March 14 – “Fashion, food and freedom”

I saw something yesterday that probably should qualify for one of those internet sensation People of WalMart videos.  As I hurried through WalMart, trying to complete a shopping run before our next round of Spring Break guests appeared, I saw a young, very tall, very lean young man.  I first noticed him because he also appeared to be hurrying, but he seemed to be having a difficult time of it.  As he approached, the source of his struggle became painfully obvious.  It was a problem with his apparel.  In keeping with current standards of “fashion” he was doing his best to sag his pants.  He had managed to get them below his waist, but that’s where his problem came in.  See, he was wearing what could only be described as skinny jeans.  That’s right.  They were probably at least two sizes too small for him.  I’m pretty sure he had difficulty even pulling them up past his knees.  And that was the thing.  When those guys sag their pants, they walk with their legs spread apart as far as they can get them to keep the britches from falling.  I just have to say, these particular jeans were not going anywhere without a lot of help.  Yet he still made the attempt to keep his legs apart as if that stance was required.  Hence the unusual gait that originally noticed caught my attention.  It was a … disturbing … picture.  Gotta love WalMart.

We had a visit from some Arlington area friends the other day.  The Killians were in the area on a family vacation with their 19 year-old daughter.  Seems they were taking her for a return visit to some sites that they had originally been to when she was about two years old.  For some reason she wasn’t remembering the first trip.  They offered to bring us some supper, so we readily agreed.  Who can turn down a free supper?  And things looked even better when they walked in with boxes from Mario’s on the Seawall.  One bag contained a big salad … for each of us.  The boxes contained something called … let me see if I can get this right … caponees.  No, that’s not it.  Californees?  No, that can’t be it.  Calzones?  That’s about as close as I can get.  It was something we have never tried before.  It was kind of like a big old pizza sandwich.  I sure liked the one I had.  Tasted like two or three different kinds of sausage inside.  Unique.  It certainly might be worth a return visit some day. 

Oh.  Uncle Jerry was freed from the hospital yesterday, so I picked him up and got him settled back at his house.  He still looks pretty rough, and he was moving very slowly, but he was really glad to be home.  Nathan met me at his house to help him up all the stairs.  And wouldn’t you know it?  As we made a sweep through the house to see if everything was in working order, we discovered his toilet needs a new chain in the flushing mechanism.  We’ll get that taken care of sometime today.  He told me the diagnosis they came up with, but it sounded like a gobbledy-gook way of just describing what happened without indicating a cause or a way of preventing it in the future.  His take on it was that they still really didn’t know.  Fits the Vaughan mystique.

1 John 4:19-21 says, “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

Father, thank you for long-standing friendships and strange young men in sagging skinny jeans, and the look on Jerry’s face when we finally eased him into his chair at home.  Amen.