January 13 – “The round-headed old dude”

So it’s another Friday the thirteenth.  Sounds like another potentially great day to me.  Yesterday we started out with a jaunt to water exercise class.  Gotta keep those creaky old joints and muscles moving any way we can.  And after that we took the car into the shop for a long-overdue oil change.  And how do I know it was overdue?  Because it has been barking at us for some time now.  Well, I guess “barking” may be a little harsh.  It’s more of an aggravating, annoying “ding” accompanied by a flashing message on the dash reminding us to “Change Oil Soon.”  And that message is inevitably joined by one that informs us our stability sensor may be out of whack.  I asked our mechanic about that one.  He said if we still lived in Denver, then that would one to get checked out right away.  It has to do with driving on ice and snow.  And we live on a tropical island in the Gulf of Mexico.  Not really a concern here.  I love our mechanic.  Not that we didn’t need the oil change, though.  In fact we were a few thousand miles past the recommended change date on that one.  But we are known for going at least three thousand over.  Gotta keep up appearances.

Our biggest excitement yesterday came when April called to ask if we could pick up Cailyn from school so she could go work out.  Difficult decision?  No.  We jumped at the chance.  It turned out to be a big surprise for Cailyn.  Apparently she had even asked her Mom that morning when we were going to pick her up again.  She ran up and wrapped me in a big hug, dropped her backpack in my arms and took off in a dead run.  Didn’t stop until she reached the fence.  And when she saw how far behind her we were, she made another dash to catch back up with us.  One would surmise that the girl needed to run off some steam.  The word for the day, though, came as we were in the car heading back home.  She grinned real big and said, “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, DadDad, but with your new haircut your head is really … a lot … rounder.”  Hey, I guess I’m what Charlie Brown would look like as an old guy.  The round-headed old dude.

Philippians 4:5 says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”

Father, thank you for every chance we get to spend time with our little guys.  It is so much fun to see what they might say or do next.  Amen.

January 12 – “Pretty good, actually”

Interesting day yesterday (Read here “Boring”).  After working a few hours at the computer, I left for staff meeting at the church.  That part of the day was pretty good, actually.  I always enjoy praying and brainstorming and sharing with our worship pastor.  It’s just a refreshing, middle of the week, theo-actical (theological and practical) check-up day for our ministry. 

I got word from our insurance agent concerning our homeowners’ policy.  That’s the situation where our old one jumped up by $300+ a year due to a “computer glitch.”  And they wanted us to just keep paying the premium and when they fix it they would reimburse us.  Sorry.  Didn’t trust them that much.  In fact, it’s always been hard to trust a company called State Auto for homeowner’s insurance.  Anyway, the agent found us a comparable policy for considerably less money.  Pretty good news, actually.

I spent a good chunk of time working on the Bible study for our Thursday night home group.  We’re doing a survey of the Book of Genesis right now.  Just about to get Jacob and his clan back on track with God after a few glitches in their road.  It took a little longer than I anticipated, but I finished it up.  Felt pretty good about that, actually.

Finally, last night while Chris worked on some quilting, we watched several more episodes of Bones.  That’s our latest binge watch on Netflix.  Problem with binge watching a show that’s been on so long, though, is that we are only on season seven … out of twelve.  But it is always nice to relax with my wife, whatever we are doing.  Pretty good, actually.

Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

Father, thank you for the “pretty good’s” you have sent our way.  Amen.

January 11 – “Movie review”

Yesterday we went to Randall’s to pick up a prescription for the first time since we went on the Samaritan Ministries Health Share Plan instead of insurance.  They (or I guess now it’s “we”) use a discount card for prescriptions, so I had no idea how much it would cost.  It was with fear and trembling that we waited in line to see what the monthly damage would be.  Finally our turn came and the clerk punched us into the system.  She didn’t bat an eye as she began to ring it up.  Could it be that she is that calloused to the prices of drugs nowadays?  I finally couldn’t hold it back any longer.  “How much did it come to with the discount card,” I asked hopefully.  “Oh, sorry,” she replied.  “$18.02.  Is that an OK discount for you?”  “Oh, yes, it is,” I replied.  “That’s a very OK discount.”  I will take it.  Score one for Samaritan Ministries.

Chris invited me out on a date yesterday, too.  How’s that for a good day?  We went to see the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One.  Spoiler alert.  I thought it had a very slow start.  I understand that it had to introduce a host of new characters, and I haven’t even tried to find out anything about those characters in advance (I didn’t do my movie homework.  Shame on me).  Honestly, though, I was having a really hard time staying awake.  Of course, I always have a hard time staying awake at theater movies.  I think it has something to do with turning all the lights off.  Now they did get around to some intense battle scenes, which increased the quality a hundredfold.  The cameo appearances were fin as well.  They helped isolate the time period where the movie fell.  Oh, who were the all-star guests?  Well, one was not a who, but rather a what.  The Death Star.  It was kind of the star of the show.  And of course with the Death Start comes its commander as well as the infamous Darth Vader.  One quick scene raced past R2D2 and C3PO having one of their perennial arguments.  But the one that was supposed to surprise us all, especially in light of current events, was the appearance of none other than Princess Leia.  And not the aging General Leia we saw in the last Star Wars movie.  Nope.  This was the beautiful young princess receiving the message about the Death Star’s weakness that she sent via R2D2 messaging.  I guess we were supposed to gasp and say, “How did they do that?”  Was it film splicing (Do they even still use film?)?  Was it CGI (Or whatever those letters are)?  But we have been exposed to the miracles of Hollywood for too long, I guess.  Didn’t even phase me.  How else would they have ended it so it fits into the time line? 

Now here comes the real spoiler alert comment.  Those of you who know me, know that my usual description of any movie I see that someone else hasn’t seen is invariably the same.  Genre doesn’t matter.  It could be anything from Gone with the Wind to Insurgent, my answer is always the same.  “They all die in the end.”  Now, it is from that history that I make this final statement about Rogue One.  They all die in the end. 

Philippians 4:1 says, “Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!”

Father, thank you for my wife and our date yesterday.  Always a great adventure.  Amen.

January 10 – “No dog in the hunt”

OK.  OK.  I know.  I heard.  I missed the best part of the “game of the century” last night.  But I have already watched the highlights on my phone’s ESPN app.  My age and lack of interest in rooting for either side got the better of me last night.  When Chris headed for bed about midway through the third quarter of the National Championship football game, I joined her.  It’s really hard to stay motivated when you’re sleepy anyway, and you really don’t have a dog in the hunt (or is it “in the fight”?  I know there’s a saying that goes something like that.  Means you aren’t rooting for anyone in particular, so you don’t care who wins).  But then this morning when I woke up and checked the score I find that the last two or three minutes was worth sitting through the whole game after all.  First Alabama scored to take the lead.  Then Clemson scored with just seconds left to retake the lead and win the game.  Exciting stuff.  So now on to college basketball.  Road to the final four.  Baylor is ranked number one.  I imagine Waco is happy to have something to root for while their football program is being refurbished. 

After I worked most of the day yesterday, I took a break and went through the boxes of books I received from my brothers Saturday.  Those guys have … how should I say it? … quite the eclectic reading propensity.  There were books by Jeff Foxworthy next to textbooks on oncology.  There were tomes of sociological research and classics of literature.  They even threw in some computer games and Xbox games for good measure.  Thanks, brothers, for thinking of me during your downsizing. 

Philippians 3:20-21 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

Father, thank you for my brothers.  Walk with them, and their families.  Amen.

January 9 – “Make the call”

Just a quick little educational blurb this morning.  A fire call came through last night while we were crashed on the couch watching old Bones episodes again (We’re just finishing up season six out of twelve, so we’ll be doing that for a while).  I noticed that it was just around the corner from our house, so I grabbed my jacket and headed over to do some encouraging.  As I pulled up I heard over the radio that the fire was already out, so that was a good thing.  I found a safe place to park and made my way to the engines on scene.  All was calm and in control, as it should be. 

But here’s the interesting thing.  The fire had been in the trash can of a house.  It had burned to the point of licking against the structure of the porch.  And the homeowners had no idea.  The call came from someone else who had seen the smoke.  Had that person not made the call, this fire could have gotten much worse before the homeowners could even have reacted.  Herein lies the appeal … go ahead and call 9-1-1.  Even if you are not quite sure.  The fire fighters have been trained to search things like that out.  Let them do their job.  You might have a part in saving someone’s home … or even someone’s life. 

Philippians 3:17 says, “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.”

Father, thank you for the person who made that phone call yesterday.  Thank you for the quick response of the fire fighters as well.  Amen.

January 8 – “Family heritage”

Quick weather report.  Temperatures have skyrocketed all the way up to 35° this morning.  Prospects for today?  Temperatrures slowly increasing even further until they reach a high of 56° … around midnight.  That’s just crazy. 

I received my first order for the Visual Verses book yesterday.  All the way from Arkansas.  You locals better get with the program before they are all shipped out internationally.

We went to the yearly Vaughan family party yesterday.  It was held at my older brother’s house in Houston.  The approach was a little different from years past.  This time everyone was encouraged to bring photos or especially stories we remembered from family events or members of the past.  The idea was to impart those memories to future Vaughan generations.  There weren’t any of the new generations present, but us old-timers enjoyed ourselves anyway.  My brother had some old photo albums on a table for viewing.  Several of us brought thumb drives with old photos we had accumulated through the years.  Mine was mostly old family Christmases and past Turkey Bowls.  It was fun trying to identify all the players each year at the football game.  The clientele has changed a lot from year to year, so some of the photos posed a real challenge.  My 90 year old aunt was there, and my older brother has done vast amounts of research on our family genealogy, so the two of them had some fun stories to tell about some of the more colorful characters who have dotted out family tree. 

As we left, Jay admonished me to be sure and do the same sort of sharing thing with all my kids.  And then he loaded 13 boxes of books into our car for us to go through and either keep or dispose of however we see fit.  That will be a fun task.  In fact we already did the first run-through when we got home.  I couldn’t stand the wait.  Hey … it’s books.

Philippians 3:13-14 says, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Father, thank you for family and family heritage.  Amen.

January 7 – “30°”

So close the door already.  Not only was the temperature a balmy 30 degrees when I woke up this morning, the high today is predicted to reach all the way up to 42 sometime this afternoon.  Somebody up North lost the memo that we live on a tropical island paradise down here.  We just don’t do well with cold.  I know.  I know.  Take heart.  We live very near Texas, after all.  The high on Tuesday is going to be in the mid-70’s.  Can’t we just skip over to that now?  What are the positives?  Well, we did light a log in the fireplace last night.  Can’t remember the last time we did that.  And I guess this is a good time to break out any winter fashions that might be gathering dust in the back of the closet.  Hmm.  I’m not sure I even have any winter fashions.  I think Chris does, though.  But then she looks great in whatever she wears. 

I spent a good chunk of time on the phone yesterday with our insurance agent.  The homeowner’s policy we have is renewed on the 8^th, so they were trying to find a company that could beat the one we have.  That’s the one that increased the policy by $300 and then claimed it was a computer glitch.  They assured us it would eventually be fixed, so we should just pay the higher premium and trust that they would reimburse us whenever the glitch was fixed.  Nope.  Not good business in my book.  It took up until the last minute, but it looks like we found a different company that wrote the same policy for considerably less.  There were some issues with matching it up with the amount of flood insurance coverage we have, but then there are always issues with flood insurance.  After all, it is run by FEMA. 

We were thinking about going to some high-falutin’ event over at the Moody Mansion last night, but it was just too cold.  So we stayed home, sat on the couch and watched old episodes of Bones.  Sigh.  We are just a couple of died-in-the-wool, old school Romantics, aren’t we?  I love my wife.

Philippians 3:12 says, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

Father, thank you for a wife who loves to sit by a fire and watch TV and stay warm when it’s really cold outside.  She is, as ever, a great gift.  Amen.