Saturday (O Rex Gentium)

I had planned on this being a low-key "putter around the apartment and maybe run a couple of errands" day. Two things intervened to keep it from being that. First was the news, by phone from the Bishop of Upper South Carolina, that my predecessor once-removed, Bishop Donald Hultstrand, died last night at 92. He was a truly holy man. So there were phone calls and emails trying to sort out the arrangements, and the extent to which I will be able to participate, letting the diocese know, etc. The second intervenor was the discovery that my diocesan email account has been disconnected from the email client that I actually use for the past 2-3 days. This seems to happen from time to time, and it's annoying, and I don't know who's at fault. The fix is pretty easy, though a little time consuming. But it meant there was a pile of emails that I hadn't known about, some of which required immediate action, and some of that action time-consuming. So, while I put out all those fires, it got to be 1pm before I was able to pivot to the *domestic* task list that I had envisioned for the day. On that score, I finished my Christmas shopping, ran a grocery errand with Brenda, took a long walk, prayed both offices, did some routine financial chores, and got in a bit of reading (almost out of Purgatorio and into Paradisio in Dante's Divine Comedy),

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