Wednesday, July 15, 2009

If I may vent...

Had a busy weekend... Thursday thru Sunday saw "the pukes" going through our 4 oldest kids. Interestingly enough the younger they were, the better job they did of keep it all confined to the appropriate containers. Now that they are getting older, they don't keep us up as much when they're sick, but there is still a sleep deficit which gets incurred.

Saturday morning, my alarm went off at 4am. I still need to pull a report together on my fitness blog, but I spent the morning up near a small town called Coalville for a triathlon. It actually went rather well, and I think when you factor in different distances and all of that, I think it was my fastest race to date! I tried out some new nutrition things and different pacing on the run, and both world splendidly.

It was an Olympic distance race, and took me just under 3 hours, so there is a certain amount of fatigue associated with it as well. Usually I'll take a couple of hours of sleep when I get done, but being Saturday and my returning to a house of wife and kids who were anxious to get out, I skipped the nap.

We spent the afternoon at the Airforce Museum, which was kinda fun, and then headed down to the in-laws to perform minor surgery on their computer. It took longer than expected, and we ended up getting home shortly after 10pm.

After a really long day, I think I finally got to bed around midnight, and was extremely grateful that Sunday morning would likely bring with it the opportunity to sleep in.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRING! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRING!

I looked over at the clock - it was 6:03 in the freakin' morning, and the freakin' phone was freakin' ringing - Who the freakin' hell calls at this freakin' time of the freakin' morning?!?!? This had better not be OOOOOORRRRRLANDO!

It turned out to be some guy from the Elders Quorum (Mens group from the congregation we belong to)

For those of you who haven't been following... This group meets together in the last hour of the 3 hour church block every week. The last time I went to this meeting was over a year ago. The topic at that point was how Mormons just aren't good enough and why God is disappointed with us - I blogged about it here, and commented on how crap like this is the reason the use of prescription anti-depressants in Utah is through the freakin' roof! Prior to that the topic of conversation was on how to show 'Righteous Anger towards your Wife and Kids'. Anyway, so I don't attend this meeting, or participate in any of the activities they put on, and I haven't in over a year.

Anyway, so EQ guy calls, and I opt to let the machine get it.

Apparently there was a general meeting being held for all the men in the area (10 congregations or so) at 5pm on Sunday night. I wasn't aware of the meeting, and even if I had been, I have better things to do with my time.

Sometime on Sunday morning however, the powers that be decided that they should move this meeting to 7am and so at 6am the calls started to let everyone know.

In a Church where things are usually done very methodically and carefully, this was kind of a shock. Of course by this time, I was too awake to get back to sleep, and curious as to what might be the reason. I checked the local news stations and all of that - nothing. So I went back to bed, and tossed and turned for another couple of hours.

According to one of the young men I spoke with later in the day, the meeting itself turned out to be the biggest freakin' waste of time of his entire life.

I have a theory on why they may have done this...

Previous Stake President (the guys who runs these types of meetings) was the guy who gave the teenage girls the commandment last year that they could not wear anything other than long pants to their summer camp - And it was over 100 freakin' degrees most of the week. He also made them sign contracts that they would follow this commandment or face being ejected from the camp. When they returned home, he told us all that he had done this to see if they would be obedient to his commandments and by being obedient to him, they'd had the spirit with them. Pardon me, but WTF!! For those of you who are religiously minded - 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

One of his assistants at the time, was the asshole who gave the "God is upset with you because you're not good enough" speech I referenced earlier. Since that time the assistant has replaced the President as the new President.

I suspect Sunday's meeting was a way to see who would be most faithful in attending a meeting early in the morning. Either that, or my wife theorizes that he had some family thing in the afternoon, and his wife forgot to tell him about it.

Either way, the whole thing was the biggest, hairiest load of complete bollocks I've heard about in a while.

I need to get myself on the "Do Not Call List"

3 comments:

  1. That's my excommunication story in microcosm. Home teachers, showing up unannounced on Sunday morning at 6:30 AM.

    "Hi, we're here to pick Brother Gregoire up for church."

    They'd be met by my half naked 19-year old girlfriend (I was 18, bear in mind, lest you think ill of me), and she used to laugh at the way they gawked at her in her nightgown.

    I didn't find it nearly so funny.

    When I demanded to be excommunicated to have this stopped (the bishop kindly informed me that the home teachers would keep coming by for 'fellowship') they first balked, then got nasty, and then I pretended to have a friend at the (now defunct) San Antonio Light who was going to do a story on harassment. Then they let me go. It took many, many months.

    It was a pretty bad experience, being a member, and difficult to leave, but I'm glad I did it. To their credit they never bothered me again (the lds church, that is... my mormon family is another story).

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  2. Who the freakin' hell calls at this freakin' time of the freakin' morning?!?!?
    MY SISTERS IN LAW, that's who! Feel free to tell them to "freak" off!
    Must the be the season for venting.

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  3. Yes Matsby, I think I may have to break out ass-hole me for a while as well.

    Greg... "Lest you think ill of me" - My thoughts were tending more towards, "What a stud!!". I think currently US law prohibits further contact once you leave a church - otherwise the church could face pretty sever civil penalties.

    Mouse, as I'm afraid I chuckled a little as I read of your misfortune with the SIL's. But it was more to do with the similarities in our situations, that towards you... You have my sympathy.

    I think this weekend, I shall be experimenting with the answering machine - I seem to recall that it has a "Do Not Disturb" option, and that allows the machine to pickup prior to any kind of ring being given. Here's to a good nights sleep - hopefully!!

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