Uff Dah

That lovely general and tender expletive from the Norse fits the way I feel. It's been a long day. A good day, but a long one.

• A wonderful and intense meeting with someone who is discerning God's call.
• Picking up a parishioner who cannot drive for medical reasons, bringing her to noon Eucharist, running a long list of errands with her, and lunching with her before taking cards with our Christmas activity calendar with a candy cane attached and pasting them on garage doors through her neighborhood.
• Going back to the office to proof two different bulletins and the Sunday announcement insert. Thank the Lord for the Volunteer Guy who does the first draft, the Fabulous Parish Administrator who does the second draft, and the software to modify things fairly easily.
• Dealing with the miserable traffic on the Beltway going home. Seriously, it took me 40 minutes to go the 30 or so miles from church to the Beltway, another 40 minutes to go 5 miles on the Beltway to my exit, then another 15 for the last three to get home. Would that there was a more efficient alternative, but it's just the normal traffic and the surface roads are as bad if not worse. Yes, I've whined about this before, and I probably should come up with a clever acronym for the experience (TBS=The Beltway Sux, maybe?) to save you having to read this over and over. Sorry.

I had plans for getting a few other things done today, but at this point in my parish's life, attention to pastoral matters and getting the bulletins done are the best and highest use of my time. I wish I didn't have to commute so far to get it done, but that's the lot of an interim.

At least most all the shopping and shipping is done.