Pet Peeve

Why do people go to church when they are in the middle of a terrible, uncontrollable coughing and sneezing virus? Two weeks ago, I was at church and totally surrounded. There was so much coughing and sneezing, I had a hard time concentrating on the sermon. After hearing reports of even more people being sick over that week, I decided not to go this past Sunday, not wanting to catch the stuff. But, apparently, all the under-the-weather folks did go, because now I'm aware of even more people sick with the same bug in the congregation. So I either go and let the semi-hypochondriac in me take over and imagine the viruses going into my system as I get “surround sound sneezing” (and likely get more than an imaginary dose of the virus, for that matter) or I don't go and miss church again.

I was there (obviously) on Wednesday, albeit up in the balcony running the projector, and it sounded horrible down below. If the few people who initially had something had stayed home, maybe there would be less people coming down with the whatever this bug is. Every winter I watch a few people appear at church with some kind of virus and by the end of the month, it seems like it has made the rounds among everyone; maybe some get it elsewhere, but I know that often does not seem to be the case. Since everyone shakes hands right after the opening hymn, germs spread like wildfire, and even without that, the close quarters don't help.

Anyway, that's my pet peeve for the day. I'm not usually for keeping people out of a church, but I think we should do like hospitals. At least the ones I've visited this winter have signs up asking people with flu or cold like symptoms to please not enter the facility. That makes sense in the long run for everyone.

Anticipation

For the last week, I've had a sense of anticipation. While I have reasons to feel that way, I've surprised myself — none of the things I am anticipating seem that likely to occur this week. But, who knows, it would be a pleasant surprise if they did.

In other news, I ran the projector for our pre-service Ash Wednesday prayer time tonight. It was the first time we tried a pre-service prayer time (it was 30 minutes before the beginning of the service), and I'd say it went pretty well. The projector needs some adjustments — it's color seems to be getting worse — but it was still legible. I setup the slides to loop through twice, that way people coming in after 7:00 PM would get a second chance to see see the slides ten minutes later.

I was hoping to drive the projector directly from my PowerBook, and therefore take advantage of the nicer look of PowerPoint:mac 2004, but couldn't get the video feed switch to take a guest computer input for some reason. So, I loaded it up on PowerPoint 2002 on the projector's PC and it still looked OK. What a relief. At 7:26, the prelude started and the screen went up so as to not upset those who aren't fond of the screen blocking the stained glass windows.

I love the Lenten season vesper services. I'm curious, my readers, do your churches have Lenten services?

Dad Update

I'm off to bed and I haven't even read the comments here yet, but I wanted to mention that Dad had his gallbladder surgery today and it went very well. There were a number of potential major issues, so it is really a blessing that everything went so well.

I'll be back tomorrow.

Sunday Brunch: Singing in the Shower

Here is this week's brunch. Have yours in the comments.

1) Do you take baths or showers?
Baths with a quick rinse off afterwards.

2) Do you like the water super hot or just tepid?
Tepid is probably best, or if it is really chilly out side, perhaps a bit of a warm tepid. Super hot bath water just makes me feel like I'm being roasted rather than cleansed.

3) Do you use bath gel, bath crystals, bubble bath, or other scented stuff?
No.

4) What do you like to do when you take a bath shower?
Like Christopher, “lather, rinse, repeat.” Unlike Christopher, I don't “occasionally […] take a nap.” How does one take a nap in the shower?

5) What is your one item essential to a great bath?
Warm water.

Turmoil

I feel like I've been in between decisions for months now. This week, I've started to try to clean things up and push toward tying up loose ends, but I still have way too many things up in the air. I know God is leading me somewhere, but I am just too dense to know where. Part of me thinks I just need to sit back and enjoy the ride for awhile, part of me think that His leading is to start being more proactive. What I fear is that I am too comfortable with the status quo and maybe that is part of the problem.

And By a Sleep to Say We End

Tonight has been rough. My one cat, a calico of just under thirteen years, died. She was struggling to breath this evening, and after being examined at the emergency animal clinic it was clear that something was pushing into the space of her lungs (perhaps fluids from congestive heart failure) and her one kidney was massively oversized. There was nothing to do other than to have her put to sleep (other than have her slowly suffocate over the next few hours).

She was never a real “people cat,” but after such a long time it is still odd to think that she won't be around any longer. Never running across the floor to the food bowl or laying peacefully under the table. While odd for me, I am sure it will be even more difficult for my other cat (just under 5 y/o), who will have to get use to spending his days alone without his “sister.” I'm not sure how he'll take it.

It isn't the worst tragedy in the world, but it still was painful. Cats quietly share a lot of one's life with a person. Now thirteen years worth of sharing is gone.

As a side note, I noticed that y'all responded to my Topics and Evanescence posts, but I haven't had a chance to look at the comments yet and I'm exhausted at the moment, but felt the need to post an entry before heading off to bed. I'll read and respond tomorrow.

Blank

My mind is blank at the moment. I can't think of anything good to say and the inspiration mentioned yesterday is certainly elsewhere today (although now that I know what I am doing on SAFARI, I don't need much more inspiration on that, I can use it in other areas!). I am aiming to get a lot done in the next week, maybe that is part of the problem.

The Key(board) to Reorganization

You've probably noticed a few tweaks to the look of asisaid for the last few days. Expect some more in the coming hours and days. Right now, I'm mostly still working on the backend, but I'm finally getting around to enabling some stuff that is noticeable on the public side of the interface. Hopefully in a few more days, asisaid will be nicer than it was before the (cue dramatic music) GREAT BLOGGING CRASH OF OH-FOUR.

On the backend side, I must set things up so that I do not have to manually ping Weblogs.com any longer. I'm sick of doing that!

I did get somewhat distracted over the last two days. I replaced my 6.5 year old Dell/Philips monitor with a flat panel, which required cleaning up my desk. While I was doing that, I decided to reorganize the cables under my desk and remove some of the extra stuff before I overload the circuit. I then neatly bundled the cables together and put everything back in place. Just in time to have my keyboard die. sigh At first I wasn't sure it was the keyboard, because it was intermittent and was causing problems with other USB devices as well. But I've been using another keyboard all day today and things seem much better. So now I just need to figure out what keyboard to replace my trusty old one with.

Right now, I'm using a basic Apple keyboard that I had laying around. It was that or and old Microsoft one. Neither one of them is an ergonomic one like my Dell Comfort Key was. Although I think Apple's mechanisms have a better tactile feel, like an old IBM keyboard. But I think I'll need something with a better angle, and perhaps ergonomic shape, again.

Update From the Hospital

I just discovered that the hospital is kind enough to provide free wi-fi to “current patients and visitors.” I noticed this after seeing an antenna that looked suspiciously like a wi-fi one sticking down from the ceiling in the waiting room. After opening Safari and agreeing to the user agreement that appeared in lieu of my homepage, I now have high speed internet access.

OK, so here's the scoop. We were waiting in the waiting room for the cath lab this morning when my dad started having more severe chest and arm pains; his hands also became clammy. They soon transfered my dad to ER, where they gave him some morphine and other stuff and did some tests. One of our pastors had perfect timing to show up at this point and keep my dad occupied until the cath lab was ready. They did do the angiogram as on time as they ever do anything like that. The diagnosis was a bit hard to understand, but it seems that he does not have any blockages worth doing anything for, although one small one did seem to cause a mild heart attack this morning.

They've transferred him to CV ICU now and are going to monitor the situation for awhile. It sounds like any issues will be treated medically rather than surgically — good news! I'll post an update when I know more.

Your prayers over the past week are greatly appreciated. If you can keep dad in your prayers still for the next few days, that'd be great.

I Love "Buy It Now"

A Single Item. I love eBay's “Buy It Now” function. I just bought an item I've been looking for years for, and I “won” it for just $4 plus a couple bucks in shipping. I'll write about what I ordered tomorrow. Of course, if you want to read through my comments and figure out what it was, that'd be 25 tasty points. It relates to something I've talked about in the comments of the last few days. It's sad, but true that you will likely be unable to guess this. There are at least two hints in this paragraph, however.

Get Testy. As a side note, here's a question for y'all. I have my new CMS stable enough that I think I can start using it. It is missing a lot of features I want before I open up the code, such as trackbacks and multiple site support, but trackbacks are the only thing that would be missing as compared to the present asisaid. Do you think I should set up a beta asisaid and ask for some testers or just try it out here and see what happens?