September 26 – “Catching up”

Well, I finally finished detailing our all-too brief trip to Waco, so I guess I’m ready to move forward in time closer to the present.  I did take the opportunity to upgrade the operating system on my iPhone.  That was an interesting process.  Actually I let it happen while I was asleep one night because I heard it could take several hours to complete.  As a result I really don’t know how long it took.  Don’t really care much, either.  I did have to answer the usual questions when it came time to complete the setup.  You know, like “Can I use the GPS to locate your phone when you lose it?” and “Can Dropbox have access to your photos file?”  It didn’t really take all that long.  Now, what do I think of the “improvements”?  I guess the jury is still out on that one.  It looks completely different, for one thing.  I read somewhere that it is called the “flat screen look,” whatever that means.  I just think the icons are not as detailed as they were.  They are a bit bigger, though, which is a plus for those of us with tired old eyes.  One thing I still haven’t figured out is how to turn off the individual icons when I am not using them.  They all seem to stay on “in case I might want to go back to them.”  Now when I double click the off button at the bottom I get a stream of history.  I guess that will be helpful, but when I bought the phone, one of the things the sales clerk told me was turning those off would save battery life.  But what do I know?

I made it back in town in time to go to water therapy on Tuesday.  Always a treat.  We had the very first instructor this time, so there wasn’t much aerobics involved.  She is more about flexibility.  The Thursday instructor (that is today, isn’t it?), though, is the taskmaster.  She definitely knows how to get the heart rate up. 

I also had a meeting Tuesday about another funeral.  The same family that lost a father about a month ago just lost their mother.  I believe it was one of those cases where the couple had been married 65 years, and she just felt like she was done and wanted to go be with the love of her life.  The memorial service was last night.  It went really well.  Her son is a battalion chief for the fire department, so I got to see the past fire chief and the present one, as well as a few of the fire fighters who have worked with him for a long time.  And I found out that yet another fire fighter was admitted to the hospital yesterday with some “undisclosed medical problem.”  I will check on him today. 

I still have a boatload of stuff to catch up on.  Sermon for Sunday and Bible study for tonight and miscellaneous errands to run.  Plus I need to pray for our city manager.  I just read that a few of the city council members are unhappy with him.  Honestly, I think they need to let the guy do his job and stay out of the way.  They are only supposed to be concerned with policy-making anyway.  Our form of city government is not micro-management by city council.  That was the point when it was created.  Besides that … I like the guy. 

Psalms 112:7 says, “He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.”

Father, thank you for the perspective that bad news is simply a new way for you to be glorified.  Amen.