. Mark, Alana Aleong, Christopher Lakey
(my other roommate), Gray
Marsee, Darell Bridges, and Jim Stanley drift in as I eat
my sandwich. We start about 7:40. Julie
Lollar comes in after we've been going for a few minutes.
The study is based on the Serendipity Study Bible outlines, which
encourages reading the text and discussing the content. We run
a little over an hour. After chatting a bit more, I head home
where I do a quick check of my e-mail and dash off a couple of
replies. Oh, and I need to make an update on the NACDS
web page. And the CSO
web page, too. I finally get to bed about midnight.
Tuesday Morning: I wake up at 7:50. The radio has been
playing for almost an hour. Actually, I notice when it cuts off.
I drag out of bed and to the shower. I'm moving pretty slow, and
I check my e-mail, so I'm
not dressed till about 8:40. So I have time to toast a bagel and
wash an apple for breakfast. I have a meeting at 9:00, so I go
straight to it. It's a busy day, and I switch between several
tasks, depending on which one is hottest. Mostly sitting in front
of my Macintosh, except for the meetings. I head home about 6:00.
Once home, I check the mail and gather the laundry. I put on
my portable headset phone while I work, and try to call a couple
of friends. Tuesdays are my best bet for getting in touch with
Diana Fowler, up in Mishawaka, Indiana. Tonight, all I get is
answering machines. I fix a sandwich and pop a Babylon
5 tape in the VCR (Mark got me addicted). I end up watching
the whole thing.
Tuesday evenings are my quiet time. Well, two hours of it is.
I spend some time in planning, making lists, and updating my calendar;
some time in prayer; and some time in working on this newsletter.
During this two hours I'm unavailable for non-lifecritical interruptions
(be warned if you call and I'm unavailable). Making it a fixed
appointment has been a very sanity maintaining move for me.
The tape ran me till close to 9:00, so quiet time ends at nearly
11:00. So I can get to bed on time (at 11:00)! I don't, though.
I check my e-mail again.
And run into some problems with connecting. When I'm through with
that and with my bedtime ritual (brush and floss, read a chapter
in my Bible, do my eye exercises, etc.), it's 11:45.
Wednesday Morning: I actually make it into work by 8:00.
There's a meeting at 9:00 (surprise!), another meeting at 1:00,
and an appointment with my optometrist at 3:45. I've been doing
regular eye exercises to help my eyes to focus together, but to
not focus to tightly. All my time at the computer wears my eyes
out, and things can get blurry by the end of the day. Reading
glasses are in the near future...
After the optometrist's, I run by Kroger to pick up a bag of
salad for dinner at church. Several of get together every Wednesday
for dinner. Us single guys (or married guys whose wives don't
come) get it pretty easy -- we usually get put on the list for
things that don't have to be cooked. And if we go to the meeting
afterward, we don't even have to clean up, and get to be first
in line to boot. I get the salad, and about 12 other items, and
make it to the Central
building at 5:30, right on time. We actually start eating about
a quarter till, so I have 15 minutes to eat before Leaders' Meeting.
The Leaders' Meeting is an open meeting at church for anyone
who wants to know what's going on with the congregation, or has
something to share, or questions to ask about anything. The format
varies quite a bit. Sometimes it is business oriented, sometimes
mostly prayer, sometime open discussion of issues, sometimes one
person mostly presents something. It lasts not quite 45 minutes.
I come in a couple of minutes late, which isn't really late at
all. There's an announcement sheet, a sheet that lists all the
visitors from last Sunday with the data they put on the little
blue card, and a sheet for the UAH Bible Study where I can put
who was there. Tonight there's a lot of announcements, and some
discussion about upcoming events. We end with prayer, and head
down to the assembly, in the auditorium.
Singing has already started when I get down there. We sing
four or five songs. Then Tom
Reynolds, our pulpit minister (or preacher, or senior pastor,
or maybe even parish priest, depending on your terminology) gives
about a 10 minute talk. Then Jon
Canterbury, one of our elders (I won't try to translate that),
gives the announcements. During the last song, I head to the nursery.
Classes run about an hour. There are adult classes as well
as kids classes. I've been alternating between going to a class
or helping with kids. I've especially enjoyed my stint in the
nursery. I'm pretty good with kids up until they start talking.
Nursery duty has given me more experience. I'm hoping to cultivate
a bunch of kids I can grow up with, so they won't make me so nervous
when they do start talking. Tonight there are just four kids.
Since Carla Campbell and Dorothy Gutherie are also there, as well
as one or other of the mothers most of the time, it's a pretty
easy night. Not like last week, where three of us had seven kids,
including two twin spit-up machines...
After cleaning up and disinfecting the nursery, I head out
to mill around and fellowship. A bunch of the college and singles
are going bowling afterward, but I beg off, since I have groceries
(two bags in the church kitchen 'fridge that I picked up while
bustling through Kroger -- usually my only grocery trip for the
week) and am pretty tired. I do run by the library to drop off
some movies and recheck my CD's and books on tape. Then home,
put up stuff, check e-mail,
and to bed.
Thursday morning: To work on time! Mostly around the
office today, except for an allergy shot. Aerobics from 4:50 till
6:00, then home to clean up for the ER party. ER
is a TV show, if you don't know. We have a shin-dig at my house,
nominally in the show's honor. People come over starting about
6:30. We cook or bring food, and have sort of an eat, talk, play
cards, watch (or ignore) the TV, hang out kind of party till the
show is over at 10:00. Or maybe till 11:00 or 12:00 or so. Tonight
I get to bed by 11:30. I think everyone is gone. The kitchen was
certainly trashed.
Friday morning: I backslide to 8:30 getting in. Another
9:00 meeting. Boy, am I tired. A fairly busy day, but getting
a bit slow toward the end. Especially since I make up for all
the times I came in late during the week (that hadn't already
been caught up). I do get to go home for an hour or so before
it's time to pick up Violet for the Devotional. I don't pick her
up every week, but I give someone a ride more often than not.
Devotional starts at 7:30. Tonight we sing till about 8:00, John
Means speaks on "The woman at the well" from John
4 for about 20 minutes, and then another song or two. We have
refreshments, mill around, and talk for a while. Then there is
some not-very-serious but heartfelt volleyball in the gym.
Saturday Morning: Nothing but a dim conception! Yeah!
I get to sleep in. This is my first weekend home for three weeks.
I sleep in till about 10:00, then get up and start puttering around
a bit. I start the computer, start
a load of clothes, load the dishwasher, and then sit in front
of the computer listening to the end of Sundial,
a cool local show on our public radio station. About 1:00, Mark
and I go mow Alice Lay's yard. She turned 88 last year, and still
keeps a nice little house over in 5-points, where she has lived
for over 50 years. After mowing we talk with her for a while.
She sends us home with a big plate of cupcakes. Mark
almost talks me into a game of frisbee golf, but I decide to catch
up on paying bills and getting in touch with folks. Oh, and I
need to take a shower. Before I know it, it's time to really take
that shower and get dressed for the contra
dance at Eastside Community Center. I'm treasurer, and need to
pay for the hall.
I get to the dance about 7:00, and leave about 11:00. Several
of us go over to the La Boheme coffee house. Marianne
Osiel is playing, and it's a bit crowded, so we take our drinks
and munchies out to the patio. I get home before 12:30.
Sunday morning: Sunday School starts at 9:00. I wake
up at 8:20, shower, dress, pick up Billy and Mary Cook, and arrive
4 minutes late. John Means teaches a class that ties back to the
Friday night devotional. He has more to say, and starts a discussion.
Tom preaches during the
assembly at 10:00, even supplementing his common Far
Side cartoon with a Dilbert
strip (comics are his favorite visual add to his sermons).
We sing, have communion, pray together, pass the plate, sing some
more, and then mill, meet, greet, and fellowship as we head toward
the door. It generally takes me about 45 minutes to get out the
door. Several of us go to Ding How for lunch. I have an okay plate
of Mu Goo Gi pan. After running Billy and Mary home, I head home.
Tuning Thistle
and Shamrock in on the radio, I start to work on updating
the NACDS
books after the dance, do some more work on bills, and, knowing
I shouldn't, end up taking a two hour nap. I awake to the sounds
of children playing; my house is used for baby sitting for a home
Bible Study in the neighborhood. I get up and start to fix something
to eat. I don't really get anything accomplished, except to eat
and get a couple of baskets of clothes to my room, and another
in the dryer, before 9:00. Then everything stops, as there is
a new episode of Babylon 5
coming on. The household gathers to watch it. After the show,
I log on to the Internet to get the notes for the show. After
reading the notes and discussing it all with Mark, it's already
past my bedtime. I get into bed shortly before midnight. And can't
sleep because I had a nap. Until finally I drift off. Next thing
I know, the radio is on and it's...
Monday morning!
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