Court Dates, Captain Picard, Mitchell and Sad News

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog. 

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So, I decided to avoid the stress of Aaron's court date. It wasn't necessary for me to be there, so I let Mom and Dad go and take care of it. Ordinarily, I'd have gone to provide moral support, but even though we agree with and support Aaron's decision that he no longer wishes to live with us, some of the local vultures that love to heckle us are likely to be there, and I cannot handle that.

So, I stayed home and ended up watching the premiere of Star Trek: Picard. I was pretty impressed with it. I've never considered myself a Trekkie, but I have always been a fan of Captain Picard. I ended up doing a brief reaction video and posting it on YouTube. I may even do a proper review video eventually, since this is both a fresh new show and very nostalgic at the same time.

After all that, I decided to whack off my hair and proceeded to shave my head. I wasn't quite finished with my haircut when Mom and Dad returned. They were planning on going back out for lunch, so I asked if I could tag along. We ended up going to JP's and getting the cod platter. Delicious as always!

After that we went home and I went back to work on my usual stuff, writing and designing graphics and the like. Mitchell messaged me and asked if I could help him out with some stuff when he got off work and of course I said yes. 

First we went to the hardware store, where he bought a toilet and a drain auger and then we went back to his place. I let his puppy out for a little bit and cleaned some stuff up for him before carrying the old toilet out. 

After we were done at the house, we rode over to Capraro's in Hopedale. I'd been there for a birthday party quite a few years ago, but never since. Mitchell bought me a sandwich for helping him out and we hung out for a bit, talking to the bartender and another customer. 

After this, we went to Scio to fill up on gas. It was here that Mom tried to call us. I was a little puzzled, because Mom knows that service is spotty in this area and we'd only been gone for a grand total of 3 hours. I am usually pretty easy to get in contact with, but my phone has been out of minutes lately as I have not had steady work in a few months. So, I was a little worried when we got home, what had happened that was so bad that Mom had to call us?

It turns out that my grandma had passed away. Mom's mother, just a couple weeks after losing her dad. I wasn't super close with them, but it's devastating all the same, and hard to process that they're really gone. If anybody's reading this, please say a prayer for Mom, as I know she's taking this pretty hard.

So, that was the 23rd day of 2020.

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

A rendition of Captain Picard's Inner Light Theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

A Little About My Experience in Fast Food

This was originally published as part of "The Life of Zack" series on "I Am Medley. 

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I used to think that getting a job in fast food would be stupid, but at some point I realized that the experience could be good for something - for example, I had an idea for a novel about a manager of a fast food restaurant, and working in fast food would give me first hand experience to write about.

So, in early 2016 I started putting applications in at various fast food establishments in my area and one of them called me back! A couple days after my interview, the manager called me and let me know that I could come in for orientation later that week. I couldn't find my social security card, so we had to reschedule once. After watching all the training videos and receiving my  uniform and copy of the company policy book, I was informed that I would be starting in a week.

I could hardly wait!

I thought it would be really cool to work in a kitchen and cook rather than dealing with customers all day every day, like I did at my gas station job. So, it was very cool at first to be back in the kitchen flipping burgers. My responsibilities included salting the meat, making sure I cooked fresh meat regularly, chopping the old and dry meat for chili, frying chicken in the deep fryer and grilling chicken on the grill.

I also had to sweep and scrub the parking lot, scrub the floors in the kitchen, put away deliveries when they came, take out the trash, drain the fryers and put in fresh oil; among other things...

But first, as soon as I was done training to do all of that, I was stuck on floor scrubbing duty. Two or three shifts a week, where I'd come in and scrub the floor for hours, give the main grill guy a half hour break and take the trash out. It was awful! Until I learned to bring headphones and listen to music while I worked, and then it became a lot more enjoyable.

Eventually, the crew was spread thin enough that I got my chance to be a proper grill guy and I graduated to cooking for 20 to 30 hours a week. I wasn't allowed to listen to music while cooking, so I took up humming and singing, much to the annoyance of some of my more, uh, cranky coworkers.

I have this thing - everywhere I work, I want to learn everything that I possibly can. Because knowledge is power and knowledge can also mean more hours. No one just gives full-time hours anymore, you usually have to prove yourself, starting with about 6 hours a week until they'll give you 32 to 40.

So, I insisted that I be taught every job in the restaurant. No one took me too seriously, but bit by bit, I learned the different positions in the kitchen and persuaded the manager to give me some hours training on the register. Once I got my register training, I went back to flipping burgers and the occasional day of floor scrubbing.

It all came together one day when one of the cashiers walked out... I got to work an extra shift that day. Overnight, I went from around 24 hours a week to around 40 every week. I was pretty pleased with my foresight.

Speaking of foresight, I was always preparing for things that no one else was. I remember one time the manager started yelling at me, and I snapped out of whatever reverie I was in and found that I had cooked way too many french fries! Moments later, a horde of hungry customers descended on us and bought every last fry. That wasn't the only time that happened, but it sure was the funniest.

Of course, there were a few times when I just screwed up and cooked too much, but there were plenty of times when I saved the day by preparing for the crowds before they appeared.

I worked for about a year as a grill guy, another year as a cashier (which includes all kinds of other responsibilities, depending on which register you're on: it could be scrubbing the tables and chairs down or washing dishes and baking potatoes) and another half a year doing a little bit of everything. In the end, I made a lot of new friends, learned a lot for my book and finally got fed up with the whole experience and call it quits (though in defense of fast food jobs, it was mainly an interpersonal conflict that caused me to quit and go back to working midnights at the gas station).

I have countless little anecdotes from my time in fast food, and they'll probably get blogs of their own in the future and be referenced through out many of my future works. 

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day. 

An underrated track from Pink Floyd that I thoroughly enjoy. I remember listening to it on breaks at work. 

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog. 

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Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I stayed busy as usual, with my usual projects. I wanted to do something to commemorate MLK, so I created the below #FactOfTheDay graphic for my Fact of the Day on Facebook and Twitter. 

That is one of my favorite MLK quotes. He has always been a hero of mine. 

I feel like a lot of people talk the talk, but he really walked the walked as well. (See what I did there? I thought it was pretty clever.)

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

Protecting Your Field

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog. 

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Life is just flying past, and sometimes the days just blend together; but one thing that stands out and brightens my day is a good sermon or Bible study and good fellowship. 

Tonight, we went to church and Bro. Guy preached a great sermon about protecting your field. 

Basically, in short: We all have an area in life, a field if you will, that is our responsibility. In the old days, people would defend their fields with everything they had. 

We need to pray for and be the best influence we can be in our "field," our jobs, schools, etc. and the people in them. We need to be the best we can be, praying and working to defend our fields.

It was a powerful sermon and I can't do it justice here.

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

Bible Study and the Men's Breakfast

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog. 

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After WinterJam last night, we rushed home so I could get sleep before we went to our church's Men's Prayer Breakfast. I was to give the Bible Study/Message at the breakfast.

I just started going to this church consistently a few months ago after I quit my job, before that I had only visited a few times. I had been to one or two of these breakfasts over the past few months and had been asked to give the message this month. The men's breakfast is held at Carrollton Ponderosa once a month.

I was very excited about giving the message!

But when we woke up this morning, the weather was terrible! We were worried that we wouldn't be able to make it. We did make it though! Despite the snow and the ice we made it to Ponderosa. Only a handful of people made it, but it was good. (I always enjoy eating at Ponderosa too!)

Anyway, I spoke on this world not being our home and how a proper focus on the world to come makes us more compassionate and loving people in the here and now. 

I based the whole thing on Hebrews 13:14 and supported it with several other verses. 

I was honored to get the opportunity to speak and look forward to doing so again.

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

WinterJam 2020

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog. 

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One of the highlights of my year is always attending WinterJam. WinterJam is a concert that tours the states with roughly ten different Christian musicians. The lineup is different every year with the exception of Newsong, who founded the tour. In my area, they perform in the same venues every year. I've attended in both Pittsburgh and Cleveland, but Pittsburgh is my favorite.

Selfie at PPG Paints Arena

I thought I would be in Australia by this time, so WinterJam this year was kind of an afterthought, but it is a silver lining to still being in Ohio. We went to Pittsburgh this year, the PPG Paints Arena. 

The artists included Andy Mineo, Riley Clemmons and Crowder. Newsong played a shorter set this year because several members of the group were ill.

The arena was so crowded we had to sit in the upper levels this time. This was the furthest away we'd ever sat, and I felt a little wobbly at that altitude, but it was awesome. You could feel the sound reverberating through the building.

One of the highlights when Crowder headlines the tour is always how all the musicians on the tour come out on stage and perform the final hoedown with him. This year he also performed a few songs with Riley Clemmons. 

As you can see, I snapped a few pictures with my cell phone, but the venue doesn't allow larger cameras, so I didn't chance taking the Canon PowerShot in. (Though I seem to remember taking it in there once before without an issue.)

I had a blast and though I hope to be in Australia by this time next year, I will look forward to attending another WinterJam in future!

Pittsburgh skyline from the parking lot

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

Giving My Brother a Haircut!

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog.

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Today was much the same as yesterday, I spent a lot of time working on things I was behind on - and looking forward to future projects I'm working on. The highlight of my day is when my brother Mitchell stopped by and asked me to give him a haircut.

Mitchell often grows his hair down to his shoulders, but he decided today that he wanted to try it short for awhile. He messaged me before he got off work to make sure I was home and then came down for a haircut. 

Before

Mitchell is always on the move... He's a ball of energy, and refuses to sit still. It took everything in him to sit long enough to let me whack the hair off. I managed to snap some before and after pictures though! 

After

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

Playing Catch Up

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog. 

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Basically, I spent most of the day writing blogs that I was behind on. I also recorded several videos that I'd been planning to upload earlier in the month. 

I uploaded a video I had previously recorded about the backyard farm I used to have, and then recorded new videos about my time at the Cadiz Food Pantry, my dogs I had growing up and how my macaw cusses me out. 

Eventually, I'll share a post with an overview of everything I am working on and it will become clear where I spend all my time.

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

Visiting Aaron and Playing Blackjack

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog. 

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I decided to go with Mom and Dad when they visited Aaron this evening, because he had recently told us that he wanted to move on and live with someone else. For those of you who don't know, Aaron is my youngest brother, adopted, has been living with us since he was 3 days old and is afflicted with various mental and behavioral issues that are to be expected when one is introduced to crack cocaine and alcohol before birth.

He's 14 now. Gonna be 15 in May. He's as big as I am and has been  displaying worse and worse behaviors as each year passes. About a year ago, I had to press charges against him, and he's been in and out of juvie and eventually landed in a residential treatment facility. As I said, recently he decided to he really just doesn't want to live with us anymore, and hopes that he'll land in a home in which he can live in town with other kids.

At this point, I have to say that I'm just glad this could be over. I've been worried about him hurting my Mom when I'm away at work or something, so this is something of  a relief, though it is also what was afraid was going to happen.

So, I decided to go and visit with him, since I have no idea how many more times I'll be able to see him.

He brought a pack of cards and he and Dad taught me how to play Blackjack. I'd never played before, it's pretty fun and not complicated at all. So we had a fun visit.

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

The Postal Service

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog. 

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Today, we confronted a problem we've been having for awhile.

You see, we've had some difficulties with our postal service since we moved into this house, just over nineteen years ago. Over time, we've had complaints from the mail carriers about where our mailbox is, demands to be allowed to turn around in our driveway because it is the end of their route, they've deliberately smashed packages, refused to deliver our mail, carved ruts in our driveway and ditch, and may well have hit our cat.

So, we've been in a bit of a situation lately. A couple of days ago, the postmaster stopped by to let us know that once again, there was not enough room in our driveway to turn around. (We'd moved one of our vans that wasn't running into a place they found inconvenient and they implied that they would not deliver our mail until it was moved. We'd moved it, but they still weren't delivering our mail.)

Dad was at work and he suddenly felt like he should call the post office and see what was up. (If you roll with us Medley's for long enough, you'll find that as unlikely as it might seem, God speaks to us sometimes - this was one of those cases.) Dad called the post office and found that they'd dispatched two inspectors from the Cleveland office to check out what was wrong with our driveway. Clearly, our friendly local postal people didn't want us to know they were coming and be able to talk to them about our problems, but since Dad had called when he did, we were able to.

I went down to talk to them and then Dad called back and wanted to speak with them. We explained the ongoing issues and that we just want our mail to be delivered. They didn't see why our mail was "undeliverable" and assured us that they would be instructing everyone to deliver our mail and that everyone would be receiving a copy of their report. 

So, that was what happened today.

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

Lessons from Mount Carmel

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog. 

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The main thing I remember from today, amid the haze of everything that is going on, is the evening sermon at church. The preacher that night read the story of the Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

"How long halt ye between two opinions?" was the question Elijah asked the people of Israel and the preacher asked the congregation that night.

You cannot serve God and the Devil, you cannot live one way all week and live differently only on a Sunday.

I was very familiar with these passages of scripture because I had memorized them some years ago and entered in a Bible memorization contest. But something new jumped out at me tonight.

The prophets of Baal thought they had to do something crazy to get their god's attention (they were cutting themselves, jumped up and down and screamed according to the scriptures) and to be loved and acknowledged by him - but the prophet of the One True God knew that he only had to speak to Him.

Out of all the different lessons in that story, that one jumped out at me, because I see parallels between that and things I see every day, and I'd never really given it any thought before.

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

Power Steering and Binge Watching

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog. 

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Today was interesting. I was going to sleep in and work on my writing while Mom went to her ladies breakfast with the church... But Mom woke me up: the car's power steering fluid had leaked out and it was too difficult to steer. I rode with her to the store and bought some more and put it in for her. 

She let me get something to eat with her card, since now she was running late and I had to ride with her. I chose a package of Nutter Butter cookies because the store's selection was lacking any good choices. I neglected to get a drink though, which I later regretted.

I sat in the parking lot while Mom attended her breakfast. I worked on writing some blogs. I read some of my writing to Mom on our way home and we stopped and got something for me to drink.

When we got home, I fixed lunch and signed into my YouTube account on the Xbox so we can watch YouTube on the TV. Aaron had messed that up so that it didn't work either. Dad showed Mom & I the Jim Bruer comedy special "Let's Clear the Air." Hilarious!

Then Mom and I went to visit Aaron.  

Later when we got home, we binge watched a cop show on Amazon Prime. We were all pretty burnt out from a roller coaster week. 

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

The Medley Farm

This was originally published as part of "The Life of Zack" series on "I Am Medley. 

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There was a time when my family had a little backyard farm. 

It started after Mom had recovered from her second bout with cancer, my little brother decided that we should start growing our own food. He bought a couple of laying hens, and that's how we got started.

We ended up getting a lot more birds: chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks and guineas. Then we got some goats, a sheep, a couple cows and a few pigs.

For a little while, we were producing so many eggs we were able to sell some for a few extra dollars. 

My brother started showing birds in poultry shows and that was a whole other adventure. I spent my time at home taking care of the animals while my family traveled around for the poultry shows. 

I have a lot of crazy memories from that time: going out in the pouring rain to take care of the animals, hunting for runaway birds late into the night; I even remember one time I was so sick I could barely stand, but I managed to get all the animals taken care of.

The birds could be a bit of a handful, but they were nothing compared to the goats. The goats were a riot, and not always a good one. The first few goats we acquired were supposed to be good milk goats, but it turns out we had been duped and they were sick. Their milk tasted awful and they didn't produce very much at all, in addition to respiratory problems.

We eventually found a proper milk goat. She was a pretty good goat, as far as that goes, but I still didn't enjoy having to go out and milk her at the crack of dawn. We had good goat milk for awhile. But then, she "mysteriously" turned up dead. 

The cows were also ill-fated. We only got one or two to the butcher, the others just dropped dead. 

Once we started keeping farm animals, they would turn up dead some mornings when we went out to care for them. We were taking good care of them, making sure they were receiving proper nutrition and everything. We suspected they were being killed by family members and local people that didn't like us.

Let's put it this way, when we got a gun and people found out about it, the animals didn't die as often. Then, there was an increase of calls to the Humane Society in reference to our animals. All kinds of accusations that they were not properly cared for, which the Humane Society investigated and determined were untrue.

The pigs did alright, no mysterious deaths - maybe people were afraid of them? Pigs can be scary! We bought piglets in pairs, we never gave them proper names because we planned on having them butchered, so we would call them "Sausage" and "Bacon," or "Jimmy" and "Dean." 

The thing is, the first four pigs were friendly and not hard to care for, but the last two were savage. They ate random chickens that wandered into their pen and would stare menacingly at any living thing in visual range. I certainly didn't want to fall in their pen. When they went to the butcher, I was so relieved.

So, I've talked a little about all the animals, except for our pet sheep. Whereas we eventually sold off our remaining birds and goats, when my brother moved away, we kept the sheep - because she was a rescue and a pet. We love our Hannah Banana. 

So, I'm not really about that farming life, but I figure someday I'll have a few chickens in my backyard. Them fresh eggs and the roosters crowing in the morning, that's where it's at.

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day. 

Attending a Funeral

 This is part of the "2020" series, originally published on my "I Am Medley" blog. 

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Today is the day that we had been dreading all week. Grandpa Soos' viewing and funeral. I rode into town with Mitchell, who stopped at our house first. 

I get terribly anxious at funerals, it's such an awkward time and then you feel bad for feeling bad because you're alive, reasonably healthy and not the one in the casket. 

Thankfully, our family is very kind and everyone understands about being anxious and most of us had to step outside a few times for some fresh air. I might have taken this a step further and hid in the children's playroom for a few minutes and then took a walk around the block to my old workplace. But I came back.

There was one little dust up in which someone from Dad's side of the family came by to harass Mom, I mean you'd think people would have a little respect for the fact that Mom just lost her dad. But no, some people are simply so uncouth they cannot leave her alone. 

But in the end, the person left and Mom was alright. So, all in all it went alright.

After we finished up at the cemetery, I suggested that my brothers join Mom, Dad and I, and we all go down to JP's for a bite to eat. I'd been too frazzled for breakfast this morning.

So we did, we all met up down at JP's and Dad bought two fish platters. We all stuffed our faces with fish and fresh french fries. 

After this Nathanael had plans, and Mitchell left too. Dad and I stopped in at the library to pick out a couple more movies. I messaged Mitchell to see if he wanted to come by and watch something while Mom and Dad went shopping in Canton. He had already made plans, so I worked on catching up on writing and planning my social media posts.

I also solved the problem I've been having with the Xbox. My youngest brother messed it up while trying to modify a game and now there has been no Xbox Live connection for awhile. I'd got subscriptions to Hulu and Amazon for Christmas, but the only streaming app that would work was Netflix.

I solved the problem by setting up a whole new Microsoft account and profile on the Xbox, because I couldn't remember any of our previous logins and Aaron had wiped them completely out.

When Mom and Dad got home we watched some stuff on Amazon and then went to bed, they both have places to be in the morning. Me, I just want to get some more writing done.

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.

Volunteering at the Cadiz Food Pantry

 This was originally published as part of "The Life of Zack" series on "I Am Medley. 

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Volunteering at the Cadiz Food Pantry was an important part of my life for quite a few years, until work and being an adult got in the way. 

It all started on the first Thursday of 2010, the 7th of January. My brothers, Nathanael, Mitchell & I went with Gary from our church and our Pastor to help unload the trucks that deliver food from the Mid Ohio Food Bank. It was my first time doing anything like that.

At that time, the Food Pantry was run by sisters Betty and Edna. They were hard workers, and I later learned they had served in the Air Force during the Korean War. Betty liked to bark orders and Edna was a good listener. 

I miss them very much. During the time when I got busy with work and couldn't find the time to volunteer anymore, I got word that Betty and Edna's health was failing and they were moving to Texas to be closer to family. Later I learned that Betty had passed away.

I made a lot of other friends during my years there: Mattie, Johann, Mary, Virginia and Gladys - just to name a few. 

Anyway, that very first day we helped unload trucks. We continued to help them unload trucks on the first Wednesday of the month for the next year or two. Later on, perhaps late 2012, (I didn't keep good notes back then) we began to help them on distribution days, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Back in those days, we would arrive early before the pantry would open and we'd prepare boxes of food for the different families, according to the number of people in each family. 

Over time, I got involved in just about every aspect of the food pantry operation. I never learned the office paperwork part of things, but I helped sort, stock and inventory. I even would go to the garage outside town where the Mid Ohio Food Bank deliveries would come and help divide the food between our pantry and the others in the area.

Volunteering was a very rewarding experience for me. I enjoyed all the time I spent with the Cadiz Food Pantry. 

In more recent years, I've popped in to help out a few times a year. It's a little different now. Under new management, the pantry has been updated so that people can shop for food they will use, so that nothing goes to waste. The main work that needs done now is unloading trucks, putting things on the shelves and helping people carry food to their vehicles, having eliminated the need to box food in advance.

Someday I may be able to work some more volunteer work into my schedule and I look forward to it.

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I've decided to start ending my blogs with songs that I like. I do not own or endorse the music or artists, unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy my selection of the day.