July 1 – “A Rainy Day Adventure”

Kel and his family left early this morning to go to Christina's sister's wedding in San Antonio.  But a quiet day at home was not in the cards for the Vaughan house.  As soon as they left I started sweeping and cleaning like Chris usually does on Thursdays in preparation for home group.  Well, I'm sure it was not as good as Chris, but at least I gave it a shot.    Today, though, was all about our trip to Houston for Mom's ear appointment.  She hasn't been able to hear well at all for several weeks, and her day was finally here.  She actually forgot about it, but I reminded her in plenty of time.  Just as we were about to dash out the door, I got a call from Kel.  The workers wanted to come to his house today.  He wondered if I could go let them in at ten.  We compromised.  I unlocked the door at 9:35 and we took off for Houston.   It was raining. And raining.  And raining.  Ah, the joys of being on the dirty side of a hurricane making landfall.  Flash flood alerts abounded all day.  But we made it to the appointment with at least two minutes to spare.  The hearing aid lady came right out with her little "look in your ear" thing.  And she immediately said, "Oh, yeah.  There it is."  A couple sitting nearby probably thought she saw a huge roach or something.  But it was so full of wax she didn't even have to try hard to see it.  She looked at the hearing aids and saw right away that they were clogged up with wax as well.  She sent us over to the doctor's waiting area so he could clean it out.   Now, to her credit she did say that Mom's doc wasn't in today.  But she didn't say how long it would take to be seen.  Our time line went something like this: 10:57 – We arrived. 11:00 – Our appointment time.  The hearing aid lady does her thing. 11:10 – We are sent to doctor's waiting area.  I start work on a crossword puzzle. 12:46 – I wake up and realize we are still waiting.  Seems there was only one doctor there today, so he was seeing all the patients. 12:49 – They called us back. 12:54 – Someone stuck his head in and said, "Be with you in a minute."  Very cheery. 12:59 – We were moved to the "Ear Room."  Sounded rather ominous. 1:22 – The doctor entered the Ear Room.  It was he of the mysterious cheery voice.  Apologized profusely.  Very likeable guy.  He dug the wax out and never stopped talking. 1:33 – We return to the hearing aid lady and she installs them back in Mom's ears.  Eureka.  She hears. 1:35 – We are done and headed to Luby's.   Luby's was quite a treat.  Haven't been there since they shut ours down here in Galveston.  Liver with cream gravy and black-eyed peas and fried okra and chocolate icebox pie.  Now that's a meal.   It was still pouring down rain when we left.  Worse, in fact.  The Tex Dot message board said there was a wreck on the freeway right on our way home.  So I got brave and decided to take the adventurous route.  We turned on Telephone Road and headed south, hoping there was no flooding that way.  As usual (just ask my kids), my shortcut proved worthy.  We made it to Hobby airport and cut back over to the freeway.  Traffic was heavy from that point on, but never stopped.  Neither did the rain.  It was even still raining when we got to Galveston.    And the three dogs met us at the front door.  We still have Lucy, Kel and Christina's dog.  She has figured out how to push aside the gate we have set up to keep them in the laundry room where the dog door is.  I sure hope our two didn't take notes for future reference.   Judges 5:31 says, "But may they who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength."   Father, I want to be one of those rising sun strong guys.  Amen.