Twilight Twitches

Dear Family,
Tomorrow, on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, we will gather in the little parking area behind the chapel at 6:00 p.m. to bless the animals. I’m hoping that the iguanas who sometimes inhabit the java plum trees over the area will feel free to drop in and not on.

We will also have some Shaq-a-ronis to continue the fun. I like the idea that one of the first “meals” we will have in our recovery time is a decent pizza. Pease make sure your pets are leashed or carried.

One of my most fun memories of this day, was when J. T. Cowgill brought a bearded dragon. Whatever attributes the dragon had, beauty was not one of them. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. J. T. has long since graduated college. Wonder if the dragon went with him. If I get any dragon news, I’ll let you know.

Dear Family,
On Monday, October 4th, at 6:00 p.m. we will bless the animals. It’s the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. It’s something we can do outside, and we’ll get some pizza to eat after we’ve drenched all the pets with holy water. (I’ll avoid the cats.) Ask the Lord for some good weather. I’m looking forward to that little glimmer of normality.

Thanks to Msgr. Mike Hippee who helped with a couple of the weekday Masses while I recovered from an unfortunate accident that I had... with my power chair. Last Sunday I hit a curb in the little lot behind the chapel which someone had built overnight. OK, it was always there. Somehow the chair flipped and there I am on my whatever, kind of stunned and wondering what had just happened. Fortunately, Jose Gomez and his daughter Lina were just coming in, and Jose managed to leverage me off the lot. The power chair was no worse for wear, but your humble servant got a few scratches and dents. Jose alerted the bandage brigade and Lina carefully shepherded me into the Church.

Dear Family,
Kill the Messenger... We sure did that definitively when it came to Jesus. You might ask, “Where are you getting this ‘we’ from?” You are right. The “we” really should be “I”.

I find myself frequently holding a hammer, poised to strike another blow on a nail in a hand or a foot. Every time I mess something up when it comes to how I treat people, I realize I’m swinging the hammer, first at them, but ultimately at Jesus.

Anyone who knows me, knows that a hammer is the last thing they think I should be holding. Many an ‘expletive deleted’ merged when I failed to hit the nail, especially if the blow fell on a thumb instead.

Dear Family,
This weekend the calendar calls us back 20 years. Who of us who were living then, will forget three numbers and a slash? The second plane hit while I was watching coverage of the first hit. The horror got summed up forever in “9/11”.

So many lost lives at the Twin Towers as well as the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania. Then came further loss of life with the illnesses that befell the firemen and other rescue workers, fumes breathed that would claim them in later years.

Three days after “9/11” the President went to the site and spent time with the rescue workers. Someone handed him a bullhorn.