July 15 - “Passing halfway”

My start to the day involved tearing into the car to find and remove the battery. Gotta have that old one to avoid the dreaded “core charge” by the store. I’ve never been real sure why you are penalized for not bringing in a nasty old dead battery, when you are paying an arm and a leg for a new one. 

Actually getting the battery in and out was quite the harrowing experience. In fact I had to watch a YouTube video to even know where to begin. There were brackets and cables and switches and battery covers. And you had to do everything in the proper order. Oh, and at one point you needed an extra pair of hands to hold off to the side an electrical housing box. Otherwise you couldn’t slide the battery out. Whew!  It was an ordeal. 

We made our monthly UTMB call to make an attempt at figuring out  our monthly statement. Whew!  Their accounting system is almost impossible to anticipate from one bill to the next. But for the first time in months, I think I have a handle on where we are with them  going forward. Guess we’ll see when we get the bill next month. 

We have officially passed the halfway mark with radiation. Day eight in the books. Meanwhile, Chris’ appointment with the actual oncologist got moved up a week to Monday. That’s a good thing. If nothing else, it will be another box to check off on the journey. There we see what plans he has for phase two - hormone therapy. 

I didn’t get much reading done in the waiting room. An older fella came and sat near me so he could talk. And boy, did he ever talk. I heard everything from how his great-grandmother taught him how to dip snuff (and spit it into his teacher’s hand when she demanded he give her the gum he was obviously chewing. He ended up in the principal’s office, who thought it was really funny. The teacher went home sick. From that point on, all gum had to be expelled in the janitor’s closet), to how he used to walk on high rise girders for his job. Phew!  

I officiated a wedding on the beach last night. Scheduled start time was 8 p.m. Scheduled sunset was 8:20 p.m. That’s cutting it a little close for the preacher to see to read from his ceremony book. We started just a little after 8, though. Everything went well, and they are hitched. Well, they are before God. That’s the one that counts. The state will agree after I send in the license today. 

‭‭2 Chronicles‬ ‭7‬:‭14‬ ‭says, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Father, be with Andy and Tammy as their relationship changes. Amen.