March 3, 2009
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BRRRRR!
Last Friday the heater on the minivan quit working. This was particularly bad for The Professor and the two high school students he was driving to Topeka (a two-hour trip) for a UU youth conference on Mexico. Of course, the cold weather started Friday. About four inches of snow fell Saturday. The Professor said the students who rode with him were good sports. My back still hurts a little from snow shoveling.
Yesterday I drove the minivan to Johnson County for quilting at church, babysitting NDM, and an excellent, as usual, Barbara Brackman lecture at Prairie Point Quilt Shop. The events were great, but I found out just how terribly cold the minivan can be. Tomorrow I’m taking the minivan to the mechanic, where it can hopefully be fixed for a small amount of money since the car has 120,000 miles on it. We need a car with a working heater when we take NDM to Illinois to meet my parents.
Sunday was enjoyable. I took a celebratory cake for IMO to church for coffee hour and announced we all should be pleased for him receiving approval for his permanent residency. After the announcement, almost everyone in the congregation applauded for IMO, which literally made me cry tears of happiness. The congregation’s reaction is one of the reasons I like my church so much.
After church, The Professor, Tremor3258, Iltflinthills, IMO, NDM, and I went to Olive Garden to celebrate Iltflinthills’s birthday two months late (because of NDM’s arrival) and IMO’s permanent residency. (NDM dined at church before we went to the restaurant.) Dinner was good, and eating with family was fun. However, it was quite sobering to notice that Olive Garden was far from as crowded as it has been in the past; more proof of the recession’s existence.
I, along with everyone else, worry about jobs every day.During the minster’s sermon, he mentioned a recent survey of wealthy people on what was the minimum amount of annual income they would need to survive. The average answer was $500,000 per year. The congregation let out a collective horrified gasp. IMO was amused because he has lived on about 2% of that and, compared with his childhood poverty, thought he was doing quite well. It just goes to show you that many rich people are really out of touch with reality.
