I live in a big beautiful old house that the church provides for me. It is located right next door to the church. There are times when that is an advantage. If I forget something at either home or the church, it's no big deal to go get it. There are other times it is a pain. My home is viewed as an extension of the church, and as long as I'm here, I'm not off duty. I don't know how many times people have come and caught me in my pj's.
This morning I was being lazy. I had decided we weren't going anywhere, so I didn't shower. I was going to put on sweats, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. The phone rang. An 87 year old gentleman, L, was trying to get into the church with the flowers tomorrow, and he couldn't get his key to work. He demanded to know if we'd changed the locks. No. The lock was probably just frozen. I told him I'd be there in 5 minutes. So, I threw on some clothes and headed out my back door to the office door. Of course I had to pick my way across the ice, but managed to only slip once and didn't fall (because I slipped into the building, which is why I was walking next to it). I went downstairs to the basement door, and it took effort, but managed to get it open. I stepped outside and saw L was sitting in his car. He saw me and jumped out, grabbing the flowers from his back seat. Seeing that he was going to have to cross some ice, I went over to take the flowers from him. As I offered my hand to steady him across the ice, I considered the possibility that we'd both end up on the ground. When we got back to the door, I couldn't turn the knob to let us in. It was still frozen.
We got in his car, and drove us around the building to the office door. We took the flowers to the basement and I locked the basement door, which was pointless as it was still impossible to turn the knob from the outside. Then he wanted to talk to me. So we sat down in the office, and he told me he was planning to go visit Old Man that afternoon, and didn't know what to say to him. They have been friends since their youth, when L worked for Old Man's dad on the farm. I assured him that Old Man was fine, and he should just talk to him the same way he always had. I suggested he remember the good times they had shared when they were both part of the horse patrol. We talked a little longer, and then headed out, and I once again picked my way across the ice, now afraid of making a fool of myself in front of L. I made it safely into the house, and told Daughter she needed to go salt a path over to the church.
This afternoon I was in my kitchen making some chocolate covered pretzels when I heard a banging at my back door. I traipsed through the dirty laundry I had on the back porch in piles waiting to be washed and let D into the house. She wondered if I had a key to the office door, since she couldn't get hers to work in the basement door. I got my keys, and gave them to her. She surveyed the ice and decided to back her car up so that she was closer to the office door. She asked about throwing the keys back to me, and I said I'd send Daughter to get them from her.
It figures that I'd deal with two of the saints today, since I hadn't showered this morning. They seem to know when it is not an opportune time and that is when they show up at my door. Fortunately, the saints don't seem to mind. Maybe it's a good thing for them to be reminded that I'm human.
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