captainsblog | Jul. 26th, 2015

Not necessarily better, certainly no worse. Just different in more than a few ways. Today I:

* did not do church (which is where the "ordinary time" reference comes from).

This has been an increasingly Not Unusual Thing, especially in the summer. I remain torn about the conflict within my denomination about treating all persons as equal- and when I read pieces like this one, written by a young United Methodist theologian who had his joy over the Supreme Court marriage equality decision slapped down by his own bishop- one who, despite, previously, having

largely remained silent about the ever-present reality of police brutality and race-based hate crimes, was quick to release his own letter to remind our conference of what the Book of Discipline says.

In the midst of the nation celebrating a small serving of equality, our church took the time to remind us we had no cause to celebrate because although Christ had set us free from sin and death, the laws of the Book of Discipline have kept the fetters firmly in place. So the deaths by suicide for queer Methodist youths and the sin of heterosexism and homophobia as well as the sin of lazy Biblical exegesis are still the sovereign lords of this body.

Nothing will change officially until a quadrennial all-church conference next year- and even that is by no means even a likely occurrence, given the asecendance of Fundies among the voting Methodists who will consider it. If nothing has changed there by then, I see no choice but for me to change instead.

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* Did not work out- in the organized, timed sense.

This was for, reasons. Some was getting alternative forms of exercise as below, but mostly it was to continue recovering from a heavy-duty hour yesterday morning. The class of the day was Run To Row: unlike the usual third-third-third split between jog/run on the treadmill/elliptical, row on the rower, and weight/core on the floor, this one was roughly half on the floor and the other half alternated between decreasing distances of first run, then row. The latter did the usual number on my legs, but it was that first half on the floor that got me real good: we did a "Y lunge" using TRX straps (which I've used before and am usually decent at), but as soon as I got the bright idea to get real low at the bottom of the lunge, I instantly felt that wondrous feeling of sports disabled lists everywhere: a groin muscle pull.

It wasn't THAT bad, and didn't stop me from finishing the set or the hour; I was sore as shit all day yesterday, but by morning the groin pain had largely receded. Still sore in the legs, though, from the combination of the row part (close to 2400 meters by the time we shut it down) and from bending down and up while chopping off the heads of about 300 Queen Anne's lace plants in the front yard yesterday afternoon.

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* Did sand.

We're on to the cabinets, which are now being emptied one by one and having 10-plus-year-old paint stripped from them prior to being stained and re-hung. I did two of the doors today, with a combination of power sander and manual demolition. No major problems, but it's pretty exhausting stuff.

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* Did actually SEE a Mets win this time.

Last night's surprise wasn't one I was actually watching, but this afternoon's game, I turned on while cleaning the fish tank (a fairly alternate Ordinary Sunday thing of mine). I did so just as the Mets' closer had officially blown a 2-run-lead save opportunity, and watched as he (and the Mets) then maintained the tie for the rest of the ninth and brought us to extra innings. Our broadcasters remain among the best in the business- even Eleanor commented on Gary's use of the verb "looming"- and they got a walkoff moment of joy when one of their newest players drove in the winning run in the bottom of the tenth:

(Can't embed the video- it's here if you care.)

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* Did walk a dog.

I've been trying to get Ebony out for walkies more- as she gets older, she begs for it less, but it really seems to help her stay in good spirits, keeping up on the neighborhood "conversation" by at least getting her round the block and sniffing anything that does or doesn't move. Today was especially fun at beginning and end: as soon as we stepped out, we saw Bandit, a neighbor's annoying indoor-but-she's always-out cat, sitting on our driveway. I pointed and started walking our 60-plus-pound lab right over to her to say hi to the nice kitty! Bandit hissed, raised the fur on her back and amscrayed. Then, right before the last turn home, another neighbor, walking his own dog, called us over and offered Ebony a Milkbone. She was ready to go home with him, I think;)

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* Did lose a cat, it seems.

When we got in, the other three, smaller moochers were all demanding noms, and everyone got fed. Finally, I grilled hot dogs and corn outside for the two of us. We later noticed that Michelle, our middle-child cat and something of an annoyance overall, has been nowhere to be found for going on two hours. She might've slipped out when I was grilling (although she never shows any interest in going Out There), or is stuck in a box or closet of some kind we've yet to hear her crying from- but most likely she's just hiding in plain sight, waiting to meow in my ear in the middle of the night and say,

MADE YA LOOK!

ETA. Yeah, she did.

Hiding on Eleanor's dresser the whole time, the little shit. And now back to her usual perch on my wrists, annoying me as I finish this update.