Projecting Away

Our choir sang a spiritual a long while ago, when Mike Henry was our music director. Mike was a terrific tenor in those days, and he did the solo on this song. The chorus went something like this:

If I got my ticket, can I ride? If I got my ticket can I ride?
If I got my ticket, can I ride, ride ’til the judgment mornin’?

One of the  verses went:

You’d better get ready for the Judgment Day
You got no time to project away!

These days I find my self wondering about the meaning of the word “project.” Project as a verb means “to throw” or “to see forward,” but that doesn’t seem to make sense in this context. Rather, it seems as if the noun “project” functions as a verb. The sense of the sentence is, I think, “Given that the Judgment Day is at hand, you don’t have time to work on other projects unrelated to the coming judgment.” Whew!  Thank heavens for the concision of poetry.

I think I have been thinking of this song because I have been “projecting away.” I’m afraid to write them all down because I might faint it I realized how many there are.

As a sidelight, let me say that I have been far busier in retirement than I ever was when I worked. I have heard other retirees say this. How did we ever find time to work? I certainly don’t know. The difference is that I am doing what I like to do. For the most part. It happens.

Anyhow, project list. I have been working to get my father into assisted living and that was pretty much accomplished in late October. My advice if you are even thinking about helping a relative or friend get into assisted living is to start now! Make the appointment for the medical exam ASAP. It all takes a while.

Then I was involved in going through my dad’s household items. With some capable help of daughters Amy and Alyssa, bf’s Chris and Chris, Becky, Don Libeau and nephews Jonathan and Josh, we got it done. We gave some things away, sold some, and kept some, but it is done.

Now I am involved in getting my dad’s house ready to rent. That’s a work in progress, and we are about ready to have the painters come in and do their thing. This project has been going on since August and will go on for a couple months more.

My writing is a project of sorts, and one I enjoy. I hope you do as well. I’m a part of Write by the Rails, a group for local writers. Several of them have published books recently: Sheila Lamb with Once a Goddess; Heidi Willis (not a member of WBTR but local) and Some Kind of Normal; Nancy Kyme’s Memory Lake; and Katherine Gotthardt’s  Felonias Park and poetry collection, Poems from the Battlefield. These books are all available on Amazon.com. I hope you will log on and order several of each for yourself and people you know. The books are all unique and exceptionally written. Support your local writers!

Then there are the home improvement projects. We’re having the siding redone this week (after 44 years of masonite siding, it’s time). I’m working piecemeal on converting our security fence to a picket fence (about 1.3 panels done so far, out of about ), going through my books and selling those I don’t have room for, cleaning up the storage and tool area in the basement and finishing adding insulation to my attic (about half finished).

It all seems overwhelming at times, but I’m glad to have so many activities to engage me. There’s also music and church, but those are completely other stories. In the meantime, I’m projecting away!