August 2013

Here it is the middle of August and once again our family (daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters) are visiting us at Heart Lake.

It's been ages since I posted anything on this blog -- the reasons are various, and this post is going to be intensely personal.  At St. Mary's, which currently has no rector, Liz and I are both deeply involved although neither of us is on the vestry.  Liz is chair of the Property Committee and the point person on two significant construction projects, both of which require loans to fund them.  She is also on the Search Committee, which right now is engaged in putting together a parish profile.

I am once again treasurer, and I'm trying to get our financial reporting in order.  As a retired high school math teacher, and before that a pension actuary, you might think I would know something about bookkeeping and accounting, but in fact I never learned anything about either.  The saving grace is that I am pretty bright and also a good mongoose (the motto of the mongoose family is "go and find out.")  So I at least manage to keep up with the bookkeeping and am making slow progress towards improving the reporting.

This summer we knew we would be here at Heart Lake somewhat less than usual -- too many responsibilities keep pulling us back to New York and St. Mary's.   But three weeks ago we set out from New York with the expectation of having a pleasant and productive month here, with only two quick returns to the city.  On the way Liz began experiencing back pain.  It took a week and a half before it was diagnosed as kidney stones.   The pain medication is constipating, and Liz is often in great discomfort and/or severe pain.

Meanwhile, I had an incipient sore throat at the same time, and I kept expecting it to develop into either a chest cold or a head cold.   But it didn't -- in four or five days I began experiencing pain in my jaw and ear, as well as severe balance problems.  An emergency room doctor here in Montrose told me I had TMJ, with arthritis in the jaw joint.  A week later, I went to my own doctor in New York, and he saw a canker sore way in the corner of the back of my mouth.  I began using Orajel, and I think the canker sore is gone.  But the ear ache is still with me, although much milder.  Also my balance is closer to normal, but I am still not recovered.

The worst thing for me, apart from the discomfort, is that in the last three weeks I have not been at all productive.  Now I have to at least rise to the occasion of a vestry meeting next Sunday, for which I need to have a financial report.  I'll make it, but it will be a struggle.

I'm sorry for the tone of this post.  I really want to write about the concerns that normally occupy my attention -- environment, the state of the world politically and economically, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden, Trayvon Martin, the Supreme Court ruling on DOMA, all that stuff.  I'm usually stopped from writing about those things by the pressures of everyday life -- and by my aversion to saying something trite.  I hope to resume again before too long.