Monday, March 16, 2020

Third rock from the sun

My annual trip around Old Sol has two more days to go and then another one begins, regular as clockwork. Round and round she goes I go, and where I stop, nobody knows. What I'm trying to say is that my birthday is day after tomorrow, at which point I will be 9/10ths of the way through another decade on planet Earth.

79. It has a nice ring to it, especially when you consider that my mother died at 47 and my father died at 60. My maternal grandfather, though, died just three months shy of his 96th birthday, and my goal is to outlive him.

As they were saying in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago, Laissez les bontemps roulez!

In other news, Governor Brian Kemp here in Georgia left it up to individual church leaders whether to close or remain open for Sunday services. Several of the humongous megachurches around Atlanta decided to suspend services and do online streaming instead. Northpoint (Andy Stanley), Free Chapel (Jentezen Franklin), and Passion City Church (Louis Giglio) were among them. Last New Year's Eve, Passion City sponsored a college/career-age night at the new Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta and 65,000 people showed up. The woman who is bishop of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist CHurch decided that all Methodist churches should close regardless of their size. The little Methodist church we attended for several years has about 75 people attending, and many of them are elderly, so they complied with their bishop's suggestion/orders and did their first-ever online "Lenten reflection" (as their pastor called it). The church we currently attend, not Methodist, normally runs between 250 and 300 in Sunday morning service and Pastor Chuck and the board of elders decided to remain open. We went, as did about 100 others. Many decided to stay home and watch via Facebook.

As of today, Georgia has had 121 cases of COVID-19 and one death. The man who died had been a greeter at a large church in a town about 25 miles from us. Two weeks ago that church had a special Sunday to honor and recognize their choir director who was retiring after 30 years. Before he went to that church he had been our choir director for five years (at the church we used to attend and now are attending again) so several current and former members made it a point to attend. I'm sure the greeters were shaking lots of visitors' hands that Sunday. A friend of ours, Tom B. (who is 69, lives about three miles from us, and attended that church that Sunday with his wife) is now on a ventilator in a local hospital and in isolation awaiting the results of his COVID-19 test from the CDC. If you are a praying person, please pray for Tom.

I didn't mean to end on a down note, but it is what it is. Life goes on, except when it doesn't.

As I was saying, Laissez les bontemps roulez.

7 comments:

  1. Prayers for Tom! I'm sorry that your friend is sick. Hope he makes a full recovery.
    These are surely crazy times.
    Happy early birthday wishes for you. Or early happy birthday wishes. Or happy birthday early wishes. :D
    Thinking of Bilbo wishing Gandalf "good morning".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kathy, thank you for both the prayers and the early wishes. You made me smile with the reference to Bilbo and Gandalf.

      Delete
  2. I will pray for your friend Tom. I'm sorry to hear he is so sick. This virus certainly does spread easily and quickly.

    It seems like just about everything around here is closed except grocery stores and pharmacies and such. We stocked up on groceries last week and we have stayed in since then. It's been rainy, dark and cold so not even fit to go outside.

    So Happy Almost Birthday! It's the 18th? Why, you were almost a St. Patrick's Day baby! Despite all this current craziness in the world, I do hope you have a good birthday!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bonnie, thank you for your prayers for Tom and also for the "almost birthday" wishes! When I was young I would joke that I was born during a St. Patrick's Day hangover, but I stopped saying that out of respect for my mother and because it wasn't true.

      I made a last-minute run to the supermarket yesterday for non-food items I had overlooked, such as dog food, vitamins, etc. We have enough laundry supplies to last but I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the paper products, of which the grocery shelves were bare. My son wants me to call him if we need anything, but as he lives 30 miles away I am hoping we will not need to inconvenience anybody. I read this morning that yesterday's announcement by the president and his team occurred because of a prediction from medical people in the U.K. that without taking the new measures as many as 2.2 million Americans could die from the virus. We should all pray for one another during these days.

      Delete
  3. I do hope Tom isn't proved to have the virus, and just much hope you and your family remain well dear rhymes. Testing times ahead, things are expected to get on a par with Italy here in the next three weeks, I must start digging that bunker I always meant to.

    Have a lovely birthday! You're a spring chicken sir, and still be on here spreading your wisdom at 124 I have no doubt of it. X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Starshine Twinkletoes, thanks for your good wishes. Perhaps 124 is unobtainable at present, but I will certainly give it the old college try (translation: do my best). I hope to include info about Tom in the comments section of my next post.

      Delete
  4. I'm sorry, Bob, that I missed this post. When you mentioned today that your birthday was the day after St Patrick's Day it sort of rang a bell. Not from this post however. Anyway may the year ahead be good to you with a healthy body and a happy heart. You and Mrs RWP are in my thoughts.

    The last part of this post brings it home to one very strongly how quickly life can change.

    ReplyDelete

<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...