Monday, July 21, 2025
Walk. Meetings. Work. That's Monday's rhythm. Between, I talk to Mom, who turns 90 in August. She's praying and caring for the family and affirming her caregivers even as her body grows frailer.
In the side yard, pink flowers bloom atop 6' (2 meter) stalks. Where did they come from? The leaves look similar to papaya.
I complete a checklist of to-dos before lunch. W meets our Korean friends for lunch at their place. I have to get going on a class I co-teach in 2 weeks. Since next week is full, the coursework needs to be settled this week. It can be disappointing to miss connections as I prioritize what needs to be done. In this case, my students will be ready so I have to be diligent in preparation for class.
I make a quick lunch of pasta and pasta. Carbs are my go-to when my brain gets fuzzy or unfocused..
The deluge of data from MS Forms drives me crazy. The information is there. I can read it online or in an Excel sheet. I click on individual answers and get a popup of "more details" from the replies to each question. But I can't print the pop-ups, which have the meatiest content.
I can't figure out how to capture information in chunks that are intuitive to me - all MS offers is a survey or a huge spreadsheet. For a half-minute, I consider wading through all 300 survey returns, tabulating responses one by one into the narrative.
There's no way a workplace admin would use such a clunky method; it should be easy to print "More Details" in a block rather than printing the limited data in the summary. I watch a few YouTube explanations that leave me where I am. My conclusion is, "I don't know what I'm doing."
Perhaps W can figure it out when he returns? He doesn't get overwhelmed the way I do by numbers and random-to-me data. But he doesn't find a better solution.
Tuesday
Calls start after our walk. The 3 big dogs prefer to walk on one leash. The little guy gets a separate walk later on.
My dear friend Keelee sent along "comfort cookies" - chocolate coffee flavored - from her @QuietWaters bakery. Every month or so, I pull one out of the freezer as a treat. The verse for today is: "Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you." Psalm 116:7. So true.
A young mom pops in for a few hours and a morning cup of tea. In the afternoon, our team arrives on the Porch for updates, tea, and cookies.
Wednesday
We walk the dogs, taking them before our weekly date breakfast at #NaraParkBandung. Near our table is a tabletop rotting away in the sun and rain. Tropical weather is brutal to unsealed wood. Our favorite table is smooth and stable, thanks to its resin finish. Iqbal is a good server, bringing us extra-hot tea.
A neighbor has chopped tall pines to their bare trunks, 30' (10 meters) high. See the stub? Will that regrow? Our friends say, "Yes of course," and look puzzled at why we ask. Everything grows here.
Jane and I visit for 2 hours before lunch on the Porch. Then W and I take the yardman and PakG to the project's yard to help with planning the garden. The contractor offers a proposal about the broken tile around the kitchen sink. I take photos of the ceiling, where wallpaper has peeled off and holes are being patched.
We have a month to decide where to pull the lighting through the ceiling. We lay out the table placement, step back to see the line of sight, and consider the options.
While I do some business from home, W is off to a men's study.
Thursday
Only a few are available to hike so we skip the drive into the mountains and walk down the hill along the river. The stairs in various neighborhoods are steep and uneven. You need healthy knees to negotiate them. Fortunately, the paths are dry today so it's not slippery.
The village across the river has been painted as a mural but the crowds of tourists from a few months ago are missing.
We take up the offer of the owner of a maggot factory to tour his set-up.
I snap a poster of the process from food scraps to adult worms that are used for fishing and chicken feed. He sells the compost generated by the maggots for Rp5000/kg (15c/lb.)
The wildflowers are abundant.
This one looks like an exotic bird about to take off.
We complete two loops on the university's Treetop Walk. Then we walk halfway back up the hill (13 flights) to shop and pick up bananas from Veronica's. PakG picks us up there - our watches read 5 miles (7+ km), which is enough.
Our friends arrive about the time we're coming home from lunch. The mom and her sister lived with us when they arrived in the USA for university. Their family helped settle us into Bandung. Today, we take the dogs for a walk together. The 3 beauties, a mom and her daughter, pose on some grand steps.
The helpers bake a few loaves of banana bread, which we enjoy along with pastries from Jakarta sent by Livia, Kristi's mom. Yum.
At night, I hop on a call as a beta tester for a crowdfunding platform. It's designed to fund worthy projects around the world. Very exciting, which cranks up my energy about the time I need to fall asleep. Might as well write the talk for Sunday, which W and I have discussed this week.
Read more:
*For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. Psalm 62:1
*Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for me against evildoers? Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Psalm 94:16-19
*It is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to the afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven. 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7
Moravian Prayer: God of justice, we often need to be reminded that those who hurt others are human, too. Our enemies deal with struggles and challenges just like we do, so help us remember to pray for their souls and the healing of their hearts. Amen.
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