I saw the story on the local ABC affiliate and it also appears on their website. It's about the owner of a nursery who figured he'd go out of business after the rains and floods from three weeks back. His nursery is located near the river which overflowed its banks and threatened to ruin most of his stock. But a whole bunch of neighbors pitched in and...I'm not sure exactly what they did but their efforts saved most of the plants and his business will survive.
The headline on their site: "After losing all hope, nursery farmer has humanity restored after flooding."
How many things can you see wrong with that headline?? Apparently the flooding washed away his humanity. And turned him into a zombie?
Yesterday after my required Sunday nap I did what I think is the last remaining task in getting the garden ready for Pam to plant. It's about 150' away from the hose bib on the side of MoHo and last year she complained about dragging the hose down there and then winding it up after each watering. So I dug a shallow trench and buried the 100' hose plus another shorter one with the far end in the garden and the other end right at the driveway. Now she just has to take the end of the 25' hose from that faucet to the driveway end of the buried hose.
We're supposed to be rain-free all week so maybe tomorrow after work I'll fire up the chainsaw and cut the tops of the fence poles and then clean up some of the branches and small trees that came down in the storm.
There were a LOT of people at our Easter service! Pam was there for the first half but then left when the kids were dismissed to go work in the 2-year old class. No sooner had she gone than her seat next to me was filled by someone who had been standing in back. This happened at the beginning of our mid-service break (still weird to me) so I engaged the guy in conversation.
He's from a large city in NE China, here on a "scholar exchange" with the U of O. I was aware of that program; it's gotten some press lately. This guy is here for a year and will go back to teach at his university in China in June. He has a PhD in philosophy and is here to be under the mentorship of a U of O prof he says is a world famous philosopher.
His English was pretty limited so I didn't get his name when he said it, but he probably didn't get "Craig" either.
As I talked to him I wondered if I was speaking with a Chinese spy. Naw, no spy would use "philosophy prof" as his cover. That won't exactly help you cozy up to influencers.
I also scooted down and introduced myself to a young Black man, "Paul," sitting at the other end of the row in front of us. His wife is white and they have a tiny baby.
I had a plan.
So I got the two of them talking, went back to my seat, and looked over 5 minutes later to see them still engaged in conversation. I was glad to have connected two recent arrivals from Africa (Paul six months ago and Levy 18 months ago).
UFC is a very diverse congregation!
Isn't Eden adorable?! They say she loves to be wrapped up tightly in swaddling blankets. I told Levy Saturday that I'd noticed while in Tanzania that the Africans do that and Americans don't. "Yeah, I've noticed that." Even in the hottest weather an African baby is wrapped tightly in multiple layers of fabric.
We leave in 45 minutes for our small group gathering. Tonight's menu: tacos. Then we'll discuss Brett's sermon from yesterday.
We met Bruce and Debby for lunch. They were in our Prunedale church and, as Pam said after we left, meeting up with them is like there's been no gap. Good people in the fullest sense of that term.
When we get home about 8:30 I'll be well past the point where I can add anything here so I'll hit "Publish," close my eyes for 20 winks, and then head out to Coburg 40 minutes away for small group.
Mañana
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