OY! OY! OY!

I thought that this being Lent, I should write a sober, meditative blog. Unfortunately my tale of woe from last week continued into the next week, so here it goes–again.

Friday the toilet backed up. It has done this before so I have become a deft hand at using a plumber's helper which generally solves the problem quickly, long before maintenance would ever show up. This time was not so easy. The water from the tank (the one that was fixed a few weeks ago) continued to flow and flow and flow. Water spilled over onto the bathroom floor. As fast as I could (which wasn't fast enough) I turned off the water. Eventually I got everything working and spent an hour-and-a-half bailing out the bathroom and disinfecting things with bleach. (What? You want I should get typhus or something?)

All of this made me very late for doing laundry. I trundled over to the laundry room only to discover that it was closed to have the floor cleaned. (Maybe they could do my bathroom while they are at it.) This isn't a total disaster because we have a second, smaller laundry room. The difficulty is that the only machine for loading money onto the card needed to operate the machines is in the closed laundry room. Now I have encountered this problem before, so I always have enough money on my card to do laundry. Ha! Take that you electronic demon.

The problem with the Phase II Laundry Room (as it is called) is that it has only four driers, only two of which actually dry anything. I have been here eleven years. In that time you think they would have fixed the driers. Nooooooo! I got through the washing all right, but when I tried the driers, my card would only work in two driers. I'm not sure if this decreased the odds of my getting a working machine or not. I contemplated drying only one load in one machine so as to determine if it worked, but I was growing impatient so decided to play laundry roulette and use two driers. As it is said, a fool and his money are soon parted. $2.30 and 48 minutes later I had one load of dry clothes and one load of very damp clothes.

I hung the damp clothes in my second bathroom–not the one that might be a possible source of disease. That night I attended a musical, The Baker's Wife, returning home late. All was well, I thought.

I look forward to Saturday as my only morning for a leisurely breakfast–a ham omelet, one-half a grapefruit, toast, and as much tea as I want. I took my morning meds and headed off to get the jeans which I hoped had dried by now. The bathroom floor was full of water. The kitchen floor was also full of water. From past experience I knew the cause, the line to the ice maker was leaking again. It did this the first weekend I lived in this apartment and has done it twice since. I rolled out the refrigerator to turn off the water. Since it was too early for anyone to be in the office, I started bailing out the water again. About an hour later I informed maintenance of the disaster, and returned to the clean up. I couldn't do anything about the water that had seeped into the hallway carpet, so I left for church–without having any breakfast.

I returned that evening. The maintenance tech had stopped the water and sucked as much over-flow as possible from the carpet which now smelled like a wet dog who had a disagreement with a skunk. I spread baking soda on the carpet, let it set for several hours and vacuumed it up. Repeated as needed. I also burned incense to conceal the odor and maybe appease the powers that caused the water works to let loose.

The only good news this week is that on Tuesday morning as I came to church, I noticed a dead squirrel in the street. I hope that was one of our invaders.

Now I am worried again. The First Lesson for this Sunday is Noah's Flood. I know what the text says: "When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh" (Gen 9:14-15). But there is nothing about the plumbing going berserk.

I am going away overnight to see one of my young friends perform in Orlando. I wonder if I should pick up an inflatable life raft while I'm there?

Well, whatever waters flood your life's path, remember that the Lord who stilled the sea and set the boundaries for the ocean travels with you. May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Peace,

Wayne



Picture is from here.






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OY!

Li'l Abner had a character Joe Btfsplk. He was a jinx. I'm pretty sure he's somewhere very close to me. Nothing else could explain the unfortunate series of events that has plagued me. Of course these are all minor events. Nothing like the 35% loss in my pension fund, but still . . .


My faithful readers are aware that our church has been having an ongoing battle with some very nasty squirrels. Well, one of my great fears has become a reality. One of the little buggers has croaked somewhere in the wall or ceiling of the sanctuary. The unforgettable odor of decaying squirrel is apparent upon entering the church. It is only noticeable near the entrance, so I'll leave the doors open to air the place out, but I recall all too well the incident of the snake who moved in last time a door was left open.


The computer network at the church has misbehaving as usual. When we first installed it, nothing would make it work, so we gave up. Then one day it started working all by itself. As soon as I got used to using it, it stopped working again. Then a few weeks later started again. Then stopped. Then started. It's working at the moment, but it seems to have taught bad habits to the computer brain in our copier. I was trying to make a copy of a hymn. I placed the original on the glass, pressed start, and it printed the hymn the sideways on the paper. I thought to myself, "Since this device isn't musical, it probably doesn't know it's printed it wrong. I'll just tell it to position the paper 8 1/2 X 11." I did so, pressed start, and the copy came out sideways. "Silly me," I thought. "I should have told it 11 X 81/2. I changed the setting and again it came out sideways. I pushed more buttons and it printed sideways on an 8 1/2 X 14 piece of paper. After many more wrong copies, I tricked it into thinking the original was twice as big as it was, and it worked properly, but probably cost us $1.19 for the wasted paper and copies.


My key broke off in the lock at the church today. Fortunately, I have a key for the side door, so I could get inside, get a tool box, take out the broken key and get on with business. I really hated to lose that key, because it was the only one we had that actually worked everywhere it was supposed to work. We have four locks that are supposed to be keyed alike, and some of the older keys work in all four locks. Some of newer keys work in all four locks if you jiggle them a little and some only work in two of the locks. Don't tell me to get a locksmith in. The last time they made keys for us, half the keys wouldn't work in any lock. I have one of the sort-of-working keys, so I can still get in to the church, but I am going to have to ask around until I find someone with a proper key so I can have duplicates made and then see what works.

I really need somewhere with a good lock to store dried palms. It is the custom in our church to distribute ashes on people's foreheads on Ash Wednesday (February 25). Traditionally the ashes are made by burning the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday. Now the Palms always have to be dried before being stored away or they get moldy. I spread them out on a table to dry, and some years someone throws them away. I put out notes telling people to leave their hands off the palms, so I have been able to dry and store them. I put them in a plastic bag, label them "Palms. Do not discard." Every year for the past three years someone has found the bag and thrown the palms away. It doesn't matter where I hide them, someone gets them and tosses them when I'm not watching. So I was out in the rain cutting palms today hoping they'll dry enough to burn for Ash Wednesday.


Back on the home front, you know I have been getting grief from various electronic devices. The phone and answering machine have been replaced and are working fairly well, though the time stamp on the message recorder is always wrong even though it is right on the display. I replaced the clock radio that had numbers that didn't display correctly and an alarm that wouldn't work. My new clock has nice BIG numbers I can read without my glasses. The radio part, however, sounds terrible, worse than the old crystal radio I built from a kit years ago. I dug the old clock-radio out of the trash so I could have something that sounded better. I bought one of those gadgets so I can see the new digital TV and as I had feared I have gone from two and one-half stations to one. Unfortunately the one remaining station is FOX with its Unfair and Out of Balance news department. Well. I never watch TV news anyway. I read newspapers and magazines and listen to NPR.


I had a lamp fall apart yesterday. It's one that has been in the family for over 60 years. I have rewired it several times. It just needed a new socket for the light bulb. I notice that every time I buy a socket, it costs more than the last one, but it's more cheaply made. I really should replace the toaster because either the bread doesn't brown at all, or it turns into charcoal. And there is this loose heating element in it that burns a hole right straight through the slice of bread.


When I got back in my car after buying the lamp socket, a tiny wrench lit up on the dash board. I think it means the oil has to be changed, but I can never be sure, so it's going in to the shop before I have to make a trip to Orlando next week. I arrived home to get the mail. There's something from Office Depot that has cards you punch out for discounts, only someone had already punched out one of the cards. There's a little note from the carrier that says "Received without contents R27." I don't know why the New-Nity States Mail is going to raise the price of stamps by 2 cents when they can just steal whatever they need right from your mail. Oh, and I just discovered the P.O. has taken out all the stamp vending machines so you can't buy stamps without standing in line, and you can't buy them at all after hours. That's real service for you. Seesh!


The good news this week is that on the way back from my opthamologist, I found gourmet-type grocery store that carries Twinings Gunpowder Green Tea at not too much of a markup. And they have a relatively inexpensive Scottish Breakfast tea from Taylor of Harrogate. Nothing like a nice cupa tea to make you forget squirrel corpses.


May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.


Wayne









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LEFT OVERS

ALL RIGHT! It's Thursday night, and I haven't written a blog. I'm sort of overwhelmed finishing all the various annual reports that have to be done this time of year–the State of Florida gets one, my Bishop gets on, the national church gets one, my congregation gets one. Then I am preparing two Bible studies each week and shortly have a series to do for Lent along with all my regular duties. I keep carrying heavy tomes home to work with, but don't get a lot done.

Then there are some silly nuisances I must take care of. My answering machine quit working and my telephone didn't always work, so I had to get a new one. Then my clock radio has gone nuts. The alarm on it won't work and something has gone amiss with the display so that I can't tell if it's 9:00 or 3:00. So I'll have to get a new one of those, but I'm not paying a fortune for it. Then our government in its great wisdom has decreed that TV stations must stop broadcasting in analog (although that's been delayed). I only use an old rabbit ears antenna so I have to buy a converter box and see if I can get any wort of signal. I get two and a half fuzzy stations right now. I suspect if I'm lucky I'll get one decent station with the box. Fortunately, I think it will be ABC and not Fox.

I should send out some emails to some of my online friends. I have fallen sadly behind. And I simply MUST get to work on my taxes soon.

So I was looking through some blogs I had started but not finished. None of them could be finished without a lot of work. There's one about Benedictines (that's an order of monks) and one about oblates (a sort of associate of a Benedictine monastery) which I thought was interesting because I am an oblate. There is the long promised one about Lincoln's speeches. (Happy 200th Birthday, Abe.) I have a grumpy one about evolution. (I am a proponent of the theory of evolution,) Another blog about my great-grandfather who I never met and one about my mother. And oh yes, one about coal which I had mapped out in my head pretty well, but only wrote the first two sentences. Maybe someday I'll finish them.

So what can I write?

Well, for you northerners I have some good news. The robins have arrived in Ocala. Every winter at about this time the robins begin their northern migration again. There have been hundreds of male robins at the church for the last week. They won't stay here long before they continue on their homeward journey. And after the males get things straightened out, the females will join them. They're no fools. They're staying where the weather is warmer. I have a very small, blurry picture of one of the robins, but it's on the office computer. Also tried to take picture of the hawks circling the church looking for a robin snack, but didn't get the camera in time. Maybe the hawks would prefer a couple of squirrels. One can only hope.

For you local folk, I'm going to do a unpaid commercial for a new restaurant in Ocala, Grace Sushi, 8075 SW HWY 200. It's in the shopping center with the new Publix. They've got a full Japanese menu as well as sushi. My friend Fr. George and I tried it out last week, and we can vouch for the quality of the Pork Katsu and Chicken Teriyaki. Go at lunch time an order a Bento Box. It's huge and served with soup and salad (try the ginger dressing). I am anxious to go back and try the teppan yaki, yaki soba, shrimp tempura, and maybe then some maki sushi. I'm pushing the place because I'm afraid it will fold like so many of the restaurants here. By the way, the chef is Japanese, but the wait staff is Chinese so don't try to impress them with your "domo arigato."

I've never been to Japan and can't imagine going there, but I am a fan of Japanese food, Japanese art, Japanese architecture, and Japanese gardens. (There's the excellent Morikami Garden in Delray Beach. I took the picture at head of the blog there ) I even own a Japanese car–only because I wanted one that's reliable. Unlike all my previous cars, this one has required no repairs in it's first year.

Let's see. How about a picture of a bento box lunch to close?


Yummmmmm!

May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne



Food image from www.pachd.com




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IN THE NOT SO BLEAK MID-WINTER

What's winter like in Florida? It depends. It depends on where you live in Florida and what the winter is like. I lived 21 years n Miami where there could be a few days in the 30s or 40s in a bad year. Here in Central Florida we can get into the 20s and upper teens. This year has been especially cold, although I admit there are many, many days when the temperature rises into the 70s. I wrote about the seasons a few months ago before the current nasty cold came down upon us. Recently, on a very clear, cold day I took pictures of the trees around the church to give people an idea of what the local flora is like.


First a palm, what everyone expects to see in Florida.



This is the palm that the blankety-blank squirrels are using to get on the roof of the church so they can gnaw holes in the soffits. We thought we had evicted them permanently, but there seems to be a type of super squirrel that can chew through aluminum. Begone, little Satans! Go live in a tree and stay out of our building.



This is commonly called a sago palm, only it's not a palm at all but a cycad (Cycas revoluta), one of the oldest terrestrial plant types on earth. Some people think they're ugly, but I find them fascinating. They are native to southern Japan and so are an exotic species. Unfortunately, some incurable disease has infected all the sagos, and they are slowly dying. I recently learned that the plants are poisonous, so I have been thinking of placing some fronds near the squirrel holes in hopes that they munch on them and DIE. With my luck it would probably cause them to mutate into giant vampire squirrels with teeth that can cut through case-hardened steel.

And now, the oak.



People usually don't associate oaks with Florida, but we have a some quite majestic trees on the property. (Well, the community is called Marion Oaks.) In their bare form they give a wintery look to the church grounds.

But these are also oaks–live oaks.



Until I moved here I had no idea there were evergreen oaks. The leaves are quite unlike the deciduous oaks, but they produce acorns–many of which fall upon your car if you're dumb enough to park in their shade during the summer.

This is a tree that ought not to be here: a maple.




Somebody planted about half a bazillion maples in row after straight row across the front of the property so the place looks like a tree farm. Worse yet, maples do not thrive in our hot weather so they are always spindly, sickly looking trees. I think we've removed 39 trees so far and it doesn't look like we've touched their ranks. Their one saving grace is the red seed-pods (those aren't leaves) that hang from their branches in winter.


Next are cypresses.




I wish we had more of these evergreens, enough to form a screen between us and some of the ugly sheds some of our neighbors have erected near the property line. The cypress are beautiful, full trees. There are some cypress where I live that are deciduous, their sprays turning a dull orange before they fall to the ground. Well, why not. If there can be evergreen oaks why not deciduous evergreens? Also, the cypress that grow near my pond have knees, woody projections that grow up from the roots. Nobody knows exactly why.


Now the tree you've all been waiting for.




ORANGE TREES filled with oranges. We have a grove of six trees at the back of the property. They were a mess when I first came here, choked with undergrowth and producing sour fruit. One of out members, Merle, took care of the trees and transformed them into a wonder. Each winter we have hundreds and hundreds of oranges to give away. At least we did. The hard freezes have taken a terrible toll on the trees this year. We aren't sure if any of them will live through the winter, and if they do, it will be a while before they produce another nice crop like this one. Something I didn't know before I moved to Florida. Orange trees like all citrus trees have huge thorns growing from the branches. They probably are meant to keep animals from getting at the fruit. It doesn't work against squirrels.


As you make your life pilgrimage, take a look at the trees once in a while. And listen for their sounds. "For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands" (Isa 55:12 NRSV)


May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.


Wayne




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