Friday, March 15, 2024

Not Always Mechanically Inclined

 


Though I work in a church office, I actually have to do a lot of tech stuff. I run our computers and help everyone with their smart phones, maintain the website and social media sites. So I know my way around computers, but some other mechanical stuff I don't always handle well. Ask my husband about his wood chisels sometime. But my mechanical safety ability came into question several years ago, when I was standing at the gas pump trying to fill my new van with gasoline.

I have been filling my own gas tank for a very long time...like over 40 years so I know how to use the pump. In fact, one time, (before I was married) I was pumping gasoline in my little green Ford Maverick, and a young guy at a nearby gas pump walked over and said, "Hey you pump gasoline really good."  To this date it's the stupidest pick-up line I've ever received.

But my new van was being persnickety. First of all it didn't even have a locking gas cap on it. There was no button to push inside that pops open the lid. That should have been my first sign of trouble!I finally just pushed on the gas door and it opened. I stuck the nozzle in like usual and began pumping. But it kicked it back out at me. What was going on? I looked at the little cartoon directions on the gas door. All it showed me was how to fill one of those little red containers for lawn mowers. No help at all.

I pushed it back in and finally after several tries and kickbacks, it got going. I relaxed and set that little locking mechanism so I could let go of the pump handle.

Now, I've always set that locking mechanism when pumping gas and I know that when the tank is getting full it is supposed to automatically kick off and stop pumping.

Yeah, well this gas pump didn't know the rules because as the tank got full it began spewing out of the tank of my car and the pump handle didn't kick off. Luckily I was still standing close by and I grabbed the handle but it was still spewing up into the air and like a fountain cascaded all down my head and arms and legs!

Oh my God I'm going to die!! I had gasoline all in my hair on my brand new blouse and capris.

I looked around for help, but NOBODY came over to my rescue or to even say are you okay? I even looked back at the store to the cashier but they weren't looking in my direction at all. Totally scared and angry, I quickly put away the pump and grabbed those towels you clean your windows with.

I began wiping the gas off my face which I was sure was going to have acid burns on and off my bare arms and legs. Still nobody came. I debated whether I should walk into the store and announce I had just covered myself in gasoline but I was really afraid they would either report me to the police for a dangerous act or insist I wait for the fire department EMT's to hose me off.

So silly me I just got into my car and raced home.

I met my husband at the round-a-bout near our house and flagged him to follow me home. As soon as I got out of my car I began hyperventilating while telling him that I had just doused myself in gasoline.

My near hysteria wasn't catching because all he said was, "Well you're not smoking, you're okay!"

I'm not smoking? Like I was on fire?

"What?" I screamed wondering why he could be so calm. I knew my face was going to begin melting any moment from my gasoline facial

"I said, you're not smoking...you don't smoke cigarettes so you are fine. Go inside and take a shower and give me your clothes. I'll put them in the wash."

"Oh, okay," I finally understood I wasn't going up in flames. "But it got all over my hair and face, will it burn me?"

I stumbled into the house trying to pull off my sandals so I didn't track gas all over the kitchen floor.

"No, I don't think so, just wash it off good." He replied calmly.

"I don't understand what could have happened, I was just putting gas in and it kicked it out and spewed gas all over me..."

"I'm going to go wash your car."

"The car? It's me that needs to be washed."

"Yes, but gas isn't good for the paint on the car. So I'm going to go wash it while you take a shower."

I looked at him. If gasoline wasn't good for the paint on the car just what the hell good was it on my hair, skin and everything besides?? So still cussing about stupid new cars and even stupider gas pumps I got in the shower.

I survived with no injuries to my body and even my clothes came out okay after adding a lot of vinegar to the washer to get out the smell. But I am done with gassing up my new car. I love my van but it has taken me nine weeks to get over the fear of putting gas in it so my husband has had to do it since there aren't any full service gas stations any more. (really showing my 40 plus years now...)

But I am happy to announce that this morning on my way to work, I got the courage up to try it again. I had no choice, hearing the van shout that I needed to stop and get gas soon or I'd be walking was an incentive. So I stopped and gingerly pulled the pump out and placed it in the tank NOT latching the locking mechanism. I put in three gallons and was good to go. That will get me to the weekend when my husband can finish filling it.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

String Theory

 



My husband has always been fascinated by my yarn works. "It is amazing how you can take a ball of yarn and out pops a hat, blanket or scarf!"  Makes me feel like a nuclear scientist or something!

There is something calming about the sound of the click-click of knitting needles. Both my husband and my son-in-law comment on how it puts them to sleep.   This is why moms always had knitting nearby when putting the kids to bed!

I've recently taken up watching videos of "Train Ride from the Cab" in winter in Switzerland on YouTube while I knit.  The clackety-clack of the train wheels totally blends with the clickety-click of my knitting needles!  Who would think watching videos of traveling in the cab of a train would be so fascinating? Well, I do.  It is my calm sitting down in my rocker picking up my knitting after getting off work, doing fifteen minutes on my treadmill, calling my ninety-one year old mother to check in on her and before I get up to make supper activity I try to do several times a week.  It is healthier than smoking, drinking or shopping!   And I am learning how to knit hats as well as a small version of the teddy bears I knit. The regular version is about 15 inches high. The small one is five or six inches. Last night I found some furry yarn in my small stash and began making a small bear with it.  It is a pain to see the stitches on the needles, but it is really turning out cute! If I can finish it I think it will be a very special bear and I am going to look for more furry yarn on sale after I finished work and going by mom's house.  I am hoping the predicted storms don't show up until later tonight.

Friday, March 8, 2024

Weddings Are Beautiful But.

 


Weddings are almost always happy affairs even if you have to drive a long way to get to them. We attended our niece's wedding 474 miles away, in Madison, Wisconsin, a one day journey but very long drive. Visiting a totally new state was a very positive experience until we met the parking garage. 

I must explain that I have lots of problems with parking garages. For one they are garages on top of each other and any time I enter one I expect an earthquake to pancake me in my car. I know it's kind of an abnormal fear, but I know it's happened some places and I tend to panic thinking about such events.

Second, they are always disorienting. Even though I am experienced at the parking garage at the Airport in St. Louis and know how to go around and around three levels to drive out into the fresh air at the top, I dread the return journey going down. But I have finally memorized the arrows that point the way and concentrate on them and not on getting pancaked. 

 Third, they are horribly dark and claustrophobic and always, always crowded.  I don't even like the one story ones where you park beneath an entire building and there is only one level of parking. You still have an entire building above your head. And yes, I feel that same way about some house basements, thank you for asking.

But I am digressing because the wedding was beautiful, the church was beautiful and welcoming.  Downtown Madison is situated between two lakes with the state capitol on one side and the convention center on the other which is where the reception was being held. The convention center sits on the lake with gorgeous vistas of water and sky.  Unfortunately, it also had a parking garage.

 I approached the garage with trepidation and immediately was directed to a winding circular drive up to the next level or three. I drive a very long wide van so going in circles made me wince thinking I was going to strike a concrete pillar or wall and send everything tumbling. But the worse was yet to come that evening after the reception was over and we had to leave.  

Of course everything is one way in a parking garage, which I guess is safe, but it also meant not knowing where I was going to exit.  Fortunately, or so I thought, we had parked near an exit sign. Great, no wandering around for us that night at nearly ten-thirty. We could get out quickly.  I picked up my ticket from my dashboard and rolled down my window to insert it into the ticket machine which was standing guard in front of the orange and white striped barricade.  Nothing happened. It would not take my ticket. Hmmm...I tried again and again. I turned the ticket around, upside down and backwards. Still nothing. I could feel the panic beginning to arise and looked at the narrow piece of wood that constituted the barricade in front of my car. I could easily gun it and break through. But I had my husband and my mom in the car with me, so I ruled out going rogue. 

 There was an assistance button on the ticket machine so I pressed it. Still nothing happened. It was then my husband pointed out a sign, literally on the BACK of the exit sign that said this machine was out of order, find a different exit.  Why would that sign be on the BACK of the exit? Who could see that for Pete's sake?  I slowly backed out of the ticket line and around a short curve to turn around. 

Now where do we go?  I began circling the parking garage looking for the elusive exit sign.  Finally we spotted one, but it pointed toward a spiral  drive again.  I screwed up my courage and hoping this was a one way spiral and I was going the right way, began the descent praying another car wasn't going to meet me in the middle coming up.  

With a sigh of relief we exited the circle and finally found another exit, where this time, my ticket got sucked right into the slot and my money likewise. We were free! 

 Thank you Madison, it was a beautiful weekend, but I wouldn't mind a valet service opportunity next time!

Thursday, February 29, 2024

How the Years Fly

 In all honestly, I never thought I would be here. Writing a blog was never on my list of things to do in life.  Books, stories, news articles, screenplays, the greatest novel ever written, yes, those were on my to do list for life, but never a blog. 

What in the world was a blog anyway? When I began this blog, June 28 2010, (by the way, thank you Blogger for showing me my very first blog so I knew the exact date of my venture into the Blogsphere!)

An online log of me, though I am totally stumped at where the 'B' comes into play. Someone who knows let me know.  A log of course is a recording of things in life, written down so posterity or absolutely no body reads it.  

I think it was made famous by  Jean Luc Picard on Star Trek Next Gen when he began every episode with Stardate...whatever... or wait, maybe it was Captain Kirk on the original Star Trek. Whoever it was, they got people thinking. I can do that, I can write down things about my day that absolutely NOBODY will ever want to read.  And then came this thing called the Internet and now even more people can ignore my writing...

But as I digress blogging... I was reminded of my own star date, 14 years ago when I began this blog, never dreaming I would be still writing it...over 476 entries later... 

I have to admit I was inspired, but have never lived up to the woman whose blogs and books I loved for 20 years. She is a knitter and humorist and honey if you didn't know yarn and knitting could be so very funny you need to find out!  She is still the only knitting humorist out there, believe me I have searched and even tried to knit and blog like her.   She was an inspiration to me with her constant blogging about knitting and life and got me going here. 

But since my knitting is rather tepid both in skill and frequency and I work at a church it seemed the better blogging material would be how I see life intertwined with faith.  Yes I blog all over the place from the seriously serious matters of faith life to why I burned supper so you don't notice the aroma of the cat's litter box.  Maybe I am a little irreverent, but I think that is life.  I simply cannot look at life without some humor in it.  That would be scary.

So happy blog anniversary to me coming up this June.  It's like I have raised a teenager,  fourteen years of blogging about faith and fun...and well while not feeling particularly young at all times, trying to think young anyway.

Chao!


Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Living the Miracle Journey

 My husband and I recently sat down and rented a movie to watch the other night, it was called "The Miracle Club," a movie staring Kathy Bates, Laura Linney and Maggie Smith.  It was Maggie Smith that I wanted to see, having been a fan of hers for quite some time. I love the way she can bring humor to any situation just by the raising of her eyebrow.

But I also wanted to watch this movie out of curiosity for the premise. These women go off the France, each looking for a miracle at the Lourdes Shrine.  Who writes movies about miracles at a Catholic shrine these days?  

As it turns out, while the movie just came out in 2023, the story is over twenty years old, it's writers waiting for the right production company to produce it. I can totally understanding waiting that long to have my story produced to make sure it is done in the right way!

But after watching it I began reading reviews and one quote from a reviewer really hit me in a way that I felt about the movie.  She said, "It’s not wrong to hope for a miracle, and that hope is beautiful on its own, but life isn’t about lunging for quick fixes. It’s more rewarding to pursue forgiveness even in the face of seemingly insurmountable hurt."  (Jillian Cheney Religion Unplugged) And there was a lot of hurt between all these ladies in the movie and to me forgiveness and reconciliation was the miracle they were all unknowingly searching for. Something we sometimes take for granted in our sacrament of confession.



Many of us hope for miracles, even demand one in our own selfish pathetic ways when we have been hurt so deeply by things that happen in our lives, loved ones getting hurt or gone, dramatic health events or marriage problems.  And we pray fervently for a miracle.  Yet I have learned, as I have prayed for just such miracles in my life, that it's not in the miracle that you heal.  You begin the healing with the journey along the way and sometimes you realize you have experienced a miracle but of a different sort than what you were asking or even expecting, just like these women realized. 

The Miracle Club shows us no matter how old or young we are, how devout or disbelieving we can be, God has ways to show us what we really need, and that is reconciliation with Him and with others.  And He offers us the peace that goes with that reconciliation too.


Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Faith! Pass It On!

Parents teach a lot of different things, but there are some things that are more important than other things, such as teaching safety. Don't touch that hot stove you will get burned! Don't run out in the street, a car will hit you, and always say your prayers and talk to God so you get to heaven!

We forget sometimes that parents are the first teachers of the faith. It is important that parents share their faith and tell stories of God's love for us. These are the building blocks of security, love and hope in our children long after they have left home.  

Schools and even our churches cannot make up for what is missed out on at home. So teach your children about God, his love for all of us and how we should always thank him for our lives.

Faith, pass it on!



Wednesday, January 31, 2024

The Constant of Change

 My husband were talking, we tend to do this at 5:55 AM while sitting in our living room enjoying the first cup of coffee for the day. It seems to be the only time we get to talk about anything other than what we need at the grocery, what bill needs to be looked at or which of the family: kids, grandkids, our parents or friends need help, prayers, encouragement or extra loving on. 

It's also that time of day when we dream talk, though that usually gets reserved for Saturday mornings instead of work mornings. More time to dream!

But a conversation has been repeating lately with the two of us and that is about change. I told him this morning, I am beginning to feel like we need to accept change as not change, but well, life.  It seems to be the norm, not just the constant as the old adage used to go.  Change is the constant.  Now is seems to be change is life.  And if you don't change you are left behind in the dust of blowing newspapers, paper bills, and mail service.

We are beginning to understand why, when our families would go visit our grandparents and aunts and uncles that all they seemed to talk about was the boring stuff that makes up life. Why did they talk about it so much?  I mean they obviously were living it, but they also talked it to death. We now know why...because it was always going on and changing.  The world never stops updating, moving here or there, changing colors, changing stations.  It's liked we are wired to never be the same.

But you know in some ways I guess that is good.  Because our God is never the same. I mean He is always there, we can always count on Him, but he is always changing to keep us moving. We cannot stagnate nor can our faith stay in one piece of concrete. God is the anchor for humans who are rocked this way and that on the ocean of changing times and conditions!  Thank literally, God, for being our anchor.  Without Him my husband would have really depressing conversations! And we would not begin our day in a good mood, despite our worries and concerns.  Because we know God has our backs.  He always does. And the constant that is change will never defeat us if we always remember to put Him first and check with Him before we try to set sail!  Bring up the anchor and don't leave it behind. Our God, the ANCHOR, will save us!

Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Saint of Today! Marianne Cope

 A saint for today... St. Sister Marianne Cope, a Franciscan nun who answered the call to help the people of Molokai in Hawaii.  I have always loved Fr. Damien and his love for those suffering from leprosy, but I had  never heard of Mother Cope.  What a beautiful soul!  She stepped in following St. Damian's death and continued the good works he was doing.


  Read more here!

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Holy versus holy

 When I was a young wife and mom, I remember an aging pastor at church who gave a homily on All Saints day about being a saint.  As we all tend to do, we sigh when hearing we should try to live our lives like the saints did because honestly I always thought that was way to hard to do.  How do you behave like a saint when you are sick, trying to mother sick kids, work a job, clean a house, pay bills with little money?

But he had an interesting take on the whole saint thing.  He told us there were saints, with a capital 'S', like the ones we all know and read about, but there are the rest of us, little saints, or saints with a small 's' who live our lives every day trying to do our best. 

It was mind blowing to me how that changed my attitude.  I don't have to be perfect, I just have to keep trying!

In the same way we tend to treat the word 'holy' in the same way I reacted all those years ago to the word saint.  We hear the word 'holy' and instantly we thing of those capital S saints, not ourselves.  In fact just recently, I overheard someone at church joking how they are in no way holy and could never be.  

It got me thinking, why do we have trouble with the word holy?  I guess because it gets used so much in reference to God, Jesus, Mary and the saints. It is used to describe church or the sacraments. But rarely do we use it as a description of each other. And that is a shame. For we are all called to be holy.  I don't mean like we are all overly pious, whispering, gentle and mild. I mean holy, as in God dwells within each one of us.  He is what makes each one of us holy!  We are all small 'h' holy!  

We are called to try to live our lives in a small holy way. We don't think we are better than anyone else because everyone is holy, everyone has God living inside them whether they remember to show it or not.  We are all called to develop that holiness inside. some days we rock it, other days we fail miserably, but our faith calls us to work on our holiness and the sacraments help us grow that holiness.

So next time someone talks to you about holy, being holy, or holiness, remember, we are called to small 'h' holy, no matter what because God dwells in each of us. We are temples of His Spirit and therefore holy.  We need to work to maintain  and encourage that holiness inside ourselves and others and therein become the community of the Church, and become part of the capital 'H' Holy!