Swoosh! Another week gone by!

Yup, another week has flown by.  They go so fast I can't even remember what has gone on.  I must have been busy though.... I'll tell you miracle of the socks.  We have an elder from Florida here.  He has been raised in a pretty poor situation and doesn't know a lot of the things we take for granted.  For instance he washed his suit one day, then brought it in to me because it didn't look good. He has smelly feet, so he tried to wash his leather shoes in a sink full of suds.  It didn't work.  We talked about baking soda, desenex, odor eaters, etc.  Last week he came in and wanted some socks.  His companion said that he only had 3 pair of socks, no wonder his feet were smelly.  Anyway we didn't have any and I was prepared to go get some for him later on.  Then a senior couple came in bringing some extra stuff from one of the apartments and when I went through it, there was about 6 pair of socks.  I told the elder that the Lord knows what he needs before he even asks for it, and that the Lord knows him. It was just weird happening on the same day, within a few hours. I'm also making posters for the elders and sisters to display.  For some reason we don't have any displays to lend out to them.  We have 2 expensive ones and they are always out.  Two are not enough for 200 missionaries.  So I am making some.  They are very unprofessional, but they will get the job done.  We have a lot of interest because the Book of Mormon play is coming to San Francisco in November, and a Mormon is always in the news.....  People are curious.  So this is just an effort to give the missionaries tools. Right now I am the unofficial, uncalled, taken for granted that I will be there, semi permanent, substitute ward organist and choir organist. It's nice to be needed. I am grateful for FaceTime, Skype, email, texts, blogs, and cell phones.  I can't imagine what it was like to go on a mission even just a few years ago. Odds and ends: We have the Hound of the Baskervilles outside the apartment that barks and bays every night. Someone keeps throwing beer bottles down the driveway so Mat keeps picking them up and putting them in the garbage, which already smells because of all the liquor bottles in it. We went to a Samoan 1year old birthday party on Saturday.  Interesting food.  I play it safe and eat potato salad. We have a guy who walks his dog in the neighborhood without a leash. The dog is a wolf type, big, but extremely well trained.  Another character to write about.  Then there's Glen, a guy who sweeps and picks up trash on the street.  A little bit backward and shy, but very nice.  And Mr. Lee who runs the Chinese cafe, and Seeya from Iran who runs the Woodminster cafe and makes great burgers, and the Indian guys who run the market, and John and Eric who run the hardware store, and Toni, my hairdresser, who is about 55, single, and has one niece who just went to college in Oregon that she can't stand to be parted from. Then there's Kathy who lives next to us and smokes a lot, walks with a walker, has one son, and just returned from seeing her sister in Germany, also Mr. Burns, who likes to play poker and is on oxygen all the time, and drives a little sports car.  Also the apartment manager who went to England to see a sister she just found out that she had, returned and now has kidney stones and leukemia.  She drives a little red Honda civic. And the math teacher who can't make ends meet, so still has to work even though he could be retired. I should write a book.... There is more but now I have to go to the Temple Hill Choir rehearsal, which is pure fun for me.