May 12 – “And in sports news …”

We FaceTimed Josiah last night to see how his baseball game went.  “We won.” And “I hit the ball” were his comments.  He did manage a chuckling “Thank you” in response to our rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to You (OK.  MY rousing rendition.  For some reason my cohorts didn’t join in quite as loudly).  He had tire track marks across his face.  Actually it was that black stuff you put under your eyes to dull the glare of the sun.  Micah was sure that a car ran over his face, though.  So, Josiah.  That youngster is six years old now.  Gotta be some kind of rite of passage there. 

Mark it down.  You heard it here first. When the Houston Astros split a four game series with the first-place Seattle Mariners in early May (the first series the Mariners have not won outright all year), the Astros’ season turned around.  The Indians were the first to experience the not-quite-completely-there-yet-but-look-out-rest-of-the-season look of the team.  The not-quite-there part really showed when they left the bases loaded … twice … in the first three innings.  Five at-bats with the bases loaded and five outs recorded.  They didn’t give up, though.  The bullpen did a masterful job holding down the fort until Marwin Gonzalez could put the game away in the bottom of the 16^th inning with a line drive home run to the right field seats.  It looks as if the pitching has begun to emerge from its April funk as well, even to the point of having a glut of starters.  There.  I said it.  Now sit back and watch the fireworks continue.

Sorry to start out with a sporting news tirade.  I was holed up all day yesterday with Cailyn, both of us struggling to recuperate from our respective maladies.  I think she did better than me, though.  (I know.  Grammatically that should be “better than ‘I’,” but I don’t usually talk that way.  Just feels like you’re leaving something hanging).  Once she got to sleep last night (aside from her one foray into the world of the awakened around ten with a sore ear), she managed to sleep all the way through to six this morning.  I took to the recliner again.  Chris gave me a different kind of medication to try.  Did fine until around 11:30 or 12.  That’s when the coughing fits woke me with a vengeance.  They lasted off and on until about two.  Not sure why they stopped then.  I used up my last Halls cough drop.  Maybe that was it.  From that point on I did sleep, albeit somewhat fitfully.  The alarm startled me awake at 6, so I know I had a few good hours.  I think I’m on the downhill side.  Just takes us weakling adults longer to get over things like this.  Go Astros.

Mark 14:35-36 says, “Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him.  ‘Abba, Father,’ he said, ‘everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’”

Father, thank you for the positive signs of healing in Cailyn (me, too).  Amen.