August 25 – “Seri-ociously hot”

After two days off for our quick little jaunt to Arlington and Waco, we were back to the early morning walk.  Two miles again for me.  Five for Chris.  And my knee, although it did pretty well during the trek, was swollen and barking for the rest of the day.  Just not used to the old grind yet, I guess.  Of course it probably didn’t help that I spent an hour or so after the walk out in the yard pulling up stickerburs.  Sadly, that’s the only way to effectively eradicate the evil interlopers of lawns.  And did I mention that it was seri-ociously hot?  That would be somewhere between serious and ferocious.  Heat index well over 100.  Ah.  I love living on a tropical island paradise.

After we recovered a bit from our outdoor sauna experience, we made our way to WalMart and Randall’s.  We were looking for some air conditioner filters at WalMart.  And of course they had every size except the one we needed.  Oh, well.  At least it wasn’t a crisis purchase as yet.  Now that doesn’t mean some objects didn’t mysteriously find their way into our basket.  And I did have to renew my fishing license, which by the way was a lot cheaper now that I am officially old.  And I even included the fresh water version this time so I can be all legal when we go fishing with Zak up in Waco. 

We also made a quick run over to Randall’s to pick up some stamps.  It is so much better to be able to get them there instead of going to the Post Office.  It’s not all that far, but top get there one has to get on 61^st Street and go even farther east.  The barrier is real.  While waiting in line we saw something I personally don’t ever remember seeing (Which doesn’t really mean I haven’t seen it before.  I just don’t remember.  Big difference.  Something about non-essential information cluttering up what little usable brain space I have available to me).  Three different people were there to cash in winning lottery tickets.  I didn’t see how much two of them won, but the other guy walked away with sixty dollars.  And the burning question in both of our minds after that experience?  I wonder how much he had to spend to get that $60?  Not worth the waste to me.  After all, we have a cruise to save for.

Psalms 95:4-5 says, “In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.  The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.”

Father, please keep people safe in this unbelievable heat.  I’m especially concerned about the firefighters when they have to don their turnout gear.  Amen.

August 24 – “Traffic, Trucks, and a Tiny VFD”

And finally we headed back home.  One of our fastest quick trips ever was at its conclusion, and we both commented that we were exhausted and hadn’t really done much of anything.  And of course, the trip home from Waco included the longest first leg ever.  The traffic was horrendous in places we had never seen traffic before. At one point a train stopped traffic. 

And there were trucks.  Big trucks.  They all decided to use this particular road at this particular time.   And it was not a good decision for some of them.  We saw one truck on the side of the road whose load had shifted dangerously.  In another side-of-the-road scene a truck was stopped with every door on his trailer opened.  Not sure what had been inside, but I guess they all escaped. 

The worst jam, however, came just outside of Nowhere.  An 18-wheeler was on the side of the road and police were directing traffic around it.  As we inched our way past, praying that no one had been hurt, we saw that the entire cab had burned completely to the ground.  Never saw that before.  The tiny little brush truck from the nearest volunteer fire department was cleaning up and rolling up its hose.  Kudos to that crew, too.  From what we could see, the trailer had no damage at all.  Nice job. 

Psalms 95:3 says, “For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.”

Father, thank you for the work of those guys on that truck fire.  Amen. 

August 23 – “The Surprise”

We took a bit of a different route out of Arlington this time.  Can’t get too set in our ways, you know.  I was looking forward to seeing the guts of some tiny towns or something.  The route seemed a lot quicker, but sadly, it was actually kind of boring.  We did get to see the sign pointing to Maypearl, Texas, though.  That was a highlight.  Maybe next time we can actually go to Maypearl.  We’ll have to put it on the list.

By the way, the temperature in Waco when we arrived?  106 degrees.  That would be … hot.

The kids were playing in the back yard when we arrived.  In the mud.  Not just water play, mind you.  Zak was being the drill sergeant and when we peeked around the corner he had Caleb flat on his back in a mud pit.  Now they didn’t know we were coming, so we stayed very quiet, just watching.  Luke was the first to spot us.  He grinned really big, but didn’t say a word.  Caleb was next.  Zak had moved to the tree swing and was preparing to push off with his back to us.  Caleb made eye contact and cried, “Look, it’s Nani and DadDad.”  Zak didn’t believe him.  “You’re just trying to get me to turn around so you can throw mud at my head.”  Sound reasoning, if you ask me.  Zak did finally see us, on the backswing after his takeoff, and screamed in utter terror.  Well, maybe it was more like pleasant surprise.  By that time Christi had grown a little more curious.  So we moved into her line of sight, and she exclaimed in surprise as well.  AnnaGrace just smiled prettily and waved.  Great surprise.  And then Josh surprised the family by coming home for lunch.  Great day all around.

We hung out with the kids for the afternoon, then joined them at church supper.  It was a classic rendition of that timeless favorite we all used to dread at the school cafeteria: beef tips and gravy over a bed of rice.  As beef tips go, these weren’t bad.  The servers couldn’t get Josh to eat any of the accompanying vegetables, though.  Then they were emboldened when they found out that his mother was behind him in the line.  Pastor Josh will no doubt be further “encouraged” to “EAT YOUR VEGETABLES” from this point on. 

After all the meetings were concluded, I took Caleb and Luke back to the house while the girls went to pick up Zak at the youth event at the park.  Caleb read yet another book about the Alamo to fine-tune his vast array of Texas history knowledge.  Luke, meanwhile, waxed creative in his approach to daredevil-dom.  He morphed into a veritable Evel Ke-Luke-el.  He leapt from one of those plastic playground slides onto a pile of pillows.  When that failed to satisfy his danger-lust, I pushed him in his little riding train.  Fast.  And he crashed into furniture and fell dramatically in a heap.  And then he had the idea of the day.  Why not take the train to the top of the slide and ride it down into the pillows?  Why not, indeed?  He struggled to get everything into place.  He carefully climbed onto the peak with his vehicle, and worked his leg around so he was sitting.   For several long moments, (merely for dramatic effect, mind you, for Luke fears nothing) he stared at the bottom, so far, far away.  Finally, his feet engaged.  He leaned forward.  And the train car pummeled to the depths.  The crash threw him from his comfortable perch.  He flailed about for a few brief moments.  And then all was quiet.  Until he rose to his feet triumphantly, arms above his head in a victorious celebration.  And then?  He did it again.  And again.  And again.  And then? 

Well, that feat became too tame for the master.  He decided to ride the train off the peak in the other direction.  Away from the safety net of pillows.  All sorts of Mommy warning screams were going off in my head, but I managed to fight them back, giving full reign to my Daddy/Uncle/DadDad genes.  “Go for it, Luke.  You can do it.”  Not that I said those words out loud (At least I don’t think I did.  Well, maybe I did mutter them.  OK, so I did do a bit of encouraging).  So did he take the plunge?  Did he back out at the last instant?  Was his body mangled beyond all hope of repair?  Well … of course he took the plunge.  His name is Vaughan.  He crashed onto the carpet, bounced a few times, stayed very still to make sure he was still breathing, then celebrated his latest achievement.  So did his adoring fan (Caleb was still reading.  Once he gets to the Alamo he is concentration personified).  All was well on the daredevil front.  But for some reason he never repeated that particular stunt.  I guess when you’ve accomplished the impossible there is no need to do it again …

Psalms 95:1-2 says, “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.  Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.”

Father, thank you for the chance to surprise our Waco bunch.  Amen.

August 22 – “Best Voicemail Ever”

I started my day with a slice of homemade bread made by our esteemed neighbors, the Geran’s.  Not just any homemade bread.  Pistachio bread.  Not just any pistachio bread, either.  Green pistachio bread.  With a little butter (OK.  A lot of butter) and sugar and cinnamon on top … Good stuff.  Oh, and then we walked.  Necessary move.

When we got back I received the best voicemail ever.  I didn’t recognize the number, so I followed proper procedure and let it go to voicemail.  When I called it up, what I heard was 21 seconds of the most passionate verbage I have heard in a long time … speaking to me (Can you believe my good luck?) … in Chinese … or maybe Japanese … or it could have been Korean.  I have no idea what she was saying, but she truly believed in it.  It was enough to drive the “Transcribing Voicemail” function totally insane.  It attempted to transliterate numerous times, but finally gave up.  “Unable to transcribe this message.”  Yeah.  Me neither.

We got on the road around 10:30.  That put us at the Madisonville Buc-ees at lunch time.  With great fear and trepidation we decided to stop.  Last time we were there, we became trapped in an ocean of weekend travelers.  Note to others on journeys: Not nearly as crowded on Tuesdays at lunch.  Now, their chicken salad wrap was not as good as the ones at the Buc-ees on the way to Waco.  This one was a lettuce sandwich in many places.  Met our hunger need, however, and we were off.

Now our reason for heading north into Texas this time was to attend a preliminary meeting about our planned cruise and land tour trip to Alaska next summer.  Actually I was there to win a door prize.  See, there are three of us couples going together.  The Spray’s went to a different meeting on Sunday afternoon, and they won a door prize.  We couldn’t let them do that without an answer.  After the meeting they called out the first prize – an Alaska hat.  Nope.  Next they called out $25 off your tour cost.  Cary and KayLynn Winkle.  Success.  No bragging rights for the Spray’s now.  The hostess put all the cards down for a moment to tell a story, and must have forgotten where she was.  She pulled out another card from the deck and announced the winner of another $25 off the tour package.  Chris and Kelley Vaughan.  Well how about that?  We may or may not have called the Spray's on the way home to "share the news of our good fortune."  Three random couples choose to go on a trip together and all three of us win a door prize?  Guess this means things are boding well for our excursion …

Psalms 93:4 says, “Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea — the Lord on high is mighty.”

Father, thank you for the little bit of help toward our trip costs.  It’s not much, but we can use all the help we can get.  Amen.

August 21 – “Perennial photo shoot”

Well, most of my day was spent slaving over a hot … computer.  Not that the computer was such an amazing instrument.  I was just typing all day, so it got hot.  Just hot.  Why such fervor related to that instrument of attachment to exertion?  I was determined to get as much of the groundwork for Sunday’s sermon completed as I possibly could.  We are leaving here shortly for a meeting in Arlington (Yep.  Another mini-road trip), and I wanted to be able to focus completely on my nap on the way up there.  Not that I always take naps on our road trip, mind you.  This is just in case. 

Cailyn did come over for a while.  That meant a wonderful lunch at that iconic establishment, Whataburger.  Well, let me change that a bit.  A lunch from Whataburger would be more precise.  The girls stayed here at the house while I went and picked it up.  See, Cailyn was too engrossed in breaking in Chris’ new camera.  It was like one perennial photo shoot around here.  She took pictures of me working, of Chris reading the camera owner’s manual, of Freddy sleeping, of herself, of the neighbor’s house (Sorry, Corey and Janell).  It was as if she was trying to determine just how many pictures this camera card will hold.  As far as I know she never ran out. 

We ended the day (and my now-feeble attempts to put finishing touches on the sermon) out at the softball field.  Cailyn had practice for Fall Ball.  Her Dad came up from the fire station (It’s right down the road) to watch, and April arrived just as they were finishing to pick her up.  That meant we had the rest of the evening to have some supper and crash on the couch and watch the Astros.  Except they are playing on the West Coast and didn’t start until 9 p.m.  Chris went to bed at 10.  I lasted until 10:30.  Just couldn’t keep my eyes open.  As it turned out, I saw all the Astros scoring.  As it turned out, it wasn’t enough.  They lost 7-4.  Ouch. 

Psalms 93:1 says, “The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and is armed with strength.”

Father, would you join us on the road today?  Thanks.  Amen.

August 20 – “Great White”

Another packed house at Seaside yesterday.  I think Chris said she counted 78.  The American Heritage Girls group that was staying in the retreat center joined us for worship.  Good group of kids.  And another guy was taking a picture of the Visual Verse.  Something about sending it to his friend, a Harvard professor who wanted to see it.  Hate to think I’m getting graded on those things now.

Last night we went for supper to the home of a young couple who has been coming to Seaside over the last year or so.  Great fresh fish supper.  It was his first time cooking fish.  He had it seasoned and topped with lemon slices.  It even looked good.  He just wasn’t sure how to tell when it was done.  Between Chris and me, we coached him through it, though, and the meal was delicious.  They had a boatload of questions about my favorite topic – the church in general and how Seaside began.  The discussion also morphed into numerous other rabbit-chasings as well.  We even dealt with ghosts and demons and spiritual warfare.  I really enjoyed the evening.

Now I have to back up a bit to the afternoon.  Before the Astros game came on and before Kel and Christina and their kiddos came over to hang and pick up the truck for Kel to use again, I somehow managed to stumble across yet another classic movie.  It was called Sharknado 3.  I only got to see maybe five minutes of it, though.  Doesn’t mean I didn’t pick up the plot line rather quickly.  Tornadoes all over the earth were full of sharks, and as the tornado touched down, the sharks would feed on people.  Sometimes explosions worked.  In one scene reminiscent of a classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail interchange, a guy was trying to make it to “The Red Button” that would blow up the ship, but destroy the tornado.  He had an injured leg, so he was crawling across the deck of the ship.  A shark fell from the sky and bit off his other leg.  He kept crawling.  Another shark fell and bit off an arm.  He kept crawling.  Just as he reached for the button with his only remaining appendage, another shark relieved him of that one as well.  Not to be deterred, he inched himself a few centimeters ahead and managed to punch the button with his nose.  Boom.  Mission accomplished.  OK, that was apparently the first hour and twenty-five minutes of the movie.  They part I got to see was the ending, so Spoiler Alert, y’all …

To stop the shark-laden tornadoes, the space shuttle was launched with a special laser attachment.  They shot that laser from space, and it dissipated all the earthly tornadoes.  Yeah.  But suddenly sharks were flying up into space.  They started getting into the shuttle.  One of them, a particularly tough-skinned great white, swallowed a pregnant lady astronaut (She wasn’t showing yet, but they did mention the upcoming event.  See, one of the other astronaut’s was the baby’s grandfather, and he gave the unborn child a gift of airman’s wings so he could always fly.  Sniff.  Sniff.  Sob.  That was right before he sacrificed himself so he could be a hero to his son).  Her husband just happened to be on the flight as well, so he jumped into the Great White’s mouth to rescue her.  But alas, the shuttle had not been designed to take the force of hundreds of sharks pounding against it.  The best line of the movie came when one of eth astronauts asked another, “How can sharks be alive in space?”  And the classic answer: “How can they be alive in a tornado?”  Indeed. 

So … not to worry.  The guy and his wife went through re-entry into the atmosphere inside the Great White.  Once clear and back inside breathable space, he punched a hole in the side of the now thoroughly irradiated shark and deployed the parachute he just happened to have with him.  Good ol’ Great White plopped down on the shore of a random tropical island amidst a hail of other sharks of all species.  The man crawled out through Great White’s mouth.  After walking around aimlessly on the beach, avoiding the shower of sharks around him, he remembers something.  He races back to the original Great White, and hears a sound.  Could it be?  It is.  The blade of a chain saw pokes a hole in the fish’s side.  And what should squeeze its way out?  Not what you’d expect, I bet.  No.  See, a lot has happened inside that shark’s belly on the way down from space.  Not only had the lady found a random operable chain saw and used it to cut a hole, she had come to full term and delivered the baby.  It was the baby she pushed through the hole first.  Looked just like the shark was giving birth to a human baby.  Her husband managed to free her as well, though.  There she was, fully clothed and just as slim and trim as she had been when she first entered the shark, albeit covered in blood.  But wait.  Suddenly, who should run up from behind the trees?  It was there other two children who just happened to on the same random island where mom and dad fell from the sky.  What an incredibly happy ending.  And as they all planned to live happily ever after there on the tropical island paradise, a huge hunk of the space shuttle came hurtling out of the sky.  Fell right on top of the wife and squished her like a bug.  Now the movie ended.  Wow.  Takes your breath away, doesn’t it?

Psalms 92:12 says, “The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and is armed with strength.”

Father, thank you for our new Seaside friends.  Help them to be happy and successful in their quest for community.  Amen.

August 19 – “Bambi???!!”

We were forced to do the unthinkable yesterday.  We drove into Texas on a Saturday.  We had to go to Sam’s and Lifeway Christian Store to pick up supplies for the church.  The Sam’s stuff we needed for dinner on the grounds today (So come on out to church and get some free food). 

The trip up there was rather uneventful.  Traffic heading into Galveston was rather frightening as usual, but traffic on the north-bound side was not bad at all.  We made our way to Lifeway first, then stopped at Five Guys for one of their signature burgers.  We ordered the kids-sized bacon cheeseburger.  Way plenty for us, and they pile on the fries, even when you just order a small batch.  Good stuff.

It was the trip to Sams that brought the unusual spotting.  There on the side of the road on a random part of the feeder road next to Interstate 45 … was Bambi.  Yep.  A tiny, little, real-life fawn, spots and all, had somehow wandered out next to the road.  No one (or no other deer) was anywhere around it.  I can honestly say, in all my 65 years of wandering between the Island and multiple spots up in Texas, I have never seen a deer on the feeder street of the freeway in that particular stretch known as the Gulf Freeway.  Amazing.  Hope ol’ Bambi made it back to the woods.

Our neighbors the Gerans stopped by in the afternoon.  They were sharing a concoction they had baked together as a family activity … pistachio bread.  Janell suggested adding butter and sugar and cinnamon on top.  I did.  It tasted a lot like Chris’ Friendship Bread she makes for Christmas, except with crunchy parts (aka pistachios, I suppose).  More good stuff.

Chris decided our grass desperately needed a drink of water, so she spent a good deal of time outside.  I in turn made better use of my Saturday afternoon, switching back and forth between the shark attack that was the Astros losing to the Athletics and another actual shark movie classic.  This one was called Three-headed Shark Attack.  Frightening beast, that 3-headed shark.  See, he was angry about so much pollution in the ocean, so he swam around eating beer cans and the people who drank them (Spoiler Alert) until he was lured into a part of the ocean containing a massive trash accumulation.  By this time his middle head had morphed into three or five more heads.  None of the heads seemed to get along with each other, and when they got into all the trash, they went into a feeding frenzy.  They ate and ate until they ate themselves to death.  I think.  That was the big plan, anyway.  They might have just bitten of a few heads and subsequently bled to death.  Just not sure.  Guess that’s what makes it such a classic.  Always another mystery to ponder.  Hmm.  Speaking of mysteries … could there possibly be some kind of social statement deftly hidden in there somewhere?  Like, maybe … Don’t pollute the ocean; you might be killing an eight-headed shark …

Psalms 92:5 says, “How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts!”

Father, watch over that little four-legged creature of yours we saw yesterday.  Amen.