August 4 – “Constrained”

Cailyn called and asked if she could spend the night with us.  Why?  Her parents weren’t scheduled to work.  They hadn’t mentioned a desire to go on a date.  None of that stuff.  She wanted to come over because … drumroll here … she wanted to watch the Astros game and they don’t get that channel on their TV.  Came over proudly sporting her Carlos Correa T-shirt.  That’s my girl.  She had her usual sleepover with Nani in our bed.  Chris told me that she tossed and turned all night, often speaking in her sleep.  And what did she say?  “Come on Astros, you can do better than that.  Let’s go, Astros.”  As I said, that’s my girl.

She went home yesterday morning, and that’s when we realized something.  It was eerily quiet.  No pounding.  No heavy machinery.  No unintelligible jabbering of workers.  Just oppressively quiet.  Now part of it was that we had some rain the night before and the ground over there was slick and slippery.  But the only action came when a couple stopped by to bid on the deck they want built for the front porch.  Well, that and a neighbor who “just happened to be driving by” and was wondering what was going on.  I love our neighbors.  Many of them are even older than we are.  They have to keep up with the scoop on this strange structure arising in our midst.

Fortunately (?) the concrete guys showed up right after lunch.  Actually a big concrete truck came by first and honked his horn, but no one was there to answer him so he drove away.  He finally returned, though.  About six times.  That was after the rest of the crew had rigged up a hose of sorts from a big pump in the street to the forms that had been laid at the back of the property for the garage.  Of course it took an hour or so for them to troubleshoot why the concrete wasn’t flowing like they expected it to.  It finally found its way through the tunnel and began to spew out onto the ground.  I kept my eye on them off and on.  The finished product indicated that it was just a one car garage with about a four or five foot area for a workbench or storage off to one side.  Sadly, we had already started home group when they finally finished spreading and smoothing.  I was strongly tempted to go over and put my footprint or at least my initials into the blank, wet canvas.  The responsibilities of life constrained me, however.  Sigh.  Being an adult can be so annoying.

1 Peter 2:6 says, “For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’”

Father, thank you for my Astros girl.  And her cousins.  Amen.