June 24 – “But first”

I was pretty excited yesterday.  We finally made the decision to go get the supplies to build my new workbench in the garage.  I’ve had the plans for almost a year now (Home Depot on line).  Had to adjust them to fit the space I had out there, though.  Mine will be about three feet shorter than the one in the plans, but it should fit nicely out there. 

But first … we had to go by Randall’s to pick up a prescription as well as some fruit.  We’ve just about given up on WalMart’s produce section.  And did you know that Randall’s has a guy whose job is just to work the produce section?  I think he even hand wraps every head of lettuce.  Once we finished there all we had to do was drop off the fruit at the house and head to Home Depot.

But first … as we left the parking lot, I got a call from the group staying in the retreat center at church.  They were planning to cook out some hamburgers and couldn’t find the big grill they had been told about.  So we kept going west one the seawall to open up the storage room for them.  It was fun to talk to the group that was assigned to work at the church.  They are priming and painting the underside of the retreat center for us.  But now we could get back to business … the workbench.

But first … we had to drop off the fruit we just bought.  And then go into Texas to Sears.  We were going to use one of our gift cards and eat at Olive Garden, but it was already 12:30, so we just grabbed a bite at home.  The Sears trip was so I could return a socket holder for a different style because the first one wouldn’t fit in my tool cabinet.  I have bags and bags of sockets that I salvaged from Hurricane Ike that I am trying to get separated so they can actually be useful.  That turned into a profitable visit, too.  We had some reward points left over, plus a rewards gift card from the garage door opener we bought, plus the money from the return.  The new stuff we got was free.  Can’t beat that price.  And besides, now we could head to Home Depot.

But first … we had to go by the house to get the truck.  We dropped off the Sears stuff and walked out to the truck.  Yes, I was getting excited again.  Finally.  We got into the truck and … it wouldn’t start.  Battery was deader ‘n a doornail.  So we crawled back out and jumped it off the car.  Took a while for it to get enough oomph to start, but it finally did.  I checked while we waited and found out that the batter is five years old.  Great.  It’s a five year battery.  Put that on the list for the near future, I guess.  I really debated whether to go straight to WalMart and get a new one right then, BUT FIRST … I was going to Home Depot.  We drove both vehicles just in case it didn’t start again, but that old beauty made it just fine.  We gathered up the supplies we needed.  Had to make some design changes on the fly, though.  They didn’t have enough of the kind of bracket we needed.  But that was OK.  On to the house to get started.

But first … I for one was beat.  It was 91 degrees outside.  The truck air conditioner doesn’t work anymore.  We unloaded the wood (which, by the way, the Home Depot guy cut for us for free).  And then … we went inside the house … the air conditioned house … and crashed.  Oh, we’ll get that workbench built all right.  But first …

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Father, I guess that makes you the ultimate God of “firsts.”  Thank you for being with us in our world of “but firsts” and Plan B’s.  Amen.