I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation
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An Update
I wanted to thank everyone who has offered prayers on behalf of Mrs. Orr and me during this season of trial. We got an update on something we’ve been anxiously awaiting, and I thought I would post an update here. Not far into the new year, I was fired from my work-at-home position. The reason for my termination was my refusal to comply with a company policy that I believed was unethical and heartless. I had been previously warned about this on prior occasions when I was a new employee, and the situation did not arise again until sometime around Christmas. I was advised by my supervisor that I was…
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Hiatus
We have a winter storm bearing down on us, with heavy snow slated to be dropped on us starting late tonight, and the attendant temperatures getting down into the single digits — some days the highs are forecast to be in the single digits. I think most of the rest of the country is staring into the same abyss, and I hope all of you stay warm and sequestered with those you love. Dear readers, my wife and I are facing a couple of major life challenges that sailed into our formerly calm harbor a few days ago. These things are going to occupy most of my time and emotional…
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The Pencil Seller
When I was a boy, I used to see an old blind man outside the Kress’s store on Main Street in our town. He would sit on a little chair outside the back entrance, wearing his dark glasses, his white cane propped against his leg. He would hold out a tin cup and would extend a fistful of white pencils in the other hand, all the while hawking his wares with his impeded speech. He would say “PEN-suls! PEN-suls!” over and over. Every once in a while, some benevolent soul would stop and say “I’ll take two,” etc. and drop coins into his cup. The old man would nod in…
- Bluebelle, Church Life, Daily Life, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Mrs. Orr, Photographs, Reflections
Paths of Freeze
Upon our second awakening this morning, the sun showed the crushed glass rug of frost all over everything, and my bones felt as if someone had injected crushed glass into the joints. Second awakening? Oh, yes. Our first awakening of the day was at about, ohhhhhh, 0230, when the dogs began snorting around outside our bedroom and demanding some attention. We got up to let ’em out and and see what might be yanking their emotional chains. They ran straight to the maple tree in the back yard and started leaping up on it like trained coon dogs. I shined the flashlight up into the bare branches and expected to…
- Church Life, Daily Life, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Mrs. Orr, Photographs, Quotations, Reflections
Lanes And Patterns And Oh, Forward…
Most of us experience brief flashes in our lives during which we are aware of the singularity of a particular moment. This is special. This will never come again. I have never experienced this before. These flitting glitters of awareness have usually vanished before we can fully form a thought about them. The weather this week has been so astonishingly gorgeous….I have exhausted all the daylight hours staring like a lovestruck schoolboy out through the pollen-painted panes of the windows and doors. It has been special. And this particular weather pattern will never come again. I have never before experienced this exact pattern of light and leaf and life. For…
- Bluebelle, Daily Life, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Mrs. Orr, Photographs, Reflections
Joy & Sun & Peas & Nails On Woden’s Day
…they chafe their knees….(Bluebelle) I was out in the sun today, which felt blissful. My solar therapy was inspired by a neighbor of ours who recently described a conversation she had with a doctor about her difficulty maintaining a good sleep pattern. Since this is something that affects both Mrs. Orr and me, we were very attentive to her description of the chat she had with the sawbones. Our neighbor’s doctor recommended she go outside and take the sun for about 20 minutes twice a day, between 0700 and 0900 each morning, and again within the last two hours before sundown, whether sunny or cloudy, since the sun’s rays penetrate…
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Something In The Water
We spent most of the day doing our rat killin’ (running errands, to you Yankees ) and returned home to sit in our chairs on the back porch, fans humming away, watching the thermometer climb to near 90F. Good times. The joints appreciate the lack of refrigerated pain. When we got down to the bottom of the mountain this morning, we detoured over to Pal’s drive-thru and we each got a sausage biscuit, an order of cheddar rounds (sort of like a large tater tot embedded with real cheddar cheese and smushed flat) and a sweet tea. While sitting in the line, I looked over and saw a familiar sight.…
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Feast of the Maid
He was feeling low that day, with all the regrets and bad decisions and missed opportunities of a lifetime revolving before him like a carousel, pulling him into that silent despondent cave where he sometimes found himself, with warmth and light and hope far outside, seemingly unreachable. Those moments felt like eternity, and eternity troubled him. The phone rang and he answered it, providing the lengthy greeting that was by now so natural for him to recite, the greeting ending with “How may I help you today?” The voice was female, faint, and warbly. “I need some help.” “I’d be glad to help you, ma’am. Is there something in particular…
- Daily Life, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Movies, Mrs. Orr, Photographs, Prayers, Reflections
Horribilis Septimana
A truly unpleasant week is behind me now, and I am grateful for the passage of time. A rabbit came by the front door a while ago to nibble some buttercups, and he seemed at peace with his dangerous little world, so I suppose I can try to be at peace as well. First of all, a belated Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers among my regular readers. I’d also like to say Happy Mother’s Day to all the divorce-raped single fathers who do both jobs with love and devotion. See, that’s why it’s a good thing that I don’t have a Facebook account….I’d post something like that…
- Bluebelle, Daily Life, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Mrs. Orr, Photographs, Prayers, Reflections
In The Carolean Era
We went Thursday evening to the orthopedic urgent care clinic I mentioned in my last post, and it was a surprisingly good experience. I was dreading any encounter with the post-coof medical/pharmaceutical behemoth, but this was an example of being in the right place at the right time. It was clear as soon as we entered the clinic that we were the only people in the place. The receptionist was kind and affable, and got me checked in quickly. An x-ray tech who looked like Lisa Loeb’s twin sister appeared with a most-welcome wheelchair and took me back for pictures of my knee. She, too, was very kind and personable,…