Odd Day

Today was a very odd day in a rather odd week.

We had a Valentine's Day party today at our ladies' coffee hour. It went very well until the midway break. Someone (and I wish I could remember who) came up to me and told me that one of our church ladies was dying. Now this was not a total surprise because this dear lady has been in the hospital twice in the past few months and was already there for a couple of weeks on oxygen. Also we had a larger than normal number of deaths last year and the trend seems to be continuing. However this lady seemed to be improving.

Her husband is one of our babysitters for coffee hour and when I watched him leave to see his wife, I totally believed the story. Fortunately I only shared this message with a couple of leaders - not the whole group and, after we prayed for her, we moved on with the programme.

I felt extremely sad because this lady is one of those special ladies that makes everyone feel special while thinking that she has no particular gifts.

When I got home at lunch time, I got a call from the minister's wife telling me that the lady is NOT dying. In fact she is well enough to be discharged tomorrow. I felt terrible - glad that she is not dying but terrible that I had upset so many women. I had to call several people and apologize for spreading this falsehood.

Although I cannot remember who told me, I do know that it was someone whose word I trusted and did not doubt for a moment that the story was true.

I feel like a fool.

Uniquely ours

I had no idea that we who live in Ontario, Canada were so unique. Here I thought that everyone, at least many, many people, were familiar with the kind of milk packaging seen in this picture. At least 80 per cent of the people in this province buy their milk in plastic bags such as this one. These bags come in groups of three inside yet another plastic bag. All four bags are then placed in the recycling bin. today, in the Toronto newspaper I learned that most of the world has no knowledge of this odd way of packaging milk.

We used to buy milk in cartons and these are still available. Then we switched mostly to large three litre jugs which were difficult to pour when filled. People also used them oddly when the milk was used up. Some put gasoline or other noxious substances in the jug and a few children got very very sick by drinking the contents thinking it was milk.

These plastic bags have their challenges as well. First you have to have these plastic jugs for the bags to fit in. You could make do with one but we have three so that we can put all the bags in a jug. This takes up less space in the refrigerator. Sometimes the bags are filled too full and the first time you try to pour, it kind of overflows. You can end up with a bit of tea with your milk instead of the other way around. The garbage police insist that you rinse out all traces of milk from the small bags and this gets old really soon.

So - - - we're all odd here. I thought it was only me!