Leave of Absence
I’m nearing the end of the first week of my leave of absence, my first week as the former pastor of Trinity Reformed Church (URCNA) in Lethbridge, Alberta, and as the pastor-elect of Covenant Reformed Church (URCNA) in Grande Prairie, Alberta. For the last week, I’ve been finishing up some odds and ends. For instance, I’ve sorted through some of my books so that I can get rid of a pile of unwanted or duplicate volumes. I’ve also visited a lot of people here in Lethbridge. And I’ve waited for my house to sell.
Today, I had lunch with a member of the congregation, after which I bought some groceries and went to the post office to ship away some of those unwanted books to friends who did want them. Then I dropped off several years worth of unwanted back issues of magazines at the Mennonite Central Committee store, did some Christmas shopping, checked out some furniture someone bought me at Capital Furniture, and ended up at Chapters, where I read Neil Gaiman’s nicely done short story, “We Can Get Them For You Wholesale.” In the evening, I met a family from the church at The Attic for supper, followed by tea at their place.
And now, when I finish blogging, I’ll head to the living room, where I’ll read a bit more of James P. Blaylock‘s The Elfin Ship, his first novel, from which this line (which Duane Garner could have written):
“‘Time flies like an arrow,’ Grandpa used to say, ‘but fruit flies like bananas'” (p. 210).