BS: How Busy are You?

Subject: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Janie
Date: 03 Nov 09 - 11:45 PM

Just wondering....

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: artbrooks
Date: 03 Nov 09 - 11:54 PM

If I was busy, I wouldn't be posting to Mudcat...

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Janie
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 12:29 AM

Good point!

If I spent less time here, and more time doing all the things I "should" be doing, I'd probably feel a lot less busy.

I can say the same thing about reading, lately.

And I'd get a lot more sleep!

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Amos
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 12:44 AM

I am pretty busy but I always find time to drop by and make smart-assed remarks!!

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 03:32 AM

I'm quite busy but I'll a lot more less to do later.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: kendall
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 04:53 AM

Like a cat covering crap on a tin roof.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 04:56 AM

I'm busy doing nothing

It's taking me all day

And the pay is crap!

David

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 06:32 AM

well since my car is being repaired I and very

Bussy.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 07:45 AM

Busier than a one legged man in a butt-whup contest... And that is busy...

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Becca72
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 08:48 AM

Busier than a one-armed paper hanger.

Just taking a break to check in here. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 08:49 AM

Heck, Bobert, I'm busier than a no-legged man.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: artbrooks
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 08:53 AM

I knew a no-legged man once. He was pretty busy - better stay out of his way or he'd run you over.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 10:21 AM

Not at all busy. I like retirement!

Subject: RE: BS:Funerals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 11:12 AM

How busy.... the average funeral that we work, here, is:

2-100 hours of time with family at hospital, hospice, ICU or misc. pastoral care. Sometimes an hour or more away from home base. Often involves both of us. If a death is unexpected, the time is put in right at/after the time of death, instead of before. A lot of the pastoral visits for this involve various members of extended families who may not all live under the same roof or "get along." Some of it may involve helping fix the living situation for a person suddenly left alone who cannot care for self.

1-3 hours of funeral planning with family, extended family, parish hostesses for after-funeral lunch, funeral home, organist or other musician, and any other participating clergy/acolytes, etc. Most of this in-person. Some chasing phone tag.

1-2 hours funeral sermon research and planning. While not a eulogy-- family will speak to that if they desire-- each sermon looks to the unique life of the person for examples of Christ's promises to us.

1-2 hours office administration for record-keeping and funeral -bulletin planning for the parish secretary.

1-5 hours for the funeral and funeral lunch itself. Accompanying the remains to the place of repose, sometimes an hour away. Lifting the spirits of the funeral home personnel, often as badly overworked as the pastor and the family of the many deceased whose details they arrange/perform. An hour, average, at the graveside including transport and time with family. The lunch is not at all a moment of rest and relaxation-- it involves channeling grief into joyously-shared memories, making sense out of it all for the little ones present, changing diapers as needed, handing around stuffed animals, etc. Often also involves details of kitchen duty and heating/bathroom issues for the Official Man on Deck-- the one in the collar, usually. ("Father, where's the......?" "Father, the ladies room is full of.....")

For me, each of the above that invloves me also involves a costume change and laundry thereof to keep myself fresh and huggable. Lot of time spent loading the hankie stash-- amazing how many hankies can usefully be given away. A lot of the tears BTW are tears of joy in the memories.

Oh, and an hour of de-briefing, sometimes on the way to the next "event." Things shared by various folks are reported to give the pastor as complete a picture as possible for the aftercare priorities.

Usually an hour of chairtime to nod off and get back to the next thing, during which time 20 minutes may be spent dozing and the rest is a review of all the NORMAL things yet to do in the day, and a spousal conversation about who is going to do the hell what.


ONE funeral is all that, in the weeks surrounding a death. What may involve only one of us "officially" also involves the other one picking up the slack at home and in parochial details.

TWO funerals is really busy.

This September/October saw at least 5 funerals in a 3-week period. There were several days whee it was visitation/wake for one person followed by funerla for another one. One day saw two funerals in two locations and one or maybe two graveside services. I may actually have lost count. (Hardi has the count in a service register. When I catch up on laundry I'll look it over and try to get each family well-fixed in my mind.... between my own "work" stuff and getting us both over a case of probable-swine-flu during which I also built Dog World, hosted my maw in law for a week, went to a faraway Diocesan 2-day conference to interview prospective clergy, went to a Diocesan liturgy and hour away.... did the quarterly meat sale and cooking/processing into smaller packages for the freezer.... and had two friends over for 1's B-day dinner before which I actually got a shower after a 2-hour cleaning blitz... the parish's annual Antique Show occurred during this time as well, which is usually an intense time of all-parish volunteerism I always attend-- I skipped this one and was probably asleep.... and have gotten one of out songbooks ready to be printed twice now, fixing suddenly-found errors just before runing the job. (It's on hold now till Decembner.)

I was also here at Mudcat a couple of times during all this.

Let me say once and for all time, anytime somebuddy here wants to clue in some newbie-- I am not complaining, at all. We choose this, and the very low pay rate that goes with it, because that's what we do and because there are so many wonderful things about it that you would have to be here, to actually see and understand. But when I say, here, that I am busy, THIS is often what's going on. Most of the time. October was only unusual in the close timing of the deaths. On the other hand if they had not died that way, close together, several of them would instead have involved long, painful hospice journeys for all concerned.....

There is just no getting around how much Death eats up the clock-- in joy or in pain, it takes time and it makes a person purdy busy.

One of the things I do NOT enjoy is the negativity and meanness (brokenness) people sometimes insist on displaying in the midst of everyone else being at their very human, amazing best. THAT can get wearying real fast. I'm still new enough to all this (1992) that I have a lot to learn in that side of it all and my mind gets tired from the effort to watch for the learnings instead of getting impatient.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 11:21 AM

I see a new level...even beyond "one armed paper-hanger":
"Busier than Susan and Hardi"

(I am just preparing for Fall craft shows, blowing leaves, repairing toilets, trying to rebuild a stone wall that was falling down by my driveway and pretending to learn a song or two for Fridays Open Sing..(topic- "Body Parts" *grin*)

Not too busy...nothing that 36 hour days wouldn't fix.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 11:53 AM

Since I don't have a job or calling that demands more, I am about as busy as I care to be. From time to time I cut back so that I can spend more time at home. I no longer go to all the concerts in town or all the live theater or even all the music parties that I used to.

Right now, I'm working on two stories (one of them a biography, for which I meet a man at stated intervals). I walk my dog three times a day for anywhere from a half hour to an hour and a half, I play with my cat, I groom them both, I read prodigiously in huge gulps, I have music twice a week, and a folk club once a month...

I no longer watch television although I do watch the occasional video so, no, I am no busier than I want to be.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 12:02 PM

(Hi Bill)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: gnu
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 12:46 PM

Busier than a lint picker in a blue serge suit factory.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 12:51 PM

Oh, I forgot - I do have a job that takes up 3 1/2 hours of my weekdays. I am the "lunch lady" at two schools.

And I also put in a lot of hours as a volunteer for a history program.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 03:07 PM

Busy enough at work to constantly worry about what I don't get done.

Out of hours busy bodying around the threads.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 03:58 PM

I'm currently at the tail-end of a busy period. But, after this weekend, I can pretty much goof off until February.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 04:11 PM

Still doin' pot, huh?

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: LilyFestre
Date: 05 Nov 09 - 07:40 AM

For once in my life, I am NOT busy, busy, busy with things I HAVE to do and am enjoying it immensely.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Rasener
Date: 05 Nov 09 - 04:50 PM

Yesterday, I wasn't busy.
I went to the hospital for a biopsy, that would require staying in overnight. So my neighbour using my car drove me there at 7:15am
I arrived at the hospital at 7:45am
at 3:45pm they told me that I couldn't go on the slab as they didn't have a bed for me.

So my neighbour travelled 18 miles to pick me up and bring me home in my car.

I got home at 6pm

I hadn't done a bloody thing.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Nov 09 - 06:34 PM

He, the Villan, I hope the neglect is a good omen in this case.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Rasener
Date: 05 Nov 09 - 06:52 PM

Thanks Ebbie, but normally its important to get these things done quickly in case it is cancer.

Yesterday was my third attempt at doing the biopsy, since August.
That is not good.

The first I was genuinly ill.
The second I got migraine due to the long wait without food and drink and it was cancelled.
Yesterday was the third time.

I am now waiting for the top consultant to ring me on Monday and have an appointment with my MP to discuss the appalling situation that is going on in the NHS.

Sorry about the thread creep.

Subject: Funerals
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Nov 09 - 09:25 AM

Just for completeness--

I did miss one funeral in the post above-- a lady whose memorable funeral I attended but who I had not known personally. Since she was not a regular church attendee (and, also, her service happened not to have been at the church and thus did not involve me as much as the church-based ones do), her name did not pop into my mind.

So when I reviewed the service history I saw: it was 6 funerals in a 6-week period of time, with four of them in one week, and two of those on the same day.

I'll never forget how crazy-busy it was-- nor how my closet, our bulk freezer, and my autopilot got us through it, thanks to the Grace of God.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Arnie
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 07:53 AM

Well, I'm settling into recent retirement and finding that all those household and garden jobs I used to put off now have to be done - no excuses any more! However, I've also started attending Beginners Latin at the local Adult Education Centre. In the '60's, Latin was taught in my school but I was in the wrong timetable set and was not allowed to learn it. In later years, as a bit of a linguist, this niggled me and I always promised myself that I would have a go at Latin when I retired. So far I'm enjoying the course, but having learned that there are 6 cases and loads of declensions, irregular verbs etc.. my enjoyment may be somewhat short-lived. However, nil desperandum as the Romans said!

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 08:53 PM

Every time I imagine I have to do something, I repeat to myself Dorothy Parker's wonderfully consoling line,

    And what if I don't? And what if I do?

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: Mooh
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 07:59 AM

Very, though right now my back is acting up again so I'm kinda idle.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: How Busy are You?
From: GREEN WELLIES
Date: 10 Nov 09 - 04:09 AM

I'd be a lot less busy if I wasn't on here !!!