Wednesday, June 27, 2007

A Just -Because entry

This week is Vacation Bible School and the whole block is vibrating from the fun coming out of this building!! There are thousands of small children running amuck, well. There are alot of small children running amuck. Well supervised, but amuck anyway.
I was hoping to get something out of the ordinary accomplished this week, but alas, I'm not.


My office acts as the Red Cross. My white board that hangs on the outside of my office door says so. It also repeats Melanie's rule which is, of course, "No blood, No bandaid". This is year 3 of this rule, and it still amazes me the efforts that children will put forth to bring about a tinge of red -all for the sake of a band. aid.

Ah the simple wants of youth. I'm still convinced that if you carry bandaids and a marker with you when you are left on a deserted isle with a 2 year old, all will fare well.

My Pastor boss is away, and that always feels uneasy , but- he has checked in and sounds great. It is very hard for him to really get outside of this church bubble. I am proud of him for braving the sand and surf this week many miles from here.

My office looks like a landfill. I'm really building those quad muscles having to step up and over so many piles of work waiting to be whittled down.

It is so hot outside today that the birds are flinging sweat at the feeder. I need to get or rig a birdbath for my little beaked friends and I should get a hummingbird feeder added to my collection. Hmmm. . new projects. Yes, I will work on that.

Usually, I have a particular story to share, but I decided that I was hankering to write, and write plain and simple, so there you have it. a Just- because entry.

My yarn art is coming along. I decided to let the guilt go about not being able to make slipper-like objects without suspicious protrusions sticking out from the heel. A friend showed me a way to lay them out so you don't really notice it too much until you get ready to put one on, and then, it will disappear once you get your heel inside, so there you have it!
magic slipper-like-objects
by Melanie buy one, or two- today in your local department store.

Now you see it, now you don't.

I started knitting a real thing, a sock. I knew this might prove to be a dangerous endeavor, considering the funky crochet socks that I've hooked into the world, but the twin needle variety wasn't so awful after all, just different.

First, I tried juggling double pointed needles. Sigh.....After I had bandaided my fingers, I tried again. 4 dpns ( that's knit talk, buster) held and moved and pulled and what not. Knitting in fear wasn't really very fun, so I did some research and found a new way to do sock like things. Magic Loop knitting.

Woo hoo!! So I got a pair of circular needles and started a knit sock. I added ribbing and was going to town, baby!! My confidence level climbed its way up from the depths of the earth and crawled all the way up to my elbows before someone commented to me one day, " Oh, what a cute baby hat."

Now, if you are knitting a sock, and someone calls it a hat, well, that says something don't you think? Yes, let's be truthful here, readers. You may wonder, "What, oh church chickster, does, I say What DOES one do upon such occasion?" and I would say, " You do this. You say, Yes, this is exactly a baby hat, thank you very much." and then you try very hard to stay calm against the panic inside that is saying, " How the Hell am I going to make this thing into something that a blessed newborn wears when I can't even make it into something the directions tell me is for the whole other end of the body?"

Well, I made up a way to close one end and viola!! I gave Libby yet another baby hat to add to the pile we keep for new church babies at home church. I will pay close attention to which child is the recipient of this particular hat, and I will be very interested to know over time if this is a child who cannot keep socks on or if it goes to a child who develops some sort of foot fetish. I will not readily reveal the deep secret that he, at one time, early in his life, wore a sock on his head. And if I hear that he comes to know that fact, I will, dear readers know exactly who spilled the beans. You. You, you and you.

After the twin needle fiasco, I went back to square one and bought a clearance skein and started practicing again. I vowed to remain truthful in my knitting from that moment on. Someone asked me what I was making and I said, "a thing" . the thing grew to a bigger thing, and another skein later, a really bigger thing. I decided maybe that is where my gifts rest. Lots of people knit or crochet somethings. I do things. Just things. I have now added a colorful border around my knit thing and am giving it to an office buddy who is always cold, because it has the potential of being a warm thing. We'll see what develops.

Gosh, that's a lot of jabber today. The heat must have successfully melted my brain. Sometimes, summer is just like that.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Murphy's Law in today's world

My boss has a love/hate relationship with his laptop. They don't speak the same language and they live on slightly different planes. I enjoy watching the back and forth of it all. Cheap entertainment sometimes. .. Bottom line is that the computer does not understand how my boss thinks. If it did, the world would be a better place. Come on , Mr. Gates, get with the program, will you? Vista schmista, how about creating a mind body connection between humans and laps?

The two challengers are having trust issues, I can tell. Time will make it better, patience will reign , they both haven't quite figured each other out yet. My boss tries to understand the prompts, and the laptop tries to second guess the Pastor.

Just last week, Murphy's law kicked in. My boss called me in to see if I knew how to delete a collection of messages as opposed to deleting one at a time. I was relieved to finally be given a question I thought I could answer. whew. phew. sighhhh.

He showed me how he had been getting rid of old messages, unwanted advertisements, etc.. He looked so miserable deleting one message at a time that my heart went out to him. He said, "I've been at this for quite a while and there are still soooo many to go- I don't have time for this. I have souls to save, sermons to share, people and places to bless."

Yes, he was hurtin' pretty bad. Slo -mo does that to him. He's a get -up -and- go creative sort.

I watched and I pondered. He chose a message and then it seemed as if the laptop took its time deciding if the Pastor REALLY wanted to throw the message overboard. Sometimes it cooperated in a timely fashion , and sometimes it ignored the signal to delete. After a few minutes, I couldn't take it anymore.

" So, how long have you been at this?"
" A half hour at least"
" Gosh, boss, there are a lot left, or it looks like it from here. "
" Yeah, I'm still looking at 6,000"
" 6,000? are you kidding me? Like, 6 0-0-0-? OMG!! Why have you saved so many messages?"
" Well, I just didn't want to delete something I needed."
" Okay, well it will take you a full lectionary year to delete all of those , one by one so let's try this"
I right clicked and the laptop showed- 'delete all? Are you SURE you want to delete ALL???? Seriously? Really, Pastor?'

I said, "There you go- just push okay and you're done."
I walked away, leaving him to delete on his own.
I took a few steps closer to the door.
" Okay, I'm doing it." ...Did his voice have a hint of quiver in it?
I kept walking.
" Okay, I'm REALLY doing it."
I heard the familiar sound of keystroke in G major as I reached the door and stepped into the hallway..................Then, " Oh Wait!!! I think there's one I needed!! Church chick , church chick, can you get them back????"

I maintained my steady pace, moved into my office and gently closed the door.
It is the most creative souls who are tortured so and on this day, my boss butted heads with Mr. Murphy's Law himself. In the techno- flesh.

Panda Stole