Archive for » April, 2009 «

not a flash in the pan
April 29th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

Scott and I just got back from having dinner with Dad.  It was nice, we ate at Fernandos, a rather 3rd rate Mexican restaurant in West Omaha.  But the waiter was nice and the food wasn’t terrible.  Just too high priced for the quality.  Unfortunately, down in South O there are far better ones that provide much better fare!

I was kind of wondering going in to dinner whether Dad’s interest in Scott’s and my wedding was just one of those things that came up and would soon be forgotten.  But no.  Dad kept asking questions about it.  When were we going to do it?  Are we doing it tomorrow… which in and of itself is quite interesting.  Monday, April 27th was the first day we could apply for a marriage license.  But tomorrow, April 30 is actually the first day we can get married (unless we’d applied for a waiver.)  It was just really interesting that Dad is following all this so closely in the news that he is aware of the timelines.

Next he wanted to know if, after I made Scott my wife, if he’d take my name!  LOL.  Anyhow, I said no, we were going to hyphenate our names… he thought that was pretty good.

Now, that was pretty much the repertoire for Dad.  When are we getting married? What are we going to do about our names?  Oh, and what are we going to wear.  If you know Dad, he has his little repertoire that he almost seems to have prepared in advance.  When we get together, he’ll start in on his questions, and after a couple of minutes, he’ll start over.  So we’ll have variations on the exact same conversation several times for the evening.

In this case it was about Scott and my marriage… a marriage that we’re having primarily because, well, Dad wants to attend it!

In other news on the Dad-front, I got a call this morning from New Cassel.  They wanted to tell me “the whole story” so that if he started in to tell me it, I wouldn’t become concerned… Now that’s a sure fired way to start telling me something guaranteed to get me concerned!

It seems that two gentlement had gone to breakfast this morning, and had just gotten in line when the fire alarm went off.  It was a scheduled fire drill, nothing to be worried about.  After the all clear these two gentlemen returned to the dining room for breakfast, and had to wait in the lobby for the dining room to reopen.  These two gentlemen are a bit slow-moving.  When the doors finally opened, they started their journey towards the door, when Dad, a much faster walking individual came along, and popped in front of them.

One of the gentlemen took umbrage at this tactic of Dad’s, and grabbed Dad’s arm.  A verbal altercation ensued, and the other gentleman shoved Dad.  Dad’s hand was cut and a bit bruised.  But in the process the other gentleman was knocked to the ground (not be Dad but as a result of his own shoving of Dad.)  Dad, being the “wonderful gentleman that he is” (the words of the New Cassel staff) Dad attempted to assist the other man to his feet, but was rebuffed.  Dad was then taken to the health clinic to have his cut cleansed and bandaged.

The staff assured me that in no way did they consider Dad to be at fault.  The other man’s family was called, and they and the man were told in no uncertain terms that the shoving match was not the way to handle conflict.

All in all, it was kind of funny to me… in particular because they weren’t too upset by it either.  In fact the staff person who called me actually kind of chuckled while telling me.

And that is that!

Category: Eric's Life, Stayings at home  | 2 Comments
my what a day
April 27th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

Today started off innocuously enough.  Our typical morning routine: get up, watch the news, watch a little of one of the saved programs, get showered.

Then, we began to deviate from our schedule a bit.  Instead of Scott heading off to work, we drove down to the courthouse and applied for a marriage license!  The press was there, and we were interviewed by several stations and papers.  In the midst of it all, we were called and interviewed by Voice of America.  We met a few old friends we’d not seen in a long while.  The process of applying for the license went quickly, and before we knew it, we were done… only to be interviewed a couple of more times.

After dropping me off at the house, Scott left for work.  I settled in to watch morning news, and web surf… and to begin preparations for tonight’s CLM class at church.

And then it happened.  Screeching tires.  A THUD! Painful yelping.

I ran outside to see what had happened, to see a Rottweiler limping up the drive across from us.  I went over to see if I could help.  The family has about 5 kids.  Mom is off at work.  Dad is home, unable to work or lift anything due to injuries.  The dog was bleeding badly but just the sweetest little boy. (Ha! If a hundred pound Rotty can be said to be little!)

There was no way they were going to be able to get the dog to a vet.  So, I had two of the older boys load the dog into our truck, and with the father’s blessing drove them all up to our vet.  I really expected the worst.  But, doggy is going to have two teeth pulled, it’s tongue stitched up (it bit a huge chunk of it’s tongue off and that’s where all the blood was coming from.) And it may have a broken leg.

The family just isn’t going to be able to afford the costs of this treatment, and CB doesn’t have a place that would give the dog a chance.  So I guaranteed treatment up to a grand.  After taking the boys home, I told the father and he visibly paled.  I told him “Don’t worry about it.  You guys help us out in whatever way you can.  We won’t expect full reimbursement.”

I feel good about what I did.  I told God two things: “No dog is going to suffer on MY watch!” and “Now you BETTER get me that job!”

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news from iowa
April 26th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

Hey there!  Been a bit of a busy week, with nothing to report… until today, that is.

As some may know, beginning tomorrow, same-sex couples will be allowed to apply for marriage licenses in Iowa.  And on Thursday, after a 3 day waiting period, they will be able to get married.

Local television stations in Omaha, were at church today, and filmed most of our service.  They interviewed our pastor and Scott and I.  I’m a TV star!  Okay, a bit of an overstatement.  I’ve seen one of the stories, the one from KMTV.  KETV and KPTM will be on later tonight.

In the KMTV spot, Scott came across as intelligent and erudite… I like that word.  Is it redundant?  Anyhow, he shines!  I, well, not so much.  And the guy they got from “the other side”… those opposed to same-sex marriage… just priceless.  I quote: “Adam and Eve created the world… so we should stick with that”.

For the KMTV spot go to:  http://www.kmtv.com/global/story.asp?s=10252135, and click on the Featured Video link.

I’ll post links to the others after 10 tonight.  KPTM is FOX, so we’re not too sure what to expect.

UPDATE: KPTM at 9 last night had this story:  http://www.kptm.com/Global/story.asp?S=10253127&nav=menu606_2  See the video.

And here’s the link to KETV, Channel 7:  http://www.ketv.com/news/19297473/detail.html

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weekly clm assignment
April 20th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

This is my “homework” for week two of “Rediscovering Relationship with Self”.

Reflect and Journal about an experience when you worked in a spiritual gift area that is one of your LOWEST scored areas.  What did it feel like to work in that arena? Was it frustrating to try to arrive at a successful outcome?

Last week, part of our assignment was to take a “Spirituality Inventory”, which addressed 25 “spiritual gifts”.  The highest score possible for a gift was a 15.  The lowest possible score was a big fat 0.  On eight of the gifts, I scored a 6 or less.  The lowest scoring gifts for me were celibacy and tongues which each scored ZERO. I got a 2 in healing, and a 4 in hospitality.  Other areas in which I received low scores are:  Apostle, Mercy, Multi-Cultural Ministry, and Prophetic Teaching.

So… I’m trying to remember EVER working in one of those areas! 

I suppose I can recall two experiences/jobs working in areas for which I had a low score.  But as I address these here, I have to begin with the observation that there are numerous things that impact these spirituality inventories.  I’ve been taking them for over 20 years.  Spiritual Gifts change.  Or at least some of them do.  Some gifts may remain high throughout our life; some gifts may be given us by God at a particular time to accomplish a particular thing.  For everything there is a season…  Furthermore, moods that we are in can impact our answers.  As can emotional states.  And, frankly, most questions in these inventories have an implied answer if one knows where to look.

For instance, twenty years ago, taking one of these inventories I would have answered that celibacy was relatively high in the scorings.  I wanted to be accepted to seminary; I wanted to be a priest; I wanted to run/hide from my own knowledge of who and what I am; and I believed what I was told about being Gay being hated by God. 

And so, I spent two years “working in a spiritual gift area” that was, at the time scoring high, but in reality, looking back over my life, about as low scoring as you can get!  Was it frustrating?  Oh, yeah!  It was just plain wrong of me to work in that area.  It felt horrible!

Perhaps a slightly better example was when I worked for a semester in Hospital Ministry.  I don’t recall what my "healing/mercy” scores were back at that time.  Today they’re pretty low.  I ASKED to work in Hospital Ministry.  I thought it would be a good experience.  I was wrong.  It was my job to go to the rooms of patients, and, well, minister to them.  I think all in all it was a good experience for me, stretched my horizons, as I hoped it would.  And the experience taught me that hospital ministry was just not the place for me.  It was so hard to go into those rooms, talking to people I didn’t know, people suffering and frightened.  Far from putting them at ease, they or their families, often had to put ME at ease!  I honestly don’t know who was more frightened!   Fortunately for me, my supervisor soon picked up on my weakness.  She assigned me to one particular patient, a young man with AIDS, a young man who could not make the trip in to the hospital, and so I would go to his house.  We got along fine, I wasn’t frightened, I enjoyed the experience, and to be honest, was ministered to far more than I ministered. 

Journal about an experience when you worked in a spiritual gift area that is one of your HIGHEST scored areas.  What was that like?  How did it feel to work within and succeed in that area?

My highest scores (12 and above – none received a 15) from highest to lowest are in Giving, Knowledge,  Martyrdom, Wisdom and Teaching.  About that Martyrdom, go figure!

When it comes to teaching, I can’t really figure that one out, any more than I can figure out why I score so high in Martyrdom.  I’m an impatient teacher, at best.  To the extent that teaching involves public speaking, I’m horrible!  And when it comes to hands on teaching, well, I’m not too good at that, either.  Knowledge and wisdom, in this context have to do with things of a spiritual nature.  I’m not sure I could say I’ve ever actually worked in these areas!

But giving, while “working in this area” is somewhat problematic, it is an undeniable gift for Scott and I both.  We firmly believe that all our income is a gift from God, and as such is not to be horded.  About five years ago, Scott and I made a conscious decision that we would “work towards” giving a tithe, and in short order had rearranged our living to accommodate this.  We gladly give 10% of all income that comes our way… a little more in fact.  On top of that, we’ve been able to see needs at church and meet those needs… gifts above and beyond our weekly giving.  Sometimes well beyond.  A total look at tax time at our levels of giving show that combined we give closer to 15% of our gross to our church.  I’m a bit less charitable towards non-church related causes.

I truly enjoy being blessed enough to give at the levels that I do.  I know that in doing so, I enable our church to more fully reach out to the needs of our community.  Our gifts, together with many other peoples, enables our church to reach out and minister not only to the spiritual needs, but the physical as well, of people living with HIV and AIDS, to the homeless, and to the many disenfranchised members of our society.  It feels good!

This is a current area that maximizes my use of my strongest gift.  Even with my own sense of connectedness to our church and indeed to God, I continue to work in this area.  It feeds my soul, it strengthens my faith.  It builds me up even while benefiting and building up the church.  I’m pleased beyond measure that Scott and I while not lessening our giving by 1 cent, are no longer even close to being the only significant supporters of our church, and I can pray and praise God that others find joy, partly through our example, partly through a competitive desire, have found joy and blessing in abundant giving to God through MCC Omaha.

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more thoughts on last night
April 16th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

As I think about last night’s unusual conversation with Dad, I’m struck by the thought that, in a way, we’ve come full circle.

Thirteen years ago, last month, is when I first came out to Mom and Dad.  I don’t think about that too much, as it was quite a painful experience of all three of us.  It changed, forever, how we interacted.  For years up to that point, Mom and Dad and I talked on the phone every weekend.  Our conversations were fun, generally lasting more than an hour, lively.  But after that event, our conversations dwindled.  We’d go months between calls, and when we did speak there was always the unspoken issue that we skirted.  The calls were tense, and relatively short. 

Whereas before that time, I always looked forward to every opportunity to fly to California to spend time with them, I began to dread those visits.

By the time Mom and Dad moved to Council Bluffs in the summer of 2003, the tension was largely gone.  We’d settled in to a routine of talking about everything except what was important in my life.  We were talking nearly weekly, again.  When they arrived in CB that summer, even though they lived only a mile away, we kept our contact to a minimum… though I knew they wanted more contact, it was hard for me to spend time with them.  There was always the unspoken but obvious “elephant” in the room that we had to avoid.

It was hard because Scott and I were always together.  And yet Scott’s and my relationship was unaddressed, unspoken, hidden.  Their words from that initial conversation always served to keep me cautious, wary. “We’ll never accept anyone in your life.  They’ll never be welcome.”

While we got along well, and they did seem to accept Scott, it felt to me that the acceptance was predicated on never speaking the truth about who Scott was in my life.  It got to the point that Scott was expected, and they even would inquire into his whereabouts if he didn’t join us.

In time, I had resigned myself to accept the status quo, and that worked.  And it would have served me fine until the very end.  I was okay with the way our lives finally settled in to a comfortable pattern.  It ceased to bother me years ago.

And then, last night happened.  The conversation at Missy’s I’m sure “lubricated” the conversation in the car which followed.  I do wish Scott had been with us.  But perhaps it worked out the way it did because he wasn’t.  The elephant has finally been acknowledged!

It’s remarkable on another level.

After Mom died in 2007, Bob related to us his experience at the funeral home with the butterfly, and the special connection he shared with Mom and butterflies, and how he knew that it was Mom’s way of saying she was still with him.

Mom often told me how she would have experiences where she knew Grandma was with her, after Grandma passed away.

Honestly, I’d come to expect that.  But then, after Mom died, nothing.  I prayed frequently to Mom, spoke to her just about every day in my prayers, asking her to somehow let me know she was around.  Nothing.  This period also coincided with the beginning of my ceasing to experience God on a daily basis as I had for so many years (I wrote about this on Monday).  I had come, to be blunt, to the assumption that Mom was angry with me.  That perhaps, in death, she no longer loved me.  I know that’s just plain inexplicable to some of you who may read this.  I’ve been carrying a lot of baggage from those last 6 months of Mom’s life, that I still can’t put aside, that drove that assumption. I know it’s not rational.  But, then, in modern culture, for me to even talk about Mom’s being present or not after her death is not rational, either.

But last night, at the height of the conversation with Dad, I knew… I just KNEW… that it was Mom who made it happen. 

And now, perhaps, the wound from 13 years and 1 month ago can scar over.  Or perhaps this means the scar itself can now go away.

Category: Eric's Life  | One Comment
o.m.g.
April 15th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

PLACE: Driving with Dad after a nice evening with Uncle Lyle, Missy, Jim, Molly, Timmy and Toby.  And of course Scott.

DAD: “So, is Scott going to do that thing?”

ME: “What thing is that, Dad?”

DAD: “I don’t know… that thing.  You and Scott going to do that thing?”

ME: “Well, I’m not sure what thing you’re talking about Dad.”

DAD: (Frustrated) “I don’t know that special thing in where you live.”

ME: (long pause) “I really am not sure what you mean.” (But getting a feeling I do know.)

DAD: (Really frustrated now) “That special thing.  In Iowa.”

ME: (Very long pause, during which I think my heart might have stopped.) “You mean where the courts have legalized same sex marriage?”

DAD: “Yeah, that’s the thing.  Are you and Scott going to get married, now?”

ME:  “Well, Dad, Scott and I got married in Canada a few years ago.”

DAD: “Yes, I know.”

ME:  “Well, Dad, we may not because we’re already legally married.”

DAD: (Quietly) “Oh.”

ME: “Dad, if we DID get married, would you want to come?”

DAD: (With a lot of animation) “Oh, yes, I really would!  I mean, if I can.”

And I cried.

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Assignment 2
April 13th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

In our “Creating a Life that Matters” class that Scott and I are taking through our church, we have weekly homework.  This class is conducted in three “courses” (“Rediscovering Relationship With the Sacred”, “Rediscovering Relationship With Myself”, and “Rediscovering Relationship With my Passion”)  of 6 sessions each.  We completed the first course a few weeks ago.  Tonight we completed session 1 of the second course, “Rediscovering Relationship With Myself”.  The homework varies from week to week.  The first session had one assignment that involved journaling.  I wrote about that first assignment here.

This week’s assignment also asks us to journal.  We’ve read a piece from Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore.  The following three questions are what we are to write about.

  • Where do I come from?
  • Who am I and who am I not?
  • What might I do to strengthen the connections among the physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of myself?

I fear that the reading does not provide much guidance for answering most of these questions.  So, I’m on my own!

Where do I come from?
I think there are several answers to this question; they are not mutually exclusive.  First of all, I come from God.  I believe all of us are, whether or not we choose to acknowledge or believe this. 

And I know it sounds strange, but I come from stardust.  I think we all do.  The stuff of which we are comprised, the basic atoms and molecules have been here since before here was, and will continue after we are no longer here.

I come from Iowa/Nebraska.  I come from Bonnie Yates Strom and Louis Strom.  I am from Swedish, German, English, and a host of other nationalities.

And finally, for this journal anyhow, I come from 50 years of experiences that have created in me pain and ecstasy; happiness and sorrow; hope and at the same time a sense of hopelessness.  “I can do all things in God…” and nothing I ever do will change anything.

Who am I and who am I not?
The questions get harder!  Once upon a time in a land not so far distant from here/now I could have taken a stab at answering that more fully than I can today.  So much water under the bridge of life over the years though has taken it’s toll on my self knowledge.  I wonder these days, just who am I?  And because I do not know who I am, I have even more problems answering who I am not.

I suspect that to some extent my confusion on this matter stems from loss.  Things I’ve lost in life have robbed me of self-identity or more to the point, self-knowledge.

I am no longer employed.  I no longer serve in a leadership role at church, having chosen to rip those roles from myself.  I am no longer involved in the “international” retreat organization which I lead for some years… mainly because I lost to some degree my belief in that.  And the greatest lost, which contributed to much of those things I “am no longer”, is the loss of identity in relationship to God.

When I could put a label on my spirituality, on the way in which I believe in God, I could identify TO God.  In a very real sense, I lost God.

I need to label the compartments of my life.  I just realized that as I was writing the above.  Without labels, I am nothing!  At least can identify with nothing.  And if I can not identify with anything, then I can not know who I am – or who I am not.

I doubt much that anyone ever had any illusions that I “had it all together”, least of all myself.  But now, what togetherness I had is ripped from me.

Yeah, I’m skirting the issue of what it is that I am thinking.  Because, having made the decision to post this in my blog, and knowing who reads my blog, all of a sudden I’m fearful!  There are people who read this blog that matter much to me, and I want to keep the curtain between who I think they perceive me to be and who it is, or what it is, that I’m skirting.  Ahem, you know know who you are.

See, it’s like this.  I have lost my experience of my faith in God.  I don’t know how else to say that.  Once I could label my experience of that faith as Catholic.  I can do so no longer.  Once I could label myself as a “sort of rebellious evangelical type”, but I can do so no longer.  Once I could say comfortably to myself “I know who God is”.  I can do so no longer.  I honestly don’t know who/what God is.  I could blame the author of a book I once read; I could blame a spiritual director at a monastery I visited a few years ago; I could probably blame a bunch of others; but it’s on me.

See, God once upon a time made the Divine Presence known to me.  God made Himself known to me.  In many ways, small and large, I knew God’s Presence.  In the way a breeze caressed me.  In the way the atmosphere changed.  In the way God spoke to me.  But it’s been a very long time since I’ve experienced that.  I’ve tried so many things to recover that sense of God.  I have to content myself in struggling to be faithful and to acquiesce that, with or without experience, God exists.

You see, my life has been so wrapped up in God, and in my faith, and in the experience of that faith, that with it all gone, I don’t know who I am, any longer.  And worse, I don’t know who I’m not.

What might I do to strengthen the connections among the physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of myself?
Like the question of who I am and who I am not, this question asks of me something I can not provide.  The soul is utterly unique to each of us.  It arises from, and informs who we are.  It is that point within us at which our unique “usness” meets the Divine.  To paraphrase Thomas Moore’s reading for today, if I don’t know who I am not, I risk filling my soul with that which is bogus. And when that occurs, my soul has no way to present what is ultimately real of me.

So, what CAN I do to strengthen these connections?  I can but continue to strive to sustain the faith I do have; to continue to seek the label-less me, though of course, when I do ultimately find that, it will no longer be label-less.  Muscles unused wither, atrophy.  Faith not exercised also will atrophy.  Muscles are supported by our skeletal structure and our tendons.  The experience of my faith that is now lost was the skeletal structure and the tendons which sustained and supported my faith.  Without it, I don’t know how to sustain this faith.  But, of course, as all analogies must, the whole thing falls apart here for me, because a body without skeleton or tendons becomes a puddle of goo, whereas my faith, without the experience of that faith, can and will remain strong.  Perhaps it is the power of mind which sustains that faith that becomes surrogate skeleton and tendon.

In which case, I’m in deep doo doo!

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Significance
April 07th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

First of all, I want to say a hearty and heart-felt THANK YOU to those who took me up on my offer to subscribe to our blog!  I really didn’t think that many of you would take me up on it!  Thanks go out to: Aunt Jeanie, Deb, Kate, Joanne, Fred, Becky, Kevin, Jeremy, Jerry, Karla and Ray!

Also, I’ve changed the font from the tiny one it used to be to a bit larger to assist those of you who might have trouble reading it, especially given it’s a light color on a medium/dark background.

Yesterday, after working on some administrative type stuff here at home… paperwork that needed to get done, improvements to the blog (including the subscriber stuff,) laundry… I took Dad to the dentist.  When I got to his apartment, he was nearly ready to go, but he was upset.  He lost his wallet, and had been searching for it for days.  He had, he said, completely turned the place upside down to no avail.  I immediately began thinking of what would be lost… Identification card, credit card, insurance info.  Actually what bothered me most was his social security card.  I wasn’t worried so much about identity theft, though of course that concerned me, but Dad still carries the original social security card issued to him way back when!

Fortunately, a quick survey of his pants, all neatly hung in his closet unearthed the wallet, and all is good!

As we drove to Council Bluffs for the appointment with Dr. Ronk, Dad and I talked of memories.  Rather we spoke of the memories he no longer has.  It was a poignant talk for me, as I told Dad of all that he had done in life.  He’d served in the Army during WWII.  Yes, he knew that.  He didn’t know if he’d fought in 2 or 3 major campaigns.  I told him he had.  He remembered Okinawa… and that he was wounded there.  And he knew he’d been wounded on the same day that Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed away.  We commented on the coincidence that that day, April 12, was also the day 5 years later that Bob was born.

I asked Dad “Dad, what do you think the most significant thing you’ve ever done was?”  I’m not sure what I expected the answer to be… frankly, I was thinking in terms of his service in WWII.  He said “I don’t know.  Did I do anything significant?”  Then he thought a while.

“I think the most significant thing I ever did was marry my Bonnie.”

Yup, Dad, I think you are so right.

Spending time with Dad, the hardest thing is having conversations.  Dad really can’t converse well anymore.  I’m learning the best thing I can do with Dad is tell stories.  Tales of HIS life.  All the little tales he told me growing up about what he’d done – well, he’s forgotten all that.  To him, everything since the war is just lost in a black fog somewhere.  But taking a few minutes to tell him what he did after the war… that he’d spent several months in an Army hospital on Oahu; or gone to UNO for a degree in Civil Engineering; that he worked for Northern Natural Gas back in the days before it became that evil Enron; that he attended law school, been an attorney in Omaha.  All that, and all that followed it is fodder for anyone talking to him. 

I’m learning to not wait for him to tell me what he’s been doing.  He really hasn’t a clue.  He gets up, goes to breakfast (or not), gets his medicine, cleans his room, and then it begins to trail off, ‘cause he doesn’t really KNOW what he does.  More black fog.  I don’t wait.  I rummage through the dusty attic of my mind and find a story to tell.  Don’t need to remember lots of things.  Over the course of an hour or two, I can tell him the same story 2 or 3 times.  It’s new every time.

And here I didn’t think I had anything to say today!  Good day everone!

Category: Stayings at home  | 2 Comments
Cinderfella
April 06th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

Well, my little pay back period last week only lasted a day.  Yay!

The rest of last week, I spent doing… well… stuff.  Wednesday, in spite of feeling better, I kind of loafed most of the day.  That evening, Scott and I had dinner with Dad.  Thursday, I had an interview with the firm I alluded to in my last post.  It’s looking good; I just have to wait to hear one way or the other.  I spent that morning doing research, getting prepped for anticipated questions… that never materialized!

This past weekend it was time for Scott and I to do some work around the house… work that cropped up while we were gone.

First, was the matter of our kitchen.  It had gone in excess of 3 weeks without any attention.  I scrubbed down the counter tops, throwing away trash that Gary hadn’t bothered himself with.  Put the countless empty soda bottles in the recycling bag.  All in all, it didn’t take too long.  Then again, 45 minutes cleaning the counter was pretty unnecessary.

Then after sweeping the floor which had numerous dark spots from unwiped up spills, I began the task of mopping.  I started in the “Pet Feeding Zone”… and area that we’d kind of let go for even longer than the 3 weeks mentioned.  Our kitchen floor is tile… 1 foot by 1 foot square with a quarter inch grout.  I got about 4 of these tiles mopped and realized that they needed a little more attention that a mop.  So I got down on my knees to work on a few spots… and that’s where I spent the rest of the day.  The entire floor needed hand scrubbing.

The tan grout had turned black.  And as each tile was scrubbed, it showed up the tile next to it as overly grimy.  Frankly, I’m not used to that kind of scrubbing.  I’d do about 9 square feet (9 tiles) and have to rest my arms!  By the time we finished that evening, my arms were so sore!  Aspirin didn’t help!  They hurt all day Sunday too!  Yeah, I know… poor baby.  To be honest, I was quite shocked to just how out of shape I’ve become, and even more so at how weak my arms have become!

In the meantime, while I cinderfella’d my way across the floor, Scott was working on the shower.  The hot water faucet has been loose for some time, and in our absence had become even more so.  It was to the point that we could turn on the hot water, but not turn it off!  At least, not without lots of work.  And every time I’d finally think it was off, and released my grip on it, the water would start flowing again.

So, Scott tried to remove the handle, only to discover that the screw holding it on was stripped and wouldn’t come off.  We tried EVERYTHING.  Eventually, after several hours of trying this and that (including those magic tools advertized on TV for removing stripped screws) Scott was able to saw off the handle without damaging the underlying stem.  But that stripped screw was stuck in the stem.  We’re now faced with that old standby fix… the vice-grips on the stem trick!

Since we are planning on ripping out the bathroom, all the way down to the studs and subfloor, we opted not to take out the stem and replace it.  We can get by on our little fix for a few weeks, or months.

Sunday, we went to one of the local casinos for Palm Sunday brunch.  We had a marvelous time with 4 of our friends from church.  And I didn’t gamble $1!

Now a new week dawns.  And I wait… well, KIND of wait.  I need to get going with other job apps while I await word from the latest interview!

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