October 29 – “Spontaneous”

I got an interesting email this morning.  It was a notification from the city that the back yard of the house next door has been "contracted out to be cut" and "it should be taken care of by next week."  I'm not sure if that means they will actually clean out the fallen trees and other debris that has been there since the storm.  That would be two years now.  I guess I'm guardedly optimistic.   Cailyn was here again today.  Nathan had to go clean some pools and April had an appointment to get her hair cut somewhere in Texas.  She said it was near the funeral home on I45.  What an interesting way to tell people where you get your hair cut.  "Right there by the funeral home."   Chris got her chance to see Nathan.  It's been awhile since she has been able to just sit and talk with him.  And she had some talking to do.  He just took another job on top of the fire department and the pool cleaning.  He is in charge of safety at a private company.  The problem is that Nathan sees so much that needs to be done, his tendency will be to work all the time.  So Mommy was waiting to chew him out about working too much.  And we made sure to throw in there, "Make sure you spend enough time with your family."   I wanted to do something spontaneous today.  Knowing how Chris responded to being spontaneous on our vacation, I actually proposed this to her earlier in the week.  That kind of takes the idea of "spontaneous" totally out of the picture, but I love my wife.  Anyway, I suggested we drive up to Josh and Christi's to see Zak's last soccer game before they move to San Antonio.  His team will have some more games, but this is his last one.     We left right after lunch, thinking that would be the best time to avoid Houston traffic.  Not so much when there is wreck on the freeway.  It took us a little over two hours just to get to North Beltway 8.  And there was another delay somewhere near Conroe.    Chris drove the whole way, as she usually does.  I couldn't stay awake most of the time, so it's a good thing.  I tried to watch a movie on our little portable DVD player.  "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."  It was way too much like a cartoon for me to stay awake.  What I remember of it was fun, though.    When I finally did wake up after a second nap, I finished reading the book on elders in the church that I started.  I was encouraged.  The guy who wrote it came to a lot of the same conclusions that I did when I wrote A Seaside Saga.     Ecclesiastes 12:11 says, "The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails — given by one Shepherd."   Father, Josh says he doesn't know what he's getting himself into in San Antonio.  Help him remember to get into You.  Amen.