There are no pics this week.

I’ve been on the receiving side of holiday grumpiness this year. We live near several large shopping centers. Normally, its an convenience. But the last week, it’s been a bit of a hassle. It can take 3 cycles to get through a traffic light. When traffic gets this congested, I get impatient. But some drivers do worse. The result of a driver pushing him/her-self into an intersection is gridlock, which makes things worse for all of us. From a cyclist perspective, our neighborhood is “land locked” by major streets. Threading my way around and through this mess can be challenging. But a week before Christmas, I felt that motorists started carrying their attitudes out beyond the congested areas and exhibiting their frustration in aggressive driving. In a mix of two major religious seasons (Advent and Lent) I gave up biking for a week in Advent. Yesterday we were blessed with wonderful weather and empty roads. It was good to get out. I only wish I had remembered my Lactaid pill so I could have enjoyed an ice cream at my lunch stop.

We went to Ed and Lynne’s for dinner yesterday. It was a small gathering. Bud and Mark joined us to put 6 at the table. It was a good time. I must have been very good this last year. We are now stocked with 6 snow emergency kits. It’s double our normal maximum inventory, but I’m confident that they’ll be used up. The great secret is that we don’t necessarily require snow to have a snow emergency. We had an example just this last Monday. A couple of months ago, we spent over an hour with the the TIAA-CREF financial advisor. He kept on saying “What other questions do you have?” He promised a package that would answer all our questions in two weeks. After two months, we had our meeting. What we found was he had done a slipshod job of entering our information into their computer program. As a result, the report had numerous errors. In spite of his promises, the report answered only a fraction of our questions. In spite of our initial disappointment, the report turned out to be quite valuable. After our Financial Emergency Evening, we were able to quickly build a solid retirement plan. Now we’re focused on implementing the plan. With Danita on holiday 12/24 – 1/4, we have the luxury of time to do what we want to do without feeling rushed and pressured.

I’m an official money counter. Our parish put out the word for volunteers. It was amazingly easy to get involved and trained. The existing volunteers were very open about showing me everything in the process. I expected an easy camaraderie which they certainly have, but was was amazed at the professionalism. Volunteers are assigned to teams — one team for each of the 4 sundays of the month, plus one team for 5th sundays and vacation fill-ins. I don’t have my assignment yet. If you expect me to find a humorous side, you won’t be disappointed. When we count, we lock ourselves in the office. We start the count during the last Sunday morning mass. I was sent out to pick up the last collection. They presented me with a plastic-enclosed sign to verify I was an official pickup person. I don’t think I needed it to be readmitted to the office, but I held it up for the peephole just in case. I think locking ourselves in a room is to guard against Jesus’ second coming — so He won’t be tempted to “kick us out of the temple”. I suppose there’s other reasons also, but they aren’t as interesting to my slightly warped mind.

We decided not to fill our time off with lots of activities. We’ll be spending most of next week at home, enjoying a feeling of space and relief from some of life’s normal demands. I hope this finds everybody doing well.