Saturday night the storm hit, and do we get dumped upon! Once again the car begins to disappear in a pile of snow. About 9:30 the blowing and wind relents a little, and there outside is my neighbour and her brother, blowing away all the snow and shovelling the driveway. So I throw on some clothes and dash out to move the car. It’s all done in about 15 minutes. The two men do the work, the two women (me and my neighbour) stand in the road and chat. My that’s tiring, talking while the guys work. It was so kind of them. They just decided they’d better check on “Rev. Fran”. (I had pretty well decided there was no point going out in the wind, that I might as well wait for it to blow itself out, and then shovel when I could see.) So then we all trundle down to their place for a glass of wine - Yrs. Truly once again in an odd assortment of painting clothes. At this point I don’t care any more.....if someone is clearing snow and then says come and have a glass, who am I to fuss about clothes????Sunday morning I peel open an eyeball, and figure I’d better get organised to shovel out the pile from the plow - and indeed there is a pile. Right in the middle of skipping around to go shovel, I hear a snowblower outside, and lo and behold, there is another neighbour who does his own home and the one next door....I guess he just figured he’d clear out the minister at the same time. So I am able to relax, have breakfast, and take a more or less leisurely drive to church, given the stuff on the road.
Another lesson learned along the way. Watch what you say and where. Last Sunday, it was announced that one of the parishioners who is the tiniest little woman - not very much even dripping wet - was having her 85th birthday *this* Sunday. “Oh” says Yrs. Truly “maybe we should have a cake after church.” It was intended as a light joke. Parishioners know better, and they knew that once we mentioned it she’d be looking for it. Indeed they were right. She went to get her hair done, and turned up in church dressed to the nines. Thank goodness someone got a cake, and there was coffee made. Whew!
However, one thing they don’t do here is coffee or any community time after church - so I am thinking that maybe once a month we can have coffee and cake for any people who have birthdays in the month. I really miss that interaction after the service - it just seems a little flat to come to church and then immediately go home.
Church and coffee done, I join the Sunday Tim Horton’s group for lunch, hit Canadian Tire and the grocery store, and in the evening have dinner with friends - in fact, the best barbecued steak I’ve had in a long time. Note to self: Get a barbecue in the spring, for the deck - and then barbecuing even in the winter will be possible. Oh yeah!
Another storm coming in, and more snow - but just this evening I manage to find someone who will clear the snow on a regular basis for what seems like almost nothing. He checks morning and evening, when there’s a storm - and makes sure the stuff from the plow gets cleared. The neighbours are great, but one can’t assume they will do it....light stuff I can clear off, but the heavy stuff needs help.
Monday is a snow day, literally. For the first time in about six years school and university are closed, stores closed - even the plows are a bit scarce. No going anywhere today! So I hunker down to write annual reports - my own cover page for the congregational report, and the Session report. Halfway through the morning my neighbour up the street comes and clears out some of the snow from the plow. I want to run out and tell him not to worry but a) I am not dressed, and b) it’s just blowing and white-out. He finally realises it’s not worth it.
Just past noon, the man I contracted to clear snow arrives, and he and his partner have everything cleared off in about fifteen minutes. He says he had to quit for awhile because it was just too windy and snowy to be worth doing anything. He will be back later tonight or early tomorrow to clear off the plow residue.
Two annual reports written, right on time for the secretary. Quite pleased, as usually I have to be reminded. The transfer of furniture from one bedroom to the other is the next job in line. There are some paint touch-ups on the walls to be done, some drawers moved; then the smaller bedroom is turned into a good office space. A couple more things to do, and it’s finished.. It’s kind of my green outdoors - but indoors - and in the winter anything green helps. It’s definitely GREEN.
Norio took a wonderful photo in the summer, of birch trees in the arboretum at Niagara Falls; and I have some photos of Japanese gardens - and some cross-stitch to be finished which will be perfect.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are a bit of a blur. Tuesday I spend some time in the office, and then three and a half hours meeting with colleagues to discuss possible collaborations of our congregations. I am really pleased to have these two to work with - and I hope this continues to be a good relationship. It’s quite different than Toronto where there are so many colleagues around - in some ways I think it’s more critical here that we be able to work together and encourage each other more.
Tuesday evening I have dinner with another family in the congregation - an excellent meal and it is good to get to know people better. I really have to say that as much as I love this location, I love the people just as much. There are times when I wonder what I am doing in ministry, and then the times when I realise I don’t really want to be anything else.
Wednesday is an office day, a pastoral visit in the afternoon, and in the evening meeting with the United Church Women (UCW). I can’t really post anything here about visits, except to say that I never cease to be amazed at what some people have to live through, and yet they are still gentle, beautiful and kind people. It was a wonderful afternoon. Of all the strange things, the phone rings in the church at 8:30 in the evening - someone wanting to make an appointment with the minister. I have to smile.....
UCW meets twice a month - but I think I will likely go once a month - because there is also Men’s Club once a month - and it will be really easy to have every night of every week taken up with something. It’s a fun meeting - working at prayer shawls for the seniors, and a birthday cake for two of the members. - plus I come home with something absolutely new in the culinary division: coconut tea biscuits. These are wonderful!
Thursday is a visit to the hospital to see an ill parishioner. Western Memorial I’ve mentioned before. It’s a hospital which is quite old, and renovations (if not a new building) are long overdue. The staff are exceptional, like most hospitals. Space is at a premium, and parking lots are jammed. The weather is turning ugly and the roads are quite greasy. Snow is beginning again and there are predictions of high winds. We’re supposed to have a Board meeting tonight, but I wonder.
Every clergy and lots of congregants know the jokes about ministers only working on Sunday. I do wonder if people realise how much paper and reading there is for this work. Reading for meetings, reading and proofing minutes and reports, filling out forms, keeping records; that doesn’t even include reading for sermon preparation or study time. There are some days when I spend the whole time pushing paper, and feel like nothing is accomplished. The late afternoon is one of those times - sitting and reading reports, and preparing for the meeting.
On the way to the office, I’ve met up with the two fellas who clear out my snow, to ensure they are paid for the work. - and ask if they could come up later to clear the drive so when I get home from the meeting I can get IN. By 4 o’clock the wind is blowing totally horizontally, and it’s not possible even to see across the street in the snow. A couple of phone calls from and to members of the Board, and we agree it’s not worth slogging through a blizzard, taking a chance with safety and knowing that there are several people who simply won’t be able to get there. Meeting cancelled.
So I call the snow-clearing guys and tell them it’s no rush to come up. As the wind blows and the drifts rise, there is the car buried in the drive. The phone rings. A parishioner has died and the family wonders if I could come up and say a few words. They offer to pick me up, which is great. So I throw the clothes on, fix the face, and flounder out through a foot and a half of snow to get to the vehicle, and off we go.
I said there are those days when it seems nothing gets accomplished. Then there are these days, where I meet with families in the midst of their loss and grief, and remember again the privilege of this calling. People are most vulnerable and open in this time, and if there is even just one thing I can do which helps, it is a day with something accomplished.
Friday dawns another crappy snowy day - not going anywhere. Paperwork can be done at home, fortunately.
Saturday and the end of another week here. I had to go shovel the crap from the plow, which went around twice yesterday. My snow-clearers have not arrived, but I am sure even they need some time off to do other things. They look after over 100 people, so I can’t complain. I have an appointment for a hair cut, so I shovel enough to be able to move the car, and head out. Coming back, I shovel a bit more, and get the car back in. The phone rings. Remember the jewelry party awhile back? Well, the jewelry is in - do I want to come for a glass of wine and a snack with the others? Sure. So out I go again.....
I saw a new piece of equipment today, on the way home. It looks like a smaller snow plow, but what it does is cut right through the drifts at the side of the road, and then blow the snow onto people’s front lawns - thereby widening the road to its original size. My neighbour from downstairs, a young man from St. John’s, says he’s never seen this much snow so early in the year. I tell him the locals say this is about half what’s normal. Good thing he’s young, because he has a LONG drive to shovel.
...and so it goes. Tomorrow is service again, and a meeting with the Ministry Personnel Committee, and a funeral on Monday. More snow, but we’re only supposed to get one to three centimetres. Oh good.....
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