December 4 – “sNOw”

It's mid afternoon in Galveston, Texas.  The temperature is 36 degrees and allegedly falling.  The wind is out of the north at 18 to 20 miles an hour, so the wind chill is 27 degrees according to the good old faithful Weather Bug on the other computer.  There is sleet and really cold rain falling from the sky.  I heard that it is snowing hard in Houston.  I even heard there are flurries in Dickinson.  But not so as of yet on Gilligan's Island.    When I got up this morning it had just begun to barely sprinkle, so I figured I had time to read at least the Galveston newspaper before tackling my nasty task for the day.  Our outside pipes needed to be wrapped before the horrendous cold front arrived.   By the time I finished it had started raining.  Cold, slow, rain.  Not all that hard, just slow and steady.  And did I mention cold?    I put on my Houston Astros sweatshirt (with the hood) and ventured out.  The faucet head in the front yard wasn't too hard to cover.  I found three of those plastic cover things, and only had to try two of them to get on to fit.  The one in the back yard up next to the house was also easy.  It already has insulation around it.  And one of the caps was cut to fit, so it went right on.  The toughest one was the one that sticks up out of the ground in the back yard.  It had some insulation already on it, so it could have been worse.  I had to devise a cap for it, though.  That meant dealing in old newspapers and duct tape.  My fingers were numb when I finished.  I came back inside, looking forward to a hot cup of coffee.  Then Chris said, "Did you get the new one on the side of the house?"  Of course not.  I totally forgot it was there.  Since it sticks out too far from the house to use one of the plastic caps, I had to trade off the flexible one from the front yard for a hard plastic one.  Also had to do some newspaper work there.  Again came inside looking for coffee and some hot water to run over my fingers.  The Astros sweatshirt was drenched.     I was glad to be finished.  It wasn't until later in the day, after Chris and I made a quick run to Target and the vet and Randall's and Office Depot and WalMart, that I found out the worst mistake of the morning ordeal in the rain.  Mom said she went to the front door to see if it was snowing, and both of our dogs, Heidi and Fritz, met her there.  I left the back gate wide open.  Didn't even think about it.  See, there's another reason why I can be glad it was a cold, rainy, miserable day:  The dogs didn't want to be outside either.   Ephesians 5:19-20 says, "Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."   Father, thank you for the rain.  And sleet.  And wind.  And cold air.  And any other weather-type word that might become appropriate as the evening gets colder.  Amen.