4:07 p.m. Today's project was to attend Bible study and then, after eating my pack lunch in the shade in their parking lot, have my initial tax return appointment for 2011. This was also the first time Steve's caregiver would be with him for six hours instead of the usual three.
I left a thorough list of hobbies and tasks Steve would usually be doing, plus, since the time was lengthy, planting carrot seeds and hoeing out the irrigation rows in the garden. Steve and I had lined them out yesterday, so now the job was to deepen them. We had also picked up some carrot seeds in preparation for today.
The morning started out in two odd ways: the caregiver had gotten a ticket last Tuesday for parking on the street in front of our house between 8:00 and 11:30! The new streetsweeping ordinance for 1st and 3rd Tuesdays each month, had gone into place during the summer, but since no one at the house parks on the street, I'd forgotten all about it. And, the sweeper goes by early in the morning, like 7:30. He was ticketed anyway, I guess for failure to read the sign. Should we pay the $41, or should his agency, since he was working? He didn't seem to have a problem paying it, but we were all feeling aggravated. "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man," I Corinthians 10:13 says, so I guess we believers need to be more awake and aware of the local ordinances and be happy for the other two Tuesdays no tickets were issued!
The other obnoxious matter was that the automatic sprinklers came on at 8:00 a.m., instead of at midnight like Steve set them up 23 years ago! Lately, since being shut off for the rain, they have been coming on during the day, and since he's forgotten how to re-set the timer, and I never knew how, it's stuck in our craw! (Plus it's not "waterwise" to water during the day and we could get reported). His caregiver said he'd take a look at it, because he has a system at home.
Praise the Lord once again for His provision!
With the sprinklers going full force in the backyard, throwing the ball to the dogs was out of the question, but the garden is located out of the way. The two guys put in a really good day's work with lunch "sandwiched" in between. The front yard looked really nice, and the dogs had been walked, too. Apparently Jada and Bailey had some kind of sit-down strike along the way that I'm still waiting to hear about...quite odd!
Our tax appointment went well, with just a few new angles, so Patty and I had a pleasant time. I'll be back as mortgage and other interest forms and 1099's come in the mail. Now we'll see if the rice I added to my crockpot of chicken and gravy cooks! Not looking good so far...
My life just full of oddball irritations and delays, unreturned calls, ministry deadlines and wedding pressures that just need to be laughed off and coped with. When we heard at Bible study this morning about the truly dangerous conditions the ladies of Casa del Pastor, the women and children's shelter our church supports in San Vicente, Mexico, have escaped from to a new life in Christ, my daily issues are fairly benign. Perhaps they serve as useful distractions from the tragedy of Alzheimer's that looms over us daily. Sometimes, though, I allow myself to vent, and honestly, that's just wrong!
Carole Gift Page writes in her book Misty, the story of the child she lost hours after birth, about the many aggravations she and her husband faced in the months after their loss, like a rejected manuscript, and a car breakdown:
Lord, I recognize that my anger today wasn't just a response to a rejected manuscript; it was my grief over Misty erupting in another unexpected way. It's just like when Bill (her husband) exploded over the car constantly breaking down, then he mentioned Misty, and we both knew she was on his mind through the whole thing.
Lord, may I recognize the true reason for my occasional sadness, carelessness and distraction, and irritation when things "go south." Please give me Your peace, strength, love, compassion--Your heart--for Steve!
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