Surprises happen every day

The mail arrived today. That's normal. There was an especially heavy clunk when it came through the mail slot. I didn't bother to get up about the clunk; my kind reader Paul said he was mailing me his HTML-in-20-EZ-lessons book, so I was expecting a clunk --- more important this afternoon that my swollen feet stay in the air.

Then, when I got up, I came to my front room, and picked up the mail from under the mail slot --- but it wasn't the HTML book. It was a book mailer from Amazon. I haven't ordered anything from Amazon! In fact, my fall into temptation after the Pallium Lecture last night has blown my budget for new book buying for the year --- bought two of Dr. Jenkins' books, one even a hardcover.

I double-checked the address, the houses are numbered really strangely here on the court, so sometimes mail ends up at the wrong house if there's a substitute mail carrier. But, yes indeed, it was mine. I opened it, and found inside a copy of St. John Cassian's Conferences, a book I've been pining for for a long time. Fortunately, there was also an invoice inside, so I know where to send the thank-you note, to a woman who used to work with me when I was a library clerk. Thank you, thank you, Pat! Many, many years!

However, this does mean that I've got a whole new source of desert Christian stories with which to plague you all.
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