Complain, Complain
Friday, September 8, 2006
Friday was an especially irritating day.
Just as Collette was about to print the bulletin, the printer fix-it guy came to tweak things and add parts. Collette wondered why no one had told him that Friday morning was the absolute worst time he could come to adjust gadgets on the copier. Any other time but Friday morning. Any time but that! Particularly as she had volunteers arriving at one o’clock to fold three hundred bulletins. On top of it, the fix-it guy found another problem that the ancient copier had contracted since his last visit, which extended the total time of his visit to one and a half hours.
And as usual, the cleaning company did not arrive until the most inconvenient time, vacuuming the carpets while the phone rang and the guy continued trying to fix the copier.
In addition, OLeif had been scheduled for nursery the same day he was especially needed to play violin for the special service where former pastor of Grace, Pastor Ham, was returning to preach in celebration of the dedication that same afternoon. Seeing as Collette was already working nursery with Rose, Joe would be out of town, and Mom and Dad had already worked the week before, she was short of any convenient substitutes for his place.
And the printing company forgot to deliver a box of brochure paper.
What a day for complaints.
Later, Rose came in to help fold bulletins again. Mom, Frances, and Linnea were on their way to Klondike Park to meet with the Englishs and picked up bagels from the Bread Company on the way, so when Mom dropped Rose off she also brought a warm turkey sandwich, a bowl of hot chicken noodle soup, and a crunchy apple (which, for the first time in her life, Collette ate straight through to the core, skin and all).
Rose was later joined by Susie who was printing a mountain of papers for Sinai’s Sunday School class. Meanwhile, Rose helped Collette stock the church with name tags, attendance pads, etc. and drew a picture for Joe of an alien ship tractor-beaming a pig heavenward in a flatland of one tumbleweed.
Collette concluded by that time that the lunch from St. Louis Bread Co. had been her life-saver for the day.
And because she had two hundred bulletins to fold for Sunday’s afternoon service, she took the case of paper over to the house and watched Frances and Linnea while Mom and Dad were on their river cruise, OLeif and Rose were with Magnus and Augustus at Barnes and Noble and the Chocolate Cafe, Carrie was at work, and Joe was at an OA camp-out weekend.