July 26 – “Let’s mow”

I made it to Bay City with no problems, other than missing the last few innings of the Astros victory over the Reds.  Chris' Mom was feeling Ok when I got there, but she had a few bouts with non-specific stomach pains, chest pains, and with her feet swelling.  I was able to get their replacement modem all set up, but not after a tedious process of wading through the AT&T web site.  She hasn't been on the internet for quite some time, so they made her reset all her passwords.   This morning I offered to mow their grass for them.   They have a riding lawn mower, so I kind of wanted to try it out.  Never have been on one.  I figured, "How can they say no to an offer like that?"  They said no to my offer.  Seems that when Nathan and April stopped by Saturday on their way to Corpus Christi, he said he would stop by on their way home and mow.  And he apparently said something about the riding lawn mower.  So when my offer came to the table, their reply was, "Oh, no.  Nathan will be disappointed if you mow.  He really wanted to try the riding mower."  Knowing my son as I do, I reasoned with them, "I'm sure Nathan won't mind at all."  Apparently they knew my son better than I.  And besides, they didn't want the old man (being me) to hurt himself.  So I waited for Nathan.   Just before he drove up I found out that they did have a working weedeater, so I made plans to edge and trim.  In fact I got started, and was just reaching the end of the driveway when they drove up.  And it started raining.  So we postponed for awhile.  Nathan and April and Cailyn had some gumbo and we talked about their trip and their time with Cailyn's other grandfather.  Apparently she said, "Grandpa" for him.  That's good.  Of course she says, "DadDad" all the time.   The rain didn't last long, so we did get started on the yard again.  I noticed that Nathan kept stopping and starting, though.  Then I looked over and he had tools in his hands.  I walked over to see what was going on.  The steering wheel on the mower was turning, but the wheels weren't.  He took it apart and we discovered that there was a part made out of rubber that was simply bending too much.  I think it was an engineering snafu.  The part should have been made out of metal.  Nothing we tried was going to make it work.  So Chris' Dad, Nathan and I put our heads together and came up with an alternative plan.  Nathan hooked a wrench on it and finished up by muscling the thing around the yard.  When he finished he was really sore.  That's when I told him about my earlier attempt to mow in his place.  He chuckled meekly and said, "I mowed an entire field for April's grandfather yesterday."  Ouch.   Psalms 125:2 says, "As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore."   Father, thank you for being there around me and Chris and Mom and her Mom and Dad and … yeah.  Amen.