Wow, so I thought I had put up a post last week, but just looked and it turns out that I didn’t. Sorry about that if you were looking for a post.
After my last post, I was able to spend some time with my dad and his wife who were out for that funeral. Obviously the circumstances weren’t great, but it was great to see them. We spent a lot of time talking and just hanging out. On that Friday I went to the funeral with them. It was a very nice funeral. I stayed at the lunch for just a little bit before heading out. I had a few things to get done before heading towards Stevens Point.
I didn’t really have anything to do in Stevens Point, but it was a lot closer to where I had to be on Saturday and I was able to spend some time with a good friend and his kids. His wife was out of town with a team that she coaches at the school she teaches at. I got over there a little early so was able to relax and even do a bit of running around in Point before he got off of work. We then had pizza for supper and shared a couple of beers after the kids went to bed. When I was finishing up college I used to spend quite a bit of time with him and his wife, and it is always fun to catch up.
Saturday I headed up to the training for my summer position. This is part of the National Camp School for the Boy Scouts. Most camps don’t send their chaplains to this, but the camp that I am working at thought it would be a good idea. It was fun to be at a camp again. I will say that I was actually quite disappointed with the training, maybe more so with the trainer. She was nice enough, but there was quite a bit to frustrate a person. First of all, she was extremely disorganized which made the training go in fits and spurts. We would race through a lot, and then play it off as if there was almost nothing to do before racing forward again. Probably more frustrating than that was that while she put on being inclusive and accepting of all traditions she would get in digs against the Catholic Church with a great deal of frequency. I corrected her on most of her false statements about the Church, but she just kept them coming. I was quite disappointed by this, and happy to be done on Tuesday. I am still excited about working at the camp, because I won’t be dealing with that there.
Over the weekend there were a lot of priest reassignments announced within the La Crosse Diocese. I had a list of them and am excited about many of them. Some are difficult situations due to a shrinking number of priests, but I think that the Bishop and the personnel board did a great job on fitting different priests with different parishes on the whole, and making the decisions that had to be made.
I came back to Winona after that and kind of took it easy for a day or two other than a few chores around the house. On Friday I volunteered with the foresters back at the Corps of Engineers that I worked with during college. I was working with the students that they have working for them this summer. I helped them repair some tree tubes on an island where the flood had pushed them over. Obviously the trees can’t grow in tubes that are lying down. It was oh so very hot on Friday. We were all drinking water constantly. The students were glad to have me there because with the extra worker we were able to finish up by noon and boat back to the landing. We were then going to take lunch in the air conditioned truck before heading back to the office, but I recommended that we stop at the Corps office right near there to use their air condition. I had worked with those guys some times when I had been in the area before; it was good to see them.
I left from there and drove to Stevens Point to help out at the Masses over the weekend. On Friday night Fr. Tom and I went to the house of a couple of parishioners for supper. A couple of other parishioners were also there. It was a great night of conversation and company. I really enjoyed it.
On Saturday I had some chores around the church and the rectory to get done. I cleaned up at the church and did some setting up for other events this coming week. I also trimmed all of the shrubs at the rectory for the summer. It is fun to be doing outdoor work again, no matter how little. After Mass Fr. Tom and I went out to dinner with a couple of parishioners who are also neighbors to the rectory. We followed that up by going to the parish picnic of another parish in Stevens Point. We talked to a few people there, including the priest at that parish. In the coming changes he is going to be taking over another nearby parish too. He is working to figure out how all of that will work.
I came back to Winona after Mass on Sunday. After a while I drove down to Holmen thinking that I was going to the Knights of Columbus meeting, but it turns out that the meeting is next Sunday night. Today I spent time cleaning my truck. I also waxed it and cleaned all the windows in addition to vacuuming and shampooing the carpet. I really liked doing that, it had been a while and it was nice to take care of my truck like that.
I think that this has me caught up since my last post. I hope you are all doing well.
Peace,
Adam
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