February 3 – “It means what?”

I tried to get ahead on some of next week’s work yesterday.  Starting Tuesday I have a Critical Incident Stress Management Team training class for three full days.  Starts at 8 a.m. each day and lasts until 5 p.m.  Sounds like some serious classwork to me.  And it is in League City somewhere, so I have to do the commute thing as well.  Not much time left to do silly things like prepare sermons.  It didn’t take long for Chris to realize what I was doing, though.  She didn’t hesitate to remind me that Friday is supposed to be my “day off.”  Yeah, we thought it was kind of funny, too. 

In a remarkable show of good faith, I invited her to go on a spur of the moment date with me.  The Galveston College Whitecaps ladies softball team was hosting a big tournament over at the airport fields.  I thought it would be a nice outing for us.  Sadly, however, she declined.  Something about not wanting to watch softball with a 30 mile an hour north wind in her face and a wind chill of 47 degrees.  Well, I tried.  Oh, I did go over to watch some of the games.  I hoped to see the Whitecaps, but they were running about an hour behind schedule on that field.  Of course.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, the game being played was pretty exciting.  Lots of offense.  The entire Whitecaps team was sitting in the stands watching, so I guess technically I did get to see them.  Their scheduled opponents weren’t content to just sit and watch, however.  They were staying loose and agile.  How, you might ask?  They were engaged in a rousing game of Duck, Duck, Goose.  When yet another inning began on the field, I decided it was time to leave.  I was just too cold.  I wish someone had told me it was going to be so chilly …

Cailyn came over to have a sleepover with Nani.  The two of them spent most of the evening sewing together a replica of Scooter’s head (Cailyn’s Boston Bull Terrier).  To close out the evening we sat across the room from each other and played a game of Words With Friends.  Cailyn and pretty much smoked me.  Of course she had Chris’ help.  See, Chris plays that game against her friends all the time, so she has learned all the obscure words that are acceptable - like Xi.  What in the world is a xi?  Oh, I looked it up.  Aside from being the proper name of a letter in the Greek alphabet (which would not be a legal usage), xi is an unstable elementary particle of the baryon family existing in negative and neutral charge states with masses respectively 2585 and 2572 times the mass of an electron.  Of course it is. 

Psalms 30:5 (One of my all-time favorites) says, “weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Father, keep those young ladies warm today as they finish up that tournament.  And keep the first responders safe as they deal with Mardi Gras revelers.  Amen.