Shouts of Joy

Recent joys:

     On Sunday afternoon, Cindy and I met up at a nearby regional park for a nice 'socially distant' walk. It felt like half the county was also there, but I know the paths that are less busy. It was really neat to hear so many calling frogs around the ponds: spring peepers and wood frogs--the latter sound like a horde of quacking ducks! Also got to see two muskrats. With it sunny and close to 60, the skies blue and the lakes even bluer, we had a great time.

     Tuesday it got to almost 70, so even more families, dog walkers, bikers, couples on the paths as I drove home from the park and ride. If we have to be restricted, at least we've been blessed the weather has been good and this didn't happen in January!

     My free Easter lily now has three blooms open.

     It was warm enough to have the window open part of the morning as I worked from home. Delighted to hear various birds: robins, cardinals, crows, blue jays, chickadees, and also the first house finch songs of the season.

Made it to another Friday!

     When I stopped at a garden center to buy a gift for a friend last weekend, I was startled to be offered a free Easter lily. That's bittersweet, because of course they have too many with few or no church sanctuaries to decorate this year. But it's neat to have one! The first flower opened Thursday and more are coming. It smells lovely.

     I'm really pleased with how my church is being active and creative during this time. They did a blood drive, they switched their food distribution to 'drive up', set up an online prayer wall, and of course record/stream their Sunday and Wednesday messages, along with a different staff member doing a daily audio devotional recording for the Bible reading plan, which I'm enjoying following along with.

     The long Ethernet cable I ordered was delivered Monday and made a BIG difference for working from home, which I got to do on Wednesday and Friday this week. Hurrah!

     The ground is starting to green, while the ugly dirty snowdrifts are nearly all gone. So that meant that on my days working downtown and driving home from the park and ride afterward, I've resumed taking detours through the gorgeous rich neighborhood; a different route each time. It's been a blessing from heaven to savor such beautiful architecture and a wonderful way to de-stress after the grueling work day.

Wow, what a week! I'm grateful for a payday Friday at last.

     Thankfully my teammate and I were able to finish setting up the new emergency scanners at the fallback location on Tuesday--two full days were enough. Hopefully we will not need to return anytime soon. (How dumpy that place is also reminded me how nice I have it at the office in comparison!)

     I tried working from home Wednesday but discovered my desk location is not ideal for good wi-fi speed. Ran some speed tests and decided a very long Ethernet cord is best. But when I got on Amazon they said I'd get it END of APRIL. Walmart was only a few weeks better. Thank God for eBay! I should get it Monday and be ready for the next time I work from home. (So my teammate got to enjoy an extra work from home day Friday on that account.)

     My realizing I should evacuate my plants at work led to reminding somebody else who has a lot of plants, so she was able to drive in and rescue them the last day before getting into the office requires presenting "papers" at a "checkpoint." (Special letter to show the security guards--life is nuts!)

     Got gas for $1.50 Thursday morning! Makes me wish I could stockpile THAT.

     A real treat this morning at the bus stop to hear chickadees, cardinals, red-winged blackbirds, and robins. Spring is coming! Spring always comes, no matter what (Genesis 8:22).

Recent blessings:

     Over the weekend, set up for working from home, which I hope to do two days a week. Blessed that I had a spare desk, along with keyboard, monitor, and mouse to connect to my work laptop, which will make it much easier.

     I'm glad I was able to get craft supplies the prior weekend before most stores shut down. Because this weekend I kicked off painting a bookcase for the guest bedroom, and I have a list of other smaller paint projects after that to keep me occupied until it gets warm enough for staining projects.

     Blessed that I could buy some cheap speakers with Amazon credit card points, so for my second Sunday of church livestreaming, I didn't have to use earbuds.

     Aside from free parking in the company ramp (first come, first served) my employer is also giving away free food items (individually packaged or wrapped) in the company cafeteria. I guess we're down to 150-200 people showing up from 1,800 or whatever it used to be. Crazy days!

     It may please a certain reader of this blog to know what I learned today. Just as my department--the people I support--are considered business critical to my employer, so we must keep working...so also my employer is considered business critical by the national government, so any shelter in place is highly unlikely to affect them. I had started wondering over the past few days...but no rest in my immediate future!

There's always good stuff, even in the chaos!

     I watched Ford v Ferrari over the weekend, quite enjoyed it, and found it just fabulous for racking up miles on the exercise bike!

     Figured out that the issues with wi-fi at home on Starfish were caused by Windows trying to download a large update, and nothing worse.

     Delighted to succeed at a blood donation after work on Monday, as I hadn't planned far enough in advance to take iron supplements as long as I usually do. I'm glad I was able to give before restrictions get any crazier.

     Monday brought another blessing in the form of my fabulous editor getting back to me with the fifth and final Geren novel. Now I get to work through all her feedback and figure out what to clarify or change as I get into the final editing sweep. Hurrah!

     Current events remind me of a line from a book I really like, spoken after a catastrophe hits. "The King still reigns." And always shall, regardless of what happens. None of this is a surprise to God!

Hurrah for a payday Friday the 13th!

     Tuesday evening I had my regular get-together with the Towners, but a little extra this time. That's because Aaron was there also, just about to head out to Ohio. We had a fabulous dinner at Angelina's, then I got to quickly show them my Florida photos. To bed quite late, but it was worth it.

     I was only able to shift my schedule about half an hour in advance of Daylight Savings, but once again the preparation paid off. Grateful for that!

     On Thursday got together for lunch with my former boss Sarah (now I have two former bosses to keep up with!) It was a good time and went fast, even if we did spend most of it talking about coronavirus.

     Because Pi Day itself falls on Saturday this year, our area celebrated instead 'Pi-day the 13th' on Friday. I brought in spinach pie as usual, and also enjoyed banana cream, some sort of caramel chocolate silk, and lemon meringue.

A treat to have a remarkably mild weekend!

     Cindy and I got to Costco at 9:33 Saturday when it opens at 9, and the place was already crazy. Glad we didn't come any later!

     After Costco, we went for a walk in a fairly new park I'd only been to once and Cindy hadn't seen at all. Walking was challenging with all the wet, trampled ice to get across, but it was great to be outside and the area is quite nice.

     While Saturday hit 50 or so, Sunday got close to 60. After church I stopped for a walk at the WMA near the river. That was also a challenge with ice, puddles, and mud, but a treat to see two pairs of trumpeter swans on the river.

     Sunday was warm enough I opened a window for a couple hours!

     I was behind on my work for my Friday due date, but Monday was what I needed to get caught up. Whew! Now the pressure goes down for a week or so.

Happy birthday to my incredible brother!

May God continue to bless your business, your marriage, your fathering of eleven kids now, and your soul in this next year of life. And may you know many joys through being a conduit of God's blessings to your family, your work, your church, and beyond. Have a wonderful birthday!

Glad to make it to a weekend!

     With all the excitement of late, I'm grateful I bought a decent sized jug of hand sanitizer last year that has plenty left.

     Work was quite grueling as I had less time to get through stuff due to my trip and my teammate is even more buried so I tried to lighten his load. Glad to make it to Friday with nothing really big blowing up and hopefully only a day or less behind schedule.

     Among the mountains of changes going on with my employer was one particularly nice one: annual pay raises go into effect April 1 rather than June 1. And today I found out my raise info from my former boss. 3.42%, praise God!

Recent blessings:

     Very happy to learn that things behaved at work while I was gone. That makes it easier to take off again!

     A real blessing to have Thursday off after my trip, because I got a bunch of cleaning and errands and finances done, which meant what was left for Saturday wasn't too much more than a normal Saturday.

     Happiness is a thank you card in the mail from my niece Selah!

     My new nephew Matthew, born February 29, was released from the hospital Monday afternoon and came home, hallelujah!