January 9 – “Apologies to Bob the Builder”

Well, the rainy season has descended upon the tropical island paradise, and a dreary one it has become.  Thunderstorms, flash flood watches, tornado alerts.  The constant drone of raindrops falling on the roof and dripping into the puddles they have formed below, broken only occasionally by the sound of distant thunder.  Dark, overcast skies.  Anybody else getting sleepy?  Sure is tough to get motivated for action under these conditions.  It would be so much easier to crawl back into bed and snuggle under the covers and wait for the next time Mom gets up.  But, alas, someone has to do it.  Someone has to face the monster that is a new day.  Someone has to tear open the shutters and throw up the sash.  Someone has to feed the dogs and reassure them in their nervous pacing.  Can I do it?  Yes, I can.  (With a special nod to Bob the Builder for that brief reference from his theme song, of course).  Now I’m fired up.  Bring it on, rain. 

It took a while, and I have absolutely no idea what I did, but I finally got the VHS to DVD thing working again.  For some strange reason, after recording just one tape, the sound stopped coming through.  I tried every fix I could think of, switching cables and working through the software, everything short of actually reading the instruction guide, of course.  That thing has 467 pages.  Daunting at best.  Frightening at worst.   I’ll probably be forced into it when I start editing movies to isolate one specific clip for a sermon, but I was certain I could figure this thing out.  I didn’t.  I finally decided to start over like I had just opened the thing and do what I did the first time.  I disconnected everything and started from scratch.  And it worked.  What, exactly, you may ask?  I have no idea.  The only thing I did that time that I hadn’t tried through the course of the day was unplug the USB cable from the computer and plug it back in.  I guess it wanted to start the new recording fresh as a new day filled with rain.  Can you do it, computer?  Yes, you can.

Psalms 55:16-17 says, “But I call to God, and the Lord saves me.  Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.”

Father, thank you for the rain.  Amen.