Recovering, and waiting...

I would love to tell you that I've been gone from these spaces for 15 days because I've been on a spiritual retreat. That would be a good reason, I suppose.

The real reason would be closer to being a spirit in retreat. It would also have more than a little to do with having trouble sitting up. Literally.

I went for a week, starting Sunday the 8th, with unbelievable pain in my lower back, such that it was nearly impossible to sit for any period of time. I mean, not at the desk, not at the PC, not watching TV, or driving. It was pretty damn tough sitting down in the lavatory, let alone standing. It just wasn't any fun at all.

And I'm not entirely back from there. The time I do spend sitting up, I'm doing either at work, or in recovery meetings. So blogging and responding to email has been the least of my concerns. Losing my job (or at least running out of paid-time-off, or PTO) or having to end up having surgery were probably concerns number 1, 2 and 3...

But Tim's "where are you?" comment made me realize that no matter what, it was time to at least send up a flare. So I am here, "just as I am," so to speak.

I am way the hell behind in laundry, cleaning, everything. And, on top of it all, I went through a period where my 10-month-old Linksys wireless router went completely kerflooey. I had to keep manually releasing/renewing my DHCP connection about, oh, eight to twelve times a day. For someone whose livelihood is based on internet connectivity via VPN, this just wasn't a good condition to have...

So we are $50 poorer, but we have Son of Linksys in place, and the virtual world seems fractionally stable, again. I am giving thanks for a good chiropractor, for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and for having accumulated a goodly amount of PTO prior to this little adventure. Even if I am resentful enough at my physical condition to wish I could "trade this body in on a model that works," to quote my late lamented mother...

In amongst all this, there is good news. Sister Sue seems to be doing reasonably well, for a while - my being down has corresponded to her being OK, for a bit. That is always good news.

My dear friend Norma - whose friendship I have treasured since we began trudging the seminarian's road together at St. Paul School of Theology back in 1997 - has found love and friendship with a gentleman from the town where she is ministering. He has proposed; she has accepted. And (having no living parents or elder relatives) she has asked me to give her away for her September 15th wedding. I am delighted for her, and am trying to save my sheckels for the 765-mile drive into the Heart of America.

There seems to be a renewed burst of interest among some of the inactive members of my DeMolay chapter. The young men are having an overnight gathering at the Temple Friday night, and I am praying for inspiration to share with them.

I have so far managed to avoid any spoilers about the ending of the soon-to-arrive Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. Amazon will be delivering my copy via next-day delivery on Saturday (so I can avoid the insanity of lines at the stores). Not sure how much reading I will get done after being up all night with the kids, but we shall persevere...of all the tasks I have ahead of me, that will be one worth working through!

And, just as gentle frosting on the cake, a few dribs and drabs of rain have pushed the local sweet corn crop near to fruition. And when there is fresh sweet corn and fresh strawberries in northwest Ohio, life gets pretty damn good.

No matter how slowly one must walk to get to the table...