Here's my blog for Saturday, posted on Sunday...
Today Jeff K, Tom C and I drove to Decautur, IL for a workshop with the diocesan Mission Department which is called, for an unknown reason, the "Department of General Mission Strategies, or DGMS. Actually I do know the reason since I’ve been around for almost thirty years, but the original intent of DGMS has long ago been lost, only the name continues.
We attended a service of Holy Eucharist with the Bishop (Peter Beckwith) as celebrant. The "feast day" was in honor of St. Augustine of Hippo – yes, that Saint Augustine. A good homily by the bishop, then down to business. Archdeacon Shawn Denney spoke on the topic "God Gives the Increase." He mentioned his experiences with his church, St. Luke of Springfield, which is growing nicely by involving the people in the neighborhood, mostly black. Shawn, who is extremely High Church Anglo-Catholic, is finding himself presiding over a group of young inner city people for whom an evangelical experience is more meaningful. His point? Trust God to give the increase.
After that came a couple of workshops. I attended Adult Education which was quite informative and stewardship, which ended up being a sales pitch by an organization that lets you buy their services to help to try to improve the stewardship in your church. That was less useful. Nothing at all was said about the kind of ministry I am deeply involved with – ministry to the elderly and ministry to the mentally disabled. I don’t know why we ignore the elderly. I understand that there is no money in ministry to the disabled. Too bad. Maybe eventually I’ll tie in with some religious folk who do this.
Tomorrow Sue and I will head out for a four day camping trip. I’ll take pictures. More upon our return. Peace and blessings to all.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Life on a Country Garden Estate
I went to bed at around my normal time last night – 1 AM. Anyone of a certain age knows what it is like to be older and on Lasix, so understand that I was up several times during the night, even though I take my evening dose around 5 PM. Anyway, to make a long story short, by the time everything settled down I really fell asleep and didn’t wake up until 9 AM! Wow, like being a kid on summer vacation again.
Today began with a slight rain, but it was so light that I figured that this was as good an opportunity as I was likely to have for a while. So I spent about three hours sweeping up the grass I mowed a few days back then, applying Turf Builder Plus 2 to my entire "main" lawn. Our place is "L" shaped, with the long leg lying down and the short leg sticking up towards the north. The front part is one acre in size while the stub is half an acre.
Our neighbor across the street had a visitor from England some years back and he admired our place and called it a "Country Garden Estate." I don’t know about the "Estate"part, but we do live in a small country village and do lots of gardening – flowers, shrubs, vegetables, and fruit.
I divide the front part into sections, just for convenience. Each section is about one-quarter acre in size. The part I fertilize is the section to the West, the section around the house, and the section to the immediate east. The "Far East" is the vegetable garden (right now that’s 20’ X 20’, but will grow some next year) and the Little Orchard which consists of two dwarf peach and two dwarf apple trees. So far I’ve had only two small peaches, but they should begin to bear well in the next two years (they’re now 3 years old).
After fertilizing, I mowed the "Far East" and worked on completing two compost bins by the veggie garden. Then I applied herbicide in a number of places in the North Yard and in the Far East around the compost bins and the fruit trees.
By then it was dinner time and good wife Sue had done all of the work this time – I didn’t even have to barbecue. We had her homemade ratatouille, cucumber and onion salad, sliced tomatoes, Corn on the Cob and, for dessert, Peaches and Cream on homemade scones (that I had made a few weeks ago and had frozen). Altogether a yummy meal.
Tomorrow I’m off to an Evangelism workshop with two of the men from my church, Tom and Jeff. We had one other to go, but she had a death in the family and tomorrow is funeral day. We’ll think about her. Maybe tomorrow evening I’ll have something else to write about than my simple life. In the meantime, sweet dreams and God Bless.
Today began with a slight rain, but it was so light that I figured that this was as good an opportunity as I was likely to have for a while. So I spent about three hours sweeping up the grass I mowed a few days back then, applying Turf Builder Plus 2 to my entire "main" lawn. Our place is "L" shaped, with the long leg lying down and the short leg sticking up towards the north. The front part is one acre in size while the stub is half an acre.
Our neighbor across the street had a visitor from England some years back and he admired our place and called it a "Country Garden Estate." I don’t know about the "Estate"part, but we do live in a small country village and do lots of gardening – flowers, shrubs, vegetables, and fruit.
I divide the front part into sections, just for convenience. Each section is about one-quarter acre in size. The part I fertilize is the section to the West, the section around the house, and the section to the immediate east. The "Far East" is the vegetable garden (right now that’s 20’ X 20’, but will grow some next year) and the Little Orchard which consists of two dwarf peach and two dwarf apple trees. So far I’ve had only two small peaches, but they should begin to bear well in the next two years (they’re now 3 years old).
After fertilizing, I mowed the "Far East" and worked on completing two compost bins by the veggie garden. Then I applied herbicide in a number of places in the North Yard and in the Far East around the compost bins and the fruit trees.
By then it was dinner time and good wife Sue had done all of the work this time – I didn’t even have to barbecue. We had her homemade ratatouille, cucumber and onion salad, sliced tomatoes, Corn on the Cob and, for dessert, Peaches and Cream on homemade scones (that I had made a few weeks ago and had frozen). Altogether a yummy meal.
Tomorrow I’m off to an Evangelism workshop with two of the men from my church, Tom and Jeff. We had one other to go, but she had a death in the family and tomorrow is funeral day. We’ll think about her. Maybe tomorrow evening I’ll have something else to write about than my simple life. In the meantime, sweet dreams and God Bless.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
A Big Celebration
Today, Thursday, I felt 100% better. I got up at 0630 after Serendipity (the grey cat) had been pestering me for about half an hour. I put on some shorts and a tee-shirt, then fed the critters. Around 0800 Sue got up and came downstairs and we had a Cottage Cheese mixed with Fruit breakfast.
After that I drove to see my family practitioner, Dr. Varanasi. His nurse Jeannie gave me my semi-monthly vitamin B-12 shot then Dr. V. came in and we went over one of my latest blood tests – one taken on 27-July-2009. The only big change from January was a drop in my platelets from 88 to 77 (thousand). That’s my damaged liver at work – or not. My TSH was 0.121, which was low, indicating that my thyroid is working overtime. He noted that there are no "in-between" doses for my levothyroid, so we’ll just let it ride and see if I begin to lose excessive weigh (in his dreams). My weight this morning was 216 pounds, up 4 pounds in three days. It was his opinion that the saline solution I received on Monday as part of the EGD (the better part of one liter which contains about 9,000 mg of sodium), probably knocked my salts out of kilter. He increased my daily dose of lasix from 40 mg, twice a day, to 60 mg, twice a day. He told me to do that for four or five days. I’ll try that since my feet are swollen to the point of pain and discoloration. I showed him the pictures Dr. Pahnke, the surgeon, gave to me after the EGD and asked him to explain what I was looking at since I wasn’t sure. Turns out I did have it right as to what was what and what it showed, so that was nice to know. I probably need to find some kind of anatomy book that can help me understand better what is going on in my own body.
This evening Sue and I went with Barney and Joyce Bruce to Mary’s Restaurant in Herrin, Illinois. That’s as close to a top-notch dining experience one can have staying in Southern Illinois. I had the wood fire grilled Salmon, Sue had the Veal Piccata, Joyce had the Chicken Oscar, and Barney had the Beef Filet. For dessert we each chose a different one, in order to share. They have five desserts on the menu, so we were talking about how we were going to miss out on the Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce.
I had metinioed to our waiter, Jeff, that we were there to celebrate our anniversary and Barney’s birthday. So when he brought out the desserts, we each got our own, plus the chocolate cake thrown in courtesy of the restaurant. So we had Cheese Cake with a Peach Dressing (Peaches are at a peak here in Southern Illinois), Lemon Pie, Flan, and Bread Pudding with Peaches topped with a Brandy sauce, Ice cream and Whipped Cream. Our bill, including the tip (no one had any alcohol) came to $103. Barney and Joyce got away with around $95. But, believe me, it was worth it!
Then a drive back home where we bid the Bruces "Good Night" and Sue and I watched an episode of an Old Testament series of lessons (on a DVD) from the Teaching Company – a really good investment of around $60. The to the computer and bed. Again, Sweet Dreams and God Bless.
After that I drove to see my family practitioner, Dr. Varanasi. His nurse Jeannie gave me my semi-monthly vitamin B-12 shot then Dr. V. came in and we went over one of my latest blood tests – one taken on 27-July-2009. The only big change from January was a drop in my platelets from 88 to 77 (thousand). That’s my damaged liver at work – or not. My TSH was 0.121, which was low, indicating that my thyroid is working overtime. He noted that there are no "in-between" doses for my levothyroid, so we’ll just let it ride and see if I begin to lose excessive weigh (in his dreams). My weight this morning was 216 pounds, up 4 pounds in three days. It was his opinion that the saline solution I received on Monday as part of the EGD (the better part of one liter which contains about 9,000 mg of sodium), probably knocked my salts out of kilter. He increased my daily dose of lasix from 40 mg, twice a day, to 60 mg, twice a day. He told me to do that for four or five days. I’ll try that since my feet are swollen to the point of pain and discoloration. I showed him the pictures Dr. Pahnke, the surgeon, gave to me after the EGD and asked him to explain what I was looking at since I wasn’t sure. Turns out I did have it right as to what was what and what it showed, so that was nice to know. I probably need to find some kind of anatomy book that can help me understand better what is going on in my own body.
This evening Sue and I went with Barney and Joyce Bruce to Mary’s Restaurant in Herrin, Illinois. That’s as close to a top-notch dining experience one can have staying in Southern Illinois. I had the wood fire grilled Salmon, Sue had the Veal Piccata, Joyce had the Chicken Oscar, and Barney had the Beef Filet. For dessert we each chose a different one, in order to share. They have five desserts on the menu, so we were talking about how we were going to miss out on the Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce.
I had metinioed to our waiter, Jeff, that we were there to celebrate our anniversary and Barney’s birthday. So when he brought out the desserts, we each got our own, plus the chocolate cake thrown in courtesy of the restaurant. So we had Cheese Cake with a Peach Dressing (Peaches are at a peak here in Southern Illinois), Lemon Pie, Flan, and Bread Pudding with Peaches topped with a Brandy sauce, Ice cream and Whipped Cream. Our bill, including the tip (no one had any alcohol) came to $103. Barney and Joyce got away with around $95. But, believe me, it was worth it!
Then a drive back home where we bid the Bruces "Good Night" and Sue and I watched an episode of an Old Testament series of lessons (on a DVD) from the Teaching Company – a really good investment of around $60. The to the computer and bed. Again, Sweet Dreams and God Bless.
Day of work and Rest
Hre's my report for Wednesday:
Today I was dizzy and a bit befuddled all day long. Sue and I went to the Rotary Club meeting in Salem where I had a Chef Salad. Then we worked at the church all afternoon. I had one woman come in for help. She needed food for herself and her young toddler. So we went a block east to the nearby "Sav-A-Lot" store where I gave her a shopping list of allowable items and told her that if she needed something more to just ask me. It developed that she also needed household cleaning items, so we added a few. The total cost for about 5 days food plus the cleaning stuff came to $40.75.
I spent the rest of the afternoon going over the mail – even churches get loads of junk mail. Then a couple of my flock came in to clean up the sanctuary and we got into a long discussion about her pending trip to France. Yes, I am envious, but I did have a great trip to the UK in the Spring, so can’t complain.
When we drove home in the evening I felt a bit better. I watered my Rose Garden and deadheaded the roses (removed the now wilted older flowers). That took about half an hour and help me to at least move around some. By then it was 7:00pm and time for supper, so we grilled pork chops and corn on the cob on the outdoor grill and had a very nice supper of summer vegetables – lots of green beans from the garden.
We’re now in the abundance of summer and harvest tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and green beans almost every day. Add to that the fresh Corn on the Cob sold by our Amish friends and we have a real feast in the making. I usually grill the corn and the zucchini and sometimes even a couple of tomatoes. Wife Sue chewed me out for putting too much salt on my corn – my weight is still up after my EGD on Monday. To bring the lesson home to this bad boy, she counted the number shakes of salt I used, then got out a measuring spoon and showed me that I had actually used about half a teaspoon - no wonder I’ve packed on liquid weight. I should know better since right now my ankles and feet are painfully swollen.
Maybe I’ll do better next year, but I doubt it. I am, after all, a male of the species and like they say, "You can always tell a man – you just can’t tell him very much!" Good night, sweet dreams, and God bless.
Today I was dizzy and a bit befuddled all day long. Sue and I went to the Rotary Club meeting in Salem where I had a Chef Salad. Then we worked at the church all afternoon. I had one woman come in for help. She needed food for herself and her young toddler. So we went a block east to the nearby "Sav-A-Lot" store where I gave her a shopping list of allowable items and told her that if she needed something more to just ask me. It developed that she also needed household cleaning items, so we added a few. The total cost for about 5 days food plus the cleaning stuff came to $40.75.
I spent the rest of the afternoon going over the mail – even churches get loads of junk mail. Then a couple of my flock came in to clean up the sanctuary and we got into a long discussion about her pending trip to France. Yes, I am envious, but I did have a great trip to the UK in the Spring, so can’t complain.
When we drove home in the evening I felt a bit better. I watered my Rose Garden and deadheaded the roses (removed the now wilted older flowers). That took about half an hour and help me to at least move around some. By then it was 7:00pm and time for supper, so we grilled pork chops and corn on the cob on the outdoor grill and had a very nice supper of summer vegetables – lots of green beans from the garden.
We’re now in the abundance of summer and harvest tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and green beans almost every day. Add to that the fresh Corn on the Cob sold by our Amish friends and we have a real feast in the making. I usually grill the corn and the zucchini and sometimes even a couple of tomatoes. Wife Sue chewed me out for putting too much salt on my corn – my weight is still up after my EGD on Monday. To bring the lesson home to this bad boy, she counted the number shakes of salt I used, then got out a measuring spoon and showed me that I had actually used about half a teaspoon - no wonder I’ve packed on liquid weight. I should know better since right now my ankles and feet are painfully swollen.
Maybe I’ll do better next year, but I doubt it. I am, after all, a male of the species and like they say, "You can always tell a man – you just can’t tell him very much!" Good night, sweet dreams, and God bless.
Life of an aging Priest
I'm getting a restart on this blog - at my significant other's suggestion. I'll start with my Tuesday, 8/25/09, personal journal entry. It shows my current mood:
I awoke, Tuesday, at 0600 in order to have time to have a small breakfast before my CT scan at SLUH. Of course I had to first feed the cats – a chicken and beef mixture that is not their favorite. They don’t like beef, but love chicken. As for me, I made a three egg omelet using Eggbeaters and a slice of toast with margarine and raspberry jam. By 0630 I was back in bed.
I awoke again at 0900 when Sue got out of bed. I got up and "piddled" around for a little while. I feel extremely tired today. On the scale I weighed in at 215 pounds! Zounds! That’s up a bunch (3 pounds overnight), so I hope that it is just an anomaly.
I was sitting at my desk in my home office when I realized that I feel extremely tired. Maybe it is from yesterday’s EGD procedure, but all I could do was sit quietly and feel that I wished the day had already ended and I could go back to bed. A real wave of lethargy washed over me and I can’t really explain the feeling otherwise.
Around 1030 Sue and I left for St. Louis with me driving. I had driven for about an hour when I realized that I was on the verge of "clicking out" the way I sometimes can when I’m really tired. So I pulled over in New Baden and asked Sue to drive the rest of the way, which she did, with my help as navigator.
We got to SLUH (St. Louis University Hospital) just before 1230, as per my instructions. I checked in and pretty soon one of the workers gave me an apple flavored "smoothie" of Barium Sulfate to drink. Around 1300, one of the CT people came out and asked if I had had a blood test recently, since he needed some of that data. I gave him the telephone number for St. Mary’s in Centralia, but it took him about half a hour to get through to the lab at St. Mary’s. It then developed that my creatinine was 1.6, while the reference range topped out at 1.25, so they didn’t think that they would be able to give me the contrast dye IV needed for the test.
After some hemming and hawing, it was decided to give me another blood test to see if the results would be different. It took about an hour all together, but the new results for me came in at 1.24, just low enough. So we then proceeded to the CT room, where William, my tester, attempted to give me an IV for the contrast dye. He went for my right arm and drew two dry holes. All he managed to do is give me a good bruise on my right hand. His assistant came out and use the inner part of the left arm and made a painful, but good, connection. That piercing left no bruise, so go figure. In about 15 minutes it was all over and I was allowed to leave.
William led me back out to the waiting area where Sue was. He walked at a fast pace and I kept up with him most of the distance, but I began to have a piercing headache and my throat felt constricted as if I was having either a heart attack or reflux. I didn’t say anything to him, but as Sue and I left I told her how I felt and asked her to stop and pause for a bit. I stood still for a moment or two, then walked slowly to the car.
We then drove to Fairview Heights, Illinois where we went to Red Lobster for dinner. I did enjoy the meal, even though I overate. Then we headed home. I pretty much rested for the remainder of the day. Getting old actually sucks!
I awoke, Tuesday, at 0600 in order to have time to have a small breakfast before my CT scan at SLUH. Of course I had to first feed the cats – a chicken and beef mixture that is not their favorite. They don’t like beef, but love chicken. As for me, I made a three egg omelet using Eggbeaters and a slice of toast with margarine and raspberry jam. By 0630 I was back in bed.
I awoke again at 0900 when Sue got out of bed. I got up and "piddled" around for a little while. I feel extremely tired today. On the scale I weighed in at 215 pounds! Zounds! That’s up a bunch (3 pounds overnight), so I hope that it is just an anomaly.
I was sitting at my desk in my home office when I realized that I feel extremely tired. Maybe it is from yesterday’s EGD procedure, but all I could do was sit quietly and feel that I wished the day had already ended and I could go back to bed. A real wave of lethargy washed over me and I can’t really explain the feeling otherwise.
Around 1030 Sue and I left for St. Louis with me driving. I had driven for about an hour when I realized that I was on the verge of "clicking out" the way I sometimes can when I’m really tired. So I pulled over in New Baden and asked Sue to drive the rest of the way, which she did, with my help as navigator.
We got to SLUH (St. Louis University Hospital) just before 1230, as per my instructions. I checked in and pretty soon one of the workers gave me an apple flavored "smoothie" of Barium Sulfate to drink. Around 1300, one of the CT people came out and asked if I had had a blood test recently, since he needed some of that data. I gave him the telephone number for St. Mary’s in Centralia, but it took him about half a hour to get through to the lab at St. Mary’s. It then developed that my creatinine was 1.6, while the reference range topped out at 1.25, so they didn’t think that they would be able to give me the contrast dye IV needed for the test.
After some hemming and hawing, it was decided to give me another blood test to see if the results would be different. It took about an hour all together, but the new results for me came in at 1.24, just low enough. So we then proceeded to the CT room, where William, my tester, attempted to give me an IV for the contrast dye. He went for my right arm and drew two dry holes. All he managed to do is give me a good bruise on my right hand. His assistant came out and use the inner part of the left arm and made a painful, but good, connection. That piercing left no bruise, so go figure. In about 15 minutes it was all over and I was allowed to leave.
William led me back out to the waiting area where Sue was. He walked at a fast pace and I kept up with him most of the distance, but I began to have a piercing headache and my throat felt constricted as if I was having either a heart attack or reflux. I didn’t say anything to him, but as Sue and I left I told her how I felt and asked her to stop and pause for a bit. I stood still for a moment or two, then walked slowly to the car.
We then drove to Fairview Heights, Illinois where we went to Red Lobster for dinner. I did enjoy the meal, even though I overate. Then we headed home. I pretty much rested for the remainder of the day. Getting old actually sucks!
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