While Bill is operating the cradle and computer, I find myself making lists of things I want to add to the blog. I think that this blog is a running commentary on what is happening pretty much daily while we are on this mission.
For example, Bill decided that in order for us to finish the volumes for Kennebec County, we would have to get up early and go into the Archives before 7am if possible. Well, not one person is in the building at that hour to let us in so that we could work. He would have to wrestle the mattress monster to the ground in order to get up early enough for us to be here at that hour. So we made it in this morning at 7.30am and walked in with Jeff and Art. I found out that, due to the security policies adopted after 9/11, they have to use their electronic access cards to get into the building - so they let us in. we were able to start work immediately and we have done more books than ever as a result. the only thing wrong with this is that by tomorrow, we will be very tired and perhaps not get so many books done for the day - but who knows? We may just break all records.
So, consulting my "notes for the blog, shopping list" I see that the next thing to report is David. He called us last night after 10.30pm - he forgets that we are three hours ahead of Arizona. He told me that the reason he was calling was to ask where we were. I told him we were still in Augusta, Maine and he then hung up. This morning he called back to ask about the street we live on. He asked how far did it go and I told him that one end is at the Canadian border and the other end runs into the ocean at the coast. He insisted that we must live on a cul-de-sac because he has an app on his new cell phone (yes he has yet another cell phone) that pinpoints other cell phones, and it has placed us in a Cul-de-sac. It took me a few minutes of listening to him to figure out that the cell phone that I have is registered at our home on Cimarron Circle, Prescott, because it was once a land line but we have it now as a cell phone number while we are here. I tried to explain this to him but I really do not think he understood. He told me that because he is an employee of CPES he can get a 15% discount on phone service with Verizon and that he has 500 minutes on his limited use phone. That will go in a New York Minute because he talks to all these girlfriends he has. Essentially he has to keep paying his bill to retain this phone service, which means he cannot go over the 500 minutes - this is more entertainment than I can cope with.
When we came to work this morning, we could see that the flood had reached the buildings on the waterfront and it was reported in the paper that the authorities feared that it would rise even higher. The river is really flowing fast and I find myself wondering just how many gallons an hour are passing under the Memorial Bridge. Last night when we went down to the "what used to be parking lot" I was amazed at the amount of stuff the river was carrying with it - one whole tree sped by us along with many branches etc. Someone downstream will have a big cleanup bill as a result of this excess water and debris in the river from the rain. We could see the river from the window at dance class. We learned some new dances last night and it is fun to try to make my feet move quickly. While standing at the cradle doing the digitizing, our feet do not have to move more than one inch per hour but at dance they have to speed up to warp speed for some of the songs. There is not much difference between the activity level of Western Line Dance and Zumba. Both of these activities have us jumping around for about 2 to 4 minutes for each song and then we stop, catch our breath and then the next song begins and we are off and jumping again. The only difference really is the genre of the music - one is hillbilly stuff and the other is latin stuff.
At dance last night, Mary Hitchings told me about Trixie and how she had managed to attach a piece of litterbox clay to her incision that is oozing from infection. It had become attached to the ooze and looked like a scab that Mary pulled off when she cleaned the wound. If that little cat survives this, she will be no bother to take care of. She lost her leg at birth and the SPCA decided to do the surgery on her to save her life. There is two ways to look at that - one way is to recognize that she IS A CAT and there are millions of them and it would be insane to do expensive surgery on a newborn kitten that is to go up for adoption from the SPCA and the other way to look at it is that this kitten is a new life and should be given the opportunity to experience life and live through all kinds of experiences. Someone decided to do the surgery, remove the mangled leg and see what happens. Mary has called her TRIXIE and she is housed with Solo who was found by the side of the road and was so young her eyes were not yet open. Luckily TRIXIE was one of a litter of kittens that Mary was caring for and so they brought Solo over to see if the mother cat would take her and she did, so Solo was saved also. The male cat is named Puffalump and he is my favorite. I really think that he will grow up to be a real handful for whoever takes him on. He eats most of the food and leaves little for the girl kitties to eat so they are small and dainty and he is big as an elephant by comparison. If I was in position to do so, I would opt to have him join our family but I am allergic to cats and so that is the end of that.
Sara called yesterday and told us that she is teaching Oliver and Lyla to read. She did the same to Ethan and he could read before he went to school.
My quilt magazine came with pictures of all the champion prize winning quilts from Lancaster and Paducah quilt shows. I admire the quilts and the work that has gone in to them, and as much as I like quilting, I have absolutely no desire to devote every waking hour to sweating over quilting minutia to try to turn out a prize winner on such a grand scale as these two shows. So, I will content myself by just collecting fabric. what better thing to do to appease the tactile needs?
At church they told me that I would be released soon as the Gospel Doctrine Teacher for the Investigator class. This has been a hard job for me to do because I work on it all week. I do not have much time to work on anything other than keeping the apartment picked up, laundry, cooking and cleaning up after meals. It has been a burden at times but a good burden because it causes me to examine the subjects from all angles and to prepare the lessons to answer the needs of all the people in attendance. I really do not know what they bring to class in terms of thoughts, questions, doubts etc. and I certainly do not know about any of the challenges they have had this morning, this week, this lifetime. It is quite a challenge to be sure and I think I will miss it when I am released.
Many years ago I listened to a talk that pointed out that anything we write is a historical document. A historical record of what is happening at this moment in our lives. Being on a senior mission is a real challenge and I hope that the rambling posts I have put together give some sort of idea of what we are doing and how it has affected us.
One good thing about being on a mission is that we are out of the loop as far as family problems are concerned and we were promised that as a result of our missionary service, we would be blessed and that our family would be blessed because of our sacrifice. I hope that pray that when our children encounter pitfalls in life that they are strong enough to recognize them and to avoid them as much as possible.
A grandmothers heart is always yearning for the best for her children and grandchildren.
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