The Elephant in the Room

Use of a metaphor to help describe events opens up the thought processes to wander at will around the fields of thoughts, memories and happenings.
We have a number of Elephants in our room.  The one with the most pressing needs is the Family History Mission needs.  We finished our first training and then last week we entered and left a second phase and this week there is a new phase that is demanding.   There is a Skype connection where we can go to ask questions about the indexing or phone calls or emails requesting help with genealogical problems.  Another part of this Skype chat is the meet and greet and I have to learn to limit myself access to this particular part of the Skype chat.  It could go on all day with fun and laughter but it is distracting.   I think that the people on the chat just sit at their computers all day and while doing indexing, they check the chat each time it notifies a post.  They have assigned us into groups with a leader and each group has its own meeting to discuss problems that may have come up - e.g. some people do not read the instructions to each indexing batch and so when they do their data entry and submit it, the batch gets rejected for mistakes and asks for re-work.  Their questions are about the how and why of the rejection.  My individual group meets on Thursdays at 2pm but I am at the Family History Center for my shift on Thursday afternoons so I cannot attend.  The leader said that he would be doing a Saturday chat for those of us who cannot attend the scheduled chat.  Then on the second Tuesday of the month they have scheduled a devotional and attendance is mandatory.  The fourth Tuesday is a meeting in which we are given instruction on what is the newest requirement etc.  Yesterday I attended my first meeting and we were told that the data segments (25milion+ BDM for the Philippines as well as 20million marriages of the Philippines) have  been pulled from access on Family Search.  There seems to have been a problem with licensing and so this reduction in the availability of information from the Phillippines will be a big blow to those of our number who seek information of ancestors in the Philippines.  I have been assigned a mentor and this person is my personal coach to help me cope with the mound of information that I must learn and retain in order to be an efficient missionary on Family Search.  I have not met him yet, but I am sure he will make his presence felt soon.  The most amazing thing to me is that all of this mission and its interaction takes place on the internet.  I sit here in Prescott at my computer terminal and I am in touch with people from Hawaii to Maine, from Idaho and Washington to Louisiana and the Carolinas.  This is the most amazing experience for me.
There is a quilting Elephant in the room as well.  Much like the Skype chat above, there is a Facebook chat connected with the New Hexagon quilt block of the month, I have to keep away from is also or I could spend all day reading the posts about the newest block.  I have only two motifs to do, and they will be done today and connected to the March challenge, and I have already started cutting fabric for the April block.
The health Elephant keeps popping up and for Jacob it means declining health.  He and the doctors are doing the best they can to stave off the most dire effects but he does need a new liver - bottom line.
The Education Elephant requires that Sara take another standardized test for admission to Doan College so that she can pursue her teaching certificate.  They do not recognize the Graduate Record Exam that she had to take for admission to the Masters degree in Library Science.  That is sad, because she has to juggle work, children, ailing husband and study with Easter coming this weekend and Jacob's family will all be at the house for the event.  She needs to get her teaching certificate to be eligible to take over the head position in the library at Lincoln South East High when the present head of services retires.
The Garden Elephant requires that I go and get the potting soil - REALLY SOON - and start my tomatoes.  I just hope that we do not get a freeze and lose the chance this year - again- of not having peaches or nectarines because it froze out the plants.  Last year the trees were loaded with beginning fruit and it was glorious weather and one afternoon the clouds gathered, the temperature dropped considerably and stayed below freezing all night and with snow into the bargain and all the tiny fruit just fell off - got killed by the freeze.  I notice that the shops already have tomato plants out for sale along with tender herbs like Basil.
The Relationship Elephant has been in the room since day one.  We went to a Marriage Enrichment event in Utah.  Bill told me it would be a fun time - he had been told it would be a fun time, but the realist in me said - oh no it will not be fun - working on enriching a relationship is HARD WORK: and hard work it was.  They had 35 couples participating and the only relaxing time we had was to be in the hot tub and through the window, watch the Basketball game on the TV in the Gym next door.  The Utes of University of Utah lost - aarrggghhh!  Arizona (Tucson) also is out of the running.  We came home exhausted.
Long Term  Friendship elephant entered the room and one good thing happened though - I got to see Dee Jay Bawden.  He and I were in a missionary  group that went to Japan in March 1970.  It was great to see him.
Travelling incident elephant directed the next phase.  In the scramble to get on our way home, Bill left it to the last minute to pack his stuff up - one carry on each is all we had, and we raced out of the hotel to catch the shuttle to the Salt Lake City airport.  On the way up I-15 the cabbie noted that there was construction on the highway ahead of us and a considerable back up, so he cut across the vally and we caught Bangerter highway till we could re-connect with I-15 further up and close to the airport.  It was a ride around the mulberry bush to be sure but we saw parts of the Salt Lake Valley we have never seen before.  We got to the airport in just enough time to load and leave for Phoenix.  We did not have to stop to get baggage and we went out to the curb just in time to catch the shuttle to the parking spot.
When we got to the parking lot, Bill discovered that he did not have the keys to the car.  Panic set in!
In the scramble to get packed, did he leave the keys in the Room?  Did he leave them at the airport in SLC when he went through security or had he even left them at Phoenix on the way up to SLC when he went through security?  We were ok because I had my keys handy and at least we had one fob that would help our computer-filled car to work. No keyhole in this car - just a wireless fob that has to be present.  So we started to drive to Prescott and on the way, called the front desk at the motel to ask them if keys had been turned in or if housekeeping had found them in the room?  The clerk called back and said, no keys!  More panic!  I asked Bill to search through his bag and he said he would not have put the keys in the bag so he declined to search.  We were in a state of gloom because it is VERY expensive to replace a lost or damaged fob.  So we picked up our mail, and went into the house.  He began to unpack his stuff and then he found his keys......in the bag I had asked him to search.  Ah well, all is good in this department now.
St. Patricks Day Elephant had a grand time.  We know that there are only two restaurants with definitely Irish fare and neither of us had called to make a reservation - so off we went, high hopes of Irish Stew and soda bread for dinner on our minds.  We even found a parking spot at the Irish Pub and we thought that was a good omen.  At the entrance we were met by a jolly Irish Elf who asked if we were going to imbibe?  No! so we did not get our hand stamped - good, because that dye lasts for days.  The music was loud and raucous but we had taken something to read because we expected a wait before serving - yep, it was a 2 hour at least wait!  We went to Cracker Barrel out in Prescott Valley but no Irish Stew - just corned beef, cabbage and potato was on the menu.  I ate salad and Bill had a hamburger.  Not too much in line with his Irish ancestry, eh?  On the way up to the Irish Pub, we took the Yavape extension road and in the field by the road there were about 20 antelope feeding in the early evening.  Quite a treat to be sure.
The entertainment Elephant invaded our lives with a trip to Yavapai College performing arts theatre for a local performance of Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory.  It was wonderful and I really enjoyed how the director overcame some of the needed special effects that are present in the movie.
The last elephant to take up our time was the attendance at the baptism of Jacob - a little boy I had in my Sunday school class.  His Grandfather gave a talk at the ceremony and one week later, this man collapsed and was rushed to hospital.  They did emergency surgery on him for a triple bypass.  I am glad that it did not happen before the baptism ceremony.
So, there are many elephants in my room - the care and feeding of them takes a lot of time.