Never a Dull Moment

I was on my way to work as usual this morning, following my usual route, when I encountered a police car with lights flashing. It was blocking the road.

"What's going on?" I asked and the cop's thumb shot past his ear.

"Are you blind? You don't see the fire?"

I looked past him and up Royal York Road and what I saw made my stomach sour. The church was on fire. Not my church, thank goodness, but the Anglican church. Christ the King Anglican Church. You know Ms J, there's something awful and foreboding about a church ablaze. I don't have words to describe the feeling, really. I just felt sick.

"The road's closed," the cop was saying. "Too many firefighters up there. Too much hose everywhere."

He pointed southward.

"You'll have to go around."

I nodded and drove off numbly, not really wanting to believe the conflagration now behind me. This is the second time that church has burned. Workers were still repairing the damage caused from a fire a few months ago. And now this. The damage was much greater this time. All the beautiful stained glass was destroyed and the front wall blackened.

How, I wondered. Or who?

---

Wally and AB came over this morning after work.

"Let's get going on that deck," said Wally.

I was ecstatic. And so we peeled off our shirts and got down to business.

We measured and cut and hammered and nailed. Things were going fine ... until I bent to pick up a nail.

"Uh-oh," I said through clenched teeth. "I think I just hurt my back."

And so I spent the rest of the morning inside on the floor on my back with an ice pack under me. The lads toiled under a scorching sun until nearly two o'clock when they came inside for a drink. They were soaking wet from sweat.

"I'm so sorry, guys," I said as I looked up at them from my place on the hardwood. "I wanted to help you but I guess I wasn't much help, was I?"

Bob said I helped by staying out of the way, which hurt a bit although it was probably true.

They're coming back tomorrow to continue. I've taken the morning off work (yes, I booked rest. So sue me.) to rest my back. Hopefully, I'll be able to help them a bit tomorrow.


It's beginning to resemble a deck, Ms J!

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