Taxi drama

Overnight there was a massive thunderstorm, apparently. Somehow I managed to sleep through it all, probably due to being exhausted and wearing earplugs. Everyone else was awakened the noise, doors banging and storm thundering. The girls were heading out to Florence on Friday morning for an overnight stay, so I dropped them off with their luggage at the Jonio metro stop about 8:30am to take the subway downtown to the Termini train station, leaving plenty of time for them to get there. I then headed directly for grocery shopping at Lidl.

I had the shopping cart partially filled with groceries when Marilyn called with some (justifiable) panic in her voice. The subway wasn't working. Some engineer came through and told everyone it was broken. Turns out that there was a planned strike starting at 8:30am, which I didn't know about. They had exited to the street and called us. I abandoned my cart in the aisle and headed out to the car to run and pick them up, while asking them to look for a taxi, which was not to be found. I called Dee and asked her to call the taxi company, but she couldn't get the exact address of the metro stop.  The taxi automated answering service required the exact address. There was a flurry of rather frantic calls back and forth, with no resolution. Finally Marilyn called to say that they had found a taxi and were headed downtown. They made it onto the train by the skin of their teeth. I was then able to go back inside the store, take my cart still partially filled in the aisle, and finish shopping, including five loaves of their wonderful bread (two different kinds), which was still warm. It was an adventure to be sure. Next time we have guests I will know to check for strikes!

After the exciting start to the day, we had a fairly conventional day at the Institute. For the first time, we skipped our Zone Conference because there was so much else to do. In the afternoon I got to work on my Luke lessons for Friday night (in Rome, in Italian) and Saturday afternoon (in Naples, in English). We were both really tired, so it was nice to have a bit of much-needed down time. I also installed Linux on the old desktop computer, to wipe out the hard drive, then pulled the RAM sticks to give to David Perego for his similar model. We will recycle the old computer.

My wife's foot is really improving. She is no longer using her scooter, and she can walk some without crutches -- see the video here. Dee spent a lot of time making cookies and preparing other food for the evening, including the sloppy joes. She also put out sliced oranges and some of the Jelly Bellies that Lu brought to us. It all turned out great. She also visited at length with a couple of the kids, who seem to gravitate to her.

 

 

My Institute class on Luke 8-9 seemed to go pretty well. I am really enjoying teaching from the New Testament, and I think that the kids are getting into it, with lots of good comments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove the Sorelle home with us after it was all done. They had taught lessons to two of their (female) investigators during the evening. As always, they were wonderful in helping us carry stuff. In the car, Sorella Johnson asked some good questions about how do you learn to do grownup things like buy a house, pay a mortgage, etc, so we had a nice discussion. Sorella Yanacallo is trying to learn English from her companions. She already speaks Spanish (she's from Ecuador) and Italian, and the three of them spend a few days a week speaking only English together to try to help her. When we got home, Dee walked all the way from a somewhat distant parking spot, setting a pace much faster than in recent weeks. It will be wonderful when she is fully back up to speed.

I got the keys to the chapel in Naples from Anziano Knies after we got home, so I am more or less ready for my first Institute lesson there Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, Dee can't join me yet, but hopefully soon. She did give me a plastic container filled with her wonderful new cookies to take down to them.