September 7 – “Lucy and Ethel”

Well, I got to attend a football game yesterday.  No, it wasn’t one of the premier NCAA college contests, but it was a football game nonetheless.  The Galveston Riptides youth football league had their second game of the season, and among the perks of attending?  They sport the prettiest cheerleader of all time.  Oh, that would be Cailyn, of course.  I suppose there are other little girls out there as well, but I didn’t really notice them.  Cailyn, however, did a fabulous job.  She is one of the youngest out there, so it was fun to watch her watch the older girls and do her best to mimic their motions.  You wouldn’t think from my comments that I was a proud grandfather, would you?

I had to leave early so I didn’t get to watch her second game of cheering.  Apparently the Riptides five games every Saturday, one for each grade level of participation.  The sophomore team had one of our Seaside boys on it, so I hated to miss that one.  I did see William walking around in his uniform, though.  In fact he came over and gave me a big hug.  I’ll have to ask him at church this morning how they did.  The reason I left was to go help my cousin Jer load up some stuff in a U-Haul truck.  He was here gathering some of his Dad’s belongings to distribute them to his sisters and himself.  He and a friend drove here from their home in Florida.  Jer just had surgery to reconstruct his ankle from a very old football injury he received back when he was at the Air Force Academy.  He was on crutches, so Kel and I went over to give them a hand. 

Jer and his old Air Force buddy Charlie were hilarious together.  Kel said they reminded him of Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz from I Love Lucy.  Good-natured bantering back and forth about whose ides of loading was the best and how things should be wrapped with pads.  At one point Jer even made his way up the ramp into the back of the truck – using his crutches the whole way, which is not an easy task when the ramp is only about two feet wide – to make his case on stacking parts of the table.  Kel and I stood back and watched the highly entertaining show.  And we didn’t even have to add much.  Actually I did make one comment.  I told them their back and forth “negotiations” were making me wonder if they didn’t work for the government … maybe the military.  Neither of them had a reply, but they did glance my direction with a grin before going back to their discussion.  Once everything was loaded we all went back to our house for some grilled hamburgers before sending them on their way.  Charlie is a graduate and big fan of Virginia Tech, so he wanted to get as far as they could before the VT football game started.  He really wanted to watch it, and as I saw in the paper today, he had good reason.  They defeated a ranked Ohio State team.  Guess that will make for a pleasant last leg of their journey today. 

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up.  But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!”

Father, thank you for the friendship we saw yesterday in Jer and Charlie.  Keep them safe on the last leg of their journey.  Amen.