With it being another Sunday morning, my first duty was to get myself washed of all the temporal gunk which had built up in my soul/spirit over this past week, and believe me, I had a great deal to get scrubbed out, which is why I was in my contemplative corner considerably longer than normal. In the very old days, people would have their Saturday evening bath in preparation for their Sunday go to meetings, but for me, my Sunday morning soul-scrubbing has become far more important.
After I finished up with my spiritual exercise, I ran thru today’s music, called a dear friend, and shortly after, picked up my music and headed over to St. Paul Lutheran. Just after I pulled up, the man with the key to their church arrived. When I got upstairs, I turned the organ on, and was immediately filled with worry. For some reason or other, one of the pipes was making a high-pitched sound, and from what I was hearing, it was a re-call of the key of E, so I pressed one of E keys on the organ, and that’s what it just so happened to be. I headed for the “pipe closet” and with luck I found the chirping pipe which I picked up and set it back into place several times until it quit. Of course the great fear I had, was that it would start up again while I was playing a hymn for their congregation which caused me to make a personal decision to play half of their music on the piano, and the other half on the organ.
I think because that pipe was being naughty, I couldn’t seem to get myself comfortable when running thru those hymns, so I finally made up my mind that I absolutely had to stop thinking about that pipe or I was going make some noticeable mistakes. Fortunately, I did manage to get myself settled down enough before it was my queue to begin playing. Without a doubt, it was a close call because I did remain calm enough to get thru their entire Service without making a noticeable mistake. Of course what made matters worse, was one of the church council members complimenting me this morning for the great job I did last week, which had me even more filled with angst. To my surprise, there were three of their members who came up to the choir loft afterwards, and only to thank me for playing. By the sounds of it, today’s playing must’ve been once again acceptable.
I did mention to one of my friends yesterday that my being called to play for St. Paul Lutheran every Sunday and usually having to play at least one or two hymns I’d not heard before, has been a great help in forcing me to more freely sight read. Even today, I found it far easier to play an African-American Spiritual which was filled with syncopation. I’m also working on a Hassidic piece I choked on several months ago, just so I’ll be ready to play it like it should’ve been the next time it’s on my schedule. As their prelude today, I played another difficult one I’d stumbled on about a year ago, but today was an entirely different presentation. Yes, in time, practice and diligence does offer its rewards.
Since I had a early afternoon appointments, I decided to grab my camera and take a good hour’s drive around North Iowa, just so I could get my bank of photos replenished which I use on these journal pages. Oh was that wind biting today, and whenever I’d step out of my vehicle to get a shot, my fingers felt like they were in a mode of quick-freeze. I did discover a park with a small pond on it up in Worth County which I didn’t know existed, and the many times I’d noticed the sign while driving to Northwood, I never bothered to investigate it until today. I think that’s the park their County closed for awhile due to some heavy partying that was going on up there. After seeing how off the beaten path it is, it’s no wonder it got turned into party central.
On my way back, I noticed some migrating seagulls in a field which I stopped and snapped a few photos of before they got spooked and flew off. Last evening must’ve been the night of migration for opossums because there were three of them road-killed. They are the ugliest of furry creatures, and even more-so when pancaked on a pavement.
When I got back, I went to my storeroom and grabbed my shop-vac and drove it over to my little/big project, but before placing it in my vehicle, I noticed it was a bit heavier than normal, so I grabbed a new bag and changed it out. It was a shocker when finding it almost completely full which was a confirmation that I have been doing more work than I dared to remember.
One of my dear ones sent me an email early this morning regarding this recent political begging and posturing by our incumbent politicians. She was absolutely right when saying they’d better get back to the center of common sense thinking, or they’ll all get voted out because there are a great number of quiet mouths in our State who’re getting fed up with all this alt-right and alt-left wing saber-rattling. She also mentioned having read in today’s Globe Gazette a letter to the editor by a woman who was in politics for a number of years, making positive comments about Mr. Sayles’ recent post regarding that so-called “developer” who’s received $1.1 million dollars since late 2018, and still nothing to show for it. Some are of the belief he’s the one building that sky-walk to nowhere but isn’t, because it’s our City that’s funding it. What went to my core, was when reading today’s letter to the editor by Ms. Soukup, and her believing she can tell if a community is “sick”, just by taking a good tour of it. Now that was a mouthful. I believe her words were more filled with truth than not regarding our fair City.
As of this afternoon, I’m fully prepared for my two closings which’ll be taking place tomorrow morning. One of them is closing on time, and the other is over a week late.
I was shocked when seeing the buyer of one them, was being charged $1,400 for an appraisal on a standard 1920’s bungalow. Now how crazy is that?
Tonight’s One-liner is: Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
