Nap? Not so much.

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I did find my phone and placed a call.  My brother was there, trying to write a paper for school.  Well, and tend his girls.  Now his girls are human, have three names to them, and can be a bit more demanding.  It is... always interesting talking to him.  Ah but we had a good if broken conversation.  Somehow we got onto food and I asked if he remembered home made menudo, a Mexican soup using tripe (and maybe fresh pork hocks to help thicken), from when we were kids.  Remember, he says?  He makes it!  He told me it was easy and gave me an outline.  He just suggested I needed a pressure cooker.  Check.  You clean and dice the tripe, pressure cook that with some portion of water, then make a... it sounded like a roux, using more traditional Mexican spices and such albeit.  Adding various things like homily while stewing, fresh onions (for me) in the bowl, and maybe cheese.  Tortillas go well with it as an edible spoon or even just for dipping.  He wants me to make it and report back, suggesting the full recipes can easily be found online.  Okies, if it might be a week or two.  All good there.  I found it interesting to note that, as a former part-time Iowa boy, he officially thinks his part of Texas is worse on the heat and humidity side, if their winters are far milder.  Anyway, we spoke for some time.  It was good.  I was then quite ready for my nap.

As I tried to nap I was thinking about God, heaven, and such.  As I went in and out of sleep I had an odd sort of dream.  In it I made it to heaven.  Not a presumption by any means, just a dream.  I actually... fared well if you look at things that way.  I did above average, was awarded a better residence, and was given tasks commensurate with my achievements.  I felt out of place there, though.  It felt wrong.  So I spoke with the one who oversaw placements and housing.  I asked for a change.  Oh?  You think you deserve better?  No, no, not at all.  And, really, I suggested it wasn't about deserving or such, just that I felt a bit out of my element.  What can I do for you then, he asked?  First, could I apply for a simpler place to live.  Even a small hut, near a lake, with windows out to the landscape and water rather than into the city.  He thought he could arrange that.  Anything else, he asked.  Just one more thing, if it isn't too much trouble.  Go on, he said.  I was hoping to work as a servant and groundskeeper.  I don't want to be the chef, or someone who shines in their duties, just someone who does the background work that would only be missed were it left undone.  Setting up the dining hall, mowing lawns, cutting weeds, and the like.  A little variety, some indoors, some outdoors, something along those lines.  My health was restored, you see, making it possible for me to work again.  I got my wish.  He asked about not getting to be with God for meals.  I suggested that, just as on earth, if I bow my head that God would be with me, here or there.  As it turns out, God visited us at many of our meals just the same and in person as if I had sat at the regular table, only it was a far more intimate setting.  While all just a dream, it does represent my thoughts.  If I don't quite think that will be what heaven is either, thinking that heaven will be the place of accounting, and maybe learning, before we go on to... whatever God finally intends.  I've had similar thoughts before, just never saw it in movie form.  Still, I couldn't stay asleep long at all, even if I am still bone weary, and my eyes are like windblown dust filled burning orbs.  Ah well.  It was a good dream.

Hmm, might try sleep again.