January 31 – “UK Gal”

We got started today by heading out to clean the church.  That's our Saturday morning date lately.  Didn't take all that long, though.  Then we decided to grab a quick lunch at the Bluewater Grill, a local restaurant in Jamaica Beach.  The food wasn't bad.  Chris had a burger and I had a chicken fried steak sandwich.  The best part, though came after we finished.  Some folks from church showed up.  Melissa and her daughter Allie came in first.  Then Teri and her boys Will and Matthew.  Chris and Melissa got to talking.  And Melissa is a lot of fun to listen to.  Anyway, they spent over an hour sharing personal family histories.  Sounded like they have a lot more in common than they ever dreamed.  There's nothing quite like families.    We went from lunch to our house.  There is still a lot of stuff in the back yard, but that's not what we did today.  Didn't really have time.  We did see a lot of work going on in the neighborhood, though.  And there are still workers stopping by all the time looking for work.  We even had an entire sheetrock crew stop by the other day – five guys jumped out of a van and all of them came in the house.  Kind of scary at first.  Today kind of took the cake, though.  A car stopped out front to ask the usual question – "Do you need a contractor or any work done at all?  We're doing some work down the street."  It's the same line from everybody.  We've heard it with a New York accent and an Alabama accent and a Louisiana accent.  But this one was the most distinctive of all.  Her vanity license plate was "UK Gal."  Her accent was definitely English.  That's the farthest I've seen someone come so far to get work in Post-Ike Galveston.   We had a meeting with our contractor this afternoon.  He gave us some good news.  The plumber has been officially hired.  He will begin work on our house as soon as it's our turn.  That means replacing all the plumbing.  He said the fireplace lady came by, too.  She wanted to know if we were really old guys.  I guess if we're really decrepit there's no way we'd want to try to fix it up on our own.  She will let us know how much it would cost for her company to refurbish our Franklin stove.  The contractor went over the plans we got from our Amish cabinet guys.  He and Chris walked the house and compared the pictures and noticed details that I never saw.  It is amazing how they can both see what is not yet there.  To make a long story short, he gave us the "Trusted Contractor Seal of Approval"   Reminded me of Hebrews 11:1 – "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."   Father, help me see with your eyes.  Amen.