July 14 - “Tug on it mightily”

I spent the morning up on the roof (Reminds me of a song 🎶.  Come on. You hummed it, too). I was determined to get the tree branches away from the house. It was hurricane season trim time. There were a lot more branches to get rid of than I thought. Sycamore, in particular. I also swept up all kinds of debris from one of the weird trees planted next door.  I trimmed it up, too, and that’s when I noticed something not so shady (in the sense that “shady” here, in reference to trees, is a good thing).  

There were some pretty substantial branches that were dead. And just waiting to crash into our roof with the first strong wind. Fortunately, I was able to grab a portion of each branch, tug on it mightily (Had to say that. Someday in the far-distant future my grandkids might read this) and rip it from the trunk. I double-checked the sycamore tree by just shaking each branch within my reach. And, yep. One of the really big ones cracked and pulled loose. Scary.  Chris did the dirty work of dragging them out to the street. Weights Training Day, I guess. But the task is now complete. We should be relatively safe from breaking branches for another season. 

 Chris checked the MyChart app about her appointment. To our surprise, it had been moved ahead by 15 minutes. Fortunately, we were showered and ready, so we left for the early time. 

 However … when we got in the car and all buckled up, Chris pushed the start button. And nothing. Well, there was something. All the little notifications about the car (ie the check engine light) scrolled through the dashboard display. It finally settled on one that said, “Battery dangerously low.” Wish that had popped up sooner. Our rapid calculations figured that the battery was five years old.  Of course it was. Time for a new battery. But not yet. We still had an appointment to get to. So we hurriedly switched over to the truck and rushed to the clinic. 

 No reason to hurry, though. They didn’t even call her back until well after her old appointment time. Everything went OK. Well, other than the fact that they didn’t have any blankets to keep her warm. I suggested bringing one from home. That will probably happen from here on out. 

 After the radiation it was her day to see the actual doctor as well. We were placed into a room quickly enough, but then the wait began. Longest wait so far. All the doc ended up doing was checking Chris’ skin at the site to make sure it wasn’t inordinately burning or anything. Kicked her loose for the next session, and we go back to see her next Thursday. 

 1 Timothy 2:5 says, For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,

 Father, thanks for keeping me up on the roof … literally. Amen.