November 12 – “The Cabinet”

A leisurely trip to Spring in the rain.  Sounds like a romantic journey right out of the pages of one of those novels with a picture of a beautiful lady dressed in garb from the 1800’s, doesn’t it?  Ours was not exactly the same.  Oh, the beautiful lady was there, but we were in a pick-up truck stuffed with spare blankets, the beautiful lady was doing the driving, and I was working on a crossword puzzle, doing my best not to fall asleep.  Sigh.  My life reflects more of a country western ballad than a romance novel, I guess. 

We did make a trip up to Spring yesterday.  Chris has been searching for six years for a cabinet to display her Precious Moments figurine collection.  There have been a few contenders over the years, but for one reason or another, they have all fallen by the wayside.  This year, though our sons joined the battle.  They went together and took up a collection for her birthday.  The “Precious Moments Cabinet Fund,” they called it.  I think their purpose was to give her that extra little push to help her pull the trigger on something.  Well, apparently it helped.  She began looking at consignment house web sites all over the area.  Always the budget-conscious one, that Chris of mine.  She had the exact dimensions she wanted, that much I understood.  But there was also that nebulous, “I’ll know it when I see it” factor that I will never understand.  She has an image in her mind and nothing else will do. 

Well, she found the image on line at a store in Spring.  We stopped in there the last time we were up that way, and she confirmed that was the one she wanted.  Yesterday we loaded up the truck and moved on up there to pick it up.  After we paid for it and backed the truck up to a more advantageous position for loading, Chris noticed something she hadn’t seen before.  It had been covered up by some display plates they had inside.  The back had a crack in it that hadn’t been detailed on their description page.  Almost a deal-breaker, too.  But then she asked me what I thought.  Boy, did I ever have an answer, and a quick one.  “Pull the trigger,” “Get it,” and “We can work with that” all rolled out of my mouth.  It was time.  I guess she was convinced, because we started home with a much bigger payload than we arrived with.  All those blankets proved helpful, as did the shrink wrap and bubble wrap and tape the store provided.  We got it secured and covered and hit the road.  Only to run into a bit of a rainstorm on the way home.

It really wasn’t all that bad, though.  A tarp would have made me breathe a little easier, but we made it back none the worse for wear.  The two hulking workbeasts from N&D Moving Company got the cabinet unloaded and into the house.  What’s that?  N&D?  Oh, great company.  We have used them many times over the years.  Stands for Nani & DadDad. 

The rest of the evening consisted of unpacking boxes that have been in storage since Hurricane Ike.  Christina’s masterful job of cleaning and packing salvaged almost all of the figurines.  Only three or four were broken, which is amazing considering what they went through.  Chris had a checklist of every one, so we checked them off and found places for them.  She’s not finished yet, though.  She is already talking this morning of how she will incorporate the ones she has received in the last six years.  Looks like some more bookcases might be in our future. 

Psalms 28:7 says, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.  My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.”

Father, thank you for accomplished goals.  And thank you for the new ones that always crop up to give us something to look forward to.  Amen.