mystery knock

My day began with morning, as it usually does, and somewhat earlier than it usually does for several reasons. First was the ‘mystery knock’ that has happened several times before, happened again about 6am. Even though we have a doorbell, it sounded so much like someone at the door that I went to check. No one was there and I went back to bed to try to get back to sleep. The next thing that kept me from snoozing was wondering what was causing the knock, waiting for it to happen again and just lying there formulating theories as to the source.

My first theory had always been woodpeckers but later inspection found no evidence of this fowl presence. Then there was the loose rain gutter/downspout bumping in the wind speculation. And though I found a loose downspout later and tightened it temporarily, it was on the back of the house and the knocking seems to be coming from the front. Finally I shelved the suppositions before I went into the more fanciful, yet sinister, areas of gremlins and such. The investigation will continue.

The final thing that finally brought me reluctantly and gimping out of bed at 6:30am was the annoying itsy-bitsy cramp and tingle in the left leg that seems to be my minor bane of late. That is if the word bane has a minor part to its definition. The day started in the usual way with unblinding the blinds at the kitchen window and gazing out at the outside world. Then came the vitamin regimen and breakfast accompanied by scripture.

The Spice arose later and soon departed for several errands, leaving me to my own devices. It was then that an amazing and unusual thing happened; I decided to file paperwork that had been piling up on my desk in the tiny study. The piles consisted of financial statements, healthcare papers, Medicare stuff, insurance forms and notices and even some written correspondence. This was paperwork that needed to be kept, yet some for records sake only, so it was moved from my small drawer to the larger cabinet downstairs to make room for the current stuff. Folders all had to be named and tabbed and moved to a more convenient place.

This was all completed by the time the Spice came back and in my excitement, I told her about it without giving her a chance to sit down. Maybe it was my imagination, but it seemed that she leaned heavily on the cabinet – anyway, she managed not to swoon dead away – she is a very strong woman. The reason this was such a staggering issue is that this small room is the one that I am allowed to rule over and paperwork procrastination is part its ‘charm’. She doesn’t clean, organize or rearrange this room, for fear I would never be able to find anything again, if it gets too bad she just shuts the door.

We later spiffied ourselves up and for the second night in a row, we went to the church for a Christmas banquet. The trip to the church was much better than the other since this time it was not raining, even though it was dark. This event was one of much larger attendance and one of appreciation for those doing some job in the church. Even though the food was good, I enjoyed the conversing and fellowship as much if not more than the sustenance. We were serenaded with Christmas music played by a brass ensemble that was very good at what they did.

A group of the young folks regaled us with songs they composed about various leaders and programs of the church and sang them using familiar Christmas tunes as the music. The program concluded and we just stood around ‘fellowshipping’ and basking in the warmth of the kinship of our brothers and sisters in the Lord for quite a while. God is good. ec