Well, we made it through yet another Iron Man Triathalon. No, that doesn’t mean Chris and I entered one. It just means that the one hosted in Galveston took place yesterday. Significant how? Because the bicycle portion speeds right by Seaside on the way to completing the 56-mile portion of the experience. Now that wouldn’t be a bad thing, except for the traffic back-ups that inevitably ensue. The organizers and the city (well, cities … you have to include Jamaica Beach in this one) use every one of those traffic cone pylons that they have at their disposal to mark off the lanes for the bikes. Then they have officers stationed at every intersection to block traffic so the bikes can always have the right of way. And woe to anyone who attempts to cross into said bike lane. Makes it kind of hard to turn into the church parking lot. Fortunately, this year our own Officer Cory was stationed at the light in Jamaica Beach, so he went out of his way to give folks a path across the street to church. Of course, then there were the folks who had set up some chairs in the church driveway so they could sit and cheer on the bikers. But even with the craziness involved, we still had 45 brave souls who gathered for worship. Another great Sunday in our tropical island paradise.
Oh,
we had a visitor last night. Not at church. I’m talking about back at home now. And at night.
Late at night. Sometime near midnight
Freddy started barking right outside our bedroom window. And she didn’t stop. Incessant peals of canine magnificence
continued to rain over our disrupted slumber.
So much so that I dragged myself out of bed to go acknowledge her
valiant efforts at protecting her territory and her family. I sleepily grabbed a flashlight (Of course
we were already asleep. We stopped with the
staying up past midnight 45 years ago).
Freddy anxiously met me at the back door when she heard the lock
releasing. And she went into her Lassie
routine immediately. She ran towards the
site of her discomfort, then returned to make sure I was following. I finally made my way around the corner and
shined the flashlight in the direction of her concern. Sure enough, just as I suspected, there was an
opossum, crouched as low as it could get between the shed and the house. When the light hit its face, the mouth opened
and the snarling began. I assured the
critter that I wanted no part of it, and he could continue eating all the ticks
and roaches he could find. I would
appreciate a bit more discretion on his part, however, to keep from alerting
Freddy to his presence.
Speaking
of Freddy, I finally convinced her that she had done her job and could go back
to bed now. Except … she has her own
side entrance to the house. And the infringing
creature was still in her yard. I
finally called her inside and closed the door so that she had no outside
access. But that meant she started
whining. So I ended up falling asleep on
the couch to keep her from waking Chris.
Except … apparently the sudden quiet woke Chris anyway. she finally came in to see where I was. I finally made it back to bed around one, and
as far as I heard, Freddy left the opossum alone for the rest of the night. Whew.
I need a nap.
James
1:2-3 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you
face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith
produces perseverance.”
Father,
thank you for all the folks who made it out to church yesterday. Bless them for their efforts. Amen.
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