Three Beautiful Things 06/01/14: Last Time as Lector, One More Goodwill Run, Nez Perce Chainsaw

1.  At this morning's 11:00 service, I was the lector for the last time at St. Mary's Episcopal Church.  I thought back to when I began being a lector.  Back in the fall of 1987, I regularly attended the worship and dinner at the Episcopal Campus Ministry house.  On one Thursday, the Campus Ministry board came to worship and eat with us, to check things out, and for the service I was asked to read one of the lessons.  Afterward, Deacon Penny Berktold told me she liked how I read and asked if I'd be interested in being a lector at St. Mary's.  I accepted.  There were some years in there when I fell off, or, for health reasons, asked to be taken off,  the lector schedule, but, by and large, I was a lector for about twenty-seven years and it always meant a great deal to me that I had been asked to serve as a lector and I enjoyed the challenge of bringing the lessons to life every time my turn came around to read.  I'll miss it.

2.  Dog crates.  Sleeping bag. Bulletin board.  Pole lamp.  Clothes.  Other items from the basement and the Deke's room are now in the good hands of Goodwill Industries.  The garage is a little more cleared out.  So is the house.  We close tomorrow, June 2.  We move out on the 19th.  I think we'll make it.

3.  Thomas asked, looking across 13th at the Circle K parking lot, "What's that guy doing with a chainsaw?"  He was a shirtless guy.  He had his chainsaw out for no apparent reason.  Then he put the guard on the blade and put it in his back seat.  Then we saw he had a gas can.  Maybe he stopped at Circle K to fuel his chain saw.  I don't know.  He put the fuel can in the trunk, got in the car, on the driver's side, pushed back his seat, drank from a can, and appeared to be talking with the woman on the passenger side.  After a while, he revved up his car, started to pull out of the lot, and the Deke exclaimed, "He's from Idaho!"  I dashed to the 16 Tons front door for a clearer look at his license plate.  Indeed.  It was an Idaho plate, from Nez Perce county.  Did he come down to Eugene from Culdesac?  From Peck?  From Lapwai?  From Lewiston?  What was he doing?  Who knows?