A richly varied life

This has been one of the good days -- a little Bible study on Matthew's Gospel, and home I go again. Before the Bible study, though, I need to pick some hymns for Sunday next.
Started off the day with a couple of quick loads of laundry and a load of dishes. Then I had a few minutes to sit with the old cat in my lap. She's been not quite herself for about the last month -- she's 15 or 16, as near as we can tell (she came to us as a stray) -- doesn't seem to be in any great pain or distress, but she walked about, uncertainly, for a couple of days with her head cocked sideways, like what used to be called "a wry neck" -- she did look quite eldritch. We wondered whether she'd had a stroke or something of the kind (do cats have strokes? anybody know?)
But she continued to perform all her usual functions, and after a few days she seemed to get her problem sorted out; but the last day or so she has been very inactive, just wanting to lie still and not stirring when we come near.
This is a sadness...especially as she is the last cat in the household. She's always been very large, built more like a tomcat, and at one point weighed about 15 pounds -- with long hair in a kind of clouded version of the tabby pattern. We named her Taffeta because of her looks.
The first piece of work this morning was a sortie to a local mausoleum for placement of ashes -- a twin urn in white marble, to be placed in a niche about eight feet from the floor. Fortunately one of the mourners undertook to get it in position. NOT MY WORK, I thought, firmly. There were about a half-dozen family members present including a toddler and an infant in one of those "bucket" carriers. The toddler shook my hand manfully after the brief service, thereby causing all the aunties to resort to their hankies again.
Back to the church to collect the Super Secretary and away to a civic luncheon launching one of the major winter charity drives...the local council of churches promotes one shelter-focused charity every year at Christmas, in a program called "No Room in the Inn" (for fairly obvious reasons). This year the project is a new transitional facility for immigrants with refugee status or special needs generally. It seems very well and imaginatively designed to meet those needs.
Back again to the church and some paperwork and a brief sitdown with the knitting group before a parishioner came in for counsel...and absolution, eventually. Some reading, some blog-surfing, proofreading the Sunday bulletin... and a pause to admire the knitting group's BALES of yarn. They gave me one big bag full of the most gorgeous, subtle variegated colours...prayer shawls and afghans, woo hoo, I'll be busy all winter.