Disturbing the Peace

Dragged myself out of bed and made it to church this morning and was glad I did. The preacher was 79 years old and full of the joy and love of God. BB and Aimee came too which was nice.

I had a frustrating afternoon. I'd loaded up the bike to begin the junk mail round then discovered I had a flat rear tyre. The rear wheel with it's deraullier gears and bike rack is considerably harder to remove. I found the puncture but without an adequate repair kit had to get a lift down to Bunnings to buy one. I repaired the puncture and refitted the wheel with Fashion Boy's assistance only to find we'd somehow managed to break the valve stem and the tube was rendered useless!
There ensued a fruitless search around the shops of Busselton, those that were open, looking for bike tubes. No go! None were to be found! Giving up I returned home and in desperation pulled an old tube out of a wreck of a bike behind the shed that hasn't been functional for years. To my utter surprise, it was intact and stayed inflated, passing the bucket test with flying colours.
With "new" tube fitted and the wheel back in place I set off to deliver the consumer's companions. I needed to get it done because Fashion Boy needed the bike after me to go and do his new round in Peppermint Park. The lack of money has prompted desperate measures in the Fashion Boy economy, thus he has re-embraced the joys of junk mail.

Tonight I went to a commissioning service for two new chaplains in the local primary schools. At one stage there was some lovely orchestral music playing, accompanied by pictures of sunsets and trees. The presentation was chosen by one of the new chaplains and entitled "Deep Peace". I had to laugh when half way though the reflection the sound of the churches answering machine could be distinctly heard throughout the auditorium. Not to be outdone, a banner in the foyer then blew over, the wooden pole crashing noisily onto the slate tiled floor! It seemed an apt metaphor, a school chaplain's peace being noisily interrupted by a telephone and a jarring unexpected crash!

After the service I got a lift home with an old couple, Len and Eunice who were our neighbours at Harvest Rd when we first moved to Busselton. They are a lovely old couple, full of stories and fun and the kids and Carolyn were all pleased to see them. Eunice stayed for a visit on the proviso that I recorded the final episode of Rain Shadow and gave it to them on a DVD!

I have a meeting at school in the morning to discuss the possible impact of the weekend's car crash and double fatality on the school. In light of the ages of those involved we don't expect a huge impact but no doubt there will be some.

Perspective

A lady at church this morning talked about the battle she and her husband are in. He has cancer. He had a brain tumour. He's had about 15 lots of chemotherapy. He wasn't expected to live beyond 2006. The good news is that to the Doctor's utter astonishment, the tumour is gone.
The bad news is, another has appeared, bigger and in a worse place, completely inoperable.
She asked us to pray for them, likening it to a boxing match and the start of another round. I've known about their situation but today it really hit home to me in a much stronger way.
I am guilty of getting inordinately upset over things that ultimately matter very little.
It is sobering and provocative to contemplate other people's situations and realise the struggles they face are to do with survival; life and death.

In light of that, the result of a football game seems unimportant.

Having said that, I am pleased the Cats had another win this arvo, beating Melbourne by 52 points. The season is looking a little more promising.

I spent the afternoon on roster at the gallery, painting and listening to the football. It finally started to rain in Busselton today but surprisingly that didn't deter people visiting the gallery, in fact it seemed to lead to an increase in numbers!

Tonight I went over to Dave's place to watch the soccer from England on Foxtel, Tottenham drew 3-3 with Wigan afeter going behind three times! Could have been better, could have been worse!

Sunday

Church was good this morning, the speaker was a 23 year old surfie who has a heart to reach muslims in Indonesia and is well on the way to establishing a surf based mission there.
After church we cruised a couple of garage sales. I bought a painting table for $20. I don’t know how practical it will be but it may get me off the kitchen bench some of the time. Sport Boy invited Jack over for the afternoon and after lunch we went round to drop the art exhibition form off to Ron, and Carolyn found a few things she wanted to buy, a cane bed head and a set of shelves. I got a box of brass door knobs and key plates, more artistic ideas to work on.

The boys loved the Billy cart and tried to convince Ron to sell it but now he’s keen to put it in the exhibition he’s going to finish it off, and keep it.

We took the boys down to see the Grand Final of the Beach Volleyball competition being played in Busselton this weekend as part of the state series. The level of play was superb, especially in the windy conditions. It made our 4-a-side games on Wed. nights look pretty bad!

Some kids at the beach were teasing the seagulls by throwing them chips they had put inside a coke bottle, it was very funny watching this flock of scavengers all fighting over the unattainable prize, they kept pecking at the chips and not understanding why they could see them but not reach them.

I had a headache when we got home so I snoozed in the recliner while Carolyn took the boys to Meelup for the church gathering. Once I’d recovered I pottered around working on some projects, I’ve taken to hanging things around the back patio, mobiles, propellers, driftwood etc. Today I tried to create a marble way out of pvc pipe which a strung together with fishing line. It sort of works but not as well as I’d hoped.

I completed two paintings today, one I’m undecided about, I’ve changed the colours once already and I suspect I’ll be doing so again because they don’t match the frame very well. The second is a big one, based on another painting I did a while back which a friend likes. She was looking for something larger so I decided to oblige, and tried out using rollers instead of brushes. It worked fairly well but I need to keep practising to get a consistent application and appearance.

I was listening to England beat Australia in the cricket, a huge upset. After the absolute shellacking in the Ashes no-one forsaw this outcome. I’ve been wanting some closer contests all Summer but this tested my feelings about competition V winning.