Saturday Finding My Groove

I have been sad of late. That is the usual reaction to ending a trip, and since the trip before that was only a few weeks before, it seems to hit harder. But I am finding my groove at the house again. My roses (mostly) are growing fast, my mountain ash tree exploded, and I had to cut it back from the house. The apple tree is full of blooms promising a banquet for the locals (birds, squirrels, and raccoons) in the fall and winter (when the apples ferment, and the birds and squirrels stagger after bellying up to the tree).

The new floors Jeff installed are wonderful. My lawn service keeps everything tidy. Emma (Barb C’s daughter, Susie’s niece) plans to fly in next weekend, May 1, and look at Pacific University, housing, and public transit. I made a bagel with cream cheese to go with my liberal coffee. I made a full pot (and drank it reheated Sunday morning). Reading the news while tasting the bitterness of my coffee always reminds me that, while Hope is always out there, it will be some time before the world remembers Justice with Compassion. That God asked not about the greatness of our victories or the beauty of our cities, but what is the fate of the widow and the orphan in our lands. God reminds us that we, too, were once strangers to the land and calls us to treat the stranger well. The coffee tastes as bitter as these words. There is so much work to do.

I have sold and begun transferring my L3Haris stock earnings. It will cover another month’s expenses. I am paying over $1,000 for health insurance a month (and that’s for a Bronze level plan for one) via ACA (“Obamacare”) through the Oregon site. I am 62 and have three more years of this. It is part of the plan, but yikes, it is a lot of $$$.

I wrote the blog and then reviewed my notes/plans for my first Sunday School class on The Book of Revelation, and decided they were not enough to fill a full class. More is required! I headed back to the local Insomnia Coffee, put in my new AirPods after grabbing a table, and tried to add information on Roman Emperors associated with the book and times. I skipped Nero, as his persecutions were short and only in Rome, and he was gone before the time period, we believe, covered by the Apocalypse of John (though there are some who, using strange math, can show that Nero’s name counts as 666 or 616).

Wikipedia, countless online sermons, and history videos (the best and newest, I think, are by the author Mary Beard) on Rome and Revelation, and I do not want to just copy some of this into the class. I will cover just the basics and how two different time periods are associated with the book and its writing and understanding.

I have a scone with coffee, but still head to Happy Panda for Chinese-style food for lunch. There, with a few more edits, I sent my notes to Pastor Ken, Joan (head of Christian Education), and Dondrea. I like them to know what I am doing in my class, both as a sign of respect and to let them answer any questions that may come up.

With lunch inside me, fortune read, I head home. I read and rest a bit. Deborah and I chat here and there through the day. She is working on some work stuff. I get some tea and read more. I reheat pizza and ate that while I watched more Star Trek Academy. It is an excellent show (even some of the young people’s relationship stuff).

I get to Richard’s early, and we set up Nevada City, an Old West-themed resource-and-worker-placement game with some limited engine-building. The game has a marriage system that got it in trouble with the gaming community, and I agree they should have thought that through better. I enjoyed the game and was just ahead of James and thirty points behind Richard. I missed the engine-like combinations that gave Richard his points, but instead focused on learning the game. I would play it again, and the advanced game includes poker games and gunfights. Hmmm. It is out of print and not very highly rated. I did like it and thought it was unique and interesting.

We played one game and ended it sooner than we expected (we realized we could have played differently and gotten a higher score, and played longer). Corwin called while the game was finishing, and I called him back in the car. We talked while I drove home.

I read some more and then went to bed. I still get tired at night.

Thanks for reading.