I'm so glad it's the weekend. Especially after the day I had at work yesterday. It was Liz's and Tracy's birthdays. I was going to go out at lunch time to get a cake when in walks Doug with a cake (not knowing it's their birthdays). So we used that. Before we opened to the public we all went into the workroom, sang "Happy Birthday" to them, and had cake. That was good because I forgot to eat breakfast. Yes, I actually remembered that I hadn't eaten when I was almost at work. How did I do that?
At lunch time Liz wanted to go for a walk. I told her to take off and enjoy her birthday and I would be acting librarian and hold down the fort. Everything was fine. It was nice and quiet. Bob was on the front desk and I was sitting at the librarian's desk. A girl about 18 years old comes in and stands at the front desk. She's talking to Bob then says she biked over and she's so tired and puts her head down on the desk. Bob and I think that's kind of strange but whatever. Then she says she thinks she's going to be sick and starts gagging. Deb, the guard, says she will get her some water. She turns around to go to the water fountain, gets two steps away and the young lady falls unconscious to the ground. Bob says, "And she's down!" So I called 911 and the rescue squad came, took her vitals, and took her away in an ambulance. Wow!
The operator at 911 was asking me all kinds of questions on the phone like did I know her medical history. No, I didn't. I had never seen her before and she was unconscious so I couldn't ask her anything. Was her skin changing color? I don't know. She was behind the desk and I couldn't see her. Besides she was African-American and I'm not real good at saying if she was pale.
When Liz got back we told her what had happened and she had to write up an incident report. She said every time she leaves the building when Boss isn't there, something happens. Happy birthday, Liz!
It's been a beautiful day today. I woke up and went outside to take pictures of the garden to share with you tomorrow. Then I sat at the kitchen table and took this video.
After breakfast I did a load of dishes and a load of wash and then Joe and I headed out to the farm. I try to go every other week. Here's what I got today.
A beautiful watermelon, green beans, corn, red and white onions, a tomato and a flat of red sails lettuce and a flat of marigolds. Because I'm afraid of animals eating my lettuce, I am going to plant it in my hanging baskets. I think it will work.
I was going to cut the grass and clean the living room today, but instead took a nap. Oh well. As Scarlet O'Hara said in Gone With the Wind, "Tomorrow is another day."
I made baked eggplant for dinner. It turned out good. We were going to have watermelon too, but were both too full.
I lit my summer candle tonight. Not many more days I can use it. Fall is coming.
And here it is showing both sides.
Joe is already in bed.
I'll be heading there real soon. Just have a few things to do before I can get there. Have a nice night everyone.
Kathy
A pastor friend of mine sent this to me. It is funny, but very long so I am going to share just the beginning tonight (since it is after midnight) and the rest over the next few weeks. I hope none of you do this to your pastor or other church leaders. The article is by Thom S. Rainer.
Few people are truly aware of the constant requests, complaints, and
criticisms pastors and other church leaders receive. I must admit,
however, I was surprised when I asked church leaders on Twitter to share
some of the more unusual comments they have received. I was first
surprised at how many responded. But I was most surprised at the really
strange things people tell pastors and other church leaders.
Many of the comments related to using the Bible too much or to being
too evangelistic. I should make those a blog post by themselves.
I narrowed my selection to twenty-five, but it could have been much
higher. I left off many great comments to keep this post manageable.
I’ve only made minor wording changes to some of these. For the most
part, I received these quotes just as you are seeing them. The
parenthetical words after each comment represent my off-the-cuff
commentary.
- “We need a small group for cat lovers.” (I guess they could serve Meow Mix as a snack.)
- “You need to change your voice.” (Yes ma’am. I’ll try to have that done by next week.)
- “Our expensive coffee is attracting too many hipsters.” (Yep. You don’t want too many of those hipsters in your church.)
- “Preachers who don’t wear suits and ties aren’t saved. It’s in the Bible. (I should have known that’s what Jesus and Paul wore.)
- “Your socks are distracting.” (I understand. I’ll stop wearing socks.)
- “You shouldn’t make people leave the youth group after they graduate.” (It’s going to get really weird by the time they turn 70 years old.)
- “I don’t like the color of the towels in the women’s restroom.” (I don’t understand. They match the towels in the men’s restroom.)
- “We need to start attracting more normal people at church.” (So, you will be leaving the church, I presume.)
- “I developed cancer because you don’t preach from the KJV.” (Major medical announcement! New carcinogen discovered!)
- “Your wife never compliments me about my hair or dress.” (There could be a reason for that.)
- “Not enough people signed up for the church golf tournament. You have poor leadership skills.” (I’m so sorry. I expected more since most of the deacons play golf on Sunday morning)
- “I think you are trying to preach caffeineism.” (Probably Reformed theology with an extra kick.)
- “If Jesus sang from the red hymnals, why can’t we?” (I think you are mistaken. He sang from blue hymnals.)
- (To a pastor who married interracially). “You are living in sin. You shouldn’t be married to each other.” (That one is not worthy of commentary.)
- “I don’t like the brand of donuts in the foyer.” (It’s better than Meow Mix.)
- “You didn’t wrap the hot dogs in bacon for the church picnic.” (I understand that one. Bacon rules.)
- “You shouldn’t drink water when you preach.” (At least not simultaneously.)
- “The toilet paper is on the wrong way in the ladies restroom. It’s rolled under.” (My guess is that it is still functional.)
- “Why don’t you ever preach on Tim Tebow?” (Be patient. I will be preaching a six-week expository series on him in the fall.)
- “You don’t have ashtrays in the fellowship hall.” (Yes we do. They are right next to the spittoons for your chewing tobacco.)
- “Did you see me waving in the back of the worship center? You preached too long. It was time to eat!” (Who needs a clock when I have you?)
- “The eggs were not scrambled enough at the senior adult breakfast.” (We thought you could jump up and down after you ate them to finish the job.)
- “You don’t look at our side of the worship center enough when you preach.” (That’s because you are on that side.)
- “We are leaving the church because you have a red cross on the building. That’s the color of the devil.” (I understand. It’s in the same verse that describes his pitchfork and horns.)
- “Your sermon needed more calories.” (Okay. I’ll feed it one of those donuts in the foyer.)
Pastors and other church leaders must have great patience and
strength. They are faced with these and many other comments and demands
every day. I love these church leaders, and I thank God for them.
Kathy
It really does. I'm enjoying summer and the warm beautiful weather. I even liked the pouring rain this afternoon. (I was at work and just watched it through the window.)
First of all, thank you for all your kind words about my thyroid problems. I had no idea so many people could identify with me. As I said, my symptoms are just annoying and so many people have things a lot worse than I do. I'm really grateful.
I had trouble sleeping last night and so overslept this morning. As you can guess I was late getting to work. *sigh* I didn't have time for breakfast and so was very hungry by lunch. I had to go to Shop Rite again so I got a green salad, tortellini salad and potato salad from the salad bar. Then I picked up a few things I needed. When I got back to work I found I had only five minutes to eat lunch. Oh no! I had to go on the front desk so I ended up eating half the salad, going on the desk, and eating the rest of it the next hour after I got off. It was still good.
We are so busy these days with all the Fishtown people coming in to get their books. We are getting their deliveries from the Central Branch and all their mail too. I feel badly for the employees because I know from experience that it's no fun being in another branch and not having your own things around you. We are making them welcome and it's better than some other places they could have been assigned to, but it's still not home. They don't even have their own coffee cup or file drawers.
When I got home from work Joe told me that he had a bad headache and wanted to sleep before dinner. I said that was OK I would lay down for a little bit too. Three hours later I wake up with Joe telling me it was after 10 p.m. and we hadn't eaten dinner. We both felt better, but it was too late to eat. We just had some snacks so that we could take our medication.
Now I'm starting to get a migraine. It never ends. But this is going to end because I am getting off of here and get some more sleep. I have a dentist appointment in the morning before work so I need to get up on time.
More news tomorrow. Good night.
Kathy
