Since I didn’t bother to put in my headphones last night, I woke up every time somebody pulled in next to me and closed their door. 🙃
Not very effective for sleep. 😆
I think I woke up for the first significant time in the 6:00 hour, and then I thought to fall back asleep several times after that, hoping to get a decent night’s rest.
When I finally figured I’d give up and get up, I realized it was about 8:30–leaving me with not enough time to get to the temple properly on time. 😬
If I didn’t stop for gas, I would get there about 12 minutes before the appointment, but 18 minutes later than I’m supposed to get there.
The question would be whether or not the van would make it all the way without getting gas. It definitely would be really close.
Gratefully, the drive was uneventful, and in order to keep it that way, I decided to go ahead and get gas and just end up being completely late.
The baptismal session was scheduled for 11:00 with an arrival time of 10:30, and I think I got to the front desk about 11:01. 🙃
Fortunately, it wasn’t a big deal that I was late, and I was able to jump right in the baptismal session, first as a witness, then as doing the baptizing, and then as one being baptized.
I love the temple. 🥰
I love just soaking up the peace and light and happiness, and I love the wonderful smiling temple workers everywhere.
I’d love to be one again. 😊
The baptismal session was over super duper quickly, so I got changed and dressed for my initiatory session, and then ended up waiting another 45 minutes because the baptismal session ended so quickly.
But that 45 minutes gave me time to think and pray and just… take in the experience. 😊
After a beautiful little time at the temple, I started heading on over to the Planet Fitness on the other side of town. On the way there, however, I passed a truck with its emergency flashers going, a gentleman and his toddler daughter in the truck, but the flashers only worked in the front, so people behind him couldn’t see the flashers were on. As I drove past him and down the road, not realizing exactly what was going on until I couldn’t just stop behind him, I made a u-turn at my first available place, came all the way back, and made another u-turn, and then pulled up behind him.
I got out of rover, still dressed in my Church clothes, and asked what was going on, and he said he was just low on clutch fluid, that he has a leak, and that he didn’t have any with him. Fortunately, I had a bottle of what he needed with me, so I went and grabbed it, and he was able to fill up his clutch reservoir, fire up his truck, and head on his way.
We finished up just as a police car pulled up behind me to make sure everything was good.
I worked out for a little bit at the gym for the first time in… like a month and a half or two months. 😬
I didn’t do a whole lot, maybe five exercises? But it’s better than nothing.
The drive home was mostly uneventful until my cell phone alert went off telling me that there was a tornado siren and to get in the basement and stay away from windows.
So… Naturally, I pulled over on the side of the freeway, excitedly looking for a tornado. 🙃
I’ve always wanted to see one, with the hope, of course, that no person or property would be damaged by it.
I looked and looked, but didn’t see any tornado. I did see a cloud in the shape of a tornado that was all the way on the ground, but it wasn’t spinning. It was just a tornado shaped cloud down to the ground.
The front edge of the storm was gnarly looking, though.
I love intense weather. 😁
Was chatting both with my sister and with Cory right around the time this all happened. I had been chatting with Cory for a while when I got the alert, and then my sister beeped in, so I told her about the storm as well.
Chatted with both for a little while, and then had an eventful rest of the drive back to South Dakota, where I stopped, as is my custom, at Cascade Falls.
I threw on my normal work attire (long sleeve shirt and pants) that I also jump in Cascade Falls with, did my brain game for the day, listen to some uplifting music, and then headed over to jump in the water.
It was definitely colder, and rainy, so it wasn’t inviting so much as a refresher from the heat, but I jumped in nonetheless, and enjoyed myself. And it’s always nice to have a reprieve from the pressure on my spine that causes pain and discomfort.
Speaking of spine stuff, I called back the spine surgeon, talked to one of the office people, and I guess the spine surgeon had ruled me out as a perspective patient of his, pointing me toward a pain management doctor instead.
So far, there’s not much I guess that people think can be done? Of course, looking at the notes of the other doctor, it’s not really surprising. Doctor’s notes are pretty much useless. You’re only allowed to come in for one issue at a time, so of course the only thing on their notes is the issue that they let you talk about the first time. So I can’t talk about upper middle and lower back issues and neck issues and whatnot all in one visit. I have to say what my chief complaint is. And then go from there. And he got my chief complaint wrong, saying it was my neck…
I really don’t like doctors.
I really don’t like doctors.
I believe in modern medicine, just not the medical system nor the doctors.
But, I’m giving a worthy effort, and so if God is okay with things going this way, then I might as well be okay with it too. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop making efforts to improve the physical condition of my body via rehab, diet, exercise, and continued searching for a doctor who can do something.
Anyway, enjoyed the swim, picked up more trash that people leave there. Frustrating how much trash is left in such a short time. I’m there every day to every other day, and there’s always trash to pick up because people just don’t care, throwing their alcohol cans in the water and the bushes and down the toilet in the outhouse.
Maybe I can get permission to be a deputy enforcer of litter laws. 🙃
Headed back to my sister and brother-in-law’s place, they having picked up the septic tank while I was in Wyoming. My new power station also arrived, a couple of days early, so that’s nice. I’ll get that set up tomorrow, hopefully charging on the solar panels, assuming the power station came with the appropriate cable adapters.
🤞
I was also supposed to get several other things from Amazon today, and I got notifications that the items were delivered, except that when I got the notifications, I’ve been sitting right there, and nobody arrived, and so no packages have been dropped off, so I drove over to the neighbors to see if maybe they had delivered the packages to the wrong address, but nobody had them.
Gratefully, I was able to get it all taken care of with Amazon customer service, and though it’s inconvenient, they are going to send me free replacements of each of the items that were supposedly delivered today but didn’t actually arrive.
Chatted with Heather and Hans for a bit, ate dinner with them, another stellar dinner, and now here I am in bed getting another journal entry posted on time. 🥳
Gratitude:
- Baby grateful that, even though I was late to the temple, I didn’t miss out on anything nor cause an inconvenience. I had called ahead of time, but I had to leave a message, as no one answered, so it was nice to realize that everything was good.
- I’m grateful that I was able to help the gentleman who was stranded in the middle of the road at the stoplight.
- I’m grateful that the Amazon people were willing to take responsibility, after a little bit of prodding, and order free replacements of the items that didn’t actually get delivered.
- Ungrateful to have had the disposition to go work out at the gym.
- I’m grateful that I’ve pretty much lost most, if not all of the weight that I gained. Nothing like a mouthful of canker sores and then a heck of a lot of work trying to help make some progress on the house build as a deterrent to eating. 🙃 I looked in the mirror at the temple while I was waiting for a young man to vacate the locker area where I also have my stuff. Been a little while since I’ve looked in the mirror without a shirt on, and I was pleasantly surprised. 🎉 I think there’s a little bit of skin that needs to be reabsorbed, though 😆
- I’m grateful my power station came early. This power station that I’ve been dealing with has just been… a frustration. I got the same brand, just a supposedly significantly better model, so this will be my last attempt with his company. If this power station leaves much to be desired, then I’ll probably move on to Jackery.
Success:
- I stopped for the gentleman and his daughter, even though I had to go a little bit out of my way in both of my u-turns, and it took a little while to get back to him. I’ve always liked stopping to try and help people who are having car issues.
- I had multiple different opportunities today to look at something going sideways as being a blessing, and multiple opportunities to remember that if I’ve given a worthy effort, then whatever happens is just fine. If it’s good enough for God, it’s good enough for me. It doesn’t mean there won’t be more work to do, but it means that what was accomplished, or even the lack of something accomplished, if it were the effort was given, is wonderful.
Improvement:
- It’s been a bit harder to keep my thoughts in check, and going to the gym doesn’t help so much with that 😅, so there’s room for improvement, although I would say that I did really well, overall. 🎉
Love, love, love! 🤍
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 