February 5 – “Critter Travel Log”

Chris made quite the announcement in bed last night.  She had been asleep for a good thirty or forty minutes.  I was still working crossword puzzles to unwind, as is my custom.  All of a sudden, she rolled over and announced, “There’s bugs on the ceiling.”  No real emotion.  No fear.  No hysteria.  Just a quiet announcement about the presence overhead.  Thank you for that information.  And yes, I have to admit, I looked.  Got me … I guess.

 

I spent most of my day yesterday on an interesting task.  Very much the retirement mode kind of thing that I wouldn’t have had time for otherwise.  It all worked out like this …

 

Among the piles of boxes of books in the garage is now another file cabinet full of stuff I still have to go through.  I finished ransacking the cabinets we already have inside, and I don’t anticipate that we can do without the other cabinet.  That means, however, that we have to make a place for it in the office, which will not be an easy feat.  There is an obvious choice of a place.  However, that spot is currently in use by a horde of stuffed beasts and other squeezable phenomena.  Somewhere in the neighborhood of 85 or so are currently living precariously in two plastic tubs next to my desk.  Ten or twelve more are perched on the shelf and on my desk.  Each of these critters has a story it represents, generally from one of our travels.  All of those critters will have to be humanely relocated to make room for the incoming file cabinet. 

 

All that to say … I spent much of my day in an effort to catalogue each critter and connect it to its story – however brief – from the Histories of Kelley and Chris on the Road.  Chris was a big help.  She looked through the photos in my camera to find the picture I invariably took of each one.  That gave us a date.  I was then able to locate the blog post that named the creature.  From there I copied whatever comments I made about it onto a separate file page, along with the picture, and voila … a travel log of animal buddies. 

So, have I finished the task?  Not exactly.  I still have nineteen or twenty that I have to enter onto the travel log.  And then I have to decide whether to even attempt to identify the other critters that have cropped up through the years, usually to be used as props -er - sermon illustrations.  They may simply end up in a mass pile somewhere.  But then, they all might end up in a similar situation.  In fact, right now the entire floor of the office is strewn with stuffed creatures.  Ah, well.  Saturdays are for Spring cleaning, right?  Wait.  Is today Saturday?

 

Proverbs 13:1 says, “A wise son heeds his father’s instruction, but a mocker does not respond to rebukes.”

 

Father, thank you for all the memories we have embodied in the little critters around here.  Help us as we look to gather many more.  Memories and critters.  Amen.