September 11 – “What am I, chopped liver?”

We upped our game yesterday.  Walked three miles instead of two.  And then I dove into my work for the week that I usually try to get done on Mondays.  The hospital trip and station visits kind of prevented that approach at the time.

The key component of our day came when we headed over to Austin Middle School to pick up Cailyn and her neighbor friend Alexis.  Our first time doing the grandparent thing for our now-middle school granddaughter.  Very strange.  I vaguely remember when my big brother went there many, many, many years ago.  How did she get so big, anyway? 

The first order of business was figuring out where to park to wait for that final bell.  Fortunately April had given us some clues as to what they have discovered.  The problem was getting there.  As we pulled up toward a stop sign at the street we needed to turn on, a care had simply stopped, put on its flashers and had no intention of going anywhere any time soon.  Chris managed to pull around and pass it, primarily because the same thing was happening from the opposite direction.  People were just stopping in the street.  Once we were safely away from the road blocks, we pulled off the road and parked to wait. 

That’s when others started to join us.  Someone backed into the place in front of us, but got right up next to our front bumper.  Plus they were essentially half in and half out of the space.  On the other side of the street we watched as a car was attempting a parallel park.  Other cars were whipping around from behind it instead of waiting patiently.  It’s not like their child was walking off into the sunset.  They just had to hurry up and get in line to wait. 

The girls finally arrived, both of them with phone in hand.  As it turned out, Cailyn was texting Nana.  I was standing right in front of her and she was texting Nana in the car.  Guess that’s what they mean by, “What am I, chopped liver?”  Sigh … life with a pre-teen …

Proverbs 18:10 says, “The name of eth Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”

Father, watch over these youngsters as they grow and stretch their wings.  And watch over their parents (and us) as we watch and learn to live with that growth.  Amen.