Sunday Church and House Items

It is another church morning, and I rise after 7, knowing I have plenty of time: church service is at 11, and coffee is waiting for me. It will be a slow day as I am paying for all the travel with some exhaustion, and the house and bills are getting untidy. I chat with Deborah a few times and find that the blog is not my focus, as I pay bills, supply some money for Mom Wild to Linda (and while it is nothing like this…I had to put this here). Paypal mangled the payment, and I had to repeat it (must have been ‘New Business’). I have noticed some instability in PayPal of late. Hmmm.

I paid off everything, including flights, hotels, and some entertainment in the Detroit area. I returned to the blog and found my focus again. Finances are tidy again. I was not able to finish in the time I had left.

I dressed in a white shirt, tan pants, a blue sweater vest, and a pride tie. My pants and shirt could not seem to keep in their correct place, but I hope that I looked tidy at least, sticking to tidiness today. I am pleased with my dress shoes (plain black leather), which have a rubber texture on the bottom (the sole of boots), as they do not slip or get damp. Good for Oregon.

I arrived before the service and soon am doing my ushering gig and giving a few tours of the refresh work. It is ahead of schedule. The cost seems to have faded as a concern, and everyone is happy with how nice it looks and just wants to see it done.

Pastor Ken runs over for his sermon, but it was well done, and he had much to say, and I can’t complain, well, as any Methodist, I can. Ken searched for a way to explain that the world brings hardships, crushing disasters, and disappointments. It is not true, and there is nothing in the Bible that suggests this is true, that living a Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) righteous life will avoid these. Bad things do happen to good people, though Ken did not use those words. That our faith and our God and Jesus can give us the strength, words, and hope to face these. Ken’s other message was that we cannot turn away from these dark events that affect others. We must object to the darkness, see the folks facing injustice, and help when we can, even if all we can do is see them.

And while Ken was in this darkness for a while, and I thought as an usher I should bring him a flashlight and direct him to the exit and the light, he did find his way out on his own, and it was a good sermon (here). Communion was next, and we now do it in the mob version. Before, the usher(s) would go row by row, and now I get to do my ‘pope’ arm wave to get everyone to stand and head out of the pews and mob the communion table. Fun. Though the older ushers (most called to the Great Church Service of the Saints) would roll their eyes and miss the old military precision. It works.

I got to sing, terribly, some Christmas favorites. I did the offering and, with the holy family now on the altar, I put the plate, as always, to the side, so it never looks like we are worshipping the offering. And with the holy family (Jesus is not out yet) leaning forward, it would look like they were kneeling before the offering plate. Not the message we want for Christmas!

I left soon after saying ‘hello and Merry Christmas’ to many, as I was tired from all the standing and hand-waving. Someone fell after the service, tripping over wires that should be under the floor (as many have pointed out), but was not injured. Ugh. So many things need to be ‘refreshed.’ But it is a lot of money, requires a lot of planning, and is challenging to execute.

At the house, I stopped over at the local gaming store, Aloha Guardian Games, and found a used copy of Tiny Epic Galaxies. Also, I was happy (despite the $79 price tag) to purchase the new Pandemic-based Lord of the Rings board game, which is so well rated. I learned from the store staff that they had a pile of copies (you cannot get the game online). I found one with a torn plastic (which few would buy).

The EV got me home without issue, I heated up the leftover Chinese-style food for lunch, and returned to my drive-to-tidy. I put on more Mary Beard and her videos on Rome while I folded laundry, and started to find the table under the pile of gaming, travel detritus, and Christmas gifts. It was an archaeological layer of untidy leftovers from various trips and gaming stuff tossed on top.

I did not need a trowel, but a box for some of the 3D models, and moved some boxes to another place. Not necessarily improving the overall tidiness of the house, but I am not ready to sort paint bottles and paintbrushes. Mary Beard covered much of Roman history while I was doing my dig. I found things going back to the two trips back to New Orleans, various business cards, and other at-the-time-thought-to-be-useful paper items. Recycling and trash were doubled.

I switched from Mary Beard to music videos on YouTube.

The table was found, some order restored, my projects made visible again (some figures I want to paint), and some stress relieved. The house disorder was impacting me, and I felt better. I stopped because I got tired, and my back started to hurt a bit.

I returned to my new board game, pulled off the plastic (making it now ‘used’ and not returnable), and found the instructions for assembling the printed cardboard Dark Lord dice tower, oh yes! The game storage is designed to allow for the dice tower to be stored in the game. Next time, should I ever do this again, I will use sanding sticks to make the pieces less tight, but I still managed to do minor damage and get it all together, often using considerable hand force to get the pieces to fit. It fit in the box when I tightened up a few bits. I extracted the rules after packing it all away.

I finished the night in my PJs, reading the much easier and more familiar Pandemic-style rules of The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship board game. Pandemic, my first cooperative board game, is still a favorite and sits on my shelf, getting played once in a while. I have to admit I enjoy the Cthulhu version more, but that is just a matter of taste. This new LOTR game has expanded the threat engine of the original Pandemic and made it less predictable (which makes sense when you are not talking about virus simulations but Sauron’s forces). This update got rave reviews from Shut Up and Sit Down (here). The other surprise is that every player receives two different characters (or a group in the case of Sam & Frodo) to play, taking four actions for one and one action for the other.

As I only get War of the Rings, the massive game of LOTR war (hundred of dollars of investment) may be on the table once a year or less (there is a lot of dust on it), this game is faster and, while it must abstract some details that are lovely in War of the Rings (Saruman vs. Treebeard, for example), the clean and simple flow may make this its replacement. More to come.

I managed to sleep with thoughts of LOTR and games on my mind. I am sure, though I have no memory of it, that I played some round of board games in my dream world. Maybe Mom Wild joined me in the dream, and we again played Grandma Bailey and Joey in the card game Euchre and still beat them even when they cheated; we kept it tidy. One of my favorite memories is playing them in the RV as we headed to Montana back in the early 1980s, and Mom Wild and I beat them despite their little signals. They told us they were unbeatable.

Thanks for reading.