TODAY IN REVIEW : NEW FLOOR, ROOM SERVICE, OUT OF ORDER ELEVATOR............

Today was an out of the ordinary day here at Mercy McMahon.  The Dining Room floor was renovated  with the previous carpeting removed and and a new wooden floor installed.  The work on the Dining room floor necessitated eating Breakfast and Lunch in our rooms.  We were told Dinner would be served as usual, in the Dining Room at  5 p.m.  Therefore, I was in my room until the late afternoon, when Joe Gibson called and invited me to go with him to Peet's, for one of our regular coffee chats.  I agreed to meet him downstairs at the front entrance as usual, and left my room in my wheelchair at 3:58 p.m., and rolled the few feet across the hall to the elevator.  Sitting there reaching to push the button, I saw a sign posted above the buttons, reading Out of Order.  Unaware until then there was a problem with accessing the elevator, I returned to my room and called Joe to inform him I could not come to meet him for coffee at Peet's.  As I thoroughly enjoy these breakaways with him and other friends when they invite me, I was disappointed and sorry to have to let Joe down.  I learned an hour later, when at 5 o'clock it was time to go to dinner, that the North Elevator was still out of order, and others gathered at the elevator said we should go to the South Elevator, which fortunately was in operation.  If I had known to do that an hour earlier, Peet's with Joe would still have happened.  The new wood Dining Room floor is brilliantly beautuful and brightens the room.  I was very happy to see that the tables have been rearranged so that there is more space between the table I sit at and the one behind us.  The passage between us is now widened, which I very gladly welcome, as I have been bumped into sitting in the wheelchair at my table almost daily, the past five months - by residents and staff alike; and multiple times a day at lunch and dinner, in the past two weeks.  So welcome to the wider pathway !  As the day ends, it has been different from most of the predictable, "same 'ol, same 'ol, hanging out and hanging in", days as I say about my time here in involuntary exile from parish life and priestly ministry.  Next week I travel to Phoenix / Scottsdale, Arizona for my 3rd Annual Kidney Transplant Evaluation at the Mayo Clinic.  I look forward to the time away and then the Republican and Democratic National Conventions the following two weeks, a nice change in my daily routine at present............Fr.  Troy