Kris and I, with Laura and Mark, went to Willow’s Easter service last night. Splendid intergenerational music and remindings of the resurrection. They opted for a high-intensity approach to the joy of Easter, and the music and dancing simply lifted our spirits off the ground. About 15 people gave 100 word summaries of what the resurrection meant to them — hope, courage, faith. And both Mike Breaux and Gene Appel then reflected on the meaning of Easter for them personally, and Bill Hybels then addressed everyone on the courage Easter brings.
When done we went to dinner with Laura and Mark. While we waited for a table, I got a short lesson in cell phone usage. Laura has a Razr, and she knows how to work the thing. So, I learned how to “speed dial” and how to “mute” a call if I don’t want the one I’m speaking to to hear what I’m saying (about them, concerning them, etc) to someone near me. This probably won’t ever happen, but it is good to know. And she taught me something else, but now I forget — it, too, my memory reminds me, was something I’d probably not ever do either.
They just got back from a trip to France, and so Laura brought her album — delightful pictures. They loved the Museums and the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, and took a day trip down to Avignon. Seeing where Van Gogh painted in Arles … and the castle of the popes (when the Popes dwellt in Avignon for 70 years). They also visited a winery in a cave and brought back a bottle of Merlot for us.
Saturday morning I laid carpeting on our back porch. It began with removing a piece we put there about 20 years ago, just after we moved in, and it had seen better days. We worried that it could be glued so tightly to the cement that we might need some kind of chipper to get it off — not so. It came off “like buttah,” as they say. The new piece, after we cut it in the garage, and after smearing that guey gunk all over the porch, also went down “like buttah.”
But I didn’t feel “like buttah” when I got up today. I must have stretched more than I was used to because my legs feel like, well, stiff, thick stumps.