Probably boring, but it’s keeping me to task.

1. Get the floors refinished. (DONE. Made a blog post.)

2. Install ceiling fans in the two smaller bedrooms, as they are stuffy. (DONE. Ceiling fans make a gigantic difference. It took about three hours, but, like, whoa.)

3. Buy some hanging plants for the porch. (Cheapo ones. Also have weird non-theft contraptions on them.)

4. Get to the container gardening for the back deck. (not yet. getting cold. have too much other stuff to do.)

5. Shampoo the stinky area rug to put in the master bedroom. (IN PROGRESS. Man, that thing is stinky. We bought a hose to wash it with.)

6. GARAGE SALE (DONE. ALL THAT JUNK IS GONE. We also met our neighbors.)

7. Chimney caps (not yet, but it’s getting cold, so soon.)

8. Fireplace doors (see above chimney item)

9. Paint the inside (this will take several months)

10. Paint the outside (this will take more than several months)

That’s four out of 10. Not too bad.

I have added the following, though:

1. Halloween decorating. (Way more involved than Christmas decorating. As in, I don’t actually decorate for Christmas much, aside from lining up cards on the living room mantle.)

2. Reupholstering the free chair.

3. Making more curtains in preparation for chilly weather.

4. Replacing the broken pipe in the yard (NOTE: this will likely trump all other list items.)

Wasn’t that a blast? I know! So much fun to read!

Well, anyway, I’ve got two free pizzas and plan on doing none of the above this evening.

So. In a more interesting turn of events, I went to the Atlanta Hindu Temple on Sunday (did not tell anybody at church, for it is None of Their Business).  It was both exactly and not at all what I expected. Allow me to elaborate.

The temple has a parking lot, full of American cars (I expected this.) Inside, there are families in nice clothes (also expected, as was the fact that the nice clothes are saris and salwar suits). There was foot washing (expected), at a thing that looks like a truncated bathtub, mostly because of the faucets (not expected). Then you go inside and shake hands (expected, but sort of weirdly familiar), and somebody explains the inside of the temple to you, and then you’re on your own. And there’s a priest at the main murti (Visnu in this case) who leads things (expected), and after you’ve received blessing there you pray at all the others (unexpected! I am not used to this self-guided thing!). But mostly still surprisingly familiar, because there are statues of holy things, and flowers, and priests, and blessings, and music, and incense, only in different configurations than I’m used to. One of the differences I liked the best was the numbers of children running and laughing and playing. The temple was solemn, but there was a definite sense that joy and life was as much a part of the whole thing as quiet reflection. I like the movement.

That’s a basic summing up. In reality, it was that we didn’t know what to do, and so got one explanation from a young man in front (I think he might have been a priest; his tilak was very fancy, and he seemed to know a whole lot about the “proper Indian way” to do things). So anyway. Moral: ask questions. He asked a family to show us upstairs, where we were introduced to another priest, and older gentleman who did his best to explain each murti, and what to do during the Visnu pooja (I did things correctly), and then he said “It’s nice to have you here – you can go to the other temple if you want,” and we were on our own.

Wait. Other temple?

Sure enough, there was another temple, much more grandiose than the first, with small marble temples (pratiks?) housing the murti. The one we were in first was the Balaji temple (I think), and the other one is the Siva temple, where they were performing a Ramalingeswara abhishekam. I didn’t know if it was appropriate to participate in two poojas in one day (you don’t receive Communion twice in one day, so my cultural reference was basically useless), so I stood off to the side until a priest motioned me over, and there you go (for reference I was holding a banana, the prasad from the first pooja).

And I sort of felt like I was doing things right, but sort of not. I’m not sure what to do with myself without a priest leading things. I’m getting better at understanding this.

Anyway. There is a dining hall in the complex that sells vegetarian food, and so the husband and I got some tamarind rice and idlis, and talked for quite a while with a nice man sitting at the table we sat at, who offered to be our guide if we ever decide to come back.

I probably will. Only this time I won’t walk through the “no shoes”  area outside at the end, because I will know it’s a “no shoes” area.

So in conclusion: To do lists are good, don’t be afraid to try new things, the Hindu Temple of Atlanta is very nice, never be afraid to ask lots of questions, and be sure to read signage.

If you never remember any advice in life, remember that. Well, also maybe take lots of vitamin c so that you don’t get scurvy (have you done a google search for scurvy? Eeeeeeew.)