July 21 – “Absolute brainstorm”

It has been a rather noisy night around here.  Especially the last few hours.  We are being inundated with rain from band after band of thunderstorms spawned by what amounts to a baby tropical storm just off our coast.  Periods of hard rain followed by bright sunshine dotted our landscape all day yesterday.  Then very early this morning the thunderstorm action began in earnest.  Rolling thunder.  Occasional flashes of the accompanying lightening.  Pretty exciting stuff.  Of course it meant having to keep the computer unplugged when the lightning got close, but that worked out pretty well battery-wise.  The storms are supposed to pass us on by later in the morning.  Guess we’ll return to our usual hot, muggy July days when that happens.  I’ve said it before, ain’t it great to live in a tropical island paradise?

Last night Chris had an absolute brainstorm when it came to making supper.  We were going to have leftover tuna fish sandwiches, but then she remembered.  The flurry in the kitchen began as I stayed out of her way and worked on our next jigsaw puzzle.  And before I knew it, there before me was a plate of chicken fried steak with cream gravy, fresh fried okra from Lauren’s home garden, and black-eyed peas from, well a can.  Can you get any better than that?  I was certainly one happy camper.

We got the initial email from our travel agent yesterday concerning a possible trip to Hawaii next year.  It will be kind of a junior version of our trip to Alaska.  We fly the many hours to get there.  A land portion will keep us in and around Honolulu for a few days.  Then we get on a cruise ship and tour the other islands, stopping to do excursions along the way.  The cruise ship basically becomes our hotel room.  It sounds like another of those once-in-a-lifetime events.  Hey, if we squeeze in enough of those maybe our lifetime will extend itself to fully incorporate all of them …

Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Father, thank you for yet another display of your power.  And thank you for bringing the rain along with it.  Our yard sends its appreciation.  Amen.