March 25 – “Hooked”

Chris was with her Mom today.  She had a bone scan and she had fluid drained from her right lung.  That had to be a stressful day.  Especially since they left Bay City around 4 A.M.   I took my Mom in to Moody Gardens this morning for a meeting.  She is going to spend the day and night and most of tomorrow with her friend Betty.  I went from there by the house.  The windows look great, and they have begun to put the trim around them on the outside.  By the end of next week our inside walls should have all the sheetrock issues done and ready for trim.  Our contractor even wants us to go ahead and order the interior and exterior doors.  I guess those are our proverbial two steps forward.  Our one step back came through today as well.  Apparently there was some pretty severe weather in Indiana last week.  Our Amish cabinet makers lost a full week of work time because they couldn't get around their farm.  That means the cabinets won't get here until the middle of April.  The contractor was not unhappy to hear that.  Gives him more time to fine tune everything else.   My afternoon was spent getting a haircut, buying some shoes (I think I had the same cashier there that I had at McCoy's the other day), and delivering dog food to Fritz and Heidi.  When I got home Scooter and I went fishing.    Now, when I fish here at Omega Bay, I cast two lines out.  One I let sink to the bottom.  The other I like to reel in slowly with a shrimp on the free line.  Every so often I'll put both poles in the holders and sit on a bucket.  Fishing with Scooter changes things a bit.  It's just that he gets so excited.  Every time I walked over to check on a pole, he whined and wiggled and actually almost barked.  And Scooter doesn't bark.  He shook like he was freezing until I reeled the line and he could see the bait.   One time I let the tip of the pole dip a little too far.  Scooter was there.  He grabbed the kicking shrimp in a valiant effort to subdue it.  And he tasted the cold steel of the hook.  He squealed.  I gasped and screamed, "Scooter, no!"  But it didn't hook him.  Sometimes things look really juicy, but underneath are hidden consequences that stab and sting and leave scars.  Scooter was lucky.   John 10:10 says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."   Father, thanks for keeping me from grabbing the hook every time it gets close.  Amen.