Thursday

  • Email processing and task planning at home.
  • Reported at 9:15am to an orthopaedic surgery center for a steroid injection in my tailbone joint. It has been getting progressively more painful to sit for extended periods of time for the last couple of years. X-rays indeed revealed a "displaced coccyx." The only working theory is that it's a delayed response to an accident that I suffered ... wait for it ... 30 years ago! Not implausible, says the doc. The procedure has only a 50% chance of working, I'm told. If it does, it does. If it doesn't, I'll be sitting on donut-shaped objects for the rest of my life.
  • Against medical advice, I went right from the clinic to the office, where I was only a few minutes late for the regular semi-annual meeting of the Finance Department. The work on our plate was the preparation of a 2018 operating budget for presentation to Council next month and to Synod in October. The canonical revisions have thrown a bit of a monkey wrench into established practices, but we were adjourned by 12:45--not a bad morning's work.
  • For the rest of the day, I sort of *did* take medical advice and worked from home. A big chunk was taking my prep for preaching the readings for Proper 18 (September 10 at Trinity, Yazoo City, MS) to the next level-- a succinct message statement. Another big chunk was just staying in front of the email tsunami. With my vacation approaching, demands/requests seem to be ramping up. And the third big chunk was a FaceTime conversation with a priest from outside the diocese who sought my counsel over an important work of discernment he is engaging in.

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