Anybody have some cheese?

OK, it's whine time. As if it's not bad enough to have to tolerate this late winter crap we're getting - more snow & rain mix on top of last weekend's snow - but I had to drive for 45 minutes through the crap to go to a follow-up mammogram today. Just the fact that I have to do follow-ups on a spot they KNOW is scar tissue sucks. They KNOW this is just a scar, but they still want to put me through the torture to see if the scar changes. geeeeeeezzzzz

My secretary and I have decided that if they had to do penis exams the same way they do mammograms, you darn well know there would be a much better method invented in about 2 days! If any of you guys want to know what it feels like, go home and squeeze your penis in the refrigerator door. Then have someone pull on it while the door is being closed slowly. That will give you some good indication.

Today's mammogram was about the worst one I've had too. I couldn't figure out what way she wanted me to face, or how far forward I was going to have to lean with my face already smushed into the protective plastic shield. I couldn't hold my breath nearly long enough for that darn thing to finish, and then ended up having to do one view over again too. Then you play the waiting game until the doc gets a chance to look at it and decide if he wants another view, or an ultrasound (which he did on both.) And then you're stuck in that little room with nothing but Woman's Day magazines in that goofy cloth gown that is way too small, wishing you were anywhere else but there. And every single magazine of the 8 on the pile has it's big headline article about some kind of weight loss or exercise thing that will miraculously help you lose all your weight in 6 weeks. Can they not get some kind of magazines besides Woman's Day or Better Homes & Gardens? Just because I have estrogen doesn't mean I automatically like those kinds of magazines. Give me a Newsday or Time or something - People or Us or anything besides the weight loss and domestic diva crap. Puh-leeze. Just shoot me now!

At least while I was getting the ultrasound, I was lying on a nice soft cushioned gurney - propped up against a wedge to hold me in position. I wouldn't want to lie all night like that, but it made for a nice napping spot while waiting for the doctor to give the ok this time. Just enough for a 15 minute power nap.

Finally, almost 2 hours later, I got to leave to drive back through the now semi-melted snow-covered streets to work. All this to find out there was "no change, but they want another follow-up in 6 months." Maybe. It's just a SCAR, fer pete's sake.

So now that I've had my fill of whine, anybody got some cheese for me?

Unexpected Sabbatical

Since I am getting an unexpected sabbatical today, I decided it would be a good time to resurrect the sabbatical blog. I've been wanting to do that for a while, but it has been so long since I wrote. I do want to keep some of that sabbatical rhythm in my life, but it is just so darn hard!

I had all these good intentions when I got back last July: Fridays were going to be writing days, friendships would be resurrected and not neglected, walking and workouts would be priorities in taking care of myself. Hmmmm.... let's see.... how much of that have I done? Try ZIPPO! What happened?

Life happened. Life in ministry anyway. But I also did come to some good realizations too. Although I may not be very good at setting aside those times for writing and working out and friendships, I do manage to do some good downtime on a regular basis. I just need better self-discipline on how I USE that downtime. I do manage to work at home fairly frequently, but again, I need better self-discipline on getting through my lists of tasks on those days too. Anyone with good suggestions on how to do better self-discipline?

We'll see how I do now when summer gets here again. In the meantime, today could be a good test of how productive I can push myself to be. We had one of those overblown "blizzards" that midwest meteorologists are always looking for. And yes, I did give in to the hype and cancel Sunday services for the first time ever in my 15 years as a pastor. How I let that happen, I don't know. Instead of waiting until Sunday morning to decide, I gave in on Saturday evening.

So this morning I woke up to grey skies, about 5 inches of fresh snow, but NO precipitation or blizzard conditions that I could see. And I was kicking myself for being such a wuss. I did feel somewhat better when I drove to church however. My plan was to spend some time in the office answering phone calls about whether worship was on or off, and visiting with any folks who didn't catch the reports on snow closings and showed up at church anyway. But once I got there, I realized it probably was a good thing to cancel. The wonderful city of Milwaukee did their usual good snowplowing on our street. There was a swath plowed right down the middle of the street, barely a car width. If I even had a thought of parking on the street, that was shot immediately from my mind. Navigating the side streets was tough, even with my 4 wheel drive. So I guess I can maybe forgive myself for not having worship this morning - since the building was still pretty unapproachable. The nearly empty parking lot at our neighbor St. Therese validated my decision too.

And I must admit, I'm kind of enjoying the unexpected sabbath day as a true sabbath day. I stopped to pick up a Sunday paper, along with a beverage from the brand new Caribou Coffee near my house, and I am currently learning how much time my cats actually do spend sleeping every day. (How is that possible??)

Let's see if I can keep the writing on this blog current now too. Another challenge of self-discipline.