Not a lot of newness

I had a chance to give one of our neighbors a ride to work this morning. Thanks to Nathan I woke up for MP and was there when she came to the door needing a ride. I headed to work right after dropping her off, arriving just a bit ahead of schedule and in time to get a jump on the day.

I was glad I did as the day wore on. My boss was sick as was my compatriot on the Ground side. Also, the other full-time member of our staff needed to take some customer service rides with two of our drivers as a way for us to keep them sharp on their customer service skills. So, three office folks out for the day leaves who in the drivers seat all day? Moi. I relished the opportunity and got down to business, finishing up several projects as well as keeping an eye on the phones, putting out a few fires, and generally being able to multi-task like I love to do.

Joan and I had made plans to meet with a woman in the neighborhood to talk about what we could to together to help this place out. She's very impressive, seems to be firmly rooted in the neighborhood but not brought down by its poverty. Unfortunately she had forgotten about some church obligations and was unable to meet today. However, we've rescheduled for a meeting with her, her mother and one of their friends next week. It looks promising.

We returned to find preparations for our Allendale dinner well underway. David was cooking, as usual, but in a more supportive role. Val has taken the reins on the last two dinners and that's been fun. She's a pretty good cook too and it gives David a bit of a break after a long day at work. We had some new folks over, a friend of Mickey's and a friend of Val's. Mickey's friend was great, started dividing the guys into football teams within about 20 minutes of sitting down at the table. I like that kind of thinking.

Tonight is, as everyone knows, chores night so we all pitched in. David's the master and commander of that operation and he divied up the house into shares of chores. I got bathrooms. I love bathrooms. We got done in good time and now it's time to take a break before the next day starts.