Gone to work

painting the churchYou can always tell when I am having to do real work…there are fewer posts on the blog.

The last few weeks have been tied up with some exciting projects. One of the biggest has been some improvements we are making at our church building. We painted early in January, both inside and out. We were helped by a group of college age young people. They did the bulk of the work. The final touches were put on by our co-worker and me.

We also built a platform. Since we are a Deaf church it is hard to be on the same level as the church people. You can never stand for any announcements or singing because no one beyond the first row can see the speaker. Our new platform is only 8-3/4″ off of floor level, but it makes all the difference.

The way we built it was put down a series of concrete blocks and laid a 3/4″ sheet of wood on the blocks. To keep the MDF wood from sliding we put some thick shelf liner between the bricks and the MDF. This has the added benefit of leveling out the inconsistencies in the concrete blocks. Tonight we put an aluminum edge on the platform so that we don’t bang up the front edge of the boards. It is about 12’X6′. Since the back wall has an angle to it, we had to be creative in getting it to all fit.

We have also put up new curtains in the main sanctuary and in the bathroom. The curtains in the bathroom do not serve to hide the sunlight. There is no outside wall. Rather, we use the curtains to cordon off a section of the room that we are using for storage. It dresses up the room and hides all the junk.

There have been a few other improvements that we have done, but those are the big ones.

This weekend we have been promoting a special day where we want to show off our new wares. We will have a special service in which we give the history of the church as well as a Bible message. Then we will sit around and enjoy lasagna and Coke.

January Goals Report

My two goals that I will be reporting on this year are my goals to run 1000 miles and to read 800 pages a month.

Running 1000 Miles
I ran 19 days out of the month, therefore I did not run 12 days. That means I ran 2 days and took off one as an average. I did not take more than 2 days off in a row during the month and I did not run more than 3 days in a row.

I ran 91.2 miles for the month. I needed to run 84.7 miles during the month. That means I ended the month 6.5 miles ahead of schedule.

Reading 800 Pages Per Month
I read a total of 1345 pages in 8 different books. This was helped by our trip out of town. We spent quite a bit of time just reading.

Because of the way I have decided to do the reading this year, it will not be cumulative. Meaning that if I go over my goal, like I did in January, those extra pages do not go towards the next month. I have to reach the 800 page goal each month.

Renaissance Man

I got a kick out of our librarian yesterday. She has probably been the “check out” lady at the library for a year and a half to two years. She has seen everything we check out. She even has gotten to where she will make recommendations based on what we have pulled out in the past. Especially if a new book comes in. At least, she makes recommendations to everyone else in the family. She has not pegged me into a hole yet.

Yesterday I was trolling through the aisles near her desk and she commented, “Mr. Peach, you are a Renaissance man.” I laughed and asked her what she meant by that. She said that I have an interest in everything. She commented on a few particular subjects I read on but then said that I read just about everything.

I thanked her for the compliment, but then added, “You have put a fancy name on it, but we just call it ADD.”