Has it Been Two Months??

Gee time flies when you're having Lent!
What's been happening?

Well, I've been working like a dog (like a Great Dane, not a chihuahua...)
For some reason I've been doing a LOT of doctor's office remodels lately and of course they have to be done before they open and after they close. So I do those before I go to my "day jobs". And all this going on during Lent and Holy Week and being the Reader at our Mission

Of course we have to keep places like this surgery room REALLY clean while trying to do drywall work.


I was on my way home one night on the freeway about 11:00pm from Safeway Corporate offices (another after everyone goes home remodel) feeling sorry for myself for having to work 18 hours that day and saw someone having a worse night than I was...


Of course, when you're sacrificing a lot and begin feeling like a martyr, strange things happen....



No, its not stigmata. You shouldn't use your hand to pound a piece of one inch copper pipe into a fitting. Use a mallet next time, stupid. No crowns of glory for being a dope no matter how much it hurts. sigh.....

But it hasn't all been work work work. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" as Jack Nicholson immortalized in "The Shining" (Shelly Duvall looking over the typewriter at his manuscript was one of the most psychologically frightening and well shot scenes in Kubrick's career). Anyway, I digress. We went to St. John's Monastery for a pilgrimage and to visit this guy

He's not really all THAT scary and sober... he's really just a Russo-phile poser. But he is a novice there, and my step son. While I was there I interviewed Abbott Jonah about the Jesus Prayer, monasticism and the spiritual life for my radio program . On our way back we stopped in San Francisco to visit St. John Maximovitch who lies incorrupt in a shrine in the Russian Cathedral there. My wife had some heart problems during Lent. She was prayed for all over the world and annointed with oil from St. John, and when she went in for the catheterization they found no blockage. So we stopped in here to say "Thank you" to St. John.

We also drove through the Sequoia National Park where they have some REALLY big trees. This one was a sapling when Christ was born. This is a tree hugger's dream...
This was a scenic stop off where you can see 11 mountain ranges at one time.

By the way, that's my 14 year old daughter hugging the tree. She's 14 going on 23. She refuses to go to a convent so this is the next best thing for her Dad's sake...
Speaking of convents...I just returned from St. Paisius Women's Monastery where I've been building stuff for them for about 4 years now. This is where my father in law is buried.

Another painter and I spent two days and painted the main building, the barn, 3 sketes, 3 outbuildings, the goat pen, and about a half mile of fence. This is the cemetery fence. I loaded a generator and my spray rig in the back of the truck and drove around it to paint it. In the background is the new Church that is being built. God willing, I'll be able to do the drywall work on the interior when the roof is on.

So... that's the life of Steve for the last couple months. Now you'll have to excuse me, I need to go put something on the sunburned bald spot on the top of my head. Next time you're painting outdoors in the Arizona sun, wear a hat. Remember, no glory for dopes, just pain.