A lesson learned

I'm happy to say it's been a quiet Monday and a mostly enjoyable one.

The biggest excitement of the day began when I noticed that the battery in my camera needed to be recharged. When I went to grab the charger I found it was lost.

Now, I've already lost one charger for this battery and the replacement charger - which almost costs as much as the camera - only arrived a few months ago.

I thoroughly searched my suite, library and office without finding the charger. Even after a third search it was nowhere to be found. A quick look through my car also revealed nothing.

I remembered charging the batter at our mission parish when I was setting things up for Holy Saturday, so I decided to take a little drive to see if it was there. It wasn't.

Not knowing what else to do, I searched through my car one last time and eureka! I found it. It somewhere slipped under the back passenger floor mat.

At any rate, the twenty minute round trip drive helped make a decision involving plans for tomorrow. It's strange how these things work together.

The Priests' Personnel Board - a.k.a. the War Room - meets again tomorrow, but this time we will meet in Chatham. Later tomorrow afternoon the priests of the Diocese will gather with Bishop Lucas to celebrate the jubilees of the Diocese and Religious priests serving in the Diocese.

The meeting I expect to be tedious (but I'm not overly fond of meetings, to begin with), but the gathering of priests is always a good time. It includes time for visiting, Vespers and dinner.

Since last evening I've been trying to decided how long to stay in Chatham. It's a little more than a two-hour drive from Effingham and I have the 6:30 a.m. Mass this week, which means I rise at 5:00 a.m. (the sun is mostly up now at that time). My arthritis is also giving me a nearly small, constant pain in my left hip, telling me that rain should be falling here tomorrow night.

At any rate, the drive out to Shumway was not exactly pleasant. There is something about riding in a car that seems to aggravate my arthritis, especially when it's already acting up. On the way back from Shumway, I decided to leave Chatham sometime during the social time before Vespers. This will allow me to return to Effingham before the rain begins to fall; driving in the rain also aggravates the arthritis. It will also allow me to stop by a conference track meet tomorrow evening.

As I make the drive back and forth I will offer the pain in my hip for the young people of our Diocese - and especially of the parish here - that might come to know the will of God for their lives and embrace it.