2008-11-14

Mick and Gary left after Morning Offering to tackle their Friday mowing, returning at the noon hour. They were a couple of hours earlier than usual in finishing because one customer with a good deal of acreage was having her lawn treated. It takes 24 hours for that chemical soup to sink into the ground. So they could not mow today.

Gary was glad of the extra free time because Tiffani, an L/L Board member and his good friend, was coming in later today and he had wanted to finish the cooking early anyway. He did so, and was off to pick her up in late afternoon.

Mick was also prompt to take advantage of the extra time and worked in our yard, blowing all the leaves out of the hedges and plantings and mowing them, then trimming up everything. Since the leaves are literally raining down, and since harsh weather is due in here overnight, it will be hard for him to see where he’s been tomorrow, but we won’t be knee-deep in leaves, just in cold rain.

I wrote in my journals and cleaned up a bunch of personal e-mail, writing my brothers, sending forwards of various things to those with interests in those areas and in general keeping up with the onslaught. I have some substantial letters to reply to, but I was eager to get to Buke T’s further questions first. She is paying me by the hour as though I were counseling her as I work on her questions by e-mail. I put in a half-hour of work before lunch. I also created my 2008 Christmas Gift List.

Mel spent the morning doing research at the computer on various Avalon-related subjects like truck parts for the Avalon Farm truck, solar batteries and ladders.

After lunch Mel and I came up to the office and chose a Roasted Garlic Hummus recipe to make for tomorrow’s guests – Tiffani will be here and Fox and Smut as well, in addition to Melissa, so we wanted to have something for noshes. Mel brought garlic harvested from the garden at Avalon recently, so we'll have that Avalon touch in the hummus!

Then we took my Gift List down to the basement, where I have been stashing presents for the last 10 months – I begin buying Christmas presents in January, when the Church Publishing Company has its excellent sale. I watch for deep sales all year.

We found that I had already gotten Mom McCarty a good birthday present – we are headed to Nebraska for her 91st birthday after thanksgiving – and had over half of the Christmas presents already in hand. I will gift as many people as possible with my new book, 101! And the rest, hopefully, will be folks to whom it is appropriate to give L/L Research T-shirts and mugs.

All of this took the afternoon, but it was well worth the time to have a handle on the gifts situation. Mel volunteered to wrap presents for me after Thanksgiving’s cooking is done. Bless her heart! She is incredibly generous with her time when it comes to helping me out.

After Mick’s and my bath, we had a lovely date and cuddled in the afterglow until about 8:00 p.m. We joined Melissa for supper and conversation. Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.