I missed a couple days of blogging. Saturday I drove us back from Mark and Leigh’s. By afternoon, I was too tired to blog. Yesterday, the service went well and it didn’t take too much energy, but still I was too lazy to blog.

But here I am today.

The tree we bought in memory of  Mom is blooming like crazy.

Today is Eileen’s 69th birthday. I snuck over to Meijer to buy me a new French Press (old one broke) and took advantage to get Eileen some flowers and gifts. I told her the gifts were Meijer gifts and it was kind of like airport gifts.

For some reason rattling in my head is some kid who when he or she goes to the airport sees all the gifts their absent Dad brought for them on the shelves at the airport gift shops.

Unfortunately, I used my morning and haven’t done my daily stretches or exercises yet. I did do the dishes and picked hymns for next Sunday. I discovered that our Ritesong subscription is lapsed. Reported that to Mary and she is fixing it.

Parishioners continue to chat me up about retiring. Yesterday a woman asked me if I would continue to worship with them. I told her that unfortunately I wasn’t that religious. She was not happy. She said she would have to step away from our talk so she didn’t weep.

I have been getting non alcoholic booze ads in my Facebook feed. This might be a good idea if the gin is pretty tasty. Eileen ordered me a bottle.

I finished reading my brother’s copy of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I picked it up to read because my grand daughter Catherine is reading it. I wasn’t too impressed. My sister-in-law Leigh liked it. Mark hasn’t read it as far as I know.

I thought the author had an interesting story to tell about her eccentric family. But the first two thirds of the book seemed  disjoined and inauthentic to me. It picked up when she was talking about the time she was ten. From there to the end it was more readable. But the way she began seemed to obfuscate something. Not surprising since it’s a family story and all families are pretty fucked up.

Anyway, I’m feeling a bit melancholy as my vacation comes to an end. Even though I return to very low duties as a pre-retiree I am dreading it.

This evening we will eat out again. Then back home tomorrow after breakfast and boggle. I will go to church and post the hymns.

It has been fun to be at Mark and Leigh’s. I have started reading Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm by Robin Diangelo. It is excellent! More on this book later.

Diangelo mentions Tess Martin as a blogger to read. Here’s a link to her blog.  I recommend this article from her blog:

So You’ve Been Called Out: A White Person’s Guide to Doing Better