Low Batteries and All Saints'

Wuff. I think I may be fighting off a minor cold. There's an undercurrent of tired that makes the notion of writing a blog, running errands, and working out seem far more onerous than it has any right to be.

The errand I have to run involves getting my car battery changed. My car also exhibits an undercurrent of tired. Every time I start it, it's doing that uh-huh-huh-huh-huuuuuh thing before the engine catches. I'd prefer not to be caught out with a dead battery and have to look up the rigamarole of jumping the car (this cable to that lead, get the order just right or you'll burn out the car). I've done it before, but it's not information that stays in my sieve of a brain.

Auto Zone sells batteries and advertises that they'll replace them for you. And they have before. In practice, though, when I've gone before, I always get a blast of impatience and shame from the folks working there. Do I really have to do this thing for you that any adult male should be capable of doing blindfolded? Do you even lift, bro? That last bit I just imagine. Actually, I probably imagine a lot of it. But it still makes going to Auto Zone to ask if they will, please, replace my battery for me an onerous task.

But it's gotta be done.

I also have to prep a Children's Moment for church tomorrow. I've set myself a high bar. People expect theatrical flourishes, humor, tears (pity and fear, hamartia, reversals, recognitions, etc.). The sermon, in light of All Saints's Day, is about the Communion of Saints. The verse is Hebrews 12: 1-3, about the "great cloud of witnesses."

The cute approaches here might include buying some New Orleans Saints flair or perhaps talking about what it means to be "on the cloud" in internet-speak.

But I think I might instead talk about death--my mom. My grandmother. My friends.

I need to find some pictures, make a storybook of my mother's life, talk about how the story doesn't end when it seems to.

That may be a little heavy for children's moment. But I think I can make it.

Huh. I don't feel quite so tired now.