Up front

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Ever since I witnessed a person call a nearby lady a “f****** b****” and me a “f****** loser” on two separate occasions at a downtown church, I’ve been avoiding that parish and going to this one. I can handle a verbal assault, and didn’t contact the authorities, even though the outburst against me was witnessed by a Eucharistic Minister. The two incidents spurred a lot of new thought about madness and mysticism, which I’ve been blogging about at earthpages.org.

So I’m avoiding that parish, for the most part, to avoid conflict. It’s not right and I should be able to go and worship without fear wherever I please in Canada. But sometimes the smart move is to just stay away.

This photo was taken yesterday at another parish that, actually, is closer to where I live. As you can see it’s under reno and tends to be very crowded because 2/3 of the pews have been temporarily removed. The holy water basins are empty, I guess because they’d be full of construction dust otherwise. So I just take my own little bottle of holy water and apply it once I get inside the parish.

Yesterday after Mass I noticed the sun was hitting the small gold cross on a pole, and I thought it was an interesting contrast to all the other scaffolding poles in the background. Something significant there. The worldly and the sacred.

Unfortunately I just used my phone, and it was zoomed 3x, so the image is a bit more blurry than I’d like.

Warning… Hot Coffee!

strange blur – taken moments after the scorcher… by mistake… (usually my best are by mistake!)

Last night I was out in the countryside and pulled into one of my fav. donut shops to grab a coffee. The young lady was sweet and polite but, little did I know, handed me a scorcher of a cup of coffee. So off I went into the car, into the night, on to my next destination. Driving very slowly through an empty parking lot I figured it was a good time to take a sip.

Yeouch. It was hot. But I thought I could handle it. So I kept on sipping. Next, I’m sipping over a speed bump… one of those small but really nasty speed bumps that force you to slow right down.

That did it. I scorched the back of my throat and can still feel it somewhat today. After getting home last night I read all about scorched vocal chords, because I’m taking it upon myself to improve my singing voice.

All I can do is hope it gets better. I considered suing but read a few articles on the web. All scorching at donut hole suits have been dismissed. And I’m not really the suing type, anyhow.

But a word of advice to any speakers or singers out there, wannabe or pro. After reading up on it, I realized that the vocal chords are very sensitive instruments. Take care of them. Be smart. I know I will from now on.

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