So the tiny church I attend occasionally (and am still officially a member of – might want to fix that!) is, like most small churches, strapped for money.

The parsonage, built over 50 years ago by the lowest bidder and lots of sweat equity from church members, needs a lot of work (new floors, new electrical panel, new siding, new driveway). The only assets the church has (outside of the church premises) are the Field of Dreams and the parsonage itself. But wait! there’s a Building Fund, started back when we had over 100 people a week at services, and over 200 people at the Christmas/Easter services. There’s sufficient money in that fund to repair the parsonage; and there’s no *written* restrictions on use of the Building Fund monies. There’s not nearly enough money in the Building Fund to even *start* the process for building a new building – there might be enough there for an architect, but not the 1/3 construction cost. When consulted, Conference said “We don’t have access to the kind of monies you need to fix the parsonage. We can give you a grant for one or two of the smaller items, but there are other churches in need of money and support as well. Since there are no written restrictions on the Building Fund, and you’re not using those monies for general operations, we don’t see why you can’t use those funds to repair the parsonage.” So yesterday, the Church Council called a meeting for after church, at which they would ask the congregation for its opinion. People who haven’t darkened the door of the church in months showed up, mostly to argue against tapping the Building Fund for parsonage repair.

People, if we don’t have a parsonage, we can’t afford a full-time pastor. Without a full-time pastor, we will *NEVER* have a need for a new building. Period. Somebody said “sell the property next door”. If we do that, there’s no way we can build a new building because we’d have to buy land first. It’s a lot easier to replace money than 3 acres of land.

And for all the publicity surrounding this meeting – a couple of email blasts, a USPS letter, mentions for the last four weeks in the bulletin, etc – there were only 24 voting members at the meeting!

one lady was “but we need a bigger building so my extended family can come to events!” Really, C? Use your brain. we will never be able to afford to build (or sustain) a building that can accommodate 400 people. And where have you been for the last 4 years? Have you been tithing so that the church has enough assets so they don’t have to tap the Building Fund? Did you do any work on the parsonage? And then “is the 1/3 construction cost based on an actual building, or the hut thing we looked at a few years ago?” It doesn’t matter – there’s not enough money in the Building Fund to even start the process.

The FCB concert today has a piece for which they asked for “Pure Michigan” pictures so they could put together a video. I passed the request on to J, because he is the keeper of all the digital photos (most of the pictures we’ve taken over the years have been scanned, and of course he’s been taking exclusively digital photos for 25 years or so). He spent a few hours picking the images he wanted to send over, then editing them, and writing up a little bit about each photo. Then didn’t send the email. Which I didn’t find out until after the stage rehearsal on Friday, when I didn’t recognise any of the pictures in the video. So there were no waterfall pictures, no lift bridge, no Fayette ghost town, no Kitch-i-ti-kipi spring. grrr.

J’s been recording the LCCB concerts, mostly because he can; and last week I made an announcement about it during rehearsal (people had asked). The director says “he does this from where he’s sitting?” “yes. he’s got a good microphone.” “oh. these CDs are from the auditorium sound system.” “Just letting people know, because I got asked.” Honestly, the band’s not good enough that a better recording would make it better (I don’t know if he’s actually listened to the recordings, even.) J’s been recording band concerts from the auditorium seats since SR was in seventh grade, he’s pretty good at it. Many band peeps like J’s recordings better, if only because it’s easier to get the files onto their computers. 🙂

In other news, the road closure on N Territorial is really screwing with my travel times to rehearsal. It will be very nice when it’s done, but right now it’s just a big ol’ mess.

The sandhill cranes are back – they were only in the yard for a couple of days. I think they came back from their winter home and are now hanging out in the wetlands with their friends. I expect that they will be back in the neighborhood once there’s enough food for them. The red-winged blackbirds are back, as well.

So J claims to be aware that my work schedule for next year will be pretty full, but he keeps making plans for next year. The worst occurrence of that was yesterday. “People are planning a narrowboat cruise next summer” “yes, I know. I’ve already said ‘have fun'”. “Oh, because the accommodations are uncertain?” “No, because it’s the first couple weeks of August and there will be an election to work.” “oh. I didn’t know they’d set a timeframe.” “they want to do it before WorldCon when people are in the UK anyway.” I know he was in the conversation in February when they were discussing it, but apparently he CRS. foo.

He got a new truck on Monday, and Wednesday we took my old sedan over to his brother (who has grandkids who need cheap cars to drive). I drove my old car over there, and then drove the truck back. competency raises its hand, again. He doesn’t like swapping vehicles like that, but just expects that I will be fine with it. (I mean, I can do it, but it’d be nice to be asked, rather than just assumed.)

Monday was the first FCB rehearsal for the season. We had two people who haven’t played since 2020 just walk in and expect to be able to play. They didn’t contact anyone, even their old section leaders; just wandered in and added a chair to the layout. If it was up to me, I’d have sent them home because we just don’t have room, but BM said they could stay. Sigh. So the layout was all FUBARed in that row. Will need to fix it for next week. I’m giving the HS kid a pass on that, because his band director told him “just show up”.

In book news, there’s a self-published series I’ve been reading through KU. I’ve been thinking about actually buying it, because it’s been pretty good, but the newest book was obviously proofread by Word, not an actual human. “Collaborate” does not mean “corroborate”; “feint” is not the same as “faint”; “palate” is not the same as “palette” or “pallet”. And those are the ones that threw me out of the book. There were others that weren’t quite as egregious.

So I wound up going to SH on Sunday after the family reunion. J took my car over to the reunion because it was raining and he a) didn’t want to ride across the state in the rain and b) can’t carry the EasyUp canopy on the motorcycle anyway. (the motorcycle does not get appreciably better mileage than my car, although he claims it much more fun to drive.) He borrowed his brother’s truck to pick up a used trailer in GR “on the way home” after the reunion (long story), and brought the trailer here. Then we had to go back to SH to get my car so I could go to Traverse on Monday.

On his way to the family reunion on Sunday, the car started showing “maintenance needed” alerts (not incorrectly!), but I was leaving for Traverse the next day. J’s like “oh, I’ll do it when you get home”, so I didn’t bother calling the place that I used to take the Fusion to. I got home last Monday from Traverse, and reminded him that the car needed attention. “I’ll get to it this week, but I need to check that I have oil and filters and check the status of the air filters on the car”. Today (a week later!), he gets the car up on ramps and is about ready to pull the oil plug when he realises that he never checked to see whether he had an oil filter for the car. And of course he doesn’t. So now he’s got to go into town and get one.

And I had planned to take Esme into the shop for her annual tune up today and run some errands on the way home. Dunno if that’ll happen or not — it’s an hour to the shop, and a couple of the places I want to stop close at 5, so I need to be out of here by 2:30pm.

this is the first time I’ve had a problem with BigRiver. I ordered a couple of things “used – Very Good”, and they were both “used – acceptable” by anyone’s standards. One was a folding stool that had non-removable tape across the seat and wrapped around both crossbars; the other was a tote bag with a broken zipper and a stain. So back they go. Of course, they didn’t show up until after the UPS store closed on Saturday, and I’m leaving for Traverse on Monday. Fortunately, I don’t need to be in Traverse until Tuesday, so I can take half an hour to run into town on my way out.

At the same time, I ordered socks (some for Traverse, some just to have since I was ordering anyway). That portion of the order “has been delayed” and should arrive by Wednesday. helpful, eh? And BigRiver tracking says that the parcel is in Romulus….

So J is going to a family “reunion” tomorrow. (it’s gonna be like, twelve people, seven of whom are J’s brothers and their families. I’m not going because 1-I leave for a music retreat on Monday and 2-he wants to ride his new motorcycle.) He decided to make cookies, since the ones we took in July disappeared so fast. OhMiBog. You’d think he’d never made cookies before. He tried to use a whisk(!) to cream the butter & sugars together. He sifted the flour, but not with the other dry ingredients — what’s the point of doing *that*? Unless the flour has really settled in the container, you don’t need to sift it, and the recipe says “sift flour with baking powder, baking soda, and salt’ anyway. If you’re gonna “follow the recipe”, then follow the damn recipe! And now it turns out that he’s gonna take this batch of cookies to SEMGS, and make another batch tonight to take to the reunion. I better make sure we have enough eggs.

I think he’s going kayaking today, but it’s not like he tells me anything. The kayak is on the car, though.

heh. PT clinic ‘dug out’ my records from the last series, so we were able to pick up pretty much where we left off, just with a 7 week break in the middle. R hamstring still very tight, so working on that. Also working on stability and determining exactly how much muscle control there is in R foot — ankle is fine, but toes are a bit sketchy. Have added foot intrinsics which are weird and hard because it’s a thing that I’ve never done before.

We have reached the ‘J does only necessities around the house, if that’ time of the year. He spends a week and a half prepping for his week-long camping trip and anther week (at least) recovering/unpacking from it. Sigh. This, in addition to the four weeks he took off in April/May for the bike ride, and the two weeks he’s going to lose when we go to Cheboygan for a week…. Dunno when he’s going to get to the other summer projects he has.

He’s been yakking about going to do some SW National Parks in September/October. Maybe, if there’s time after he goes to Mpls for a week to do a roof. Apparently, he’s forgotten that I have an election to work. (that starts in August for a November election.)

Today, he’s off (probably) buying a new-to-him motorcycle. A reasonably local shop listed a used 2019 bike that had made his short list when he was looking in the spring, and he ‘s gonna see what they’ll give him for the VStrom. And he just got home with a different bike entirely. Hopefully, he’s now done churning bikes….

Got the car back on Friday, nearly a week after SA said “definitely Monday”. The (OEM approved) aftermarket headlights didn’t work. ooopsie.

Wednesday was a gig on Belle Isle. I had planned on leaving at 4:30. With J’s repeated “one last thing”, we didn’t leave until 4:50. With traffic and all that, we were late. sigh. So much for working set up. Ideally, I’ll be able to leave on time for the upcoming Belle Isle gig. (Which I don’t have to work setup for, but I think we’ll be expected a bit early for setup anyway, as DM is combining three bands.)

Saturday was SEMGS. I passed on it, because my back’s been bothering me more than usual — lots of ankle and foot trouble. I don’t think J even notices. J took a pie from GrandTraverse Pie Co to SEMGS, and brought the leftovers home. Egads, what a horrible thing. It’s supposed to be crumb topped rhubarb, I think, but it’s mostly sugar and cornstarch and flour. I’m not surprised there were leftovers. I went to see a specialist at the beginning of June, and got scripts for both PT and an MRI. Because the local health system is so swamped, PT doesn’t start until next week, and the MRI isn’t until the end of July unless the waitlist clears. Guess I’m not going to the Annual Picnic, between PT and a 5:45am MRI.

We finally got some rain. That means I get to go weed. And pull grass from around shrubberies because J won’t. I have, once again, mentioned that *something* needs to be done with the downspout on the NW corner of the house. I don’t know how much he’ll actually remember about it, as he didn’t even put down the damn video he was watching on his phone…. (It’s not like it was a live feed, even. It was one of the many YouTube channels he follows.)

Still waiting on the car. J is really, really, really jonesing to get it back. Original ETA was 30 May. Service advisor called that day, said “still in the body shop. Possibly next week, but more likely the week after.” On 14 June (two weeks after zie said ‘a week and a half’), I called and talked to SA “in re-assembly now. Should be done Monday”. Now, I know that “done” does not necessarily mean “ready to pick up”, but J apparently does not. Today he asked “are you gonna call the body shop, in case they forgot to call again?” “erm. no.” Just because it’s done on Monday, does not mean that we will be able to pick it up on Monday. They may be waiting on the insurance company for inspection or a check, or their own QA guys, or somebody called in sick, or it wasn’t done until 3pm. If I haven’t heard from them by Wednesday, I’ll call.

Dunno what, but it is.

J’s bike trip went pretty well, as far as I can tell. He was not the most under-trained of the group, so that’s good. He’s not told a lot of stories about the trip, so that seems to indicate that it went pretty smoothly.

I got rear-ended in town Friday morning before they left on their trip, which required a bit of jiggering on transport — with us down to one car, he couldn’t take off with it for a week (only to Coldwater, where they picked up the guy with the big SUV who could transport all four of them and their gear).

Nasty, nasty, bruise on my shin — actually went to Urgent Care a week later to get it checked out. Doc there said “might be infected. Here, have antibiotics; follow up with PCP later in the week”. Followed up with PCP on Thursday “not infected. Not a bad idea to give you antibiotics, because if it *was* infected it’d be really bad by now, but since the antibiotics had no effect, probably no infection.” Pulled out the ultrasound device to take a look at it “nope, not infected. Infection looks different on ultrasound than bruising/fluid buildup. It’s just a really *nasty* bruise. Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. If it doesn’t look any better by the end of next week, come back in.”

J brought home a really *lovely* cold, and decided to sleep upstairs with it, rather than share germs. Which, in theory, is fine, but he also decided that since he was going to live upstairs with his cold, he could use the TV in the E room to watch all the YouTube videos he missed while he was on his bike ride. And I can hear nearly every word in the living room. sigh. So here I am, sitting at my computer in the den because I don’t want to listen to his motorcycle/car repair/mousetrap/etc. videos. And i can’t even sit in the comfy chair in the den, because he *still* hasn’t gotten all of his crap from the trip put away.

It’s been chilly and damp since mid April — warmed up over the weekend, and rained Su morning. Now it’s chilly again. Not that I’d be in the garden anyway, as I have to go do setup for FCB tonight. Not looking forward to that drive, because MDOT has closed most of the roads between here and there, and current best guess is 80 minutes to rehearsal. boo.