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Is this what it will be like?
Today was the first day of school and what my normal schedule might look like. Had Man Child up and at breakfast by 6:25. Watched the opening of the market, not too many surprises.
Drove Jack to school at 7:15, did 40 minutes on the treadmill, (just under two miles if you care), then Alex, trainer extraordinaire worked me for 60 minutes without injuring me. It felt great and learned few nice stretching tricks.
Then out to run an errand or two for the woman I love. (No I am not sucking up, as she has not be able to get my blog since I lost the padi.com address.)
Has a spot of tea and two poached eggs (only one yolk), then worked on the portfolios and read 34 stock economic type e-mails and only found one worth noting. More later.
Then I was so unhappy with the way I was managing my mail, I downloaded MS Office Outlook for small business and I love the interface. Great tool and it will save me about 20 minutes a morning in organizing my e-mails and appointments. Love it.
Cleaned up about 200 e-mails and read the WSJ and IBD for today. Picked up Jack from school and moved a few things to storage including the motor home. Followed up on some correspondences that were sent out on Friday.
Then Jack, Devin, and I ran out for a quick bite at Friends. I got home and had the assignment of reading all the syllabuses for Jack's classes and signing the policy manuals. Oy Vey, so much paperwork. I think it would be fun to test the teachers on their own policy documents and see how well they score. That could be fun.
I remember the good old days, at St John Brebeuf, you went to school, you did your best, if you didn't, Sister Nathaniel would get the pointer out and swing it around like a Samari Sword, swoosh, swoosh. Or even worse you would to go see Father Clos. He was a mountain of man.
He would stop serving communion and call out a parishioner's name if he saw them leave early. "Excuse me Mr. Neichmen, I have places to go too and you don't see me leaving, now sit back down."
I served as an altar boy circa 1963, when the mass was just beginning to drop the Latin. I had to learn all the parts of the mass from cross bearer, to acolyte, and Master. The Master was the only altar position that had to know any Latin.
Once I became an altar boy, I was an acolyte on most Sundays. That is the kid who carry's the candles to the altar and rings the bell during what used to be called high mass. (It was a carry forward from the masses of the 17th century that lasted about four hours and bells were rung to wake people during the blessing of the Eucharist. But I Digress)
The Acolyte did not need to know the Latin. I was asked to be the Master for a family friends wedding Mass. Cool, I was going to score a quick 50 bucks which adjusted for inflation would be about $357 today. I was a happy little altar boy.
That was until the beginning of the Mass when I walked next to Father Clos on the way to the altar and realized I did not know a single word of Latin. As he began his prayers at the foot of the altar, and cantored and stopped, I placed my face in the second stair of the altar and said, "Sim dum, sum mum,omino, sum dimino, dey ono." Cantored beautifully I might add.
Father looked down on me and continued cantoring and I continued faking my way through the prayer.
When we reached the Altar, Father blessed it and with his hands stretched out looked at me and looked at the 37 pound missal that was layed upon the altar. It had about 29 different ribbons hanging from but I knew what to do.
I flipped to the first ribbon and father shook his head NO. I flipped to the second ribbon, NO. By the third ribbon, Father wisely turned to the correct ribbon. And that was pretty much how the mass went. He got the holy water his self and the wine, I did get the hosts for him. He had to fold all the toweling himself as I forgot I was his busboy for the mass. But I was on my way to making 50 bucks.
As we wandered into the vestibule and waited for the wedding party to head out to greet us, Father Clos, a mountain of man (Yeah I know I already said that) leaned over to me and said, "Cronin, you better learn those prayers, and pretty damn fast."
I looked him up on Google and found a 1973 picture of him. As you can see he does not look like he has a great sense of humor.
I got my $50.00. Now where would I have invested it today.
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Since 7/26/2012
