I opted to take it easy today, knowing that tomorrow is going to be utterly exhausting.
My three sermons are all ready, Advent IV, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. They wrote themselves two nights ago.
I hit 202K on the Concept 2 Challenge, so that's done. Of course, I will keep rowing but I do like having a concrete challenge put in front of me. I think last year I got up to 221 or 230K, but I lost some precious days this go-round due to that early month head cold.
After going up and over the mountain ridge (in MUD, ooooh, that road is slithery and now my car is coated in mud again), going to Staples and getting new cartridges, I have gotten the ebay printer to work with my laptop and it seems to print fine. Now I have to figure out why it won't communicate with my regular computer.
Maybe later tonight I will wander over to the church and take a photo of it the night before. (In the first eight years of my life here, I always had to go over and turn the furnace on Saturday night. The church has no running water in it; there's water in the separate parish hall next door, so we would shut the furnace down on Sunday and crank it up again on Saturday night. We have now been leaving it at 50 during the week and it doesn't seem to have made all that much difference in the oil bill and it sure is a lot nicer to go inside when it's minus 25 out, as it can get in January.) We greened it last night and twice I had to take down the candles from the torches that are attached to the ends of the pews saying, no, we're not there yet. It's crazy enough having all the greens up for Advent. I am not ready for the red bows.
We all have our manies: I like to hold off Christmas until the bitter end. I can't bear to listen to all the Christmas music because I am such overload from all the store muzak. Even public radio begins to play too much for my tastes. (I am a bit of a Scrooge in this regard.) Tomorrow, finally, I will put on Bach's Christmas Oratorio and listen to as much of it as I can in a day that is pretty chopped up.
We reduced the 8.00 and 10.00 Holy Eucharists into one at 9.00. The choir, of which I am a member, is gathering to rehearse the Christmas Eve piece, O Lux Nata by Thomas Tallis. We're doing J. S. Bach chorale for tomorrow morning. (We always sing a capella.)
After the 9.00, we'll finish decorating the church, change from blue to white, and move from Advent to Christmas.
The world's best cat-sitter is coming by about noon.
Then there's the family eucharist at 4.00, followed by a potluck supper. We started having the supper a few years ago when we realised there were enough people who would be alone. Christmas Eve spent by oneself is the pits. I know.
Finally, there's the 10.00 Christ Mass. I would rather have it at 11.00, but I am a night owl. I have been outvoted. This year we are not doing the Lessons and Carols beforehand either. I am under pressure to fold both services into a 7.00 or 8.00 but in that one regard, I am going to put my foot down and not yield.
So, I thought that it would be OK to take it easy. (I am listening to Putayamo's Asian Lounge, which is great 'chilling' music.)
[The photo is a sunset over Lake Champlain, taken from northern Vermont, in August 2004. I was with a bunch of high school kids and three other adults, doing a 400-mile bicycle trip around the lake (Vermont and New York state sides). Since we adults took turns driving the support van, I probably only rode about 290 miles of it, but it was on an ancient (but beloved) ten-speed Motobécane Grand Jubilé bicycle, vintage 1975. It was a crème de la crème bicycle at the time, but just not of the same league as the bicycles the kids had. The following year I bought a Bianchi 30-speed... but the bicycle trip was cancelled and hasn't happened since.]
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