engrossed

The first definition of the word engross is to occupy completely, as the mind or attention – or to absorb. And the word absorb means to involve the full attention of or to engross. It also means to occupy or fill, as in time or attention. All the subtle nuances of these meanings are true in the area of my time and attention of late. So what are the things that are so engrossing, absorbing and occupying?

The number of these engrossing things would be exactly two. One would be the construction of our ‘outback storage’ building and the other would be the effort of desperately trying to memorize the lines of my part in the play to be presented at our church on New Year’s Eve. You may or may not have come to that conclusion already since these two things have been mentioned a few times in past missives.

So how are these things going? ‘Outback’ is progressing well, though not as well as I had hoped since we are planning a trip to Texas on Jan. 2nd. The basic building is complete, as mentioned before, but now the vinyl siding has been placed on all soffits and the facia has been wrapped. Then the metal drip edge was placed around the edge of the roof and the shingles have been installed – along with a ridge vent.

Along the way I have had the help of SSIL, BIL but mostly my older bro. The outer walls are now partially ‘wrapped’ in a moisture barrier – I ran out of this – and Saturday afternoon we made a start on placing vinyl siding on one of the vertical walls. This latter, while not extremely difficult, is nonetheless time consuming. Another roll of the moisture barrier was purchased on Sunday – that stuff is expensive.

My goal is to have the siding mostly completed by the time we leave for Texas – it remains to be seen whether this will be realized. The second engrossing item – the play – is getting more and more urgent as the time of performance approaches. The reason for concern is that I still draw a blank occasionally during rehearsals. I take no comfort in the fact that this also happens to others.

These engrossers have almost totally cut out any ‘spare’ time I might have had, whatever ‘spare’ time means. You also may or may not have noticed that I haven’t written anything in a while – now you know the reason. Our family time also must be worked into the picture. I am still taking time for the “Word” and still declare that God is good, all the time! ec