My first time back

I gave myself a day off from minyan the day after Mother's Day :), and davvened/prayed at home. So this morning was the first time I'd attended a workday Shacharit (Morning Service) at our local synagogue in the 11 months since my mother died, when I started commuting by subway to another synagogue that gets a minyan in order to say Mourner's Kaddish. On the one hand, it was nice to be able to roll out the door on foot and be in shul in about five minutes. On the other hand, our shul has a minhag/custom to chant the Torah reading from the back of the siddur/ prayer book when we don't get a minyan, which can be problematic, considering who our workday leiner/Torah reader is. It takes a certain amount of patience to sit through three aliyot when they take eight minutes to chant, and those rushing off to work risk being late.

For the record, the total attendance was one baal tefillah (prayer leader)/leiner Torah reader and three other people. I can't honestly blame the shul president for complaining that continuing to run Shacharit on Mondays and Thursdays is a waste of electricity.