August 23 - “Not what I was expecting ”

I had a strange dream. In it I woke up in our bed, but Freddy was by my side, and I was petting her. I knew something was awry. She does not sleep in the bed with us. I managed to get out of bed, with my usual creaks and groans. Hey, with my array of pain symptoms these days, that’s an expected occurrence. I slowly made my way to the back door. But it wasn’t our current back door. It was a slider with a screen slider as well. The glass door was wide open. The screen was demolished, with a pink plastic child’s booster seat teetering precariously through the screen and into the house, as if someone had tossed it through. I looked around to see if I noticed anything missing. But the room was one from a house long ago and far away. It had the small bookcase where I used to put my keys and wallet at night. Neither were there. Careful not to touch anything, I hurried into the bedroom to wake up Chris. I calmly announced, “I think we’ve been robbed.”  And suddenly the dream was over. I had attempted a rollover in my sleep, and it didn’t go well. Woke up with a sharp, stabbing pain from a muscle spasm in my back. Now, as I deal with the nagging pain in my back and knee and hip -while awake - I would like to officially inform the dream thieves that they have come to the wrong house if they are looking for a big score. I’m a retired pastor. Take all the Bibles you need.

 

Chris finally had an appointment with the cardiologist who got her started on this whole heart thing. One good thing about this appointment right off the bat … no mask required. Second good thing … this guy absolutely takes his time and gives you his undivided attention. He also thinks outside the box when the “usual answers” just don’t fit. How did you like my nice way of saying that my wife is “unusual”?  He checked off her internal plumbing for six months unless something else come up, of course.

 

After the appointment we stopped off at Cracker Barrel for lunch. Thank you to the one who gave us that gift card at my retirement party. And their new take-home ice tea cup is more of a jug. I was set for the rest of the afternoon.

 

And speaking of afternoon, we left in the rain for a quick trip to Walmart. It was still coming down when we got there, so we did the only reasonable thing we could. We danced in the rain on our way inside. Really entertained another shopper just arriving. Well, “entertained” may not be the exact proper word.  At least she said, “that’s not what I was expecting.”  It was fun.

 

Last night Kel and his family came over to celebrate Jachin leaving for college. He requested some of “that stuff you serve at the Super bowl parties.”  Anybody remember what that might be?  None other than chili!  Yep. Chili in August. Who knew. We also presented him with a college goodie basket. Chris picked out most of the stuff, like snacks and things. I picked out just one thing. A stuffed blue lizard to remind him of the critter they have running around their house. Sigh. A little bit of home.

 

Philippians 1:9-10 says, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”

 

Father, thank you for Chris’ positive report from the cardiologist. Now we could use one from my doc tomorrow about my hip. Amen.