It is already the 11th of October and I have written only five posts so far this month, I am still keeping up (more or less) with my average of one post approximately every two days but somehow it feels like life is going faster and faster and I am blogging less and less because for instance this morning at eleven I need to be in a town fifteen miles away at our church’s weekly staff meeting with the pastor and it is already a quarter to nine and here I am sitting in front of the computer in my bathrobe, I didn’t hire on to be “staff” I hired on to be “pianist” but then the church hired a youth pastor who unfortunately is no longer there and that is a story in itself which I won’t go into just now and then it acquired an associate minister, note that I do not say “hired” in her case because the woman volunteered her time after having just retired from a ministerial career in the mountains of North Carolina and upon moving to our area contacted the local district superintendent to see whether a small church might like to have the services of an unpaid associate minister and she has since taken over responsibility for visiting the ill and the homebound, and voila!, just like that, we had a “staff” which is now required to have weekly meetings and which also includes the church’s administrative assistant who has been there since long before I arrived, and although my official title is “pianist” I also choose the hymns every week along with a prelude, offertory, and postlude, the titles of which all have to be given to the administrative assistant by Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning so that they can be printed in the weekly bulletin, I have also sung several solos, put together the Nine Lessons and Carols program at Christmas, transposed music for a teenaged player of the euphonium, accompanied a cellist, and currently I am trying to find time to work with the children’s department volunteer (who is not part of the “staff”) to teach a handbell arrangement of “Away in a Manger” to the children for this year’s Christmas program and also to teach the children to play the handbells in the first place, I don’t know what else may come along, I know this post doesn’t say much of a substantive nature but it does boost my total for the month.
I shall try not to write run-on sentences. I really only popped over to check that you'd got your clothes on, but I can see that my answer is, "only just"!
ReplyDeleteNow, bee in bonnet time...You are a very busy Bob and I applaud all that you do. Standing outside the church for the moment, I look back and remember how easy it is for jobs to 'grow' and develop without our realising it and sometimes we just have to exercise the word, "No". The phrase, "but there's no one else to do it" just dissolved when I walked away and I realised that none of us are indispensable. What I'm trying to say is that you and Ellie matter in the equation, too; your time together, your health and your energy levels are just as important as the church duties - infact, I would argue more important.Remember that Ellie is your first committment, not the church.It is a huge fault of churches the world over that they take for granted kind, lovely people and their precious time and do not reward adequately those who pour their hearts and souls into its service; any other major organisation wouldn't get away with it, it isn't honouring to what they stand for or even Biblically correct, but the attitude is perpetuated by the good natured folk who don't complain but beaver away in such a way that the hierarchy says, "Well, nobody's complaining, so it must be working!" If the church wants to be taken seriously, then it needs to be seen to be acting in a serious manner about these things.
By the way, you've still beaten me on posts for September AND October put together!
Oh and one more thing - keep those handbells away from any letterboxes... ;-D XX
i don't have run on sentences cause i have stopped blogging, writing, except in clear emergencies, which don't occur more than once an eon or when some trivia requires attention and when i do my thoughts are precise coheriant with perfectect puncuation and spelling that is out of this world and your sentance is wonderful, containing so much information,, in fact run on sentences really are slammed with more than the average bear with information, platitudes that are amazing and packed with nuggets for thought and i bet this will not be taken in it's entirity by google and elizabeth's run on sentance is pure delight, isn't it???????????
ReplyDeleteI've not yet tried to write a run-on sentence on my blog but am going to attempt to play the role of a "run-on sentence critic" here in this comment and say that I think periods could have been inserted after "bathrobe", "bulletin", "place", and "along", meaning, of course, that you possibly left out a few "and's".
ReplyDeleteOh, that was a surprise! When I put up the first comment, the post disappeared, so I commented on my post instead, so now that the post has come back to go with the comment, you've got two sets of comments from me and you can take your pick which you want to go with - one on this side, one on that side. I hadn't realised how litle punctuation was in that first box or I would have deleted, except as the post disappeared anyway there was little point and now Putz has praised me on a delightful run on sentence that I didn't even know I'd written - and an accolade from Putz makes even Wayne Osmond choosing some hussey called Kathy over me worthwhile -not that it matters as I saw him at Skegness ten years ago and he'd completely gone to seed and was desperately disappointing and I no longer found him conducive to romantic fantasies; I just hope that these two further run on sentences delight him (Putz, not Wayne) just as much. This is turning out to be an incredibly silly day and I'm rather enjoying it... xx (one kiss for Bob, one for Putz. None for Wayne).
ReplyDeleteBreathless "stream of consciousness" writing - rather in the mode of James Joyce. If the Lord is assessing your contribution in his little black book, you are surely guaranteed an ocean view when (after many more years) you pass through the pearly gates.
ReplyDeleteYou may be keeping up with the posts target, but you sentence ratio has just fallen dramatically.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you've at least found the comma on your keyboard and used it. My sister writes emails without even those. Very confusing as you can imagine ;-)
ReplyDeleteAll, when I wrote this post I wondered whether many, or even any, comments would be forthcoming from you, my loyal readership. Lo (and behold!), they did come forth and life is good. However, I will not be responding to your individual comments today because a cold, wet front has passed through the area and the concomitant lowering of the barometric pressure hereabouts make me feel as though my head is in a barrel. Thanks for understanding and for permitting me to use the word concomitant in your presence.
ReplyDeleteThen sir, we wish you a restful and refreshing night's sleep and endure in the hope that your cold, wet front may soon dry out and that your barometric pressures may be so lifted that your poorly head is concomitantly alleviated. Take care. XX
ReplyDeleteOh dear, I hope you feel better soon ;-)
ReplyDeletelol I have to watch and also make my sentences shorter but
ReplyDeleteI am very impressed you play the piano.I have a wonderful piano here and no one plays. The boys gave up. Maybe one day the grand children will.