This will be a shorter post than usual because it is morning on the first day of the week, and I have a lot I need to do before tomorrow morning, which will test my ability to decide the order of tasks and keep everything in line. When someone is gone from home for an entire week and only has a limited time to prepare for going back out, there are a lot of things that need to get done in a short time. Briefly, I’d like to talk about some of the ways my own time is filled today, and how I feel behind even though it is only shortly after 9:00AM as I write this.

First, I have a suitcase full of laundry that needs to be taken care of, most of which will probably have to be reused as I do not have that large of a wardrobe (a problem that will need to be rectified at least in part at a later date). Since I moved to Portland, I have had only one suit and a handful of business-appropriate pants, and maybe a week and a half worth of suitable shirts. This means that I simply don’t have that many clothes and so they need to be washed every week now, and the only day that is really feasible is today.

I have a lot of other little errands that need to get done. Since I got my refund from my 2012 Oregon State Income Tax and Federal Income Tax this past week while I was out, I need to deposit those as it would be nice to have some money added to my savings and checking accounts. I also will be going to a dinner party next Saturday night before a concert and agreed to get a couple of bottles of sparkling cider (I’ll look for some Martinelli’s), and today is the only time I have available for that. I also have a small pile of books to read, of which I have read one of the four books that arrived, and the other looks like it won’t take that long, so I might take it with me to read at lunch while I go about my various errands. I also have a Spokesman’s Club meeting and I also have to pack for next week’s reprise of the adventure of this week. All of that takes time, and time is quite limited.

So, I apologize to all of those who have wanted more frequent or more detailed communications about how things are going. Yesterday at church there were at least half a dozen people I had to tell about my new job because I simply had not gotten in touch with them the previous Sabbath right after I found out and because they are not voracious readers of my blog. Of course, even when I’m at church I’m generally scheduled fairly tightly with all of the choir practices I am a part of, so a not infrequent sight is seeing me have to beg apology for leaving a conversation and then rushing off to something. Such is the life, though, and I would hope that most people understand that my tight schedules are not a matter of rudeness but rather of a busy and productive way of doing things. I try to keep myself unhurried as best as I can, and keep my sense of humor intact when things inevitably do not go as planned, but it is still a subject I ponder often.