Eric Bailey's

I have been quickly traveling through the regular blogs trying to catch up on people and thinking to myself, "I wish some of these people would update a little more frequently." Today while that thought passed through my head I thought about my blog and decided to set a good example today and update. Then I can criticize all I want.

I have one more day of bus driving (with lots of tearful goodbyes and a few hugs from the kids - even the high school kids have discovered and some of the them are saying goodbye - not with tears though.) I have already preached the final sermon of this portion of my ministry, last week. This Sunday is the baby dedication Sunday, complete with potluck (from which I will sneak out by 1:30 at the latest and rush off to the first of two playoff games, the second is the following week). On Saturday we have a big church celebration, a goodbye party for our family. On Friday (tomorrow) I will play hockey with my friends and then that is it for a long while. Maybe I will find a daytime hockey nearby in Kenora.

Seeing all the elections ads and signs just keeps reminding me that I was thinking about running this year for school board. I thought that as a bus driver I would bring something good to the table. Oh well.

I keep thinking about the song from My Fair Lady, "Get Me To The Church On Time". It starts out with a slow mournful sound "It just a few more hours, that's all the time I've got ..." Besides that it is a funny song. My motto has always been, you don't have to do well, just make sure it's funny.

I am back from my quick little trip to Regina & Saskatoon. I had a good time visiting with people, I even managed to stop in and see a friend from S'toon who I don't see or hear from too often. Everyonce in a while he will find my phone number somewhere (when he is cleaning) and give me a call. This time I called him up and let him know I was coming to town. I had breakfast with him and his fiancee. It was nice to reconnect and hear about his life.

I also visited with family, some of whom I have not seen for many years. Some I didn't recognize (a couple that I have never known). It was good to see them, although the reason for the family gathering was a memorial service. My father's cousin passed away late this summer and it was planned to have a special memorial service for family in S'toon for Thanksgiving Monday. The service was not the traditional gather for 1/2 hour to an hour and say a few words, say some prayers and go. There were many different memories share by different people and I am sure it was longer than an hour. It was the kind of thing that captured my attention and had me sitting there listening to all these stories caught up in the whole thing, unaware of the passing of time until afterwards when I went out for coffee with my parents and had to think about leaving for home. I left later than aniticipated, but I would not have wanted to miss any of it.

I was also at Lectureships in Regina the previous two days (Saturday and Sunday). I had a good time seeing many people again and listening to some good talks. One problem is that I often have good sermon ideas or class ideas based on some of these things I hear at conferences, but I now only have my wife and kids for an audience (I wonder how long I can talk about these before they start walking out of the room).

Over the course of this weekend, some people knew I was going but others did not. One person turned to another and said, "How do you know their moving?" The reply was, "I read Eric's blog." Well, I know there are some people reading my blog.

It is now two weeks until I am done driving bus. Then I have one more Sunday employed with the church, and I will then be unemployed and moving. We will move after halloween, so that the boys can enjoy a last time trickertreating on our nice quiet little block. Then, just like we move to TBay, it is zoom, off to Kenora.

Well finally this week we have set our deadlines for moving. We won't all be going at the same time, which makes it a Bailey plan. By the begining of November we will be in Kenora. Hopefully it won't take long to get the internet up and running.

This week was the tournament for football. We played Saturday and Sunday. I did not play Sunday. I was expecting us to finish with winning the lowest level of final. I only expected to beat one team in the initial set of games. Things did not go as expected. We won our first game Saturday (without me... I had a meeting). Our second game was against a team that destroyed us in the league play. We won 20-14. Our third game we lost to another team that destroyed us in league play, losing 14-12. Then we had playoffs (on Sunday) for the tournament. We lost to the second team we played the day before, sending us to the "C" side finals. This left us playing a team to whom we have never lost this year. All this build up tells you that we lost to them. Disappointing finish.

Sunday after a nap Erica and went to the church hike. We went late, so we missed the hike part and had to enjoy hot chocolate with friends. Erica and Haaken went for a walk still.

This coming weekend I am planning to go away. I hope to attend Lectureships, but I am definitely planning to be at the memorial service in Saskatoon afterward for my dad's cousin. It will be nice to see family again. I am looking forward to the trip, but I have only booked off one day from the bus to get back from the trip. I guess I better talk to some people here about this trip too so that the church is ready for me not being here this weekend. I already have someone preaching. I then have two more sermons to preach plus we are planning to do a baby dedication service in the middle of it.