A Normal Day Of Odds & Ends

Ginny & I butted heads this morning in one of our rare arguments. I went to the frig expecting to find stuff to pack her a lunch, but she did not buy the stuff yesterday while we were at the grocery store. It was a case where our both being a tad deaf confused us. She told me this and I told her that, but neither one had heard what the other had said and both our feelings were hurt.

When we realized what had happened, we agreed that each of us lives with a difficult person. But that’s normal and nothing to get upset about. We’ve heard that communication is important in marriage, but we know that it isn’t. If we communicated, we’d have probably split up 37 years ago. The most important thing in marriage is to assume the good will of your partner – especially when you don’t understand.

Because of all the outside work we did over the weekend (no, the pool is not quite ready yet) I spent the day playing catch up indoors. Yes, we’re down to drinking coffee out of the Christmas mugs again, so I washed dishes, repaired minor stuff, read, and caught up with e-mail and computer work… (I should shovel dirt more often because while I’ve been away from the computer, several copies of my books sold and the web site was very active -- it all works better without me).

A neighbor came by looking for a scarce Bible translation. I just happened to own a copy. I debated within myself about letting it out of my hands but decided that it was more important for him to read it than for it to sit on my shelves completing my collection. Bibles were not made to be collected. So I gave it to him – although reluctantly. (“The Lord loveth a cheerful giver” – Darn, I don’t score any brownie points with God even when I give away a Bible!)

My visitor wanted to discuss the Eloist,J, E, D and Q sources for Deuteronomy. While I recognize the style variations, I still hold to the overall Mosaic authorship. But it was refreshing to find someone knowledgeable in such matters which I haven't bothered to think about in years. But I agree with Mark Twain who said, “It ain’t the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me; it’s the parts that I do”.

This evening two young ladies from the neighborhood knocked at our door. They have noticed a suspicious car and driver parked nearby, apparently observing our house for about 20 minutes. Some neighborhood boys ask him if he were lost. He told them he was looking for me, but then sped off. They noticed that there were no tags on the car.

Odd.

We live in an obscure area and strangers stick out when they enter. I’m glad the girls were looking out for us. Their gut feeling was that this man was up to no good.