Odds and Ends

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Alarming

The other day as we were driving around, I asked my companion how her back is doing because she developed a back ache a couple weeks ago.  She said it is doing better.  We began to wonder if it is our not-so-great beds that are the source of her problem.  She has decided that she is going to get rid of her horrible twin bed and sleep on her queen-size air mattress.  After dinner that evening, she did just that.  I heard her in her bedroom rearranging things so that she could fit her twin box spring and mattress and frame in her closet.  I don't know how she managed to get it in there and still have room for her clothes, but I guess she did it.  In the process of setting up her bed, she bumped a little handle-like object sticking out of the wall.  It was attached to a line much like a telephone or internet cable.   She kind of pulled on it when she was trying to push it back into place, and it set off an alarm.  I guess it is part of the security system, which we have been told absolutely nothing about.  I called the Apartment Management Services, and they asked if it was an emergency.  About that time the shrieking alarm went silent, but I told them I thought it was because I wasn't sure if the alarm would start up again or if it was summoning the police, which we really didn't want to have happen.  The security box by the front door was flashing a message "Enter Code 2 Police".  We left it alone and hoped that the alarm wouldn't start up again.  The lady on the phone said she was only an answering service but would put in a trouble order.  First thing the next morning, the Apartment Management called and said that they put in a call to the security company and they would get with us soon.  We never heard from them again.  The box on the wall continues its flashing message.  We are sure glad it wasn't really an emergency, because we would be dead by now for sure.  How embarrassing to think that the whole complex could hear our alarm.  I didn't realize that until the next afternoon when the building across the way had their alarm go off and it was REALLY LOUD.  Shortly thereafter the fire truck arrived at their door.  When my companion set off the smoke alarm while frying bacon the next night, I began to think maybe we should still try to contact the security company about fixing our alarm just in case we encounter the real thing.

This Week's History Lesson

As we have driven around the Southern Maryland countryside the past few weeks, we have identified more crops that we frequently see.  If we are not sure what it is, I get on the internet in the evening and look it up.  In addition to the tobacco fields, we have seen many, many farms with corn, soybeans, and sorghum.  Sorghum looks a lot like corn without the ears of corn, but it has the seeds at the top.  Some varieties get very tall and others are only a few feet tall.  The individual fields are not all that large around here (well compared to Montana farms).  I think they are grown more for their use in ethanol production rather than for food.  The soybeans are a legume crop which when rotated with corn and sorghum will help restore the nitrogen that those crops deplete.  

Sorghum field

We have also noticed a vine plant that is plentiful in Maryland.  It is the Kudzu vine.  It is similar to Ivy.  I don't think you want to purposely plant this one.  I saw an old house the other day that was almost completely covered by the Kudzu.  I didn't get a picture of it, but this one gives you a pretty good idea of what it looked like.  Not much roof was showing either.

 Kudzu Barn

LISTS

I have a feeling that my missionary work is not quite the same as what my children experienced or what the young missionaries of today experience.  Yes, we all wear a name tag that tells others who we are, missionaries and representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  But at least for this senior missionary it also serves a more practical purpose—as I have become more prone to forget things, when I am introducing myself, I can just look at my shoulder if I forget my name.  

So as I sit here, I can picture in my mind's eye the young missionaries as they quickly prepare and go forth with their days; probably quite a bit different from our planning.  Oh, we do forget a lot of things so we need a few memory aids.  That is why we have so many lists.  We have a printout of the ward directory, a digital spreadsheet of the ward directory, a digital copy of the ward directory sorted by towns, a condensed  copy of the ward directory by neighborhoods, a Google map with all of the data from the sorted city spreadsheet, and an expanded ward directory by neighborhoods with spaces for notes.  You would think this should be sufficient, but somewhere there is a flaw.  In the beginning, we started out by each taking a small notebook in which we wrote the names and addresses of the sisters we were going to visit that day.  After we went to each house, we indicated in our notebook who was home and who was not.  If we visited with them, we wrote a few things from our conversation to help us remember them better.  When we got back home we would transfer the notes to one of our digital or paper lists, not necessarily the same list each day.  Maybe that is the flaw.

Now after two months we have multiple pages of notes and multiple pages of lists and multiple pages of lists with notes.  On the positive side, we have met many wonderful sisters, and even though we may not remember everything about them, we do remember the good feeling that we have after visiting with them.  And I remember why I came out here; because of love for my family and the Lord.  That I will always remember.