2007-02-14

Happy Valentine’s Day! Jim and I opted to treat each other to a nice dinner at Del Frisco’s Restaurant tomorrow rather than get caught in the rush tonight. But we did exchange cards and grin goofily at each other a lot all day! A chorus of “Isn’t It Romantic” please! Mick’s card was so special and sweet!

After Morning Offering Jim went off to the dentist to get some fillings re-done. Unfortunately most of the re-filling had to be re-done, since the tech they were training crashed and burned on the job, so Jim was sitting there with his mouth agape for a solid two hours this morning. He came home at lunchtime with that fat-lip feeling one always has when Novocain has been used, and mighty sore of jaw. His temper was none too serene either. The student tech had packed all of his fillings wrongly and the supervisor only discovered that at the end. And then another student was trusted with doing the whole job over. Fortunately Jim lucked out the second time around!

Meanwhile I wrote the UPI article for the week, a thoughtful piece about going deeper to find worth and validation from spirit rather than the world. What I liked the most about doing this particular writing was how all of the materials we read this morning at the Morning Offering fit together like a mosaic, telling one story. I experience a whole lot of synchronicities of that nature with our readings each day and it was fun to write about that.

I had no joy today with getting my medications adjusted. So here’s hoping for tomorrow! I did learn that my lab report shows that my anemia is worsening. I am not pushing at this, because regardless of my pain levels, which are intense, it is better to do nothing than to do the incorrect thing. This is a case where we see why patients are called that – patience is definitely the order of the day.

Pam M was here today not only to do the regular books but also to start on tax preparation. We do not do our own taxes, but we do need to collect information, as we use Schedule A to take deductions on donations, medical bills and property taxes. All of that information needs to be collected and placed in a worksheet for our tax preparer, Linda D, who has been doing our taxes since 1984. I was up and down the stairs several times during the afternoon helping Pam get started and then answering some of her questions.

Every year I think that this year we will have an easier time of collecting this information. And every year, I am wrong! Somehow in the space of a year we always get files mixed up and things so wildly out of place that they are lost for a while. We do have three entities – household, L/L Research and Jim’s Lawn Service – all of which need to report. So I can see how things would get snafu’d. But it always takes me a little by surprise. This year is falling right in line. I was making file folders for items new this year and re-filing all sorts of mis-filed papers. Pam will take up this beau geste de taxes next Wednesday afternoon.

I worked just a bit on Chapter Four again, but my time was quite broken up and I did not get far.

The e-mail contained good news in that Bruce P wrote Gary concerning the old bring4th site, so now we know that he is alive! Hooray! I also heard again from Melissa T, another former volunteer here, who has landed in the San Francisco area.

I wrote Fr. Joe at St. Luke’s to ask him for the text blurb on A Book of Days and he promptly sent a very nice review back, so I was able to cross that job off my little to-do list. As far as I know, the only remaining decisions to make before the Book of Days is published concern which printer to hire and how to arrange the back and front covers. I can do nothing to help that process so now it is time for me to rest and look forward to the choosing of the printer. That choice will take a conversation between our web guy, Gary and me. It will undoubtedly take place within the next week or so.

Rick C wrote by e-mail to note that a study shows that when people are grounded – literally earthed - in their beds, they sleep much better and stay in better health. I am not at all surprised by that, as Mother Nature is so powerfully benign an influence. So I sent the information on to Mick and Gary, as I have no idea how hard that is to do, practically speaking. If it is do-able, it sounds like a job worth doing.

I made a mistake in this journal yesterday in calling Jon Stewart Jon Edwards. I am getting my preachers, performers and politicians mixed up, eh? We watched Mr. Stewart’s show again tonight as well as the Colbert Report after our bath and Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now show.

Gary had worked at the admin helm all day and joined us for TV, supper and the Gaia Meditation. We all said good night around 10 PM and Jim and I snuggled with the kitties until about 11 before lights out.