Church Owls and Blood Donation

Went to church today. The sermon was about a language of reverence. I mentally drifted in and out. I do that on a regular basis. Not a reflection on the person giving the sermon but a personal shortcoming. I have to make a sincere effort to pay attention if I'm not participating.

One thing that did capture my attention was something about the drifting nature of word meanings. Queer was the example used. Harmless to hurtful and then reappropriated as a symbol of pride by the group harmed by it. Queer still has all those meanings. Humor often takes advantage of these drifting and multiple meanings. This bit brought to mind some of the discussion of this past week in the UU blogosphere.

This was the first Sunday of the new fiscal year and Walter wrote a check for our new pledge amount. We increased our pledge substantially. We doubled it. During Canvass I had to restrain myself from saying, "Walter and I upped our pledge, up yours." See some of that drifting meaning stuff at work.

A family of owls has taken up residence at the UUCBV. A couple of weeks ago, the children witnessed a parent owl feeding chicks. Today, a small pair roosted in a tree. It may have been the chicks from last week or two. It caused quite a stir. All manner of cameras came out. The fun part was hearing the sounds of joy when people spotted the owls among the leaves and branches. One church member wondered what was going through the heads of the owls as all this stuff was going on underneath them. "What's with all these yahoos down there?"

The Social Justice Committee set up a blood drive. I gave after church. I think they got at least 10 pints of blood from the church as a whole. I gave a little more than necessary because the two technicians were a bit busy with other people to cut me off. I was still within the margin of safety, otherwise I would not be typing this right now. If I went way over, there was a ready supply very handy.

Right now, Salvador is flying about creating a bit of mayhem and the dogs are outside getting very dirty.

Sunday is my cartoon gag writing day so I will have pen and paper handy as I watch the Democrats debate.