A few years ago I complained to my doctor about the arthritic pains I feel at times. His response was: “Well, you’re eighty years old. What do you expect?” (In defense of my doctor, my arthritis pains have never come to stay in any particular joint, they come and go in different places.)

Perhaps Saskatchewan farmers are like me and arthritis. They seem to be always complaining about how dry it is. “Well, what do you expect? This is Saskatchewan after all.” The rain this morning began very gently and gradually built up to a downpour. The forecast is for 50-75mm by the end of the day.

Before we left Carrot River last Saturday, we stopped for coffee at the Prairie Angel Bakery and Coffee Shop. This place is run by a young lady. I’m not a good judge of age, I’m 83 now and I don’t see many old people anymore, but this lady is a lot younger than me. Anyway, there was music playing in the background, but I could pretty much tune it out. As she went to make our coffee, the owner said, “I put on some nineties music this morning, but it all sounds so angry. I’ll try some music from the seventies.” Pretty soon we were hearing songs by Credence Clearwater Revival, the Mamas and the Papas and others from the days when I did pay attention to pop music.

I guess I did hear enough of the music that was playing at first to agree with her assessment that it sounded angry. There is so much anger heard in the public space today. Yes, there is much injustice in the world. We have a choice: we can get angry at the oppressors, or we can do something to help the oppressed. Some politicians want us to believe that their anger is a measure of how much they care about people. I have not observed that angry people accomplish much that is beneficial to others. I like to be aware of what is going on in the world, but I believe it best to consider politics a spectator sport. When my anger is stirred it is best to step back.

We have four semi-feral housecats. Today, the three youngest, who have the strongest feral inclinations, have decided to lounge around indoors and sleep the day away until the rain has passed. Our oldest cat, who is mostly a housecat, has spent hours outside watching the rain from under our front step.

I have a time management problem. I am a writer with three books started that I fully intend to finish. Doing three books at once is an impossibility, I need to plan a way to give my full attention to one at a time, without abandoning the other two. One is French and is more compilation and translation than original writing, another is historical and I am still gathering information for it. The third is historical and theological in nature and involves a complete rewriting of some articles that have appeared on this blog and elsewhere. What I need to do is dedicate a block of time, perhaps a week or two at a time, to focus exclusively on one at a time.

At the same time, I am still a bookkeeper, with four clients, two of whom don’t require a lot of time. Of the other two, one has become much busier in recent years and I need to dedicate more time to properly serving this client. Surely I have enough time to properly look after all these responsibilities.

I once read that a writer is working the hardest when he, or she, is staring out the window. Maybe I spend too much time staring out the window, yet I feel that musing and meditating is needful for spiritual and mental well-being.