• Worked from 6 PM to midnight on Sunday.  Went into the office for a few hours on Monday.  Worked third shift on Tuesday night.  Going to be working sort-of second shift tomorrow.   Had to consult the phone to see what day it was when I was awoken by a call today.
  • My circadian rhythm chart must look like Mambo Number 5.
• Attended Girlie Bear’s “Winter Chorus Concert” last night.
  • I know the setting had great acoustics, but why did it have to be held in a church halfway across town, on a school night, at the peak of rush hour?
    • Do teachers really believe that students have no classes but theirs and that all adults end their work days at 2:30?
  • Why do singing instructors demand that their students learn to sing songs in languages they do not speak?  Girlie Bear’s group sang something in what I think was Portuguese.  Other groups sang in French, German, and Russian.  If they’re learning the language, I can see it.  Otherwise, they may as well just be singing weird scales. It’s not like there aren’t thousands of good songs written in English.
  • I don’t care if this is your special little snowflake’s last year in choir.  You’re in a church for the concert.  Act like it.
  • To the nice man who came to the concert in an argyle sweater, a leather duster, and a Crocodile Dundee slouch hat, complete with faux crocodile teeth in the band, I must say this:  You must be one of the nicest, richest, most talented human beings on earth to have the confidence to go out in public like that.  Cheers!
• Falling asleep with “Blazing Saddles” playing on a loop on the laptop makes for some really… interesting dreams.
  • No, I was not Mongo, nor was I Governor William J. LaPetomaine
• My stress level was reduced today when my beloved Irish Woman returned from the doctor’s office to announce that some rather worrisome things were in fact only annoying, not life threatening.
• A half empty bottle of Coke Zero makes a heck of a good chew toy.  In unrelated news, I mopped the floor in the hallway just now.
  • It is good that he is cute and good natured.
  • I did, however, tell him that if he chewed a hole in my leather jacket, I’d use his tanned hide to patch it.
  • Y’all know I’m talking about the puppy, not Boo, right?

Prayer for the Protection of Religious Liberty

O God our Creator,
from your provident hand we have received
our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
You have called us as your people and given us
the right and the duty to worship you, the only true God,
and your Son, Jesus Christ.
Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit,
you call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world,
bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel
to every corner of society.

We ask you to bless us
in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty.
Give us the strength of mind and heart
to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened;
give us courage in making our voices heard
on behalf of the rights of your Church
and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.

Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father,
a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters
gathered in your Church
in this decisive hour in the history of our nation,
so that, with every trial withstood
and every danger overcome—
for the sake of our children, our grandchildren,
and all who come after us—
this great land will always be “one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

All rights are the important rights.  The right to worship, or not to, as you wish is fundamental.  When one right comes under attack, they are all under attack.  The government that can tell you that you may not worship in the manner you wish to, or compels you to act in a way that violates your conscience, can also tell you that you must worship or that you may not act as your faith and conscience dictate.