Matt's Journal

A nice morning. Up early – before 6am. Breakfast. To church to operate the video setup. Dropped in to say hi to Laura, then to Emigh Hardware to get a list of things I needed. Then home.

A nice morning: sunny, cool, neither dank nor cloudy nor smoggy nor stagnant – that’s a common pattern later in summer. I don’t get up early anymore. Once a week I used to get up early for RTS (there by 7am or so). I was up early most of my working life. I don’t miss having to get up at all, but I do like being up early and enjoying the morning, a time when I’m at my best. That being so it is strange that I don’t get up early more often.

Breakfast: an egg and some Safeway sourdough. I wonder how they make it. I can’t imagine they hassle with a starter. Perhaps they do, or maybe they make it artificially with some souring agent. Mine is better and that’s in addition to, and separate from, the sense of accomplishment and ownership that comes from baking bread.

The church is starting up and was sparsely attended, many being old, and all standing on floormats intended to establish proper distance in this pandemic. They want to be there in spite of what danger there is. I was in the organ loft with Tony. I followed the mass as he managed the cameras, then he updated the document I started with more pictures and text. Starting a video stream on the social media services is tricky, more complex than it needs to be maybe, and it’s in his head but not the rest of us. Not me, much less some of the people who might need to pick it up. Laura came in too, down in the audience. I have always enjoyed being in a church, especially when it’s empty and quiet. Which has been only too often of late.

Laura was fine – they moved her officemate to her own room so now she has a nest of her own. Patty let me in the door – enroute to elsewhere – and Laura and I talked and she printed out Will’s resume for my perusal. She is very confident in him. I left her in good cheer.

Emigh Hardware was not nearly so crowded this visit and I procured the things I needed. There were things to fix things – an inner tube for the wheelbarrow, replacement blades for the glass scraper we use on the stove, a sleeve for the irrigation hose which I want to repair. And there was a new thing: lights for the dark space over the stove. This house must’ve been remodeled by a real-estate agent. More “pop” than practical. We are gradually fixing that.

At home, Will was up and is working on his car – he says there’s a funny wobble or something. He’s always noticing things like that. I asked him to tighten the bearing assemblies that he installed – we don’t want the wheels falling off, do we?

That’s all for now.