2007-04-26

The weather was all over the place today! At mid-day while I was driving, it was pouring rain while the sun was brilliantly shining. It was a stunning effect!

After Morning Offering Jim set out to do what he could do, being quite uncertain how far he would get as the weather promised to be heavy. In the event, high winds blew away our heaviest clouds and Mick came home triumphant at the end of the work day with all his gardening done and even the one lawn he still had to do for today mowed.

Meanwhile I busied myself with writing memorial services. I corrected the service I had composed for Mick to reflect his preferences. Then I worked on my own service, choosing the music for prelude, postlude and hymns, choosing the service and the prayers to be used. I envisioned an evensong service with Holy Eucharist for me, so that people can attend without having to lose work time and also so that everyone can go from the service right into a good party with food, drink and good times, a real Irish wake. I do have one Irish ancestor!

I had the best time selecting hymns. I love so many of the ones in our Hymnal! I was singing all the afternoon.

I also prepared all the material Mom McCarty had given me on scraps of paper by amalgamating the various bits into one document. Her service will proceed along fairly certain lines according to the practices of her parish church and the funeral home, so all I really had to do was type up her hymn preferences, her choices for pallbearers and the little poems she liked, which in her neck of the woods are placed on the left-hand page of the attendees' opened brochure. Different strokes for different folks.

In the middle of the day I went on an errand run, as my new glasses were ready. They are terrific! Much lighter than my last pair, they come with a magnetically attached pair of polarized sunglass lenses. When you want dark glasses, you simply let them snick into place. I love these specs! It does help to have an up-to-date prescription for my weak eyes.

After Jim and I had a whirlpool and got all spiffed up, we motored downtown and attended Glenview Trust’s annual reception at Vincenzo’s, one of the nicest restaurants in town. It is rather grand inside and out, but the effect is softened by beautifully conceived lighting and appointments. The servers looked way better than the guests, being resplendent in tuxedos. I got a chance to wear the jacket-dress I bought with my Christmas money and felt quite posh.

We canvassed the place and discovered that the sweet spot was outside in the now calm evening. We snagged the last table on the patio and watched the gloaming steal across the sky from east to west while we enjoyed the vast array of elegant foods and viands. My favorite items were the Brie, the herbed tomatoes and tiny petit fours colored inside with the Italian flag’s tones of green, red and yellow.

We offered the Gaia Meditation on the way home, with me praying at the end, and spent the rest of the evening chatting and patting kitties before we said good night at 11 PM.

It is to be noted that, after a long series of Saturday afternoons where Jim scraped all around the eaves of Camelot and pulled a zillion staples that had held plastic over our windows in years past, Gary inaugurated his paint-under-the-eaves campaign today. Between the two of them, we’ll have some freshly painted eaves soon! That’s the kind of maintenance that is no fun, but having it done will be very satisfying. This old house, built in 1923, is an elegant old lady, a craftsman-type bungalow, and we want to keep her all trim and fresh. She’s worth it! It is a very clever design. The house is listed as 1 ½ stories, but we have an amazing amount of usable room in our 2300 square feet. And we use every inch!