Keeping Busy In The Rain

Here it is, rainy season, but it’s not nearly as wet as I thought it would be. Sure, there’s been several times it rained hard, the grass is growing and the mountains are turning green again – I just thought it would be much wetter for some unknown reason. We still get rain about every other day, usually after 4:00 PM.

To me, it doesn’t matter much – I have plenty of work to do indoors.

The work on the wood cubes had to slow down this week. After four solid weeks of cutting cubes and drilling holes, then another week of sanding the wood cubes, I developed a problem. My arm and hand started going numb and tingling, especially when I was trying to sleep. There are several things that can cause this sensation, but my Internet research led me to realize I developed a repetitive stress injury. It’s not too serious a problem, but I noticed that my right arm and hand were quite soar when ever it wasn’t numb and tingling. So, I had to take a few days off from the sanding and do other work.

So far, I’ve rearranged one of our small storage rooms, so we can find things easier, like all the doors and tools we received from the kind folks in Hermiston, Oregon. The stuff was unloaded pretty quickly and was simply thrown into the room as it arrived. So, I emptied the room and reorganized it. Have a look at  these photos of the many doors we receivedand all the tools we now have.We’ve already put one of the doors to use in my space. We needed to divide the two guest houses of Father David’s. Here’s a photo showing the opening between the two houses before.As you can see, it’s just a wide hole. Father David asked me to have a door installed, so I contacted Ciriaco – our local carpenter. He had to use two large shaved tree trunks to make the door and frame fit in the wide space. He first cut the door and frame, as it was a bit too tall. He measured and cut the two pieces of lumber for the sides, buried them and cemented them in place. With all the pieces ready, it didn’t take him very long to instal. Have a look at the finished doorway.I installed a locking door handle – which was also came from Hermiston, Oregon – and it all works great.

Another job I took on was to reorganize the yard in the same space. Again, because we unloaded quickly, metal roofing panels, plastic tubing, fencing material and shelving parts were just left on the ground in the yard. I organized all the roofing panels on the adobe bricks, stacked the plastic tubing and shelving parts so that the grass in the yard was cleared. Here’s how it looked as we were unloading.Here’s how it looks now. It’s cloudy again, so the photos look foggy.I also had to cut the grass & weeds once the yard was tidy. So, I tried out the new weed whacker which also came from Hermiston. It did well except in the thicker weedy areas. I used another hand grass cutting tool from our new collection of tools. Between the two, I was able to clean up the whole yard pretty nicely.

I also took some time to fix a few leaks we had in our storage rooms and the house next to where I’m staying now. I was able to use some of the new roofing panels in the yard to cover up the existing roofing over the storage room and the house next to my place. It didn’t take long and it works great. Two leaks are fixed. To fix another leak in the storage room, I cut a piece of metal roofing panel to fit under a spot where it was leaking. I simply placed the metal under the leak and directed it so it flows outside. Another leak fixed. In the room with the doors, I just had to prop up one spot where the rain was coming in – that fixed it. In the second storage room there were three small leaks. For one of them, all I had to do was reshape the metal to catch the rain better. I couldn’t find the source of the second leak, so I placed a bucket under it for now and I check it often. The third leak is persistent and I can’t reshape the metal, so I used a stick to prop it in place. Hopefully, it will hold until the rainy season passes. Whenever it rains, I do my rounds and everything is looking good – nothing is getting wet.

Today, Tuesday, I got back to work sanding the wood cubes. My arm & hand feel lots better. I’m trying to take it easy and changing hands to prevent another repetitive stress injury.

Elvis has been working in the peach orchards spraying and clearing the weeds. I haven’t been able to help him much. but he seems to be getting lots done anyway. I’ve been checking the new roofing over the fertilizer and emptying the pools of rain that accumulate in it every few days. So far, it’s holding up pretty well. The fertilizer is still dry.

Sunday, I was on my own again for our church gathering. Elpidio was there and helped to sing hymns and recite the Rosary & Our Father prayers. I distributed the Eucharist and we closed with another hymn. Not many people showed up – with Elpidio there were four people. That’s OK. It was a nice prayer time anyway. Next week Father David should be back and we can celebrate a normal mass.

This week – the sixth week in ordinary time – our Gospel is from Mark 1. A leper comes to Jesus to be cured, saying, “If you want to, you can make me clean.” Jesus was filled with pity, and stretched out His hand and touched him. “I want to,” He answered. “Be clean!” At once the disease left the man, and he was clean. Then Jesus spoke sternly to him and sent him away at once, after saying to him, “Listen, don’t tell anyone about this. But go straight to the priest and let him examine you; then in order to prove to everyone that you are cured, offer the sacrifice that Moses ordered.” But the man went away and began to spread the news everywhere. Indeed, he talked so much that Jesus could not go into a town publicly. Instead, he stayed out in lonely places, and people came to Him from everywhere.

So, why does Jesus say to the man, don’t tell anyone about this? I thinks it’s because He doesn’t want people to form mobs about Him. People can often become crazed when they form a mob. It’s know as mob mentality – they crowd around Him in an unruly and excitable way in order to admire or attack Him. So, He goes to lonely places, and the people still come to Him. With great patience and everlasting love, Jesus continues His mission and ministry.

Rob