Wild Bird in the House?

There's a post script to yesterday's tale of woe.  We were in and out of the house so often that doors were left open, specifically the door connecting the garage to the house.  And the garage doors were left open.  Well--a bird flew in the house. It almost hit hubby in the head. He just opened another door and it immediately flew right out.

Did you know that wild birds in the house were portends of death?

This morning all hell broke loose.  My daughter's father-in-law died.  She telephoned me early to ask me to come over to babysit because he died.  She had to go get her husband and tell him that his father died.  Everyone was very upset.  She turned to her own father and said, "I love you, Daddy."  That brought tears to everyone's' eyes.

We remembered that bird from last night.  I never put stock in that old wives' tale if a bird flew into your house through an opened door or window, death was not far behind.

Well?

Well, God uses many opportunities to touch base with us.

A Hard Lesson

Hubby and I were stuck at home all day long. I needed to go to the bank.  I needed to pick up a prescription at the drug store.  And I needed to go teach my RCIA class, which I've been absent from for a month!  All went out the window!  My car battery was dead.  Hubby tried charging it.  We started around 9:00 AM and it's now past 7:00 PM.  He kept going outside to try starting the car--no luck.  This picture is showing one cable attached to the red node.  The other cable is just attached to the car front to be grounded - that's all it needs.

My adult children don't live far.  The one with no kids said she'd be over to help jump start or leave us her car and she and her hubby can use one car.  BUT!  She had "spin" class first, then she'll come to help.  Hubby wasn't home from work yet, because he had a softball game.

My other daughter has two children and she works.  In fact, she wouldn't be finished work until 6:00 PM and then she has to drive home.  Her husband is at the kids' hockey practice.

Forget my son.  He lives too far away.

Everyone was momentarily too busy. We just had to wait.

Well, we definitely will have to buy a new battery.  What size and what kind?  We looked at the battery to read markings. We couldn't find anything.  In fact, what we thought was the battery was only a cover.  And this was under it.

What the hell is this?

Is this some new kind of computer battery?  We better look up and read the manual.  First, we had to find it.  Fortunately, it was in the first place we looked--the glove compartment. And what to our wondering eyes appeared?

"Your vehicle's battery is located in the trunk." huh? 

Yes, that's right.  The first sentence on the page was the revelation.  

Who knew?

So, we opened the trunk.  We took out all the beach chairs, bicycle pump, rope, snow brushes, etc.  Then we lifted out the bottom and saw our spare tire.  And there beside the spare tire was...you guessed it...the battery.  

Live and learn.

It's an Exciting Time to be an Evangelist

It's an exciting time to be an evangelist, convocation delegates told: ORLANDO, Fla. (CNS) -- There's a convention of Catholic leaders in Orlando, Florida.

This summer, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will be convening an unprecedented gathering of key leaders from dioceses and Catholic organizations from all across the country in order to assess the challenges and opportunities of our time, particularly in the context of the Church in the United States. This has been an ongoing initiative of the Bishops' Working Group on the Life and Dignity of the Human Person. The gathering will assemble Catholic leaders for a strategic conversation, under the leadership of the bishops, on forming missionary disciples to animate the Church and to engage the culture

At first, the statistics depressed everybody.  Church membership is declining.  But Bishop Robert Barron changed the tune.  He told the audience that it's an exciting time to be an evangelist.  It's an opportunity.  The people are really ignorant of the beauty, never mind the Truth, of the Catholic Church.  It's time to engage -- evangelize.

Following Bishop Barron, was Patrick Lencioni, an author and management consultant.  He said to follow a business model.  I immediately thought of my real estate broker training.  Some things I could use to evangelize.  I remember I was told to be a joiner.  I was to belong to a lot of clubs to network.  That would work and does.  I've brought people to prayer group from my cribbage group.  Of course, they were going to church anyway, but it shows how networking works.  There was also what we called "farming."  Actually, that's what the Jehovah Witness do, and the Mormons.  I used to go door to door and just ask if people were interested in selling their house.  When they said "no," I handed them a business card for when they were ready to sell.  And I kept in touch with them.  That method of "farming" never worked.  But I remember we were told that we'd get 100 "no's" before we got a "yes."  That goes to show you that you shouldn't get discouraged, just keep at it.  Persistence and perseverance were the keys to success in salesmanship and I can see where that would hold true in evangelisation.

The Commodores v. The Ospreys

It was a great night.  The family parked the car in the Rec Center and walked to Paul's.  Paul's is a place only the townies know about.  It's off a side street and the road to it looks like a driveway.  They're famous for their pizza.  And they don't deliver.  People come in to pick up the pizza they ordered over the phone and walk out with a stack--a stack!--mind you, of pizzas.

Even so, we never order pizza.  Well, my son does because he's not crazy about seafood.  But when he does order pizza he has to suffer our displeased looks, followed by wrathful remarks about how long it takes to cook his pizza.  "We'd be finished eating by now if we didn't have to wait for your pizza!"

But this particular time the family wasn't in a rush. In fact, we were taking our time, because we were going to a baseball game, and we were early.  We were going to watch the Falmouth Clippers play the Cotuit Kettlers.

It was a beautiful evening.  The wind was strong.  The American flag was flying all its colors out proudly.  The strong breeze felt nicely cool on our sunburned backs.  We were comfortable in our flip flops, shorts, and tank tops.  The sunset was red (sailor's delight).  In a little bit, we wouldn't need our sunglasses because the sun would have set and the field lights would be on.

The field lights were tall banks of three rows of large globes of lights.  The lights covering the center field had an osprey nest perched on its top.  We could see activity in the nest.  At least a couple of birds' heads were bobbing up.  Once in awhile, we could even hear baby ospreys crying.  They were hungry.  And sure enough, along came daddy, the provider, with a fish.  We could even see that the fish was a scup. Yuck! We throw scup back in the ocean; it's too bony.  I guess the Ospreys like it, however.

No sooner had daddy fed the young'uns when mama came flying towards the nest with a twig in her mouth.  She was sprucing up the nest, obviously, a never ending chore.  All night, she went back and forth with tiny twigs.

And that's how the game went.  Daddy came back with fish.  Mama came back with twigs.  The baby ospreys complained and complained.   All night we were entertained by the osprey soap opera.

Oh by the way, the Falmouth Commodores won, 6-3.

Confession Requires Courage

This morning I was sitting in the dentist's chair.  I was having my teeth cleaned.  From my chair, I could see a post-it stuck on the wall.  I thought it said:

Confession 

Requires 

Courage

I'm thinking of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  But any kind of confession requires courage when you think of it.

But when I stood up and looked more closely at the note, I saw that it read:

Confession 

Inspires

Courage

That doesn't make sense.  After you've humbled yourself, don't most people just want to crawl into a corner and die. Even the feeling you get after receiving absolution isn't courage.

I don't get it.

Lunch Time

An hour break for lunch:

includes waleking home

and back to school, in

the fourth grade.

Home, I eat grilled cheese.

The crust are cut off.

Drink my tall glass of milk.

Pudding for dessert.

Auntie, my great aunt

speaks in broken English.

She asks " 9 x 9 = ?"

81, I jump up!

"7 x 6 = ? ", I challenge her.

"42" she smiles and shoots back

"7 x 8 = ?",  ______at first I

almost blurted out "58."

I corrected myself,

"56!"  exclaimed in victory.

Auntie pats my head

and kisses goodbye.  

No More Lies

At our last prayer group meeting, we were talking about lying.  Lying = untruth  We wondered if Jesus ever lied.  We guessed not.  Then we reflected on the times we have told lies.

One of our members told us a story.  He said that in his early twenties, he made a conscious decision not to lie.  He was dating many girls at once.  He told so many that he loved them, that he couldn't keep who was who straight.  "I love you.  What's your name, again?"
 .
There came a time when he became disgusted with himself.  He decided that he wanted to change his life and become a different person.  He wanted to be a respected, honest, upright man.  It was a conscious decision.  From then on, he has always tried to be honest with everyone.

I had noticed that he reflects before he talks.  He is not one to jump into a conversation.  And when you ask him a question, you can see him think before he responds.  (I need to learn that.)

I'll promise myself that from now on, I'll be honest with everyone.  I hope this promise doesn't go the way of my other promises: lose weight, exercise more, save money, etc.  As always, I know I can't do this alone.  I'll need God's help.  After all, keeping promises is trying to be perfect like my heavenly father is perfect