Wednesday Afternoon

Mel and I walked over to the little coffee shop again today. On the way over he told me about some of the things he and the rest of the guys talked about yesterday in the Session meeting. He doesn't tell me everything, of course. :) When I commented about one of the issues they discussed, he decided to call Sergei K. So, as we walked down the busy sidewalk, dodging open manholes, cracked pavement/concrete sidewalks and people, he asked Sergei to come meet us. (He knew that Sergei was already in town.) He wanted me to tell Sergei what I was thinking and also ask him the same question about it that I had asked Mel.

Sergei arrived. He drank tea while Mel had coffee and I had cocoa. We talked around the world and it was great. It's been a long time since I've really talked with Sergei. He's been busy or gone a lot this winter and with Sunday School starting right after church gets over, I never get to talk with anyone now after church. So, it was good to sit and talk and listen to him.

We met this young man when he was not even 18 yet - a tall, skinny kid who had a hollow leg come dinner time. Well, he's still tall, but not quite as skinny (no one would ever say 'fat' and 'Sergei K.' in the same breath, though) and his leg is not quite so hollow. However - he is not a 'kid' any more. I was struck by this a few weeks ago at church while watching him do something in preparation for the worship service. Our Sergei is truly grown up and a man now. I kind of have the same feeling as when I realized my own sons were men, not little boys or even teenagers any more. It's a good feeling, but it also is a bit sad. While they grow up, I grow older. Such is life. And it is good.

After talking around the world he and Mel left for about half an hour. I am not feeling well - I think the cold that is going around has finally come around my direction. (Whenever I say aloud or even think "I'm not feeling well" it actually comes out, with Mel or in my head, "I'm not feeling a hundred percent, Charles." If you don't understand that, think the movie, "The Edge". If you've never seen The Edge, well, I can't help that!) So, I'm not feeling 100%, Charles. In fact, I'm feeling much less than 100%, Charles. I stayed in the little coffee shop, the only customer there for most of the time and had another cup of cocoa and worked on ideas for this summer's VBS.

After Mel and Sergei got back, Sergei headed off on direction and we headed on home. We took the trolleybus. There was plenty of room on it, even at 3:45pm. The crisis in this country is really starting to show - there is a lot more room on public transportation right now during most of the day. I sat down, at the back, facing backwards. I looked at the broken and "repaired" window and thought to myself, "I should take a photo of that." Mel sat down beside me, looked at the window, leaned over and said, "You should take a photo of that." So, I pulled out my handy dandy little camera and took a photo of it. There is a hole in the window and it has been 'mended' with two pieces of metal (a piece of metal on each side of the glass, held together with a screw).We got off and Mel offered to buy me a Coke Light and I said, "Sure." I went in with him, saw these Korean carrots and M&M's and asked him to buy them, too. And he did. So for dinner tonight we will have Italian lasagna and Korean carrots and cucumbers possibly from Turkey or Israel. Yum yum!After we got home, I took the photo of the carrots and brought the camera in here to the office to download today's photos onto the computer. As I sat down, I looked out the window and thought, "Oh, why not?" I had to take this photo carefully, cutting out the graffiti on the far left, conveniently behind the tree, because it is obscene. Sigh. We have had such a beautiful gray wall to look at for a couple years now, but some stupid person finally decided to make it their graffiti canvas. The face here is ok, but the other is, well, let's just say I know that no man has ever been built like that. sigh. Hopefully someone will paint over it because as it is now, I can't take any more photos of the dumpsters. Bummer. hahahahahahahaha!